On Tuesday, February 11, 2025, Bishop William J. Barber, II, President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, joined Everett Kelley, President of the American Federation of Government Employees, labor leaders, and Members of Congress for a rally in defense of the non-partisan professional civil service. Bishop Barber’s remarks are published below.
They are afraid of you—Trump and Musk and the oligarchs they work for.
They are scared of your power. But they are betting you will be afraid of them—so afraid that you’ll accept a buyout or comply in advance with their assertion of absolute power.
But we know a President is not a king. A dictator has no power unless we bow down. My knees and your knees are not made for bowing to power-drunk neo-fascists. We bow only to God. To everyone else we stand and speak truth to power.
We stand tall.
When they attack workers, we stand tall. Because whenever want-to be-dictators have tried to take over throughout history, they always start by trying to divide, destroy, and diminish worker power—especially government workers who are committed to a government of the people by the people and for the people. They know that as long as workers stay together and fight, extremists and union-haters can’t win. This is why workers are not bowing down in this moment but standing up, and we intend to stand together.
The reason they are fighting workers so hard is because they fear you. They are scared of you. Their plans won’t work as long as you stay and stick together.
But you stand in the truth and when the God of the universe is with you, one can chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight.
Workers can protest. Workers can put together lawsuits. Workers and their supporters can sit-in and pray-in, and if they arrest us so be it. Because we love justice and hate injustice, we may have to do nonviolent sit-ins in the offices of congresspersons and the so-called DOGE.
Because unjust laws can’t be followed without a challenge. When they tell you as workers you can’t assemble, tell them what Dr King said:
Somewhere I read we have a right to free speech and freedom of assembly.
Somewhere I read the people have rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which are contrary to lies, stealing, and undermining democracy.
Somewhere I read, “Let justice roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Somewhere I read if God be for you, who can be against you?
Somewhere I read blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice because they will be filled.