Momentum is building in advance of the mass rally on 24 March, and does Conor Lamb’s victory in Pennsylvania offer hope for progressives?

Success of students' gun control walkout bodes well for March for Our Lives

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Students demand action on gun control as momentum builds

About 3,000 schools took part in the mass walkout on Wednesday, a remarkable response to the lack of political action that, like shootings before, followed the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, last month.

It was a huge boost for activists before the March for Our Lives on 24 March, which will see tens of thousands of students march in cities across the US.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Washington students in front of the White House. Photograph: UPI/Barcroft Images

Some students, while still demanding action on school shootings, principally greater gun control, moved the protests beyond that to other issues.

At the Academy for Young Writers high school in Spring Creek, Brooklyn, New York, students used the walkout to bring attention also to discrimination against people of color, women, and other groups.

“Our protest brings together many things and I do empathize with those in Parkland in Florida, but this is Brooklyn, East New York, and we have our own separate struggles and I wanted to advocate for that as well,” said Nathaniel Swanson, 16.

“We have policing [issues]. Discrimination in housing [and the] workforce. Gentrification is really getting bad in Brooklyn. Gun violence … these are the things that happen in our community.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest David Hogg, a shooting survivor, speaks during the school’s walkout. Photograph: RMV/Rex/Shutterstock

Almost 40,000 people alone have signaled they will attend the March For Our Lives main event in Washington next Saturday.

CNN reported on Thursday that Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato have all committed to marching, while Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney and Steven Spielberg are among those who have donated money for the march.

Leg up for Lamb

Another big win for Democrats this week as Conor Lamb beat Republican Rick Saccone in the special election for Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district.

It’s a finger in the eye for Donald Trump, who won the district by 20 points in 2016. But Lamb’s win doesn’t necessarily offer hope for a progressive wave in the November midterms.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Conor Lamb on election night rally in Canonsburg. Photograph: Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

Lamb isn’t a fan of a single-payer system of government health insurance for all, thinks a $15 minimum wage “sounds high, based on what I’ve been told by many small-business owners in our area”, opposes abortion (although thinks it should be legal) and is against gun control.

Rolling Stone explores the implications for Democrats here, and Julia R Azari has her three key takeaways from Lamb’s win here at the Guardian.

What we’re reading

•Trump is “a freak of political nature”, according to Philippe Reines, who was a spokesman and adviser to Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign. But the president is still beatable. Reines, writing in the Washington Post, outlines how. It’s not pretty.

•“The rapid rise of oligarchy and wealth and income inequality is the great moral, economic, and political issue of our time. Yet, it gets almost no coverage from the corporate media,” writes Bernie Sanders here at the Guardian. Sanders says the media needs to report more on inequality “to raise political consciousness in America”.

Sanders is hosting a town hall on Inequality in America: The Rise of Oligarchy and Collapse of the Middle Class on Monday 19 March at 7pm before a live audience in the auditorium of the US Capitol. It will be live-streamed by the Guardian