Yesterday, a massive day of coordinated protest nationwide called by Indivisible and 50501 and dozens of other groups. April 5th Hands off Democracy, government agencies, immigrants, civil rights, etc. I hoped for at least 10K here and it easily exceeded that-likely 20-40K-maybe 25-30 is decent estimate. The media here said “thousands” or said 7,000 registered but that it was impossible to tell how many. The center grounds were packed around the central fountain, with one area cordoned off for grass growth-but likely 10-15K here with thousands more packing paths into area and scattered over the center grounds.
We started out driving from home at 11. Driving through our side of town we saw groups at every bus stop with signs-at first thinking people were just protesting there, then realizing people were waiting for buses. We thought we saw a friend on way down, who was planning to catch bus to meet us at the protest. So we turned around, here a guy with a sign told us the buses were packed and he couldn’t get on so was apparently headed home. We called our friend and he was actually at home so we stopped by his place and picked him up.
On the way we stopped at one bus stop asking if 2 people wanted to get in for ride, and 2 women did-so off we went. On the way down we talked about the state of things, history of protests in our lives-from anti-Vietnam war days to WTO and exchanged info on what we were headed for and how to protect and go forward through repression.
We were magically able to grab a parking spot only 15 minutes walk away from Seattle center grounds where the protest was held. People streamed in on all sides. Everywhere the center grounds were packed, with people still coming at noon. We made our way to the Flag Pavillion area. For some reason they had a space on south end cordoned off on the grass, maybe to protect that area, but all around and down by the fountain the crowd was packed in-later looked to me like 10-15,000 just from what was in the main area-but later seeing more people to north entrances and on all sides, so my guess is 25-30K.
We worked our way closer to the stage near north end of center grounds to hear a native American speaker-Collen Echohawk, followed by a Latino immigrant speaker, Both were good and defiant, hitting all the things under attack, emphasizing standing together, not allowing regime to pick off immigrants, trans people and all the most vulnerable-and emphazing love for each other and resistance.
There was a big focus on the power people have to stop this vs. the courts or Congress or voting with most of these first speeches at least. Not in opposition to the latter-but this was their focus, which I thought positive. Chants from the stage reflected this. “Who saves us? We save us” led by the immigrant speaker and later, “Ain’t no power like the power of the people and the power of the people don’t stop”, from famous WTO protests.
We listened then to Pramilla Jayapal-Congressperson who’s about the best the Dems have to offer. She’s a good speaker and was pretty strong, pointing out billionaires are responsible for all the things people are experiencing and the reason for rising prices, rising rents, etc. –kind of trying to repolarize the Trump/MAGA arguments about who’s to blame, but emphasizing also repelling all the attacks on all the people including against dissent.
She’s organizing “Resistance Labs” to train people en masse (reports 20K so far) in civil disobedience, so has some handle on the level of the danger and kind of opposition necessary, though what they will do or organize isn’t clear.
So Pretty good speeches, though only stayed for first three.
Unfortunately the sound system was way too small-good for maybe 5,000, so most people in crowd over whole grounds couldn’t hear the speeches. It seemed to me the organizers had vastly underestimated how many would be drawn to this event. Space not big enough for entire crowd and sound system nowhere near powerful enough. I tried to pan around with video to see size of ground from what we could see.
We tried to then leave to walk around and see what was going on, the size of crowd, etc. . It was so completely packed in it took maybe 20-30 minutes to move through a massive and at times a bit frightening scrum, to move about a hundred yards-and to the north, there were more masses of people far away from central stage area, reflecting my estimates (and others )of tens of thousands.
We finally got through. All around the center ground area there were people with signs, people dancing, drum corps, music, bands and people with signs of every kind. I wondered if the people who had been waiting for buses ever even got here and wouldn’t be surprised if many didn’t.
A good day. Still however, I strongly believe the resistance will be set up if the Dems, even left Dems, are allowed to lead it. Will they, or will masses with new leadership push past them or at least push through them to not be led into something short of defeating this?
This could well sharpen if repression sharpens, which seems very likely. I think being part of a UF type coalition, if not organizationally at least programatically with very broad forces is important overall and at this stage especially, although it’s not clear where this will end up or if Dems and some associates will become a barrier. Helping and working with people to develop political awareness of the stakes and the real danger the regime represents, and what it will take to defeat fascism, I see as central, and forging forms of leadership.
Another question-where is it at with youth, on campuses and high schools and working masses as much as known? A friend feels there has to be more emphasis on the working class and bringing out class interests as way to strike deeper and to basically repolarize sections of people to side with resistance, and to unite people. There’s some point to this seems to me.
So A5 nationwide was very positive in my estimation, and it’s quite clear despite media underplaying nationwide,-eg. an early NYT article reported A5 protests as “thousands in several cities” and later saying “protests in cities and towns nationwide” without specifying numbers or even numbers of locations as I recall-(which was 12-1400). Then today Sunday-the massive protests estimated at 2-3 million from what I have heard so far, have completely evaporated from NYT Sunday edition.
They swiftly refocus on impacts of Trump’s tariffs with Americans “wrestling over” how they will be effected. And how Trump’s 3rd term talk “tests democracy” . This is of course maddening, but completely typical of how they represent capitalist ruling class interests opposing yet at same time normalizing and abetting fascism by undercutting the danger, while trying to keep masses outrage and interests confined, underplayed and only occasionally let out to channel people under the wing of those ruling class forces who want to try to maintain the center, with the U.S. as a functioning imperialist empire in the traditional way.
One point standing out. Yesterday was powerful and shows real potential, yet we’re not yet at the point of the very important in my mind, Refuse Fascism outlined goal of filling streets and town squares day after day with millions and non-violently bringing the regime and country to a standstill and forced out by the opposition, ala South Korea. The potential is there, but you can see the level and understanding is not there yet. Will it become that? Key question. What will it take for that to happen?
For the Planet and Humanity 