OAKLAND, Calif.—Crowds of No Kings protesters packed into Oscar Grant Plaza, in front of City Hall, on March 28, greeting each other and listening to music and organizers’ opening remarks before surging through downtown streets to fill the southern shores of the city’s iconic Lake Merritt.
Organizers said over 20,000 people participated, joining more than 8 million people who held some 3,300 protests across the country to demand an end to the Trump administration’s abducting people off the streets, undermining voting rights, and using people’s tax dollars to fund the criminal war on Iran.
The rally’s partners/co-organizers—the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), East Bay DSA, Indivisible East Bay, Oil & Gas Network and SEIU 1021—were joined by some three dozen cosponsors, among them the Alameda Labor Council, Black Church PAC, CODEPINK, California Alliance for Retired Americans, Jewish Voice for Peace, Sunrise Movement Bay Area, and Fossil Free California.
Along the way to Lake Merritt, marchers shared their thoughts about the most important issues inspiring them to be out in the streets.
Paula said her biggest reasons for participating were her grandchildren, “and all the other children, people who are separated from their families, and people who aren’t getting the education, healthcare, and vaccines they need—but there are so many reasons it’s hard to rate them.”
Paula turned to Bernard, who added, “We elected a president who doesn’t read, doesn’t know economics, doesn’t know history, science, ethics, or philosophy—and he’s leading us who-knows-where? It’s unconscionable and unacceptable.”
Said Bendad, “For me, it’s not feeling lonely. Seeing all these people, they think the same as me. That gives me a lot of comfort. I can’t get it from the news or from our leadership. But these people strengthen my belief and my hope. I hope it will spread.”
Wendy added, “It’s hard not to feel hopeless, and so we come here as an antidote to hopelessness. We know in our heads that it’s a long process to reach peace, democracy, and social justice at the same time. But we need to feel it in our bodies and our hearts, too. So that’s why we’re coming here.
“For us,” Wendy said, “the war in Iran is personal. We’ve been coming anyway, but now we’re also thinking of our family members who are worried about being bombed.”
At the lake, the No Kings protesters were greeted by rally MC Valarie Bachelor, from ACCE Institute, who led them in a chant: “No Kings! No War, Hands off My Neighbors!”
“Raise your hand if you’ve been to a Target action recently … shut down Palantir recently … been to a PG&E action recently,” she told them. Hands shot up throughout the crowd as she added, “These corporations are making money off the detention of folks in our community and are making billions off the illegal, unlawful wars that are going on. We must stop them, and we must show our people power!”
Bachelor called the crowd’s attention to actions planned to follow the rally, including the Oakland Tenants Union’s campaign for letters to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, opposing HUD’s proposed mixed-status rule that would force families to choose between eviction and family separation.
She said Bay Resistance would lead a teach-in on community noncooperation, while the Arab Resource and Organizing Center and Jewish Voice for Peace would lead a teach-in on the Oakland People’s Arms Embargo, which seeks to end the shipment of U.S. military equipment to Israel through Oakland ports, including the Oakland Airport. Another teach-in would be led by Oakland-based members of the Federal Unionists Network, letting community members know how they can support federal workers’ fight for justice in their workplaces.
And finally, Bachelor said, ACCE Oakland, Reclaim Our Power, and Youth vs Apocalypse would march to Pacific Gas & Electric Company, which recently concluded a contract with Palantir that would let Palantir shut off power if they chose to do so. “We want to demand that they cancel that contract now.”
Lu Aya, co-founder of the hip-hop and spoken word collective Peace Poets, led everyone in singing “We are becoming the change we need to see, we are becoming the change we need for peace.”
Asking the crowd to put their hands on their hearts, he led all in pledging, “We will protect each other!”
“The commitment we make to protect each other will be with you as a mantra as they continue to try to divide us, attack us, degrade us, incarcerate us,” he told the crowd.
The rally’s final speaker was Pastor Mike McBride from the Black Church PAC and Live Free USA, a national organization to end gun violence, mass incarceration, and criminalization of communities.
“We are a people who love peace, who love justice, and who believe everybody has a place to belong,
McBride told the crowd. “We are a people who are not just committed to saying No to what we do not like, but committed to saying Yes to what we do love.
“Today,” he said, “our hope is that we will not just have marched in the streets, but we will also commit to organizing with one another. When we organize, we win! When we love, we overcome! And when we stay together, no devil in the White House will ever be able to separate us from one another!”
As the rally program came to a close, Bachelor called the crowd’s attention to an upcoming nationwide action.
“On May Day,” she said, “we’ve got to shut it down, not just here in Oakland, but across the country, and that means every single one of us needs to not go to school, not go to work, and not go shopping. Can I get that promise from everybody right here, right now?”
The crowd erupted in cheers, and people moved toward their next set of actions.
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
