MINNEAPOLIS—Eight million or more people rallied March 28 from coast to coast on “No Kings Day III” to denounce President Donald Trump, his war on Iran, anti-immigrant racism, his radical right-wing policies, and the illegal activities of the administration.
And that doesn’t count tens of thousands who joined the anti-Trump movement worldwide on every continent, in London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Mexico City, Rome, Sydney, Australia, Toronto, and the Canadian capital of Ottawa, among others. Even frozen Antarctica was the site of a small No Kings protest.
One handwritten sign in D.C. summed up the sentiment of the crowds at 3,000-plus events nationwide: “We have had enough.” Added a member of the staff union at D.C.’s American University, now organized by the Service Employees: “We can’t take any more of this.”
No Kings in Minneapolis
Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, and veteran activists Jane Fonda, Joan Baez, and Bruce Springsteen addressed what organizers called the flagship demonstration, which attracted more than 200,000 people in Minneapolis-St. Paul. So did local leaders, including Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison.
“In the face of ICE’s domestic occupation, this community fought back and won,” Sanders told the Twin Cities crowd. “The future of our country, and indeed the entire world, is hanging in the balance. And the actions we take now will determine what the future looks like.”
One alternative, he said, is “We all do better when we all do better.” But the other, darker vision is “We must give up democracy, we are all too stupid, and we are all inept, and we must put power in the hands of one man,” Trump.
Organized labor played a big part in the mass rallies, which drew tens of thousands to New York, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and elsewhere, and hundreds of smaller cities and even rural areas, including in red states.
The AFL-CIO actively endorsed and backed the No Kings marches, and speakers from the Teachers/AFT, the Service Employees, the Machinists, AFSCME, and other unions fanned out nationwide to address crowds. Unionists from the Communications Workers, the Laborers, the Steelworkers, National Nurses United, the National Education Association, the Electrical Workers and more also marched.
“Every single thing we’ve ever won in this country happened because we fought for it. It happened because of days like today. This is the power. We have the power!” Shuler told the Twin Cities crowd. “We won’t bow to President Trump’s billionaire-first agenda. Working people are rising up and fighting for a future where we ALL do better.
“There are no kings in America. When working people come together, we can stand up to bosses and politicians, and rewrite the rules so our country works for working people, not the rich and powerful.
“No Kings is about standing up to the guy in the White House. But No Kings also means tearing down an economy built for billionaires and instead building it up for working people—more money in our pockets, because no one in the richest country on earth should struggle to get by,” Shuler also said.
AFT President Randi Weingarten joined Shuler on stage in St. Paul. She lauded the 75,000 residents who shut down the cities on Jan. 23. “Democracy can feel like an abstract concept. But not to you, because in Minnesota this is what democracy is like!” said Weingarten, a New York City civics teacher.
The Twin Cities rally was so large, and so many people were texting and e-mailing from it, that the metro area’s cell-phone relay system crashed, reported Mark Froemke, a member of the Fargo-Moorhead AFL-CIO Central Labor Council.
No Kings in Chicago
In Chicago, thousands of people showed up at Grant Park for the rally hosted by Indivisible, organized labor, and elected officials.
Prior to the main event, the Chicago Federation of Labor organized a labor march headed by the AFSCME, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), SEIU Healthcare workers, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), and more.
“Throughout history, when labor unions get engaged in these movements, history’s made,” said Don Villar, secretary-treasurer of the Chicago Federation of Labor. “When labor is leading the way in protecting democracy, watch out.”
Villar also spoke about potential threats to the midterm elections by the Trump administration, as well as how labor unions have responded to federal immigration raids.
“Sure, they could be there to threaten, intimidate,” Villar said. “But we have the people. If we get the numbers, all those threats, we can’t be afraid of that. We’ve shown our courage, and we need our courage at this time.”
“We’re sending a clear message that we’re going to end this assault against working people,” said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. “We’re going to end these assaults against immigrants, and we’re going to end these endless wars and stand up for democracy.”
In his remarks, Johnson echoed recent calls from the Chicago Teachers Union and Indivisible for May Day to be a “day of action” in Chicago and around the country, “to ensure that the ultra-rich…finally pay their fair share in taxes” and to “build a movement that finally puts an end to the oligarchy.”
Also among the speakers at the rally was Dian Palmer, the president of SEIU Local 73, who spoke on unions’ role in responding to fascism. “It doesn’t start with soldiers in the street,” she said. “It starts at work when the boss says, ‘Don’t organize,’ ‘don’t speak up,’ ‘don’t stand together.’”
Among those joining the demonstration in Chicago was Evelyn, a nurse. She told People’s World, “This is not the end of our protests. We will keep going and going until we not only get rid of Trump but until we win healthcare for all, housing for everyone, and an end to the high prices that are killing us.”
A middle-aged man, Jason, wearing an SEIU t-shirt, was resting on a curb near the approach to Grant Park. “Don’t get the wrong idea,” he said, “I’m not tired and giving up, I’m just recharging for a fight that will go on until we win.”
No Kings in the capital
AFSCME President Lee Saunders, speaking to one of three dramatic marches descending on downtown D.C., provided the nine-million-person estimate.
“We are pissed off, and we are ready to fight and we are ready to make our voices heard. We have to educate communities from coast to coast and say we are not putting up with this bullshit anymore,” Saunders declared.
In D.C., the march from Anacostia across the Frederick Douglass Bridge to downtown—headed by the Chocolate City contingent, representing Washington’s Black and brown communities—drew at least 20,000 people.
They kept the “Free D.C.” demand and the racist policies of the administration and its corporate supporters up front at the day’s events. Another march, to the Reflecting Pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial, added more people to the crowd.
“Everything he [Trump] does really affects our patients,” one Washington Hospital Center nurse, a member of National Nurses United’s D.C. local, told People’s World. “I see the effects from abortions, or lack thereof,” with people from anti-abortion red states coming to her hospital for treatment or referrals to Planned Parenthood.
Whether Planned Parenthood can handle them is another matter. Its D.C. area leader, Dr. Laura Meyers, reminded the crowd that Trump and the GOP congressional majority completely and specifically cut off all $600 million earmarked for the organization, even for regular natal care.
Worse, the nurse said, “patients are not coming” in for treatment “because they’re afraid they’ll get deported,” pulled out of their cars as they travel to and from the hospital from predominantly Latino nearby neighborhoods. “One dad went home to get a car seat” for his toddler while his wife was being treated at the hospital “and he got picked up.”
Her colleague, an African-American, focused on the Trump-GOP SAVE Act, a massive voter repression bill that he’s made his #1 priority—and which is stalled in the Senate.
If it passes, only “straight cis-gender evangelical white men” would be allowed to vote, she said. The message to everybody else: “You are not allowed to be part of this country.”
Joy Farmer, a graduate student worker and Auto Workers member at one D.C. area university, extended the criticism to the GOP-run Congress. “The Republicans are just his [Trump’s] toadies,” she said.
“Those who can vote against them should vote against them,” she added, in a message to voters outside D.C., which does not have voting congressional representation.
“We cannot put up with folks who want to take our rights away from us,” declared a speaker from the Malaya Movement USA, an organization that promotes human rights in the Philippines. “We have to take power away from the billionaires.”
The signs ranged from the general—“Free speech is a verb” carried by a retired white-haired federal worker—to the specific. “War is not a video game,” read one sign against Trump’s Iran war. “Health care not warfare,” a second said. “$200 billion for war. We object!” another declared.
“That kind of spending is immoral, and we need to be reminded of that because we have choices of what to spend our money on,” added Laura Breeden, a member of Indivisible.org, one of the lead organizations that put together the March 28 protests.
No Kings anywhere
The organizers of No Kings III will hold a national debriefing call on April 3, but at least one speaker, Keya Chatterjee, executive director of Free DC, a group that campaigns to make the Nation’s Capital the 51st state, is already looking forward. “Every time they attack us, we will get bigger and louder and stronger,” she told the crowd before they crossed the Douglass Bridge.
“But we need to work to make sure our elections” nationwide “are free and fair and that the results are both reported and respected.”
The turnout in Philadelphia surrounded City Hall and the Convention Center and occupied downtown. That led the Service Employees to comment: “People are tired of an economy that works for the wealthy and leaves workers scrambling.”
In Jersey City, the New Jersey Friends of People’s World and the Justice for Drew J.C. coalition organized one of two No Kings actions there, this one in Berry Lane Park on the south side of the city. Community leaders spoke out against racism, the anti-immigrant raids and breaking up of families, and the attacks on Iran, Palestine, and Cuba. They called on attendees to link up with organizations present, get organized, and get out the vote.
Towns and cities where Trump won the last elections also saw huge demonstrations. Tens of thousands marched in Austin, Texas, with a group of grandparents, parents, and grandchildren, holding hands and telling reporters they were out to save democracy.
In New York City, an estimated 300,000 marched. In addition to more labor participation than at prior No Kings marches, there was increased emphasis on peace this time. Larger numbers of demonstrators demanded an end to the war on Iran, with one telling People’s World they wanted “money currently being spent on the military to be channeled into meeting human needs instead.”
The Communist Party USA contingent carried a large banner with that message, declaring, “Stop the Iran War!”
“How can we spend billions on war and not have enough for healthcare here at home?” a librarian asked. “This is why Trump and his entire crowd have to go,” he said.
This article includes reporting from Brandon Chew in Chicago and Cameron Orr in New Jersey.
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