A diverse coalition of demonstrators marched arm in arm through downtown Los Angeles, calling for Angelenos to resist President Donald Trump and his policies.
The “We Fight Back!” rally was held across the nation on Jan. 20, Trump’s first day in office, and coincidentally Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Over 60 community organizations representing women and labor rights, LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities, Palestinian and Black liberation, education, the environment and the political left, stood in solidarity on the steps of LA City Hall.
Although the demonstration was much smaller than those in 2017 during Trump’s first term, organizers passionately called for resistance to the administration’s agenda.
“Donald Trump can try all he wants to inaugurate his billionaire agenda, his program of hate, but we are going to inaugurate something even stronger,” said Kameron Hunt, an organizer for the ANSWER coalition. “We are going to inaugurate the new wave of the movement for our people’s liberation. And no matter what lies Trump and his cronies try to tell us, when they threaten us, when they attack us, we will not give up the fight.”
One group being targeted by the second Trump administration is the LGBTQ+ community, especially the transgender community.
“I am a very proud translatina mujer,” said Bamby Salcedo, president and CEO of the TransLatin@ Coalition. “The current administration right now has a specific agenda to try to erase our existence.”
Earlier that day Trump signed an executive order proclaiming that the federal government will recognize only two sexes – male and female. The new “gender order” states that it will, “defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”
The order requires the federal government to use the term “sex” instead of “gender” and directs the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to “require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards, accurately reflect the holder’s sex.”
“They have been trying to erase our existence for the past 500 years, and they have not been successful,” said Salcedo. “And they will not be successful.”
A small group of religious counter-protestors stood on the sidelines preaching “traditional” values but were drowned out by the chants of pro-LGBTQ+ demonstrators.
“We have to fight harder than ever against their anti-union, anti-people of color, anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQIA, anti-education and anti-humanity and human decency agenda,” said James Mckeever, community college teacher and member of the Los Angeles College Faculty Guild (AFT Local 1521).
Trump has pledged to dismantle the Department of Education during this second term and “return” education rights to the states. The department has historically overseen the implementation of federal education laws, such as the desegregation of schools after the Brown v Board of Education ruling.
“Education is emancipatory. It frees the mind, the body and the soul. It lifts the burden from our shoulders and the veil from our eyes. It creates opportunity and challenges power,” Mckeever continued. “That is why they don’t want us to have it. That is why they continue to deny it to us. And that is why we must fight.”
Many other union and labor organizations participated in the rally, including some focused on immigrant labor – another primary target of the Trump administration.
“The compas couldn’t be here today because they’re at the Pasadena Job Center,” said Nancy Meza, NDLON organizer, acknowledging the day laborers who have stepped up to clean up debris from the forceful winds and Eaton Fire that ravaged Altadena this month.
“As immigrants, we are not waiting to be rescued. We are mobilizing to protect and help our community – immigrant to immigrant, neighbor to neighbor and friend to friend,” said Meza. “Solo el pueblo salva el pueblo. Only the people can save the people.”
With recent reports of ICE raids already taking place in Kern County and the threat from the Trump administration to target “Sanctuary Cities,” fear of deportations has spread across LA County.
However, Meza noted that attacks on immigrants are nothing new. Over a decade ago, NDLON led a “Not One More” campaign, challenging deportations by forming rapid response networks that would stand between the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and people’s homes. With the administration’s promise of immediate mass deportations, she encouraged people to once again put their bodies on the line and protect undocumented residents.
Trump wasted no time after taking his oath to target immigrants. On Monday he signed multiple executive orders seeking to end birthright citizenship, send the military to the border by declaring a national emergency, halt all refugee admissions, restrict federal funds from sanctuary cities, end the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) One program, deny public benefits to unauthorized immigrants and reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy. Many of these policies are already facing legal action from immigrant advocacy groups.
Viva Vargas, an organizer at Migrante San Fernando Valley, noted that the liberation of migrants being fought within the U.S. is also a battle that needs to be waged within their homelands.
“The migrant crisis at the border would not exist, if it is not for the U.S. dipping its bloody hands all over the world,” said Vargas. “To end the crisis that we are facing, we must kick the U.S. out of our home countries. We must fight for our national sovereignty, and we must fight for self-determination.”
Independent parties and left-leaning political groups attending the demonstrations criticized both Democrats and Republicans for perpetuating injustices. CODEPINK, the Peace and Freedom Party, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) and Recvom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity pointed to the imbalance of power in the country’s political system. Many addressed the democratic leaders’ failure to manage the current wildfire crisis.
“We’re here to say that we are defending our community, defending our neighbors,” said Shani Ebadia, an organizer with PSL. “As we have come together with the wildfires, a crisis that has hit the city, we have shown that this community is able to unite and meet the needs that the government cannot.”
Protest at Trump’s Star in Hollywood
Earlier that morning, while the inauguration ceremony was taking place, the communist group Revcom, engaged in a “dramatic visual protest” at the president’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Standing over the star, three members of the group ripped up the American, confederate and “Make America Great Again” flags.
“There is a direct line from the slave-holding confederacy to the MAGA fascist of today,” said Michelle Xai, a leader of the LA chapter of Revcom. “Now is not the time to settle in, normalize and learn to live with fascism. Now is the time to resist, inspire, galvanize and mobilize to refuse to accept a fascist America in the name of humanity.”
Behind Xai, two Trump supporters in a booth selling MAGA merchandise, chanted “Trump! Trump! Trump!” and commented that she should tear up a flag from her “own country” instead of one their “forefathers fought for.”