Philadelphia: Thousands March Against Trump in the Middle of the City

January 26, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

On Thursday, Donald Trump came to Philadelphia to speak to a gathering of Republican congresspeople—and thousands of people poured into the streets to march and raise their voices of anger against him. At the height of the protest, according to an online Philadelphia Inquirer report, “more than 5,000 protesters clogged Center City streets.”

After a rally at City Hall, protesters marched to the hotel where Trump was speaking, and then on to the offices of the Goldman Sachs investment firm that many Trump officials have ties to. One big theme of the protest was opposition to moves already begun by Trump and the Republicans to dismantle Obama’s health care program, and doctors, nurses, and other health care workers were part of the action. But there were also people from the Black Lives Matter movement and immigrant-rights and environmental groups. One chant was “Healthcare for all, we don’t need no wall.” And there were people who said they were at their first protest ever or the first in many years. A woman in her early 70s said, “In the 1960s people fought an illegal war. Now we’re fighting an illegal president.”

The night before, there were hundreds in the streets, near where the Republican congressional meeting was taking place, for a “Queer Rage(r): Guerrilla Dance Party.” The call for the action said, “Get ready to WERK it out. As they try to take away our health care, to police Black, Brown, Trans and Queer bodies, to regulate our bodies, we’re here to say #WeAreQueer #WeAreHere #WeWillDance.”

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