Reportage
Millions protested Trump in 2017. In 2025, he’s greeted with resignation.
Eight years later, the Women's March is back with a new name – the People's March – with the goal of building and broadening a grand rainbow coalition that focuses on more than just Trump's machismo and patriarchy.
Eight years ago on Saturday, millions took to the streets the day after the inauguration of the first Trump presidency. Half a million in Washington DC and more than four million across the country, according to the estimates of the Washington Post.
The 2017 Women's March was probably the most highly-attended protest in U.S. history, where such enormous numbers are not as usual as in other countries. The demonstration in Washington was impressive: hotels and bed and breakfasts completely full across a radius of dozens of miles, and there were hours-long lines to catch the subway. It was a torrent of people taking over the U.S. capital for a day.
This came at the crest of the long wave of Occupy, the candidacy of Bernie Sanders, the other social movements that had pulled a part of U.S. political culture to the left, and especially after the shock of the New York tycoon's victory in the November 2016 elections.
In many U.S. cities, the streets filled with people within a very few hours, protesting what was perceived as a dangerous deviation in the steady and at times boring forward march of U.S. democracy.
None of that was repeated in the quiet November of 2024, when Trump’s victory was greeted with great resignation, as an expected evil. Eight years later, the Women's March is back with a new name – the People's March – with the goal of building and broadening a grand rainbow coalition that focuses on more than just Trump's machismo and patriarchy. One of the appeals to launch the march was very clear, calling “all those who stand for human rights and freedom against fascism” to the protest.
So here we are, eight years later, with hundreds of local demonstrations and a new march through the streets of the U.S. capital, scarred in the meantime by the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
And as Washington prepared for Monday’s inauguration, with work underway everywhere – stages, barriers, lots of agents – the People's March began with three assembly points downtown, within walking distance of the White House that is about to change hands.
One of the gatherings was very crowded, with feminist and LGBTQ+ organizations; another was less numerous, with local organizations gathering in the square overlooked by the Museum of the Victims of Communism, of all places; and finally, the anti-militarist, internationalist and environmentalist one was the last to join the main procession that left on schedule at 11 a.m. local time.
There were so many signs, flags and posters: Princess Leia from Star Wars was ubiquitous (flags with “We are the Resistance” were on sale for $10); the signs with the slogan “I have seen a better cabinet at IKEA” really stood out; and there were some keffiyehs and Palestinian flags as well. There weren’t many people without a sign, flag, or the pink hat symbolic of the Women's March.
As is often the case, as soon as the demonstration spread out, the numbers looked higher than the impression given by the individual gatherings. Thousands of people flowed through the downtown streets, skirting an extremely well-protected White House, and then in front of the Washington Memorial, where there was a small group of white men in MAGA hats.
Throughout the procession, there was no shortage of lone or small groups of counter-protesters, particularly anti-abortionists, who often stayed on the sides of the procession without incident. When the march arrived at the Lincoln Memorial (the one where Martin Luther King made his “I have a dream” speech), the counter-protesters even managed to position themselves on all sides of the stage, effectively taking over the show for some minutes, while many female activists tried to cover their horrific posters.
Unforeseen developments aside, the sight was remarkable: many thousands of people filled the space in front of the monument dedicated to the president who was the protagonist of the Civil War, arranging themselves all around the artificial pond, which is frozen over due to the low temperatures.
At exactly one o'clock, when the two Women's March directors took the floor to mark the start of the final part of the day, the space in front of the Lincoln Memorial was completely full. They recalled the 2017 march, a historic and unrepeatable one, and the hardships of these eight years, between Covid, Charlottesville and the various “natural” disasters that have hit the U.S. But more than anything, it was Trump, they insist. Four more years lie ahead, probably more brutal and difficult than his first presidency.
Those who were out protesting on Saturday are preparing to resist.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/otto-anni-dopo-la-protesta-ce-ma-sconta-la-rassegnazione on 2025-01-19