“HANDS OFF!”
The message of Saturday’s rally against the Trump administration was crystal clear. That refrain echoed among the thousands of protestors who filled up Civic Center Plaza outside San Francisco’s City Hall for the city’s Hands Off rally, one of over 1,200 throughout all 50 states and of 137 in California alone. Every chant from the crowd was deafening.
The nationwide day of protest was organized by Indivisible, a grassroots movement with a mission to elect progressive leaders and push back against the Trump administration and the billionaires associated with it, like Elon Musk.
The nationwide protests on April 5 started with communications between the organization Indivisible and others like 50501 and MoveOn, and grew to the massive scale they arrived at through grassroots organizing.
The rally in San Francisco focused on the defense of social security, healthcare workers, the Environmental Protection Agency, alongside the rights of LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, veterans, minorities and students.
During the months since Trump took office for his second term, he signed executive orders withdrawing the U.S. from WHO, declaring two legally recognized genders in defense of “gender ideology extremism,” designating English as the official language of the U.S., and declared on Wednesday his unprecedented plan to introduce tariffs of at least 10% to all countries. Organizers decided they must act in the aftermath of his barrage of orders.
The San Francisco division of Indivisible was surprised by the scale of protests. Liliana Soroceanu, a member of Indivisible SF’s steering committee, understood what mobilized people enough to ensure the magnitude of the turnout.
“Trump and Musk have basically absorbed the powers of Congress and are taking away our democracy, our freedoms, our rights, our Social Security, our healthcare,” Soroceanu said. “We’ve come together on this day to say, ‘Hands off our Social Security, hands off our democracy, our trans rights, our immigrants,’ and so forth, in support of freedom and democracy, which are currently at high risk.”
That message was bolstered by an enormous crowd that responded with a palpable fervor to all the speeches made and chants initiated throughout the rally, which went from 1 p.m. to around 3:15 p.m. A parade of speakers took to the stage throughout those two hours including activists, nurses and former federal employees.
Fiery speeches came from Alex U. Inn, a local drag king, Sara Russell, the former program director for the San Francisco Federal Executive Board, Bradley Angel, the Director at Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, and Christine Pelosi, a political strategist. The throughline between every speech was resistance against Trump.
Inn’s speech came early in the ceremony and rocked the crowd with their views on the sweeping actions and declarations from the administration, energizing the thousands in attendance to a fever pitch with calls and responses.
“As a drag king myself, they are passing laws that criminalize drag performances, conflating artistic expression with obscenity and stripping away our First Amendment rights,” U. Inn said. “They are using the guise of protecting children to justify the erasure of our identities.”
Later in the ceremony, Russell took the stage and explained how the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency fired her from her federal job.
“Why did I become a federal employee? My father was a refugee who came to this country in 1939. If it wasn’t for this country letting him in, I would not be here. He was fleeing Nazi Poland,” Russell said. “I have, my whole life, wanted to give back. I went to school, I trained for this. This is all I’ve ever wanted to do. I am seriously proud of all the work I did.”
Angel’s environmentally focused speech comes on the heels of City and County of San Francisco v. EPA, the Supreme Court case which was ruled 5-4 on March 4 in favor of the city. That ruling means that the Clean Water Act does not authorize the EPA to include “end-result” provisions in wastewater discharge permits. This new precedent factored into Angel’s speech as he railed against it.
“Trump wants to declare a war on everything from Greenland to Palestine and we stand in solidarity with the people there. It’s not just a war of genocide, but it’s also a war about the environment of Palestine,” Angel said. “Here in the United States, we all breathe the same air. We drink and need clean water. We need healthy, toxin-free communities. Hell no, we don’t need climate change, which, contrary to what the Trump gang thinks, is a reality.”
Angel expounded upon the Trump administration’s treatment of the EPA.
“Trump and Musk want to decimate the EPA. They want to decimate environmental regulations and protections, to loosen emission standards on some of the most toxic chemicals and pollution known. It’s a death sentence,” Angel said. “This is a life and death threat to communities and the whole planet, particularly to communities like Bayview-Hunters Point… We’re going to find out, really soon, the impact and it’s not going to be pretty, and that’s why we’re here today, to stand up.”
Speakers like Edward Wright, a newly elected BART Board of Directors member, and Rebecca Solnit, an author and activist, got the crowd fired up with passionately worded and vigorously delivered speeches near the end of the rally.
Solnit, a San Francisco State University alum, closed out the ceremony with a speech that had protestors cheering at peak volume even while sweating under the sweltering heat. Solnit emphasized the urgency of this moment in history and spoke directly to SFSU students.
“People think activists are motivated by what they’re against, what they hate, but I think we’re always motivated by love. I hope people understand that the only power this administration really has is to give orders and that everyone else has the power to disobey those orders,” Solnit said. “I know a lot of you are working-class first-generation students. I’ve met a bunch of you and your teachers. You’re amazing.”
Attendees stood listening to the speakers with a variety of backgrounds and occupations, even while standing under the California sun without a cloud in sight. That heat was not a deterrent. By 2 p.m. there were over 5,000 people assembled in the plaza. By the end of the rally, chants of “Hands off!” reverberated so clearly and loudly they could be heard from blocks away.
As Solnit closed out the rally, she left the crowd with statements she found from her time in nature as a climate activist.
“They tried to bury us. They didn’t know. We were seeds. They send up shoots in the springtime. They can cut down the flowers, but they can’t stop this spring, we’re going to be those seeds,” Solnit said. “We’re going to be this spring. We’re going to be the spring of democracy, the spring of justice, the spring of truth, the spring of human rights, spring of climate action. We’re gonna be seeds, be spring, be the insurrection, be civil society. We together are going to be what happens.”
