As millions marched in cities across the US in a resounding show of defiance against the inauguration of Donald Trump, protesters vowed that the fight had just begun.
Women’s Marches swept from the canyons of New York to the National Mall in Washington, one day after Trump was sworn in as the nation’s 45th president.
The demonstrations were an opening salvo against a president whose divisive words on the campaign trail – against women, immigrants and Muslims – will not soon be forgotten by a brewing resistance movement.
“This is only the beginning,” Evvie Harmon, global coordinator for the Women’s March, told the Guardian. “We are not going away.
“This is a mass mobilization and we are going to take this network of people and we are going to get them to lobby their members of Congress, call their governors … it’s going on from here.”
Harmon said organisers’ initial estimates indicated that the march in Washington exceeded a million participants while the movement attracted at least 3 million men and women worldwide.
I was hopeless when he won, but now I’m very hopeful. America is not about inequality or racism
Yaye Diop, protester
The huge turnout in the nation’s capital – some inbound flights in recent days were filled almost entirely with female marchers – prompted the event to spill well beyond the official route and clog the city’s main arteries.
Protesters erupted in cheers and chants as they marched, as cars passing by honked in approval.
“I think it’s really powerful to walk,” said one marcher, Jenny Moyrila, who carried a neon-pink sign that read “Wanna Be Starting Somethin’”.
“But then you have to find people hopefully to connect with, to keep on speaking about the issues that matter.”
Moyrila, a librarian on a college campus, said she hoped to find a way to get more students involved in politics. Many others expressed a desire to become more engaged in the political process, galvanized by Trump’s unexpected victory in November’s presidential election.
Khalisa Jacobs and Yaye Diop said they were inspired to continue fighting.
“There’s not a marginalized group of people that he – I will not say his name for the next four years – hasn’t come against,” Jacobs said. “So people need to take their specific issues and focus on action items that are going to protect their rights.”
Jacobs, who said she intended to attend future protests, said her focus would be equal rights and criminal justice reform. Diop, who emigrated to the US from Senegal, shared a similar sentiment.
“I was hopeless when he won, but now I’m very hopeful,” she said. “America is not about inequality or racism. We are all together – no matter where you come from or what your accent is.”
In several cities, crowds became too good for formal marches to be held safely. In Washington, celebrities and feminist leaders from Scarlett Johansson to Gloria Steinem delivered impassioned speeches just opposite the stage where Trump took the oath of office.
Seas of women and men wearing pink knit-hats engulfed entire blocks of downtown Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston, in a show of advocacy not just for women’s rights but for racial and social justice, LGBT rights and the environment.
In Boston, Senator Elizabeth Warren rallied women to a slate of issues she said they could organize around: raising the minimum wage, combating climate change, shielding immigrant families, protecting voting rights, defending unions and reforming the criminal justice system.
“We can whimper, we can whine – or we can fight back!” Warren said, to a crowd in which some waved signs quoting her memorable warning to Trump during the 2016 campaign: that “nasty women fight back”.
She added: “We come here to stand shoulder to shoulder to make clear: We are here. We will not be silent. We will not play dead. We will fight for what we believe in!”
The scenes in Washington offered a sharp contrast to Trump’s inauguration on Friday, when crowd sizes paled in comparison to those which turned out to see Barack Obama’s inaugurations in 2009 and 2013.
Trump used a speech at the CIA on Saturday afternoon [1] to attack the media for, he claimed, distorting its reporting of his crowd sizes. Notably, he did not mention the women’s marches, which in Washington drew more people to the streets than his inaugural ceremony and parade.
In Washington Amita Shukla, 18 and from New York City, was attending her first rally. She was hooked. She planned to become more involved on the issue of women’s reproductive rights, she said, adding: “Step one, march of the nasty women. Step two, grab them by the policy.”
Hours earlier, she had grabbed a free sign that read: “A Woman’s Place is in the Struggle.”
Paulette Gerkovich said she had worked in support of feminist and diversity inclusion for 30 years. She was the first in her family to finish high school but was told she could not go to college. She eventually earned a PhD.
“I have to be here for other women and girls who are told they can’t do something,” Gerkovich said. “They can, and I want to help them understand that.”
She posed for a photo outside Trump’s Washington hotel with her husband, James Miller, who held a sign that read “I like to grab my wife by her PhD”, a reference to a leaked 2005 tape in which Trump boasted about groping women without their consent.
Danielle Watson Murray also attended the Washington rally with her husband, who held a sign that read “We’re Stronger Together”. She floated the idea of volunteering for Planned Parenthood, which Republicans in Congress are moving to defund.
“I just do not believe that government should be able to tell you what you can and cannot do with your body,” Murray said. “I was raised in a very Christian household, but I do believe that we should have that right.
“I should be more involved, period.”
Rafaela de la Huerta came from Westchester, New York, with three friends dressed as beauty queens from an “alternative Miss Universe”. Wearing a “Miss Resistance” sash, De la Huerta said the march was symbolic of a new movement.
“You can feel the energy”, she said. “I think it starts here, today”.
Sabrina Siddiqui, Lauren Gambino and Molly Redden in Washington and Joanna Walters in New York
* The Guardian. Sunday 22 January 2017 07.00 GMT Last modified on Sunday 22 January 2017 16.14 GMT:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/21/womens-march-what-next-donald-trump
10 cities, 10 marches: how US women marked their opposition to Trump
From Washington to Los Angeles and in many cities in between, Saturday saw hundreds of thousands of Americans march in protest at the election of Donald Trump.
Washington DC
Hundreds of thousands of people marched in the historic Women’s March on Washington on Saturday – with more than 500,000 people, according to initial estimates by organisers – in a stunning show of protest on the first full day of the Trump administration. Tens of thousands more joined as the day wore on, and by mid-afternoon the city’s Metro system had recorded more than 597,000 trips.
A sea of peaceful protesters wore pink “pussy hats” and poured into the streets of downtown DC, almost certainly outnumbering those who attended the inauguration on Friday.
Celebrity performers and speakers included singers Alicia Keys, Madonna and Janelle Monáe, activists Gloria Steinem and Angela Davis and actors America Ferrera and Ashley Judd.
Los Angeles
The Los Angeles police department estimated that 500,000 people took to the streets of LA, although event organizers said the number of protesters was even higher, according to the LA Times. It was reportedly the highest turnout for any rally in the city for at least a decade.
Chicago
Chicago saw a huge turnout, with estimates of 250,000 people attending. The actual march itself was cancelled due to the huge crowds, turning the event into a rally that spilled out of Grant Park.
New York
Around 200,000 New Yorkers rallied in Midtown Manhattan, twice what protest organisers had expected. The marchers, who had to be staggered in waves because of the numbers, headed up Fifth Avenue towards Trump Tower. “What’s at stake is everything you believe in,” actor Whoopi Goldberg told the crowd.
Atlanta
Thousands turned out for a social justice march in Atlanta, Georgia, with civil rights hero and local congressman John Lewis telling the crowd to “never quit”, “never give up” and to get into “good trouble”. “I know something about marching,” he said at the end of his remarks. Lewis, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr, shook outstretched hands as he made his way to the front of the march.
Denver
An estimated 100,000 people turned up to protest at Denver’s Civic Center, chanting “love not hate makes America great”.
Phoenix
A march that started at the Arizona state capitol and paraded through the streets of Phoenix attracted 20,000, according to an estimate by the Arizona department of public safety. “I am amazed at the turnout, especially in a red state on a rainy day,” an organizer for progressive political organization Stronger Together AZ told local media.
Boston
Demonstrators gather on Boston Common. Photograph: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
More than 100,000 protesters crowded on to Boston Common, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the fiercest criticisms of Donald Trump. “We can whimper. We can whine. Or we can fight back!” she declared, reported the Boston Globe. “We will not build a stupid wall and we will not tear millions of families apart.”
Oakland
Thousands turn out to the Oakland women’s march. Photograph: Julia Carrie Wong
In Oakland, 60,000 people took to the streets for the local women’s march, with hundreds also rallying in neighboring Berkeley.
Austin
In Austin, the capital of Texas and a liberal pocket in a deeply red state, police estimated 50,000 turned out for the local women’s march, 20,000 more than organizers had expected.
Amber Jamieson
@ambie
* The Guardian. Sunday 22 January 2017 00.49 GMT Last modified on Sunday 22 January 2017 01.11 GMT:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/21/womens-march-washington-chicago-los-angeles-trump