The mood at City Hall this past Saturday, October 18, was electric, with roughly 3,000 people gathering to say “No Kings!” to Donald Trump’s presidency. Individuals of all ages marched from Chochenyo Park to City Hall and rallied alongside a series of speakers.
The local protest was organized by All Rise Alameda and was a follow-up to a “No Kings!” march and rally on June 14, and a “Hands Off!” protest on April 5. Both demonstrations were in response to the policies and actions of the Trump administration.
A variety of issues were represented among attendees’ signage and attire, including immigrant rights, trans rights, healthcare, and education. Many wore amphibious iconography, inspired by the Portland Frog Brigade, which became synonymous with peaceful anti-Trump demonstrations this year. Signs displayed defiant sayings like “No faux king way” and “The power of the people is stronger than the people in power,” while many had a humorous twist, such as “Super-callous-fragile-racist-sexist-Nazi-POTUS.”
The demonstration at City Hall was preceded by a family-friendly pre-rally at 10 a.m. at Chochenyo Park, where children and adults engaged in bubble-blowing, chalking, sign-making, and musical activities. Berkeley Poet Laureate Aya de León led people in a line dance—later reprised at City Hall. Affiliate organizations had tables at the park; one table featured a driftwood loom to “weave the future” of Alameda by writing down goals and aspirations.
At 11:30 a.m., the crowds began to mobilize down the Park Street sidewalks, helmed by Taiko drummers. A keyboardist and flutist serenaded people as they exited the park. Volunteers corralled people at the intersections with Encinal and Central avenues.
The stretches of Oak Street and Santa Clara Avenue that surround City Hall were blocked off the day of the protest. A message from Alameda County Alerts stated that the closure was due to an “unpermitted protest.” Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft told the Alameda Post the message did not indicate disapproval of the protest.
“I thought the wording was unfortunate, it just meant the organizers didn’t apply for a permit. If they had, the City would have granted it,” Ashcraft said. “I hope it didn’t dissuade anyone from coming. [Our city] is joining lots of lawsuits strategically protesting things like FEMA grants to address climate change, and things directed to sanctuary cities… We’ve got this incredibly important measure coming up—Prop 50. I hope on November 4 people will do the right thing and start to put a dent in the Republican majority.”
California Proposition 50 was a major topic during the protest, with many endorsing the redistricting legislation that aims to temporarily realign California’s congressional districts to favor Democrats in response to Republican-led redistricting efforts President Donald Trump has backed in both swing states and heavily blue states like Texas.
Ashcraft was one of several speakers at the event, which also featured Alameda Vice Mayor Michele Pryor and Corinna Gould, Tribal Chair for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan/Ohlone—the land Alameda was built upon.
“No matter where you are in what is now called the United States, we want to work with you all…for generations people of color have been in the streets and we welcome you to those streets with us,” said Gould, who also is co-founder of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. “When we topple this so-called king, when we get rid of the fascism that is trying to bleed into these lands, we must rely on each other.”
Between speakers, master of ceremonies Jeff Raz, former Ringmaster of Cirque Du Soleil, led the crowd in chants such as, “No puppets, no kings, we the people pull the strings!” Raz and Shalom Bruhn of EB-FLOW (East Bay Fierce Loving Organized Women) led a sing-along to the tune of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” reimagined as “We Will Stop You!”
Other speakers included Pastor Laura Rose of the First Congregational Church of Alameda, Constanza Yanez of Oakland organizing group We Fight Back, and representatives of Alameda Youth Power.
Rose roused the crowd with the chant, “Love is louder,” referencing the power of faith as a unifier. “I’m talking about the real work of love, which extends ourselves beyond every barrier and boundary that we put between one another,” Rose said. “In the face of deportations, in the face of every form of discrimination, we say love is louder.”
Yanez emphasized the importance of solidarity with immigrants, referencing the lack of ICE arrests since August, after activists started protesting regularly outside the San Francisco ICE offices beginning in June.
“They want us intimidated, they want us quiet, and the more we show up, the stronger we are,” Yanez told the Post. “With this political system as a whole, there are more of us than there are of them, and the power is in our hands.”
All Rise Alameda member Valerie Landau said the October protest felt even “more united” than earlier protests.
“We’re just a group of neighbors with a big dream, and [people] were a lot more familiar with each other this time, having made connections through the last protest,” Landau said. “There was a real joyous feeling about it.”
Sindhu Ananthavel is a contributing writer to the Alameda Post. Contact her via [email protected]. Her writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Sindhu-Ananthavel.
