Extract from ABC News
A woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty takes part in the "No Kings" protest in Paris, France. (AP Photo: Aurelien Morissard)
In short:
Huge crowds have rallied against US President Donald Trump from coast to coast in what organisers hoped would be the largest single-day protest in US history.
Demonstrators have been venting their fury over what they see as Mr Trump's authoritarian style of governing, his hardline immigration polices and the war with Iran.
More than 3,200 events are planned in all 50 states and several cities outside the US, including London, Paris and Rome.
Demonstrators decrying US President Donald Trump's policies have taken to city streets across the US and Europe in the third edition of the "No Kings" rallies.
More than 3,200 events are planned in all 50 US states and several cities outside the country, including London, Paris and Rome.
The two previous "No Kings" events attracted millions of participants.
Organisers hope Saturday's event will be the largest single-day protest in US history.
Singers Bruce Springsteen and Joan Baez will headline a rally at the State Capitol in Minnesota, where upward of 100,000 people were expected to gather.
This area has become a flashpoint over Mr Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration and the incursion of federal immigration agents into Democrat-led urban centres.
Demonstrators marched to the State Capitol in Minnesota during a "No Kings" protest against Donald Trump's administration policies. (Reuters: Erica Dischino)
Other large rallies are taking place in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, but two-thirds of the events are happening outside major city centres, a nearly 40 per cent jump for smaller communities from the movement's first mobilisation last June, organisers said.
On the National Mall in Washington, the crowd chanted pro-democracy slogans and held anti-Trump signs.
Outside one high-rise assisted-living centre in Chevy Chase, Maryland, a group of elderly people in wheelchairs held signs encouraging passing cars to "Resist tyranny", "Honk if you want democracy" and "Dump Trump".
In Austin, Texas, a brass band provided the soundtrack as protesters gathered outside City Hall before a march through downtown.
People also took the streets in Chicago, walking past the Trump Tower. (Reuters: Jim Vondruska)
Thousands gathered in midtown Manhattan, where actor Robert De Niro, one of the organisers, said that "there have been other presidents who have tested the constitutional limits of their power, but none have been such an existential threat to our freedoms and security".
"The defining story of this Saturday's mobilisation is not just how many people are protesting, but where they are protesting," said Leah Greenberg, co-founder of Indivisible, the group that started the No Kings movement last year and led planning of Saturday's events.
The rallies come as Mr Trump's approval rating has fallen to 36 per cent, its lowest point since his return to the White House, according to a Reuters-Ipsos poll.
A spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee criticised Democratic politicians and candidates for supporting the rallies.
"These Hate America Rallies are where the far-left's most violent, deranged fantasies get a microphone and House Democrats get their marching orders," spokesperson Mike Marinella said in a statement.
Marching ahead of midterms
With midterm elections later this year in the US, organisers say they have seen a surge in the number of people organising anti-Trump events and registering to participate in deeply Republican states like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Utah.
A demonstrator asking for others to pour "blood" over her in support of "victims of political violence" sits near the US Capitol building. (Reuters: Annabelle Gordon)
Competitive suburban areas that have helped decide national elections are seeing "huge" increases in interest, Ms Greenberg said, citing as examples Pennsylvania's Bucks and Delaware counties, East Cobb and Forsyth in Georgia, and Scottsdale and Chandler in Arizona.
"Voters who decide elections, the people who do the door-knocking and the voter registration and all of the work of turning protests into power, they are taking to the streets right now, and they are furious," she said.
In northern Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, several hundred people began gathering on Saturday close to Arlington National Cemetery before a planned march across the Potomac River to the capital city's National Mall.
Women dressed as handmaids gathered at the Minnesota State Capitol. (Reuters: Erica Dischino)
Some passing drivers honked their horns in support but others slowed down to berate the protesters.
"You're all idiots," one man shouted from his car.
John Ale, 57, a retired air-conditioning and heating contractor, said he drove 20 minutes from his home in Virginia to join the march.
"What's happening in this country is unsustainable," he said.
"The middle class, the little people, can't afford to live anymore. And he [Trump] is breaking the norms, the things that made us function as a country."
A call to action against Iran war
The "No Kings" movement launched last year on Mr Trump's birthday, June 14, drawing an estimated 4 to 6 million people across roughly 2,100 sites nationwide.
The second mobilisation in October involved an estimated 7 million participants in more than 2,700 cities, according to a crowd-sourcing analysis published by prominent data journalist G Elliott Morris.
That October event was largely fuelled by a backlash against a government shutdown, an aggressive crackdown by federal immigration authorities, and the deployment of National Guard troops to major cities.
A woman holding a banner reading "No Kings, No War" takes part in the protest in Paris, France. (AP Photo: Aurelien Morissard)
Saturday's events come amid what organisers said was a call to action against the bombardment of Iran by the US and Israel, a conflict that is now four weeks old.
Morgan Taylor, 45, attended the Washington protest with her 12-year-old son, and said she was enraged by Mr Trump's military action in Iran, which she called a "stupid war".
"Nobody's attacking us," Ms Taylor said.
"We don't need to be there."
Rallies outside the US
Demonstrations were also planned in more than a dozen other countries, from Europe to Latin America to Australia, said Ezra Levin, a co-executive director of Indivisible.
In countries with constitutional monarchies, people call the protests "No Tyrants", he said.
In Rome, thousands marched with defiant chants aimed at Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose conservative government saw its referendum for streamlining the country's judiciary fail badly this week amid criticism that it was a threat to the courts' independence.
People also took part in a national anti-war demonstration organised by "No Kings Italy movement" in Rome. (AP Photo: Andrew Medichini)
Protesters also waved banners protesting Israeli and US attacks on Iran, calling for "a world free from wars".
In London, people protesting against the war held banners with slogans such as "Stop the far right" and "Stand up to racism".
And in Paris, several hundred people, mostly Americans living in France, along with labour unions and human rights organisations, gathered at the Bastille.
"I protest all of Trump's illegal, immoral, reckless, and feckless, endless wars," rally organiser Ada Shen said.
Reuters/AP
No comments:
Post a Comment