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As Trump is inaugurated, hundreds protest ‘extreme far-right billionaire agenda’ in downtown Boston
The protest was hosted by the Boston chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Boston Coalition for Palestine, and others.
Demonstrators marched through Downtown Crossing Monday afternoon, protesting what organizers called President Donald Trump’s “extreme far-right billionaire agenda” hours after he was sworn in for his second term as president.
Protesters congregated at the John F. Kennedy Federal Building on Sudbury Street around 3 p.m. Monday for the event, which was organized by the Boston chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation alongside other progressive groups including the Boston Coalition for Palestine.
While marching down Tremont Street, Maddie Dery, an organizer with PSL, told Boston.com that “this government is by and for the billionaire class.”
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“It does not represent average people like the ones you see here,” Dery said. “They’re spending billions of our tax dollars on war overseas, on a genocide in Palestine. They’re going to plan mass deportations … they’re launching an assault on our rights here at home.”
A PSL banner that read “Workers should have power, not the billionaires” led the march on Cambridge Street, down School Street, and through the pedestrianized streets of Downtown Crossing. The group of about 150 people then climbed Park Street to the front of the State House for speeches.
Other protest signs included “Money for people’s needs, not the war machine” and pro-Palestinian motifs, including a Palestine flag, poppy flowers, and signs calling for a ceasefire. The ceasefire in Gaza recently brokered between Israel and Hamas took hold Sunday.
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More signs touched on transgender rights, anti-war messaging, and some communist images. Protesters chanted slogans like “the people united will never be divided” and “immigrants are welcome here.”
At the State House, Sana Qureshi, of the Boston South Asian Coalition, spoke to the crowd about her mother’s experience in the United States after immigrating from Pakistan, including working at a gas station for up to 80 hours a week.
“It still wasn’t enough to pay for housing and utilities, food,” the 25-year-old said. “The American ruling class, the billionaires, they put profit ahead of people every single time, and it’s not only Trump, it’s Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, the Democrats, the Republicans, all of the billionaire class … this country could not run without immigrants. This country could not run without the working class.”
Susanna Chen, of Cambridge, said she’s a member of PSL and attended to “build revolutionary optimism.”
“A lot of our rights are being rolled back right on, impending immigration rights, impending rollback on trans rights, so right now is more so a time to come together and organize and fight back against this oppression of our rights,” Chen said.
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