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Thousands march to City Hall to protest Trump administration, Musk in ‘Hands Off!’ rally
The demonstration was part of a nationwide planned day of action with over 1,000 anti-Trump protests across the country.
Thousands of protesters from all across New England flooded the Boston Common and City Hall Plaza on Saturday for the “Hands Off!” rally, part of a planned day of action with over 1,000 anti-Trump protests nationwide.
The protest began at the Parkman Bandstand on Boston Common with announcements from emcees Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, founder of the New Roots AME Church in Dorchester, and Rahsaan D. Hall, president and CEO of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts.
Demonstrators brought hundreds of signs with anti-Trump and anti-Musk messages such as “Resist the tyrant,” “Deport Musk,” “Democracy is not a spectator sport,” and “Call rodent control! There’s a Musk-rat in the house.”
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Warming up the crowd was the Good Trouble Brass Band, whose name references the famous John Lewis quote echoed by Cory Booker in his recent marathon Senate speech.
Though the “Hands Off!” protests happened nationwide, the day of action took on a special meaning in Massachusetts, which Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll called “the birthplace of democracy.”
“We’ll be celebrating 250 years of the shot heard ‘round the world later this month because Massachusetts knows how to make good trouble,” Driscoll said in a speech. “You know who’s going to make this country better? All of you, in community.”
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The sea of protesters marched from the Boston Common to City Hall Plaza, led by Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey.
Carrying a banner reading “HANDS OFF Massachusetts,” demonstrators from the AFL-CIO and American Federation of Teachers of Massachusetts (AFT) led call-and-response chants asking the crowd to “show us what democracy looks like.”
As the cavalcade filed into City Hall Plaza, the Good Trouble Brass Band performed and sang “Which Side Are You On?” a labor union song from the 1930s. Rain started to fall as White-Hammond and Hall brought the protesters back together, but that only seemed to strengthen the crowd’s energy.
Markey rallied the crowd as he defended DEI and transgender rights while lambasting the Trump administration and DOGE for gutting Medicaid, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Education.
“Donald Trump seems to think that DEI only stands for ‘defending Elon’s interests,’ but we know it stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion and that it makes us stronger every day,” Markey said in a speech. “If Donald Trump wants to tear us apart, he’s going to have to go through all of us here in Boston because we’re up first, we’re gonna fight.”
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Markey called on the crowd to make a difference by helping block Trump in the courts, getting out and voting, and standing up “the way Cory Booker did.”
In an equally blistering speech, Rep. Ayanna Pressley called upon the crowd to “summon the stamina, the courage, and the spirit” of Boston activists from the Civil Rights Movement, including Mel King and the Maverick Mothers.
“This is the tradition that you are all a part of,” Pressley said in a speech. “You are freedom fighters, you are democracy defenders, you are patriots.”
Mayor Michelle Wu shared a similar message of Boston unity, referencing her testimony before Congress last month, where she defended the city’s immigration enforcement policies.
“Last month, I went down to D.C. because Trump’s Congress wanted to make an example of Boston,” Wu said in a speech. “It might have been my voice in the microphone that day, but it was all of Boston who gave Congress their answer. This is our city, and we will always fight.”
Several speakers called for the release of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts graduate student who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Somerville last month. Wu spoke out for Öztürk’s release at a rally last week.
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Representatives from the ACLU of Massachusetts, AFL-CIO, and AFT of Massachusetts rallied support for federal workers who have been laid off by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“The federal workers’ fight is our fight, too,” Jessica Tang, president of the AFT of Massachusetts, said in a speech. “As a teacher, and as a union leader, we know that solidarity is how we fight back against the bullies.”
Advocates from the Asian and Pacific Islander, indigenous peoples, and LGBTQ+ communities also spoke out.
“As a Black trans woman, I’m used to this country trying to erase me and my people,” Chastity Bowick, co-founder of Trans Resistance, said in a speech. “They have been trying for decades, but we are still here because we stick together, and we take care of our community. What they won’t give us, we build ourselves.”
In between speakers, Hall brought the crowd to a roar of energy with a series of chants, such as “They can’t control us, we have the power. If they can’t hear us, we’ll say it louder.”
Hall told Boston.com he was “encouraged” and “hopeful” after seeing Saturday’s turnout, asserting that hope is something that can only be “developed through action.”
“It says a lot about what people think about democracy and freedom, about people’s fears and concerns,” Hall said. “But, I also think it says something about people’s willingness to define democracy for themselves, to have a role in what their liberation looks like and be a part of putting their shoulder to the wheel of making this country better.”
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In a full embrace of the Boston spirit, Dropkick Murphys performed a special acoustic set to close out the rally.
The band played their own rendition of “Which Side Are You On?” and performed “Who’ll Stand With Us,” a new song that they debuted at MGM Music Hall at Fenway last month.
“No kings here,” frontman Ken Casey told The Boston Globe. “One man thinks he calls all the shots, and that’s not what he was elected for. He’s elected to be a public servant for all, and we’re here to speak up against that.”
White-Hammond left protesters with three parting actions for further support: sign up for future demonstrations, bring back two people who have been “sitting on the sidelines,” and “listen and connect with” those with different opinions.
“Part of the reason we got into this situation is that our country has gotten too divided,” White-Hammond said. “If we are a true ‘we,’ then our president cannot turn us against each other. That is our call to action.”
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