This Is What Democracy Looks Like

Sterling Smith – Fayetteville, Arkansass

This Is What Democracy Looks Like
And I went down to the demonstration
To get my fair share of abuse
Singing, “We’re gonna vent our frustration
If we don’t we’re gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse”

Memories of the Rolling Stones and the protest songs of the 60’s echoed in my mind as I rounded the street corner to approach the Washington County Courthouse in downtown Fayetteville, Arkansas. I was greeted by a cacophony of sounds as over eight hundred people chanted and sang, accompanied by the horns of countless cars on College Avenue honking in support of the demonstration. Men, women, families, students, retirees, working folks, gays, straights, and trans… just people coming together to support a common cause. There was not any abuse that I could see, unless you count the guy in the pickup truck who drove around the block a couple of times to wave at the crowd with his middle finger. But there was a lot of frustration.

On April 5^th, 2025, the community of Fayetteville braved wind, rain, and freezing cold to vent their frustration at what is happening to our country. Multiple demonstrations for the day – We the People Veto Project 2025, Hands Off, the 50501 Movement, and the Women’s March – blended into one large demonstration in our beautiful town. A plethora of signs was visible, supporting a variety of causes, from LGTBQ+ rights to Vets Against Fascism… from Vote the Bums Out to Support Our Labor Unions. One might get confused as to what this demonstration was all about, except for one over-arching theme… people are fed up with the dismantling of the federal government to ultimately “line the pockets” of the ultra-rich.

After an hour of protesting, the crowd peacefully marched to the Town Square to hear several speakers. Despite the frustrations of our times, joy and enthusiasm spread through the crowd as people remembered that we are strong when we find unity and common cause in the community! It’s going to be a long fight; but together, we can move past our frustrations to get what we need; and what we need is to change the trajectory of our country, and the world!  Seems to me the Rolling Stones got it right all those years ago.

You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well, you just might find
You get what you need

Bill Gallegos – Los Angeles, California

It was truly a march and rally of the Rasquache Liberation Front — a raggedy festival of the oppressed on April 5th in downtown Los Angeles.  This gathering of 30,000-40,000 people was one of half-a-dozen such marches throughout the LA-area and one of the estimated 1500 that took place throughout the US.   What was wonderful about the LA event was its joyful and creative militancy.   Lots of “Fuck Trump” and “Fuck MAGA” signs but also hundreds of homemade signs demanding hands of immigrants, hands off social security, hands off Trans folks, hands of federal workers, hands off Medicare Education Not Deportation.   While these were demands that the MAGA confederacy immediately end the political chainsaw they are taking through nearly all of the political and social gains of the 20th century and their horrendous attacks against immigrant from the Global South, they had an underlying theme of demanding something much better — for immigrant workers to be treated with dignity and respect, for housing, food, and healthcare for everyone in this richest country in the world, for an end to the US support for Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, and for a democracy not controlled by money and oligarchical power.   We marched behind a banner of the Mexico Solidarity Project, a project of tremendous importance as the US empire seeks to make Mexico’s progressive social-democratic government bend the knee and kowtow to the US political and economic agenda.   While we yelled ourselves hoarse chanting the many slogans against Trump and MAGA my favorite was “Internationalism is Strategy, Not Charity”!!!!

Molly Martin – Reporting on April 5 demos in the North Bay

“It’s because of protests across the country that we have voting rights, that we have civil rights, and believe me, it’s because of turnouts like this…that got my ass home from Vietnam,” said my Congress rep. Mike Thompson. He was speaking to one of the huge protests against the Trump administration in towns in Sonoma and Napa counties. 

Here in the North Bay, where a third of our population is immigrants from Mexico and Latin America, citizens are organizing to protect undocumented people from deportation. In an economy dependent on agriculture, farmers worry about cuts to their workforce. Last month ICE walked unannounced into the probation department in Santa Rosa, handcuffed a man newly released from jail, and forced him into a van waiting outside before anyone could respond.

Wine country, with its reputation as an upper middle class stronghold, has plenty of poor people who depend on government programs for food and housing assistance. Among the 5,000 folks gathering in Santa Rosa on April 5, we saw lots of old people carrying signs protesting cuts to Social Security, Medicare and the Veterans Administration. The young are angry about cuts to DEI programs, education and environmental protection. If there were counter protesters I didn’t see them.

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Tomorrow from “Hands Off” demos in London, England and Washington D.C.