‘A long fight ahead’: San Francisco mobilises against Trump
On the way to downtown San Francisco on a rainy Saturday morning, the train is buzzing with energy. Notices at the stations announce “significant delays due to overcrowding”. Nearly all of us have the same destination: The Bay Area Women’s March.
Train passengers compliment each others’ placards, swap news from marches in other cities, and quote the weirdest phrases from Trump’s inauguration address. Three young women with hand-made signs give me beaming grins as I take their photo. “Thanks Trump!”reads one of the signs. “You’ve made me an activist”.
This is a common theme over the weekend. On Friday night, several thousand people attended the San Francisco counter-inauguration. “I think the election was a wakeup call for people like me”, said Mimi, a young woman who works in advertising. “People who haven’t been as active as they should have been, if not now, when?”
The crowd at the Women’s March tops a hundred thousand, filling the streets around United Nations Plaza to hear speeches and music. We march down Market Street as the rain intensifies – but nobody cares about the weather. Women chant: “Our bodies, our choice!”Men respond: “Your bodies, your choice!”
Demonstrators draw the links between all of the groups who will suffer under conservative attacks. “I’m here because I support equal rights for everybody”, says Russell, a flight attendant. “It’s not just about women, it’s about all minorities.”
Anti-racist chants are popular, too: “No borders, no nations! Stop Deportations!”and “No Trump, no KKK – No racist USA!”
Corey works in community radio. “Trump brought the racists out – I hate to say the word, but in a way he normalised it. We need to make them scared. We need to make racists afraid again.”His sign says simply: “Punch Nazis”.
Rhianon is a doctor. “I’m here because I think too many of our fundamental values are under threat”, she says. “We’ve become too complacent.”Her patients will be affected by Trump’s attacks. “Many of them are uninsured, poor, undocumented. A lot of people depend on the ACA [Obamacare] and all of that is threatened.”
Most agree that we need to keep organising, that this is just the beginning of the fight. In homage to Carrie Fisher – or maybe just because this is a city full of nerds – the starbird symbol of the Rebel Alliance emblazons many flags and placards. “A woman’s place is in the resistance”, says one sign, over a stylized Leia Organa.
“We have to speak up and make our voices heard”, says Christen, a restaurant server. “We have to protect women’s rights, protect Planned Parenthood. We’ve got a long fight ahead.”
