10,000 in Santa Barbara Join Millions around the Nation and the World to Decry Trump's Radical Right-Wing Government
The third major "No Kings" demonstration organized by Indivisible SB featured a day of peaceful protest, a roster of younger speakers, an expanded list of outrages and a collection of ironic signs.
About 10,000 people rallied and took to the streets of Santa Barbara on Saturday, one of more than 3,000 “No Kings” demonstrations across 50 states and in more than 50 countries protesting the savagery, crimes and countless outrages of the Trump regime.
Across SB County, thoughout the nation and around the world, crowds estimated by organizers at upwards of eight million decried a broad range of Trump’s policies and actions, from the war in Iran, high gas prices and the restart of offshore oil drilling in California, to his vicious immigrant deportation campaign, efforts to rig the mid-term elections and grotesque levels of financial corruption.
Amid a vast, sprawling and loose coalition, the central message of the grassroots outpouring was perhaps best summed up by a Berlin protester wielding a cardboard sign that read:
"Kein Führerprinzip in den USA.”
The English translation - “No Leader Principle in USA” - references a foundational Nazi ideology that meant the leader’s word is above all written law, and mandated total obedience to Adolf Hitler.
“Welcome to the largest peaceful protest in American history,” said Myra Paige, a steering committee member of Indivisible Santa Barbara, lead organizers of the demonstration, who emceed a mass rally in Alameda Park that proceeded a march to De La Guerra Plaza
“No ICE, No War, No Kings,” she said in the first speech of the day, sounding the central theme of the U.S. protests as she called for opposition to the “modern day Gestapo of masked ICE thugs” and challenged the crowd to “stop America’s descent into fascism.”
Here are five takeaways from a day of peaceful protest:
The young’uns speak. In a notable shift from the previous two “No Kings” protests, held last June and October, the platform program featured younger activists - with four of the roster of speakers under the age of 30. Among them: Tallula Borman, who organized an Indivisible chapter at UCSB, and Calli Fonua, who is doing the same at SBCC; both spoke of the importance to their generation of the fight against Trump’s authoritarian project — “a tomorrow with no fascist regimes,” as Borman put it - while Cesar Vasquez, an 18-year old Immigrant Rapid Response Network organizer in Santa Maria urged the crowd to commit to concrete actions that transform one big day of protest into a lasting campaign for social justice: “Live within the struggle for hope,” he said.
Sierra Club in the house. Since the last “No Kings” five months ago, the Trump Administration steamrolled California law and widespread local opposition by ramming through approval for the rogue Sable Offshore oil company to restart pumping offshore oil through the antiquated pipeline that ruptured and caused the 2015 spill near Refugio Beach State Park. The salience of the issue, and the urgent passions it’s raised, was clear from multiple call-outs by speakers, including Katie Davis, local chapter chair of the Sierra Club, who decried Sable’s contempt for a host of state and local agencies, not to mention court orders: “No one is above the law,” Davis said.
One stop donations. On a day when organizers sought to provide specific calls to action for the catalogue of Administration affronts to democracy and common decency, perhaps the most practical tool was offered by Eder Gaona-Macedo, executive director of the Fund for Santa Barbara. The organization has established a special “No Kings Fund” to help guide donations to grassroots group that provide direct assistance and aid to immigrant families and communities under attack, including 805 UndocuFund, the Immigrant Legal Defense Center and SB Resiste, through this link, or by texting “NoKings3” to 50155.
Where was Salud? Rep. Salud Carbajal has been a high-profile presence at previous “No Kings” protests, and was advertised on the advance list of speakers, but was a no-show on Saturday. Indivisible organizers said he contacted them yesterday to explain that he was detained in Washington by the ongoing congressional fight over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which Democrats have blocked over demands for changes in the behavior of reprobate ICE agents — body cameras, no masks, no phony administrative warrants, for starters. The Senate passed a compromise funding bill to finance all DHS operations except ICE — especially the embattled Transportation Security Administration, whose tangled operations have gridlocked passenger lines at major airports - but Trump towel boy Speaker Mike Johnson blocked House passage, leaving the stalemate in place.
Wendy’s one-note symphony. We’re hard-pressed to think of a more solipsistic denizen of City Hall, at least since Jason Dominguez lost his city council re-election bid, than Wendy Santamaria, the 28-year old representative of the Eastside’s District One, a know-it-all UCSB grad who’s lived here for about 12 minutes but whose hubris about what’s best for an iconic city that managed to survive for 174 years, until she garnered (checks notes)…2,098 votes…to win a smashing 236-vote council seat victory, is unmatched and unchecked. Given a platform to address a sweeping contagion of authoritarian threats to America, Santamaria devoted her address to a narrow, divisive and self-referential rant about…rent control…the singular topic on which she campaigned and the one and only issue about which she seems able to form a complete sentence. Sheesh.
Kudos to Indivisible and all its allies for a safe and well-organized event.
Images: Protesters make their way down Anacapa Street from Alameda Park to De La Guerra Plaza (Larry Behrendt); Calli Fonua (L) and Tallula Borman (R) were two of the young speakers (Newsmakers photo); A huge “No Ice No War No Kings” banner lay on the ground in Alameda Park before it was carried by marchers to De La Guerra Plaza (Newsmakers); Signs in the crowd (Newsmakers); List of co-sponsors of “No Kings” protest (Indivisible SB).
Jerry…THANK YOU for your coverage. SB Newsmakers is the ONLY place around here to get local happenings. Excellent.
As for the march, I salute the people who put it together - if there is strength in numbers, they succeeded - as did all the marches throughout the U.S. and the world. I like the sign in Paris that says “WE DON’T LIKE HIM, EITHER!”
I spent an hour milling around at Alameda Park unable to hear more than an occasional word from the speakers. Most people were talking to friends about their personal lives. One person said this was boring. Another said, I came here to march. Having been to the second march, I came to the third because I didn't want it to be smaller than the second. At the end of both marches, I was left feeling little different than when I arrived. I heard no message. I did not feel I was part of a movement with a call to action. Like the Democratic Party the march was good hearted people milling about with multiple goals, but no single direction in which to move. Thank goodness that the street had curb or we would have all wandered off.
If there is another march we need:
1. A PA system that reaches more than a few feet from the stage (which, by the way I could not see).
2. Speakers that could arouse and inspire the crowd. (Perhaps, like TED talks, someone could coach the speakers and then, give them a PA so that the crowd could hear them.
3. A call to action(s) (that you could hear!)