San Jose, CA: Thousands protest Trump’s reactionary agenda
San Jose, CA – On April 19. thousands of people mobilized to attend the protest organized by 50501 San Jose at St. James Park to stand up against Trump, Musk and their racist and reactionary agenda.
Chants included, “No Trump, no KKK, no racist USA,” “When immigrants are under attack what do we do? Stand up, fight back,” “Free Palestine,” and more.
Many signs advocated for a variety of causes: “No ICE in San Jose, solidarity with immigrants,” “Women’s rights are human rights,” “Hands off education,” “Divest from genocide,” “Fight the oligarchs, dump Trump” and more.
The program began with Sebastian Salinas of Silicon Valley Immigration Committee, who stated, “We’ve witnessed a vicious escalation of ICE raids and deportations.”
Salinas continued, “We need to organize within our Chicano and immigrant communities to fight back against Trump’s agenda, and only by organizing can we build the movement against Trump!”
Megan Sweet, member of Students for a Democratic Society, said, “The student movement has seen increased levels of repression, starting with our most vulnerable community members, international students and undocumented students.”
Sweet continued, “The only way we can change the fabric of our country, our very reality, is through action – through struggle! When we struggle against our broken system and the real harm it causes to real people, we begin to open the doors to other possible futures.”
Philip Nguyen of San Jose Against War called upon the crowd to take action, saying, “The time is now to unite and fight back to demand that public funds be reinvested. We have that power! We have the power to divest public funds from war profiteers!”
Nguyen continued, “The people should demand that money should be used to fund the people here in the U.S. to fund housing, education, healthcare, infrastructure and not genocide or war overseas.”
Drusie Kazanova spoke on behalf of the San Jose May Day Coalition to inform the crowd about the upcoming May Day march. She said that the coalition “aims to unite all who can be united against Trump and his vile agenda by calling for a day without immigrants! We will take to the streets to fight for immigrant and workers’ rights!”
After the official program, there was an open mic program where community members and other organizations could speak. John Duroyan of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, another partner organization in the May Day Coalition, spoke during the open mic, saying, “The solution to this system is not complacency, or silence, it is one solution. Revolution!”
This year's May Day protest will begin at the corner of Story and King in East San Jose on Thursday, May 1 at 2:30 p.m.