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RESISTANCE - It was supposed to be a show of resistance with a thousand attendees.
Instead, on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon that will be etched in the memories of many, East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD) drew more than 4,000 to a joyous, peaceful, music-filled outdoor rally organized by the club in just over 10 days’ time in Glendale. The enormous crowd and impassioned speakers sent a powerful two-word message to Elon Musk and Pres. Donald Trump about Social Security, public education, Americans’ healthcare, and human rights: Hands Off!
Hundreds of rally-goers overflowed the large plaza at 225 W. Broadway, outside the Glendale office of Social Security, and thronged public sidewalks on both sides of Broadway. Creative, homemade signs expressed righteous outrage and mockery of the right-wing billionaires over their attacks on public servants, workers, women, immigrants, and the environment.
“This is what democracy looks like!” participants were heard shouting as dozens of cars honked with raucous approval in passing. In private conversation, one attendee, a senior who said she is now receiving the Social Security benefits she earned throughout her career, picked up on that theme. “Isn’t democracy beautiful?” she asked with a smile. “Kinda seems like we should keep it,” she added, smiling at her own understatement.
The Hands Off! rally, organized by EAPD, was part of a wave of more than 1,200 similar events coast to coast that convened a total of more than 5 million participants. They came as tariffs inflicted by President Trump sent the U.S. stock market into a tailspin, falling 4,000 points in two days of trading through Friday’s final bell.
The tidal wave of powerful, peaceful anti-Trump protests on the same day — in every state of the union, D.C., Canada, and several other nations — signaled a more assertive, boisterous chapter of resistance.
The Glendale rally also signified a shift in the once conservative-leaning bastion that has grown steadily bluer over the past decade. Glendale’s state Senator, Sasha Renee Perez, wowed the crowd with heartfelt remarks about the power of protest to fight back against the cruel, dehumanizing rhetoric by Trump and Musk. So did Assemblymember Jessica Caloza, moving many rally-goers with her story of reliance on public schools and other lifelines now in the Trump-Musk crosshairs as well as her humble testimony of resilience, as a childhood immigrant to Eagle Rock now representing that neighborhood and south Glendale in the state legislature.
Several Glendale rally-goers carried rainbow flags and sported pithy t-shirts, such as “86 47” urging voters once again to rise up peacefully and evict the current President from the White House, as Americans did in 2020.
Glendale’s City Clerk, Dr. Suzie Abajian, brought her 5-year-old daughter with her to the microphone. “We are proud of our city, in standing up against cruelty and corruption to declare ‘Hands Off!’” said Abajian. “Diversity and empathy, good training, teamwork, and service to others: These are what makes us strong, not breaking the rules, not taking away benefits, not bullying.” On a day when turnout quadrupled the expected attendance, thousands of people were living proof of the truth of her pronouncement.
(Hans Johnson is a longtime leader for LGBTQ+ human rights, environmental justice, and public education. His columns appear in national news outlets including USA Today and in top daily news outlets of more than 20 states. A resident of Eagle Rock, he is also president of East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), the largest grassroots Democratic club in California, with more than 1,100 members.)
