BALTIMORE—Promptly at 10 a.m., Sat. April 5, the driver closed the door of the big 56 passenger bus and we rolled out of the Christ the Redeemer parking lot in north Baltimore. We were aboard one of three buses headed for the “Hands Off” demonstration at the foot of the Washington Monument in the nation’s capital.
We took the Beltway, exiting at Woodlawn to pick up more protesters to fill the ten empty seats at the back of the bus. I looked out the window. We were passing the national headquarters of the Social Security Administration (SSA) in Woodlawn.
A crowd of about 1,000 people were packed around the SSA building holding signs like, “HANDS OFF MY SOCIAL SECURITY” and “MY SSA JOB SAVES LIVES.”
“My God! What a story!” I exclaimed. “I should get off this bus and cover it!” But the bus rolled on to pick people up a mile down the road.
Sitting in the seat across the aisle as we headed down I-90, was Mandy of Catonsville, a scientist employed by a non-profit working to clean up the Patapsco River. She works with a team of volunteers drawing samples of water from various points along the stream that flows down into Chesapeake Bay.
She takes the samples back to the lab and tests them for bacteria, chemicals, and other impurities. The main contaminant, she said, is rock salt and E.Coli, elevated especially during rainstorms, both dangerous to human and animal life. All this research is at risk in the relentless attack on science and scientists by Donald Trump and his billionaire crony, Elon Musk.
My daughter and I were with a dozen members of the Maryland Communist Party who integrated the otherwise mostly white crowd in our three buses.
We arrived at our destination, 14th & Independence Ave. NE, parking right across the street from the Federal Mint where pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, half dollars, and silver dollars used to be stamped. The value of all these coins is now plunging thanks to Donald Trump’s tariff war with China and the rest of the world.
Musk is truly distressed because Tesla has lost billions in profits from Trump’s war with the rest of world. In two days, SIX TRILLION DOLLARS in stocks and bonds vanished in the U.S, economy and the nation is headed toward another Great Depression thanks to Trump’s stupidity.
Already, the mall surrounding the base of the Washington Monument was packed so dense with protesters there was no way we could wade into the crowd. Yet who do I run into, holding his note pad and pen, ready to interview someone or jot down an angry blast from one of the rally speakers?
Mark Gruenberg, Washington Bureau Chief of People’s World who took my place covering Washington a decade or so in the distant past. We embraced and posed for pictures.
And the public address system was so feeble we could not hear the speeches, only the roaring cheers as one speaker after another reamed Trump, Musk, and the MAGAs on Capitol Hill for their fascist attack on all the freedoms and benefits we have won in two centuries.
The message was clear: Hands off the Bill of Rights! Hands off our Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security! Hands off science, teachers, libraries, education! Hands off our unions! Hands off immigrants, women, people of color! Gaza and the Palestinian people!
I saw many wearing union T-shirts. Three women were holding signs that proclaimed “HANDS OFF THE UAW!” (United Auto Workers).
My daughter, Susan, and I walked around the entire outer perimeter of the demonstration. A crowd had gathered around a man dressed as a clown with a giant tuba over his shoulder.
“Let me take a picture,” I said to him. “Play something so your cheeks are puffed out.” To my amazement, he started playing “Solidarity Forever.” I began singing the song loudly, “When the union’s inspiration through the workers’ blood shall run, there can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun.”
The crowd erupted in applause. That was the spirit of April 5: “Solidarity forever!”
I saw many people wearing kafiyahs, holding signs in solidarity with the people of Palestine. And later that same day, many thousands joined a second demonstration on Capitol Hill in solidarity with Palestine.
One message we did hear: The estimate of the crowd size in Washington D.C. was well over 100,000. The estimated turnout nationwide, 2,300,000.
My brother Steve phoned me on my cell as we headed back to Baltimore, his voice trembling with excitement. “Tim,” he exclaimed. “Guess how many people turned out for the ‘Hands Off’ rally in Sequim: 1,200!”
I was stunned. At our highest, we get about 500 at our largest protests in Port Angeles, Sequim, and Port Townsend in Washington State. And here was a rally in Sequim, population 8,203, well over TWICE larger.
And other Hands-Off rallies were held in Port Angeles and Port Townsend the same day, also of record size.
I checked the news on my cell: A demonstration of thousands in Atlanta, same in Dallas. In Florida, there were “Hands Off” demonstrations in 45 towns and cities.
I can hardly wait to get home! I am one of four “Honored Pioneers” in the 130th Sequim Irrigation Festival Parade on May 11—and I expect a record turnout for that festival too.
THE PEOPLE ARE ON A ROLL! DEFENDING DEMOCRACY AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS! NEXT TIME EVEN BIGGER! MORE BLACK. BROWN, AND WHITE UNITED! CONTINGENTS OF UNIONS MARCHING UNDER THEIR OWN BANNERS!
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