LOS ANGELES – Thousands marched on a hot Los Angeles afternoon this Saturday, April 5, to protest the Trump administration’s attacks on workers, immigrants, queer people, DEI, women, healthcare, education, science, free speech, social programs, and to demand peace.
Los Angeles’ “Hands Off” rally, one of over 1,300 happening around the country, brought together a broad anti-MAGA coalition working to stop what the event’s website calls “the most brazen power grab in modern history” being carried out by “Trump, Musk, and their billionaire cronies” and aided by a Republican-controlled congress.
Community organizer and activist Betty Toto told People’s World that she was there because “there is an assault on all our rights. There is an assault on our social safety nets, which are already very fragile.
“We have somebody that hasn’t been given any permissions or hasn’t been voted into office basically decimating them,” Toto added, referring to Elon Musk, one of the many tech billionaires allied to the Trump administration and head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a new federal agency created in Trump’s second term.
Trump’s past couple of months in power have been, in the words of CPUSA national co-chair, Joe Sims, a “blitzkrieg — an attempt to overcome the opposition by the use of overwhelming force.” Slashing Medicaid, sabotaging Social Security, and illegally firing civil servants, Trump’s radical pursuit of austerity measures constitutes an assault on working-class families.
Maricela Guzman, a navy veteran and child of undocumented immigrants, shared that “It’s important that as a child of immigrants, I stand up for what’s happening, but not only that, as a veteran who’s utilizing the VA [US Department of Veterans Affairs] specifically, we need to make sure there are services and foundations that support, not only people like me, but my parents who are retired.”
The main themes of the downtown LA protest were quite clear: people are sick of the far right’s takeover and its disastrous consequences for the overwhelming majority of people. With chants of “Hey hey! Ho Ho! Donald Trump has got to go!” and “This is what democracy looks like,” thousands of diverse Angelenos expressed clear opposition to oligarchy and the Trump presidency.
Many homemade signs targeted billionaire Elon Musk and DOGE as the main orchestrators behind the ongoing purge of public workers and the systematic defunding of critical government services.
Bill Gallegos, of the Mexico Solidarity Project, said what brought him out to march was “both anger and fear” at “the imposition of fascism.” Gallegos also expressed the feeling that “our only response needs to be unity and organization. We have to come together… to defend and expand our democracy and create a new world.”
Though this central focus shone through, attendees had a wide variety of reasons that pushed them to attend the rally. For example, Toto noted a more personal reason, stating “I’m also here for family. I’m saying ‘hands off trans rights.’”
On January 28, just days after taking office, Trump signed an executive order that placed serious limitations on healthcare for transgender youth, prompting many hospitals across the nation to cut off care to this already underserved group.
As the ACLU reported, this harmed many families, who were abruptly left trying to find alternate options to access life-saving care for their trans children. The administration also eliminated around $125 million in grants funding LGBTQ health research, a critical and recent field that investigated topics like health disparities among sexual and gender minorities.
Clearly these attacks target some of the most vulnerable populations in the United States, which is why Toto said that “We all have to strive for everyone, and especially lifting from the bottom. We have to lift from the bottom, we have to lift from the people that are most disenfranchised, the poor people, because when you lift from the bottom, all of us rise.”
Guzman added that “one of the things we say in the military is that we have each other’s back and we don’t leave anybody behind, so it is my duty to make sure that I stand up for those voices.”
Importance of social programs
She mentioned the importance of social programs for the elderly population, and aging veterans in particular, noting that “They’re gonna need social security. They’re gonna need the health care system.”
Guzman stressed that “we’re not asking for something for free, we’re asking for what we’re paying for.” Workers in the U.S. pay taxes so that the government can provide basic social services. Meanwhile, billionaire Musk and his DOGE henchmen are allowed to unilaterally determine where to cut government spending with no democratic input from the people who actually pay for it.
Beside the social safety net, defending civil and democratic rights was another priority. Gallegos added that he is extremely concerned about the threat of ethnic cleansing and forcible repatriation targeting immigrants. “We have to draw the line, I think especially with immigrant defense,” he said, pointing out that everyone outside of the 1 percent will be placed at risk by the “military assault on Latino and Asian and Haitian communities.”
Above all, Gallegos stressed unity. “We all have to stand together, as workers, as oppressed people, as people who care about democracy and freedom,” he expressed. “A better world is possible, but only if we all get involved.”
To achieve unity, finding common ground is key. “We really have to find a way to come together on a principled basis and put aside our differences, or find a way to handle them without sectarianism,” Gallegos explained, adding how “now more than ever is a time for us to become united.”
Gallegos, along with other organizers present, hopes for this rally to be the first of a larger effort to build a broad multi-sectoral unity and create a strategy for defeating fascism. As he put it, the defeat of fascism has to be the most important issue to unify around “because it threatens everything that we care about: union rights, women’s rights, civil rights, immigrants’ rights, Medicare, Medicaid, social security. All of the things that we fought so hard for over the last several decades are at risk right now.”
Anti-war and anti-imperialist calls grabbed attention too, with a significant contingent bearing pro-Palestine, anti-genocide signs. Notably, the Communist Party USA was in attendance with signs saying “Hands Off Palestine and Yemen” and “Hands Off Cuba” among other messages.
Pro-peace signs appeared alongside a few “Hands Off NATO” slogans and messages of Ukraine war support. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization—a US-led military alliance—functions as an aggressive force, fueling global conflicts while draining resources from domestic needs. Its expansion provokes confrontation, prioritizing Pentagon profits over healthcare, education and diplomacy.
Nonetheless, the “Hands Off” rally was able to sustain a broad coalition, which speaks to its power and potential to oppose the far-right agenda and stimulate real democratic exchanges on key issues. Indivisible, a progressive mass organization, was one of the main organizers for Hands Off, and other partners included labor unions, civil rights organizations, environmental groups, women’s and reproductive rights groups, LGBTQ groups, faith organizations, peace organizations, immigrant rights groups, and many more.
In Los Angeles the rally began in Pershing Square and ended up in front of City Hall. The downtown rally was one of several happening in the wider LA County region, with crowds also gathering in Culver City, Pasadena, Los Feliz, and other locations throughout the day.
News sites report that millions of people took part in the national day of action, from all 50 states and US territories. A statement from the “Hands Off!” website asserts that the turnout “exceeded expectations” which underscores “the nationwide groundswell of opposition to Trump and Musk’s attempts to harm everyday people in America.”
The wide participation signals the growing momentum in the movement to oppose MAGA’s quest to siphon resources away from the poor into the pockets of the rich and strip away civil rights.
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