EUREKA, Calif.—Car and truck horns blared in support of some 3,000 protestors in downtown Eureka (population 27,000) speaking out against the Trump agenda on April 5, joining a nationwide anti-MAGA movement on that date.
The demonstrators carried signs, mostly homemade, expressing concern over a variety of issues targeted by the Trump regime, including
- racism in all its forms,
- the attacks on immigrants,
- women’s and LGBTQ+ rights,
- the assault on public education,
- Civil liberties and the danger of fascism,
- mass layoffs of Federal employees providing vital public services
- threats to national parks and other public lands,
- the danger to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid
- Freedom for Palestine
In view of the Trump regime’s many targets, some protestors bore signs with a message pithily expressed as: “So much wrong—so little cardboard!”
Many signs showed awareness of the class roots of MAGA—not in ordinary working people, as MAGA apologists like to claim, but in the wealthy. A sign saying “The only minority destroying this country are the billionaires” expressed a common sentiment. Other signs raising class issues included several saying “People over profits” and “Hands off collective bargaining.”
Despite the seriousness of MAGA’s multifaceted threats, the prevailing attitude was not grim but jubilant. Local rabbi Bob Rottenberg commented that it felt “like a celebration rather than a demonstration, a celebration of people realizing, ‘Wow, we really have this power.'”
As to the future of the movement, he recommended that people should be “constantly showing up the way that the pro-Palestine people do, showing Trump that he can’t just go off and play golf as if we the people don’t matter.”
In keeping with the celebratory tone of much of the event, many signs showed noticeable wit:
- “Stop the steal! Save Social Security!”
- “Hands off penguins” (referring to tariffs levied against an uninhabited island)
- “Only you can prevent fascism” (with a picture of Smokey the Bear)
- “Get out of your Foxhole” (referring to the right-wing propaganda outfit Fox News)
- “Let Earth live! Send Musk to Mars!”
- “Honk if you never drunk-texted war plans”
- “Think while it’s still legal”
- “Be a mensch! Support Palestine!”
Two local organizations took the initiative to begin organizing the demonstration: the Eureka branch of Food Not Bombs and Humboldt Democracy Connection. (Eureka is the county seat of Humboldt County.)
Rory C, a Food Not Bombs activist who helped organize the event, was happy with the turnout: “There was a lot of unity of people getting out there and fighting for what they’re losing.”
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