Largest protest in U.S. history!

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and MICHAEL SCHREIBER J ment for women’s rights. The Women’s Marches, an. 21 laid the foundations for a powerful move­ which took place in Washington, D.C., in over 600 sis­ ter U.S. towns and cities, and around the world, were an unprecedented expression of the determination of women and men to struggle against any governmen­ tal attempts to roll back those rights.

The inauguration of the misogynist Donald Trump, whose presidential administration along with Con­ gress threatens to cut reproductive health care and other services for women, gave a strong impetus for many to join the protests.

“What we are seeing is undeniable!” affirmed the TV news. Maria Theresa Kumar of MSNBC told viewers, “I heard every language. I heard about abortion and equal rights. I heard about LGBTQ rights.” As official estimates came rolling in, people were amazed. The projections of crowd size that rally organizers had put forward only a day earlier had been exceeded in almost every case.

By evening, it became apparent that we had wit­ nessed the largest protest in U.S. history. From 3,600,000 to 4,577,00 marched and rallied in the United States on Jan. 21, according to Jeremy Press­ man, from the University of Connecticut, and Erica Chenoweth, from the University of Denver.

At the same time, over a quarter of a million people rallied in other countries—from Sweden to South Africa to Australia. Over 100,000 filled the streets around London’s Trafalgar Square. In Paris, thou­ sands rallied near the Eiffel Tower, carrying posters that read, “We have our eyes on you Mr. Trump” and “With our sisters in Washington.”

A number of cities and towns in Canada hosted women’s marches on Jan. 21, including 60,000 in To­ ronto, 15,000 in Vancouver, 10,000 in Ottawa, and 5000 in Montreal.

The official count for the march and rally in Wash­ ington, D.C., was 500,000, while some estimated that more than 600,000 had participated. Actress America Ferrera began the rally by stating, “Our dignity, our character, our rights have all been under attack, and a platform of hate and division assumed power yes­ terday. But the president is not America. ... We are America, and we are here to stay.”

Gloria Steinem told the crowd, “This is a day that will change us forever because we are together. Each of us, individually and collectively, will never be the same again.” She looked out at a sea of people on the National Mall. Thousands wore pink knitted “pussy caps,” which were seen as a retort to Trump’s crude remark about grabbing women’s genitals.

A Socialist Action reporter in Washington pointed out, “The rally was overwhelmingly made up of peo­ ple who had never been on a protest demonstration before. From the podium, they heard an incredible range of commentary from people with long experi­ ence in the Black, prison, LGBTQ, and other libera­ tion movements, and from the unions. Despite the fact that most of the solutions that were proposed did not go beyond what is acceptable to the Democratic Party, people still heard an advanced analysis from many movements. The message was that people do not intend to go back to the old racist, sexist America.”

A great many demonstrators in Washington, as in other cities, carried colorful and clever hand-lettered signs. Slogans included, “A woman’s place is in the revolution!” “Tweet women with respect!” and “Girls just want to have FUN-damental rights!” Many signs contained anti-racist slogans and expressed solidar­ ity with the Black Lives Matter movement against po­ lice killings and violence. Climate change was another issue that many marchers protested on their signs.

In New York City, the mayor’s office estimated 400,000 marchers, while Women’s March organizers said 600,000. Fifth Avenue was so clogged that people had to move at a snail’s pace, and the march contin­ ued late into the night. Los Angeles organizers put their crowd at 750,000.

A Socialist Action reporter in Chicago states, “The Chicago Sun Times says 250,000 marched, estimated from aerial photographs. Organizers cancelled the march after collaboration with the police, as its size seemed to overwhelm them.”

Seattle police estimated 130,000. About 175,000 gathered on Boston Common, where Tanisha Sulli­ van, head of the Boston NAACP, called on marchers Gretchen Marino / Socialist Action to draw courage from the women who have marched in protests in decades and centuries before. “Despair, my sisters, has no place here,” she said. “Today, my sisters, we march through our disappointment to the promise of freedom. We march through our fear in search of racial and gender equality. We march through great uncertainty in pursuit of justice for all.”

Other cities saw massive crowds fill the streets—in­ cluding 200,000 in Denver, 150,000 in San Francisco, 100,000 in Portland, Ore., 60,000 to 100,000 in Oak­ land, Calif., and 75,000 to 100,000 in Madison, Wis. In St Paul, Minn., police estimated 90,000 to 100,000— at least twice the size of any other demonstration that had ever been held in Minnesota.

The Philadelphia mayor’s office reported that over 50,000 marched there, including a raucous contin­ gent of 1000 LGBTQ persons from the national Creat­ ing Change Conference, which was meeting in the city Some 25,000 marched in San Jose, and 5000 braved a heavy snow in Boise, Idaho. About 10,000 protested in Kansas City and in Hartford, Conn., and 15,000 to 20,000 in Montpelier, Vt.

The Tucson police said that over 15,000 marched there. Phoenix saw 36,000, and Flagstaff had 1200. There were high numbers of protesters in the South, where Atlanta had 60,000, Raleigh 17,000, Houston 20,000, Louisville 5000, and Memphis 900. n (Read more on page 11: Worldwide women’s strike!)