US, Europe up in arms against Trump

Hundreds of thousands march against new US president

WASHINGTON/ LONDON: Hundreds of thousands of people flooded US cities on Saturday in a day of women’s rights protests to mark President Donald Trump’s first full day in office. Tens of thousands more took to the streets of London, Paris and other cities across the world chanting ‘dump Trump’ in solidarity with US protesters.

In Washington, DC, where the largest march was held, ridership on the metro network stood at 275,000 at 11 am, almost 50% higher than the same time for Trump’s inauguration a day earlier, the WMATA transport authority said. Large crowds of women, many wearing bright pink knit hats, poured into downtown Washington by bus, train and car for what was expected to be the largest of a series of marches across the world.

According to Washington’s Deputy Mayor Kevin Donahue, organisers upped their initial turnout estimate from 200,000 to half a million people faced with the flood of protesters who were continuing to pour into the capital’s streets.



Huge sister protests were taking place in cities including Boston, New York, Denver and Chicago where police said the event was changed from a march to a rally due to the ‘large crowd on hand’.

In London, a largely female crowd, which also had many men and children, packed a Trafalgar Square rally in solidarity with women-led demonstrations throughout the US. ‘Our Rights Are Not For Grabs – Neither Are We’ were among the banners held aloft, along with ‘Make bigotry wrong again’ Organisers said 100,000 attended the London march, although there was no independent verification as police do not give an estimate.

In Paris, at least 2,000 people gathered near the Eiffel Tower, holding up banners that read ‘liberty, equality, sorority’, in a reference to France’s national motto.

In Barcelona, Rome, Amsterdam and Geneva too, protesters were enraged by Trump’s derogatory remarks on women. We must defend democratic values,” said Karen Olson, who organised the Swiss march. “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty,” read a banner held up by a Barcelona protester. “Make America sane again,” read a banner in Amsterdam.

In Budapest, up to 400 people gathered in solidarity with the Washington marchers. “Bridges not walls,” read one of their banners, a reference to Trump’s threat to build a wall separating the US from Mexico to stop migrants from entering the country.



In Berlin, hundreds rallied in front of the US embassy, chanting pro-migrant slogans in a nation that welcomed nearly a million people fleeing war and poverty in 2015. “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here,” they cried.

In Prague, protest organiser Johanna Nejedlova branded Trump’s rhetoric “hateful”. “We want to express our support for values such as democracy, human rights, ecology and women’s rights,” she said.

There were also solidarity marches beyond Europe too, with protests in Johannesburg, South Africa, where marchers held up banners reading ‘Black lives matter’ and ‘Love trumps hate’. Anti-Trump protests also took place in Australia with several thousand marching in Sydney and Melbourne. And in New Zealand, hundreds joined demonstrations in the capital Wellington as well as in Auckland.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2017.