San José: 600 march against Trump's agenda

San José, CA – On MLK Day, upwards of 600 San José residents came out to protest Trump’s inauguration and fight back against his anti-immigrant agenda.

The protest mobilized a broad array of progressive organizations in the South Bay, all united against Trump. The Silicon Valley Immigration Committee and Papeles Para Todos coordinated the rally and march.

The rally began at 4 p.m. at the intersection of Stevens Creek and Winchester Boulevard, a commercial center where many gather to shop. Before the protest started, a mass of people had already gathered on the sidewalks with Mexican flags, pickets featuring the Virgin Mary, and Huelga flags. Together the crowd chanted, “¡El Pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!” meaning “The people united, will never be defeated!”

Sebastian Salinas, a community organizer with the Silicon Valley Immigration Committee, kicked off the protest with a series of chants shoulder to shoulder with SEIU 2015 union members. Together they chanted, “Who’s got the power? We got the power! What kind of power? Union power!”, alternating the final phrase with chants of “people power” as well.

The program began with the Raging Grannies Action League’s anti-Trump song reaffirming civil rights in the United States. Shortly after, José Rubén from the Comité de Solidaridad con la Lucha de los Inmigrantes Detenidos shared his experience of participating in a labor and hunger strike while being detained in a for-profit prison.

“On the 18th day of the hunger strike, we had a visit from ICE and GEO dressed in military gear, in riot gear, with deadly weapons,” Rubén recalled. Rubén asked to speak to his lawyers, but ICE officials responded by dragging Rubén and throwing him on to the ground. In 2023, Rubén gained his freedom. “It was possible because of the support of the community that I was able to be liberated,” he stated.

The program included moments that reflected on what MLK Day is about and Martin Luther King Jr.’s radical legacy. Allie Yixuan from San José Against War spoke about MLK Jr.’s opposition to the Vietnam War. Yixuan stated, “It is clear that if Dr. King were around today, he would agree that spending enormous amounts of our tax dollars on military aid to bomb civilians and children in occupied Palestine is unacceptable!”

A community organizer with Papeles Para Todos, Verónica Avendano Ibáñez, soon followed, stating, “I have spent 25 years here and have spent more than a decade organizing my community here.” Ibáñez continued, “I learned that it is important that our community is united and that we fight for our solidarity to achieve our goals,” adding, “Everyone has a right to visit their countries of origin and return to their home in the United States of America, because we have grown roots in this community.”

Uriel Magdaleno of the Silicon Valley Immigration stated, “As President Trump is sworn in, many sanctuary cities are wavering on their support for their immigrant communities and pledge to work with ICE, which is why it is important for San José to reaffirm as a sanctuary city, and it will not cooperate with ICE.”

Magdaleno closed by reading an excerpt of the Legalization for All Network’s statement, “It is through the peoples’ struggle and the peoples’ movements that we will resist Trump and the racist institutions that he will try to use to attack us. Our rights and our place in these lands were not given to us, but won through protracted and sharp struggle. Whether we were born here or if we came here as immigrants, we have every right to exist here.”

After the speeches, Sebastian Salinas prepared the crowd to march into the streets. The attendees followed, with SEIU union members leading with their banner and chants. As the march started, cars passing by honked in support. The crowd chanted, “Whose streets? Our streets!” After a block, the march headed directly into the center of Santana Row, one of San José’s busiest shopping centers. The crowd continued to chant, “What do we want? Justice! How are we gonna get it? People power! If we don’t get it? Shut it down!”

The march included a number of different contingents including a Filipino contingent made up of Malaya South Bay, PAWIS South Bay and the League of Filipino Students at San José State University.

After the march, Misrayn Mendoza with Amigos de Guadalupe continued the program, stating, “As you have seen during the last couple of weeks, months and years, we have been under attack by the presidency administration that will be entering today.” Mendoza continued, “Beyond the fear that they want us to feel, there’s an unbreakable resiliency, courage and valor to continue in community with one another without fear we’ll walk together and change the fear for love and justice.”

Tarentz Charite, of the San José State University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, told the crowd, “Dare to struggle, dare to win!” Charite described their experience as a student activist on campus “constantly in battle of reactionary ideology on campus.” They condemned the university’s tolerance of the reactionary group Turning Point USA on campus.

After Charite, Héctor Rincón from La Voz de los Trabajadores began by saying, “Long live the working class struggle, long live the women’s rights struggle, long live the trans rights struggle and long live the struggle of all oppressed peoples!”

John Duroyan from the San José district of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization ended the program, saying, “Today marks a moment of vital importance, for many reasons. Firstly, on this day, we honor the memory of a titan, and a hero in this nation’s long legacy of activism.” Duroyan continued, “What better representation of those evils exists than the wretched reactionary Donald Trump, and his gang of bigots and greedy businessmen! Today, Trump was sworn in, an insult to the legacy of Dr. King! Let every organization here, no matter their personal mission, stand united in declaring that the far right’s hatred and greed is not welcome here! And that so long as we have anything to say about it, Trump’s administration will not lay so much as a hand on the people without us fighting back with all our rage and fury!”

#SanJoseCA #CA #ImmigrantRights #Labor #WomensMovement #Trump #FRSO #SEIU #SVIC

Source: https://fightbacknews.org/san-jose-600-march-against-trumps-agenda?pk_campaign=rss-feed