New York: When a furious city marched against new president
ON WEDNESDAY, ALL OF US – BLACKS, WHITES, LATINOS, ASIANS, AMERICANS AND IMMIGRANTS– PICKETED TRUMP TOWER ON FIFTH AVENUE IN MANHATTAN
“Not my President.”“Not my President.”“Not my President.”
It had been 18 hours since Donald Trump was elected the next US president. And thousands of New Yorkers are outraged. On Wednesday, all of us – blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians, Americans and immigrants, queers and feminists – picketed Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
There were people everywhere, for as far as you could see down the street. Unified chants of “F*ck Trump”; “F*ck you, Donald”, “Love trumps hate,” and “Donald Trump, go away, racist, sexist, anti-gay” filled the air. But this was more than an anti-Trump protest: it was a display of New York City’s cultural diversity. There were screams of “Black lives matter,” the movement against systemic violence towards African-Americans and “Break the wall,” challenging Trump’s plan to building a wall to keep Mexicans out of America.
There were shouts of “P*ssy grabs back,” alluding to a recently leaked 2005 tape of Trump he can grab women by their genitals. There were chants of “Muslims are not terrorists” and “Refugees, welcome”. And most importantly, they challenged the slogan of Trump’s campaign, “Make America Great Again” by casually screaming, “America was never great”.
Until a few hours ago, this crowd had been in mourning.
A few minutes after 5pm, a few hundred people gathered at Union Square, a historic landmark for demonstrations. It began with dissonance: someone blamed Hillary Clinton, someone eulogized Bernie Sanders. There were lots of tears.
The crowd swelled by the hour. There were speeches – about the failure of the system, the failure of the Democratic party and the absence of the Left in American politics. People poured in and the police was everywhere. It was raining. The idea that we should all march through midtown Manhattan – all the way to Trump Tower – for some three-odd kilometres sounded ludicrous. The cops wanted us all on the sidewalks. But we took to the streets. “Whose streets?” “Our streets.”
For 90 minutes, thousands of us walked, skipped, hopped and even ran along the way. Human chains stopped the traffic to let us pass. Buses, cabs and cars honked to the tune of the slogans. People stuck in the traffic emerged from the sun roofs of their cars to join the cheering, others flashed the peace sign, most took pictures. There were no snarly comments about the blocked roads. Instead, there was support from the sidewalks and the stores. Tourists and New Yorkers joined the sloganeering.
The signs ranged from “End Rape Culture” to “America Needs a Hug”. Some people waved rainbow flags (showing support from the queer community), some carried bunches of flowers (a symbol of anti-Vietnam War protest in the 1970s). In case they hadn’t made it clear already, they spelled out their message to Donald Trump, a New York native: New York Hates You, they said, over and over again.