Unions join pro-democracy advocates for No Kings rally
By Sheri Williams
Union members and labor allies joined more than 7,000 pro-democracy protesters at the Capitol in October for a No Kings rally meant to push back against the consolidation of presidential power under the second term of Donald Trump.
The event was one of more than 2,600 No Kings rallies across the United States, which drew about seven million people, and which were larger than similar rallies in June.
“I’m back not to give you a pep talk, because this moment doesn’t need fans of democracy. It needs defenders of it,” said Sacramento Central Labor Council executive director Fabrizio Sasso, speaking to the crowd from the steps of the Capitol. “And let’s be honest with each other. Too many of us came to the last rally and we shouted our slogans, and we posted the pictures, and we either went to brunch afterwards, or we went home. Meanwhile, the billionaires and the right-wing extremists, they didn’t take a break. They kept organizing, they kept funding lives. They kept tightening the grip on our communities by sending troops into our cities and ICE on immigration raids, and they’re pushing federal workers to their breaking point through this government shutdown, they are attacking our freedom and our future.”
Sasso encouraged the crowd to join the fight to pass Proposition 50, the Nov. 4 ballot measure that would help counteract an effort to gerrymander more Congressional seats for Republicans that would ensure Congress remain complicit with Trump’s agenda.
“Do you want to fight fascism? Do you want to save democracy?” Sasso said. “Well, then we need to prove it … Because democracy doesn’t die when a dictator takes power, it dies when ordinary people don’t fight back.”
Sasso called Prop. 50 “our test,” and encouraged those in attendance to campaign for it.
“It’s a chance to put working people back in power, not the oligarchs and the pedophiles, but working people,” he said. “It’s about protecting Americans from being priced out and pushed out and sold out. It’s a line in the sand, and if we don’t fight for it, no one will.”
The No Kings rallies were organized by Indivisible, a nationwide pro-democracy group.
“We reject the notion that we are helpless in the face of what we see as an authoritarian consolidation,” Ellen Chapman, an organizer with the Sacramento branch of the organization, told media.
Despite many Republicans calling the demonstrations “hate America rallies” and warning of violence, there were no arrests at the Sacramento event, and few instances of problems anywhere in the country. The rallies remained peaceful.