Stars unleash, millions march worldwide to protest President Trump
STARS shunned Donald Trump’s inauguration, but turned out in droves as millions joined the Women’s March worldwide.
WEARING pink, pointy-eared “pussyhats” to mock the new president, hundreds of thousands of women took to the streets in Washington and cities around the world Saturday to send Donald Trump an emphatic message that they won’t let his agenda go unchallenged over the next four years.
Among the overwhelming crowds and leading the chants in the nation’s capital were celebrities including Madonna, Cher, Scarlett Johansson, Alicia Keys and America Ferrera.
Actress Ashley Judd didn’t hold back, directly referencing President Trump’s infamous ‘pussy grabbing’ comments. They “ain’t for grabbing,” she said.
“They are for birthing new generations of filthy, vulgar, nasty, proud, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh — you name it. For new generations of nasty women.”
Calling on the already screaming crowd, she finished, “So, if you a nasty woman or you love one who is, let me hear you say, hell yeah!”
Feminist icon Gloria Steinem had a message for the marchers: “Make sure you introduce yourselves to each other and decide what we’re going to do tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow. And we’re never turning back!”
Among protesters, the anger towards America’s new president was remarkable. Most were brandishing handmade signs taking aim at anything from his policies, his Cabinet, tweets that have gotten him into trouble, memorable moments from his presidential campaign, even his physical appearance.
Worldwide, the protests spiralled into millions. The photos that have emerged throughout the weekend from marches across the globe are nothing short of extraordinary.
In Washington, metro stations were jam-packed with people from the early hours of the morning, with many holding handmade signs and donning their pink beanies. Others headed downtown on foot, buses, bicycles, caravans and other forms of public transport, with many having travelled through the night to be involved.
The turnout in the capital was so big — with some estimating about 500,000 people turned out, double the original estimate — that crowds packed the entire march route, preventing organisers from leading a formal trek toward the White House.
“The crowd stretches so far that there’s no room left to march,” Interim DC Police Chief Peter Newsham said about Independence Avenue.
Instead, march organisers directed the crowd to take a new route to meet up at the Ellipse, a grassy area near the White House.
President Trump even got a first-hand look at the protest. As pink-clad demonstrators rallied alongside the National Mall, his motorcade wound through downtown Washington, passing large groups of screaming and chanting marchers that would have been impossible to miss.
“We march today for the moral core of this nation, against which our new president is waging a war,” actress America Ferrera told the Washington crowd.
“Our dignity, our character, our rights have all been under attack, and a platform of hate and division assumed power yesterday. But the president is not America. ... We are America, and we are here to stay.”
Pop diva Madonna made an unannounced stage appearance in Washington.
“Welcome to the revolution of love, to the rebellion. To our refusal as women to accept this new age of tyranny,” she said as she took the stage, wrapping up hours of speeches by celebrities and rights activists.
“It took this horrific moment of darkness to wake us the f*** up.
“Let’s march together through this darkness and with each step know that we are not afraid, that we are not alone, that we will not back down.”
To their detractors, she had just two words: “f*** you”.
In Utah, Charlize Theron made an appearance alongside Chelsea Handler and Jennifer Beals.
In New York, actors Helen Mirren and Cynthia Nixon and Whoopi Goldberg joined a crowd of protesters marching towards Trump Tower.
With record-breaking numbers, the remarkable protest in the nation’s capital has officially made its mark on history, taking its place among past marches that led to movements.
By comparison, 200,000 people attended the March on Washington in 1963. In 1967, a march on the Pentagon protesting Vietnam drew a crowd of 100,000.
Saturday’s movement didn’t yield a single arrest, according to the District of Columbia’s homeland security director, Christopher Geldart.
It's OFFICIAL #WomensMarchOnWashington is biggest inaugural protest in HISTORY. Sorry Mr. Trump, THIS is what a populist movement looks like pic.twitter.com/mREzlQnUAy
— Randi Mayem Singer (@rmayemsinger) January 21, 2017
Comparing President Donald Trump's inauguration crowd to the #WomensMarch https://t.co/KUCxASjgSt pic.twitter.com/xt3mFxEEsS
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 21, 2017
This is what 200,000 protesters in pink looks like. #WomensMarch @newscomauHQ pic.twitter.com/cCZbmCbaPM
— Charlotte Willis (@lottiewillis) January 21, 2017
Scarlett Johansson delivers a message to President Trump at the #WomensMarch: "I ask you to support all women" https://t.co/ksbr2MuWsd pic.twitter.com/F6ZMZOUumu
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 21, 2017
Emma Watson asks for barricade to be removed so she can greet marchers. This is something you don't see every day. #WomensMarchOnWashington pic.twitter.com/Fq41r1KEOI
— Julian Routh (@julianrouth) January 21, 2017
In a global exclamation of defiance and solidarity, more than one million people rallied in Washington and in more than 600 “sister marches” in cities around the world, with the biggest in Boston, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. In LA, crowd estimates range from 500,000 to up to 750,000.
Australia was the scene of the first major march, with an estimated 10,000 walking from Sydney’s Hyde Park to Martin Place on Saturday.
In New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, organisers said about 700 marchers joined forces.
This @womensmarchsyd crowd is huge, there is no end in sight, and I've been here for 15 minutes pic.twitter.com/iX7y3Ab7aS
— Charis Chang (@CharisChang2) January 21, 2017
In Chicago, organisers cancelled the march portion of their event for safety reasons after the overflow crowd reached an estimated 150,000.
The women brandished signs with slogans such as “Women won’t back down” and “Less fear more love” and decried President Trump’s stand on such issues as abortion, health care, gay rights, diversity and climate change.
Their message reverberated at demonstrations in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Paris, Berlin, London, Prague, and beyond.
Boston professor Garland Waller, 66, part of the Washington mobilisation, said she was “devastated” after the election and had to take action. “I don’t know what to do to make a difference anymore, and this feels like a first step,” she said.
Retired teacher Linda Lastella, 69, who came to Washington from Metuchen, New Jersey, said she had never marched before but felt the need to speak out when “many nations are experiencing this same kind of pullback and hateful, hateful attitudes.” “It just seemed like we needed to make a very firm stand of where we were,” she said.
Marlita Gogan, who came to Washington from Houston for the inauguration, said police advised her family not to wear their “Make America Great Again Hats” as they walked through crowds of protesters while playing tourist on Saturday.
“I think it’s very oppressive,” she said of the march atmosphere. “They can have their day, but I don’t get it.”
71-year-old Allan Parachini, who travelled from Hawaii to the Washington march, called it “the most impressive crowd I’ve seen since Woodstock.”
On the streets, feminist leader Gloria Steinem described the worldwide mobilisation as “the upside of the downside: This is an outpouring of energy and democracy like I have never seen in my very long life.”
“Sometimes we must put our bodies where our beliefs are,” she told the crowd, labelling Trump an “impossible president.”
Hillary Clinton took to Twitter to thank the participants for “standing, speaking and marching for our values.”
Thanks for standing, speaking & marching for our values @womensmarch. Important as ever. I truly believe we're always Stronger Together.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 21, 2017
The marches displayed a level of enthusiasm that Ms Clinton herself was largely unable to generate during her campaign against Trump, when she won the popular vote but he outdistanced her in the electoral vote.
At rallies around the globe, the hand-knit “pussyhats” became a message of female empowerment aimed squarely at Mr Trump’s crude boast about grabbing women’s genitalia.
They “ain’t for grabbing,” actress Ashley Judd reminded the Washington crowd, amid roars.
Many women in attendance also wore the now-famous T-shirts with hearts embracing Mr Trump’s phrase about Ms Clinton: “Nasty Woman.”
Dozens of older women held signs that read, “I can’t believe I still have to protest this sh*t.”
The rallies were a peaceful counterpoint to the window-smashing unrest that unfolded on Friday when self-described anarchists tried to disrupt the inauguration. Police used pepper spray and stun grenades against demonstrators. More than 200 people were arrested.
— Associated Press Writers Alanna Durkin Richer, Brian Witte, Matthew Barakat, and David Dishneau in Washington contributed to this report.
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