Photos by Brittne Lunniss
Yesterday, a coalition of unions, immigrant rights groups, and other anti-Trump protestors took over the streets on Capitol Hill. The rally brought together more than 1,000 protesters at Cal Anderson Park, and then, with the assistance of car escorts and bike blockades, they marched to the federal building, stretching across blocks at a time.
And it wasn’t the only protest in the region. At the same time, 200 lawyers were ceremonially retaking their oath at the King County Superior Court, and immigrant advocates were marching on the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.
There are May Day protests in every major city every year, but this year, they drew from the same kind of energy—even on a Thursday—that the Hands Off! protests harnessed in April. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators protested across the country. This is the kind of progressive coalition building we need.
Earlier this month, Stranger columnist Kendall Turner asked social scientists if we know what makes a successful protest movement. She wrote that “we know that over the last century, almost no protest movement that has mobilized 3.5 percent of a population has failed to achieve its goals.” Hands Off! didn’t hit those numbers—the highest estimates were 1 percent of the population—and neither did yesterday’s, but gatherings like these are how we build the foundation to get to that 3.5 percent. “Few things stop a movement’s momentum as quickly as not having something to do next,” wrote Turner. “Numbers matter, yes, but so does consistency in participation in a protest movement.”
Stranger contributing photographer Brittne Lunniss captured it all, so if you weren’t able to make it, here’s a little taste of the magic. And if you can, get down to Olympia tomorrow for the All Labor March!
All the protesters aglow in their self righteousness, having no impact but enjoying a day in the sun at least.
@1: No, they really do have impact over time and with more frequency political decisions are made because of them and there have been several reversals on firings by the Trump admin so far. Your own self righteousness is misplaced.
@1, @2: One thousand anti-Trump protestors in a Left Coast city is not news. Fifty thousand, one hundred thousand, now you might be getting towards news. But the Stranger always prefers performative protests to any useful action, even when there are literal lives at stake, https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2022/05/04/72555229/democrats-want-your-vote-socialists-want-your-feet-on-the-street/comments
@3 That’s because people protesting motivate other people to vote with them. The news about the Anti-Trump protests is that they all over the country, even in deep red areas, not just liberal cities. So protests are useful action.
“That’s because people protesting motivate other people to vote with them.”
Evidence for which is what, exactly?
If you hold a protest in an area that agrees with you can you really call it a protest?
Call it what you’d like though. End result is the same.
Nothing was accomplished
LOL, Seattle might be blue but there are still tens of thousands of Trump voters. You crazy socialists could only come up with one thousand protestors at Cal Anderson?
You know, I used to fear the authoritarian left, but you couldn’t put together a car wash.
The MAGA faithful had a very lovely and restorative weekend. We don’t fear you any longer.
@5 History. People who show up to protest are also the people who then volunteer to help politicians advancing their side of that debate.
@7 That was only one of several demonstrations going on that day. Also, there is no authoritarian left to speak of in America, unlike the openly Fascist Trump/MAGA movement.
As for a car wash, you have absolutely no idea of the logistics that was involved in keeping Occupy Seattle going. Many of us on the left here in Seattle have experience with large operations like HempFest or the Fremont Solstice Parade/Fair. You right wing nut jobs can’t do anything as simple as seizing a wildlife refuge and not immediately putting out a call for help because nobody even brought snack foods, much less the supplies for an extended camp-out. The only thing they could organize were their guns and ammo.
You do a great job of proving how stupid MAGAts vermin are.