The crowd quickly grew Saturday morning as protestors gathered around the Parkman Bandstand in Boston Common for a “Hands Off!” rally and march. Organizers said they expected 25,000 people to attend.
The Boston event was one of more than 1,200 “Hands Off!” demonstrations planned nationwide in opposition to President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, and the administration’s actions on government downsizing, the economy, human rights and other issues.
“We are here to protect our immigrant neighbors, to protect transgender family kin, and to really say we believe in true democracy,” said Claire Carl Miller, who helped organize Boston’s protest as part of the Unitarian Universalist Mass Action Network.
“It’s incredibly important to send a message to everyone across this nation that we can come together, united, and be inspired, hold joy for a vision of true democracy,” Miller added.
Participants’ motivations to come out Saturday were wide-ranging.
Patricia Cooney drove down from Andover with a sign that read, “hands off our social security.” She told GBH News she is worried how the administration’s actions are going to impact her family.
“I have a disabled daughter who’s on Supplemental Security Income, and my husband and I are grandparents raising a grandson and he’s on MassHealth,” she shared. “My husband and I both still work, and we’ve created the structures necessary to support the situation in our family and this is very impactful for us.”
Protester Kate Merritt O’Toole said she was fortunate to retire after working for 40 years as an operating room nurse in Boston hospitals, including 12 years at a VA hospital. Now she is concerned about what her retirement will look like, and whether the people she used to care for will have enough support.
“Social Security is a concern,” she said, then adding to her list, “Medicare, reimbursement for research, care for our veterans, shutting back on programs for our veterans who are vulnerable and have mental health issues.”
The protest began at 11 a.m. with Massachusetts AFL-CIO president Chrissy Lynch speaking to demonstrators at the Parkman Bandstand.
A sea of protest signs seemed endless as protesters then marched out of the Common, down Tremont Street and into Boston City Hall Plaza.
Outside City Hall, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey joined Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and other political figures and activists in giving remarks to the crowd. The protest also included a performance from the Dropkick Murphys.
Corey Sung, holding a Federal Unionists Network banner, marched alongside a coalition of federal workers. He works at Boston’s State Department passport office.
“For us, individual agencies are under attack all across the country,” he said. “Recently, we lost our collective bargaining rights. And this affected both our office here and over a million federal workers all across the country, so it’s time for us to start taking a stand against what’s happening against our services that we provide our communities.”
Maya Debettencourt, a college student studying in South Carolina, came with her mother.
“I’m really inspired by the amount of people who are out here today. Lots of really good signs. And I think it’s especially a good demonstration of what democracy really is,” Debettencourt said.
Janice Maloof, of Marshfield, said she is in a same-sex marriage, and they are teaching their two children to be accepting and inclusive.
“If everybody’s kind, I don’t think we would have a lot of these problems,” she said.
