Providence joins 70+ cities across the United States protesting Trump’s "Billionaire Agenda" on Inauguration Day

"While Trump’s billionaire agenda includes putting more Black and brown people in prison, we are here today to say NO."

This report combines a press release with on-site reporting.

Seventy-three major cities representing over 70 U.S. states mobilized to oppose Trump’s ultra-right, billionaire agenda in a nationwide day of action titled “We Fight Back!” These cities include Washington DC, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, Charlotte, Montgomery, Chicago, Houston, and New Orleans, among dozens of other locations.

In Providence, despite the bitter cold, the protest began at Providence’s Classical High School with a speaking program before marching through South Providence and ending on the steps of Knight Memorial Library for two more speakers.

Here’s the video of the first speaking program and the beginning of the march:

“I stand with our freedom fighters like Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier, and Imam Jalil Muntaqim who are serving decades in prison for saying NO to poverty,” said Trent Manning, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). “Saying NO to police brutality and saying NO to systematic racism. And I stand with the 800 imprisoned firefighters in LA fighting wildfires caused by a capitalist economic system that prioritizes lining the pockets of corporations instead of meeting society’s basic needs. While Trump’s billionaire agenda includes putting more Black and brown people in prison, we are here today to say NO. Instead, we demand healthcare, funding for our schools, an end to the U.S. war machine, and an end to billionaire rule in this country.”

Trent Manning

Around 300 Rhode Island residents joined Manning. The rally and march drew people from communities across Rhode Island to unite across different issues that Rhode Islanders care about: immigrant rights, racial justice, women’s rights, workers’ rights, LBGTQ+ rights, and environmental justice. Rhode Islanders also called for an end to foreign wars and the end of U.S. arming and backing of Israel.

Advocates organized the “We Fight Back” day of protest less than one week after Donald Trump won the November election. The initiating organizations issued the following statement:

“Trump ran a con game during the election. His real agenda is to destroy worker’s rights, deport millions of immigrant families, and pave the way for a complete corporate capitalist takeover by ending regulations to protect the environment, firing thousands of public sector workers, and transferring ever-larger parts of the National Treasury to the military-industrial complex. He is 100% behind Netanyahu’s genocidal war against the Palestinian and Arab people. The Trump victory in the 2024 election represents the complete failure of the Democratic Party to stop the rise of the ultra-right. In fact, they have contributed to it by adopting much of the program of the extreme right while embracing endless war. Instead of responding to the needs of the people, both the Democrats and the Republicans have moved further and further to the right. Trump’s agenda is the culmination of this right-ward spiral, and his administration will move to make major gains for the billionaire class at the expense of the millions of everyday people in the U.S. and across the world.

“But we can defeat the Trump program. Not by following the Democratic Party establishment but by building a massive movement against the ruling class and the political system that gives everything to billionaires while impoverishing an ever-larger section of the population.”

“We have nothing to lose but our chains…”