Thousands take to the streets of Providence to protest the Trump/Musk Administration

"Thousands mobilized today because we stand united against Rhode Island being bought, sold, and gutted just so billionaires can get a few more tax breaks."

Today’s Hands-Off Rally in Providence may have been the largest in Rhode Island history, possibly eclipsing the June 6, 2020, Black Lives Matter protest when an estimated 10,000+ people marched to the State House to protest police violence. The rally was organized by Indivisible Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Working Families Party, The Womxn Project, the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, SEIU 1199, Reclaim Rhode Island, the Village Vanguard, Climate Action Rhode Island, and others.

There were a thousand sister rallies held in cities across the United States and around the world.

“We’re marching to show that working people refuse to remain silent while Trump, Musk, and their billionaire buddies in DC siphon money and power from us,” said Rhode Island Working Families Party Political Director Zack Mezera, explaining the rally’s motivation. “They’re dismantling the economy, corrupting democracy, and rewriting all the rules to make themselves richer while working people shoulder the burden. They’re rapidly stripping America for parts, and Congress is joining in by trying to slash Medicaid, Social Security, cancer research funding, Head Start, veterans’ programs, and more. Thousands mobilized today because we stand united against Rhode Island being bought, sold, and gutted just so billionaires can get a few more tax breaks.

“This moment demands that our state leaders declare whose side they’re on. RI Working Families Party took a lead role in today’s ‘Hands Off!’ mobilizations because we expect our leadership to fight these cuts. We need action—not just words—to protect Medicaid, schools, hospitals, roads, and RIPTA. And the best way to do that is to finally have the highest earners in our state pay their fair share to invest in our state’s success.

“If Rhode Island is going to withstand the Trump/Musk administration’s assault on everyday Americans, state leadership will need to choose: will they continue to defend a handful of very wealthy people? Or will they stand with the thousands who came out today to march, rally, and defend our state? We’ll welcome them to the front lines once they’ve made their choice.”

Hope High School on the East Side of Providence was the staging area for the march. Once the march started, the last marcher did not leave the High School until over 40 minutes had passed. Here’s video:

The march ended outside the Providence City Hall, where volunteers had set up amplification, using the stairs that face Kennedy Plaza as a stage. The Extraordinary Rendition Band, Undertow, and Anchors Away provided music on the march and at City Hall. The Raging Grannies also sang a couple of songs. Here’s video:

Finally, there was a speaking program. I’ve done my best to transcribe the speaker, editing for clarity. Also, a direct link to the point they start speaking is provided. Here’s video:

Nora O’Brien-Gervais: I am Nora O’Brien-Gervais, 100 years old. I’ve been active living through 18 administrations. Yes, that is right. Eighteen administrations. I have never seen one quite like this. It’s time to stand up, stand together, and let your voices be peacefully heard. We need to tell this administration to keep their hands off our rights, off our Medicare, off our Medicaid, our social security, off our veterans rights, and our bodies.

Harrison Tuttle, The Village Vanguard: So, Rhode Island, what do you want to talk about? Let’s start with the stock market, shall we? Has anybody taken a look lately? Too painful. We’re here today to fight. We’re here to resist Donald Trump. We’re here to resist the oligarchs and make our voices heard here in Rhode Island. It is time for us to come together, put our differences aside, and unite.

It is time for us to support the women in our lives. It’s time to fight for their bodily autonomy. It’s time to fight for our healthcare workers. It’s time to fight for our teachers. It’s time for us to fight for our climate. Who’s with me?

You’re going to hear from amazing people today. You’re going to hear from union leaders, you’re going to hear from state legislators. I will lead us with one more chant, and I want everybody in the state to hear us. Tax the rich! Tax the rich! Tax the rich!

Reverend Donnie Anderson: As we start, I want to clarify one thing. I’m a minister, I’m transgender, and I’m a proud queer Rhode Island girl. It’s so important that we’re all here together today. Not in isolated groups, but standing together. I want you to look around at each other and realize this: you are America! And by being here today, you are patriots. Don’t let anyone take that away from you.

America has always struggled with human rights. Sometimes, we’ve taken one step forward and two steps back, but right now, we are in a human rights free fall, and we need to say it’s time to stop. This morally bankrupt administration cares more about enriching the pockets of the ultra-rich than in mercy for the most vulnerable in our society, and that is wrong.

I’ve come here today because I want to say a word about transgender and gender-diverse youth in our state. Right now, the spineless bullies in Washington and here in Rhode Island are targeting our transgender and gender-diverse youth. They are trying to pass laws up at the State House - and thank God for the people we have in the Senate and the House who have said "Stop" and will not let these terrible laws go forward.

All across our cities and towns, people are pushing to change the way we handle transgender and gender-diverse youth in our schools, and believe me, my friends, that will end in more mental health problems and some of our kids losing their lives. It is wrong! Already, gender-affirming healthcare has been taken away from the children of our military, and let me share with you what happened with that.

We’re a small community. We’re not a lot of the population, so what happens is people say, "Well, for the greater good, we will sacrifice the health of transgender and gender-diverse youth." That is wrong.

I want to ask you to do me a favor today. From Foster to Westerly, from Pawtucket to Aquidneck Island, there are children and young people who are transgender and gender-diverse who are afraid and hiding. And when I say three, I want you to say, "You are not alone." Can we do that? 1, 2, 3.

Crowd: You are not alone.

Daniel Denvir: I’m a co-chair of Reclaim Rhode Island, a housing justice organization. But I’m speaking here today as the person who served as the alternate uncommitted delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 2024. I’m here to speak up as an American citizen who is infuriated and ashamed that our government continues to send weapons to the State of Israel, weapons that are used to commit genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

We’re here to fight a grave fascist threat to our freedoms, but the fascist threat is global, and so is the struggle against it. When our congressional delegation sends weapons to Israel, when Senator Reed, Senator Whitehouse, Representative Amo, and Representative Magaziner send weapons to Israel, they are not only sending our tax dollars to murder Palestinians; they are sending weapons and funds to prop up a leading member of Trump’s global fascist alliance.

Nationally, a strong majority of Democratic voters support an arms embargo on Israel. Seven unions, whose membership amounts to nearly half of all union members, support ending U.S. military aid to Israel: the American Postal Workers Union, the Association of Flight Attendants, the International Union of Painters, the National Education Association, the Service Employees International Union, United Auto Workers, and United Electrical Workers—but not our congressional delegation.

Representative Seth Magaziner has received $90,626; Representative Gabe Amo has received $100,563. Senator Jack Reed $402,602; and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse $616,721 from the Israel lobby. Who funds lobbyests like AIPAC? The same people who fund the MAGA Republican Party - right-wing billionaires.

We need our congressional delegation to listen to the people of Rhode Island. We cannot fight fascism at home while supporting fascism abroad. The repression our government supports in Palestine has already swung back here to the USA. Just witness the pro-Palestine activists like Mahmoud Khalil, who have been disappeared by Trump’s ICE agents. This past week, 14 Democratic Senators, led by Senator Bernie Sanders, voted to stop U.S. military aid to Israel. Our senators, Reed and Whitehouse, stood with Netanyahu instead. Our fight for freedom here is linked to the fight for freedom everywhere, including the struggle to liberate Palestine.

Fight fascism! Free Palestine!

Mel Potter: I’m a tenant leader and an activist with the housing justice organization Reclaim Rhode Island. Last year, I became a leader of this state’s first private market tenants union. I organized a union with my neighbors because my apartment was unlivable. With no warning, a 10-foot trench appeared below my front door and remained there for six months. This was the third winter in a row that I’ve had my heat not work when it’s below freezing outside. I can see sunlight through cracks in my bedroom and living room walls. Asking the landlord for repairs didn’t work. The calling code didn’t work. I organized a union with my neighbors to get safe housing for the monthly rent we pay.

Slumlords treat us tenants like Donald Trump treats all working-class people in America. They are greedy, rich people who don’t care about our wellbeing. They care about making money. Over the past five years, rent has increased almost 35% in Providence. The housing crisis is a political choice. Landlords can raise our rent through the roof and kick us out of our apartments when we complain because politicians let them. We can’t stop them by ourselves. The only way to stop them is to organize, fight back, and change the law.

And we have to start organizing right here in our towns and cities. It’s not just Washington where big business runs the show. We have the same problem right here in Rhode Island. We deserve better than Trump’s MAGA America in Rhode Island - and we have to build it. We need to fight to win rent stabilization, so there are limits to how high a landlord can raise our rents. We need the government to build mixed-income public housing available for every Rhode Islander who needs and wants it. And we need you to join our fight for just-cause eviction. That’s our top priority at the State House right now.

Just-cause eviction protections will ensure landlords can’t kick you out for no reason. However, it’s not enough to help people once they’re already on the streets. We need this law to stabilize our communities and prevent people from becoming homeless in advance. We have to build something truly good for the people of Rhode Island. Together, we have the power to win.

Jenine Bressner: Doesn’t it feel better to be together? We have nothing more important than each other. I am a solo parent and artist, a teacher, and an organizing member of the Atlantic Mills Tenants Union, the first commercial tenants union in the history of Rhode Island. I have had a studio at the Atlantic Mills in Olneyille for 20 years. Our building is currently being sold from the family trust it’s been in since 1953 to developers who would love for us to be gone so they could turn Olneyville into some imaginary new Silicon Valley.

Most developers don’t care about existing communities. They’re not coming here to make homes. They’re coming here to make money, evade paying taxes, and rewrite eight-law. They want to gentrify our neighborhoods because they value money more than your life. Megarich people don’t exist without keeping everyone else poor on purpose. They are afraid of us and our unified power.

The happiest people don’t have the best of everything; they make the best of everything. That’s us. That’s why we are here together. There is no greater wealth in a lifetime than to have relationships that span time. As Rhode Islanders in families and communities for generations, we are connected to each other, and everyone here is wealthier. We are wealthier than they could ever dream of being. We have each other’s backs. We’re on the same team in our fight against the people who hold power over us without benevolence and care, without regard for our wellbeing.

If you can hear me and you work as a police officer, ICE, or federal agent, don’t become the fascist your grandparents escaped. You don’t have to stay there if you are on the wrong side of this fight and know it. We are more than our jobs. You are more than your jobs, and you don’t need a time machine to stop Hitler. Things are ineffably wrong right now, but there’s no place in the world I would rather be than here with you. This is my favorite place because of the high concentration of truly excellent people who are actively building the world we would like to live in. We have art in order not to die of the truth. Beauty is an important function. I’m not talking about superficial appearances. Go to the botanical center in Roger Williams Park and heal your heart.

In these heavy times, temper the gravity of the burden by seeking and making beauty in the world around you. Go to a library. Make art with your hands. Listen to music. Make music. Everything in every museum in the world was made by someone who was once a baby. Don’t gatekeep yourself from creativity. Creativity will serve us well in this fight, as well as our resistance and resilience.

Please work with the Atlantic Mills Tenants Union to defend our community by fighting for rent stabilization, which [Providence Mayor] Brett Smiley is opposing. The people trying to buy our building contributed to Smiley’s mayoral campaign. Are we on the side of the working class, or are we on the side of people who haven’t bought their groceries in decades?

This is a fight not only for the future of our building and neighborhood but for the future of our city, our country, and truly, the future of the world. It won’t always be now. Somehow, together, we are going to make it through this, and we are going to fight ferociously along the way to protect our communities. It may feel like we can’t do much to stop billionaires, but we can be good sparks igniting more fires of positive change. As Corey Booker said this week, less people are witnessing American history and more people are determined to make American history.

Protect immigrants, protect trans people. Shine your light on the darkness.

Jocelyn Foye: I represent the community in this space that sometimes likes to call themselves allies, but let’s call ourselves comrades. Let’s call ourselves accomplices.

I’m a mom of an 11 and a 14-year-old, and they exist as individuals making decisions for themselves already. I represent an organization that fights for bodily freedom at the federal, state, and local levels. At all of those levels, our children aren't getting access to their bodies. Adults are not getting access to their bodies, and restrictions are coming in waves of attacks. Please know that executive orders are not law. As caring citizens, community members, networks, and neighbors, we have an opportunity to go to our town councils and school committees. To show up and say, "Not in our town. We want to include all children."

We can show up at the State House. It’s our house. It’s the people’s house. It’s not a castle. We need people power. We need you all because what’s coming is a round of deficits in our state. We don’t have enough money to pay for things, and it’s time to find money elsewhere.

Where are [our elected leaders] going? They’re going to the concept of bodily freedom. They’re going to Medicaid. They’re saying, “How do we cut away at the rights people have now?” We need to stand up as a community and say, “One in three of us uses Medicaid.” We all need it. That covers kids in schools, families, education, and healthcare. All healthcare is healthcare. All education must be included, and all people should be included. Please join The Womxn Project, introverts and extroverts alike. We have actions to do, and we use artivism to do it. Join us to be civically engaged - safely or a little fun, and we’ll do it together.

Representative Karen Alzate: I am a first-generation American and a State Representative from Pawtucket and Central Falls, fighting for my community. I have the pleasure and the honor of a lifetime to make sure that we continue to fight for this state with my colleague and sister in this fight, Senator Murray. For too long, the wealthiest among us have hoarded their riches while the rest struggle to make ends meet. They live in our mansions. They fly their private jets to go golfing with our money. Enough is enough.

We must be clear: Our country does not suffer from a lack of money. We know because they take our money. Our country suffers from an unfair and unjust tax system rigged to protect the most powerful while working people foot the bill. They say that taxing the rich will hurt the economy, but whose economy will it hurt? The economy is for us, and we’re here to tell this new administration, "No, you will not continue to tax us and use our money for your gains. You will not continue to deport my family, my friends, and my neighbors.

When this bill is heard by committee, how many of you will support this legislation? The Senator and I will continue to fight at the State House, but we need your help. I hope to see the State House full when this legislation comes up. I hope to see all of you there. I’m honored to represent the community and the State and even more honored to continue this fight with my colleague and sister and the Revenue for Rhode Island Coalition. The Economic Progress Institute is doing the work. Make sure you check them out and be informed. Ensure we see you at the State House when this bill comes up.

Senator Melissa Murray: There are so many things that I could speak about right now. The preposterous plan to dismantle the Department of Education, the vilification and attacks on our trans friends and family members. But I digress because I’m here to talk about taxing the top 1% of the wealthiest Rhode Islanders and making them pay their fair share. The wealthiest have benefited from state and federal tax cuts for decades, and we know they will get even more over the next four years - but at whose expense? Ours.

The wealthiest Rhode Islanders pay a smaller percentage of their overall taxes than you and I. Millionaires in Rhode Island pay less than you and I. Is that fair? Is that equitable? Folks are struggling to get by - having to choose whether to buy groceries, pay for their medications, or keep the lights on. Moms are skipping meals to feed their kids. Sick folks are skipping meds because they can’t afford to renew their prescriptions. Families must double up in apartments because the rents are out of control. Enough is enough.

Representative Alzate and I have been pushing this proposal for years. It would create $190 million in new revenue for our state each year. With $190 million, we could fully fund a truly equitable education formula for every child in our state. It’s money we could use to fund badly needed mental health support in our schools. Money [could be used] to supplement Medicaid, fund a robust public transit system accessible to all, help expand childcare so parents can get back to work, help restore cuts to pensions, or help fund free school meals for all kids, and so much more.

Taxing the top 1% creates tax fairness. It addresses social, racial, and wealth inequity. The millionaires and billionaires are not here to save us. Facts and data disprove the myth that they will flee our state if taxed like the rest of us. Quite the contrary, this proposal can help fund the vital programs that everyday, hardworking Rhode Islanders depend on. That will strengthen our state and is the right thing to do. The time is now.

Jesse Martin, Vice President of SEIU 1199: At this moment, there are 330,000 Rhode Islanders on Medicaid. Five out of eight nursing home residents are on Medicaid. 74% of Rhode Islanders on Medicaid are working multiple jobs to survive. If there are cuts at the federal level, we will see devastating impacts on our healthcare system.

If you have private insurance and a good health plan through your employer, you may think Medicaid cuts won’t affect you. But if you go to the hospital, the lights won’t be on. Seventy cents of every dollar in every State of Rhode Island hospital comes from Medicaid or Medicare. If we do not preserve these benefits, our entire healthcare system will fall apart. We cannot allow that, can we?

We need our local government leaders. Governor Daniel McKee, we need you to have some courage. We need you to have some fortitude and integrity. In Governor McKee’s current budget, he has doubled down on Trump’s cuts to Medicaid. He cuts $25 million from our hospitals. He cuts millions from our nursing homes. His budget cuts safe staffing in our nursing homes that [causes] people to not to have the chance to take a shower or to go to the bathroom with dignity.

We need a budget that preserves these benefits and increases our revenue by taxing the rich. The rich will get their tax cuts from the Trump Administration, and we can’t have that here. We say no. In our union, we have a saying: “When the boss says no, we say yes.”

Dawn Williams: I’m a proud registered nurse at Butler Hospital. I’ve been a nurse in Rhode Island for 20 years. Today, we stand together as members of the working class who refuse to be silenced or exploited. We’re here because we see what’s happening. We see billionaires like Trump and Elon Musk hoarding wealth while working families struggle to make ends meet. We see our rights being stripped away, piece by piece, for the benefit of a few at the expense of the many. Here in Rhode Island, Governor McKee’s budget threatens to cut over $25 million from hospitals. Our healthcare system needs to be invested in, not cut. To them, we’re just numbers on a spreadsheet. But these are our patients, coworkers, and community.

Investing in the physical and mental health of Rhode Islanders is not just a financial decision. It is a moral obligation. At Butler Hospital, we’re fighting for a fair contract right now, not just for ourselves but for the quality of care and safe environment our patients deserve. We need the General Assembly to stand with us to fight against these cuts, protect worker’s rights, and protect healthcare.

Today, we say, "Hands off!" Hands off our hospitals and our future. Together, we fight. Together, we win because together, we’re indivisible.

Jesse Martin: On May 3rd, healthcare workers will rally at the State House for a moral state budget to insulate ourselves from the attacks of the Trump Administration. We want everyone to join us in front of the State House and hold Governor McKee, our General Assembly, and all elected leaders accountable to workers and improve our healthcare system.

Sophia Wright: Every important march that’s ever happened in Rhode Island happened in the rain. Am I right? My name is Sophia Wright. My pronouns are they/them. I’m from the Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance. AMOR was founded in 2017 as a response to the attacks on the immigrant community across this country and to defend our immigrant community here in Rhode Island. Right now, AMOR is fighting to shut down ICE at the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls. We need you to tell folks at the Wyatt, the State House, and everywhere that ICE detention is inhumane and against the human rights of our people and every person everywhere.

As of November 2024, the number of people in ICE detention at the Wyatt nearly doubled. That was before Trump was inaugurated. In January, 110 ICE detainees were counted. That brings the total population at the Wyatt to 701 people. The Wyatt has a long history of medical neglect, leading to the death of a detainee in 2008 named Jason, who died as a result of cancer that went untreated. Even when he told correctional officers that he had back pain, they accused him of faking his pain, and he died in 2008.

The ICE contract ended, but it opened again in 2019 under the Trump Administration. Right now, the Wyatt Detention Center has an ICE contract only because of a lawsuit by the investors against the City of Central Falls. This is just another example of for-profit detention happening in our country against our will and against the interests of the people. Detention centers and prisons are collaborating with ICE to profit from the suffering of our communities. They are a business where everything costs money: phone calls, nutritious food, soap, toothpaste, hygiene products, you name it, it costs money. And immigrants are bearing the burden of that cost.

In recent weeks, we’ve watched members of our community here in Rhode Island snatched off the streets and detained at the Wyatt. These are heads of household, now a cost [to their families]. Our city and our government are paying for people who could be supporting their families to be detained at $180 a night. You think that with $180, they’d be treated well, right? But no. They are guaranteed nothing. They are made to fend for themselves in ICE detention: to beg for phone calls and withstand the racism and xenophobia they’re facing from the guards at the Wyatt Detention Center.

We’re fighting for legislation to end the ICE contract at Wyatt and prevent any other ICE contracts here in Rhode Island. House Bill 5724 is being heard at the House Judiciary Committee this Thursday, April 10th, at 4:00 P.M., and we would like you to show up and say, "No to ICE detention in Rhode Island."

This community hasn’t sat still when our families have been attacked. The AMOR Network and other folks have been organizing to defend and respond by setting up a deportation defense line: 401-675-1414. If you see ICE in your community, we want you to call that number, and we need our community to show up.

When we hear that ICE is somewhere, we want to be able to mobilize and say, "We will not let you take our families without bearing witness, fighting back, and resisting.

We’re organizing a community fund for ICE detainees. If we can get $40 a month from 90 people, we can give every person in detention at the Wyatt funds to communicate with their families and attorneys and access and pay for things like toothpaste, shampoo, soap, and conditioner. When people can’t eat because they’re not provided culturally appropriate or religiously specific food, they can buy it from the commissary. They can buy them when they are not provided with clean and hygienic products. With your support, the Community Fund for ICE Detainees can make sure that folks in detention have access to the financial resources they need to survive this traumatic experience that nobody should go through.

And finally, we’ve heard from folks calling our Detention Support Line and in communications from inside the Wyatt right now: We’ve seen people have their lives thrown around. We’ve seen 40 people transferred into the Wyatt from the Plymouth County Detention Center. We’ve seen folks sent to and transferred from the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls to Berlin, New Hampshire, in the middle of the woods with no previous notice and no guarantees they’ll have access to their families. This is what’s happening right now in this country. People are being disappeared into an unjust immigration system. That’s why I say, together with you all, that we need to abolish ICE. We need to shut down the Wyatt and free them all.

Aseem Rastogi, Indivisible Rhode Island: What a crowd. Our collective power, which drives a functioning society forward, cannot be understated or underestimated. Today is but another reminder that there are more of us out there who believe in a greater America and are true patriots because we will hold this country, state, and elected leaders to account every time. I started my career, one of many that I’ve had, teaching in a Title I school in northeast DC. I worked with brilliant young students persistently subjected to the remnants of redlining in this country. Students who relied on the school to feed them relied on public transport to get them to and from school and cherished playing on safe fields like Morley Field - breathing cleaner air and getting a chance at being successful at whatever they could dream up. I was part of a powerful teacher’s union and learned quickly the power of collective bargaining and worker protection.

I would not have been able to get that job if it weren’t for the Department of Education. In 2009, amid the financial crisis, my mom got laid off. She was a single mom and an immigrant, working two jobs to make ends meet. We simply didn’t have enough. I got an emergency Pell Grant from the federal government to finish college. Without that Pell Grant, I would not be standing here today.

We need elected officials, especially the Trump Administration and Elon Musk, to remember what we all learned in kindergarten. Keep your hands to yourself, mind your own damn business, and for good measure, don’t run with scissors.

Hands off our futures. Hands off our bodies. Hands off our money. Hands off our neighbors. Hands off our schools. Hands off our dreams. Hands off the United States of America.

This country has never been perfect, nor will it ever be. But one thing is for damn sure, this country is better than this. The people are better than this.

There’s one thing I want to leave you with: Hope may be our state motto, but hope is not a strategy. We ought to tell them hands off, and we have to be hands-on to protect our future. The word "no" is a complete sentence. You’ve got to be hands-on to get their hands off.