There were protests around the Bay Area and the country over the weekend ahead of Trump's inauguration. But while there are real, grave dangers ahead in this presidency, especially for immigrant communities and trans people, the protests in SF were not major draws.
At Sunday's rally in Civic Center Plaza, which culminated in a march down Market Street, the crowd built to around 1,000 people by the time the march got going, a little over an hour behind scheduled at 2:45 pm. Billed as a "No to Trump" rally, socialist activists at the event seemed to only barely have Trump in mind — and the most visible symbol among the marchers were Palestinian flags.
As Mission Local puts it, "Speakers led 'Free Palestine' chants, railed against deportations, and even called for a unified Korea without U.S military bases. Trump was a through line, but not always the focus of the march."
A tent with screen-printing stations from The SF Poster Syndicate was producing free posters for marchers, one of which had Trump's face and the message "America Out of Greenland," and another warned against allowing Big Tech billionaires to be "in your pocket" in the form of smartphone apps.
Once the march commenced, organizers on a lead tuck led marchers in chants like "When Palestine is under attack, what do we do? Fight back! When immigrants are under attack, what do we do? Fight back!"
A banner at the front of the march said, "United to Fight Trump's Billionaire Agenda."
Regarding the less-than-enormous crowd, one participant, Donna Wallach of San Jose, told Mission Local, "Some people are fired up. Others feel hopeless and powerless."
Around 1,000 people also marched through the Mission District on Saturday, finishing in Dolores Park.
Sunday's march was pre-planned with the SFMTA and included bus re-routing onto Mission Street.
Previously: 'People's March' Descends on Mission to Protest Trump; 'No to Trump' Rally and March Planned Sunday