BY MILO HESS AND ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH | Almost 200 people marched from Union Square to Trump Tower calling for the removal of President Donald Trump.
The procession to 725 Fifth Ave. was part of a protest organized by Refuse Fascism, anti-Trump anti Mike Pence group formed in December 2016.
“We need a coalition — Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, traditional religion, agnostics, atheists,” said Dr. Cornel West, one of the leaders of the march and founders of Refuse Fascism, to a crowd of protesters at Union Square. “This is a question of what kind of human being you are going to be in this particular moment when the neo-fascist are not just here but all over the world … this is a profoundly human affair and that’s why we march.”
Once at Trump Tower, protesters raised signs to spell out #OUTNOW and created their own “tower” of items representing “crimes of this regime” including baby shoes for the children detained at the southern border and plastic bottles for rollbacks to environmentally progressive legislation.
Saturday’s demonstration was the first of five Refuse Fascism protests scheduled to take place in the city on Saturdays’ at Union Square until Nov. 16. According to Carl Dix, co-founder of Refuse Fascism and representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party, organizers hope that protesters will instigate mass demonstrations like what took place this summer in Puerto Rico and Hong Kong and create a grassroots movement to force President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to be removed from office.
Those interested in joining the protests can stop by Union Square this Saturday at 2 p.m.
A second #OUTNOW protest took place in Los Angeles’ Santa Monica Pier on Saturday. But a scuffle broke about between anti-Trump protesters and Trump supporters during which a man sprayed bear repellent into the crowd, the Los Angeles Times reports.
A total of 13 cities, including, Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta, Houston and Honolulu, will hold sister anti-Trump protests on Saturday, Oct. 26.
