This year’s Veterans Day was celebrated a little differently than the usual parade fanfare. Across many major cities around the country, thousands of veterans and protesters gathered in frigid autumn temperatures on Nov. 11 to speak out against ICE and President Donald Trump.
In Boston’s Back Bay, over 100 gathered at Veterans Memorial Park, standing around a memorial honoring Boston veterans who died in WWII. There, they held signs, sang melodies, chanted, and listened to speeches in opposition to recent actions by the Trump administration.
“I want to show that a lot of veterans don’t agree with the current policy and how the current military is being used in a number of ways,” Michael Price, a veteran of 25 years of active duty and reserve in the Navy Construction Battalion, told The Beacon.
The actions they protested included the deployment of National Guard troops to cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, and Memphis, which have been met with resistance by protesters across the United States. Trump has faced additional pushback from federal judges who have blocked deployment actions or declared them outright illegal.
Protestors also rallied against recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids across the country, especially those with the National Guard, citing a lack of due process in recent deportations. They also decried various funding cuts to organizations and reductions of the federal workforce, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has had disproportionate impacts on veterans’ healthcare and wellbeing.
Singers chanted “We will not be ruled” and passed around petitions to be signed supporting the Safe Communities Act, which looks to prevent state and local law from “doing the work of ICE agents,” allowing them to focus on local matters and duties, rather than homeland security. The petition also called for an increase of legal services that are necessary for immigrants facing deportations and court proceedings.
The event was organized by May Day Strong in partnership with About Face: Veterans Against the War, whose websites promote “workers over billionaires” and “veterans taking action against militarism and endless wars.”
Many members who participated in the event wore their service uniforms, along with their badges. One attendee wore a shirt that said “not a ‘sucker,’ not a ‘loser,’” intended as a retort to a disparaging characterization of military service members Trump made, reported by former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly on numerous accounts.
Protestors waved signs that read “No wars on our cities” and “Veterans Against Fascism” while numerous About Face members spoke.
Noah Joyce-Anderson, a member of About Face, worked as a member organizer for the event. An army reservist and psychological operation specialist from 2010 to 2015, she said she finds events like this important to allow people to stand up for what they believe and practice their right to free speech.
Joyce-Anderson encouraged veterans to support active service members with the difficulties and traumas their jobs entail, while ensuring they’re following orders they can be proud of.
“If you are a military service member and you receive an illegal order, there are ways to not have to face that alone, to have the support you need, to maintain your dignity, maintain your integrity, and to maintain the service that you wanted to do,” Joyce-Anderson told The Beacon.
As the event continued, about 12 people in support of the protest, dressed in all black with face coverings, stood silently behind the event holding signs that read various things such as “Degrading Women, This is Facism,” “Celebrating Racism, This is Facism,” and “Demanding Absolute Loyalty, This is Facism.”
Many protesters said they attended the event in support of the veteran community, but also as a continuation of the values millions have protested for at No Kings rallies since Inauguration Day. They said that even smaller events like this help keep a spirit of anti-Trump resistance alive in the country and signal this message to the rest of the world as well.
“For every protest that happens here, one-tenth of that is being seen outside of the country,” Cate Wojtouiz, a protestor at the event and descendant of numerous members of the Canadian Military, told the Beacon.
Stephen Miller, who served from 1998 to 2005 in the Army and Massachusetts Army National Guard, along with four years of service abroad in Iraq, said he finds attending this event more important than his typical way of celebrating.
“I’m a veteran and have been celebrating Veterans Day a little differently after coming to an understanding of how I was fighting more for businesses and profits than I was fighting for the Constitution,” Miller told The Beacon.
Miller attended this protest to urge changes within the government, fueled by the violence and problems that are becoming alarmingly close to his own home.
“I see things that are happening to my neighbors that I wouldn’t have even done under orders in Iraq to enemy combatants,” Miller said. “Seeing that kind of goes against everything I fought for.”
