As the polar vortex swept across the northern hemisphere on Inauguration Day, hundreds of protesters from Greater Boston social justice groups braved the cold to stand up for workers, immigrants, women, LGBTQ+ people, and the needs of people and the planet over profit. 

“It is really important that we’re out here no matter the weather,” said Ximena Hasbach, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). “We say it’s cold out, but the struggle is hot.”

Organized by the Boston branch of the PSL, the groups included the Boston Coalition for Palestine, the Committee for Peace and Human Rights, Veterans for Peace, and the Workers World Party. With the impending Trump administration the groups united to stand in solidarity with their undocumented co-workers, neighbors, and friends. 

“Boston is a town that supports our neighbors no matter where they’re from and a lot of the working class is in solidarity with our immigrant neighbors,” said Samu Bechtold, who’s been a member of Democratic Socialists of America since 2020. 

“People in Boston need to be out here and stand in solidarity with their neighbors and say that we’re gonna be here to support you and make sure that you’re safe and you’re part of the community.”

This does not apply to only Trump’s government, she said, clarifying that both the Republican and Democratic parties are perpetrators. “It’s all the same program with billionaire rule and so we are fighting against all of them,” Hasbach said.

John Bach, a long term activist and speaker at the event, shifted the focus towards the way in which Democratic and Republican elected officials alike reacted to the swath of student protests and encampments on college campuses nationwide. Bach spoke in support of the students in Boston who faced backlash directly, and were arrested.

“Mayor Wu and the Boston City Council sent the Boston Police onto the college campuses here,” he said. “They used force and violence of the police system against our heroes—youth who were peacefully protesting the genocide in Gaza … the politicians of these two parties are our enemy.” 

Rolando Lima, a community organizer and member of the immigrant community was the first in a series of speakers at the rally. Speaking in Spanish, with the help of an English translator, he acknowledged the efforts of Martin Luther King Jr. and the fight ahead with the start of President Trump’s administration. 

“Today the White House is going to be occupied by a man that is an enemy to the people. In his previous term he attacked the immigrant community saying that we’re all criminals,” Lima said. “We don’t expect much from him, because we know that he represents the elite and the corporations. Therefore we need to organize and we need to unite.”

Though protesting Trump was a topical issue at the rally, a larger focus was the consequences of capitalism. 

“We’re mad about Donald Trump, but the only way to take down the capitalist system, which is the actual issue, is through communism,” said Elliot Leonard, an Emerson alum and member of the Revolutionary Communists of America.

Building solidarity among the working class was one of the main objectives.

“We’re outraged that the Trump administration is taking their first targets at us, the working people,” said Steve Gillis, who’s organized alongside the Workers World Party for over four decades. “He’s talking about busting unions, firing government employees. He’s talking about arresting our coworkers who may or may not have documents.
 He’s talking about a witch hunt that we haven’t seen in this country.”

Gillis said that the reason he hasn’t lost hope in his half-a-century of advocacy is because he’s learned that the struggle works.

“Without struggle, we would not have any of the rights and benefits that we and our parents fought and died for—the rights to have unions, the right of health care for women, the right to nondiscrimination. All the things that are under attack right now,” he shared. “I’m optimistic about being out here after 40 years. I see being out here in the struggle having benefits for the world.” 

Bach sent the crowd on their march to the state house with a closing message: “The fat boy in the White House is not going to have the last word—we will.”