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On the 21st January 2017, I took part in the Women’s March on London. This was my first experience of a demonstration. Previously, I had felt satisfied to lie in bed, or in my sixth form common room or on the bus and read about the world’s inequalities through my twitter feed. My political activism went as far as retweeting or sharing a post with my friends, or signing an online petition, but for the deep social issues that manifested themselves under Donald Trump’s inauguration – my online presence felt very, very inadequate. This is why I decided to march on the first day of Donald Trump’s presidential term – not necessarily to make physical changes to the situation, just to show that I, along with 100,000 other women in London, do not, and will not, let Donald Trump and the attitudes that led to his election fester unchallenged.  

The Women’s March was organised as a grassroots movement by women in Washington D.C. to begin with as a way of sending a message to the Trump Administration that “women’s rights are human rights”. The organisation of the original Washington D.C. march led to many sister marches across the world – reportedly 673, in cities including Paris, Moscow and Tokyo. I was surprised at the diversity of the march – there were plenty of men, older people and young children, along with wheelchair users and people of all ethnicities. The groups I saw advocating at the London march, as well as the extent of the different cities’ where marches were organised, show that the marches were advocating for much more than just a disapproval of the Trump Administration. 

Protests have a brilliant capacity for bringing together different groups of people with different priorities. I saw environmental activists, activists for racial equality, anti-capitalists and lots of other groups all marching together with one common interest – human rights. Of course, human rights activism has been prevalent throughout history, so why was it that this march was on such a large scale compared to previous human rights marches? I think it is because Donald Trump’s inauguration affects nearly everyone. Black lives matter protests sadly consist of mostly black people because police brutality against black people affects black people ultimately. It would be uncommon (not unknown) to see a conservative, wealthy man at an anti-austerity protest for the same reasons – people have an unfortunate tendency to only protest issues that affect them. The Trump Administration will, and indeed already is, affecting lots of different people – disabled people, black people, women, working class people, and this is why I think the diversity of the marches was to the extent that it was.

The Women’s March was probably the first experience of political activism for many people who showed up to their city’s demonstration, but there were just as many who knew that resistance against the Trump Administration didn’t begin with this, and are determined to ensure it doesn’t end with this either. This is why the group of people who organised the initial Women’s March have set up a program called ’10 Actions for the first 100 Days’ – to encourage old and new activists to continue on the resistance against what Donald Trump’s administration stands for. I will be taking part in the 10 actions to the best of my ability to play a role in burying the attitudes of today solidly in the past. 

Images are my own.