"Hands Off" in Berkeley

April 5, 2025 -- I attended the "Hands Off" rally at North Berkeley BART Station today at 1 p.m. -- one of 800 rallies taking place across the country. The people promoting these rallies had included the phrase "Hands off NATO," and for that reason some of my friends didn't attend. They thought it would be a "pro-NATO" rally. I wasn't so sure about that, and went anyway; it's only a 5-minute walk from where I live. I wore a keffiyeh and took a sign reading "Remember the USS Liberty -- attacked by Israel in 1967."

I expected a rather small rally, but no, the area was full of people, all up and down Sacramento street. I can't say how many, but it must've been at least a couple thousand, probably a lot more. I've never before seen such a large rally here by the North Berkeley BART station.

People were carrying signs saying "Hands Off" to many things: Education, Social Security, Health Care, National Parks, jobs, Gaza, Environment, and dozens of other things that Trump and Musk have been tearing up or threatening to tear up. It was a massive "Hands Off" rally.

Many signs were about firing and jailing Trump and Musk.

There was a contingent with Palestinian flags, and banners saying "End the genocide."

My "Remember the USS Liberty" sign went over well. One person recalled me having it at the City Council some weeks ago.

There should've been a contingent with signs and banners calling for a general strike -- just to get the idea out there. Unfortunately, I didn't see any such.

A contingent of Veterans for Peace would also have been very appropriate. But I didn't see any.

As for "Hands Off NATO" -- I looked around, at first expecting to see many such signs. In this very large crowd and sea of signs, there must've been somebody supporting NATO, but I didn't see any.

As for the Democrats -- I didn't see any signs promoting the Democrats. If they organized this event, I'd say they didn't get their message out. There wasn't any rally with celebrities speaking -- or if there was, I didn't see it.

This rally went to University Ave, then some of us turned west and marched to 4th street where we held a much smaller rally of a hundred or so people at the Tesla dealership. There was a series of large signs saying "Trump is evil. Musk is worse. Put their plans into reverse." It was fortunate that Tesla had located their dealership within walking distance for us. On the way down University Avenue, many, many, many cars honked in support of us. It was just constant honking.

Daniel Borgström
http://danielborgstrom.blogspot.com/