Two peaceful protests occurred in front of the Humboldt County courthouse last week.
While the March 4 protest focused on Donald Trump’s presidency and Elon Musk’s actions, Karen Mast, local organizer of the protest on International Women’s Day, said the theme for March 8 was, “We will not be silent” in calling for reproductive rights, equal pay as workers and improving women’s rights.
The two local rallies were part of the national 50501 organization, standing for 50 protests, 50 states, one movement, which emerged after Trump’s second inauguration.
Around 200 people gathered at noon March 4 to express their views with their voices, signs and one large double-paneled piece of protest art. The right to assemble is part of American constitutional law, as stated in the First Amendment, and since the protesters didn’t have a permit to march on the streets, participants stayed on the sidewalk. Looking around at the mostly Baby Boomers in attendance at the weekday event, local organizer Alan Krause, of Eureka, said, “It surprises me that the most patriotic people I know are aging hippies.”
More than 500 protestors and a much younger crowd showed up before noon on March 8, carrying many more signs with a wide range of appeals, alongside the Raging Grannies singing protest songs, drumming and calls for action in opposition to the Trump administration’s political actions. Without a permit to march on the street again, the participants remained on the sidewalk and voiced their protests to passing traffic on Fifth Street.
Officially recognized by the United Nations in 1977, International Women’s Day is an official holiday in more than 20 countries, including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Ukraine, Russia and Cuba (the only one in the Americas).
Organizers say this year’s global theme is “Accelerate Action,” emphasizing concerns about the possible loss of many rights that women have fought for in the last century, including the 2022 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a nationwide right to abortion.
Other local events on Saturday included a Soroptimist-sponsored Women’s March in Blue Lake and an International Women’s Day Celebration with Centro Del Pueblo and the Humboldt Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom at the Jefferson Center in Eureka.
This article appears in There’s a Fish Market Splashing into Eureka.