Tuesday 15 / April / 2025
Los Angeles: Tens of thousands of people packed the Gloria Molina Grand Park in Los Angeles on Saturday at a rally held in protest at the direction the US is taking under President Donald Trump.
The rally formed part of the "Fighting Oligarchy" tour of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders that was launched in late February, with Democrat representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, familiarly known as AOC, joining in last month.
Their protest efforts come as many US citizens are disappointed at the Democratic Party's lack of resistance to Trump, whose huge cuts to government and research funding, anti-immigration policies and climate crisis denial have provoked widespread concern at home and abroad.
The gathering featured performances by US musical legends Joan Baez and Neil Young, among others.
Sanders says US moving 'toward an authoritarian form of society'
"There are some 36,000 of you, the largest rally that we have ever had," Sanders told the crowd. "Your presence here today is making Donald Trump and Elon Musk very nervous."
"We are living in a moment where a handful of billionaires control the economic and political life of our country," said Sanders, a self-declared socialist who is independent of any party but votes with the Democrats.
Trump was moving the US "rapidly toward an authoritarian form of society," the 83-year-old senator said.
Sanders told the crowd that the Republican party had largely become a cult of the individual that obeyed every wish of Trump.
He said the Trump administration was making plans for $1.1 trillion (€968 trillion) tax breaks for the wealthy.
AOC calls for solidarity, Sanders makes appearance at Coachella
Ocasio-Cortez, 35, told the crowd: "No matter your race, religion, gender, identity or status, no matter if you disagree with me on some things ... I hope you see that this movement is not about partisan labels or purity tests, but it's about class solidarity."
Sanders later put in an unnannounced appearance at the Coachella music festival, where he told the audience: "I'm not gonna be long but this country faces some very difficult challenges and the future of what happens to America depends on your generation. You can turn away and ignore what goes on but you do it at your own peril."
"Fighting Oligarch" rallies have been held in a number of big cities including Denver and Phoenix, drawing large crowds.
