No Kings Day march in Oakland, Calif., October 18, 2025. | Marilyn Bechtel/ People’s World
OAKLAND, Calif.—Streets around Chinatown’s Wilma Chan Park were packed on Oct. 18, No Kings Day, as thousands of people bearing signs with messages like “Democracy Needs Your Courage” and “Stop the ICE Age,” and wearing costumes both fanciful and political, marched to the Lake Merritt Amphitheater, led by youth from Destiny Arts Center. Organizers said more than 10,000 joined in the action—one among some 50 in the San Francisco Bay Area.
At the lake, they responded with cheers and applause as U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon, who represents Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, and neighboring communities in Congress, challenged them: “As we gather here today, feel your strength, feel your power!”
Protestor holds sign at No Kings Day demo in Oakland, Calif., October 18, 2025. | Marilyn Bechtel/ People’s World
Calling the government shutdown “the work of a Republican Party that has mistaken greed for governance and chaos for courage,” Simon said Republican legislators “are punishing people for their own failure,” and “we will continue to organize against their savagery.”
While “we are in fact living in the midnight of our democracy,” she said, “midnight doesn’t last forever … and dawn is coming,” because the people gathered for No Kings actions here and throughout the country “are telling this administration we will never bow down, never be on our knees!”
Oakland Mayor and former Congresswoman Barbara Lee galvanized the crowd as she declared, “Donald Trump wants to be a king. He wants to be a dictator; he wants to tear down the guardrails of government—the courts, our Constitution, the checks and balances that protect us from tyranny.
“Well, not on our watch! When they try to roll back our voting rights, when they try to silence our voices, when they rig our maps, they rewrite the rules. We stand up, fight back, and speak louder than ever before. We are free people and we intend to stay that way!”
Addressing the crowd in Spanish, Teresa, a member of Trabajadores Unidos/Workers United, said that while ICE tactics in the Bay Area have been different from those in Los Angeles and other cities, they are still creating terror and fear because no one is immune to an ICE raid.
“Here in the Bay Area, we are organizing,” she said, as allies meet “to coordinate a line of defense” and directly impacted communities make emergency plans “because we know we keep each other safe.”
Teresa led the crowd in chanting, “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido! The people united will never be defeated!”
Sign at No Kings Day march in Oakland, Calif., October 18, 2025. | Marilyn Bechtel/ People’s World
Thousands of federal workers have been furloughed or are working without pay, said MT Snyder, an organizer with the Federal Unionists Network, while thousands more have been fired by an administration that is not interested in programs that help the American people.
“If you believe that our government should work for us, not rule over us, then I want you to do one thing right now: take out your phone and go to savepublicservices.com,” Snyder told the crowd. “That’s where you can stand up for federal workers, public servants, everyday people, to protect the programs and rights that make this country worth serving.”
Gaza was also on the minds of rally-goers. Oakland School Board Vice President Valarie Bachelor, who MC’d the program, reminded the crowd that in August, the Palestinian Youth Movement released a report revealing that the Oakland Airport had been used to send 280 shipments of military cargo to Israel in the previous six months.
Baby Trump inflatable at No Kings Day march in Oakland, Calif., October 18, 2025. | Marilyn Bechtel/ People’s World
“And now,” Bachelor said, “weapons contractors want to make Northern California their new hub for this deadly trade. We’re saying Hell, No! We refuse to let our city be complicit in genocide. That’s why dozens of organizations have come together to demand an arms embargo now, to stop those killer shipments and to end our city’s role in oppression.”
To cheers and applause from the crowd, Bachelor said marchers were calling for a “people-first agenda” – free speech; freedom to assemble; strengthening immigrant rights, trans rights, and rights of all people, full funding for education and healthcare, stronger labor laws, and environmental protections.
Earlier in the day, as marchers were preparing to leave Wilma Chan Park for the lakeside rally, Dr. Stewart Chen, a leader in Oakland’s Chinatown, told them No Kings Day “is a reminder that the power belongs to the people, belongs to everyone who believes in democracy. From Chinatown and Little Saigon and every street in Oakland to every corner of this nation, our message is clear: We stand united against tyranny and dictatorship!”
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