Photos: “Hands Off” protesters rally in Northampton

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In city centers across the region, people showed up in protest, crowding sidewalks and spilling into the street to oppose the Trump administration’s assault on the federal government, immigrants, free speech, and much more. The demonstrators’ message, in more than 1,200 such rallies nationwide, was an umbrella demand for those angry about increasing authoritarianism in the United States: “hands off.” 

In western Massachusetts, the protests came the day after the University of Massachusetts Amherst announced that the federal government had revoked the visas of five students this week and several weeks after immigration agents rounded up 370 people statewide, including four farmworkers from Red Fire Farm in Granby. 

Medicaid recipients are worried about losing their health care to funding cuts overseen by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, and so are veterans and others. Already, the region has been hit by Trump and his allies slashing funding for local farms, food for the hungry, and climate research, to name just a few programs. Students in the Springfield Public Schools got $47 million in federal funding yanked away from them.

It was against this backdrop of discord that people poured into the streets in Northampton on Saturday, taking over Main Street on a cold, rainy day. The Shoestring photographed the demonstrators and interviewed several people about what brought them to the streets. 

These are their stories and their messages:

“Rage. We got to protect it. This country has never seen this much devastation. Got to be here.” — Amy

“I’m an advocate for child rights and the proposal to cut funding to Gavi, [the global vaccine alliance], and the dismantling of USAID and the withdrawal from [the World Health Organization], those things are going to kill children. And I know that, I’ve worked in the field for more than 20 years in international development. I’ve heard women scream when their children have died of preventable causes.” — Lisa Szarkowski

“I’m out here with the Democratic Socialists of America and I’m trying to get a feel for why everyone else is out here. I’m out here trying to put a pin on capitalism being the reason that Trump and Musk are in the position they’re in right now. I’m seeing a lot of people very fixated on them as personalities. The message I’m bringing is that it’s more of a systemic problem.” — Brett Belcastro

“I’m out here to protest this administration’s efforts to support and expand violence around the world. I’m here for Veterans for Peace. I hope to see just an increase in general awareness and maybe some citizen action throughout the year to push back on some of these issues, not just including militarization and war, support of violence throughout the world, but all of the other issues people are out here to support. Hands off Social Security, hands off of green energy, hands off of our national forests and parks. I’d just like to see this as maybe the inauguration of an exciting year of action.” — Scott Brubach

“[I’m here] to fight for what’s right. I hope for the government to see what they’ve been doing wrong and how many people they’re hurting and injuring throughout the USA.” Maggie Palmer-Levi, 10 years old

“I think as much as anything right now I just hope to feel a little bit of solidarity and a little hope that we’re not alone. And it’s a chance to make our voices heard and to help our kids see that there is something we can do. I don’t know. I know these things move slowly.” — Mara Levi

“I actually have come here to fight for pride and stuff.” — Charlie Figueroa-Starr

“I just want to be in solidarity with everyone else who feels the way I do that everything about the Trump administration is outrageous and goes against the values I was brought up to believe in.” — Arn Krugman 

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Less than an hour into the demonstration, protesters were able to shut down the major intersection of Main Street and King Street. They accomplished this by flooding the intersection during pauses in traffic until it became untenable for police to keep ushering people out of the street.

Other demonstrators carried messages of solidarity for workers, immigrants, the LGBTQIA+ community, and people facing restrictions on their reproductive rights.

Concerns about democracy, national parks, and the rise of authoritarian power were also on people’s minds.

Only one counter protester was witnessed by The Shoestring during the demonstration. He held out what appeared to be a “Trump” bumper sticker from the window of his car as he drove down Main street between sidewalks lined with “Hands Off” protestors.

As people eventually filtered out of the intersection, the A.P.E. Gallery welcomed demonstrators to leave behind their signs to be displayed in their windows. 

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A second “Hands Off” rally kicked off in front of Northampton City Hall later in the day. Jennifer Scarlott, and organizer with River Valley for Gaza Healthcare and Demilitarize Western Massachusetts, said the second rally was meant to be focused on “the genocide in Gaza, the need for an arms embargo on Israel, and opposing ICE attacks on students, immigrants, and workers.”

“Organizers of the second rally, who are members of Demilitarize Western Massachusetts, suggested to organizers of the first rally that the two rallies be merged, but were declined,” Scarlott said. “We feel that Indivisible is mistaken in failing to work to oppose the genocide in Gaza, to bring attention to it in their ralllies today, and to understand its connections to growing fascism in the United States and other western countries.”

Jewish Voice for Peace of Western Massachusetts also told The Shoestring that they hope for more collaboration.

“The people are with Palestine, and we will continue to fight for a future that does not pit us against each other, but creates cross-movement solidarity,” the group said in a statement. 

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