'Hands Off' rally against Trump, Musk actions scheduled in Boston on Saturday, joining nationwide protests

Grace Zokovitch, Boston Herald on Apr 2, 2025

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BOSTON — Bostonians are expected to join hundreds of protests across the nation against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk Saturday on Boston Common, in what organizers say will be the “largest mobilization since the president took office.”

“On April 5, national and local organizations are coming together across the country for Hands Off!, a peaceful mass activation in defiance of the Trump-Musk billionaire takeover and the Republican assault on our freedoms and our communities,” Hands Off Boston organizers wrote in an advisory. “This is an all-in moment for the pro-worker movement, pro-constitutional rule of law order, and pro-democracy.”

Boston’s Hands Off protest will begin with a march from the Parkman Bandstand on the Common to City Hall Plaza, where a rally and speaking program will take place.

The Hands Off! site lists over 1,000 events across the country from Washington D.C., to Alaska, to Texas. In the Greater Boston area, Peabody, Newton, Framingham, Wellesley, Natick and more communities have protests planned.

The rally is organized by groups including the Indivisible Mass Coalition, Mass 50501, Swing Blue Alliance, and UU Mass Action, and others.

Listed speakers include Sen. Ed Markey, founder of Trans Resistance Chastity Bowick, ACLU Massachusetts President Carol Rose, and AFT Massachusetts President Jessica Tang, with “more speakers” to be announced ahead of the event.

The Boston band the Dropkick Murphys will also attend, organizers said.

Organizers cited Boston’s role as a “sanctuary against tyranny” and in protecting “our neighbors, no matter where they were born or their race or gender or sexuality.”

“On April 5, We the People of Massachusetts will come together to tell the corrupt, cruel, chaotic tyrants in DC: Hands Off Boston!” the advisory said. “Hands Off Massachusetts! Because We the People means everyone, and Massachusetts is fighting back.”

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