Protesting Trump | The Women’s March through the eyes of Imperial students

Ana Villanueva | felix reader

I asked myself a question the first time I heard about the Women’s March: Is it necessary? The answer is yes. I joined tens of thousands of people because I needed to share a message too. It was not a complaint. We advocated tolerance and respect for everyone, after all, women’s rights are human rights. I marched because I could and some could not – as one placard read, “I raise up my voice so that others can be heard”. And it mattered because it was part of a movement.

Hope was the predominant feeling amongst all kinds of supporters. Carrie Fisher’s Leia was one of the leaders of this rebellion, portrayed alongside the words “A woman’s place is in the resistance”. All of us, we are the resistance. I will keep on marching so that little girl who was by my side knows that she is powerful, that when the world turns upside down, we rise up. I am not afraid of the future, because democracy will eventually listen. Because we will build bridges instead of walls. Because love trumps hate.

Esther Maltby | felix illustrator

The march was fantastic! It was primarily the atmosphere that did it because despite it being the Women’s March all sorts of causes came up to join us. So it felt rewarding and inspiring just to be surrounded by SO many people who really believed that the world deserved better and the ‘power of the people’ would help it become that. Personally, I do have strong feelings about equal rights and peace and I want to stand up not just for my friends or my sister/mum but for women from around the world who are mistreated or who aren’t granted the basic human rights we all deserve. On hearing of an event to primarily campaign for these issues I couldn’t not go. Though the march was centred around Trump, that didn’t seem to make it feel more political. It didn’t take away the feeling of solidarity.

It felt very empowering and exhilarating to walk through central London (especially in tights, a thong and a pair of balloons) and there was a strong sense of togetherness. In the end I came out of it feeling like there was more hope in the world especially after seeing masses and masses of people walk by me; people who believed in the same things as me, as all of us. It was great to actually voice my opinions!

Helen Money-Kyrle | felix reader

Regardless of whether you believed Donald Trump meant what he said, there was little doubt that he had made some shocking statements.

In my eyes, this left two possibilities for those who voted for him in November; either they agreed with his statements, or they voted for him despite of them. And I was satisfied with neither.

I marched because I feared that the election result would legitimise comments of this nature, and in particular for my concern over the President’s seeming dismissal of issues concerning sexual harassment.

Sadly less than a week in his presidency our worst fears have turned out to have been prophecies.

Fred Fyles | felix editor

As the Women’s March on London made its way down Park Land and Piccadilly that bright, clear Saturday, traffic and tourists were brought to a standstill by a mass of bodies, placards, and flags. Among the signs about pussies and abortion rights, there were a few that stuck out like sore thumbs, no more so than the one that read “Clean Coal is a MYTH!” At the time it seemed incongruous, but today it seems eerily prescient: over his first five days in office, Trump has not only decimated global abortion rights by signing a gag bill, blocking US-funding overseas, but he has lied about how many people attended the inauguration, reinstated the Dakota Access pipeline, and started planning his border wall. His team even coined the idiotic neologism ‘alternative facts’, which would be laughable if it weren’t so terrifying.

So to see environmental protesters at the Women’s March wasn’t only to be expected, but to be celebrated. Those opposing Trump are now faced with two choices, given the wide range of targets he has taken on: either we can spread ourselves too thin, trying to take on way too many topics at one time; or, environmentalists, civil rights activists, and feminists of every colour and creed can unite together to resist any moves that Trump tries to make. Based on last Saturday, when it is estimated up to 100,000 people marched, the latter route is being taken. I can only hope that the momentum is kept up long enough to enact real, tangible change.