Around 13,000 Santa Barbara locals gathered downtown at Alameda Park on Oct. 18 for the second “No Kings” protest, organized by local activist organization Indivisible Santa Barbara.
Attendees marched and chanted down Anacapa Street to De La Guerra Plaza, equipped with homemade signs and some dressed in costumes. Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus
Attendees heard speeches from politicians and local community leaders, and then marched and chanted down Anacapa Street to De La Guerra Plaza, equipped with homemade signs and some dressed in costumes.
On June 14, “No Kings” protests drew over five million people nationwide to the streets to protest President Donald Trump’s large-scale military parade. According to the “No Kings” website, the October protests are in response to the current administration’s policies on immigration, guns, health care, education, environmental protections and threats to democracy, among other issues.
Around 11 a.m., organizers began setting up the stage and tables for community organizations, while protesters made their way into Alameda Park. The protest officially began shortly after noon, with Indivisible Santa Barbara (ISB) Vice President Myra Paige speaking first and introducing the other speakers.
Paige listed the movement’s many grievances with the current administration, including the erosion of democratic norms and separation of powers, budget cuts in academia and dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, among others.
“[President Trump] demands loyalty, but is loyal to no one. America is not drifting towards authoritarianism. We are there,” Paige said. “Contrary to Republican belief, we are not hate-filled terrorists. We are love-filled patriots. We are compassionate. We are decency. We are freedom-loving. We are peace-loving and understanding. So it is up to us, everyone here and across the country, to fight back.”
Around 13,000 locals gathered downtown for the second “No Kings” protest. Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus
Next, 24th District Representative Salud Carbajal spoke on the importance of fighting for democratic values in America. He denounced the Trump administration’s policies, calling them an “assault on our core beliefs.”
“Look no further than the ongoing Republican government shutdown. As of today, the federal government has been shut down for 18 days,” Carbajal said. “Let’s be clear about one thing. Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House. This shutdown is on them.”
Carbajal specifically criticized the Trump administration’s recent $20 billion currency swap agreement with Argentina — which is currently facing an economic crisis involving inflation and currency devaluation — and referred to the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, as a “right-wing dictator-like leader.”
Additionally, Carbajal condemned the federal government’s “massive cuts in healthcare,” which he said would lead to health insurance costs doubling for over 20 million Americans.
“All this is being done to pay for Republican massive tax breaks for their rich donors and their huge corporations,” Carbajal said. ‘Taking people’s health care away is simply cruel and we will not stand for it.”
Following this, State Assembly Member Gregg Hart spoke on California’s national importance and prominence due to technological innovation, agricultural production and overall economic prosperity, and denounced how Trump has withheld disaster relief following the Los Angeles fires and tried to cut funding for the University of California system.
“When people ask, who’s holding America together? We all know the answer, it’s California,” Hart said. “So what is President Trump doing to help us prosper and to help us continue to lead the country? More than nothing, he’s attacking us every day.”
Hart concluded by emphasizing the importance of Californians standing against the Trump administration’s policies by rejecting governmental corruption, corporate control and indifferent politicians, which he says has made it increasingly difficult for working people to “make ends meet.”
“Let’s make it clear, Santa Barbara. We’re not backing down. We’re not giving up. We’re standing up for working families, for democracy, for the California dream,” Hart said.
State Assembly Member Gregg Hart denounced how Trump has withheld disaster relief following the LA fires and tried to cut funding for the UC. Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus
After this, Julissa Peña — the executive director of the Santa Barbara County Immigrant Legal Defense Center, a local non-profit that represents immigrants in need in court — spoke to the importance of defending immigrants, and criticized the administration’s “cruel” policies towards them.
“When we fight for immigrants, we fight for truth, justice and democracy itself. Because a government that can strip rights from one group can and will strip them from all of us,” Peña said.
Primitiva Hernandez, executive director of 805UndocuFund, a grass-roots group that provides aid to undocumented communities, called upon attendees to use their voices and liberate themselves from “systems that exploit [them]” and deny them from things like health care, housing and dignity.
“I dream of a day when our brown, Black and Indigenous families no longer live in fear, defined by borders or broken systems,” Hernandez said. “But dreaming isn’t enough. It’s time to act. We are not the enemy. The enemy sits in power with the billionaires, with the oligarchs, but only when we allow it.”
Following Hernandez, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood California Central Coast Jenna Tosh criticized H.R.1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, for defunding Planned Parenthood. According to Tosh, these cuts primarily affect women, minorities, low-income people, those living in rural areas and the LGBTQIA+ community.
“We all know that Trump and his supporters knew exactly who defunding would hurt. And that was the point,” Tosh said. “Because like everything this administration does, the cruelty is the point.”
The last speaker of the day was Madeline Vailhe, a doctoral candidate in UC Santa Barbara’s Department of Materials and a member of the Student Employee Union for the UC (UAW 4811). She emphasized that the UC is a leader in biomedical health research on “treatments for cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and HIV/AIDS” and shared stories of her colleagues who have been directly impacted by cut funding.
“I have personally seen some of the best researchers I know choose to leave the country and continue their work somewhere else. That means clinical trials will stop, new treatments will not be brought to market and more sick people will die from avoidable death,” Vailhe said.
Vailhe also urged attendees to support California State Senate Bill 607, which would allocate $23 billion to a California Foundation for Science and Health Research, and vote for it as a bond measure proposition in the next general election.
Many of the speakers urged attendees to vote yes on California Proposition 50, an upcoming ballot measure that would redraw California’s congressional district maps in favor of Democrats. The proposition is a response to partisan redistricting in Texas that is advantageous for Republican candidates.
Shortly after 1 p.m., protestors were directed to peacefully march down Anacapa Street to De La Guerra Plaza before dispersing. Many of them yelled chants, including “This is what democracy looks like.”
The protestors included a wide range of Santa Barbara residents, including students from UCSB and Santa Barbara City College. Several of these attendees stated that they felt these protests were a call to action in opposition to the Trump administration.
“I’m really frustrated with the direction that our country is going in. It stresses me out a lot, especially as a brown person, especially as an immigrant,” a UCSB student who wished to remain anonymous said. “I’m afraid for my parents and I’m afraid for my friends. If we don’t do anything, I don’t think anything will change.”
Keith Carlson, the chair of ISB’s Steering Committee, said in an interview with the Nexus that despite ISB being a progressive organization, they want to build a coalition across the political spectrum.
“We’re a big tent, we really are, particularly around here. I really am trying to find Republicans to join us,” Carlson said. “We probably don’t agree on a lot of stuff, but we both agree that the Trump administration needs to be gone or needs to behave themselves like a normal administration.”
Carlson shared that ISB struggles to get local college students involved in activism. To change this, ISB plans to work with UCSB Campus Democrats to hold events in Isla Vista and on campus.
“We can’t think that UCSB students are going to come to us. We got to go to them,” Carlson said. “We’re going to start trying to do events in I.V. and events on campus, maybe bring in something that will make it a little more light-hearted, maybe some music, because what we’ve been doing hasn’t worked so far.”
The October protests are in response to the current administration’s policies on immigration, guns, healthcare, education, environmental protections and threats to democracy, among other issues. Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus
A version of this article appeared on p. 1 of the Oct. 23 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
