April’s anti-Trump protests in Syracuse are drawing crowd sizes not seen in the region since the Vietnam War era, but organizers say it’s no accident. The rallies are the product of coordinated, strategic work by grassroots groups determined to meet what they call a critical political moment.
Jessica Hess is the media liaison for Indivisible Syracuse, a grassroots group formed after Donald Trump’s 2016 election. Part of a nationwide resistance network, the organization has seen a surge in support, with more than 500 people joining its private Facebook group since February.
“There is a hunger in the Syracuse community to actually show up and find out what they can do to make a difference for their friends, their family, their neighbors... to push back,” Hess said.
Behind every protest are dozens of messages, meetings, and cross-group coordination.
“We are all in communication behind the scenes,” Hess explained. “We all are texting and emailing and using Discord and Signal and all these different platforms to stay in communication with each other to decide what different types of actions we want to be taking.”
Thomas Keck, a founding member of CNY Solidarity Coalition and Indivisible Onondaga County, said organizers are not struggling to get people through the door, they’re struggling to find rooms big enough.
“Right now, people are knocking down our door," he said, "We had 100 new people in January. A different group of 100 new people in February, another 250 in March."
He emphasized that building safe, effective protests takes a great deal of strategy.
“There’s a lot of time and effort that goes into making a successful protest,” Keck said. “Structuring and organizing the protest in a way that’s going to be engaging for folks and also safe.”
Keck said there's an urgency to grow the movement now, while there's still time.
“We’re seeing the dismantling of checks and balances and efforts to entrench power,” he said. “Now is better than tomorrow, and better than next week and next month for people to be standing up.”
The momentum continued this week. The American Association of University Professors hosted a rally Thursday on the Syracuse University quad. May 1st is International Workers’ Day, where protesters have planned to gather at the Everson Museum of Art, with a focus on labor rights and Trump administration policies. Groups like the 50501 movement are helping lead turnout efforts.
“I just encourage everybody to be paying attention,” Hess said. “Even if something is not affecting you directly right now, it may be affecting a friend, a family member, a neighbor, and it is all of our duties to stand up and protect each other from overreaches of government at any level.”
