By Ken Epstein
Joining more than 300 protests and marches across the country, hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators rallied on short notice in Oakland on Saturday, Aug. 16 at the Lake Merritt Amphitheatre in Oakland to denounce the Trump administration’s plans to guarantee Republican reelection by gerrymandering and suppressing voting rights in Texas and other states.
According to Drucilla Tigner, executive director of pro-democracy coalition Texas For All, tens of thousands of people in 44 states and Washington, D.C., attended the day’s protests.
The Oakland rally was sponsored by local organizations including Bay Resistance, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Alameda Labor Council, SEIU 1021, California Working Families Party, and Indivisible East Bay.
Among the speakers were elected officials Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, Congresswoman Lateefah Simon, and Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, as well as local labor and community leaders. The rally was emceed by Valarie Bachelor, a union organizer and vice president of the Oakland Board of Education.
Rep. Simon took a strong stand for justice in Oakland and internationally, speaking out for a free Palestine.
“I came (here today) to bring this message that it is absolutely midnight, and we will find our way to morning. … It is midnight when we have an administration that is so vested in their racism and their xenophobia they are clear that their job is to go into homes and to separate families and to take our brothers and sisters into gulags.
“It is midnight when we sat on the floor of the United States Congress and watched the Republican Party vote ‘yes’ on sending trillions in bombs all over the world,” she said. “Believe me, they are watching that there is a durable (opposition) movement that is growing, that is swelling all over this country.”
Oakland Mayor Lee said, “We (in Oakland) are showing the country what ‘power to the people’ means.
Hundreds rally at Lake Merritt Amphitheater Aug. 16 protesting Trump administration attempts to gerrymander and suppress voting rights. Photo by Ken Epstein.
“This is a coordinated, dangerous effort to take power from the people and hand it to the Trump MAGA extremist Republicans,” Lee said. “They’re trying to rewrite the rules and the laws to restrict and to dismantle what’s left of our voting rights and what’s left of our democracy.”
“We’re not going to let that happen, though,” she continued. “Here in Oakland, once again, we’re not sitting this one out. Let us show what Oakland power is. We believe in our democracy and not in autocracies.”
Supervisor Fortunato-Bas said, “Trump and his Republican allies are trying to steal the 2026 election by redrawing districts in their favor and attacking voting rights. They know they’re going to lose if there’s a level playing field.
“I am working with all of you to fight back,” she continued. “I’m chairing a committee called Alameda County Together for all and we are funding, Know Your Rights trainings, rapid response, and legal services to keep our immigrant families together.
“We have already allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to shore up our social safety net that Trump is defunding,” she said.
Said Derrick Boutte, SEIU 1021’s vice president for the East Bay region, “This is a political emergency. Trump allies are undermining fair elections, silencing votes of color, and holding entire communities hostage to push their political agenda.
“The Republicans keep rigging the rules to tip the balance of power, and if we do nothing, they will continue to pass laws that hurt workers. They have already illegally suspended union contracts and collective bargaining rights for federal workers.”
Kampala Taiz Rancifer, president of the Oakland teachers’ union, the Oakland Education Association (OEA), said, “(Trump) is trying to cut people of color out of the democratic process and disenfranchise our communities. He wants to destroy our democracy. He wants to destroy us. But Oakland, we must show them who we are.”
Gerald Lenoir, co-founder of Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), connected the current fight for democratic rights against fascism to the context of lessons learned from the historic battles against slavery and Jim Crow.
“Freedom and democracy are on the line, and we know if we fight, we can win,” he said. “But we’ve got to do it across all our different communities. We’ve got to invite the immigrant rights movement into this. We’ve got to invite the labor movement. We’ve got to move across the generations, across the movements, across the lines of racial identity, across the lines of gender identity, and fight to win.”
Calling for solidarity and unity within the community, Rev. Jeremy J. McCants, senior pastor-elect of Imani Community Church, said there is a “moral imperative” to oppose the greed that is now rampant in this country, which is “purely evil” and a symptom of terrible “leadership malfunction.”
To counter this evil, “we must rely on ourselves,” he said. “We are utilizing and putting our faith into action. This is what love in action looks like. This is what faith in action looks like. This is what community in action looks like.”
