Addressing a crowd of several hundred people Sunday evening in Berkeley, Jaime Mulligan of Indivisible Berkeley, said: “What’s happened in our country is a giant wake-up call for everyone… and it bears repeating that what happened yesterday wasn’t some accident — that was an organized effort… so we’ll just out-organize them.”
The peaceful demonstration, which started at Finnish Hall around 7 p.m., then took the form of a march to Civic Center Park, ending with a candlelit vigil, was organized by Indivisible Berkeley in the wake of the violent demonstrations in Charlottesville, VA, over the weekend that left one woman dead and many injured.
Indivisible Berkeley is a part of the national Indivisible Movement with a stated mission to resist the agenda of the current administration.
Many of those who attended the Berkeley event carried handmade signs which included messages like “Trump won’t condemn white supremacists because he is one,” “It can happen here,” and “What has happened to my country?”
One man who attended the Charlottesville rally as a white nationalist was identified as the employee of a Berkeley business and subsequently fired.
Others who spoke Sunday evening included Eleanor Moses of Indivisible Berkeley, Rabbi Yoel Kahn of Congregation Beth El, Berkeley, and State Senator Nancy Skinner.
Berkeley has seen its share of rallies organized by far-right groups. So far this year, there have been three so-called Battles of Berkeley: on March 4, April 15 and April 27. The first two turned violent. The next such gathering in Berkeley, titled “No to Marxism in America,” is planned for Aug. 27 in Civic Center Park.
Video, below, by Armin Samii.
