Bernie Saunders & Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attract 36,000 to Gloria Molina Park for Trump/Musk Protest

By staff, photos by David Spargur and Saskia Kennedy on April 13, 2025

Part of the overflow crowd was able to hear and watch on the big screen

•See video of the entire event on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU_GhbFH2Gw

•The Guardian has an accurate report on the event at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/12/bernie-sanders-rally-los-angeles

36,000 people came to hear and support Bernie Sanders and AOC in their stop in LA to the 12-acre Gloria Molina Grand Park on April 12, 2025. Several groups from Fullerton attended the event. Below is one account:

Arriving late for the Fight Oligarchy Tour which started at 9 am – we joined the very outer edge of the huge overflow crowd which spread a half mile around the main area at Gloria Molina Park. We couldn’t see the enormous crowd or the stage but a giant screen was provided in our Spring/1st Street area where about 7,000 gathered.

MUSIC: Legends Joan Baez, and Neil Young along with Maggie Rogers, the Raise Gospel Choir, The Red Pears, Indigo de Souza and others provided music and a “Take America Back” message. During a break, Tracy Chapman’s “Talking About a Revolution” played over the loudspeaker.

SPEAKERS: Among the speakers taking the stage early in the day was dynamic local LA Council District 1 Eunisses Hernandez who said the Trump administration was trying to get us to blame each other for problems instead of blaming those who are “actually profiting from our pain” – the special interest billionaires. “It’s not your immigrant neighbor, or trans folks, or unhoused people to blame for low wages, inadequate healthcare, sky-high rents, lack of affordable housing…”

Congressmembers Jimmy Gomez, Pramila Jayapal and Ro Khanna spoke and Gil Cisneros, Judy Chu, and others were present.
Union Leaders Lorena Gonzalez, April Verrett and others spoke about fighting for what people need and deserve instead of giving trillions in tax breaks for billionaires and corporations while stripping rights from working people and retirees.

photo by David Spargur

AOC: The crowd roared as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took the stage. “We are here today because an extreme form of greed and power is taking over our country – Oligarchy in America – we are watching our families, students and friends being targeted, fired, and disappeared off the street by men in unmarked vans and no uniform. It is real. Educators being fired for teaching American history accurately; activists being detained with no charge or evidence.” She gave several examples of students detained and held with “no charge for using their First Amendment rights – especially when used for Palestinians.” including permanent citizen Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk here on a student visa (neither had committed any crime) and she demanded their release.

She gave a recent example of administrators and teachers in LA schools and the community who stood up and said No when ICE attempted to grab children from two schools.
“A better world is possible and we can get there,” …we can have oligarchy or democracy – we can’t have both,” she said.

“Trump is not an aberration,” AOC said, “he is the logical conclusion of a corrupt system dominated by corporate and dark money for decades. She listed how we got here – including big money buying elections – and listed three California politicians going along with Trump’s unpopular plans to defund Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and Veterans – such as Young Kim in Orange County.

But it is not just Republicans who are caving to big money pressure – some Democrats also caved, said AOC. However, in California, your Congressmembers Padilla and Schiff voted against defunding safety and health programs.

She said the recent stock market crash due to Trump’s tariffs (reversed the next day) was not about bringing home manufacturing but about stock manipulation. “Donald Trump is a criminal – found guilty of 34 felonies – of course, he is manipulating the stock market too.”

“Hate is a trap that sinks us all,” she said when talking about the Trump crew’s efforts to sow division among us. “Together is the only way we can win our goal to commit to building the kind of country we all deserve.”

photo by David Spargur

BERNIE: AOC introduced Senator Bernie Sanders as the Raise choir sang “Power to the People,” and the crowd roared and broke out in a chant of “Bernie, Bernie.” He corrected the crowd saying “No, no – it’s about you,” He then thanked all the unions representing worker rights and the musicians, singers, and everyone who had come out to the record-breaking event. “We are going to make our movement one of joy and against hate and division,” and your presence is making Elon and Trump very nervous.”

He invited Trump to come to LA and explain why it’s a great idea to cut programs that help people – to fund tax cuts for billionaires.

“We are living in a moment of extraordinary danger and how we respond in this moment will not only impact our lives but will impact the lives of our kids and future generations and in terms of the climate – on whether the planet Earth survives. That’s why we are here today,” said Sanders.

“A handful of billionaires control the economic and political life of our country…we are living in a moment where the president has no understanding or respect for the Constitution of the United States – and is moving us rapidly to an authoritarian form of society… And Mr. Trump we ain’t going there.”

“As we speak,” he said – the republicans – who have become a cult saying yes to everything Trump asks for – are plotting about how they can give a $1.1 trillion in tax breaks to the 1% and devastate programs that working families need.”

He pointed out that at Trump’s inauguration three months ago standing on the stage directly behind him were the three richest billionaires in the country – and behind them were 13 other billionaires which Trump appointed to head the departments in his administration. “That is what oligarchy is all about.”

• Definition by Britannica: Oligarchy, government by the few, especially despotic power exercised by a small and privileged group for corrupt or selfish purposes.

Sanders repeated Abraham Lincoln’s statement from the Gettysburg Address at the end of the Civil War that ended slavery, “Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
“That is why we are here today to make sure we do not become a nation of the billionaire class, by the billionaire class, for the billionaire class,” he said.

‘We don’t want to see the richest guy on earth running around Washington DC decimating Social Security”…benefits which people paid into and deserve and seniors rely on in old age; proposing to lay off 83,000 workers at the Veteran’s Administration; denying healthcare to the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend us; slashing the Department of Education; decimating USAID – which affects millions of the most desperate people around the world.”

He talked about the corrupt campaign finance system where billionaires can buy politicians and elections. “Don’t tell me about democracy when Musk can put $270 million to elect. Donald. Trump and then get rewarded with the most important position in government.”

“But it’s not just Musk and Republicans – it’s the Democratic Party as well. Their billionaires tell candidates – don’t stand up to the powerful special interests – and too many democrats are listening.”

“We must turn over the disastrous ‘Citizens United’ Supreme Court decision and move to public funding of elections. In America – one person one vote – not billionaires buying elections.”

“We are fighting a president who undermines our constitution every day – who threatens our freedoms of speech and assembly – and whose agents are rounding up innocent people off the streets, putting them in unmarked vans and throwing them in detention centers. That is what happens in dictatorships, not democracies. And we’re going to stop that outrageous action….”

He spoke about the separation of powers. Trump is going after the powers of Congress which he has no legal right to do. He is going after the Judges – trying to impeach those who make decisions he doesn’t like. He is going after law firms who have opposed him (and disgracefully a number of these law firms have caved in). He is going after universities – removing federal grants if they don’t do what he wants.
Trump is suing the media because they say bad things about him.

“For the first time in our country’s history, we have a president who is aligning himself with dictatorships abroad.”

“Trump wants $8 billion more dollars to go to Netanyahu’s war machine. Israel has a right to defend itself against terrorism – but it does not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people. It doesn’t have the right to kill 50,000 people (probably more like 100,00) and destroy the entire infrastructure. And as bad as that is – Trump wants to expel the 2.2 million Palestinians left in Gaza in order to create a playground for his billionaire friends.”

“Our job is to create an economy that works for everyone not just the people on top.”
“The three richest people own more wealth than the bottom half of our society – 170 million people. The top 1% owns more wealth than the 90%, and the CEOs of major corporations earn 300 times what their workers are making.
“60% of our people live paycheck to paycheck. Despite huge increases in worker productivity, real inflation-accounted-for wages are lower today than they were 52 years ago. Workers produce more and more but all the benefits from that increase are going to the top 1%. Today half of older workers have nothing in the bank as they face retirement. 22%% of our seniors are living on $15,000 a year or less. 800,000 Americans sleep out on the streets.

He talked about hearing Dr. Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech – we should be proud that we have made some progress on racism. But, in our economic struggle, we have lost ground. He mentioned President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s sentiment that we have a great country, constitution, freedom of speech and religion but we need to recognize that economic rights are human rights. In the year 2025, we need to pick up that banner. We are human beings and entitled to human rights.

photo by David Spargur

There are no tax breaks to the 1% and they must start paying their fair share of taxes.
No, we are not going to keep a federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour – we are going to raise that to a living wage. No worker in America should live in poverty.
We are going to grow the unions.
We are not going to turn our backs on our parents and their parents who helped build the nation. We are not going to cut Social Security – we’re going to expand it.
And reinstate defined pensions.
And instead of making cuts to Medicaid we must do what every other major country on Earth does and guarantee healthcare for all under a single-payer Medicare for All system as a human right. The function of healthcare is not to make insurance and drug companies rich. We are going to stop paying more for prescription drugs.

We have a major housing crisis with people paying 40 to 60% of their income for housing. Instead of spending a trillion dollars a year on the military let’s build low-income and affordable housing.

We live in a competitive world and in order to compete need the best-educated workforce. It is counter-productive that we have young people leaving higher education in debt. Education is a human right from childcare through college. We need to make colleges, universities, and trade schools tuition-free.

“Trump thinks climate change is a hoax originating in China. Instead of appeasing the fossil fuel industry who are destroying our planet we are going to transform our energy system and lead the world into sustainable energy and energy efficiency and we create millions of good paying jobs as we do that.

“This is a difficult moment – but despair is not an option. Giving up and hiding under the covers is not acceptable. The stakes are just too high.”

“We are the 99% – they are the 1%.
Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist said in 1857 and it is true today, “Power concedes nothing without demands – it never did and never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

“The oligarchy will concede nothing – they have the wealth – they have the power – they own Congress – they own the White House – they own much of the media but, they don’t own us.
“I am not telling you it will be easy. We will have to fight them door to door, workplace to workplace, school to school. We are going to have to educate, mobilize, and stand up in a dozen different ways.

“I’ve been to every state in this country – the people – I don’t care of what party – do not want oligarchy, they do not want authoritarianism. And they want a government that works for all of us and not just the 1%.”

Several times during Sander’s speech an interruption occurred as he paused and directed EMTs to a person in the crowd who was having a health issue, and he waited until the person was helped before continuing.

The enormous crowd dispersed after Bernie’s speech. Some of us traveled on to a Family & Friends Passover Seder which began with thoughts sent out to our troubled country and world, the people of the Ukraine, and the Palestinians struggling to survive the genocide in Gaza.