By Arnie Alpert, Active with the Activists
Arnie Alpert spent decades as a community organizer/educator in NH movements for social justice and peace. Officially retired since 2020, he keeps his hands (and feet) in the activist world while writing about past and present social movements.
CONCORD—It was another rowdy afternoon in downtown Concord, where hundreds of protesters took to the street to protest President Donald Trump and celebrate International Women’s Day. Participants chanted with purpose, waved their mostly homemade signs at passing motorists, and cheered when drivers honked or gave them thumbs up.
Despite a chilly wind and a small band of counter-protesters, the crowd maintained high spirits throughout the afternoon, happy to be in public with like-minded people standing up to a firehose of Trumpist initiatives.
Athena Philibert, from Manchester, was standing near the corner of Park Street wielding a sign that said, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Human Rights.” The other side said, “Nevertheless, she persisted,” and Philbert said she had another in her bag that said, “Love like Jesus.”
“I work in early childhood education, and I think it’s really important that we shape the world we have our kids growing up into,” she told me. “I’m not sure the current climate’s where I want them to live their lives out. So I think it’s important to go out and change that. Now.” On International Women’s Day, Philibert was thinking about her mom, a single mother whose mom was also a single mother. “It’s about really appreciating the beauty and the strength of women across time and everywhere,” she said.
Caitlin Hill from Loudon was standing with Kaitlyn Llewellen from Manchester. Llewellen, whose sign said, “All I want for International Women’s Day is for Men to Stop Killing Women,” said she’s been to about 20 demonstrations since Trump’s first election, but this was Hill’s first. She held a sign about the proposed SAVE Act, a bill ostensibly dealing with safeguarding “American Voter Eligibility.” But Llewellen explained the bill would actually make it harder for women whose married name doesn’t match their birth certificate to register to vote. I made sure they knew about a voting rights demonstration planned for the following day in Manchester.
Like previous protests organized by the New Hampshire branch of the national 50-50-1 movement, signs displayed a wide variety of issues, from general messages like “Stop the Coup” to more specific ones like “My genitals, my business.” Also like the “Not My Presidents Day” rally on February 17, participants initially crowded onto City Plaza but then mostly dispersed to the two sides of Main Street where they would be more visible to people driving by.
There were some new twists to this day of action. The organizers had just printed business cards with their contact information and a QR code leading to their discussion group on a chat service called Discord and spread them through the crowd. There was a larger team of people with yellow “staff” lanyards. In addition, they brought a more powerful sound system and had several people take the mic and give short speeches about the rights of women and trans-gender people, both of which they see as under assault by the Trump team. There were even a couple of songs.
Another difference was a small band of counterdemonstrators, mobilized by the NH Federation of Republican Women and carrying signs about what they see as a threat to women’s sports from the presence of trans-gender girls who want to play soccer and basketball like other kids. The 50-50-1 organizers were prepared.
“Last night, we received notification that the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women have created a Call to Action for their members to come to the State House on Saturday to counter protest,” Brittni Widdick posted on the group’s Facebook page on March 6. “They say that NH Democrats claim to be the party of women while refusing to protect women and girls in sports and private spaces.”
“We are not a partisan group. Our principles have little to do with any party,” Widdick stressed. “Our Mission Statement outlines, ‘We amplify the voices of marginalized groups—including LGBTQ+, Black and Brown Americans, women, children, low-income individuals, and people with disabilities—and advocate for their needs… We believe in upholding the Constitution of the United States of America.’ Still, it is clear that they are talking about us.”
Widdick went on to explain that her group had a permit and that they were committed to peaceful interactions with anyone who showed up. “This counter-protest group seems excessively focused on trans kids. I don’t know about you, but that makes my blood boil,” she went on. “I am a mom, and kids are kids. These children are just trying to live their lives, and a group of people … are making their existence political, when there are so many real issues they could be focusing on.”
NH 50-50-1 sent out additional messages about the importance of nonviolent discipline and also invited members of the NH Peacekeeper Project to be present. Bill Maddox, one of that group’s steering committee members, explained their purpose is to de-escalate conflicts which otherwise might get out of hand. If “it’s just conversation and people being interested in each other’s point of view,” he said, there’s no problem. But when you have “people trying to shut each other down or be rude, or be provocative,” that’s when the peacekeepers might step in to cool things down.
Wearing distinctive white vests, the peacekeepers stationed themselves at both ends of the City Plaza, paying particular attention to the group of about a dozen counter-protesters carrying signs with slogans like, “Save Women’s Sports.”
In addition, Lark Moinoto, one of the 50-50-1 leaders, worked the crowd of sign-holders on the east side of Main Street with advice on how they should respond to hostile passersby. After getting the attention of a few people amidst the hubbub, she said, “Thanks for coming out here. We really can’t do stuff like this without all of you guys. We’re asking you if you get booed at, if people are rude, if something like that happens, respond with love,” she told one cluster of protesters. Instead of responding in kind to hostility, she suggested, find something positive to say.
By late afternoon, the counter-protesters had left, having been largely ignored. “They are good people who are maybe a little bit misguided in the way that they want to help people,” observed Athena Philibert. Maddox said a few people were aggravated by their presence, but nothing happened that could have interfered with the message of the Women’s Day event. Several people reported an incident in which a vehicle got close enough to brush a sign-wielding protester who was leaning out into traffic, but no one was hurt.
Several members of the 50-50-1 organizing team told me they were pleased with the turnout and the enthusiasm. More protests are planned, including one March 14 focused on issues facing veterans of the armed forces. Christopher Farrell, who spent eight years in the Navy and deployed twice to the Middle East, said he thinks more veterans will get involved as cuts to the Veterans Administration sink in.
National 50-50-1 leaders have called for another day of protest on April 5, and the group’s New England affiliates are planning something in Lexington, Massachusetts on April 19. That’s the anniversary of the day American colonists rose up against the King of England.