Indivisible SF speech at the January 20, 2026 Free America protest

The following speech was given by one of our members at the Free America protest on January 20, 2026. You can listen to our recording of the speech, or read it in blog post form below.

Hello, my name is Peter, and I am with Indivisible SF.

Today is January 20th, which means it has been one full year of this shit.

It has been one year of the Trump Regime’s corruption, its crimes, its atrocities, its brutalities.

One year of American fascism.

It has also been one year of resistance.
Of people like us rising to defend democracy, our neighbors, and ourselves.

It is people like us who give me hope.

We need hope, because this is a long struggle. Settle in, folks.

Yesterday was the last day of the fifth year of Trump being President.
Today is the first day of the sixth.

Yesterday was the last day of the fifth year of people resisting Trump.
Today is the first day of the sixth.

Yesterday was also Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I marched, with fellow Indivisibles and other activists and union members and with everyday, ordinary people just like you.

Were you there yesterday?

Yesterday I marched, we marched, for peace, for justice, for solidarity, for healing.

Today we marched again, for the same reasons.

But after this past year, after five years of this shit, it should be clear that marching is not enough.

Dr. King marched. But he did not march alone. And all of those who marched with him, and many others who did not march with him, did other work that was every bit as vital to the movement, every bit as necessary for the wins they achieved.

The movement for voting rights for Black people in the South and for desegregation spanned multiple organizations—

the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Congress for Racial Equity, Dr. King’s own organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and many others,

each in their own boats,
each with their own visions of their destination,
all rowing together toward the same horizon.

We are taught, on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, to celebrate the life and work of one great man.

And we should appreciate and celebrate the work that he did, as an orator to persuade, and a shepherd to lead, but we should not attribute those victories all to one man.

It was a movement of many people that passed the Voting Rights Act.
It was a movement of many people that passed the Civil Rights Act.
It was a movement of many people that passed women’s suffrage,
that extended the frail protections of American citizenship to Native Americans,
movements of many people that built unions and won contracts,
and secured protections for labor in law,
movements of many people who organized, and protested,
and struck, and marched,
and fought, and bled,
and sometimes were killed,
so we can enjoy the rights and protections we have today.

Frail as they are.

That is not the work of one great man. Do not fall for that lie.
It was and is the work of a movement.
And a movement is made of many people, just like you.

When you take a clear look at our country today, you see a lot of problems—as clearly as Dr. King did in his day.

Poverty, warmongering, preventable disease, homelessness, hunger.

And you see their causes as clearly as Dr. King did.

A vain few, who live in ivory towers on wealth skimmed from our very paychecks.

A vain few who hate that people like us create the wealth they extract, who’d rather build systems they call “AI” to do a shite imitation of our labor than suffer another minute paying us for it.

A vain few who would have us make war on other people, at home and abroad, because that sops up the resources that could be used to give all of us a better life.

A vain few who play Monopoly with real money and real companies, the companies entrusted to be our food producers and supermarkets and doctor’s offices and hospitals, merging them, consolidating them, closing them, depriving all of us so they can have it all.

I cannot close with a simple solution. There ain’t no one weird trick.

It is a big problem made of many problems.

But that means the solution is made of many solutions.

You do not need to solve it all yourself.
No-one can—even the great men and great women we are taught about were but leaders of a greater mass of everyday people
just.
like.
you.

Just like me.

Just like the person next to you.

And the person in front of you.

You do not need to solve it all.

The Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg says “we need all hands on deck and there’s a lot of deck.”

There is something that you can do.

Something you know how to do.

Something you are able to do.

Something you enjoy doing.

Maybe you’re good at capturing the moment in photos or in art.
Maybe you’re good at explaining things or being persuasive.
Maybe you’re good at making videos, or flyers, or protest signs, or websites.
Maybe you’re an event planner who sees this protest and has already thought of a dozen different things you can do better.

We need you.

Some of these things may seem small. But each is one solution to one problem, among the many solutions we need to the many problems we face.

Whatever you can do, we need it.

We need you doing it.

Find your piece of the work and start doing it.

Find your place in this movement, the organization of other people you like working with, and join up.
And get started.

Take a flyer. Take a zine. Find the people who are looking for you.

We need you to find your boat, and start rowing, so we can all reach that beautiful horizon of peace, and justice, and democracy

together.

Thank you.