A “Hands Off!” protest was held Saturday at noon in South Bend as part of a nationwide collection of protests occurring in all 50 states. The protest, during which South Bend participants marched from the side of Indiana State Road 933 to Angela Boulevard, was a pushback against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s control over national and global policy issues.
Signs brought to the protest carried the “Hands Off!” message, reading “Hands off Canada,” “Hands off the post office” and “Hands off the Judiciary,” among others. Chants shared throughout the event included “Throw him out” and “Show me what democracy looks like – This is what democracy looks like.”
The local protest was organized by the Michiana Alliance for Democracy-Indiana (MAD-Indiana), part of the Indivisible Network, a progressive organization established after the 2016 election.
Mary Ellen Hegedus, a committee member of MAD-Indiana and director of library services at Holy Cross College, discussed the reach of the Indivisible Network and what it aims to do for both national policies and the local community.
“They started first around 2016 when Trump was first elected to protest his agenda because we knew things were going to be bad. About that same time, the local Indivisible started, and we’ve been involved since then. There are Indivisibles all over the country … we’re just one of them … there are over 1,200 protests nationwide today,” Hegedus said.
At least 600 people were expected to attend the event after signing up on Mobilize, but Hegedus mentioned that they were “hoping for a thousand.” A mixture of tri-campus community members and South Bend residents attended the event, including Notre Dame’s former head women’s basketball coach, Muffet McGraw.
Carrie Bowie, another committee member for MAD-Indiana and director of liturgy for the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, discussed the purpose of the protest as a way for citizens' voices to be heard and equally represented.
“Everybody comes for a different reason. They come because of social security, Medicaid, veterans, scientific research. They come to say hands off all of these things that are being affected by Elon Musk, Trump and our Republican officials who won’t do anything,” Bowie said.
Organizers and protesters discussed why they decided to attend the hours-long protest.
“I am afraid of the future. I am a grandmother and 80 years old marching for my kids and grandchildren, and I’m marching for their rights. I’m marching for those who have no voice or can’t find a voice or who are hidden,” protester and South Bend resident Marla Sisti said.
Hegedus mentioned her father’s occupation hitting close to what the presidential administration was impacting, especially the job market and working class jobs.
“They decimated the National Labor Relations Board, and they’re taking OSHA [the Occupational Safety and Health Administration] out of factories that keep workers safe. My dad was a union president, and that really is close to my heart,” Hegedus said.
A common theme amongst protesters was being ‘fed up’ with the changes that were occurring from the government. This was expressed by Notre Dame senior and former co-president of College Democrats Olivia Anderson, who discussed inequality in power distribution.
“What’s happening in Washington and across the country right now is completely unacceptable with the amount of power concentrated in the top. It seems like very little input from the rest of the country. I’m here because I don’t want to let authoritarianism win and this is one way of many in South Bend that we can do that,” Anderson said.
Protesters also wanted to send the message that they will not tolerate the current state of the government, which they see as on a path of disrupting the operations and people of the U.S.
“The resistance is growing. We are not going to put up with the dismantling of our democracy no matter how hard it might be right now, no matter how discouraged people are. Because at the heart of it, we are still a democratic society and we are not letting people who have grievances destroy everything we’ve worked so hard for,” protester and director of Notre Dame’s Balfour-Hesburgh Scholars Program Cecilia Lucero said.
Protester and associate professor of English and environmental studies Christopher Cobbs shared hopes for large-scale changes following the protest, including seeing “Congress starting to do its job and rein in a lawless presidency.”
Jane Pitz ‘71, another protester, hoped that the “Hands Off!” protests would allow people to build solidarity within their community.
“People feel alone in their moral anger about what’s happening here,” she said.
Others expressed the same appreciation for the connections offered by the protest, sharing that the amount of people in attendance enabled them to feel more confident in their views.
“It’s nice that you don’t feel alone. My family is all pro-Trump, so it can be really easy to just get really discouraged. It’s nice to see so many people that care about other people,” said protester Carissa Fields, a community health worker for REAL Services, Inc.
On the overarching purpose of the event, Bowie said, “It’s just to let people know that things are serious and this is not normal. This is not another administration just taking over and doing what’s been done before. This is not normal, and we have to do something.”
