Laid-off federal workers, members of several New York City labor unions, and community groups marched in downtown Manhattan on Saturday, March 15. Participants joined activists to demand an end to the seemingly arbitrary job terminations and related healthcare program reductions being put through by the Trump administration.
Marchers claimed that the federal government’s firing of workers from agencies like the Veterans Administration, Department of Education, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, along with cuts to services like food and rental assistance, Medicaid, and Medicare, will hurt average Americans.
Such “radical cuts in public investments,” the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has stated, only benefit corporations and the nation’s richest, by providing them with $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. These spending cuts, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank said in a Feb. 28 report, “would take away or significantly reduce assistance to families of all races and ethnicities but would particularly affect communities of color. Past and ongoing discrimination and inequities in areas like housing, school resources, and hiring create barriers to education, health, well-paying jobs, and wealth for people of color, increasing economic hardship and the need for assistance.”
Karen Juanita Carrillo photos
From Foley Square to Wall Street’s bull
“We are here organizing because we see this as a giant transfer of wealth and a complete destruction of our U.S. Constitution,” Analilia Mejía, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), told the AmNews. “Everything that we believe about and support in our institutions –– that represent collective government –– [is] under attack.”
Thousands gathered for the demonstration, carrying posters, bullhorns, and drums. They marched from Foley Square up Worth Street to Broadway/Federal Plaza and then stopped traffic while occupying streets all the way down to the city’s Wall Street statue of a charging bull. Along the route, they shouted out various call-and-response chants: “No more cuts! No more cuts!” “Get up, get down: New York is a union town!” “They’re talking healthcare cuts. They must be nuts! They’re talking Medicaid cuts. They must be nuts!” “This is what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!” “Hey hey, ho ho — Elon Musk has got to go!” “MOVE, DOGE, get out the way! Get out the way, DOGE, get out the way!!!”
Those protesting said they were shocked that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had voted for the Republican funding bill. Trump later congratulated Schumer by stating he “appreciate[d] Senator Schumer, and I think he did the right thing.”
Several protesters marched through the streets, carrying signs depicting cemetery tombstones with inscriptions such as “Death by DOGE,” “Couldn’t Afford a Doctor,” “No Primary Care,” and “Bled Out During Miscarriage.”
At the end of the march, these protesters staged a die-in by lying down on the street with their feet facing Wall Street and their tombstones facing the front of the New York Stock Exchange.
Even as they marched and chanted, at least one passing observer voiced support for Elon Musk and the actions of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The CPD’s Mejía said she wasn’t surprised: “Elon Musk and Donald Trump benefit from a cult of personality,”she said. “The fact is that most Americans are underwater in terms of their economic stability — caring for their families and accessing healthcare — so I don’t blame American people for not being fully clued in on the level of destruction and the avarice and greed that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are moving. They will feel it, though, so we are using this moment to elevate our voices to point out what is future pain, whether it’s tariffs, cutting Medicaid, or destroying safety nets. Once these cuts get instituted, the general American public, I think, will catch up.
“Again, I don’t blame American people because we’re so busy trying to make ends meet, trying to feed our kids, trying to navigate an economy that is increasingly built with inequity. These folks control the platforms in which we communicate; they have close relationships with corporations that get to silence journalists and publications. Think about what happened with opinion pieces or endorsements during the campaign. And then they control the mediums of communication. We can’t blame people for not knowing. That’s why we have to take to the streets. Eventually, people will connect two and two together.”
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