BERKELEY, Calif. – Simultaneous protests took place on the University of California Berkeley campus May 1. Dozens of UC employees held signs denouncing the university’s labor practices while nearby students gathered to demand that it divest from the global arms trade.
Both protests also took aim at the policies of the Trump administration, denouncing the ongoing crackdown on immigrants as well as its continued support for Israel in the war on Gaza.
“Israel has resumed its genocidal bombardment of Gaza, killing more than 900 Palestinians and shattering a ceasefire that was already violated by Israel 962 times,” said graduate student Yuosuf Abubakr. “Palestine requires all of us to speak out.”
A crowd of around 400 gathered on Sproul Plaza Thursday, carrying signs that decried the Trump administration’s imposition of universal tariffs, triggering a global trade war and sending the U.S. economy plummeting. Many of the tariffs are on a 90-day pause after swift backlash from investors and businesses worried over the souring economic outlook. Tariffs on China, set at 145%, remain in place with some sector-specific exceptions. Trump insists the tariffs will make America more self-sufficient.
His executive orders, meanwhile, continue to tear at the bedrock of U.S. institutions. Totaling 141 over his first 100 days in office and carried out in large part by his largest financial supporter and Tesla owner, Elon Musk, the orders have cut off support to USAID, rolled back the nation’s health care programs to low-income people and are now threatening Social Security, which provides earned financial aid to seniors and people with disabilities.
The administration has also defunded clean energy projects, doing away with programs initiated by the Biden administration. On Friday, Trump issued another executive order cutting federal funding to the nation’s public broadcasters, PBS and NPR.
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed by states and activists seeking to block these efforts, taking aim at Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), as well as the administration’s attacks on trans rights, higher education and the deportation of migrants in violation of their due process rights, among numerous other issues.
Courts have so far sided against the administration on a number of cases, including that of deported Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who remains in an El Salvador prison despite repeated court orders for his return. Experts warn the country is rapidly heading toward or indeed may already be in a constitutional crisis as Trump officials dig in their heels on this and other cases.
“There’s so much to oppose in the current administration,” asserted 81-year-old protestor Moon George, carrying a sign that said, “Tax the rich, Feed the Poor.”
Her husband, Jerry George, said he was at the protest largely to show his opposition to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine stance. “My brother died of complications from measles,” the 78-year-old man said.
Kennedy has launched a “Take Back Your Health” campaign, which involves extensive cuts to his department, endangering thousands of jobs, including in such agencies as Medicare.
Among the protestors were some international students, who were fearful of identifying themselves after the Trump administration’s cancelation of student visas and detention of foreign students for exercising their First Amendment rights.
“I’ve been here for three years, but am fearful all the time,” said a graduate student from the Philippines who only wanted to be identified by his first name, Shawn. Speaking over the chants of “Stop the U.S. war machine,” Shawn said he had a green card, but didn’t want to jeopardize the status of his parents who were waiting for theirs.
Nearby, UC workers were marching holding signs and chanting, demanding that the school pay them better wages and end a hiring freeze announced by the university March 19. That move follows the Trump administration’s threats to federal funds for universities that do not comply with demands to end diversity programs.
Unions say the freeze is unlawful. The May 1 strike was part of a system wide walkout of some 20,000 workers across all of UC’s 10 campuses.
Protest organizers urged students to walk around in groups in the event ICE shows up. In the last one month, the Trump Administration abruptly moved to restore thousands of international students’ ability to study in the United States legally after a spate of lawsuits challenging the administration’s recent actions to terminate their legal status.
At the International House a short distance away from Sproul Plaza, some students whose exchange programs were coming to an end said they had mixed feelings about leaving the United States and returning home.
“A few weeks back, when ICE arrested students (with no criminal record and stripped them of their student status), we were on edge,” said Alexandros, a Greek exchange student, who is planning to return home after his program is over in a couple of weeks. He didn’t want his last name to be used.
“Earlier, I used to freely travel outside the U.S. on short trips,” said undergraduate biology exchange student, Sara, who is also from Greece and who also didn’t want her last name to be used. “Now I am not doing it.”
Viji Sundaram is a San Francisco Bay Area free-lance reporter. She covers domestic violence and family court issues for the San Francisco Public Press.
