April 8, 2025
UUP President Fred Kowal and more than two dozen UUP members joined some 6,000 protestors who converged on Albany’s West Capitol Park April 5 to rally against the Trump administration, as part of a massive international movement of at least 1,300 events around the U.S., Canada and in Europe.
The progressive advocacy and pro-democracy group Indivisible and a coalition of labor and social justice organizations planned the rallies, through a movement named Hands Off! The protests have been fueled by a groundswell of outrage among people across the political spectrum, as they have seen their neighbors lose their jobs with federal agencies; international students and faculty arrested for exercising their right to free speech; and services and benefits programs such as Social Security and Medicare paralyzed by staff layoffs and budget cuts.
UUP members also took part in other Hands Off! rallies, including events in Buffalo, Plattsburgh and Syracuse. Delegates from UUP’s 2025 Spring Delegate Assembly, which met in Albany April 4-5, boarded a UUP bus after the DA ended to attend the Albany rally.
In addition to Kowal, the lineup at the Albany event included Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado; state Sen. Pat Fahy and Assemblymember John McDonald, whose districts cover the Capital Region; and Mark Emanation, executive director of the Capital District Area Labor Federation, among others.
The crowd at Saturday’s rally was energized, enthusiastic and all ages, from infants and toddlers to people who got there in wheelchairs and on walkers.
Kowal bounded to the front of the steps overlooking a crowd that had endured high winds and heavy rain, and he opened his remarks with a resounding cry of “Union power! Worker power!”
He went on to state that although he became a college professor, he came from working-class roots and a union family. He is, as he told the crowd, exactly the type of American now reeling from the slash-and-burn approach to trimming the federal government that President Trump has handed over to the unelected tech oligarch Elon Musk, who has no congressional authority but who has acted with impunity to dismember the federal government.
“I’m proud to be their enemy,” Kowal told the crowd. “For them, it’s about hate and division. We build up; they tear down. We have to stop it. It’s going to take strength and courage like we never have before had.”
“To Donald Trump and Elon F------g Musk,” Kowal concluded, as the crowd hung on his words, awaiting the punchline, “You can kiss my working-class ass!
Signs say it all: Resist, rally and mobilize
The signs in the crowd covered every injustice that the administration has imposed in merely two and a half months on working people, immigrants, federal agencies, free speech, medical and scientific research, access to federal records and federal retirement and health care benefits.
Protesters decried the country’s slide into authoritarian rule, complete with purges of top military leaders, federal prosecutors and anyone else who believes their oath of loyalty is to the constitution and not to the president.
“Say no to Musk, no to Trump, no to fascism,” one sign proclaimed. Others used far more colorful words and imagery to convey anger, disgust and frustration.