Tucson, AZ: Report Back From March Against Trump’s “State of Emergency”

Report back from #BlockTheWall action in Tucson Arizona, Occupied Tohono O’odham land.

In response to the nationwide call to action, #BlockTheWall, a march was called for by members of Tucson group ARC, the Autonomous Rebels Collective. The march was set to begin at Catalina Park on 4th Ave. in downtown Tucson. At approximately 6:30 pm a small crowd began to gather on the south eastern part of the park. Soon after they were joined by Food not Bombs, who had greeted the growing crowd with muffins, hot chocolate and a variety of fruit. The Tucson radical marching band assembled together as a few individuals formed a small block.

Around 7:00 pm the crowd took the streets heading south on Fourth Ave., the first chant seemed to set the tone for the march “Fuck the border, fuck the state, America was never great!” The march was led by masked people holding banners with the marching band following closely behind, the rest of the crowd behind the band. The march started with around 30 people but grew in size to about 50 people, as people from the street joined in. The crowd continued to march and dance down 4th Ave., road flares were lit and the marching band played. When they reached the 4th Ave. underpass and an individual towards the front tried to start a chant yelling “VOTE DEM OUT!” and was quickly shut down with chants like “NO MORE VOTING!”

After marching down Congress and passing the Ronstadt bus station, they realized that they wouldn’t make their destination of the Tucson town hall meeting in time to greet the members leaving the meeting, and it was decided that the march would begin making its way back to the park. Once the march was rerouted and arrived back at the Congress and 4th intersection the crowd decided to take over the intersection, holding banners with messaging like: “Borders are the real crisis,” and “We are the real emergency,” as well as holding a small dance party to the tune of the marching band and yelling powerful chants: “Say it loud! Say it clear! Migrants are welcome here!”

After about 10 minutes of holding this intersection the crowd made its way back to 4th Ave. down the underpass. When the police noticed that the crowd was on the move again one officer on a bike attempted to ride ahead of the crowd and found himself in a sticky situation, unable to get past the masked members of the crowd who kept him cornered with banners. The crowd began chanting, “Quit your job!,” at the officer who seemed rightly horrified and begged them to let him out.

The officer eventually managed to get through the crowd and stayed as far away as he could for the remainder of the march. The march continued back towards the park with even more energy than it had when they began. Once they reached the end of the march, at Catalina Park, members of the crowd stayed and talked, comforted each other, and ate fruit provided by Food Not Bombs. The hope is that this march will build momentum for future actions as we continue to show solidarity and support for migrants and their families by actively opposing Trump’s racist wall.