More than 3,000 people marched through the streets of Berkeley on Sunday, toting signs reading “Not in our town,” playing music and chanting, “No hate, no fear,” to protest against plans for a far-right rally -- though its organizer asked supporters not to turn up.
The festive but defiant crowd was mostly peaceful until the early afternoon, when skirmishes broke out between black-clad anti-fascist protesters and a few far-right supporters at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, where marchers had gathered.
People hit the streets to protest the “No to Marxism in America” rally planned for MLK Civic Center Park. The rally had been expected to draw white supremacist and nationalist groups, but only a few far-right supporters turned out.
In the crowd were a range of people, including anti-fascists, a Holocaust survivor, medics, musical protesters, Berkeley resident and comedian W. Kamau Bell, and supporters of President Trump.
The protests come a day after thousands turned out to demonstrate against a far-right rally in San Francisco that was twice relocated and then canceled before it began. The organizer of that rally, Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson, came to the Berkeley protest, where he was chased from the area.
