UC Berkeley Students Walk Out in Anti-Trump Protest, Demand Action From Democrats

Updated 4:45 p.m. Friday

Around a dozen UC Berkeley students walked out of class on Friday afternoon and took to Sproul Plaza to protest former President Donald Trump’s reelection to the highest office.

The goal of the protest is to showcase youth solidarity and demand that Democrats do more to fight against Trump’s agenda, said first-year student Ariela Lara, who is also an organizer with the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate action organization.

“As young people across the nation grapple with the reality of another Trump presidency, students are going to demand more from their leaders,” Lara said. “We know that the Democrats really need to stand up in these moments because people voted out of the need to survive.”

The Sunrise Movement organized the walkout with on- and off-campus groups, including Cal Berkeley Democrats and the Student Campaign for Palestine at UC Berkeley, Lara said. Together, they adorned the Sproul Steps with signs that read “Democratic Party: You failed us,” “People over corporations,” and “F—k Trump.”

Around 50 students had pledged to walk out of class, according to Lara, who said she hopes more will show out as the protest gains momentum throughout the afternoon.

But turnout remained relatively low — other than the dozen organizers on the Sproul Steps, there were just a handful of supportive onlookers. Most students walking by on their way to and from class stopped to take photos but didn’t stick around for the speeches or chants.

Finn Does, another first-year organizer with Sunrise Movement, described the political apathy among young people as a “huge crisis.”

“I think a lot of people are really burnt out,” Does said. “Trump has been in our news for the past eight years, every day. People are waking up every day having to read the same bulls—t, and they’re tired.”

Sunrise Movement is planning future actions to help invigorate activism on campus again, Does said.

Both Lara and Does led speeches and chants at the walkout, such as “The people, united, will never be defeated,” and “Trump is a liar, our planet is on fire.”

In his speech, Does emphasized that Democratic Party platforms this election — from the war in Gaza to fracking — are all connected.

Other speakers, like Cal Berkeley Democrats President Linsdey Duncan, emphasized pushing the party further to the left over the next four years.

UC Berkeley is not the only campus where the Sunrise Movement is organizing walkouts. Berkeley High students walked out of class last Friday, and Lara said similar protests are taking place across the country at other colleges and high schools.

“Walking out of schools means that we have to disrupt the status quo and business as usual,” she said.

This is only the second organized protest on UC Berkeley’s campus since the election, following a small demonstration on Sproul Plaza the day after Election Night. However, compared with Trump’s first victory in 2016, the university, known for activism and protest, has been noticeably quiet this time.

At other college campuses throughout the Bay Area, activists told KQED that the muted response is a result of young people becoming disillusioned with the Democratic Party.

That’s also reflected in the results of the election, where turnout among adults under 29 dropped significantly since 2020. More young people also turned out for Trump than in the previous two elections, polling showed.

“Young people are angry at the current government, and we know that there has been a failure of Democratic leadership,” Lara said. “We understand that this election was not about the candidate, it was about the conditions in which we were organizing under. The result of that is that we are organizing under a fascist, racist, misogynist candidate and future president.”