About 50 activists gathered at Washington Square Park Saturday to push for the end to the administration of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

The rally was organized by a group called Refuse Fascism, which says the Trump administration “poses a catastrophic danger to humanity and the planet,” according to its website. The group is organizing a series of non-violence protests with the slogan: “In the name of humanity, the Trump/Pence regime must go!”

The first speaker, 66-year-old Travis Morales, represented the New York City branch of Refuse Fascism. He said the so-called “blue wave” of Democrats winning control of the House of Representatives would not solve the problem because Democrats were “complicit” in the “fascist tsunami” as they increasingly gave in to Trump’s demands.

Morales blamed Democrats, not Republicans, for militarizing the southern border, claiming that former President Barack Obama deported more immigrants in his first year than Trump has. He also denounced Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s stance against Trump, unhappy that she is even remotely open to working with him.

Just four days after the midterm elections, Morales said that voting was not enough to stop “the Fascist regime.” Instead, he said, “it is on us and our millions to stop it.”

The next speaker, identified only as a high school student named Josh, agreed with Morales. “You don’t just vote fascism out because they cheat,” he said, claiming that residents of every state had lost their right to vote. He compared Trump to Hitler and said that the U.S. was like Germany on the eve of World War II.

Carl Dix, a member of the U.S. Communist party who served two years in Leavenworth military prison during the early 1970s for refusing to serve in the Vietnam War, talked about anti-war protests in the 1970s.  

Dix called Trump’s takeover of the presidency an “invasion” and an “infestation” that mirrored the Nazis but was driven by white supremacists whom he considered “Fascists with an American accent.”

The last speaker, 21-year-old Luan Xocoyote from the NYC Revolution Club, also rooted in the U.S. Communist Party, said protest is the first step towards a revolution, which she hoped to populate with people “who don’t want to see a world where you are going to be erased from history because of the color of your skin or because of your sexual orientation.”

After she finished, activists in the audience clapped loudly and began helping the rally’s organizers distribute flyers, which advertised a film they produced called “Why We Need An Actual Revolution and How We Can Really Make Revolution.”

Then around 50 activists picked up protest boards and followed the leadership of a dozen Refuse Fascism organizers in a march across the Lower East Side. When asked whether he was satisfied with the turnout, Morales said that “protests like this are not enough but necessary” for change, which he said he believed can only happen with action on the streets.

According to Morales, similar rallies also took place in 13 other cities, from Chicago to Houston to San Francisco, all locations where the organization has affiliated groups.

Header photo: Protestors marching to protest against the administration of Trump and Pence on Nov. 10. (The Ink/Sabrina He)