Hundreds again rally in Potsdam, Massena protesting Trump policies

From a story in North Country Now, April 20, 2025

For the second time in two weeks,  large crowds in Potsdam and Massena Saturday protested what they say are the current administration's anti-democratic policies.

Despite a brief downpour, about 375 people rallied along Main Street in Potsdam from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. They carried signs that read “No Fascist Regime,” “Democracy not Monarchy,” Protect Democracy, “America Rejects Kings and Dictators,” “Hands off our Constitution,” “No ICE Gestapo,” and “250 Years No Kings.”

In Massena, more than 100 protesters lined Main Street at the intersection of NYS Hwy. 37  and Main St., in front of Kinney Drugs and Walgreens between 5 and 7 p.m.

Signs held  by the Massena protestors included "Democracy not Autocracy," "No Kings in America," "Protect the Constitution,"  "Stop Trump" and "Stop the Foolish Tariff, Canada is Our Ally, Not Russia." Cars honked frequently as they passed by.

About 100 people held a rally in Massena April 19 for the second time this month, as part of the national 50501movement to protest the Trump administration policies. NCNow photo

The events were among many anti-Trump rallies held throughout the U.S. on Saturday.

The rallies are part of the growing 50501 movement: 50 states 50 protests 1 country.

In Potsdam, many passing drivers also honked as they drove by the protesters along Main Street from the Clarkson Inn to North Country Savings Bank.

“As Americans, we need to speak up for democracy and call out the move toward autocracy,” Ginger Storey-Welch told the crowd as the rally began. She helped organize the rally held April 19 near Ives Park.

Storey-Welch called attention to several people she said “have been harmed by this administration using the playbook of dictators and authoritarian governments,” including Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, Merrill Gutierrez, Becky Burke, and Jasmine Mooney.

A large variety of signs were held by the 375 protestors in downtown Potsdam April 19. NCNow photo.

“Kilmar Abrego García who as a teen left El Salvador to flee a gang threatening him because he would not join. El Salvador was the one place a judge ruled in 2019 he could not be deported to and where ICE deported him anyway without due process the Constitution guarantees all persons, not just citizens.,” she said.

Graduate students Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk were abducted by ICE for “exercising the constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech,” she said.

Mooney, a Canadian businesswoman working in the US, was abducted when she went to reapply for a visa, said Storey-Welch. “She was detained in a cold cell with only a mat and aluminum foil for bedding. At times she was in chains,” she said.

“These are stories that would have seemed unimaginable for Americans ten years ago. We are realizing that democracy is much more fragile than we ever previously understood. We are relearning and newly appreciating our U.S. Constitution that we have taken somewhat for granted in the past. Things like ‘due process’ and ‘balance of power’ and freedom of speech’ are hanging in the balance, they hang by a thread, and it is our hands that are going to catch them. 

"It is our voices together that are going to speak out and say no to autocracy, no to dictatorship, no to billionaires running our nation,” she said.

Storey-Welch also read a statement from Ethan Flamand, a Clarkson student organizer who was unable to attend.

“My friends - those of you who call yourselves an American before you call yourself a Republican, a Democrat, black or white, man or woman - join me in spreading this message. Times like this — when the very fabric of democracy is hung in the balance — must unite us across party lines. Times like this must instill in us the courage to abandon our old labels, if but for a few elections, and to become, for the most important moment in history, solely and completely American,” said Flamand.

Flamand noted the American Revolution began exactly 250 years ago, declaring independence from the tyrannical rule of the British Crown. 

“As Ethan Flamand urged us, let’s lay down our tribal labels and as Americans, let’s go out there and how our signs for all to see. Let’s show then that George Washington had it right when he said no to being king. But even more importantly, let us show them America and democracy and the Constitution are worth standing up for,” said Storey-Welch.