In Powerful Remarks, Pressley Invoked Spirit, Courage and Stamina of Past Generations to Fight Musk-Trump Agenda

Video (YouTube)

BOSTON – This weekend, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) delivered powerful remarks at the “Hands Off” rally in Boston in which she invoked the spirit, courage, and stamina of past generations of activists to defend against Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s cruel vision for America.

A full transcript of the Congresswoman’s remarks, as delivered, is available below and the full video is available here.

Transcript: Rep. Pressley’s Powerful Remarks at ‘Hands Off’ Rally in Boston
City Hall Plaza, Boston
April 5, 2025

Hello movement family!

I know why you’re all here. You’re here because, like me, you are tired of these billionaire boys and their grubby little hands.

Movement family, it is wonderful to be here with you. Thank you for being here. You could have been anywhere else today, but you chose to be here because you recognize that we are one human family, and our freedoms and our destinies are tied. 

You are a beautiful sight to behold, and you affirm that the power of the people has always been greater than the people in power. 

And as my good sister, the Reverend Mariama White-Hammond reminds us, that has always been true. It was true in Seneca Falls. It was true in Selma. It was true at Stonewall. 

And it is just as true today, and it is only fitting on this day. Exactly 40 years ago, a coalition of Black liberation leaders, women’s groups, student organizers, and unions came together for a national day of protest. They were calling for an end to South Africa’s system of apartheid. 

A system that disappeared political dissidents, suppressed free speech, and divided a nation. Sound familiar?

The same system that made millions for a South African segregationist by the name of Elon Musk. Oh yeah, he gets it honest. The same system that produced the world’s richest white supremacist, a Nazi nepo baby, Elon Musk. 

You see, history has a way of repeating itself, and that’s why we need to take heed to what the past has taught us, that opposition out-worked, out-organized and outlasted those in power until the apartheid regime came crashing down. 

And that’s why we’re all here today, to resist and to reject the cruel and dark vision that Donald Trump has for this country, that he has for our country. 

You know, the reason Donald Trump and his sycophants have a campaign against being woke, the reason they’re anti-woke is because they want you to stay asleep. They want you to be ignorant. They want you to be indifferent. They want you to be inactive. 

But you’re all here because we are going to match their energy. This is an unprecedented moment, a constitutional crisis that we will meet with unprecedented organizing, mobilizing, agitating. 

This is our chapter of the Civil Rights Movement, which we are still very much in. Look around the great Coretta Scott King reminds us that freedom is never really won. We must earn it and win it in every generation. And this is our time. 

This is our time because there will always be an Elon Musk, this is our time because there will always be a Jeff Bezos. This is our time because there will always be a Donald Trump who will try to enrich themselves at the cost of our freedom and our humanity. 

So collectively, we resist and we reject and we say, hands off.

Hands off our bodies.

Hands off our Medicaid. 

Hands off our Social Security.

Hands off our Constitution.

Hands off our democracy. 

Hands off our Black history books, libraries, museums.

Hands off our cancer research.

Hands off our immigrant neighbors.

Hands off our disabled siblings.

Hands off the LGBTQ community. 

You’re all here to say hands off because, well, you give a damn. You give a damn about your neighbor, you give a damn about this country, you give a damn about our democracy. And you’re here to match the energy and to meet the moment, to summon the same stamina that my brother, colleague, Senator Booker did. 

So I have a call to action for you. I have a call to action for you that you summon the stamina, that you summon the courage, that you summon the spirit, that you summon—that you summon the courage of this movement that I am so proud to be an ally of. That we center the dignity and the humanity of all people. 

We welcome all voices, especially when they’re dissenting, because the people here believe in free speech.

But I need you all to summon the stamina, the courage, and the spirit of the Maverick Moms in the 1960s from East Boston. 

I need you to summon the stamina, the courage, and the spirit of Mel King and the activists in the 1960s at Tent City in the South End. 

I need you to summon the stamina, the courage, and the spirit of Dr. King on April 22 with 20,000 people assembled on the Boston Common for the first civil rights march in the Northeast. 

I need you to summon the courage, the spirit, and the stamina of Chinatown activists for Parcel C in the 1970s against environmental injustice. 

I need you to summon the stamina, the spirit, and the courage of those activists in the 1970s of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury to stop the highway and wake up the earth. 

This is the tradition that you are all a part of.

You are freedom fighters. You are democracy defenders, you are patriots. 

So when you go home today, roll up your sleeves and ask yourself, what’s next? Because that is how we win this. 

And I’ll close with the words of a movement sister who recently transitioned, the great Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood. While she was in the midst of her cancer battle, she was still fighting, and people asked, “Cecile, what are you doing here? You’re in the fight of your life?” And she countered, “because one day the question will be asked, when everything was at stake for the country, what did you do? 

And the only acceptable answer will be “everything that I could.” 

I love you, movement, family!

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