Introduction

At 4:30 a.m. EST on January 20, 2017, demonstrators began marching in the streets of Tokyo. They launched what became one of the largest protests in world history and the largest demonstration ever organized in the United States. As Inauguration Day progressed in Washington, D.C., marchers lined up and took to the streets in Osaka, Japan, on the Antarctic Peninsula, and in Brussels, Miraflores, Peru, and Madrid. Tens of thousands of locals and American expats lined up to march in Australia, “because we don’t want to stand by and let the bigotry rhetoric of Donald Trump prevail,” as Ayebatonye Abrakasa, co-founder of the Women’s March in Sydney told Al Jazeera. “We’re standing up for our country, for the rights of the indigenous people … for the rights of women who deserve to be able to own their own bodies. We’re fighting for everyone, this is an all-inclusive event.” ¹