Last weekend the UNF Students for a Democratic Society club took a trip to Washington D.C. to take part in the widespread protesting of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

With a rented van and 12 people (nine students and three union laborers), SDS arrived in D.C. Friday to protest with the Workers World Party, marching through police barricades and protesting about Palestinian liberation, socialism, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Dominic Mitchell, the SDS secretary of communications and membership affairs, is excited about the possibilities that protesting creates.

“It is interesting to see that it is possible to build this broad coalition of different people who fall on different places on the progressive side of the political spectrum,” said Mitchell.

On Saturday, the UNF SDS were a part of the estimated 470,000 people that marched against the newly-inaugurated President Trump for the rights of women and the LGBT community. It was the largest protest movement ever on American soil. When asked if these protests make a difference, Ryan McClure, SDS treasurer, was confident they did.

“These marches in and of themselves aren’t necessarily a means to an end,” McClure said, “It’s about starting to draw people in and teaching people these tactics, teaching people how to build movements, teaching people how to come together so that when we all go our separate ways we can take what we learn and we can put it in our community.”

Mitchell expects SDS to be busy during the next four to eight years that President Trump holds office. A big focus for them is to bring back affirmative action, especially to campus, and to hire more black professors.

“If we put in the work that’s necessary, we have the potential to oppose them every step of the way. It’s going to be one hell of a fight and this is just the beginning,” said Mitchell.

For more on student opinions following the inauguration of the 45th president, click here.

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