“These are different times”—Carolyn Egan, International Women’s Day Toronto.
It’s 2025. Donald Trump is the U.S. President-again. In response, another women’s march initiated by The Women’s March consortia in the U.S, is planned for Saturday, January 18, 2025.
Except this time, it’s not called the Women’s March. It’s been re-branded as the “People’s March”.
Same reason for marching (Trump’s election). New name. New Approach. New Message.
Why the change? Are feminists submitting? Let’s take a walk backwards.
The historic 2017 Women’s March was started by just one person on November 9, 2016, just after Trump was elected the first time, without the popular vote, over a woman candidate. Teresa Shook, a retired, white woman, lawyer, feminist, and grandmother concerned about Trump’s election, posted a call to march on a pro-Hillary Clinton Facebook page called “Pantsuit Nation” (2.9 million subscribers at the height of Clinton’s election campaign). Reports say that within 24 hours, hundreds of thousands said yes to marching. The idea essentially went viral.
Sensing the rage and energy, a coalition between four core incorporated feminist nonprofits including the Women’s March Network (project of NEO Philanthropy), the Women’s March Inc. (2017), Women’s March Action, an affiliate organization of the Women’s March Foundation (2016) saw the opportunity and stepped up. They formed a working group and began to formally organize and promote the event. They had two months to get it together. Permits, branding, website, communications. T-shirts. Buttons.
The rest is history. It is considered the largest single day protest in history up until that day. Over five million Americans of all genders marched. Another estimated two million marched in similarly branded marches around the world. 60,000 people marched in Toronto. Many other Canadian cities also participated.
While the turnout was staggering, the Women’s March organization itself, along with the marches themselves, generated controversy.
Organizers in the U.S. and Canada were subsequently criticized for lack of inclusivity on many levels: Lack of diversity in organizing team leadership roles, pink pussy hats (not all pussies are pink), lack of grassroots engagement, hierarchical structure, too corporate, antisemitism and racist rhetoric for starters.
That said, the massive march did much to elevate feminism as a relevant movement in these times. Press coverage was significant. It served as a springboard for many new initiatives. It revived connections between feminist networks locally and globally.
Feminism became visible. Cool again.
However, the world is much darker now than it was back then. Donald Trump has grown from a man into a movement. Gender equality and equity is just one of our concerns under a new Trump administration, and increasingly, for some, the least of them.
The rebrand, the 2025 People’s March is organized, intentionally, in a non-hierarchical, distributed, almost Occupy! leaderless way. It is not one march: But many. Organized by a loosely coupled coalition of geographically distributed and ideologically diverse groups.
It’s also not just women led or about feminist issues anymore. Anyone against Trumpism, or fighting for any progressive cause (housing, immigration, cost of living, climate change), on any level, is welcome to join. All issues matter. Because they are all connected.
Despite opening up the march to all and being ultra inclusive on many levels, more in this case may in fact turn out to be less.
Interest, participation rates so far, and momentum appears to be a far cry from what it was in 2017.
The Los Angeles People’s March official Facebook page has a mere 97,000 followers. Organizers there say they expect thousands (not hundreds of thousands). As of today, U.S. organizers are estimating that approximately 50 000 will attend the March in Washington D.C. (versus the over 400,000 who participated last time). A tally of all local marches on the central website shows a total of 47,000 RSVPs.
The only advertised People’s March 2025 in Canada so far (that we could find) is in Toronto. No other Canadian city marches are listed on the central site thus far.
The Toronto People’s March is coordinated by International Women’s Day Toronto in collaboration with the Urban Alliance on Race Relations, the Toronto and York Labour Council and Community Solidarity Toronto. Taking the lead from the U.S. Women’s March organization, all groups and people are welcome.
Carolyn Egan, International Women’s Day Toronto, when asked about the diminutive momentum says “These are very, very different times. Progressives are in real despair. People are demoralized. In this huge battle for ideas in this time, the right is winning.”
In 2024, Trump won the popular vote, and against another woman candidate.
Bria John, Toronto and York Region Labour Council adds “We’re battling against apathy and hopelessness. The pandemic really changed us, and the affordability crisis has worn people down. Around the world, even workers are being drawn to right wing solutions to problems we all see, and we need to show them there is a sound and progressive alternative.”
I hope I am wrong, but at present, it feels unlikely that the 2025 turnout will be anything close to what it was in size and scale in 2017. John anticipates about 400-600 people for the Toronto March despite all the hard work.
Have we all thrown in the towel?
In her December 16 article titled, “The Great Capitulation”, New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg notes how quickly many important world political and business leaders, organizations, institutions had lined up to surrender to the newly elected regime and offer support.
Capitulation can take many forms. Corporations are increasingly defunding corporate social responsibility and upfunding risk management and security initiatives. Policies aimed at snuffing out political conversations at work in the name of unity and increased productivity (the First Amendment does not apply to workplaces in the U.S.). DEI is being rebranded “ACB” which stands for access, community and belonging. Progressive businesses depending on philanthropy and government grants are busy editing their websites and rethinking their marketing messages. Canada’s election is just months away. The average person is frankly, politically, and economically burnt out.
Capitulation in these times can stand as another term for rest.
However, there is another way to think about it.
In the financial world, the term “capitulation” has a surprising meaning. It’s not considered an act. It’s a cycle. An evidenced-based predictive model. It starts when investors succumb to fear and sell fast, causing the value of a stock price (or entire market) to drop sharply. What makes financial “capitulation” different from run-of-the-mill market price drops is that, over time, the drop bottoms out and soon after, the price starts to climb again.
Turns out the capitulation cycle has a valued cleansing, revitalizing effect. It weeds out the speculators, distractions and uncommitted. It forces new ideas to emerge. Savvy advisors tell their clients to hang in there. Value will rise again—to new and better heights because ultimately, the underlying fundamentals are strong.
When I first saw the People’s March re-brand, I interpreted it as feminism giving into fear and pragmatism. The People’s March is an important march, but in North America at least, it is no longer focused on women’s issues. (The UK Women’s March is still called the Women’s March).
But perhaps, in time, we will see what’s happening with feminism and the left in general is that we are just in a capitulation cycle; A unified set of progressive movements shedding what no longer serves in this moment. New strategies and wins? Just around the corner.
I am still disappointed in the re-brand. However, I will still be showing up to The People’s March in Toronto. Because as a feminist, all the issues and organizations represented at this march are just as important to me.
So, I hope you will join me in participating in whatever way available to you, wherever you are. Hope is never silent. And opportunities to show solidarity cannot come often enough.
It may not be perfect. Or big. But it will be something.
Note: The People’s March in Toronto starts at 12 noon on Saturday, January 18 at the U.S. Consulate at 361 University Ave. To locate a march near you, visit The People’s March locator website.
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