Preparing for April 5: Songs, Signs & Socials
Everything you need for the nationwide Hands OFF Rallies on Saturday
by Robbin Warner
The Hands OFF rally on April 5 will be the largest single day of action against the second Trump administration. With 1000 plus events in the U.S. registered with Mobilize (as of yesterday) and more scattered across Europe, Americans will gather to send a clear message: Take your hands off our healthcare, our Social Security, our civil rights, our freedom, and our education.
To get you energized and inspired as you prepare for Saturday, here are songs, signs and social media graphics.
Playlists
Here’s a playlist of songs to listen to as you prepare for Saturday. You can listen to the playlist on Apple Music or Spotify or watch the music videos on YouTube.
Sleeves Up (Crys Matthews)
Taking it to the Streets (Doobie Brothers)
Let's Get Loud (Jennifer Lopez)
I Won’t Back Down (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
Power to the People (John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band)
Wake Up Everybody (featuring Teddy Pendergrass)
No Surrender (Bruce Springsteen)
Think (Aretha Franklin)
What's So Funny About Peace, Love & Understanding? (Elvis Costello)
Talking about a Revolution (Tracy Chapman)
Signs & Slogans
Indivisible has 33 downloadable sign designs in different sizes, including messages in Spanish. All major “Hands OFF” topics are covered: Social Security, Public Lands, Personal Data, Our Wallets, Our Jobs, Our Bodies, NATO, Medicare, Medicaid, Workers’ Rights, Unions, Housing, Postal Workers, Science, Schools, Libraries, LGBTQ+ Rights, Immigrants, Free Speech, Fair Elections, The Courts, Consumer Protections, Clean Air & Water, Clean Energy, and Cancer Research. There is even an option with a blank line for you to fill in your own issue.
There is nothing like homemade signs. If you are looking for catchy messages to put on yours, Third Act (celebrating an elder-led movement) has some catchy ones:
“Social Security is Not a Ponzi Scheme.”
“Old Enough to Know It’s Far Easier to Break Things than to Build Them.”
“My Hair Was Not This Gray Until Musk Showed Up.”
“We Marched for the Environment on the First Earth Day; It’s Crazy We Have to Do It Again.”
Social Media Graphics
If you need messages and graphics to post on social media, Demcast has you covered. Their social media toolkit has terrific graphics and videos formatted for the social media platform of your choice. Demcast makes it easy to message on social media.
Videos to Get You Inspired
Here are a few inspirational videos — from poems to music videos to a movie mash-up.
Sleeves Up (Crys Matthews)
Defying Gravity (Mash-up by Katherine White/Friday Power Lunch)
Winning is the Only Option (Spoken word poem by Tammarrah Addison)
Still I Rise (Live recitation by poet Maya Angelou)
Key Links
To make sure you have everything at your fingertips, here are key event links:
Hands Off Rally official website
Find an event near you on Mobilize
Sign up to take a bus to the Rally in DC
Mass Mobilization Call Tonight
One last thing, sign up to participate in the Mass Mobilization Call tonight (Tuesday, April 1 at 8pm ET (5pm PT)). Movement leaders including Rahna Epting (MoveOn), Randi Weingarten (American Federation of Teachers), Ezra Levin (Indivisible) as well as members of Congress will be on hand to discuss the Trump administration’s unprecedented power grab, efforts to remove limits to its power, and what we can do to confront it on April 5 and beyond. Register Here
I just sent the letter below to Third Act, which you mention as the source of a few sample sign slogans. Please remove "Social Security is not a ponzi scheme" as a recommended sign and replace it with something else. That slogan is completely counterproductive.
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Hello, I see that Third Act has a blog post up about the Hands Off rallies on April 5: https://thirdact.org/act/handsoff/
This post includes the following suggested sign, a suggestion that you should immediately delete because it's counterproductive:
“Social Security is Not a Ponzi Scheme.”
We've known for decades now, since the work of cognitive linguist George Lakoff in "Don't Think of an Elephant", that it doesn't work to invoke the opposition's frame and put the word "not" in front of it. Compare Nixon's "I am not a crook" - that made everybody associate "Nixon" and "crook". Similarly, putting "Social Security" and "Ponzi Scheme" into the same sentence strengthens the cognitive association in the reader's mind between "Social Security" and "Ponzi Scheme".
Please see Gil Duran here at framelab for an larger explanation of the "not" problem and why progressives need to stop doing this:
https://www.theframelab.org/cut-the-not-why-banishing-one-word/
It's really somewhat shocking to continue to see this basic messaging mistake. We continue to take right-wing language and put the word "not" in front of it and we think that's going to work. It doesn't - it simply strengthens our opposition.
Please remove the suggestion of "Social Security is not a ponzi scheme" from your post. You could replace it with many different slogans, such as "Protect Social Security", "Social Security keeps us strong", "We (heart) social security", etc.
Thanks,
Bruce Hahne (Sunnyvale, CA)
Abd there's one more thing--
Remember, when you leave your home with your little protest sign--you are not alone. With the anticipated thousands [million+?] of heroic protestors on April 5th (actually any and all days, including Women's March) here's an updated partial list of those fighting back every day [as of 3-30-25). I'm also adding courageous law firms who haven't caved. Besides upstanding lawyers (e.g. Brenna Trout Frey, and law-abiding honorable (present and former) judges (including James Boasberg, chief judge, D.C. District Ct.), here's a growing list of Profiles in Courage men, women, and advocacy groups who refuse to be cowed or kneel to the force of Trump/Musk/MAGA/Fox "News" intimidation:
I'll begin (again) with Missouri's own indomitable Jess[ica] (à la John Lewis's "get in good trouble") Piper/"The View from Rural Missouri," then, in no particular order, Francie Garber Pepper (1940-2025), Heather Cox Richardson/"Letters from an American," Joyce Vance/"Civil Discourse," Bernie Sanders, AOC, Gov. Tim walz, Sarah Inama, Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Rev. William J. Barber II, Jasmine Crockett, Ruth Ben-Ghait, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Chris Hayes, Ali Velshi, Prof. Lawrence Tribe, Stephanie Miller, Gov. Janet Mills, Gov. Beshear, Gov. JB.Pritzker, Gov. Kathy Hochul, Amb. Susan Rice, Mayor Michelle Wu, Jim Acosta, Jen Rubin And the Contrarians, Dan Rather, Robert Reich, Jay Kou, Steve Brodner, Rachel Cohen, Brian TylerCohen, Jessica Craven, Scott Dworkin, Brett Meiselas, Joy Reid, D. Earl Stevens, Melvin Gurai, Dan Pfeiffer, Anand Giridharadas Anne Applebaum, Lucian Truscott IV, Chris Murphy, Jeff Merkley, Michael Bennett, Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Sheldon Whitehouse, Adam Schiff, Jon Ossoff, Elyssa Slotkin, Tristan Snell, Delia Ramirez,Tim Snyder, Robert B. Hubbell, Ben Meiseilas, Rich wilson, Ron Filpkowski, Jeremy Seahill, Thom Hartmann, Jonathan Bernstein, Simon Rosenberg, Marianne Williamson, Mark Fiore, Jamie Raskin, Rebecca Solnit, Steve Schmidt, Josh Marshall, Paul Krugman, Andy Borowitz, Jeff Danziger, Ann Telnaes,͏ ͏Will Bunch, Jim Hightower, Dan Pfeifer, Dean Obeidallah, Michel Zeitgeist, Liz Cheney, Adam Kimzinger, Cassidy Hutchinson, John Cusack. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Jonathan V Last, Sarah Longwell, Andrew Egger, Aaron Parnas
American Bar Association, 23 blue state Attorney Generals, Indivisible. FiftyFifty one, MoveOn, DemCast, Blue Missouri, Third Act, Democracy Forward, Public Citizen, Democracy Index, Protect Democracy, DemocracyLabs, Fred Wellman/On Democracy, Hands Off, Marc Elias/Democracy Docket, Public Citizen, League of Women Voters, Lambda Legal, CREW, CODEPINK, ACLU, The 19th/Errin Haines, Working Families Party, American Oversight, Every State Blue, Run for Something, Jessica Valenti/Abortion Everyday, The American Manifesto, The Dr. Martin Luther King Center, Bulwark Media, Bill Kristol/all NeverTrumpers
And, as Joyce Vance says, "We're in this together"--or via Jess Piper, from rural Missouri: "Solidarity." FIGHT BACK! WE ARE NOT ALONE! (Latest addition h/t , Robert B. Hubbell: Law firms, see below). All suggestions are welcome.
* Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling have resisted Trump, fighting back with the help of other courageous firms like Williams & Connolly. Per The ABA Journal, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, representing fired inspectors general. (Law.com)
Hogan Lovells, seeking to block executive orders to end federal funding for gender-affirming medical care. (Law.com)
Jenner & Block, also seeking to block the orders on cuts to medical research funding. (Law.com, Reuters)
Ropes & Gray, also seeking to block cuts to medical research funding. (Law.com)
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, representing the Amica Center for Immigrants Rights and others seeking to block funding cuts for immigrant legal services. (Law.com)
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer.
Wilmer Hale
Keker, Van Nest & Peters
Southern Poverty Law Center
Perhaps I should add our nation's motto--and on our Great Seal--the phrase "E pluribus unum" (out of many, One ). Ii's 13 letters makes its use symbolic of the original 13 Colonies which rebelled against the rule of the Kingdom of George III . . .And now we protest together against King Donald. As my rural MO. indomitable Jess Piper always says: "Solidarity."