When Jim Keady took the stage at Logan Circle on the morning of President Donald Trump’s military parade, he told protesters they were “not conceding the streets” in a city left out of the nationwide “No Kings” protests.

Keady, an activist and former New Jersey congressional candidate, said he opted to join Refuse Fascism’s protest in D.C. over a demonstration minutes from his house in Spring Lake because he felt it was “imperative” that Trump’s dissenters protest in the nation’s capital. Keady condemned Trump’s “fascist regime” and attempts to erode democratic institutions before joining more than a thousand demonstrators in a march from Logan Circle to Lafayette Park ahead of Saturday’s parade honoring the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary, which protesters across the country denounced as an authoritarian spectacle.

“We will never relinquish our fundamental rights to free speech, to assemble peacefully and petition our government for redress,” Keady shouted to a sea of protesters with raised fists.

Refuse Fascism organized a protest concurrent with more than 2,000 “No Kings Day of Defiance” demonstrations across the country on Saturday, all rebuking Trump’s “militarization” of the country’s democracy ahead of the parade. “No Kings” decided not to organize in D.C., citing efforts to “draw a clear contrast” between the parade and protests.

“​​We’ve all got the same goal, and that is to dislodge an ever-growing fascist authoritarian out of power,” Keady said in an interview, characterizing the difference between the two group’s approaches as a tactical disagreement common in mass movements.

On stage, Keady warned that Trump is an “authoritarian” who is leading the nation on a “path to fascism” by ignoring the rule of law, violating due process and using “every mechanism” possible to intimidate elected officials, judges, journalists and universities. He said Americans must demand that Trump step down voluntarily or be removed from office by Congress.

He said the military parade — which consisted of armored tanks and artillery vehicles, military aircrafts and thousands of troops — is Trump’s attempt to assert that the U.S. military belongs to him, not the Office of the President or the U.S. Constitution. He called on protesters to peacefully resist, stand up and speak out against his administration.

“We must fill the streets and town squares across the country in ever rising numbers, not stopping until we become a movement of millions, not relenting until the regime is no longer able to implement its fascist program,” Keady said, which was met with claps and cheers from the audience.

Allegiances to different causes that Trump has targeted during his first five months in office dusted protesters and their belongings. Palestinian flags sprouted out of backpacks, ‘I stand with Ukraine’ pins decorated purses and shirts reading ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘I am a force for science’ dotted the crowd.

Keady told the protesters he took an oath to the Constitution nearly 20 years ago when he was elected to Asbury Park, New Jersey’s City Council, swearing that he would “impartially and justly” perform all the duties of the office to the best of his abilities. He said while he is no longer in office, the oath he took inspires him to uphold the nation’s ideals and protect the rule of law established by the Constitution.

“We believe in the ideals that were laid out in that founding document, and we will never cower to you, Donald Trump or any of your fascist followers,” Keady said. “We will never relinquish our fundamental rights to free speech, to assemble peacefully and petition our government for redress.”

After his speech, Keady reemphasized in an interview that citizens cannot concede the “seat of our representative republic” to Trump and his “fascist minions.”

“That electric energy that’s here in this crowd that we’re sharing, it’s going to empower people to go back to their communities, wherever they might be, and to keep doing the work,” Keady said.

A Refuse Fascism organizer began the demonstration at 1 p.m. by saying the protest would be non-violent, and that the group obtained permits through the U.S. Park Police and shared their route with local police.

Trump on Tuesday said protesters who assembled during the parade would be met with “very big force,” an announcement that came days after he deployed the National Guard to quell anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles. The White House said the next day that Trump supports peaceful protests and the First Amendment, but condemns violence of any kind.

Most of Saturday’s protests remained peaceful, though police used teargas in Los Angeles and declared a riot in Portland. A man who was believed to be part of a peacekeeping team accidentally shot and killed a protester in Salt Lake City after an individual nearby brandished a rifle.

More than two dozen Metropolitan Police Department officers trailed the protest, as officers on bikes and in vehicles guided demonstrators across P Street and down 16 Street, toward Lafayette Park, which was mostly closed off by ten foot tall fences.

A veterans contingent and D.C. activist street band led the protest out of Lafayette Park, chanting “Trump must go now” and “No fascist USA.”

Some protesters donned American flags fastened around their necks as makeshift capes. Others clothed in green and dressed as the Statue of Liberty, wearing accompanying crowns and carrying replicas of her torch.

One protester wore a red robe and a white bonnet — the outfit the government forces handmaids to wear in Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, which follows a future version of the U.S. where women are stripped of their rights. A few individuals rolled around a roughly 10 foot tall puppet of the president on a golden toilet with an elongated nose and a crown on his head.

But most protesters showed up in shorts and t-shirts, carrying backpacks, water bottles and signs, some of which reading “resist thy king,” “democracy dies when we kill dissent” and “$60 million on a military parade? Not while a single veteran needs services.”

Protest organizers lead chants at Logan Circle and on the march to Lafayette Park ranging from “Hands off LA, no fascist USA” to “ICE out now, National Guard out now, Marines out now, Trump must go now”

Ralph, a “Refuse Fascism” organizer who didn’t provide his last name, said during the Logan Circle rally that he is a veteran who served for twenty years and a retired federal employee and he is “pissed” at the current state of the country. He said the administration’s treatment of veterans is wrong, pointing to the Capitol Police’s arrest of an 87-year-old Vietnam War veteran on Friday after he crossed a police line during an anti-Parade protest outside the Capitol.

He said police put “plastic caps” on the veteran and took his walker away. Videos show police handcuffing the individual and walking him away without his walker.

“What’s happening to our country is not right. I have sworn to the Constitution five times when I took my oath, I will die for that Constitution,” Ralph said.

Michelle Chi, a demonstrator from the Revolutionary Communist Party for the Emancipation of Humanity, said during the rally at Lafayette Park that she lives in Los Angeles and traveled to D.C. to protest Trump’s decision to hold a military parade on his birthday, calling it part of the dangerous momentum and direction of what she described as “MAGA fascism.” She referenced the work of Revolutionary Communist Party Chair Bob Avakian numerous times, and told protesters they must follow in his footsteps and get actively involved in defeating Trump’s fascist actions.

“This is a time for collective action and self sacrificing struggle for the greater good, the greater good of defeating fascism,” Chi said.