The annual Mayday rally was announced as the cause of workers in the United States and around the world. But this year, as the anti-Trump movement spreads, U.S. demonstrations have grown in the president’s agenda and expansion of executive power.
Protesters condemn the government’s efforts to back down workers’ rights, a special pain dedicated to celebrating a day of organized labor – as well as a plan to cut funding for education and carry out large-scale evictions.
“We are here to support our workers and unions,” Jena Olsen, 63, said at a large rally at Chicago’s Union Park, who served as a flight attendant for 39 years. But protesters said they were also angry at the “threat to democracy” posed by President Trump.
So, the day was different, said Yvonn Wheeler, president of the Los Angeles County Labor Federation.
“Workers are attacked; immigrants are attacked. “There are chaos and chaos every day. ”
Behind her, the sound of beating drums and the craziest Vuvuzelas mixed with praise for labor and immigration rights leaders, making remarks from behind a modified pickup truck.
Various flags – the American flag, the flags of several Latin American countries and the pride of pride – hovering over the same diverse people. Workers held signs and banners with the acronyms of their respective unions.
Similar scenes were unfolding nationwide as police shut down streets among crowds in major cities including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington.
But protesters are also rallied in small communities that voted for President Trump, including Norman, Oklahoma. Sauk, Wisconsin; Hendersonville, North Carolina held signs in front of municipal buildings and public schools, with some protesters wearing red to show their support for public education.
The rallies in Los Angeles began Thursday with a focus on immigration rights, and in California, they also form the ranks of workers.
Jose Servín, 31, is the organizer of a statewide coalition of advocacy groups who had held for the rally and held a sign saying, “One of us comes, come for all of us.”
He said Mr. Servín immigrated to the United States when he was a child. “I found a place here where I can succeed, where I can thrive, where I can plant the roots – I am now my father – I will fight like hell to protect this.”
A separate effort, organized as a national law date, brings legal professionals to the Supreme Court and federal court in Washington Thursday to promote judicial independence and opposes the Trump administration’s efforts to intimidate law firms.
Attorneys demonstrating in the Supreme Court reiterated their vows to maintain integrity and protect the rule of law – “He thinks he is above Trump,” she said.
The protests – expected to have over 1,000 nationwide – are planned to be in the traditional May labor rally by 50,501, a loose coalition of grassroots activist groups as well as a loose coalition of labor, nonprofits and civil rights organizations. Mayday commemorates the eight-hour working day struggle, which labor organizers won in 1886, and it was not until after the conflict in Chicago that labor organizers led to a deadly hay market riot.
The Trump administration is trying to calm dissent in the United States, universities, government agencies and news media. But in recent weeks, demonstrations against the president’s agenda and boycotts by some institutions targeted by Mr. Trump have increased in scale and frequency.
Workforce groups accounted for a large percentage of protesters at a rallies in Chicago on Thursday, despite the swelling of pro-Palestinian activists and anti-Trump protesters, and many believe their concerns overlap.
“He is tearing down our constitution,” said Bill Hincks, 40, a union official in Oak Woods, a suburban Chicago, who accused Mr. Trump of firing officials from agencies that regulate workplace safety, including the National Labor and Industrial Relations Commission. The name spoken and written by protesters across the country in the protesters held Thursday was Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia’s wife Jennifer Vasquez talks with thousands at a rally in Lafayette Square, Washington. “My husband was illegally detained, kidnapped and disappeared, threw away, died in one of the most dangerous prisons in El Salvador, with no due process due to errors,” she said.
Ms. Vasquez said: “Stop playing political games with my husband’s life.”
Listening among the crowd were immigrants from Central and South America, including those who knew recently deported.
“It helps our undocumented community,” said immigration rights organizer Nelly Bautista-Hernandez. “I march for everyone who is not here.”
Famous politicians also participated in some activities.
In New York City, Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez implored attendees to keep pressure on Republican lawmakers, which were seen in the first 100 days of Mr. Trump’s presidency.
She appeared in Foley Square in Manhattan with news: House Republicans’ vote on Medicaid’s future has been delayed.
“They have stopped and suspended Medicaid cuts next week because they’re so scared,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez said. “They see you, New York, they see the party.”
Dozens of demonstrators locked their weapons and sat down at an intersection near the highway entrance for about 30 minutes after a speech by independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Philadelphia, Vermont, before police began arresting.
They sang, “We won’t be moved.”
Katie Benner Contributing from Washington Joel Wolfram From Philadelphia and Cassidy Jensen Contributing from New York.
