Nationwide May Day Protests Target Trump's 'Billionaire Agenda'

Hundreds of thousands of workers rallied from coast to coast Thursday to mark International Workers' Day with spirited demonstrations supporting labor rights and protesting President Donald Trump's "billionaire agenda" and attacks on the rule of law, unions, immigrants, Palestine defenders, transgender people, and others.

Rallies took place in hundreds of cities and towns across the United States in what the May Day Strong coalition, which led the day of action along with the 50501 movement and others, called "a demand for a country that invests in working families—not billionaire profits."

"Trump and his billionaire profiteers are trying to create a race to the bottom—on wages, on benefits, on dignity itself," the coalition said. "This May Day we are fighting back. We are demanding a country that puts our families over their fortunes—public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, prosperity over free market politics."

"Just one day after the 100th day of the Trump administration, families nationwide are already facing cuts to Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and education—while billionaires reap massive tax breaks and record profits," May Day Strong added.

In Philadelphia, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was among those who addressed a crowd of thousands, many of them union workers.

"Brothers and sisters, what we are celebrating today, May Day, is in a sense a sacred holiday, and all over our country workers are coming out and demanding justice, and all over the world, in dozens of countries, workers are standing up to oligarchy and demanding a world in which all people have a decent standard of living," said Sanders, whose Fighting Oligarchy tour with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)w is drawing massive crowds, including in "red" states.

Shafeek Anderson, a hotel worker and member of Unite Here Local 274 who attended the Philadelphia rally, told WCAU that "we're tired of everything that's going on in everyday life. We're tired of our prices going up. We're tired of the unfair treatment."

"We're tired of the inequality in life and everything else," Anderson added. "So rallies like this will absolutely help show that we mean business and we absolutely will stand on business when we need to."

In Chicago, Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union—which recently won what it called a "transformative" new contract—said that "we believe in the power of common good bargaining and together, with SEIU 73 and other labor unions, we have been able to secure sanctuary protections for our students and their families."

"We resist bullies like Trump by creating coalition and leaning into the power of history and the power that Black people's freedom has paved for America in the first general strike during the Civil War," Davis Gates added. "My people believe in reconstruction, and we can do it together in solidarity and create a society that works for everyone."

The May Day Strong coalition is demanding:

• An end to the billionaire takeover and government corruption;
• Full funding for public schools, healthcare, and housing;
• Protection and expansion of Medicaid, Social Security, and other essential programs;
• A halt to attacks on immigrants, Black, Indigenous, trans, and other targeted communities; and
• Strong union protections, fair wages, and dignity for all workers.

"We won't back down—we will never stop fighting for our families and the rights and freedoms that propel opportunity and a better life for all Americans," the coalition added. "Their time is up."