Kathleen Breslin of Chatham, New Jersey, wears a suffragette outfit after taking part in the “DC Freedom Run” protest today. Photo / Matt McClain, The Washington Post
Crowds gathered in United States cities including Chicago, San Diego and Washington DC on Labour Day to denounce what they see as the undue influence of America’s business tycoons and corporations over the second Trump Administration.
May Day Strong, a coalition of labour and advocacy groups, organised more than 1000 events - including protests and parades - in about 900 cities.
The event, called “Workers over Billionaires”, is backed by the AFL-CIO, the country’s largest federation of labour unions; national political advocacy groups like Indivisible and MoveOn; and local grass roots organisations.
“The theme for this really is workers over billionaires. And so we are directly calling out the billionaires and their corporations that are driving the Trump agenda,” Saqib Bhatti, executive director of the Action Centre on Race and the Economy, a non-profit that helped plan May Day Strong’s national day of action.
In Chicago, threats by the Trump Administration to increase immigration enforcement operations and deploy National Guard soldiers loomed over the protests.
At the demonstration, which began at the Haymarket Memorial sculpture, Mayor Brandon Johnson (Democrat) led the chant, “No troops in Chicago!”
“And no matter what comes from the White House,” Johnson said. “Chicago will always be a labour town.”
Asked for comment on the protests, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said that Republicans were “once again the proud party of the American worker”.
“No one has done more for working men and women than President [Donald] Trump,” Rogers said in a statement. “President Trump believes that American workers are the heart and soul of our economy.”
In San Francisco, Rosa Shields, political director of the local AFL-CIO body, said their rally is focused on tech executives and companies like Palantir, a software and data analytics company that has emerged as a major winner of the second Trump Administration, securing billions in federal contracts amid a new government ethos that prioritises cost-cutting and embracing artificial intelligence.
“I grew up here, and we saw the way the tech industry changed the city … a lot of people were forced out, and a lot of workers were displaced,” Shields said. “And now we’re seeing that with the AI boom.”
Palantir’s corporate office did not respond to a request for comment.
Organisers believe this year’s Labour Day will go down as one of the largest mobilisations on the federal holiday in decades and hope the rallies remind people of the origins of the holiday, which was first held in New York City in 1882 as a celebration of workers.
“We want to put the labour back in Labour Day,” said Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO.
“It’s not the last barbecue of the season, or the mattress sale. It’s [about] the people who make this country hum, the work that they do, and putting workers front and centre.”
Since the start of Trump’s second term, thousands have gathered across the country in organised protest, such as the “Hands Off” and “No Kings” rallies that opposed Trump’s policies and billionaire Elon Musk’s role in dismantling federal agencies.
Some organisers say that while today’s rallies build off those demands, they are specifically focused on workers and protesting against the actions of corporations or billionaires in their communities.
Demands listed on May Day Strong’s website include: protecting and defending Medicaid, Social Security, and other programmes for working people; and advocating for better education, healthcare and housing funding.
In Albuquerque, Neidi Dominguez, the executive director of a local worker protection group called Organised Power in Numbers, said most speakers during today’s events in her city are other workers rather than elected officials or movement leaders.
The group planned to call out what it says is local government’s support for developers over poor and working-class people. Dominguez pointed to the Albuquerque city council’s recent approval of a US$227 million tax break for a luxury hotel and apartment-retail complex amid a housing crisis in the area.
“We’ve participated in other Labour Day events in the past, but this one just feels very different - and in a good way,” she said.
“Because people are realising that what’s happening in our country is just hurting all of us poor, working-class people, and that we need to stand up and fight together right now.”
Bhatti said he plans to attend a demonstration at the Chicago-based headquarters of a private equity firm led by Antonio Gracias, a billionaire who Musk tapped to help with the US Doge Service’s efforts to make cuts at the Social Security Administration. His private equity firm, Valor Equity Partners, did not respond to a request for comment.
Bhatti added that the May Day Strong coalition’s focus on organising in local communities demonstrates how worker outrage “isn’t just limited to a handful of big, blue cities”.
According to the May Day Strong website, dozens of the Labour Day events were based in small towns or suburban areas outside major metropolitan areas; many of them were held in counties that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
“It’s actually pervasive in every single community all across the country,” Bhatti said.
“In small towns that may have voted overwhelmingly for Trump, folks are still [annoyed] at the fact that he’s putting billionaires ahead of working people, and that he’s going to be slashing Medicaid, and cutting benefits and laying off federal workers and coming after our communities.”
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers’ union in the country, said she’s attending a Labour Day parade in Des Moines, Iowa, and hopes the nationwide events will resonate well after Labour Day.
“It is those voices, from one person in community to another person in their community, that’s what makes a difference,” she said.
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