Thousands in Chicago marched on Friday, May 1, to celebrate International Workers’ Day and make their voices heard.
Friday, May 1, marked the 136th annual May Day as thousands across Chicago marched for workers’ rights. May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, is a day to promote civic action in the workers’ rights movement. Although it has not been declared a federal holiday in the U.S., thousands participated in the “no school, no work, no shopping” objective of the event.
Led by Indivisible Chicago, the Chicago May Day Rally was one of 3,500 “May Day Strong” events across the county. Crowds gathered in Union Park to listen to key speakers from politicians and union leaders while school buses filled with students and teachers emptied out into the park. Many social and worker organizations handed out fliers to those who walked through the crowd to educate them about their groups, while drumming and singing kept spirits high. Eventually, the crowd made their own voices heard as they marched from the park to Daley Plaza.
Holding signs reading “There are no unskilled workers” and “Power to the people, not the billionaires,” thousands of people from all backgrounds shared support for the cause. There were a large number of issues covered including unionization, minimum wage, immigration, taxes and the U.S. involvement in overseas conflicts. No matter the cause, people showed up for the same fight.
Illinois Congresswoman Delia Ramirez took the stage as the crowd cheered: “We are speaking truth to power,” she addressed them. “We’re organizing to build the collective power that resists the attacks on workers, on immigrants, on our neighbors and our rights.”
Ramirez acknowledged the impulse in today’s climate to surrender to feelings of hopelessness, but encouraged the crowd to share a moment with their neighbors and remember the community they are fighting for.
“On the hardest days, and let me tell you, in Washington, D.C., in those halls of Congress, when you have a Congress that wants to fund [Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)] and [Customs and Border Protection (CBP)] with $140 billion more,” she said, inviting the crowd to boo with her, “it could feel demoralizing — but I need you to look at each other. You are the center of the resistance that is going to fight back to ensure that we are never, ever here again.”
On April 23, the Senate approved a $140 billion plan intended to be allocated to ICE and CBP, two agencies of President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation agenda. The budget resolution passed by a 50-48 vote, with all Democrats in opposition as well as Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
As the head of the Melt ICE Act alongside New York Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, aiming to end the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) immigration enforcement and provide funding to those affected by deportation, Ramirez held immigration issues at the top of her list in her speech.
“Because you and I, Chicago, we are building a future where all workers, regardless of immigration status, regardless of race, regardless of zip code, are guaranteed the rights to fair wages, safe workspaces and dignity on the job,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez also discussed the Equal Tax Act proposed in March, which would require individuals with incomes over $1 million to pay equal taxes and lower the tax gap. Just a few days ago, she also introduced the Living Wage for All Act, which she stated “raises the minimum wage in the United States of America to $25 for every single worker, regardless of industry.”
The final bill that Ramirez mentioned was the Block the Bombs Act from last June. Co-sponsored by 69 members of Congress with Ramirez as the lead, this act aims to withhold the U.S. transfer of offensive weapons to Israel and demand their compliance with international law, “Because we don’t want to see our money going to war … Free Palestine,” Ramirez said.
As Ramirez ended the speech, the crowd chanted in support, “Stand up, fight back!”
Several Chicago union leaders also gave speeches to support their own issues. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union’s Andy Trebing, who helped unionize Lincoln Park’s REI store, expressed his disappointment with REI and called for a national boycott on May 15.
“For years, we have been trying to reach a first contract with this alleged progressive company,” Trebing said. “We’ve been trying to get this contract for four years for 12 stores. They’ve withheld raises and bonuses. They’ve stopped promoting people, they’ve cut hours, they’ve cut our benefits.”
Union membership across the U.S. has decreased from a third of Americans in 1954 to about 10 percent in the 2020s, according to the Congressional Research Service, which is why many believe the efforts of May Day are indispensable.
These speeches made the calls for action tangible and gave the crowd real goals to work toward. So when they marched from Union Park to Daley Plaza, they knew they had issues worth fighting for.
One marcher was Tanuja Jagernauth, a lifetime activist who’s been living in Chicago since 2001.
“Chicago is home. It is absolutely where I learned my biggest political lessons and appreciation of May Day. It’s an annual holiday that means so much,” Jagernauth said. “I am a descendant of Indo-Caribbean indentured laborers, so the struggle for worker liberation is in my DNA.”
For Jagernauth, May Day is about honoring its history and those who have gotten the movement to where it is today.
“It’s important to commemorate the Haymarket workers and their sacrifice to not just get us an eight-hour work day, but to show us that when workers organize, they can improve the collective conditions for the better, and that’s something we still need to learn from and practice today.”
The Haymarket workers that Jagernauth refers to are the backbone of the May Day movement. In the summer of 1886, 80,000 workers marched on Michigan Avenue, and later met at Haymarket Square, to call for an enforcement of the 1867 eight-hour work day law. They demanded shorter days and higher pay, sparking a national movement, but were met with violent resistance from police that left many on both sides dead and unions crushed. Ultimately, the Haymarket workers were pivotal in advancing the labor movement and have brought workers to where they are today.
On Friday morning, labor activists and city officials unveiled a plaque to honor the legacy these workers left on May Day at the Haymarket Memorial.
May Day started in Chicago almost a century and a half ago — but the movement is still incredibly strong to this day with the help of many voices. Jagernauth proudly displayed a sunflower, which notably has historic symbolism in working-class movements across the world such as the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan. On the sign read a name in dedication to one of these voices, Amisha Patel, who recently passed away on April 24.
Patel was a prominent workers’ rights organizer in Chicago. She was the executive director of Grassroots Collaborative since 2007, leading efforts to raise the minimum wage and fight controversial tax policies, and is credited with helping pave the way for Ramirez and Mayor Brandon Johnson to make it to office. Last year, she was awarded a Congressional Commendation by Ramirez herself for her civic leadership.
“I’m just grateful for [Patel], her life and her legacy. So I’m just trying to bring her here today. I feel like she would really want to be here with us,” Jagernauth said.
Looking towards the future, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is the first to express the necessity of May Day for students.
In preparation for the rally, the CTU pushed for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to close on May 1 in support of May Day as a day of “civic action.” This garnered support from Mayor Johnson, but was pushed back by CPS CEO Macquline King. However, in a CTU statement, a deal was struck to allow educators to “organize across the city, and to engage our students in civic action and solidarity,” through 40 planned field trips to the rally and an approved curriculum that allowed for teachers to educate students on civic history, as long as they are “neutral in nature by providing diverse perspectives.”
“Shout-out to all of the students in our Chicago Public Schools and our educators who have declared this day of civic action,” Mayor Johnson said Friday morning. “The labor movement is in good hands because we have students across this city that are raising awareness of what justice looks like, not just in Chicago but all over the world.”
Stacy Davis Gates, president of the CTU, took the stage to share why May Day was important to her personally. She shared that, as a history teacher, her students are everything.
“[Students] are given an education throughout this city about why coalition work is possible and about why when workers are engaged in coalition work, we don’t just make it better for ourselves, we make it better for this country,” Gates said.
Kalina Fleming-Lopez is a CTU delegate for Richards Career Academy, a sustainable community high school in Back of the Yards. Fleming-Lopez was one of the many CTU delegates who marched last Saturday.
“What shouldn’t draw you out here today? There’s so much that we need to fight for,” Fleming-Lopez said. They listed a number of priorities, including funding schools, fighting to end the conflicts within Iran and Palestine, as well as ICE “terrorizing our communities” as some of their own students have been affected by ICE.
“Our democracy is being threatened constantly, every single day, and its administration. We want to make sure that we’re coming out to show our force as people who work and who make the backbone of the city and also the country.”
Fleming-Lopez expressed gratitude for social media being a way to connect communities together in civic movements, as well as journalism, but most importantly, students.
“Students are the future. They’re the people who are going to take us forward into the future, and we need to make sure that we’re modeling how they can organize and fight back against the systems that are here and that hopefully we can begin to change,” they said. “This is a long-standing fight that hasn’t just started today, but has been happening for a long period of time. This is not just the beginning of the fight, but it’s continuation. So students being here shows that the fight will continue, that their voices will be heard.”
Musa Turner and Alessandro Kimbel are members of Socialist Alternative, a national socialist organization formed in 1986 that is campaigning to create an independent anti-war party made up of the working class and young people. Turner is a graduate from Columbia College Chicago and Kimbel is a current student.
“Far too long in America, we’ve kind of decided … [we’re] keeping politics out of the classroom, and I think it’s very important to organize with your fellow students, as that’s where you’re going to have like-minded conversations with people,” Kimbel said. “They have a lot of leverage … that they’re tied into these institutions, like colleges, that have a ton of money, that have a ton of say in what happens. I think [students] leading by example is really important to get more working-class people on our side.”
Kimbel acknowledged that throughout history, students have been at the forefront of revolutionary movements. From the Kent State rallies against the Vietnam War in 1970, to the March for Our Lives rally in 2018 and the Global Climate Strikes in over 160 countries in 2019, students have been trying to make a difference for themselves and the world around them.
“At the same time, students are workers. Students are very often [a] disenfranchised group and them having a part in their own agency and trying to … [make] things better for themselves is super important, and can give them skills,” Turner said.
“We’ve seen the administration gut education entirely, rolling back restrictions, putting religious things back into the curriculum. I think not only is that devastating for students because it’s robbing them of [the] education they deserve, but as well as they’re just directly affected by that,” Kimbel said. “A less educated populace, a less educated working class, is more likely to be exploited by people. It’s more likely for us to get less wages, it’s more likely to have a worse quality of life. So I think that’s why the role of students is so important within movements like this at this very moment, especially at this key juncture, when the Trump administration is taking so much aim at higher education.”
Kimbel, as a student, said they struggle to pay rent, which makes affordability a pressing issue, as well as homelessness. Last year, the 2025 Chicago Point-in-Time (PIT) Count estimated a total of 7,452 people experiencing homelessness in Chicago on a given day. This is a 60 percent reduction from 2024, which skyrocketed above the usual 3,000 to 6,000 range from 2018 to 2023 at 18,836, but one that has led to a decrease in shelter capacities across the city, which has become an issue for many.
“Not only just Trump, but specifically with Trump, a lot of the attacks that have been done are to keep things unaffordable and to keep people from getting the chance to live their lives and be involved and able to identify and be who they are as people,” Turner said.
The homeless people of Chicago found in the PIT count face massive racial disparity. While the Black population makes up less than one-third of Chicago, 53 percent of the total population estimated to be experiencing homelessness were Black/African American. Thirty-five percent were Hispanic/Latino. The second-highest cause of homelessness reported was migration to the United States at 15 percent, meaning that immigration is also a key factor in homelessness, and of course the labor movement.
“As a society we protect [homeless people], and are cutting all these social safety nets that we put in place to catch people like this. I think protecting vulnerable people in our direct vicinity is what I care the most about,” Kimbel said, and added on immigrants, “I think immigrants are what makes America America.”
Turner agreed with the sentiment that they are fighting for vulnerable communities such as immigrants and people of color, referencing the Voting Rights Act, which recently has been faced with massive concern after this past Wednesday, when the Supreme Court struck down the redrawing of Louisiana’s congressional map to include a second majority-Black district, ruling it an unconstitutional gerrymander.
Turner emphasized that no matter if you are an immigrant, have lived in the U.S. your whole life or don’t live in the U.S. at all, you can get involved in the labor movement. He said: “This struggle is an international struggle. It’s not just here that people are trying to build things, but people everywhere are going to be a part of [creating] a better world. You can get involved wherever you are.”
“In withholding your labor when you feel like you’re being mistreated, in your rhetoric, how you talk to your family, how you engage with everyone else,” Kimbel said, “the power is really in the people.”
Header Image by Maya Ang
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