And THIS is one of the reasons why I'm a #DemocraticSocialist!

#Unions and Community Unite for #MayDay: Lessons for the Fight Ahead

Posted by #ToddChretien | Jun 16, 2025 |

This article is reprinted from the Socialist Forum, a publication of #DSA. It was authored by Todd Chretien, who serves both on DSA’s Editorial Board as well as Pine & Roses’ Editorial Collective. It was originally published on May 30, 2025.

What happened?

"Hundreds of thousands of workers marched and rallied on May Day, making it the largest International Workers Day since 2006 when two million immigrant workers left work and marched to demand their rights. Protests were organized in 1300 locations, large and small; no doubt the first May Day protest in many places. Broadly speaking, there were three different levels of mobilization. First, as in 2006, Chicago stood out with some 30,000 marching, organized by a mass coalition of labor and immigrant rights organizations. Second, cities like Philly, New York, Baltimore, San Francisco, Oakland, Burlington, and #PortlandME mobilized between two and fifteen thousand. Third, hundreds of cities and towns turned out crowds from a couple dozen to hundreds, including smaller cities like Davis, California. This ranking is not intended as a judgement on the organizers. In fact, some of the smaller rallies included higher percentages of the population than the largest. For instance, in the town of #WayneME — population 1,000 — seventy-five people turned out for both morning and evening rallies.

"It’s worth noting that the crowds were not as large as the #April5 day of protest initiated by #Indivisible; however, participants were noticeably more #multiracial, younger, and #radical with widespread support for #TransgenderRights and opposition to the genocide of #Palestinians in #Gaza. Though an important step in the process of building working-class unity against the billionaires and capitalist class, these efforts have a long way to go. For instance, although multiracial, at the national level, the marches did not entirely reflect working-class diversity. And if immigrant rights organizations were critical in many cities, Trump’s reign of terror against immigrant workers suppressed turnout from this community in many places.

[...]

New York City

"On the day, NYC-DSA turned out some 500 members, many of whom marched with their unions. They did so while keeping up with other work—DSA member #ZohranMamdani is running for mayor—with #NYCDSA labor organizers having advanced a month-long Build to May Day campaign. Organizers called on committees and working groups across the chapter to make May Day a priority, turning out members and volunteer marshalls. The chapter is now in a stronger position to discuss next steps with the broader coalition and consolidate a layer of new members and allies. There’s more pain ahead, but May Day helped gather working-class forces together for action and to take the temperature of the most active and militant layer of trade unionists and community activists. As NYC-DSA Labor Working Group member David Duhalde suggests, 'The New York City May Day rally and march from Foley Square to the iconic Wall Street Bull statue was a microcosm of the shift in energy in labor during Trump’s second term.' How far that shift goes can only be tested in practice.

[...]

Portland, Maine

"Maine DSA’s Labor Rising working group decided to focus on May Day in December, laying the basis to help initiate an organizing meeting open to all community groups and unions. Maine AFL-CIO leaders and UAW graduate students participated in a preliminary meeting to brainstorm ideas, and more than 70 people attended an April 12 meeting in the South Portland Teamsters’ Hall, where the group democratically planned Portland’s May Day. Working groups took up all aspects of the action, and we took all important decisions back to the coalition for votes. Running a long a related track, Maine Education Association and Maine AFL-CIO leaders called for actions across the state, amplifying the Chicago May Day Strong call and dramatically broadening what the Portland coalition could organize.

"Nearly 2,000 people turned out in Portland, starting with a rally at the University of Southern Maine to back UAW graduate students’ demands for a first contract and then marching to the Post Office to hear from postal workers. Members of the Portland Education Association and a trans student poet headlined the stop at Portland High School and a librarian union rep spoke in Monument Square before the final rally that heard from the president of the Metal Trades Council at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, a rep from the Maine State Nurses Association, members of the #MaineCoalitionForPalestine, an organizer from #LGTBQ+ community group #PortlandOutright, a local immigrant rights group called Presente! Maine, and others. It was a great demonstration and showed the thirst for a broader coalition. Twenty-five other towns held actions, bringing the total number of Maine participants to over 5,000, the largest Maine May Day anyone can remember.

"It would be shortsighted to overstate the power and stability of this fledgling coalition. Large doses of patience and understanding will be necessary to foster bonds of trust. Sectarian pressures to draw 'red lines' that exclude workers new to political activity and organizations who have various programs and interests represent one danger. A narrow focus on the midterm elections represents another. Fortunately, there’s a lot of room for creativity between those two extremes.

Long road ahead

"May Day was the first test of strength for the left and working class against #Trump, #MAGA, and forty-plus years of #neoliberal rot. We face a long, complex problem where political pressures to return to passivity will be strong, but May Day 2025 constitutes a small step towards healing deep wounds in the American working class, the divide between organized and unorganized, immigrant and US born, etc. If brother Fain’s call for 2028 is to grow strong, then 2026 and 2027 must be practice runs. If 2026 and 2027 are to be real demonstrations of strength, they must grow out of tighter bonds between labor, community, and the left, more active membership participation in all of those forces, and a combination of defensive struggles we are forced to fight and battles we pick on our own terms. As Sarah Hurd, co-chair of DSA’s National Labor Commission, spells out, 'This year’s May Day actions showed the power of what we can accomplish just by setting a date and inviting people to take action together. It has also highlighted what work we need to do to scale up our level of organization in the next three years.'

"What did May Day teach us? Fittingly, the last word goes to Kirsten Roberts, a rank-and-file Chicago teacher, 'The most important element of #MayDay2025 is the explicit entry of organized and unorganized labor into #resistance to Trump. Trump’s attacks are aimed directly at dividing the working class and turning ordinary people against one another while the billionaires rob and plunder us all. An agenda for working class unity can be built when we stand up for those most victimized and vilified by the right-wing bigots AND when we stand together to fight for the things that the billionaire class has denied us—the fight for healthcare, education, housing, and good-paying jobs for starters. For decades, we’ve been told by both parties that funding war, incarceration, and border militarization are their priorities. May Day showed that working people have another agenda. Now let’s organize to win it.”

https://pineandroses.org/reports/unions-and-community-unite-for-may-day-lessons-for-the-fight-ahead/

#MaineResists #NYCResists #ResistTrump #ResistFascism #Socialism #CapitalismKills #MaineDSA #PinesAndRoses #DemocraticSocialistsOfAmerica

#Starhawk #Magic #Energy #Activism #MayDay #April5

Magic In Action

I don't always agree with Sherry Wolf (or with anyone always, of course) but the comments below seem to me about right. In Portland, there were, by at least one count, 50,000 (so, proportionately a better turnout than NYC). Many were masked, and I appreciate all those protecting everyone's health in the crowd.

I've heard that there are nationwide calls for further marches April 19 & May 1, but have not seen anything definite for PDX. There is, however, an upcoming meeting April 12 dedicated to building long-term alliances--not just mobilizing people to protest but organizing to gain positive changes. Portland Rising: The Power of Coalition from Jobs with Justice & others: Saturday, April 12, 2025 10:00 AM-12:00PM at P.A.T. Hall, 345 NE 8th Ave., Portland, OR 97232. Wheelchair accessible; Masks required and provided. https://actionnetwork.org/events/portland-rising-the-power-of-coalition

Important to remember also that in discussing 'nonviolent' protests, the violence generally comes from the police, so the peacefulness, some have suggested, comes from police having underestimated turnout (and thus being unprepared for encountering the crowd) or indifference to the actions of old white people likely to go home after the march.

Sherry Wolf posts:
5 takeaways from April 5th in NYC:
- 100,000 came out—mostly as individuals and not organized in groups, folks who don’t usually or ever protest on a day the city’s far left leadership was in DC for the massive Palestine protest there. Notably, thousands in NYC wore keffiyehs & carried signs about Gaza, it’s too intertwined with our national disaster to be scrubbed from an NYC protest
- Multigenerational, but skewed whiter and a bit older than NYC overall, indicating both the silos we’re in and that it was disproportionately citizens who don’t fear deportation but loss of careers, social security, Medicare, etc. these were downwardly mobile middle- and working-class people with something to lose
- The politically broad but hollow call to action—“Hands Off”— meant that the momentary vacuum could be filled by individuals or small groups putting forward chants and slogans for others, which is what I did on the march from the subway and later with union comrades for more than an hour outside the library raising explicitly anti-fascist, pro-trans and immigrant and unite and fight type chants and got tens of thousands to vigorously take them up while marching past; others did this along the way, too!
- Leftists need to learn what a united front means in practice—the denunciations online of the vacuousness of a “Hands Off” call are unhelpful; possibly 1 million people nationally turned out because they’re scared and want to find a way to fight—we need to put forward and fight for political positions inside these formations, not denounce them
- Mass actions raise the prospect of mass strikes; union leaders need to start organizing strike calls with Black, queer and immigrant groups—days of action, walk-ins, walkouts, rolling strikes—which can’t be summoned the same way as a call to action in a moment of extreme fear rage.

#USpol #April5 #PortlandOr #PDX

ANONYMOUS Speaks on the Protests #April5 #anonymous #april5th

https://www.reddit.com/r/50501/comments/1jst1uc/comment/mlp0e68/

Protesters denounced Trump’s fascist attacks on workers, immigrants, social benefits, and democratic rights.

The political meaning of the April 5 mass protests against Trump - World Socialist Web Site

#April5 #April5th

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/04/07/fpwl-a07.html

On April 5, 5.2 million people across the country stood up to say HANDS OFF our democracy.

We are committed to building our peaceful People’s Movement and achieving 3.5% participation. History shows that when just 3.5% of the population engages in sustained, peaceful resistance—transformative change is inevitable.

Follow to join our Movement, and save the date for our next national day of action on April 19th.

#50501movement #PeoplesMovement #FiftyFiftyOne #50501 #April5 #HandsOff

I'm reading an estimated 5 million people showed up to protest the #mumpregime

To the 20 million Americans who voted in 2020 but didn't vote in 2024, you actually did vote. You're non-vote was a vote for this crap!

Lest you want to wake up in the New North Korea, your presence is requested in the streets!

sustained protest by 3 to 4% of this country stops this Shite

https://bigthink.com/the-present/the-3-5-percent-solution/

#handsoff #april5