Springsteen headlines star-studded No Kings protest.
Springsteen headlines star-studded No Kings protest.
All Time Entertainment – Vertical
Terrence Wise, his fiance, and their three daughters have known homelessness and hunger through more than 30 years in the fast food industry.
“We were sleeping in a purple minivan in the parking lot at work,” he said. “I’ll never forget seeing my three daughters trying to sleep in the back in the middle of winter.”
He holds three jobs and his fiancée is a home health care worker. There are days when the freezer is empty. They don’t go to work or go to school on May 1st. Families don’t spend money.
Instead, Wise, a 46-year-old Kansas City resident who heads the Missouri Worker Center, and her family will be among the hundreds of thousands of Americans expected to leave work or school on May 1. ”mayday strong” or “Workers over billionaires.”
May Day protests often focus on labor rights, economic justice, immigrant rights, income inequality, worker rights, and government policies. Organizers and participants say this year’s participants are more important than ever because prices for everything from rent to food to gas are rising while wages aren’t rising.
“If you want to see real change, you have to be part of the solution, because if you don’t organize, if you don’t take to the streets, if you don’t talk to your neighbors, you become part of the problem,” Wise said.
May Day began in Chicago in 1886 as a protest demanding eight votes.–It is a one-hour working day and is celebrated around the world as International Workers’ Day.
hundreds of groups organized ”mayday strong” event. Hunter Dunn, national spokesman for the protest group 50501, said there were about 1,300 similar events on the first May Day of President Donald Trump’s second term in office.
Similar to the No King movement and other large-scale protests that have brought millions of people to the streets since the start of President Trump’s second term, organizers are holding a few concentrated events in large cities and thousands of smaller events in smaller communities. Many are led by workers, left-wing advocacy groups, and teachers unions.
“People are finding out who is rigging the game and taking action,” said Surma Arias, executive director of People’s Action. “What we hope is that people will go out and give a clear message…They understand that they are seeing promises broken by an administration that promised to make things more affordable, and yet nothing of the sort is happening to ordinary people who are still struggling.”
White House press secretary Khush Desai said workers in America’s heartland are the foundation of the “Make America Great Again” movement that propelled President Trump to the White House.
“The Trump administration has never wavered in its commitment to standing up for American workers, from renegotiating broken trade deals to securing trillions of dollars in manufacturing investment, cutting overtime pay and securing our borders. President Trump will always have the support of American workers,” Desai said.
education
Scheduled school strikes and many teachers taking personal leave caused school districts in Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Oregon, and Wisconsin to shut down for May Day.
In North Carolina, nearly 20 school districts canceled classes ahead of the protests because so many teachers took personal days to participate in May Day events across the state, said Brian Proffitt, vice president of the North Carolina Association of Educators.
He expects thousands of people to gather at the state Capitol in Raleigh for a “Kids Over Corporations” rally and march.
“We’re seeing a build-up of dissatisfaction among people who work in public schools across the state, and this year things kind of reached a breaking point,” he said.
Proffitt said the march will be followed by an “outdoor gathering” where people can gather in each region to discuss next steps and build connections.
“We know that our demands will not be met that day,” he said.
Al-Shiny Ajayi, executive director of Sunrise Movement, said 70,000 students have pledged to leave hundreds of campuses across the country. Sunrise Movement is a youth-led advocacy organization focused on climate change.
“May Day is a new moment, a moment when people realize that what we need is not just protest, but non-cooperation,” she said.
economic protests
Economic boycotts have been a part of American protest movements since the Boston Tea Party, and include actions such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott of the Civil Rights Movement of 1955–1956 and the United Farm Workers’ Grape Boycott of 1965–1970.
May Day Strong will be held 20 years after the Great American Boycott/No Immigrant Day on May 1, 2006, one of the largest single-day economic protests in recent American history. An estimated 2 million protesters across the country took to the streets on that day in response to a proposed federal bill that would criminalize illegal immigration and make aiding illegal immigrants a felony.
Since President Trump returned to office, multiple groups have embraced the idea of an economic boycott. They boycotted companies that supported his campaign, sponsored his inauguration, or capitulated to his demands to dismantle their diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. The number of planned daily power outages is also increasing, but their economic impact has long been difficult to determine.
And on January 23, an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people participated in Truth and Freedom Day. This is a coordinated statewide action against Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdowns in the Minneapolis area, including marches and economic boycotts. Hundreds of businesses closed for the day in solidarity.
more: Red flare for Trump: ‘No Kings’ rally show of political power
Dunn said it was important to expand the movement to include economic shutdowns.
“We urgently need to build up the muscle of this protest movement to ensure we can protect our democracy,” he told USA TODAY.
Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, said the move from calling for Saturday participation in the No Kings protests to attending weekday events was a “tactical escalation.” This progressive grassroots organizing group is a lead organizer of the No Kings protests and plays a supporting role in May Day events.
“We need people who can or are willing to take on the pain of having to spend their Fridays with their communities participating in anti-regime activities, rather than just a weekend Friday,” he said.
He said U.S. protest groups are keeping a close eye on what works and what doesn’t on May Day. They predict economic protests will be necessary if the administration attempts to intervene in November’s midterm elections.
“I think we want to learn a lot about where we’re strong and where we need to grow before we actually do this across the board on the national stage. And we’re concerned that we may have to do that in November because President Trump is openly threatening election infrastructure,” Levin said. “It’s not enough to have another no-king on Saturday, even if it’s the biggest no-king in history.”
strike
In Minneapolis, David McCann, 41, plans to strike outside the Hotel Ivy with other housekeepers and engineers who are members of the Minnesota hospitality union UNITE HERE Local 17. He has been trying to negotiate a new contract since July, asking for a $3 raise and sick leave.
They chose to go on a one-day strike on May Day., Mr McCann spoke in solidarity with other workers and immigrants. Other local unions across the country are also planning strikes on May 1st.
“We all work two or three jobs, and when we get home from work, we’re completely exhausted. So we’re looking for a place where we can make a living from one job and make a decent living. I think that’s a pretty reasonable request,” said McCann, who works at the front desk.
