Bernie Sanders’ “For the Workers, Not the Billionaires” rally at City Hall was the headliner, but Philadelphia played host to multiple smaller rallies and protests in the lead-up Thursday.
The May Day protests are part of a nationwide movement opposing President Donald Trump’s administration and what organizers describe as a “billionaire takeover” of government and public life. May Day, which historically has been a holiday for the labor movement, is being embraced as well this year by the “50501” movement, which claims to have coordinated protests in all 50 states today.
The local protests took place at the federal courthouse and on the streets of Center City, as well as in Philly’s suburbs. After the rally and a march, protesters blocked traffic at Broad and Vine streets, by sitting in the street, and 70 were arrested.
At the federal courthouse in the morning, Philly District Attorney Larry Krasner said that he could not block ICE agents from performing their legal duties, but he would see to it that they were charged and convicted if they resorted to illegal tactics.
In Center City, bands of protestors moved through the streets. City Hall announced a 2 p.m. dismissal of city workers to avoid conflicts with the 4 p.m. Sanders rally as well as road closures due to a march that followed the rally.
Billy Penn spoke with five people who were in Center City on Thursday afternoon at different locations, to understand why they were there and what they wanted from the day.
“There’s a climate of fear that didn’t exist the first term”
Adam Sheridan, the lead organizer for Cooper River Indivisible, protested outside the James A. Byrne U.S. Federal Courthouse near the Liberty Bell, with a group of more than 50 protesters who mostly came in from South Jersey.
He said the group chose the courthouse building to show support for the New Jersey Attorney General in Thursday morning’s U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals hearing on New Jersey’s appeal of the ruling that struck down Gov. Murphy’s law barring private companies from detaining immigrants.
“In the afternoon, we thought it was a natural place just to stay because the Trump administration is currently breaking every law that they could find and inventing new ones to break and we thought this was a good place to kind of dramatize that our system depends on courts and on laws,” Sheridan said. Later, they headed to City Hall to hear Sanders.
Cooper River Indivisible was formed in 2017. Sheridan said this year’s May Day felt different than those during the first Trump administration.
“There’s a climate of fear that didn’t exist the first term. It’s almost like what we were all afraid of in the first term’s now happening in the second term,” he said. “So, all of our fears are now being realized. We were ready for it, but also I think it’s different to be ready for it than it is to live through it and deal with it on a daily basis.”
– Nick Kariuki
“America, step up”
Diane and John Armstrong arrived in Center City together from Willow Grove. The couple, who are passionate about worker’s rights and fighting against what they see as unjust policies against the everyday man, settled near a shady spot on the warm spring day on the west side of City Hall.
Both held signs in protest of the Trump administration. John’s read “Make dystopia fiction again.” Diane’s was more direct, “Impeach, convict, arrest!”
They came out because they support Sanders, whom they had voted for in a previous election cycle. They wanted to see him speak and to let their own voices be heard.
“Her father lost his leg at Normandy for our freedom,” John said. “So this means a lot to us. Our democracy is at risk, and I don’t think enough people are standing up for all of us.”
“We can get entrapped by the day to day,” Diane said. “And I get it. But you still have to pay attention, or this is where we come and it’s not a place we want to be, and we need to right the ship.
“So America, step up.”
–Julia Binswanger
“Tired of being pandered to”
Andrew Wagner, an organizer with Revolutionary Communists of America, gave an impassioned speech ahead of the 4 p.m. protest. He stood in front of around 40 group members wearing red T-shirts with the Soviet hammer-and-sickle in LOVE Park.
“We stand for a socialist revolution in the United States and worldwide,” he said. “I think a lot of working class people are, on the one hand, tired of being pandered to by both major parties – both capitalist parties that are ruled by billionaires and controlled by Wall Street in this country.”
“They’re sick and tired of these attacks on our trade unions, attacks on the living conditions of the working class,” he said.
An older woman walked up to members of the group during his speech, pointed out that young people had not lived through the Cold War, and warned them that “older people who see that symbol will not take you seriously.”
Wagner, however, said that he thought more young people are reading the works of Marx, Lenin, Engels and Trotsky – seeking out communist ideas on their own and studying them. He is angry with the current administration, but was clear that he thinks both major parties are not taking care of the working class.
“I think that Bernie Sanders, unfortunately, has demonstrated during his presidential campaigns and even during the Fighting Oligarchy Tour today that he is not in favor of revolutionary policies,” he said, “and is in favor of conciliating with the billionaires who run the capitalist party. He might pay a certain amount of lip service to the idea of democratic socialism, and we think that that sort of approach has completely failed.”
-Julia Binswanger
‘The issues that are coming against working people are varied’
The signage at the May Day demonstrations highlighting union solidarity and worker’s rights shared space with those protesting the current administration’s policies towards undocumented immigrants and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Robert Harris, the Vice President and Legislative Director of AFSCME District Council 47, said that his and other unions have maintained strong solidarity with these communities.
“The issues that are coming against working people are varied, and we wanted to make sure that we not only showed solidarity with those groups, but we’re able to use our union power and our membership to come out and support them like they support us when there’re union issues that come up on the ballot,” he said.
He added that he wanted to show solidarity with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), whose members have been facing the brunt of cuts to federal government workers as directed by the President Trump and the newly created Department of Government Efficiency office, led by Elon Musk.
“The amount of organizing that they are trying to stop from the federal government, starting with our brothers and sisters at AFGE, it’s going to trickle down to us,” he said.
– Nick Kariuki
