May Day rally draws thousands downtown in support of immigrants, workers: ‘We need a united front’

Thousands gathered in Union Park Thursday morning before marching to Grant Park for a rally marking May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, the global holiday commemorating the labor rights movement with roots in Chicago history.

Evan Yamaguchi, a third-year graduate worker at the University of Chicago, was among the thousands holding signs and banners.

“Workers literally had to fight for their lives just for an eight-hour workday,” he said. “So it’s crucial now more than ever for all of us to recognize that whatever rights we have aren’t given, they’re won and hard fought for.”

Yamaguchi is the president of Graduate Students United, a union of graduate workers at the university who fought to have their first contract ratified last year.

The quantum science and engineering student and worker said the history of May Day was cause for reflection in the current moment on rights that may now be taken for granted, and what could be lost if workers don’t fight as they had in the past.

“We see the current crackdown on higher education, across working people as a whole, as a a fight that needs the same kind of response,” Yamaguchi said. “We need a united front across all disciplines, all fields, across the university and across the whole city. The struggles our international workers face on our campus are very interconnected with struggles across the city.”

After kicking off the march from Union Park, the group took up nearly a mile of West Washington Boulevard, with rain occasionally drenching the thousands of poncho-adorned demonstrators, many of whom covered their homemade signs in plastic wrap to combat the weather.

The Thursday demonstration was the latest in a line of protests from a broad coalition of groups focused on more singular issues, such as the “Hands Off” and 50501 protests staged in and around Federal Plaza in recent weeks.

Many touched on the targeting of immigrants, including international workers. Yamaguchi said at least seven members of the union had been affected by visa revocations and subsequent reapprovals.

Grace L., a northwest suburban resident who declined to give her last name, said it was important for those who showed up to “be present,” no matter their background.

“This movement is for everyone in the United States,” she said. “They start by targeting the weak people and the ones who can’t defend themselves. If we allow that to happen, those bad actors get more control, and it doesn’t matter if you’re an immigrant or a citizen. … The people out here are the last defense after the justice system.”

Grace, a manufacturing worker in her 30s, was a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient before obtaining legal status and marrying a citizen. Wearing red, white and blue ribbons in her hair and carrying a small American flag, she said she didn’t want to cede ownership of the country she’s lived in for most of her life.

“This country has been my home for the last 20 some years,” she said. “This is my home and my flag, too, not just people who may disagree with my political views.”

“America was a peaceful place but I don’t see it like that anymore,” said Anita Mokon, an asylum seeker from Cameroon, said. “The president is telling us to go back home, where does he expect us to go back home to?”

Mokon, 35, moved to Skokie last year as she fled war back home. Though she hasn’t struggled with her own asylum claim, she said she was “disturbed” seeing what had happened to other asylum seekers.

Now a member with SEIU, she said seeing people in the streets chanting “Get up, get down, Chicago is a union town” helped her feel safe.

The march ended in Grant Park at the Petrillo Music Shell where a number of speakers took the stage while demonstrators filled in a cement and grass area most known for hosting Lollapalooza festival-goers in the summer.

Mayor Brandon Johnson addressed the crowd amid a lineup of labor leaders.

“We’re ready for this fight, aren’t we?” Johnson, fresh off a live Q&A on WBEZ, said to a resounding “Yeah!” from the crowd. “We know deep down inside of our soul, if this democracy is going to survive, it’s going to because of working people.”

Johnson cited cuts to public housing, healthcare and education prior to Trump’s administration as evidence that the fight against the current administration had been fought before — and won.

“If we did it a generation ago, you best believe we can do it today,” he said.

Chicago’s ties to the holiday date back more than a century. In the 1880s, unions pushing for better workplace conditions began advocating for an eight-hour workday with nationwide demonstrations and strikes, with some of the largest in Chicago.

A May 1886 labor rally in the city turned deadly when a bomb was thrown and police opened retaliatory fire. Eleven people were wounded. Several labor activists, most of whom were immigrants, were convicted of conspiracy to incite violence, among other charges, in closely watched legal proceedings. Four were hanged.

Their activism and lives are now commemorated in Haymarket Square.