International Workers Day, more commonly known as May Day, had thousands of individuals fill the streets of Los Angeles as they marched from Olympic Boulevard and Figueroa Street down to the Los Angeles Federal Building on May 1.
Organizations, from union workers to civil rights groups, met at 9 a.m. for the rally, crowding the streets outside of the Grammy Museum.
“We had about 90 endorsing organizations, I think we had about 5,000 people here, it was hard to tell from the front,” said CHIRLA’s Oscar Zarate, director of external affairs.
The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) is one of the largest organizations for refugees and immigration.
The holiday coincided with the recent strikes earlier that week from the Los Angeles County workers who left for a 48-hour strike due to alleged labor law violations, which also led to the large turnout of the march.
“It shows again how we need to be in solidarity with each other and we need to fight back and not be apologetic in our resistance,” Zarate said, in response to the Los Angeles County workers who showed up to the march as well.
The march was met with little to no resistance from passersby and shop owners, many of whom stepped outside of their establishments to get a glimpse.
Large puppets were handled by organizations which could be seen over the crowds chanting and dancing.
“We also took the opportunity to address the issues of immigration, the current administration, and making sure that we’re seen, we’re heard,” Jessica Duran said, a protester for Kaiser’s mental health services, who have been on strike since Oct. 2024.
This International Workers Day is considered one of the largest in history in the Los Angeles area.
“When you have a march to this gravity, this magnitude, it brings not only more awareness to the community, but sometimes people get their news from other sources these days, they watch social media, so we have to be out and be in the public.” Duran said.
“It’s very powerful, coming together with different workers, different unions, and have a lot of different parts of the working class represented here today all with the same message,” Edgar Reyes said, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL).
