Washington DC—Dozens of grassroots groups joined hands at Noon on Friday in a May Day referendum on worker’s, immigrant’s, and civil rights. The May Day protest began in the shadow of the Washington Monument, just across from the Ellipse of the White House. The action saw speakers from Immigrant families, DC Statehood advocates, and Labor groups drawing attention to many issues as evidenced by the variety of signs the labor advocates carried. It was followed by a march to Franklin Square, the site of many previous May Day labor rights protests.
Many held signs reading “Workers over Billionaires,” “No ICE—Stop the Deportations,” and “Together We Built This Country,” in clear view of the Oval Office. Groups such as CASA, Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, Free DC, We Of Action (WOFA), Third Act-DMV, Metropolitan Washington Council AFL-CIO, Federal Union Network, and many others took part in the May Day action.
May Day is also known as International Worker’s Day, and celebrated to honor and dignify laborers, the labor movement, and to recognize that individual workers have been the backbone of strong and prosperous communities. Laborers have built their communities to what they are, often without much fanfare. May Day gives recognition to workers while paying homage to past labor organizing and union accomplishments that have won rights to a standard 40-hour work week, for paid time off, for the right to freely form unions, and for workplace protections.
However, one could not on this day find any corporate sponsors, advertisers, or token corporate advertisers or giveaways at the May Day action in Washington DC. There was not a single corporate advertisement proclaiming this day as an important worker’s recognition day. There were no corporate sponsored banners present honoring the contributions of the fact that laborers built thousands of corporations and are instrumental in the wealth of corporate America. And there were no mainstream media at the May Day protest either. Yes, there were independent and foreign media outlets most notably from South American and European Union outlets. But no major U.S. TV media outlets covered the May Day action in DC.
May Day recognizes the power and the potential of grassroots organizing, and how effective grassroots organizing can be in the labor movement. That power can build even more influence when it is shared in solidarity between labor groups. Labor power operates counter to the objectives of the profit motive within corporations which have always extracted wealth and resources from its own workers by artificially suppressing worker value by reducing pay, limiting medical benefits through prohibitive costs, and resisting or outright blocking unionization attempts which build the power of workers within the labor movement.
At the same time corporations overpay their chief executives and board members with increasingly inflated pay, bonuses, and stock options. This has led to a concentration of wealth never seen in world history and it has created a billionaire class which by its nature separates itself from its responsibilities to society. Billionaires thrive while workers struggle and this phenomenon is not lost on the working class of the May Day protests. One key phrase during the march was repeated over and over, “Workers over billionaires.”
The May Day march in Washington DC has in recent years been spearheaded by immigrant groups such as CASA, an immigrant centered organization which provides much needed assistance of education, food, and medical help for immigrant mothers still struggling to assimilate to their new communities. CASA provides this assistance for immigrant mothers and their children to keep them from falling into abject poverty.
May Day 2026 was primarily immigrant rights centered but with the rise since January 2025 of an authoritarian government in the U.S., many issues are concurrently oppressing workers, women and children, families, and minorities. These issues have driven together urban and suburban groups in solidarity not seen before as they come to recognize they are fighting the same economic and civil rights battles. They are realizing they are bound together in the same struggle for economic access, liberation from workplace oppression, and justice in a sense of solidarity as if they were sisters and brothers from the same family.
CASA—Immigrant Rights Organization
CASA organized several labor rights advocates to speak about their experiences fighting for justice for immigrant field laborers and food workers. One such speaker spoke about his efforts and prayed to the thousands gathered that they invoked God in their daily efforts to see them through hard times and deliver them from harm from economic oppression.
Another speaker, Marie Avila, told of how important May Day was to recognizing workers rights. She lauded the efforts of CASA for its support of immigrant workers to make ends meet while trying to remain safe with their families while oppressive policies and police forces such as ICE were splitting them apart.
We Of Action—Voices of Everyday Citizens
We of Action founder Micaela Pond directed a contingent of 20 bridge brigade activists from around the DMV region to hold giant all-caps letters on posts reading “Supreme Injustice.” Each letter was held an activist who has taken part in the highly successful Bridge Brigade signage campaign over the past year. The Bridge Brigades have been drawing citizens’ attention to important issues facing the country and the bridge signage idea has been copied in States on prominent bridges across the country.
Their May Day signage stretched about 100 feet and highlighted the recent Supreme Court decision gutting a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Up until its decision on Wednesday, the Voting Rights Act prohibited States from gerrymandering districts based on minority voters. Pond said she was personally moved to tears when the Supreme Court decision came down on Wednesday, April 29. She told of her many “Black and Brown friends fighting for years and now [the Supreme Court] has done this horrific act. It’s disgusting SCOTUS is backing Jim Crow. How are we here” she asked.
Pond also told of the importance of May Day. “May Day is a day for all of us to come together and say we need to bring power back to the people. We are done with the billionaires. We are done paying and working hard and still not able to afford healthcare, food, and gas. So we’re here to say enough. We’re taking our country back.”
Statistics Bear Out Workers’ Challenges
The numbers don’t lie.
Average corporate chief executive pay has mushroomed to levels never seen before. According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), between 1978 and 2024, chief executive pay rose 1200% while during the same period typical workers’ wages increased only 26%.
Also, according to EPI, the ratio of chief executive pay to worker pay was 21 to 1 in 1965 but it skyrocketed to 281 to 1 by 2024.
No matter how one compares statistics regarding pay, chief executives are incentivized to grab a higher percentage of corporate profits and this comes at a cost to laborers who have seen wages stagnate since the neoliberal “trickle down” policies of the Reagan administration in the early 1980s.
Another statistic reflecting increased economic inequality in the United States is the number of billionaires today as compared to 1987. There were 141 billionaires in 1987 with 44 living in the United States, according to a published story by Nonprofit Quarterly. In 2025 there were over 2500 billionaires with over 900 living in the United States.
Neoliberal policies have favored the wealthy class by allowing billionaires to avoid taxes and allowing corporations to buyback stocks which further enrich their wealthy chief executives.
May Day gives workers a chance to network between groups and recognize that their power resides in supporting each other no matter what background they come from.
