More than 200 demonstrators gathered in Boston Common at 4:30 p.m. May 1 to commemorate International Workers’ Day, known in the United States as May Day.

Labor union members, political organizers, students and more gathered around Parkman Bandstand for around two hours to chant slogans and listen to a series of speeches expressing solidarity with workers. May 1 was designated as International Workers’ Day by the American Federation of Labor to commemorate a general workers’ strike that had begun May 1, 1886, where workers called for and ultimately achieved an eight-hour workday. 

“International Workers’ Day is proof that working class people together can make history,” said Joe Tache, a featured speaker at the protest and candidate for the U.S. Senate with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. “If you look at any meaningful change in this country’s history, it has been a product of regular, everyday working people taking action together.”

Over 4,000 May Day events were held across the U.S. as part of a national day of action for “workers over billionaires,” according to the nationwide activist coalition May Day Strong. Organizers called for mass labor strikes, school walk-outs and shopping boycotts as an economic disruption to protest the Trump administration and the influence of corporate billionaires in politics.

Several demonstrations were held across Boston throughout the day, culminating in the main protest at Boston Common. Airport workers picketed in East Boston, the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts protested U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, outside the Massachusetts State House, anti-war activists rallied at the JFK Federal Building and a demonstration for freedom in higher education gathered at the Embrace Statue.

“I came to stand with my neighbors, with my community, my peers and the other working class people of Massachusetts, to ensure that we’re staying knowledgeable about the fact that we the people run this state and this country. We are the power,” said Jordan Korgood, activist and candidate for the Massachusetts Governor’s Council. 

Members of striking labor unions made up the bulk of the crowd attending the Boston Common protest, including the United Electrical Workers, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts and the Alphabet Workers Union, which represents employees of Google parent company Alphabet Inc. Alan McAvinney, software engineer at Google and organizing chair of the Alphabet Workers Union, said she felt it was important to organize and protest as workers in an industry whose figureheads have aligned themselves with Trump. 

“Particularly as workers at Google, it’s been really eye-opening to see our bosses line up from day one behind the administration this time around,” McAvinney said. 

The Trump administration has invested $68 billion in Google for AI projects and data centers so far, according to the White House website, and Google cut back on diversity initiatives and adapted several products to align with Trump policies. 

“This is a hard time to be coming into the industry for young people and new grads, but regardless of what company you join, look to your coworkers and organize,” McAvinney said “It’s more important now than ever.”

While tech unions work towards job security, education unions are fighting for funding. Two Boston Teachers Union members and teachers at the Henderson K-12 Inclusion School — Anna Golden, who teaches special education, and Ruthie Lynn, who teaches English language arts — said they felt it was important to show up amid Trump’s attacks on public schools.

“If what’s happening in our country now is not bringing us to the streets, when are we going to take to the streets to make change? What will it take?” Golden said.

Golden explained that the attacks hit particularly close to home for them, as the Boston school committee voted to close several public schools and shut down the Henderson School’s high school early this year. The middle and elementary school levels are still open, but have struggled under funding cuts to several key programs. 

“There’s been a really fast underfunding of special education services, ESL [English as a second language] services and arts programming. At the same time, there’s been a huge increase in funding for ICE, funding for wars, funding for the military,” Golden said. 

Since Trump took office for his second presidential term, the U.S. Department of Education has cut grant funding for school district programs and eliminated many long-standing public school programs.  

“[Trump administration officials] say, ‘Oh, we don’t have any money. We can’t increase funding for schools by 1%.’ But they can spend a $1 billion a day attacking [Iran]?” Lynn said. “There’s plenty of money. It’s just not going to the public schools.”

Koorgood said the May Day rally served as a source of hope and community amid these frustrations and challenges. 

“There are so many different groups and people rallying here to protect and support every single facet of day-to-day life that’s being threatened by our fascist federal regime right now,” Korgood said. “Whether it’s the environment, healthcare, food access, housing access or labor rights, there are communities [that] are working to preserve people’s rights, access and ability to meet their needs, even while the Trump regime is doing everything in its power to stop them.”

Tache said it was important to “celebrate the origins” of the day and other historical examples of successful strikes, as they show how “we were able to fight to change through collective action.”

Tache, an alumnus of Northeastern, added that private universities exemplified how the same model of power manipulation is used across institutions. He said collective action was the key to standing up to that system.

“We should study the tactics of institutions like Northeastern and of movements like MAGA [Make America Great Again], because they all use the same tactics to keep us down, and that means we can learn from all these other movements that have successfully won to fight for change and apply the lessons for our movements today,” Tache said.

Koorgood, also an alumnus of Northeastern, said citizens need to hold all institutions of power accountable, whether they be universities, corporations, state governments or the federal administration.

“The fact is that so many people here in Massachusetts and in the U.S. are struggling to meet their basic needs — housing, food, healthcare — is because those systems of power,” Koorgood said. “We cannot sit back. We cannot bend the knee. Change won’t come unless we do it ourselves.”