San Jose, Calif. – On May 1st, working-class Americans from every corner of our nation joined a chorus of voices, gathered in protest and celebration for May Day, or International Workers’ Day, to fight against the Trump administration's agenda of discrimination, cruelty, and corruption.
May Day began in the United States in 1886 when workers realized the abolition of slavery allowed them to reduce their working day from 10 hours to 8 hours. On May 1 of that year, nearly half a million workers went on strike, demanding a shorter day. American militancy inspired millions of workers around the globe and they voted in 1890 to have May 1 become an international holiday, and since then, it has been used as a day to fight for the rights of working people and their families.
This year approximately 1300 people attended the San Jose May Day protest and celebration according to event organizers. The festivities started with a gathering at Story & King before making its way down King Road where it stopped at the Mexican Heritage Plaza for a few speeches, then marched down Alum Rock towards Santa Clara, pausing for additional speeches at locations such as the McDonald’s on 27th and Roosevelt Park, before stopping at its final destination, San Jose City Hall. The California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer even made an appearance at the event and wore a shirt with the phrase “workers over billionaires.”
The primary theme of the event was “Shut It Down: No School. No Work. No Shopping.” It drew participants from all over San Jose. Clara Gray (18), a student at Santa Clara University explained that they had a personal connection to this event as they come from an immigrant family. They expressed that people continue to be involved in the fight for workers’ rights beyond a single march. Gray resonated with the call to fight for working people.
“I hope that big corporations, the press, other big shots realize how bad they’re doing and start making changes,” said Issa Delfin (15) a high school student who attended the protest. “I hope that people…[realize] how bad our state has gone down.”
When asked about what she hopes this event will accomplish, Delfin replied, “I hope they [the San Jose working class] get paid more”, and encouraged people and students to speak out about injustice. Delfin was one of the many high schoolers who walked out on May 1 following the call to shut it down. Students from ten high schools across the Eastside of San Jose walked out, a mass movement coordinated by Jonathan Soria of Overfelt High School and the organization WCO For the People.
The rally had various speakers from various unions and organizations. They all had a common message of worker power to make change and urged people to fight for our collective rights. One speaker, Victoria “Tori” Varlack of the Stanford Graduate Student Workers Union connected the struggle of working people in San Jose to the 1934 Longshoremen Strike in San Francisco, and how it demonstrated worker power. In connecting the historic event to the present, Varlack stated, “Today we have the opportunity to do the same thing. To leverage our greatest weapon -- our collective power -- to disrupt the world economy and make clear that as working people we will no longer abet our own destruction. No school, no work, no shopping.” Varlack ended her speech by encouraging others to get more organized to fight for a better world.
In front of Roosevelt Park, Carmen Torres of Services, Immigrant Rights And Education Network (SIREN) echoed many of the themes throughout the rally in her speech. In particular, Torres spoke about how Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ has had drastic effects on the immigrant community and has denied them access to the American Dream. Torres continued on to say that the cuts on healthcare have had disastrous consequences and that she will fight for her community guided by her faith in God to do so.
Aside from the multitude of speeches, the event contained moments of singing, dancing, and music. McDonald’s workers from the ‘California Fast Food Workers’ union sang a song about collective power. The band Left but Not Crazy sang a few songs criticizing Trump, and the Mexica dancers performed throughout the march. When the protesters finally arrived at City Hall, the pre-designated end to their route, they were greeted by numerous tables of community organization groups, activism groups, and food vendors.
The excitement of the day can be summarized with this lyric from the McDonald’s workers: “They held us down and together we rose / We’re Black, white, and immigrants, friends we don’t cower / In our union, we’ve got the power!”
05/01/2026 - San Jose CALIF: Scenes from San Jose mayday parade and protest of the croud of protestors as they march down the protest route. Photograph by Danielle Autin.