Labor Day Protests Nationwide Place “Workers Over Billionaires”

Angular Views on ... Protest

Energized activists hold president accountable for wide variety of transgressions

Spirited Labor Day rally was followed by three-mile march through near-downtown Chicago

CHICAGO, September 1 – Faced with a president who claims to be a friend to working folks, Labor Day seemed to be an ironically appropriate occasion for a massive, nationwide demonstration against the outlaw antics of the Trump administration. As usual, members from a variety of protest organizations participated in the event, essentially headed by the Mobilize group.

Rather than make use of one of the open plazas in Chicago’s downtown Loop, like most previous rallies held since the second Trump inauguration, organizers wisely chose a site several blocks west. Because the principal theme of the event was to be “Workers Over Billionaires,” no locale could be more fitting than the Haymarket Memorial, the site of the Haymarket Riot in 1886. That’s one of the most notable events in all of American labor history, initiated when a bomb thrown into a crowd resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four bystanders.

Labor Day itself had been established just four years earlier by the Central Labor Union, which, joined by the Knights of Labor, held a parade in New York City. Now, in 2025 Chicago, the commemorative Haymarket statue by sculptor Mary Brogger, erected along the sidewalk, faced the temporary stage, serving as a focal point for this day’s gathering.

Some protesters stood in front of Haymarket Memorial, commemorating 1886 tragedy

Because of the packed, highly animated and often noisy crowd, voices of the speakers were difficult, if not impossible, to understand unless you were near the stage. Rather than occupy that position, close to the lineup of video cameras from local news stations, we elected to remain farther back, observing and listening to the impressive variety of zealous and – yes, angry – protesters.

Well before the scheduled 11 a.m. starting time, a sizable cadre of marching protesters approached the stage area from the north, carrying huge signs regarding the current plight of immigrants. Once stopped at the stage area, a frenetic gentleman employed his megaphone to lead both the organized flock and all the attendees at the site in call-and-respond chanting, as he practically leaped from one side of the street to the other. Every one of his entreaties resulted in a loud, spirited reaction from those assembled activists who were close enough to see and hear his exhortations.

“El pueblo, unido, jamás será vencido” was the lead-off rallying cry. In English, “The people, united, will never be defeated,” a familiar sentence to anyone who’s attended multiple rallies and marches. In honor of the day’s theme, the initial words were revised a bit orally: “The workers, united, will never be defeated.” Listeners responded with gusto.

Even more than usual, the Labor Day protesters came armed with signs. Dozens, hundreds, were admirably imaginative:

FIGHT TRUTH DECAY

UN-TRUMP THE WORLD

ICE MELTS IN CHICAGO

EXPERIENCE MATTERS. WHY ARE WE SENDING A REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER TO NEGOTIATE (with world leaders)

CRUEL IS JUST WEAK TRYING TO LOOK TOUGH (including an image of Mr. Trump’s face)

Other printed messages were curt and direct:

WE WILL NOT COMPLY

QUEER SOCIALIST UNAFRAID

HANDS OFF (with hastily drawn handprints below)

DUMP TRUMP

RESIST THE REGIME

FIGHT BACK

Labor issues, as expected, were among the messages, though they weren’t necessarily the dominant topic:

WORKERS DESERVE MORE

WE MAKE. THEY TAKE

WE CAN’T AFFORD BILLIONAIRES

GOP [crossed-out heart] LABOR

TAX THE RICH

Plus an old labor slogan:

AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL

Mini-parade of immigration rights protesters approach stage, prior to arrival of speakers

Immigration appeared to top the subject list. No surprise, since masked ICE agents have been active through the summer in Chicago, grabbing potential deportees off the street, in workplaces, at shopping centers, and – most egregious of all – when unfortunate “illegal” folks appeared at immigration offices for scheduled appointments:

IMMIGRANTS STRENGTHEN AMERICA

ABOLISH ICE (with the second word crossed out)

ICE OUT OF CHICAGO (printed sign)

EDUCATION NOT DEPORTATION

ICE AGENTS IN D.C.: YOU’LL FIND THE WORST CRIMINAL IN THE WHITE HOUSE

THE ONLY MINORITIES DESTROYING THIS COUNTRY ARE THE BILLIONAIRES

STOP DEPORTATIONS. DEFEND IMMIGRANTS

CH**GA LA MIGRA (an obscenity directed at anti-immigrant forces)

Because President Trump has threatened to follow up his deployment of the National Guard to Washington D.C. with similar action in Chicago, their potential presence stimulated many a protester to focus on that prospect:

KEEP THE MILITARY OUT OF CHICAGO

ONLY A JACKASS WOULD SEND TROOPS

THIS VETERAN SAYS NO TROOPS IN THE STREETS

CHICAGO DOES NOT NEED OR WANT TROOPS (oddly, ending with the word “pedophile”)

Naturally, the current political scene and the rapidly-escalating horrors of Trumpism yielded the biggest collection of tempestuous comments:

FASCISM CANNOT BE VOTED OUT. THE PEOPLE MUST DRIVE IT FROM POWER!

LET THEM RADICALIZE YOU RATHER THAN DRIVE YOU TO DESPAIR

SILENCE NEVER WON RIGHTS (printed by ACLU Illinois)

CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM IS NOT FREEDOM

NO KINGS IN AMERICA

TRUST DOCTORS, NOT POLITICIANS

THE TRUMP FASCIST REGIME MUST GO

STOP THE TRUMP AGENDA (followed by a list of six specific items)

MAJORITY VOTED AGAINST 3 TIMES

CELEBRATE NO KINGS… BIGLY

END THE REPUBLICAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS

JOB #1, STOP FASCISM

WE SHOULDN’T HAVE TO PROTECT DEMOCRACY FROM THE PRESIDENT

One sign posed a question from the distant past: HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF DECENCY? (famously asked of Senator Joseph McCarthy during the McCarthy hearings in the 1950s).

OLDER AMERICANS AGAINST OCCUPATION was the message displayed by a person in a strange, masked costume that appeared to vaguely resemble a bear. Any connection to the sign’s wording was difficult to discern.

A long line of video camerapersons facing the stage clearly suggested that local media considered this a major event. When the time arrived for several notable Chicagoans to take the stage, there wasn’t much need for speakers to fire up the crowd. Most of the activists were fully afire by the time they’d arrived.

“We’re going to protect the humanity of every person in Chicago,” promised the city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, as shown on video on the evening news. “No troops in Chicago. Invest in Chicago.” Reacting to the excesses committed against immigrants by ICE agents, Mayor Johnson is insisting that no federal agents sent to Chicago will be permitted to wear face masks that conceal their identity.

Bob Reiter, head of the Chicago Federation of Labor, focused on the official theme of today’s demonstration and the president’s utterances, according to NPR. “You want to attack workers and spread lies about Chicago? We’re not going to take the bait.” As reported by TRiiBE, Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates provided a concise history of Labor Day.

Finally, before the march got underway, set to cover a three-mile stretch, someone called out the “Hey hey, ho ho” chant heard at most protests, followed by the down-to-basics theme: “Donald Trump has got to go.” To the surprise of some participants, a separate rally near Chicago’s Trump Tower was taking place around the same time. Similar, if smaller, rallies were happening in the city’s suburbs.

Estimating crowd size is an art. Accurate assessments require access to a vantage point from which all, or at least a large portion, of the group can be viewed. Major news services may be able to gain access to adjacent, or nearby, tall buildings. Or, in this advanced technical era, to make use of drones to provide an overhead view.

For the rest of us, it’s largely guesswork, coupled with basic spatial mathematics. One major news service referred to “several hundred” attendees, as did the next morning’s New York Times report; but that seemed to be a gross understatement. Our initial “educated guess” hovered near 2,000, while other observers leaned closer to one thousand. We won’t place any bets on either figure’s veracity, especially since quite a few people arrived and departed while the presentation was taking place, making totals variable. National organizers estimated that half a million protesters attended a rally somewhere in the United States on this Labor Day.

© All contents copyright 2025 by James M. Flammang (Tirekicking Today)

Image Source: James M. Flammang