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Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Protesters gather in Columbia as part of coast-to-coast May Day demonstration
Angel Lee, right, and Karina Williams, center, both of Columbia, joined a May Day protest outside the post office in downtown Columbia, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Photo by Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette) COLUMBIA — Some 120 South Carolinians who oppose the Trump administration lined the sidewalks of Columbia's downtown post office as part of a series of May Day demonstrations spanning the country. The protests held on a day commemorating the fight for workers' rights and the national labor movement was organized by a group that calls itself the 50501 campaign, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, one movement. The movement, which originated online, has led to a wave of grassroots protests nationwide since President Donald Trump's inauguration. The group has had at least four coordinated demonstrations in the past four months, including a gathering that attracted hundreds to South Carolina Statehouse grounds on President's Day. While signs, slogans and the issues protesters cared about Thursday went well beyond workers' rights, organizer Sam Gibbons, of Columbia, said the group did want to highlight workers' struggles. At least one organizer from the Union of Southern Service Workers was in attendance and circulating flyers. And among attendees' variety of chants was 'the U.S. mail is not for sale' in reference to suggestions by the Trump administration that the U.S. Postal Service should be privatized. Gibbons, a 34-year-old educator, also criticized the administration's tariff policies and potential impacts to union workers and the middle class. If we stop importing goods, longshoremen working at Charleston's port could lose work, he said. And if prices go up, retail workers may be affected. The protest occurred the same day as Vice President J.D. Vance visited a Nucor steel mill in rural Berkeley County to tout the tariffs as bringing back manufacturing jobs. Angel Lee, who also helped organize the Columbia event, said she's worried about possible changes to federal law that impacts those with disabilities. The 46-year-old is disabled and works with a non-profit that aids those with disabilities. 'As a disabled worker and an advocate, I know how hard we have to fight just to be seen,' she said. 'All we want is to be able to work with dignity and for fair pay.' Lee will travel to Washington, D.C., Friday to protest with other members of the movement on the National Mall. For Margot Robinette, of Columbia, it's the president's immigration policy and deportation efforts that are of the greatest concern. The 26-year-old apothecary shop worker married into a family of immigrants. Her husband is a first-generation American whose parents immigrated to the United States from Honduras, and she said it's difficult to see those she loves living in fear that they could be deported. Robinette has also worked alongside immigrants on a farm in California. 'Immigrants are essential workers,' she said. 'Workers' rights and immigrants' rights intertwined; you can't talk about one without the other.' Miguel Torres, of Batesburg, also is the child of immigrants who came to the U.S. from the Guanajuato region of Mexico. The 22-year-old retail worker attended the protest outside the post office as well as a gathering of legal professionals outside the federal courthouse in Columbia earlier in the day. Lawyers, federal judges and the dean of the University of South Carolina law school held that separate event as part of National Law Day. 'Attacks on judges for unpopular rulings, political pressure on legal professionals and a growing distrust of the legal system threaten the very foundation of fairness and equal justice,' Columbia attorney Nekki Shutt said in kicking off the program. U.S. District Court judges DeAndrea Gist Benjamin and Joseph Anderson then led the lawyers in a restatement of their legal oath, which Benjamin said directs legal professionals to serve 'without fear or favor, without allegiance to politicians or politics, to honest judgment, regardless of financial or social standing.' Torres called the arrest of a county circuit court judge in Wisconsin for allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest scary. 'The rule of law in our country is just not being respected,' he said. 'Every single day on the news it seems like there's a new executive order.'
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
"I ain't got nothing to say to Donald Trump": May Day organizers say their message is for Americans
After some seven years as a member of the Union of Southern Service Workers, Jamila Allen is a seasoned labor organizer, having led three successful strikes during her time working at a Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers in Durham, North Carolina. Through one single-day strike and a subsequent weeklong strike, she and her co-workers won a COVID-19 safety policy for their store and 33 other locations during the height of the pandemic. That experience taught her a lesson that she now shares with everyone, hoping that they'll recognize their own strength and the fact that they're not alone. "Don't be afraid to strike," Allen said in a phone interview with Salon. "Don't be afraid to organize. You have power and you have numbers. You have somebody to back you up." On May 1, Allen's chapter of the Union of Southern Service Workers will be participating in a national day of action, hosting a rally at 4 p.m. followed by a march to Bicentennial Plaza in Raleigh for higher pay and increased respect in the workplace — and against the billions of dollars in proposed Medicaid cuts Congress is considering. Their efforts will be part of more than 1,000 May Day Strong events in more than 850 cities in the United States and abroad. The goal of the national day of action is "to raise awareness and get people on board for the fight," Allen said. "The first May Day, there were thousands of people out there. You still got to fight to this day with just as many thousands — maybe more — almost for the same purpose that May Day started with." With its U.S. roots in workers' fight for an eight-hour workday in 1886, May Day has long been a national day of action for union organizers and workers' rights activists to protest for better conditions, protections and pay. But this year activists say the fight is more important than ever in the face of an executive branch challenging the rights of workers, immigrants and queer people, as well as a legislative branch that appears unwilling to challenge the president. They're calling for greater solidarity, and their target audience is their fellow Americans — not President Donald Trump. "I ain't got nothing to say to Donald Trump. It's clear," Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, told Salon in a phone interview. "I got everything to say to my fellow Americans who want to create a society [where] they can make a fair wage, where they can have universal healthcare, where they are sheltered in homes that they can afford, where they can walk their children to a fully-resourced school down the block," she added. "That's the America that we're building." In his first 100 days in office, Trump has initiated a vastly unpopular tariff policy that will likely raise the prices of goods amid the nation's affordability crisis, fired or laid off tens of thousands of federal workers; he has also authorized executive actions targeting LGBTQ+ Americans and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. One of his largest actions has been his campaign-promised immigration crackdown that's seized and detained American citizens, documented immigrants and tourists, while overwhelming courts across the country with active litigation over mass deportation efforts. Amid the onslaught, Trump's approval rating has fallen 8% since his inauguration to just 44%, one of the lowest ratings of any president in decades, according to a New York Times average of nearly 200 polls, including Ipsos, Emerson College and Marist College surveys. Davis Gates said that May Day activists seek to harness that growing dissatisfaction and galvanize other Americans around protecting themselves from an administration that's dismantling "everything we've understood, resisted and struggled for." Through protests, rallies, meetings with officials and trainings, the coalition wants to build collective power and show others that solidarity will be the tool that allows them to resist and advance a society that "clarifies the values of justice," "equity" and "the common good." "We want an America that doesn't yet exist," Davis Gates said. "We have to show ourselves as a space, and that's what May 1 is. It's a coming-out party to show ourselves as a group of neighbors willing to create a community coalition in the face of a growing threat to all of us." In Seattle, May Day organizers have united a broad swath of advocacy groups, including major local unions like the United Auto Workers and United Food and Commercial Workers Union, immigrant rights groups and political organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America, to drive home their broad list of demands. Among those demands is a call for the abolition of the Northwest Detention Center and of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement writ large, which the community is rallying around following the ICE arrests and detentions of two local labor organizers. "For us, it really has become a fundamental 'fight back' event, and we think that it's going to be the biggest it's been in years," Rigo Valdez, organizing director of MLK Labor, a Washington affiliate of the national AFL-CIO, told Salon. "The Trump administration has really attacked both workers, immigrants and our social infrastructure, so it's bringing a much broader base and coalition together to fight back." Valdez said the coalition is anticipating thousands of attendees to join in their planned action: a march through the city on May 1 starting at Cal Anderson Park. The protest will cap weeks of lead-up events from Know Your Rights trainings for immigrant workers, defense trainings and panels on LGBTQ+ rights. The focus of their efforts, Valdez said, is to resist the Trump administration's "attempt to take over" public infrastructure and privatize federal jobs as well as its attacks on federal workers, immigrants, trans people and other members of their community. But he also said he hopes that other Americans, particularly those with "buyer's remorse," will see the actions occurring in Seattle and around the country as motivation to stand up and defend the nation's core principle of democracy. "In order to beat back these attacks, we have to come together — all segments and all facets of our community — to defend things that we took for granted, like due process and the separation between the judicial and executive branch," Valdez said in a phone interview, referencing the recent arrest of a Wisconsin judge on charges of obstructing ICE. "If we don't unite, first they'll come for immigrants, and then they'll come for workers, and then they'll come for you," he warned. For Neidi Dominguez, executive director of workers' rights group Organized Power in Numbers, this year's May Day action hits especially close to home. After more than 20 years living undocumented in the U.S., the Mexico-born activist became a naturalized citizen last May. But the Trump administration's targeting of immigrants has left her afraid, both for herself and her twin, two-year-olds. Dominguez told Salon that the energy around the state of the U.S. reminds her of the darkness and outrage around the proposed anti-immigrant legislation progressing in Congress in 2006, which spawned massive nationwide protests that she had participated in. Now, however, the moment has an added heaviness because the top-down attacks are targeting working people of all walks of life. "I have made my life here, and I want this country to become the country that it was meant to be and the experiment of democracy that we've been for the last 237 years," Dominguez said in a phone interview. "I believe in that experiment, and I want to be part of making it a reality, and I know deep in my soul that this isn't it." "It really feels like we are losing the country as we know it, and it's beyond attacks on immigrants," she added. On May Day, Dominguez's organization is helping to anchor four actions across the Sun Belt: the Raleigh, North Carolina rally and march; a 9 a.m. march at the State Capitol in Phoenix, Arizona; a 5 p.m. rally with speakers and march in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she's based; and immigrant and worker's rights trainings and a rally in Houston, Texas. Activists are hoping to see thousands of people turn out to each of the marches and at least 100 workers attend the trainings, she said. At a time when it feels as though "those in power are betting on us being too afraid and too overwhelmed by the shock and awe," Dominguez said it's important for Americans to show up and make it known they won't go down without a fight — despite how scared they may be or how deeply they may be feeling the impact of the government's actions. She said she hopes others take away that they're welcome, that they own this fight, and that, as working people, they all feel the same pain at the hands of the government no matter who they voted for in 2024. "This May Day is us marching for ourselves and hoping to inspire more working people to turn that anger and fear into action and to stand up together," she said, adding: "We just want to remind working class people that we have the power by coming together."
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Thousands flood Raleigh's Bicentennial Plaza to protest Trump in largest rally this year
At the April 5 protest, Aden Kalinowski spoke about his fears about his sister losing healthcare for her rare medical condition under potential cuts to Medicaid. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline) More than 4,500 gathered in Raleigh's Bicentennial Plaza on Saturday to protest the Trump administration, calling for an end to cuts to health care and welfare programs as well as the removal of massive tariffs that have caused the stock market to tumble. The demonstration, organized by a wide swath of activist groups including the 50501 Movement, Bishop William Barber II's Poor People's Campaign, and the Union of Southern Service Workers, was part of a national day of protest that saw thousands gather in state capitals and major cities around the country. Protesters demanded the Trump administration take its 'hands off' core social services such as Medicaid and Social Security as well as scientific research and international aid programs. Speakers included veterans and union workers and brought together both longtime local advocates, like Rev. Rob Stephens of the Poor People's Campaign, as well as those who only recently became engaged in politics, like high school junior Michael Turner, who came to the demonstration from Rocky Mount. 'They don't care about the values that built this country, they don't care about us,' Turner said of the administration, garnering cheers. 'We deserve leaders who fight for all people, not just the rich.' 'A couple of months ago, I didn't even really want to be involved in politics,' said Aden Kalinowsky, whose sister depends on Medicaid for treatment of a rare genetic condition. 'I don't think it's fair that they're trying to take our Social Security from us. I don't think it's fair that they're trying to take away our Medicaid from us.' Eshawney Gaston, a food service worker in Durham with the Union of Southern Service Workers, demanded the administration take its 'hands off my Medicaid.' She said her daughter requires specialized medical care and physical therapy because of her sickle cell anemia, health care Gaston would not be able to afford without help from Medicaid. 'We all have to stand up and fight together because health care is a human right,' Gaston said. 'People don't use Medicaid because they want to, I use it because I have to, because I can't afford to do it on my own, because if I could, I would.' While most of the discussion centered on national politics, North Carolina officials took heat from protesters as well, particularly Judge Jefferson Griffin, who has contested the state Supreme Court race for months via a bid to dispose of tens of thousands of ballots that on Friday received an affirmative ruling in the state appeals court. 'You need to know the names Phil Berger, Destin Hall — those are our leaders in the General Assembly who have been selling us out and have had the most corrupt government. The White House is taking all their cues from here,' Stephens said. 'Yesterday, we know for sure that we don't have a strong democracy, because Jefferson Davis — I mean, Jefferson Griffin — [is] trying to control who votes, who matters, and who has power in this democracy.' Among the signs at the protest was a poster with the face of Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) captioned, 'Where are you Thom? Do your job!' Another advised attendees to 'Check the Griffin List,' the list of voters whose ballots are included in the challenge to the state Supreme Court race. The demonstration doubled as a food drive, with John Freeman, a frequent organizer of Raleigh's 50501 demonstrations, sharing the fact that organizers had raised roughly $4,000 for the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. He said his group, the Iron Front of North Carolina, would also be distributing many canned goods and other food items collected at the April 5 demonstration. Charlotte Ellis, a painter and former educator living in Louisburg, said she was motivated to participate in the protest by the administration's cuts to schools. In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the closure of the Department of Education, a move that has since been challenged in federal court. 'I want the schools to continue being funded and the teachers work really hard, and they're trying really hard to do a good job, and they don't need their funding cut, they need to keep their funding,' Ellis said. 'All young children need to be trained to their full potential.' Megan Bell, a participant in the national Women's Marches under the first Trump administration, said she was 'impressed and energized' by the crowd in Raleigh. 'We don't have much power right now, but we do still have our voices, and while we do still have them, it's important that we use them,' she said. Massage therapist Marvin Chambers said he decided to attend after seeing a flyer on a lamp post yesterday, joining demonstrations both in Durham and Raleigh Saturday. He said that while he was pleased with the turnout for the protests, he hopes people will 'put their dollars where their voices are.' Robert Shaughnessy, a machinist, condemned the 'blatant disregard for due process of law, the Constitution, [and] the process of making, interpreting, and enforcing laws' by the Trump administration. He said it was 'heartening' to see so many voice similar concerns at the Raleigh protest. 'There is no question whatsoever that the current administration has no compunctions about just bringing down steel on people who are law-abiding citizens,' he said. 'Whether we like it or not, you have to meet steel with steel.'
