By Arnie Alpert, Active with the Activists
Arnie Alpert spent decades as a community organizer/educator in NH movements for social justice and peace. Officially retired since 2020, he keeps his hands (and feet) in the activist world while writing about past and present social movements.
The first day of May, which has been an occasion for labor rallies since 1886 and immigrants’ rights marches since 2006, has taken on new significance this year due to President Donald Trump’s assaults on immigrants and unions. A thousand demonstrations are expected nationwide on Thursday. New Hampshire will see at least 11, including a rally at the State House arch on Main Street in Concord.
At the Concord rally, Arnie Alpert will lead the singing of the labor anthem, “Solidarity Forever,” with backing from the folk duo, Fortune’s Favor.
In addition to Concord, other public shows of support for immigrants and disapproval of Trump’s agenda will take place in Alton, Conway, Derry, Jaffrey, Keene, Laconia, Lebanon, Littleton, Nashua, and Sunapee.
Stating that “The Trump administration continues to escalate attacks on protesters, immigrants, and anyone speaking out for justice,” the national ACLU held an online “Know Your Rights” training on Tuesday evening. “The First Amendment protects all of us—regardless of immigration status,” said the group, which has filed numerous lawsuits against Trump administration actions.
List of May 1 Events
Alton, 5 – 6 pm, Alton Circle.
Concord, 5 – 7 pm, State House/City Plaza arches.
Conway, 7:30 – 8:40 am, Four Corners, Rte. 16 and 153. Also, carpool to Concord from NH Visitors Center in Conway at 3:30 pm and Unitarian Universalist Church in Tamworth at 3:45 pm.
Derry, 5 – 6:30 pm, 59 E. Broadway.
Jaffrey, 5:00 – 5:45 pm, corner Rte. 202 and 124.
Keene, Noon – 2 pm, Central Square.
Laconia, 2:45 – 3:45 pm, N. Main St. and Lexington Dr.
Lebanon, 5 – 7 pm, Colburn Park.
Littleton, 4 – 5:30 pm, Walgreen’s Corner, 274 Dells Rd.
Nashua, 5 pm, Library Hill.
Sunapee, 3:30 – 4:30 pm, sidewalk by the Sherburne Gym on Rte. 11.
May 1 as a day of protest for workers’ rights began in 1886, when rallies for an 8-hour day took place throughout the country. “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what you will,” went a popular song of the period. At that time in Chicago, a strike was underway at McCormick Reaper, whose owner was trying to replace workers with machines. When police killed 2 strikers on May 3 and a protest rally was held the next day, a bomb detonated at the site killed several police officers and strikers. Although no one knew who set off the bomb, leaders of the 8-hour movement were blamed, tried, convicted, and executed, despite the absence of any evidence tying them to the violence. The following year, May Day was observed in their honor throughout the world and became known as International Workers Day.
In this country, May Day’s significance was displaced by Labor Day on the first Monday of September and further discredited during the second “Red Scare” of the post-WW2 period. To counter what they perceived as communist influence in the labor movement, the Veterans of Foreign Wars re-named May 1 as “Loyalty Day” in 1947. Nine years later, the American Bar Association re-branded it again, this time as “Law Day.”
By the 1960s, the first of May as a labor holiday was largely forgotten in the USA, but not in the rest of the world. In 2006, thousands of immigrants from Latin America, where International Workers Day is observed, took to the streets to denounce anti-immigrant legislation in Congress and to demand a pathway to citizenship for millions of people who had over-stayed visas or crossed borders without authorization. To highlight the crucial role played by immigrants in the labor force, many took part in a one-day strike, dubbed “A Day Without Immigrants.”
That was the first year in recent memory that May Day was observed in New Hampshire, where Eva Castillo of the NH Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees led a rally outside City Hall in Manchester. In nearly every year since, Castillo has led May Day rallies in a variety of New Hampshire communities to highlight the cause of immigrants’ rights, the importance of unions, and related labor issues.
This year’s May Day rallies are also a major outpouring of the anti-Trump sentiment which has made itself known at events large and small coordinated by networks such as 50501 and Indivisible. The description on the internet event page for an action in Littleton puts it this way:
“Across the country—from fruit fields in California to classrooms in Chicago, from kitchens in Queens to loading docks in Atlanta—working people are rising up. We are demanding a country that puts our families over their fortunes—public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, housing over homelessness.
“Musk, Trump and their fellow profiteers are trying to create a race to the bottom—on wages, on benefits, on dignity itself. They want to erase labor rights, break our unions, and silence immigrant voices.
“May Day 2025 we are standing united. We’re organizing for a world where every family has housing, healthcare, fair wages, union protection, and safety—regardless of race, zip code, or immigration status.”
Eva Castillo will be present again on Thursday in Concord, where she will co-emcee a rally at the State House arch on Main Street starting at 5 pm. Sebastian Fuentes, the NH Democratic Party’s political director, will join Castillo as co-emcee. Invited speakers include Representatives Luz Bay and Allisandra Murray, Deb Howes of the American Federation of Teachers, Grace Kindeke of the American Friends Service Committee, Ed Taylor of the ACLU, Rev. Gail Kinney of the NH Faith and Labor Alliance, and James McKim of the Manchester NAACP.
“The Manchester NAACP is proud to stand in solidarity with workers across New Hampshire and beyond on May Day, International Workers’ Day. This event represents a powerful opportunity to affirm our commitment to economic justice, equality, and the dignity of all labor. Together, we can continue to fight for policies that ensure fair wages, safe working conditions, and the elimination of discrimination in the workplace,” McKim said in a news release sent out by Welcoming NH, one of the lead sponsors.
The Concord May Day rally is co-sponsored by 19 organizations, representing the largest coalition yet seen in local demonstrations held since Trump’s inauguration.
Two days after President Trump boasted about further militarizing the Mexican border, ending the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, and sending immigrants to a foreign prison known as a torture center, the rally will push back against what Welcoming NH calls “an anti-immigrant culture.” “We don’t have an immigrant crisis, we have a labor crisis and immigrants are the answer,” said David Holt, a spokesperson for the group. As an example, he said immigrants make up a majority of workers in the construction industry. “They are not taking homes, they are building them,” he said.