Liles Taylor, Kentucky State AFL-CIO director of mobilization, started his speech at Lexington’s International Workers’ Day rally with a history lesson.
“May 1st is not just a date – it’s the day we stand shoulder to shoulder with working people around the world,” he said. “It began 139 years ago in the streets of Chicago, when workers, many of them immigrants, risked everything for an eight-hour workday. They stood together to demand dignity, safety, and a fair share of the wealth they created.”
The global holiday stems from a May 4, 1886, rally at Chicago’s Haymarket Square in support of the eight-hour day and to protest police who the day before had fired on locked-out workers peacefully picketing at the McCormick Harvester Works. Officers killed four strikers and wounded several as they fled. (On May 1, the American Federation of Labor and other labor organizations called for a general strike for the eight-hour day and against low wages and unsafe, and even deadly, working conditions. As many as a half-million workers, thousands of them immigrants, had marched and rallied in major cities, including Chicago.)
When a police contingent showed up at the Haymarket rally, which was also peaceful, a bomb exploded among the officers, wounding 66, seven of whom died later. Police who were unhurt shot into the crowd, killing many people and wounding 200, according to historian Howard Zinn’s book, A People’s History of the United States.
Police were unable to produce any evidence linking anybody to the bomb. Even so, eight anarchists were convicted of conspiracy by an openly anti-union jury and sentenced to death by an avowedly anti-union judge. Four defendants were hanged, one committed suicide behind bars, and three languished in prison until they were pardoned in 1893 by Gov. John Peter Altgeld, who denounced the trial as a tragic miscarriage of justice.
In 1889, the International Socialist Conference proclaimed May Day a labor holiday in memory of the Haymarket martyrs. Today, International Workers’ Day is a holiday almost everywhere – except in the United States and Canada. Observed on the first Monday in September in both countries, that holiday is “Labor Day” stateside and “Labour Day” north of the border.
Rain dampened Taylor’s notes but not the enthusiasm of the crowd, which sheltered under an overhang at the Robert F. Stephens Courthouse complex.
“Today, we rise up – not in fear, but in fierce hope,” he said. “Not in silence, but in solidarity because we’re still under attack. Donald Trump and his billionaire profiteers are trying to drag us backward. His administration is slashing federal jobs, threatening mass layoffs, and gutting the agencies that serve working people.”
Taylor, a member of the United Mine Workers, said Trump “is not just attacking federal employees – he’s attacking all of us because when you weaken unions, you weaken wages. When you silence workers, you strengthen the wealthy. And when you strip away protections, you create a race to the bottom – on pay, on workplace safety, on basic human dignity.”
Taylor said that “When public schools are underfunded and handed off to private profiteers, who will stand up? Working families! When hospitals close and healthcare becomes just another Wall Street investment— Who will stand up?”
He called on his listeners to say, “Working families!” with him. They did, loudly.
“When union rights are stripped from the over 1 million workers who deliver our mail, care for our veterans, and keep our skies safe – Who will stand up? Working families!
“When politicians try to divide us by race, by background, by job title – Who will stand up? Working families!”
Taylor said the crowd gathered “not just to protest, but to proclaim our vision: A country where people matter more than profits. Where a good job means a good life. Where your zip code doesn’t decide your future. Where we lift each other up – and leave no one behind. We are nurses and teachers. We are postal workers and janitors. We are parents and students, retirees and first-time voters.
“We are the people who keep this country running. And every time the billionaires ask, ‘Who’s going to stop us?’ – We answer loud and clear: Working families!”
He urged the crowd to “carry this fire forward. Let’s organize. Let’s strike. Let’s vote. Let’s build a future that works for all of us – not just the wealthiest few. And let’s remember: When they try to silence us, dismiss us, and divide us – Who will stand up? Working families! Thank you. Solidarity forever!”
The rally also featured remarks from Nema Brewer of KY120 United AFT and others.
Rally sponsors included the state AFL-CIO, National Association of Letter Carriers, Communications Workers of America, 5050 Kentucky, BlueGrass Activist Alliance, Capitol Indivisible Frankfort, Gathering for Democracy, KY120 United AFT, Peaceful Bluegrass Resistance, and Progress KY.
