CHICAGO (Reuters) - Protesters took to the streets in multiple U.S. cities on Labor Day to criticize President Donald Trump and demand a living wage for workers.
Demonstrations in Chicago and New York were organized by One Fair Wage to draw attention to the struggles laborers face in the U.S., where the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Chants of “Trump must go now!” echoed outside the president’s former home in New York, while protesters gathered outside a different Trump Tower in Chicago, yelling “No National Guard” and “Lock him up!” Large crowds also gathered in Washington D.C. and San Francisco.
In New York, people gathered outside Trump Tower, which has become a magnet for protests and remains a prominent symbol of the president’s wealth, even though the president hasn’t lived in the Manhattan skyscraper for years. Demonstrators waved signs and banners calling for an end to what they said is a fascist regime.
In Washington, a large crowd gathered with signs saying “Stop the ICE invasion” and an umbrella painted with “Free D.C. No masked thugs.” Hundreds more gathered at protests along the West Coast to fight for the rights of immigrants and workers.
Multiple groups joined together at the protests in Chicago to listen to speeches and lend their voices to the chants.
“We’re here because we’re under attack. We’re here because our core values and our democracy is under attack. We are here because they are threatening to send the military into our streets,” Daniel Biss, the mayor of Evanston, Illinois, told the crowd in Chicago as he urged them to stand up for workers.
In the crowd, Ziri Marquez said she came out because she’s concerned about overlapping issues in the U.S. and around the world, decrying anti-migrant attitudes in the U.S. and the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza.
They called on people to take collective action to stop the takeover.
In the streets near downtown Chicago, thousands of protesters packed singing, chanting and waving signs protesting U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to flood the city with National Guard troops and federal immigration agents.
Chicago’s demonstration had a decidedly more pointed tone as residents bristled against Trump’s promise to target Chicago next in a deployment similar to those under way in Los Angeles and Washington D.C., two other Democrat-run cities.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, speaking to the crowd, vowed that Chicago would resist federal encroachment.