Knock LA

On Friday May 1, organizations within the Community Self Defense Coalition gathered in front of Los Angeles City Hall to celebrate May Day. Spearheaded by Union del Barrio, festivities included musical performances, speeches by community leaders, and a general call for continuing to resist state terror against Black and brown people. 

“I think it’s really important that we’re out here defending anybody that’s under attack,” said socialist community organizer Yolanda Alaniz in an interview with Knock LA. “It’s important that we unite and fight for all of our rights.” 

Hundreds gathered on the lawn of City Hall Park Center on Spring Street and spilled into the street to hear advocates and organizers reflect on the past year of struggle and the importance of May Day in the context of community defense. 

May Day originated in the labor movement of the 19th century. In 1884, a national federation of unions launched a campaign to institute an eight-hour work day by 1886. On May 3, 1886, in Chicago, police fired live rounds into crowds of striking workers. In response, the protesters convened the following day for a direct action in Haymarket Square. Someone in the crowd threw a bomb at police, resulting in the death of seven officers and many other injuries. The police could not identify who threw the explosive and opened fire on the crowd, killing four protesters. In the aftermath of the violence, eight male protesters were prosecuted for conspiracy to commit the bombing and subsequently hanged. The identity of the person with the bomb is still a mystery to this day. The Haymarket Massacre, as it came to be known, was a watershed moment for the American labor movement and today is commemorated every year with marches, protests, and rallies around the world. 

For participants at the Community Self Defense Coalition rally in Los Angeles, this year’s May Day was especially important after almost a year of escalated state violence against migrants and immigrants in Los Angeles. For the past eleven months, Los Angeles has been a frontline in resistance against the Trump regime’s deportation machine. Faith — a member of Community Self Defense Coalition’s rapid response groups — said that it was also personal. 

“As a union organizer, I don’t know if I’ve seen this level of worker repression and union busting — not just by employers but by the federal government,” she told Knock LA. “But also on April 19, a couple of Filipino activists were murdered in the Philippines by members of the armed forces. It was a military action funded by US taxpayer dollars. It was a massacre that no American taxpayer asked for. So that’s why I think it’s important for me to be here today.” 

Other attendees and coalition members drew the connections between the different threads of human rights that the Trump regime and US government are unraveling in real time. Miriam Arghandiwal, a steering committee member of the Boycott Home Depot Coalition, said that after a year of resistance, fatigue was setting in among organizers but no one was ready to give up.  

“We’ve been at it since June of last year,” she told Knock LA. “I think while the community is restless and exhausted from being at this so long, they are also anxious to continue building and creating systems that take care of us.” 

“We are at the crossroads of fascism unveiling itself,” said Grace, an organizer with Stop LAPD Spying Coalition. “This is unique because we are seeing our struggles interconnect in ways we have never seen before. We are seeing power being built across lines, across different fights.” 

Grace continued to explain that everybody has a role within the fight against fascism, as a diversity of tactics and a variety of skillsets are needed in order to organize against state violence. 

“We always need artists, we need videographers, we need writers, we need people with tech skills,” Grace said. “There are so many different organizations that cover different sectors, so depending on your interests and what you feel most called to, there are organizations in LA [for you].”

The rally was an entirely peaceful action. However, despite the beautiful and nonviolent displays of community and anti-authoritarianism, LAPD arrived an hour into the event with the intent of clearing the crowd through force. Several dozen police officers in riot helmets formed lines and pushed protesters back while repeating that they must clear the area. A handful of officers donned 40 millimeter rubber bullet guns and others held batons at the ready to aid in moving rally attendees out of the street. In a flurry of activity, police towed two trucks that belonged to street vendors selling food at the event. The rally organizers marched the crowd down the street to be in front of LAPD headquarters, at which point officers retreated. According to eyewitnesses, a few officers did make physical contact with protesters and push them — but no protesters were seriously harmed in the escalation by police. 

The aggression by LAPD highlighted the central message of the Community Self Defense Coalition — that cops do not equal safety and that expressions of dual and contending power are met with force. 

“I think it is important for us to remember that May Day is an expression of working peoples’ power and working peoples’ decisiveness to change history and fight for a better future,” said Nima, a member of International League of Peoples’ Struggles. “We are seeing how the current system is fracturing, so now more than ever it is important for working people to come together and actually strike a blow.” 

May Day 2026 was a day of immense activity across Los Angeles. Thousands of people attended marches in different parts of the city and engaged in community events about the rights of workers. At a time when fascism threatens daily life and state terror is high, coming together to celebrate and build collective power proved to be the antidote to fear. 

“We will get this sucker shut down finally at some point,” Alaniz said to Knock LA. “Long live the working class!”