New York City sent a sharp rebuke to Donald Trump from his hometown on Saturday for the third “No Kings” march, exactly one month after the start of the imperialist war in Iran. Hundreds of thousands of people marched from Central Park to Times Square in outrage over the war, Trump’s reactionary attacks on democratic rights, and anti-immigrant attacks and ICE terror. Many also condemned imperialist aggression abroad as Trump contemplated a ground invasion in Iran, continued to threaten Cuba, and the kidnapped president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro remains in custody in Brooklyn.
New Yorkers joined millions of people in thousands of actions across the country. In all fifty states, in big cities and small towns alike, organizers from 50501 and Indivisible estimated that over eight million people mobilized in the United States on Saturday.
In New York, protesters from unions, schools, and social and political organizations joined families and New Yorkers from across the five boroughs to demand an end to Trump’s authoritarian overreach as he imposes policies that are opposed by significant majorities of the U.S. population. It was also a sharp denunciation of the political class that Trump represents: one that is complicit in the systematic abuse of women and children orchestrated by Jeffrey Epstein and that rakes in profits as ever-wider sectors of the population struggle to make ends meet or get access to healthcare and education.
A clear theme in the march was solidarity with the over 3.1 million immigrants estimated to live and work in New York City (accounting for nearly 40 percent of the city’s population) and a loud call to end ICE operations in the five boroughs. Chants of “fuck ICE” and “chinga la migra” reverberated down Broadway for blocks, accompanied by signs with anti-ICE slogans and rebukes of Trump’s xenophobic policies. The urgency of these demands were palpable in the city, as raids and deportations continue to terrorize immigrant communities, with ICE agents patrolling airports and lurking outside courthouses. But rather than relying on city hall and the courts to defend immigrants, New Yorkers are mobilizing to abolish ICE and are joining anti-ICE trainings across the city, following in the footsteps of the resistance in Minneapolis.
Also central to the march was a sharp condemnation of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran and calls to end U.S. aggression abroad. Small protests against the war in Iran have taken place across the city since Trump and Netanyahu launched their first bombs in February, but anti-war signs and chants during the march were an expression of growing anger against the war, as the possibility of another drawn-out conflict looms large. “1, 2, 3, 4! We don’t want your fucking war!” was a constant refrain throughout the day, shouted by high schoolers lining the streets and protesters marching behind anti-war banners. Signs dotted the crowd condemning U.S. intervention in Iran, with particular outrage directed at the murder of over 100 school children after the United States bombed a girls school in Minab. This show of force in the streets was a reflection of anti-war sentiment touching wider sectors of the masses; a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that 61 percent of people in the United States oppose the war.
The outrage at the war in the Middle East led by the United States and Israel is in no small part grounded in continued opposition to the Trump administration’s ongoing support for Netanyahu’s attempts to extend Israel’s borders into Lebanon and add fuel to its ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Palestinian flags could be seen at every street corner as wave after wave of protesters marched by, connecting the current offensive in Iran to the genocide. One high school student told Left Voice that as a Jewish person she felt it was important to march against Trump’s continued support for the genocide in Palestine.
Students of all ages played an important role in the protests, coming out in large numbers with their families or with friends. Young people dotted the crowd, taking up chants against ICE, the police, the war in Iran, and even the blockade against Cuba. The participation of high school and middle school students in the march on Saturday signals a notable expansion of the No Kings actions, drawing different and wider sectors into the streets against the Trump administration. It builds on the waves of students walking out of their schools across the country in protest of ICE operations in their schools and communities.
The protests drew larger numbers than previous No Kings marches in New York City, despite the overall lack of participation by organized labor in the national day of action. Unions were largely absent from the columns of marchers or the lists of endorsers. A notable exception, PSC-CUNY — the union representing faculty and staff working across the City University of New York — brought together hundreds of members in red hats to the mobilization.
Millions in the Streets Showed There’s Energy to Fight. All Out for May Day!
Left Voice marched in No Kings with the banners “Down with the Imperialist War in Iran. No Trust in Democrats or Congress. Workers and Students Strike Against the War” and “Abolish ICE. Full Rights for All Immigrants.” We marched alongside PSC-CUNY in solidarity with the Fired Fourth and against the repression of the Palestine movement and attacks against free speech and the right to protest. In a moment when anger at the Trump administration unifies hundreds of thousands of people in the streets, it is imperative to unite our struggles in a massive fighting force that transforms the power of these mobilizations into active organization in our workplaces, unions, schools, and communities.
The resistance against ICE in Minneapolis — from the massive economic blackout on January 23 to the daily acts of solidarity by teachers organizing within their workplaces and communities — showed a small fraction of the power of the working class. If this power were mobilized in full, it could be decisive in the national scenario and in fighting back against the reactionary politics of the Far Right. Minneapolis showed that unions have a special role to play to foster the organization of workers and lend resources to the fight for immigrants rights. It’s a fundamental logic within the labor movement, one written time and again in the lessons of class struggle, that “we’re stronger together” — stronger to face the attempts of the bosses (whether they sit in the factory or in Washington) to divide the working class. But the fight for full rights for all immigrants — for the right to vote, to work and unionize, for free speech and assembly — is essential for unifyung the working class at a moment when the Trump administration continues to attack democratic rights.
The fight to abolish ICE has showed new ways of organizing among the working class in the United States; but taking the struggle forward — forcing a real defeat for the Trump administration — means uniting that struggle with a real force against the imperialist war in Iran and for an end to U.S. intervention in Latin America. An anti-imperialist struggle in the heart of the empire, calling for the defeat of United States and Israel in its war against Iran, would set the foundations to fight for more against the Far Right, the bosses, and the wealthy.
But doing so means building antibodies against the attempts of the Democratic Party and their allies to contain this discontent, including union leaders who are content with statements against Trump’s policies but refuse to actively mobilize their members to defend and fight for the full rights of their immigrant class siblings. Taking up the fight for full rights for immigrants and against the war in Iran will require a sharp struggle from within our workplaces and even among the Left to challenge chauvinism with the unity and self-organization of our class.
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which boasts over 13,000 members in NYC, organizes massive outrage at the cost of living and the quality of life for the working class in the financial capital of the world. That outrage was present but relatively small in the columns of No Kings on Saturday, with a focus on the slogan “Tax the Rich” that was also the key issue at a rally hosting Bernie Sanders the following day. In fact, the DSA’s own Mayor Mamdani was not even present in the marches nor did he attend the rally the day after. But DSA members are also outraged over the war in Iran, the anti-immigrant offensive, and the Epstein files, with a deep well of anger at a system that puts profit over life; and they’re eager to mobilize. Far from diluting the struggle, taking up these demands from the rank and file and mobilizing thousands of members to the streets with an independent program that does not tie its fate to the imperialist politics of the Democratic Party would yield more unity in the movement against the Trump administration. This could set the foundations for a struggle that continues beyond just a single day of collective catharsis every three months.
Large protests are being called again for May Day, when the labor movement and the fight against ICE will once again overlap on the streets. The protests in NYC this weekend showed that there is a thirst to mobilize in the here and now; and with Trump threatening to send troops to Iran, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The workers, students, and communities who mobilized on Saturday for No Kings must organize a plan of action toward May Day, finding ways to discuss the path forward, including strikes and work stoppages in defense of full rights for immigrants and for a stop to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
As May 1 approaches, we must take up the lessons we learned in the grassroots resistance of Minneapolis that was able to coordinate across different sectors to shut down the city for a day and to force a drawdown of Operation Metro Surge. But building on that experience and taking it forward means creating broad, democratic spaces for organization and discussion. It means organizing assemblies, broad meetings, and gatherings in our workplaces, schools, and communities to organize a major day of action and nationwide steikes on May Day as a demonstration of our strength.
The post No Kings NYC Showed a City Willing to Fight. Let’s Mobilize That Energy for May Day appeared first on Left Voice.
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