May Day traditionally is an important day to commemorate the modern labor movement worldwide. This May 1, demonstrators around the United States marched in opposition to policies of the Trump administration, which they believe are harmful to the working class. Around 150 people in Sitka joined the national “May Day” protest on Thursday.
Speaking to the crowd at the Crescent Harbor net sheds in downtown Sitka, local “May Day” protest organizer Mel Beadle lamented local programs impacted by federal funding cuts – like Sitka’s AmeriCorps program, which was eliminated last Friday.
“We are told there’s no money for housing, there’s no money for AmeriCorps, there’s no money for school meals, but somehow they have condos and private jets and yachts, and they can fund endless genocidal war,” Beadle said.
Decked out in rain gear and carrying laminated signs, the group marched along Lincoln Street to Totem Square, where Beadle encouraged participants to hug each other.
“Just like, give someone a hug and say, ‘I care about you’,” she said into a megaphone.
Long-time Sitkan Howard Pendell said he was here to protest what he sees as human rights violations by the Trump administration. He carried a sign reading, “Are you next?”, a reference to a poem by a German pastor about Nazi Germany.
“Are you next, meaning, ‘first they came for the socialists,'” he said, paraphrasing the poem. “‘I wasn’t a socialist, so I said nothing. Next they came for the trade unionists. I wasn’t a trade unionist so I said nothing. Next they came for the Jews. I wasn’t a Jew, so I said nothing. Then they came for me. There was no one left to speak.'”
Twenty-year-old Beatrice Perez said she’s been to at least 10 protests since the November 2024 election.
“I am part of the working class, and I cannot live on the wage that I’m making right now, and that is the normal for everyone in America right now who is working class,” Perez said. “And everything that has been done in the past 100 days is only hurting us more. I stand for our unions. I stand for people like me.”
The march picked up a couple of new participants along the way – Anne Chippendale is visiting from Australia on a Holland America cruise with her husband. She said she had been planning to visit Fortress of the Bear today, but changed her mind when she saw the protest.
“I could just feel the love here, and I can feel the despair as well,” she said, tearing up. “You know, I can see it on people’s faces.”
Chippendale said she was heartened to see so many people out protesting.
