Hundreds of people gathered at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse in Santa Barbara on Thursday night with signs and chants to support workers’ rights and oppose recent policies by the Trump administration.
While May Day events traditionally recognize unions and those who fought for workers’ rights, many at Thursday’s rally took the opportunity to speak out against the Trump administration and its policies affecting immigrants, federal workers, LGBTQ rights and more.
The rally, which was organized by Indivisible Santa Barbara along with other local groups, took place near the archway heading into the Sunken Garden.
The rally hosted speakers from across Santa Barbara County.
Opening the rally was Myra Paige from Indivisible Santa Barbara. She welcomed the audience to the event and expressed the need to continue organizing and protesting.
“We are not going anywhere. We are going to hound you … stand in front of your offices and look you in the eye to make sure American democracy survives Trump’s travesty of justice. Politics is too important to leave to the politicians,” Paige said.
David Silva, the newly elected mayor of Buellton, told the audience that they stand on the shoulders of giants who fought for workers’ rights and admitted that he always assumed someone would protect them.
“We are on a hamster wheel of workers’ rights that are quickly disappearing for us, and then I wake up and wonder if my family is going to be torn apart, if my marriage with my husband will be made void every day,” Silva said. “Every day I wonder if my family will not be recognized in this county.
“I wonder, ‘What would we do about it?’ And I realize I am sick of asking for permission to exist in this country.”
Silva continued by telling the crowd to support organizations that reflect their values, and they must fight for those values.
Also speaking at the event was Santa Barbara City Councilwoman Wendy Santamaria.
Santamaria urged attendees to take a lesson from history and remember that rights such as the eight-hour workday, work breaks and fair wages were achieved by standing together.
“The way they did it was through solidarity. It’s always through standing together, and it’s always about uniting and saying if one of us is attacked, the rest of us fight back,” Santamaria said.
She then told the crowd that they need to fight for each other, whether they are an immigrant or not, queer or not.
After the speakers finished, the crowd marched along East Anapamu Street and State Street, then back to the courthouse.
Along the way, the crowd chanted slogans such as, “What does democracy look like? This is what democracy looks like.”
Attendee Ted Rhodes came from Carpinteria with his wife.
Rhodes said he attended the rally because of the policies of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. He criticized the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and its firing of federal workers, which he compared to a sledgehammer.
“Basically fascism,” he said. “I never thought I would be saying that in this country, but the people that have lived in Germany and Italy in the ’30s see all the same symptoms happening here.”