KNOXVILLE - On Friday, May 1, members of multiple labor unions and community organizations held a May Day Rally in Market Square with over 250 people in attendance. The event included speeches from labor and community organizational leaders. Singing Resistance Knoxville and other musicians performed as part of the programming. The event honored May Day as an international holiday for labor rights and worker solidarity.

May Day Rally in Market Square; image courtesy of Jarius Bush

Nationwide, May Day was a labor-led coordinated day of action this year calling for no work, no school, and no shopping as part of the May Day Strong effort. The statewide coalition Tennessee For All helped coordinate actions in all major Tennessee cities, including Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville, and Memphis. 

The event opened with the purpose: “We’re gathered here this May Day to join with others across the state and the nation. All over we are protesting, marching, and rallying to say workers over billionaires. Right now, for example, our siblings in Memphis are focusing on their community’s fight against Elon Musk’s xAI data center.”

The main national demands echoed by Knoxville speakers were: tax the rich, because our families, not their fortunes come first. No ICE, no war: no private army serving authoritarian power. And hands off our vote: expand democracy, not corporate power.

A speaker from the Knoxville Workers’ Assembly addressed the importance of organizing unorganized workers. Another speaker from Allies of Knoxville’s Immigrant Neighbors (AKIN) spoke about how immigrants are often reduced to their role as workers, a dehumanizing framing that limits recognition of their broader contributions and prevents their full participation in US society.

Kelsey Nordine from United Campus Workers-CWA 3821 talked about how the affordability crisis in Knoxville affects everyone. She connected this to the University of Tennessee and called for the university to be a better community partner: “We’re tired of seeing this institution of higher education run like a corporation, admitting record numbers of students while ignoring the pressure it puts on the housing market, on their workers struggling to keep up.”

Nordine emphasized how drastically the landscape in Knoxville has changed in a short time: “Knoxville, TN was recently identified as the city in this country with the highest gap between wage growth and rising rent costs since 2020. It is a 34 point gap, and UTK has been complicit in creating this crisis.”

A parent and teacher duo of speakers from Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment spoke about the negative effects of vouchers on public education in Tennessee and how Tennessee has fallen behind all other states in education funding.

The Knoxville May Day event brought together a broad coalition of partnering organizations: Tennessee For All, United Campus Workers 3821, Knoxville-Oak Ridge Central Labor Council, Knoxville Workers Assembly, Knoxville Democratic Socialists of America, Allies of Knoxville's Immigrant Neighbors, United Volunteers of Tennessee, Jobs with Justice East Tennessee, Indivisible Knoxville, Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment, Indivisible Sevierville, American Association of University Professors, and the National Writers Union.

The organizations and speakers echoed the call for an economy and a democracy that works for all people, not just billionaires and corporations, as well as for ICE Out of our community. They shared with the crowd the necessity of affordable housing and accessible public education for everyone.