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Hundreds gathered at the Minnesota State Capitol for International Workers’ Day.
The annual May Day rally brought together immigrant rights advocates, union leaders and community members to demand better protections for workers and immigrants.
The rally, which was organized by immigrant and labor rights groups, drew a large and diverse crowd to the Capitol steps, where some chanted and held signs that read "protect human rights" and "defend the constitution."
Dieu Do is a member of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee and the daughter of immigrants from Vietnam.
She said the rally is a response to growing threats to labor rights, health care and immigration.
"It's so important to me to be here because my parents are working class immigrants. They didn't have health care, and they didn't have good wages for most of my life, and that played a really big role in my life, and is the reason why I became an organizer,” she said.
May Day started in the 1880s when workers demanded an 8-hour workday.
After a deadly rally in Chicago, where labor organizers were arrested and some killed, May 1 became a day to honor workers’ rights.
Today, it's recognized around the world as International Workers' Day.
Sara Nelson is the International President of the Association of Flight Attendants and flew to Minnesota from Washington, D.C. to join the rally.
Nelson said the day is important because it marks a significant moment in history when workers stood up for their rights — and a reminder that the fight continues today.
"That right to join a union was not something that was just given to us that was on the backs of general strikes all over this country and right here in Minnesota,” she said.
Among the crowd were Lourdes Maldonado Gámez and Ava Wright, sixth graders at Open World Learning Community in St. Paul.
They had organized their own rally — titled the Immigration Awareness Walkout — and joined others at the Capitol.
“It doesn't matter how old you are, if you're aware of what's going on, you could do really anything. So we told them, we might be sixth graders, but if we've already organized a walk out, you can do anything, and it takes one person to do anything,” Maldonado Gámez said.
"I mean, look at what we started. And even though people look different on the outside, we all still bleed the same color,” Wright said.
The rally was co-sponsored by more than 50 organizations across Minnesota.
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