Hundreds of people in Santa Barbara joined a national battle cry on Thursday to salvage democracy within the United States.
The lawn of the Santa Barbara Courthouse was packed for this local rendition of the country’s “May Day” protests, which traditionally recognize workers’ rights and labor unions.
This year, however, more than a thousand rallies were organized nationwide targeting the “Billionaire Agenda” and a myriad of civil rights violations that protesters say are being carried out by President Donald Trump and his sidekick Elon Musk.
In Santa Barbara, speakers at the rally, which was co-hosted by Indivisible Santa Barbara and other groups, touched on the many social safety nets, supports, and basic human rights that are being attacked or threatened by the current administration, such as social security, protections for immigrant communities, workers rights, LGBTQ rights, health care, and public education.
“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,” said David Silva, the new mayor of Buellton. “Every day, I wonder if my family will not be recognized in this county.”
A 16-year-old student from Santa Barbara High School touched on the anxiety felt by the children of immigrant families, of coming home and their parents not being there. She said that despite her fear of public speaking, she felt a responsibility to speak out.
“Silence does not protect families. Silence does not protect our communities,” she said.
Protesters waving signs comparing Trump to a dictator and insulting the current administration cheered in response to her words.
Throughout the rally, supportive honks from passing cars echoed off the street. At certain times, a mantra of “Hands off! Hands off!” erupted from the crowd, referencing protesters’ rallying cry for the president to keep his hands off civil rights and protections.
Other speakers, including Jon “Bowzer” Bauman, president of the Social Security Works PAC, emphasized the importance of social security for families and seniors, and called out the current administration for attempting to close social security offices and phone lines.
Bauman also noted that 806 billionaires have more money than the bottom 50 percent of the U.S. population. “We need to take our country back from this oligarchy,” he said.
Thursday’s May Day protest at the courthouse | Credit: Callie Fausey 
Thursday’s May Day protest at the courthouse | Credit: Callie Fausey 
Thursday’s May Day protest at the courthouse | Credit: Callie Fausey 
Thursday’s May Day protest at the courthouse | Credit: Callie Fausey 
Thursday’s May Day protest at the courthouse | Credit: Callie Fausey 
Thursday’s May Day protest at the courthouse | Credit: Callie Fausey 
Thursday’s May Day protest at the courthouse | Credit: Callie Fausey
Ian Paige, a Santa Barbara–based attorney who came out of retirement to defend immigrant rights during the first Trump administration, said that over the course of his 40-year career, “I never thought I’d see anything like this.”
He said the legal system is fighting back against Trump’s “battering ram of executive orders,” with the judicial branch acting as a stubborn, last-ditch defender of democracy.
He mentioned that ICE has been making arrests and attempting to deport unaccompanied minors without a hearing — his example of Trump making a “mockery” of due process. However, he also mentioned the legal system’s pushback: one Trump-appointed judge recently barred the Trump administration from invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans from the Southern District of Texas, claiming that such use of the statute was illegal.
“We are here, however, to celebrate May Day — to advocate for labor rights, fair wages, safe working conditions and the right to organize for all of us, from the strawberry fields to the factories to the offices and big tech businesses,” Paige said.
Earlier in the day, workers at UC Santa Barbara did just that by joining other UCs in organizing a one-day Unfair Labor Practice strike “protesting UC’s unlawful, unilateral, systemwide hiring freeze,” according to a press release from the UPTE union, which represents healthcare, research, and technical workers in the UC system.
The day’s energy seemed to culminate in the courthouse’s Sunken Gardens for that evening’s rally.
“Trump, Musk, and his minions are all trying to strip away our rights, and they will try and sell them,” Paige said. “But we won’t sit still, and we won’t let them.”
The Santa Barbara City Council’s newest member, Wendy Santamaria, closed out the rally with the reminder to not just stand in solidarity, but stand in “intersectional solidarity” with one another, hyping up the crowd before they began to march down East Anapamu Street.
“If we give these fascists an inch,” she said, “they take a mile.”
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