DALLAS—A May Day demonstration in Dallas quickly became a jailhouse protest after two local labor leaders were arrested by police and hauled away on “obstruction” charges at the close of a march by more than 800 workers.
People packed Civic Garden Park for a rally on Sunday, April 27, before marching through the streets of downtown, with the procession pausing periodically to hear from representatives from the organizations that made up the DFW May Day Committee.
By the second half of the march, police seemed to lose patience when participants would stop for speeches. Officers ordered the marchers to get out of the street and not block the roads. However, the procession was able to make it safely back to Civic Garden Park.
As the rally was coming to a close, however, labor leaders Rick Majumdar of Teamsters Local 767 and Angela DeFellipo of the Tarrant County Central Labor Council (AFL-CIO) were arrested by the Central Dallas Police Department and accused of “obstruction,” a common charge used to justify repression of protestors.
Majumdar and DeFellipo were jailed at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center in Downtown Dallas.
The May Day march quickly transitioned to a freedom protest, with demonstrators converging at Lew Sterett to demand the release of Majumdar and DeFellipo. Protesters initiated a call-in campaign to flood the jail’s phone lines every 15 minutes to demand the union leaders’ release.
Organizers also notified local media of the arrests and demanded that Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and District Attorney John Creuzot release the two activists. City Council members were also emailed. After hours of a vigorous campaign demanding their release, Majumdar and DeFellipo were finally set free from Lew Sterett in the middle of the night very early Monday morning.
Before the arrests shifted the character of the Dallas action, participants had heard from several May Day coalition members.
Michael K., representing the Communist Party USA’s DFW Club, highlighted the place of immigrant workers’ struggle in May Day actions not only this year but throughout history.
“Capitalists have always persecuted immigrant workers because they are more vulnerable, easier to exploit, and they want to keep us divided,” the CPUSA’s representative said. “We see this in the abduction and rendition of Rumeysa Ozturk, Alfredo ‘Lelo’ Juarez Zeferino, Mahmoud Khalil, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and locally with as well as in the visa revocations and expulsions of international students.”
He said, “Their only ‘crimes’ were organizing for workers’ rights and fighting to end the genocide in Palestine, or simply working while Black or brown in the USA.”
A second May Day action took place on Thursday, May 1, in Fort Worth, the other half of the DFW Metropolitan Area. Around 100 people showed up at the Old City Hall in Downtown Fort Worth to protest again for workers’ rights and against Trump’s union-busting administration.
Majumdar, now out of jail, addressed the crowd, discussing how May Day originated with the wrongful conviction and execution of the Haymarket Martyrs, anarchist union leaders in Chicago in 1887. He then discussed how May Day is known as International Workers Day in most of the world and is a national holiday. The United States, said, is one of the few countries where the true labor day has been erased from the calendar.
Majumdar also criticized the anti-working class policies pursued by the Trump administration and called for working-class resistance to his policies. “We have to fight, we have to win. If he thinks we are going down the path that he wants for us, he is mistaken!” Majumdar stated.
Tevita ‘Uhatafe, representing the Tarrant County Central Labor (AFL-CIO) gave a speech discussing how unions historically fought for all the major reforms that benefited working-class Americans and called for a general strike to resist current attacks on labor unions.
“The only thing that the billionaire class cares about is the bottom line, greed. We are a counter to that greed, because once we stop and collectively get up, nothing moves,” ‘Uhatafe said.
Xavi Velasquez, representing the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression (NAARPR) slammed law enforcement’s repression of protest and labor movements—from the assassination of Fred Hampton to the kidnapping of Kilmar Abrego Garcia by ICE—as well as the recent arrests at the Dallas rally.
Velasquez also mentioned a local Fort Worth example of police violence—the murder of Atatiana Jefferson by officer Aaron Dean. Velasquez concluded his speech with a call for community control of the police: “We, the people need the ability to put killer cops in jail.”
Stu Becker, representing Texas Young Active Labor Leaders (YALL), emphasized the need for young workers to get involved in the struggles of labor unions to organize the working class against capitalist exploitation.
“The working class is the answer; the multiracial, multinational, multi gendered, multisexualitied working class is the grave digger for capitalism, the economic system that puts profits over people,” Becker told those assembled.
He went on to encourage members of the crowd to join YALL.
“Everyone 40 and under here should join YALL! Even if you’re over 40, we won’t turn you away. This makes you a part of the labor movement. You don’t have to be a member of a union to be in YALL. YALL is a labor union solidarity group, and we do everything labor solidarity, including strike picket line support, helping workers and labor unions get organized, immigrant rights, racial justice, social justice and more!”
A speaker representing the Palestinian Youth Movement called for the end of U.S. support of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and emphasized the need for international working-class solidarity to aid in the ongoing campaign to put pressure on companies to divest from Israel.
“We understand that the fight for workers’ rights in the U.S. is not disconnected from the fight for a free Palestine, as we are up against a common enemy, imperialism,” they stated. “We also echo the calls of the General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions in Gaza to continue to escalate pressure on companies complicit in this genocide like Maersk,” they continued.
The DFW May Day Committee which organized the actions includes more than 30 organizations, including the Dallas AFL-CIO, the Tarrant County AFL-CIO, AFGE Local 1003, Alliance/AFT Local 2260 (Dallas Educators Union), Dallas-Fort Worth Young Active Labor Leaders, National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression, Indivisible, Communist Party USA, Democratic Socialists of America, Dallas Young Democrats, FRSO, the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Green Party, Code Pink, and more.
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