Bernie Sanders to rally for workers Thursday in Philadelphia

Rob Tornoe, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Apr 30, 2025

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PHILADELPHIA — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders will headline a May Day rally in Philadelphia Thursday as he brings his nationwide fight against President Donald Trump’s agenda to Pennsylvania.

Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, is expected to speak at a “For the Workers, Not the Billionaires” event being hosted by Philadelphia’s AFL-CIO chapter, which is scheduled to get underway around 4 p.m. Thursday outside City Hall.

“This rally is really to show when labor, immigration groups and the community stand together, we’re a force that can’t be divided. Even Bernie Sanders is joining us,” said Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO spokesperson Maggie Mullooly. “We’re fighting for a future that works for the workers and not the billionaires.”

Thursday’s rally and march comes amid economic uncertainty created by Trump’s on-again, off-again approach to tariffs — taxes on imported goods — which has rattled world markets and sapped economic confidence.

On Wednesday, the Commerce Department released data that showed the U.S. economy shrank at a 0.3% rate in the first quarter of 2025, a dramatic reversal of the 2.4% increase in the fourth quarter of 2024, when President Joe Biden was still in office.

Sanders, often joined by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has drawn large crowds in Republican strongholds as he criticizes Trump’s agenda and a system he claims benefits the wealthy at the expense of the working class.

“All over this country, people are struggling, every single day, just to survive,” Sanders told supporters in Folsom, California, last month. “Brothers and sisters, in the richest country in the history of the world, we can do a hell of a lot better than that!”

While Sanders picked Philadelphia, May Day rallies are scheduled to take place across the country and region, including events in Trenton, Abington Township, Ardmore, Media and Glassboro

City officials said several streets will close beginning late Thursday afternoon as protesters rally and march around City Hall and up Broad Street.

Sanders is scheduled to hold two more rallies in Pennsylvania as part of his Fighting Oligarchy tour.

On Friday he’ll headline an event at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg at 6 p.m., while Saturday he’ll travel to Bethlehem to speak at a rally at the Stabler Athletic & Convocation Center at Lehigh University.

Both rallies will take place in districts currently represented in Congress by Republicans, part of Sanders’ strategy to highlight vulnerable House members ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

“The goal is to build a grass-roots movement who will not only take on Republican incumbents but also will demand that whoever represents districts in this country stands for the working class,” Sanders told the New York Times. “If you have incumbent Democrats who are not prepared to do that, they’re going to be challenged.”

During the two rallies, he’ll be joined by U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzi, D-Pa., a former U.S. Navy officer who represents Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District, which includes Beaver County and parts of Allegheny County.

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