Marchers in 2022

It appears Seattle’s labor and worker energy this May Day will center on Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park, an enduring base of First Amendment activity in the city, the site of past May 1st clashes with police, and the core of the 2020 Black Lives Matter CHOP protest camp.

2025’s May Day comes in a string of enthusiastic but mostly peaceful May 1st events in the city following years of intense clashes between police and demonstrators pushed onto the streets of Capitol Hill.

Multiple union and labor groups plus organizations like Washington Community Action Network are urging members and followers to gather for May Day 2025 starting at noon Thursday in the popular park in the center of Capitol Hill and served by multiple transit options including nearby Capitol Hill Station and only a block from East Precinct headquarters.

A rally and afternoon march from the park is planned.

“The event will commence in Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park at noon with a rally program before the big march,” one announcement from WashingtonCAN reads. “Bring your friends and family, the more people demanding respect for our siblings the stronger the message will be!”

“Workers and immigrants build power side by side, and an injury to one is an injury to all,” the E Yesler-based social advocacy coalition’s message concludes.

In 2016, the march crossed Capitol Hill

There has been no information regarding the march’s route or timing publicized and the rally and march do not appear in the city’s permitted street events listings. We have questions out to organizers, the city, and the Seattle Police Department to learn more.

UPDATE: Seattle Parks says the May 1st Action Coalition has the park’s artificial turf playfield, North Lawn, and South Meadow reserved through the day until 3 PM.

SPD, meanwhile, tells CHS it is planning to provide support for the event.

“The Seattle Police Department will provide safety and security for our community members during the upcoming May Day events,” a spokesperson said. “Uniformed patrol officers will be visible, and additional police resources will be available in the event of an emergency.”

SPD says the Seattle Department of Transportation, the Seattle Fire Department, and our law enforcement partners with the King County Sheriff’s Office “are expected to be in the area as well.”

Seattle’s May Day has for years been centered around a workers march stretching from the Central District to downtown.

CHS covered the 2024 festivities, demonstrations, and march here. In the year since, organizing group El Comite has ceased activities and the Washington Secretary of State lists the organization as “administratively dissolved.” We’ve reached out to organizers of the small, grassroots organization to learn more.

Multiple organizations are pulling together behind the transition to rallying from Cal Anderson according to seattlemayday.org including SEIU 775, SEIU 6, UFCW, 3000, UAW, the MLK Labor Council, Local 8, the Washington State Labor Council, Casa Latina, Bayan Washington, Working Washington, and Starbucks Workers United.

The Latino Community Fund is serving as the event’s fiscal sponsor.

The coalition is calling for multiple demands to be met by local and federal government including shutting down the Northwest Detention Center and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Groups like the Freedom Socialist Party have also put energy behind the park as a May Day gathering point for its Seattle activities.

On Capitol Hill, the scene of many chaotic May Day nights over past years as police attempted to throttle protests by pushing them into the neighborhood’s streets, the most recent May 1st activity has mostly been limited to Starbucks continuing what has become an annual rite in boarding up the windows of its Melrose roastery.

In 2015, May Day was marred by intense clashes with police on Capitol Hill

It has been years since widespread “Black Bloc” clashes pitting demonstrators against police followed Seattle’s May Day marches onto Capitol Hill.

In 2021, SPD made arrests during May Day protests away from the workers march including on Capitol Hill where a small group marched on Broadway and became embroiled with law enforcement after a large contingent of police responded and moved on the crowd outside the E Olive Way Starbucks following reports of property damage.

Following the 2021 arrests, city officials said “unrestricted events” like marches could not adequately be controlled for the number of participants and social distancing so it had not issued permits and did not officially close streets or provide Seattle Police “First Amendment support” for May Day demonstrations that year.

Protests away from the march were a major concern for city officials and large global chains that are frequently targeted like Starbucks and Nike after clashes spiraled into riots as police moved in on crowds over property damage and to clear streets in the 2010s.

In 2016, clashes in downtown, Belltown, Pioneer Square marred the day while 2015 marked the last time May Day protests, property damage, and Seattle Police crowd control efforts were centered on Capitol Hill.

That year, SPD declared the situation at “riot” status and unleashed a heavy crowd control response including flash grenades. That response would take a decade to clean up as the city finally implemented new crowd control rules earlier this year.

SPD’s issues around crowd control, of course, were also on display and a root issue around 2020’s CHOP “occupied protest” in the area around the East Precinct and Cal Anderson. City officials are working on a planning process to create a permanent memorial to CHOP in the park.

With the second Trump Administration, meanwhile, Cal Anderson’s place as a center for demonstration and protest in Seattle has grown again though unrest has taken on more local proportions this time around. A “Hands Off” demonstration at the Seattle Center earlier this month was the latest in a string of demonstrations in the city including federal workers bringing the issues around the Trump administration’s attempts to gut resources like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to Montlake Blvd.

Last week, these smaller, low-conflict, frequent, and messaging-focused protests included a rally and march on Capitol HIll.

2025, meanwhile, marks the ten-year anniversary of Seattle’s overhauled minimum wage law.

Thursday’s weather is forecasted to be gorgeous with clear skies and a high of 72 F.

Last week’s protest on Broadway

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