May Day protesters gather at Wellesley Town Hall to rally against Trump administration
Concerned citizens of Wellesley and surrounding towns gathered for a May Day National Day of Action on the front lawn of Wellesley Town Hall to protest the Trump administration and call for an end what many called a billionaire takeover of the United States. An estimated 1,000+ such rallies took place across the country.
Michael Gilman, a 35-year Wellesley resident who now lives in a nearby town, delivered a fiery start-off speech to a crowd of over 120 gathered on the Wellesley Town Hall front lawn.
“Like most of you here, I hold no position of authority,” Gilman said, “but come here as a concerned citizen troubled by the direction our country is taking under President 47 along with his sycophants including his unelected co-president Elon Musk and the rest of his knee-bending cabinet.”
Gilman listed his grievances with the Trump administration—mass elimination of thousands of government jobs; DOGE overreach; and the detention of immigrants in the United States legally, and even of legal U.S. citizens. As he ticked off another bullet point on his list, the crowd shouted, “May Day,” as a distress signal, and to acknowledge May 1, the international workers’ holiday to commemorate the struggle for better working conditions and labor rights.
The entirety of Gilman’s remarks can be seen below.
“Trump just finished 100 days in office. We can’t take another day of him, let alone another 100.” said an attendee who did not wish to be named.
Michael Gilman’s May Day Rally comments:
Michael Gilman’s May Day Rally comments
Welcome to our May Day grassroots rally! And thank you for being here. We are just one of over 1000 protest taking place today in cities and towns throughout the US.
My name is Michael Gilman, I lived in Wellesley for 35 year and now reside in Wayland. Like most of you here, I hold no position of authority, but come here as a concerned citizen troubled by the direction our country is taking under President 47 along with his sycophants including his unelected co-president Elon Musk and the rest of his knee-bending cabinet. (“Knee-bending” is the more delicate term I use.) Like many of you, I am concerned for the country being left to my children and grandchildren.
MAY DAY on May 1 is the traditional day we honor and celebrate workers and laborers and commemorate the struggle for better working conditions and labor rights—but “MAY DAY” is also the term used as an international distress signal. The signal given when a ship or a plane is in trouble. AND TODAY OUR COUNTRY IS IN DISTRESS AND IN TROUBLE! So we are here to make some “good trouble.”!
When I tell you some of the reasons we are now in distress, please respond with the loud shout-out of “MAY DAY” !!
1. We are seeing the government institutions on which we have relied for multi-generations dismantled and destroyed by an unelected businessman who was put in charge of a so-called Department of Government Efficiency– DOGE –which I have renamed the Department of Greed and Evil. Thousands of employees, dedicated civil servants, being terminated under some guise of a “deep state.” MAY DAY
2. We are experiencing the tearing apart of our country’s safety net, as well eliminating foreign aid abroad — just to name a few items:
A) Proposed cuts to Medicaid MAY DAY
B) Eliminating food assistance and funds to stock food banks. MAY DAY
C) Stopping US Aid that provides food and health care in foreign countries. MAY DAY
D) Cutting funds for life-saving research. MAY DAY
E) Cutting funds for the National Weather Service in exchange for a black sharpie! MAY DAY
F) Eliminating all climate change research. MAY DAY
G) Denying the truth of all science! MAY DAY
3. We see efforts to destroy our public education system including the elimination of funding for Head Start. MAY DAY
4. We read the Executive Orders from #47 which view Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) as something to be eliminated in government service, in schools and universities, and in private workplaces, as well as triggering book bans in our libraries—books by Dr. Seuss, Maya Angelou, Harper Lee, Lois Lowry and so many other authors who teach us and our children that we are all one people in an interconnected world. MAY DAY
5. And we have Executive Orders which are attempts at revising and rewriting the history of our country, both the good and the bad, including our history of slavery and abuse of indigenous people; as well as the removal of artifacts from displays at the Smithsonian Museum for African History. MAY DAY
6. We now face a Republican Administration that reads the US Constitution as a document holding “We the people” as only those people who agree with its positions; as a document that allows for “free speech” only when that speech is aligned with what the #47 wants to do; as a document that provides for “due process” only to those in favor, thereby allowing for the disappearance of immigrants and even for US citizens, deporting people to foreign countries, many by excuse of “administrative error” or “mistake.” MAY DAY
7. We see the efforts to control and threaten the media wherever it seeks to speak truth to power. “60 Minutes” threatened; Even Big Bird is not safe! MAY DAY
8. And as a Jew and as an American, and one who has experienced antisemitism more than once in my lifetime, I object to #47 and his leadership using antisemitism as a tool to control the administration and curriculum at our universities and the free speech of anyone who looks to peacefully express their beliefs. The hypocrisy is blatant when juxtaposed to Charlottesville; remarks telling Jews who vote Democrat they are anti-Israel; hosting virulent antisemites to dinners at Mar-a-Lago, and so much more. MAY DAY
Let me close with something written by Thomas Paine in 1776: “When a people agree to form themselves into a republic . . . it is understood that they mutually resolve and pledge themselves to each other, rich and poor alike, to support this rule of equal justice among them . . .(and) they renounce as detestable, the power of exercising, at any future time any species of despotism over each other, or of doing a thing not right in itself, because a majority of them may have the strength of numbers sufficient to
accomplish it.”
So my friends and patriots, don’t give up the fight; continue to protest everywhere whenever you can; and let your voice be heard in DC and in The White House.
Silence is not an option.
THIS IS OUR MAY DAY CALL TO FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY!!