For International Workers Day, also known as May Day, nearly 100 people participated in the General Strike by attending a rally at the Indiana Statehouse. On this historic day, workers worldwide take to the streets to demonstrate their strength when they act in solidarity. This particular May 1, commemorates the 140th anniversary of the workers in Chicago who fought for and won the 8-hour workday, and the 20th anniversary of workers nationwide who held a general strike for “A Day Without Immigrants”[1], in opposition to a host of anti-immigrant and anti-working class proposed laws, in particular the Sensenbrener Bill.
The demonstration was organized by Indivisible, Cosecha, About Face, and member-groups of the Indy Liberation Center. The demands included “ICE Out” and “Permanent Protection for All.” Organizer Jay Grillo, representing ANSWER Indiana, spoke on the connection between imperialist wars abroad and ICE terror at home. This speech and on-the-ground interview are transcribed below.
ICE out, troops out, strike now!
Transcript:
Grillo: My name is Jay I am with ANSWER Indiana we are a founding member of the Indianapolis Liberation Center and ANSWER stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, and today we are here with the May 1st International Workers Day general strike protest at the State House, and I was talking about protections for all and talking about abolishing ICE, and both those things are connected on a worldwide scale, from what our government does abroad, and for what our government does to us here, both of them are inflicting terror on working people across the world, and we as workers here in the United States, stand in solidarity with the workers of the world, and that’s what ANSWER Indiana is about and we’ve been about that since 2001, and we are going to be about that for two-thousand-and-one years to come, because workers rights for all is what we’re fighting for at all times.
Grillo: Thank you.
Grillo: My name is Jay, I am an artist here, a long time Indianapolis resident. I am with ANSWER Indiana, which stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. ANSWER, that’s been doing work here for so long, is dedicated to stopping all of the injustices of working and oppressed peoples from tyranny and imperial power. We celebrate and recognize May Day as International Workers Day. This holiday started with a strike, and we carry that tradition alongside the many of us workers that make this country run. (Crowd: Cheers).
Grillo: In 2006 millions of people took part in what is called A Day Without Immigrants, a general strike that withheld labor from an estimated 2.5 million people[2] to oppose an anti-immigration House bill. Today, as ICE and CBP police our streets in our communities and build detention centers in our communities, we demand justice by withholding the same labor, the same school attendance, and the same commerce that those in 2006 did. There is no politician coming to save us, there is no election shortcut, there is only what ordinary people are willing to build together and withhold together.
Grillo: Here in Indiana, our government is taking a boot to the mouth to turn its back on us. They’re more than willing to follow the orders of this administration, and it’s up to us to fight back. (Crowd: Cheers)
Grillo: After Mike Braun signed an Executive Order[3] to direct our law enforcement to cooperate with ICE, the first half of last year more than 1,400 Hoosiers[4] were subjected to ICE Arrests[5]. Whole sections of the population are told that their labor is welcome, but that they are not. ICE terrorizes people, separates families, destabilizes neighborhoods, and targets workers.
Grillo: That is why we say abolish ICE (Crowd: “Abolish ICE”)
Grillo: Not Trump’s ICE, not ICE in Indiana, ICE everywhere. Abolish ICE.
Grillo: Abolish ICE! (Crowd: “Abolish ICE”)
Grillo: So, how do we stop the spread of ICE terror?
Grillo: We start here and we look to examples of what we could replicate here. We have seen proof of this, Minneapolis is that proof. In January of this year, I was up in Minneapolis just a week after Alex Pretti was killed after months of “Operation Metro Surge”[6], where 2000 ICE agents were deployed, and then another 1000 after Rene Nicole Good was murdered. Organizers were on the ground looking to try to get ICE out and how to get ICE out. These agents were invading homes, schools, and small businesses. They separated families and crippled the local economy, costing millions for small businesses, and millions for lost revenue and wages for workers[7], and yet, despite all of that, the people still fought back
Grillo: I recall my time there specifically with a friend who’s a teacher at a majority-immigrant community high school in Minneapolis who turned her school into a mutual aid hub because students and their families did not feel safe. They transformed the school into a grocery store stacked with donated food and essentials, rent assistance programs, and teachers made the deliveries themselves so families could feel safer. (Crowd: Cheers)
Grillo: So when the Somali student group at the college there and other student organizations called for a general strike similar to what we are doing today, many people, like those teachers, alongside tens of thousands of others, came out in the freezing streets, collectively withholding their labor, and after that, in February, Operation Metro Surge ended.
Grillo: Round of applause for that. (Crowd: Cheers)
Grillo: However, their fight continues, but it showed cities like ours how to combat ICE terror while fighting for permanent protection for all, and we say permanent protection for all because we mean all, including those outside of the borders of the United States. (Crowd: Cheers)
Grillo: Our struggle as workers does not stop at the border, and neither does the violence of our government. The same ruling class that funds ICE raids in our neighborhoods is the same ruling class that funds bombings, coups, blockades, occupations, and sanctions worldwide.
Grillo: Boo. Shame. (Crowd: “Shame”)
Grillo: Since 2001[8], ANSWER has helped build the anti-war struggle in this country by refusing to forgive what happens here and what happens abroad. Our working families and immigrant families here face the same terror as the families in Cuba living under a blockade, as the families of Venezuela under U.S. aggression, and as the families in Iran facing imperial attacks.
Grillo: Look at what this administration has done already. Following the bombing of Venezuela and the kidnapping of Maduro, the US turns to bomb Iran. Trump quickly tried to declare it over, but it clearly is not over. Imperialism like this divides and conquers with violence, and with narratives that have us believing these things are separate, they are not separate. (Crowd: “That’s Right”)
Grillo: Narratives that Venezuela is about “Maduro,” Cuba is about “Communism,” and Iran is about “Security,” and immigration here is about “Law and Order” again, none of that is true, and it is not separate. This government believes it has the right to starve, bomb, and attack others and then come home and tell us there’s no money. There’s no money for us working people, for any of the things we need for health care, for schools, for any of the dignity that we need to have to just survive. There’s no money for that, but you’re able to spend all this money overseas?
Grillo: I don’t believe that. (Crowd: “That’s right”)
Grillo: Munitions in the first two days of the Iran attacks cost the US 5 billion, and the Pentagon wanted 200 billion[9] more. (Crowd: Boos)
Grillo: Shame. (Crowd: “Shame”)
Grillo: We feel this cost, we feel it and see it. Right now, wholesale prices are up 4%, energy prices up 8.5%. Indiana[10], with the biggest increase of gas in this country at over $4 per gallon for the first time in like 4 years. So the task now is to build the broadest possible movement around the crimes of our own government by exposing what the government and the Trump administration is doing to its people and our fellow workers abroad. People deserve protection from deportations, from sanctions, from occupations, all the same, because it is always us footing the bill, and it is our solidarity that has to be with the workers of the world. (Crowd: Cheers)
Grillo: So, if they can use our labor, our taxes, our neighborhoods, our futures to build a world of fear, then we can use our labor, our numbers, our relationships, and our solidarity to build a better world for all. (Crowd: Cheers)
Grillo: So when we say ICE out of our country or our troops out of other countries, we are also saying to bring workers’ rights in, schools in, housing in, health care in, dignity in; permanent protection for all. (Crowd: Cheers)
Grillo: So, last thing I’ll say is, let today be a reminder that workers built every right that we have won, and that this is a warning to our government that if this continues to happen, the terror continues to happen, then we the people will organize against it. We do not need their permission today to fight for a better world tomorrow.
Grillo: Thank you.
References
[1] Carlos Alvarez, “Lessons of the May 1 ‘Day without an Immigrant’,” Liberation News, 31 May 2006. Available here.
[2] Jane Guskin, “Immigrant Rights Protests — Spring 2006,” Mapping American Social Movements Project, 2006. Available here.
[3] State of Indiana, “EXECUTIVE ORDER 25-29,” Executive Department, Indianapolis, 26 January 2026. Available here.
[4] Leslie Bonilla Muñiz, “Indiana immigration arrests surge despite stalled ICE partnerships,” Indiana Capital Chronicle, 28 July 2025. Available here.
[5] Zak Cassel, “Marion County detained over 1,000 immigrants for ICE last year’,” WFYI, 4 March 2026. Available here.
[6] Melissa Petruzzello, “2025–26 Minnesota ICE Deployment,” Britannica, 13 April 2026. Available here.
[7] Nick Lentz, “Minneapolis faces $203M “in impact” from Operation Metro Surge, city leaders say,” CBS News, 13 Febuary 2026. Available here
[8] ANSWER Coalition, “Who We Are,” ANSWER. Available here.
[9] Associated Press, “Pentagon says about 140 U.S. troops have been injured in Iran war so far, 8 severely,” PBS News, 10 March 2026. Available here.
[10] Nicole Jao, “US refiners’ first-quarter profits expected to jump as war lifts fuel margins’,” Reuters, 27 April 2026. Available here.
Featured Photo: ANSWER Organizers lead march on May 1st 2026, Credit Indianapolis Liberation Center.