May Day demonstrators pack NYC's Washington Square Park for workers' rights rally

Crowds of May Day protesters demanding higher taxes on billionaires to fund public goods and services took to the streets of New York City on Friday. 

Thousands rallied on International Workers' Day across the five boroughs, including on Wall Street, where hundreds of climate activists blocked entrances to the New York Stock Exchange, and some arrests were made. 

Hundreds, if not thousands, packed Manhattan's Washington Square Park to celebrate workers and the history of labor organizing, before the group started marching to Foley Square. 

Organizers of the rally said protecting workers' rights is more important now than ever before, as the cost of living rises in the city and across the country.

"We need to make sure that working people have a voice, that working people are able to exercise that voice, and demand a life that is really all not that complicated. It's the ability to earn a living, to come home safely at the end of the day, to provide for your family," said Brendan Griffith, president of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO

"I would not be standing in front of you as the mayor of our city were it not for the support of working people," Mayor Zohran Mamdani told the crowd in Greenwich Village. "And it is such a pleasure to be back here with all of you in Washington Square Park, the cradle of worker power." 

Organizers said the rally was being led by several union and immigrant-advocacy organizations to recognize the role workers play across the city and to spotlight the risks of unsafe working conditions and federal immigration enforcement. 

"Together we will show the world what solidarity means. That a people united, a people organized cannot be defeated," Mamdani said. 

The rally in Washington Square Park remained peaceful amid a large NYPD presence. 

Police did not say how many people were taken into custody at the Wall Street rally.