More than 100 Long Beach residents and members of local social justice organizations converged on the city’s downtown on Thursday to march in solidarity with essential workers and advocate for tenant rights.

Protesters in Long Beach joined thousands of others who held workers’ rights rallies and marches for social justice across the nation and globe on Thursday in honor of International Workers Day, also known as May Day.

Activists who planned marches in the United States said much of their message is about fighting back against President Donald Trump’s policies targeting immigration, federal workers, and diversity programs.

Those in Long Beach, meanwhile, took to the streets to demand more from their local government about issues ranging from strengthening tenants’ rights to making streets safer in West Long Beach.

“This is momentum building,” said Maria Lopez, an organizer with Long Beach Tenants Union, the lead organization for the May Day march. “We have been fighting as tenants and workers for better wages and better living conditions for a while, so this is just a continuation of this momentum that has been brewing up for some time now in the city of Long Beach. Our main theme today is ‘Raise the wages, lower the rent.’”

Organizers and residents demanded that the City Council create an ordinance to stabilize rent in Long Beach, Lopez said, because about 60% of Long Beach’s residents are renters.

“In community, everything is possible,” she added. “We understand that sometimes these types of systems may want to crush us, but this is why we have to continue organizing like on May Day. It’s remembering the past and preparing for the future.”

Protesters met at Lincoln Park with signs that read “Housing for people, not profit,” “Stronger protections for renters” and “Diversity is our strength.” The march started around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday and headed down Ocean Boulevard toward Pine Avenue.

More of the group’s demands included that the City Council change the Just Cause Ordinance to close the substantial remodel loophole that affects renters; call for local rent stabilization; end encampment sweeps; create safer streets in West Long Beach; strengthen the Long Beach Values Act; and allocate $2 million in the city’s fiscal year 2026 budget for the Long Beach Just Fund, among others.

Local organizations that joined the Long Beach Tenants Union were the Filipino Migrant Center, SURGE Long Beach, Asian Youth Council, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Long Beach Localist Movement, and more.

“Together, we can’t be ignored. Together, we keep each other safe,” Denisse Tapia, community organizer with ÓRALE, said during the event. “The more that the city council sees that we’re all connected, we’re all organizing together…that’s how we grow power and that’s how they see that we’re unstoppable.”