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Well over 1,000 union members, immigrant rights advocates and community allies filled the north apron of Philadelphia’s City Hall on Thursday afternoon for a spirited May Day rally headlined by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The populist independent senator from Vermont has been barnstorming across the country, looking to build up resistance against the administration of President Donald Trump. In his speech, Sanders was faithful to the themes that have made him a star among the left, tackling issues such as inequality and labor rights.

Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” tour has been drawing large crowds across the country, as he has gone from city to city accusing the White House and Washington leadership of forming an oligarchy.

“Oligarchy is a president who, when he gets inaugurated, doesn’t hide it — right behind him are the three wealthiest people in America,” he said, referring to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerburg, who contributed millions to Trump’s inauguration. “So let us be clear and lay it out on the table in the year 2025, in America, we are now living in an oligarchic form of society.”

Sanders has become a prominent figure for Americans opposing Trump’s aggressive efforts to dismantle federal institutions, but he has also been expressing dissatisfaction with the lack of response from the Democratic party leaders, who he called on to “stop defending the status quo.”

“I’m here in Pennsylvania to tell any member of the Pennsylvania delegation that if they vote for tax breaks for billionaires and cut Medicaid nutrition and education, we are going to throw them out of their jobs,” he said.

Several local union leaders also took to the podium, including Daniel Bauder, president of the Philadelphia AFL-CIO; Jimmy Williams, president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades; and Phil Glover, vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees District 3; as well as rank-and-file members and immigration activists.

May Day, globally recognized as International Workers’ Day, has long been a platform for labor advocacy. Organizers said the rally was a signal of renewed momentum in Philadelphia’s labor movement and a message to lawmakers ahead of the 2025 elections.

Bauder told the crowd that “May Day was the original Labor Day.”

“But we’re taking it back here in Philadelphia,” he said to applause. “We all know that a better world truly is possible, but we also know that we can’t rely on politicians alone to fix it. We are the many, we have the power, not the billionaires or the oligarchs.”

That was the kind of message Jim Dukenfield, a retired warehouse worker from Chester, came to support.

“When I first heard that [Trump] wanted to stop the union organizing for the federal employees, that’s when he got my attention,” he said. “If it starts somewhere, it’s not going to stop my opinion. Every union should get together to fight this. It’s a working man’s world. Our country’s a working man’s country.”

Duckenfield, who is still registered as a Republican, voted for Trump in 2016 but came to regret it.

“He showed me that he’s not a leader and I was sorry I voted for him,” he said. “I was happy to be a Republican. They weren’t always exactly right, but I felt that they were fair and looking out for the people. I don’t feel that way anymore. Not even a little bit.”

Duckenfield also criticized Trump’s current immigration policy.

“Going in and grabbing people, not knowing if they’re citizens or what’s going on, is a disgrace,” he said. “Due process is needed in the United States.”

Asked about his thoughts on Sanders after the rally, Dukenfeld said “I’m a new fan.”

The immigration issue is what brought out Tracie Henry, who runs Lacey’s House, a small local nonprofit that serves communities in African nations dealing with poverty and violence. She said that she felt she had to attend rallies because many immigrants — even legal residents — are at risk if they did the same.

“I’ve been reaching out with a lot of immigrants here and they’re scared to death,” she said. “They don’t come out to protest like this and it’s sad.”

Henry said she recently obtained a “real ID” license even though she doesn’t drive because she’s worried that she might be mistaken for an immigrant because she works with the local African community. She added that she believes U.S. foreign policy has exacerbated the refugee problem.

“Philadelphia is being flooded with immigrants escaping West Africa, specifically Burkina Faso, Somalia, Nigeria and other countries,” she said. “If you stop the destabilization of those countries, they wouldn’t be flooding here because they want to stay in their own countries. And then when you come here, you get deported.”

However, WHYY News talked to an immigrant who joined the rally but who would only identify himself as Mohammed because he was concerned about being deported, despite being a naturalized citizen and having lived in the U.S. for nearly 50 years.

“I’m a U.S. citizen, but for how long?” he said. “They’re putting people with green cards in prison. When are they going to come after me?”

Mohammed said he took the risk because he is worried that the U.S. is following a similar path to Iran, which he fled.

“I came here thinking that this was a stable country, but I see the same kind of rise of authoritarianism and fascism,” he said. “This growing wealth gap, this idea that rich people should have everything, screw the poor people, is exactly what led to the Iranian Revolution. And then it just got worse and worse.”

Mohammed said that, while Democrats are “a little better” than Republicans, they “focus on the wrong issues.”

“Ninety percent of this country has absolutely no representation in the system,” he said. “Democrats have become Wall Street and with the elite, and they have become part of the establishment. The Democratic party used to be the party of the working people, but not so much anymore, and they need to go back to their roots if this country is going to have a chance to survive.”