50501 Labor Day protests recap
Barbecues seemed to win out over marching, chanting
The “Workers Over Billionaires” Labor Day protests in North Carolina were largely low in attendance made up mostly of the AARP age crowd. It seems spending time with family at barbecues won out over marching and chanting.
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It was so poorly attended in Raleigh, that local outlet WRAL wrote a whole seven sentences about the "hundreds" who showed up to protest.
CBS17 had a bit more detail on the Raleigh protest with an article of thirteen sentences long. That outlet reported that protesters signs said things like “Eat the rich,” “We the people have had enough,” and “The power of the people is stronger than the people in power.”
Of course, there was the typical cross-pollination of progressive protest causes, like the woman interviewed by CBS17, identified in the article as Emily Gaeta, who was wearing a black fishnet Keffiyeh popular with anti-Israel protesters.
The Raleigh 50501 protest had the favorite "F*CK TRUMP" sign, as seen below which was taken from a public Facebook post by “Karen Tam.”
Also in Raleigh, a group called "Democracy Out Loud" held a "die-in" at the same time the Raleigh event was supposed to kick off; it's unclear if anyone participated.
Democracy Out Loud also linked to a video of the protest with chants that included "tax the rich... tax tax the rich," "No Kings," and "Forward together, not one step back." The video also has interviews of some who attended.
The "Workers Over Billionaires” protest in Durham only warranted seven sentences from CBS17, which included photos of a small, older looking crowd.
ABC11 had video on the Durham protest, which looked pretty anemic attendance-wise.
The Asheville Citizen Times had the longest report of 11 paragraphs long, but only a third of it was really about the few hundred people who turned out.
"Hundreds gathered in Pack Square Park for a rally and speakers organized by Indivisible Asheville/WNC and the Western Region NC Poor People's Campaign, in partnership with other groups in the newly formed Asheville Fights Back Network," the Asheville Citizen Times report says.
Interestingly, the Citizen Times report also says "organizers had a team of safety marshals trained in crowd control and de-escalation, who helped ensure everyone protested safely, according to Robin Lively-Summers, president of Indivisible Asheville."
Now why would a peaceful protest need that?
Greensboro looked to have drawn the largest crowd, featuring the Moral Monday regulars, the Raging Grannies.
Scouring X, only two videos taken in North Carolina popped up when searching the #WorkersOverBillionaires hashtag.
In Asheville, again, "hundreds" came out and walked along with a marching band. And again, mainly older individuals.
Over in Mt. Airy, more old folks... touting Andy Griffith and protesting "orange-cult supporters."
More Mt. Airy protest photos can be seen on Facebook.
A search of the hashtag on Facebook brought up a few posts from media outlets, but few from actual participants.
Facebook posts related to the protests were mainly made through Indivisible groups, like one in Surry County, one in Guilford County and another one in Hickory.
Other Facebook posts about the protest included half a dozen or so protesters in Transylvania County, as well as a protest in the city of Fayetteville.