About 80 people gathered at Washington Park in Ottawa on Friday for a May Day rally addressing workers’ wages and threats to free speech.

The event was organized by Illinois Valley Indivisible, a local chapter of a non-partisan activist group, and supported by Fall of Freedom, a collective of artists and organizers focused on confronting censorship.

Illinois Valley Indivisible organized the rally to raise awareness about workers’ wages and the impact of inflation. President Heidi Henry said the group wanted to highlight how wages have stagnated while costs have risen.

“We’re celebrating workers,” Henry said. “We’re hoping for people to understand that our wages have not kept up with inflation. Everybody’s feeling the pinch.”

Henry pointed to rising costs across multiple sectors as evidence of the problem. “We need money spent on the people and on social programs, not on wars and ballrooms,” she said. “We need to make sure that our senior citizens, veterans and disabled people have what they need to survive.”

Henry hopes continued activism will prompt other citizens to take action. “Anybody who works for a paycheck should be here and join us,” she said. “We need people to understand that this is not going to get better if we don’t stand up and say something.”

The rally also addressed threats to free speech and artistic expression. Fall of Freedom organized a “Call to Action” on Friday to oppose what the group views as censorship and repression.

Abby McCague, an artist who participated in the rally, created artwork and illustrated signs to support Fall of Freedom’s message. “Today represents a national call to artists,” she said. “No artist is too big or small. Art matters, courage is contagious.”

Daniel Atorthy, a farmer in Illinois, said both issues — workers’ rights and free speech — were equally important to him.

“Workers’ rights are very important, including immigrants’ work rights. I’m a farmer here in the state of Illinois. We all fall under the same umbrella, all of our rights tie in together and they just keep getting chopped,” he said. “I also don’t like the feel of a looming fascist takeover. With our First Amendment coming under fire, we’re already a little worse off than I thought.”

Atorthy encouraged others who share these concerns to participate in future demonstrations. “If people are out there scared to come out, they’re not alone,” he said. “There’s more of us out here and we’ll welcome them.”