A sprawling network of communist, socialist, and Democratic Party, aligned organizations mobilized roughly 3,000 protests and events across the United States for May Day, backed by groups with a combined annual revenue of about $2 billion, a Fox News Digital investigation found. The probe identified some 600 groups driving the effort, from the Democratic Socialists of America and the Communist Party USA to at least 13 state and local Democratic Party chapters, including the California Democratic Party, which calls itself the largest state party in the nation with more than 10 million members.
The coalition, branded "May Day Strong," issued a press release Thursday at 4:39 p.m. announcing the nationwide mobilization under the banner "Workers Over Billionaires." It called for "No Work, No School, No Shopping" and claimed more than 100,000 students were expected to walk out. Its slogans included "Tax the rich," "No ICE. No War," and "Expand Democracy, not corporate power."
What the organizers framed as a workers' uprising looks, on closer inspection, like something far more institutional, and far better funded, than any spontaneous grassroots movement.
Fox News Digital reported that the investigation traced major funding streams running through the network. American-born tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, now based in Shanghai, pumped an estimated $278 million into groups including the People's Forum, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the ANSWER Coalition, and Code Pink. Each of those organizations played a role in the May Day mobilization.
Indivisible, which had at least 200 chapters nationwide supporting May Day events, has received millions of dollars over the years from George Soros' philanthropy network. About 80 chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America appeared alongside Indivisible chapters at events across the country.
The billionaire backing extends well beyond Singham and Soros. A separate analysis cited by the New York Post found that more than $500 million from groups linked to Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, Soros' Open Society Foundations, and the Arabella network flowed to roughly three dozen participating progressive organizations between fiscal years 2016 and 2023. That breaks down to approximately $293.6 million from Wyss-linked groups, $194.2 million from Open Society Foundations, and $47 million from the Arabella network.
Caitlin Sutherland of Americans for Public Trust put it bluntly:
"These organizations project the illusion of being driven by everyday Americans, but in reality, they're being bankrolled by some of the biggest dark-money megadonors in politics."
An anti-billionaire protest movement funded by billionaires. The contradiction speaks for itself. And it fits a pattern that has drawn increasing scrutiny as the scale of the funding becomes harder to ignore.
The "May Day Strong" coalition did not limit itself to mainstream labor groups. The Communist Party USA rallied workers to "rise against MAGA on May Day," promoting leaflets through its Marxist-Leninist publication, People's World. The Revolutionary Communist Party issued a call to dismantle the "capitalist-imperialist system." The Maoist Communist Union summoned members to join an "Anti-Imperialist Contingent" at New York City protests.
These are not fringe hangers-on. They marched under the same umbrella as MoveOn.org, the American Federation of Teachers, the AFL-CIO, the United Auto Workers, the Chicago Teachers Union, and the National Education Association. The press release treated them all as partners in a shared cause.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation operated "Liberation Centers" in about 25 metropolitan cities. Local chapters organized "Art Build" sessions where protesters gathered to make signs. In Washington, D.C., PSL activists opened their Liberation Center early on Thursday, April 30, for sign-building. In Chicago, the group's center, which had posted anti-ICE signs in its window as early as January 29, hosted a similar session to support teacher and student walkouts. In North Carolina, the PSL chapter reminded members to meet at "the Quad" on the campus of UNC Chapel Hill.
In Los Angeles, activists outside the InnerCity Struggle building carried protest gear and readied for May Day. A sign on the building's gate said it would be closed on May 1. At the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, general strike literature had been displayed during a "No Kings" protest as far back as March 29.
Those earlier "No Kings" protests, organized by Indivisible after President Trump's inauguration, served as a rehearsal. Indivisible led organizing for at least three rounds of those demonstrations. Some of those events turned violent in cities including Portland, Los Angeles, and Dallas, raising questions about the infrastructure fueling them.
What makes this mobilization distinct is the open merger of hard-left organizations with official Democratic Party infrastructure. The California Democratic Party used the platform Mobilize.us to promote a "Workers over Billionaires May Day rally" at the corner of Monroe Street and Highway 11 in Indio, California. The Ohio Democratic Party Progressive Caucus appeared on the official list of "May Day Strong" organizers. So did the Young Democrats of Moore County, the Young Democrats of Wisconsin, and the Yuba County Democratic Central Committee.
In Newark, Ohio, the Licking County Democrats hosted a "May Day Strong" protest at the courthouse.
The email metadata from the coalition's Thursday press release identified the sender as a public relations expert at On Point, a firm that has done PR work for the Illinois Federation of Teachers. Leaders from the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Chicago Teachers Union were among participants emphasizing mass mobilization and collective action, alongside the AFL-CIO, the National Education Association, and the United Auto Workers.
The Washington Times noted the same dynamic, reporting that the core of the mobilization was "a network of communist, socialist, Marxist and other left-leaning organizations, some of which are funded by billionaires, the very antithesis of the working class." Teachers' unions, meanwhile, have drawn scrutiny for how they channel activist energy, including efforts to embed May Day protest themes into classroom curriculum for children as young as three.
Democratic strategist Melissa DeRosa did not mince words about what the alliance means for her party. She told Fox News Digital:
"The increasing willingness of mainstream Democrats to align with extremist socialist groups is a major factor in why the Democratic Party is losing the center more and more, and why so many lifelong Democrats find themselves feeling politically homeless."
DeRosa acknowledged the holiday's roots but said the tradition had been co-opted.
"May Day has a proud history of honoring workers, but too many Democratic organizations have allowed that tradition to be hijacked by the activist fringe, including groups aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, pushing a fantasy agenda that has failed everywhere it has been tried."
Her sharpest line cut to the party's strategic collapse:
"The Democratic Party used to speak the language of work, wages, dignity, family, safety and upward mobility. Now it's morphing into a pamphlet for the Democratic Socialists of America: slogans instead of policy, disruption instead of leadership and the demonization of free enterprise instead of a serious plan to help working families get ahead."
She added: "That is not how you build a majority. That is how you turn a governing party into a protest movement, and a losing one."
The Fox News Digital investigation highlighted the role of Singham, who delivered remarks at a conference in Shanghai last fall. The outlet reported that groups and influencers in his network, including the media outlet BreakThrough News and controversial Democratic Socialists of America influencer Hasan Piker, echo anti-American rhetoric and propaganda narratives promoted by U.S. adversaries, including China.
The investigation also noted a grim security backdrop. Law enforcement officials said Cole Allen, accused of attempting to kill President Trump the night of the White House Correspondents' Dinner, attended a "No Kings" protest in Los Angeles before boarding an Amtrak to allegedly carry out the attack. Organizers in Torrance, California, Allen's hometown, had a May Day protest scheduled for Friday evening at the corner of Hawthorne Boulevard and Sepulveda Boulevard. Those organizers posted that "a core principle behind all our events is a commitment to nonviolent action," while also writing: "Because when the billionaires break every rule, it's going to take more than a rally to stop them."
The escalation of political street activity into real-world danger is not theoretical. Recent weeks have seen arrests and explosive devices at protests outside Gracie Mansion in New York, underscoring the volatile environment these mobilizations can create.
The "May Day Strong" press release accused unnamed forces of "attacking our neighbors," "turning ICE loose on our neighborhoods," and "seeking to end democracy as we know it." It called the system "rigged" and declared: "We can and will shut it down to secure prosperity for all working people."
Strip away the rhetoric and the picture is plain. A network that includes Marxist-Leninist parties, Maoist splinter groups, foreign-funded propaganda outlets, and official Democratic Party organs coordinated a nationwide disruption campaign, and branded it as a workers' holiday. The combined annual revenue of the groups involved sits at roughly $2 billion. Hundreds of millions more flowed in from dark-money networks over the past decade.
None of this was hidden. The press release, the Mobilize.us pages, the Liberation Centers, the organizer lists, all of it sat in plain view. The question now is whether Democratic leaders who lent their party's name to this coalition will be asked to account for the company they kept. As other recent exposés have shown, the gap between what these networks say and what they actually are tends to widen the closer anyone looks.
When your anti-billionaire march is bankrolled by billionaires and your workers' coalition includes Maoists, the slogan isn't the message. The money is.
