MAY DAY: a catalyst to build unity against the 1%

Across the United States, tens of thousands of workers, students, youth, immigrants and oppressed peoples took part in marches, rallies and other actions to commemorate May Day — International Workers’ Day — on May 1. The following is based on reports from Workers World writers Terri Kay, John Parker, Bob McCubbin, Paul Teitelbaum, Eric Struch, Bryan G. Pfeifer, Martha Grevatt, Leslie Feinberg, Dianne Mathiowetz, Dante Strobino, Gloria Rubac and Scott Williams.

Oakland, Calif. WW photo: Judy Greenspan

OAKLAND, CALIF.

As many as 7,000 people joined the Bay Area March for Dignity and Resistance in Oakland, organized by a coalition that included immigrants’ rights organizers, Decolonize Oakland, members of Occupy Oakland, Occupy San Francisco, Oakland Education Association, American Postal Workers Union, the Left Party, Workers World Party and others.

Workers fired by Pacific Steel Casting Company held banners and led the four-and-a-half-mile march to Oscar Grant Plaza in downtown Oakland.

A morning strike was held by the Inland Boatmen’s Union as part of the organizing efforts of the 14-union Golden Gate Bridge Labor Coalition. Contract negotiations have been stalled for a year. Hundreds of people showed up to support the picket lines at the Larkspur and San Francisco ferry terminals.

About 4,500 members of the California Nurses Association also held one-day strikes at Sutter-affiliated hospitals across the Bay Area to protest sweeping reductions in patient care, nurses’ standards and workplace conditions. Occupy Oakland’s Labor Solidarity Committee supported these strikes.

Occupy Patriarchy held an action against Oakland’s Child Protective Services, while Occupy Oakland also had other actions targeting capitalism, the banks and gentrification. Several downtown banks had their windows smashed. Oakland cops started using a new tactic to snatch individuals, but each time they did, crowds tried to defend the targeted activists. Cops got hit with egg paint bombs, and a couple of police vehicles were damaged. About 33 people were arrested in Oakland during the day.

Los Angeles WW photo: John Parker

LOS ANGELES

The Southern California Immigration Coalition held a kick-off rally prior to a march of 5,000, which included members of the United Teachers of Los Angeles, community organizations, national liberation organizations, anti-war and social justice groups, as well as Occupy LA contingents.

Demands were full legalization now, driver’s licenses for all, no ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) raids, workers’ rights to organize, and no guest-worker programs. Rally speakers expressed the need to grow a movement independent of the Democratic and Republican parties that respects the rights and self-determination of the most oppressed in society.

An SCIC banner with victims of racist killings — Trayvon Martin and Anastasio Hernández Rojas — reflected the need for Black and Brown unity. Banners for the Cuban 5 and flags from many Latin American countries showed international solidarity and that activists would not be silent about U.S. imperialism’s drive toward further war, poverty and terrorism.

Earlier in the day, the County Federation of Labor also held a march downtown. Occupy LA held a “4-winds” march and actions as part of its general strike call. Some of the protests culminated in downtown marches. Service Employees-United Service Workers West held a morning civil disobedience action at LAX airport.

San Diego WW photo: Bob McCubbin

SAN DIEGO

The death of Anastasio Hernández Rojas at the hands of Border Patrol agents at the San Ysidro border crossing two years ago dominated May Day activities. A recently revealed video shows a helpless, handcuffed Hernández lying on the ground and being tasered, surrounded by more than a dozen agents.

Photos of Hernández in the hospital where he died make it clear he was severely beaten. Yet no Border Patrol agents have been indicted for this assault and killing. María Puga, Hernández’s widow, continues to demand that the killers be brought to justice. San Diego May Day activists demanded that as well.

A rally and vigil for Hernández and the eight other border residents who have been brutalized and killed by Border Patrol agents since 2010 took place in Balboa Park on May 3.

TUCSON, ARIZ.

About 500 people marched along the traditional May Day route from the small Latino/a city of South Tucson to Armory Park in downtown Tucson. The march, led by Indigenous people, joined the crowd assembled in the park.

Speakers of many nationalities, including children and youth, spoke about the need for unity and demanded an end to the militarization of the border, the racist and anti-woman laws coming out of the state legislature, and deportations and racial profiling.

Immigrant rights, labor, and Occupy forces worked together in a magnificent show of solidarity as May Day came on the heels of heightened attacks by racist border vigilantes. Marchers were angered by the recent killing of two Latinos in the small town of Eloy, Ariz., and the decision by the state of Arizona to legitimize these fascist vigilantes by introducing legislation that would incorporate them into a volunteer State Militia.

HOUSTON

Led by the Living Hope Wheelchair Association, which organizes and fights for workers living with spinal cord injuries, many organizations and activists chanted and cheered as they marched through the predominately immigrant community of Southwest Houston to celebrate May Day. From Occupy Houston, the Central American Resource Center and the Alianza Mexicana to Workers World Party and the Houston Peace and Justice Center, workers and activists demanded that the deportations must stop and NO legislation similar to Arizona’s must ever be introduced in Texas. Librotraficante’s Lupe Mendez declared that solidarity with the students and people of Arizona remains a priority.

Chicago

CHICAGO

Nearly 3,000 people showed up to celebrate May Day in the city of its birth. The march began with a rally in Union Park and included speakers from the immigrant rights and union movements. Service Employees members, various Teamsters locals and other unions were well represented, along with progressive and leftist groups such as Workers World Party, the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign and Food Not Bombs. Activists with CANG8 (Coalition Against NATO/G8 War & Poverty Agenda), who are preparing for a mass march on May 20 against the NATO meeting scheduled in Chicago, were also there.

The demonstrators then marched to the federal building where a rally was held. In what may have been a dry run for the May 20 anti-NATO protest, cops in body armor and riot gear were out in force, while at least three police helicopters circled overhead.

MILWAUKEE

Buses came from all over Wisconsin for the May Day march sponsored by the immigrant rights organization Voces de la Frontera and endorsed by dozens of organizations. Strong labor contingents were present, along with Occupy contingents and activists with the WI Bail Out the People Movement. Major delegations from dozens of high schools and colleges in southeast Wisconsin, led by Latino/a students, mobilized for the day in an impressive showing. Rally speakers included Phil Neulenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, and U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez from Illinois. Some 20,000 marched from the Voces de la Frontera office on the South Side of Milwaukee through the city center to Veterans Park by Lake Michigan.

Detroit WW photo: Kris Hamel

DETROIT

Hundreds of activists from immigrant rights groups, Occupy Detroit, labor, community, anti-war and environmental groups, marched from Clark Park, in the heart of the Latino/a community, to Grand Circus Park in downtown Detroit. The theme was “Save the workers, defend immigrant rights, save our community, save the planet.”

Students from the Southwest Detroit Freedom School spoke at the rally and led the march. Students walked out of Southwestern High School and Western High School on April 26 to protest the planned closing of Southwestern. Both schools are in the predominantly Latino/a neighborhood of Southwest Detroit. When the students who walked out were suspended for a week, they — along with parents and community activists who were building the May Day march — organized a week-long Freedom School in Clark Park.

WW photo: Sharon Black BALTIMORE Close to 300 people rallied at McKeldin Square, the original site of Occupy Baltimore and the city’s largest May Day activity in recent memory. The first feeder march had over 100 people march from Reeds Drug store, site of one of the first Civil Rights sit-ins. The second feeder march came from the East side led by the postal workers. Fred Mason, President of the Maryland and D.C. AFL-CIO council opened the rally.

Speakers from the elected but powerless Detroit Public Schools Board, the city union Association of Professional and Technical Employees, and the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions & Utility Shut-offs condemned the financial consent agreement forced on Detroit by the state and blasted the banks for destroying the city. Another rally along the route of march combined the issues of jobs and the environment.

At the federal building a rally featured speakers from Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice, Students for Justice in Palestine, and the immigrant rights group Movimiento Justicia y Paz (Peace and Justice Movement).

SYRACUSE, N.Y.

A May Day march in downtown Syracuse brought out supporters of workers’ and immigrants’ rights and fighters against racism and bigotry. Stops were made at the federal building and in front of a Bank of America office, where demonstrators chanted, “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!” Other stops included City Hall, police headquarters and the Onondaga County “Justice” Center. WW activist Minnie Bruce Pratt spoke out against racism and urged support for CeCe McDonald, a young African-American trans woman wrongfully imprisoned in Minnesota.

ATLANTA

The Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights held a rally at the state Capitol with the official theme “immigrant rights = worker rights = human rights.” Hundreds — mostly Latinos/as — participated, along with members of organized labor, including the Food and Commercial Workers and Teamsters. The frequently photographed International Action Center banner read, ”Legalize! Organize! Unionize! for Immigrant and Worker Rights!” The IAC also had a speaker at the rally, where representatives of immigrant rights and labor groups were well represented.

Durham, N.C. WW photo: Dante Strobino

DURHAM, N.C.

A very multinational and spirited crowd of hundreds gathered at People’s Plaza in downtown Durham to celebrate International Workers’ Day and march for workers’ and immigrants’ rights. Some of the demands included good jobs and living wages; the right to organize, join a union and collective bargaining for all workers; justice for immigrants, including amnesty and an end to deportations; an end to police brutality, mass incarceration of communities of color, and all forms of oppression and discrimination; and justice for Trayvon Martin.

Speakers represented such organizations as Black Workers for Justice, Compassion Ministry, Durham City Worker’s Union (United Electrical Local 150), National Association of Letter Carriers Local 382, El Kilombo, FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee)-AFL-CIO, N.C. AFL-CIO, N.C. Dream Team, N.C. Justice Center, Student Action with Farmworkers, and UNC Student Action with Workers.

After marching and holding rallies at the post office and City Hall, protesters rallied at the local jail to challenge racist repression, the murder of many Black youth, mass incarceration and deportations. Several powerful Latino/a community groups participated, many of whose members are undocumented. Yet they were able to take to the streets thanks to the strong numbers present.

Philadelphia WW photo: Joseph Piette

PHILADELPHIA

People marched in the streets of West Philadelphia to oppose new symbols of state repression being built in the mostly Black, working-class community. Marchers challenged a new Youth Studies (Juvenile Detention) Center, a newly relocated city Police Headquarters, and a new ICE Detention Center — all within eight blocks of each other in an oppressed community.

Just days before the march, the School District of Philadelphia announced it is shutting 40 schools next year, with plans to close even more. Meanwhile the city continues to pour millions into prisons for youth, especially youth of color.

The last stop on the march was a local branch of the U.S. Postal Service, where retired postal workers Michael Wilson and Joe Piette spoke about the devastating cutbacks on the Postal Service and the need to save the hundreds of thousands of living-wage USPS jobs.

At the same time as the march in West Philadelphia, another march took place targeting several major banks in Center City and demanding an end to foreclosures and the exploitative practices of the capitalist banks.