May Day marches in U.S. demand immigrant rights and end to anti-worker attacks

WW photos: John Catalinotto, Ellie Dorritie, G. Dunkel, Terri Kay, Janet Mayes, Bob McCubbin, Monica Moorehead, Gloria Rubac, Brenda Ryan

International Workers’ Day — May Day — was honored throughout the U.S. on May 1 with marches demanding legalization for immigrants and an end to union busting and attacks on workers, including vicious anti-immigrant and anti-worker legislation enacted or under consideration in several states.

The big-business-owned media blocked out much of the news on the many May Day marches which took place from coast to coast. In addition to large actions in New York City and Wisconsin — covered elsewhere in this issue of WW — the following reports and photos highlight some of the marches which took place around the country on May 1.

Declaring “Immigrant Rights = Workers Rights = Human Rights,” a largely Latino/a crowd gathered in ATLANTAin front of the Georgia State Capitol building on May Day. Speakers included Atlanta-North Georgia Labor Council President Charlie Flemming and Teamsters Local 728 organizer Ben Speight, both of whom strongly condemned the anti-immigrant House Bill 87. This racist piece of legislation passed the state Legislature and is expected to be signed by Gov. Nathan Deal. The more than 1,500 people present, wearing white and carrying signs and banners, roared their approval of appeals to resist the Arizona-copycat law. The Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, a leader in the fight for immigrant rights in the state, organized the rally.

More than 75 people rallied and marched in CLEVELANDin support of immigrant rights and against the Department of Homeland Security. Protesters also supported the fight against Ohio Senate Bill 5, a union-busting bill passed by the Ohio Legislature and signed by Ohio’s right-wing governor.

BUFFALO, N.Y., activists and community members marched across the city on May 1 to demand funding for people’s needs and to support the rights of unions, immigrants, workers, students and communities. The march ended at a nursing home, where it joined a rally of union workers fighting for their patients and their jobs. Buffalo Forum, Citizen Action, Buffalo State Students for Peace and the International Action Center organized the May Day event.

Fight Back! News reports that in ST. PAUL, MINN.: “More than 500 people braved frigid temperatures and gusty winds to march from the Cathedral to the Minnesota State Capitol for International Workers’ Day. The marchers united around demands to stop the attacks on immigrants, workers and unions that are coming from the state Legislature.

“Colombian trade unionist Gerardo Cajamarca of SEIU Local 26 led off the Capitol rally by strongly condemning the free trade agreements that the U.S. government is trying to impose with Colombia, Panama and south Korea. Phyllis Walker, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3800, condemned the state Legislature’s attacks on public sector workers and the FBI raids and attacks on anti-war activists in Minnesota.”

Thousands marched along Broadway from 11th Street to First Street in LOS ANGELES on May 1 demanding immigrant and worker rights. Participants included community and anti-war organizations and unions, many organized by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. The mobilization was divided into two marches — the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition organized one and the Southern California Immigration Coalition called the other. The FRIC has engaged in legislative and get-out-the-vote campaigns with some marches and press conferences leading up to May 1.

The SCIC has increased its community activism since 2010 and has helped to build organizations amongst targeted immigrant communities, exposing police killings and harassment of immigrants. Its actions successfully changed police policy regarding impounding cars, policies that had harmed mostly Black, Latino/a and immigrant communities. The SCIC organized the largest contingent with many buses and vehicles traveling to Arizona to protest SB1070 last year.

The SCIC is made up of rank-and-file members of some of the largest unions in Southern California, including the Latino Caucus of SEIU Local 721. The SCIC-led march included the largest teachers union in Los Angeles, United Teachers of Los Angeles. Unión del Barrio, the International Action Center and the Community Service Organization headed security for the march.

Other participants included BAYAN USA; Hermandad Mexicana TransNacional; MAPA; CISPES-LA, ALBA USA; Alianza Latinoamericana por los Derechos del Inmigrante; Anti-Racist Action/LA; Asians 4 Jericho & Mumia Abu-Jamal; the Association of Raza Educators; the Bus Riders Union; Al-Awda; Workers World Party; School of the Americas Watch, L.A.; Sí Se Puede Asociación de Padres; the Simon Bolivar Los Angeles Association; Somos Raza and the Southeast Asian Network.

HOUSTONresidents came out in droves to celebrate May Day. Led by Aztec dancers and followed by immigrants with spinal cord injuries — the Living Hope Wheelchair Association — trade unionists, immigrant and progressive groups such as Justice for Palestinians, Familias Inmigrantes y Estudiantes en Lucha, and hundreds of families marched together under the clear blue skies to demand an end to the attacks on all working people.

Organized by Houston Unido, a local grassroots immigrant rights coalition made up of two dozen organizations, the march attracted activists of all stripes, including immigrants from Central and South America, anarchists, communists and students as well as some mainstream Democrats. The Green Party spoke, as did the Council on American Islamic Relations. The Houston Peace Council handed out leaflets for the June 4 opening of an exhibit featuring art by Antonio Guerrero, one of the Cuban Five political prisoners. Spirits were high when Teodoro Aguiluz, director of the Central American Resource Center, told the crowd: “We are not criminals, we are not illegal. It is the bosses getting rich off our work that are the criminals!”

A moment of silence was held at the beginning of the rally to remember those who have died while attempting to get to the U.S., including those traveling across Mexico from Central America and those crossing the U.S./Mexico border. Then a tribute was given to Tim O’Brien, a local activist involved in fighting sweatshops and for free trade at the University of Houston as well as an organizer against executions in Texas. O’Brien died on April 26. His spouse, 5-year-old daughter and sister accepted a framed, color poster for the march, with a dedication written to them from Houston Unido.

The spirit of the day was evident in the student contingents of DREAMers — students fighting for legalization and the right to finish their education. The Council for Minority Student Affairs came from College Station, Texas, home of Texas A&M University; the North Texas Dream Team came from Dallas; and the OK Dream Act came from Tulsa, Okla. The students were the loudest and most exuberant contingent celebrating May Day.

Some 1,000 people attended the 125th Anniversary May Day events in PROVIDENCE, R.I. Five hundred mainly immigrant marchers marched from Olneyville, a working-class neighborhood and home to many immigrant peoples. Mobilized by Inmigrantes en Acción, the Olneyville Neighborhood Association and Fuerza Laboral, the marchers were joined by a delegation of the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades led by District Council 11 representative Scott Duhammel, who is also secretary-treasurer of the Rhode Island Building Trades Council.

They marched to the Dexter Parade Grounds, where a multinational throng of working-class peoples gathered under giant banners calling for social and economic rights for working and oppressed peoples.

The festival — an afternoon of speeches, food and music — took place in the shadow of the giant Cranston Street Armory. It is one of hundreds of armories that the U.S. ruling class ordered to be built nationwide in an attempt to contain the growing working-class populations after a railroad strike in 1877 and the mass marches and strike of May 1, 1886.

The first people to take the stage were Native American brothers of the Eastern Medicine Drum. Joe Buchanan, an African-American member of the Rhode Island Unemployed Council, reminded everyone that enslaved Africans are part of U.S. working-class history, and that the unpaid labor of millions of Africans produced trillions in profits and capital for plantation owners, the banks and the merchant class. He drew thunderous applause when he said, “We have to unite ... Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and poor whites to fight the ‘K.K.K.’ — Killer Kut-back Kapitalism.”

About a thousand people gathered in downtown TUCSON, ARIZ., for May Day. The rally was chaired by youth and consisted almost entirely of young speakers, who focused on the attacks on education and defense of the Tucson students who have come under attack for taking over a school board meeting in defense of their right to an education.

On March 21 in Douglas, Ariz., on the border with Mexico, Border Patrol agents fired three bullets into the back of 19-year-old U.S. resident Carlos Lamadrid, killing him. Members of the Lamadrid family gave a powerful and emotional presentation demanding justice regarding this racist slaughter.

More than 2,000 immigrant families and workers as well as union delegations and supporters came out and marched in immigrant communities in Massachusetts near BOSTONon May Day. Demonstrators gathered in EVERETTand in EAST BOSTON, and then marched to City Hall in CHELSEAfor a united rally. Union delegations included Boston School Bus Drivers, Steelworkers Local 8751; UNITE-HERE; the Service Employees union; and the Food and Commercial Workers union. Yessinia Alfaro and other leaders from Chelsea Collaborative rallied the marchers from the school bus drivers’ sound truck as the march entered the rally site.

The distributions of Workers World newspaper and of a WW article in English and Spanish calling for “Hands Off ILWU Local 10” were well received. Many protesters signed petitions calling for a lawsuit against Local 10 to be dropped. Local 10 workers shut down the ports of San Francisco and Oakland, Calif., on April 4 in solidarity with Wisconsin’s embattled workers.

Thousands in SEATTLEtook part in a 2.7-mile May Day march featuring a broad array of unions and other working-class and community groups. It was sponsored by El Comite and the May 1st Action Coalition. There were actions along the march route in support of hotel workers, represented by UNITE HERE, and against Chase Bank for ripping off the working class. There were at least four other marches in towns across Washington state.

Bill Bateman, Ellie Dorritie, Dianne Mathiowetz, Jim McMahan, Frank Neisser, John Parker, Gloria Rubac, Susan Schnur and Paul Teitelbaum contributed to this article.