May Day Marches in U.S. Call for Immigrant Rights

by S.A. reporters / May 2009

On May 1, demonstrations took place in at least a hundred communities around the United States—often combining the themes of immigrant rights with broader working-class demands related to the economic crisis. One of the largest turnouts, as in past years, was in Los Angeles, where Indymedia reports that close to 5000 took part in at least five different marches throughout the city.

A Socialist Action member in Chicago, who was active in building the May 1 events there, reports: "Around 3000 people marched to commemorate May Day in the Windy City. The slogan of the march was ‘Without legalization there can be no equal labor rights.’

“Though crowds were smaller than in previous years, given hype surrounding the swine flu, a lack of mobilization by both the Democratic Party and the Catholic Church, and even rainy weather, a committed and energetic group of youth, trade unionists, Asian immigrants, pro-Palestine activists, LGBT, and immigrant workers took to the streets, chanting, ‘Legalization for all’ and ‘Listen up Obama, we are in the struggle!‘

“One immigrant marcher said, ‘A public health crisis is supposed to keep us from marching? Immigrant workers are always in a state of crisis, and therefore always in the struggle.’ Local rallies, such as the one at a train station in Glen Ellyn put on by the Comité Solidaridad Dupage, helped rally supporters in the west suburbs.“

From San Francisco, Socialist Action members report: "Close to 1000 participated in a march and rallies here in an intermittent rain. Speakers at the Dolores Park assembly point included two members of the Board of Supervisors and Tim Paulson, executive director of the Labor Council. The ILWU had a speaker, and the longshore union’s drill team participated in the march. The great majority of marchers were young Latinos, including a group from nearby Mission High School. A few dozen older Latino workers also joined in.

"The crowd responded best to the most radical-sounding speakers, without distinction to politics. The two Democratic Party supervisors, for example, received loud applause when they read off the rally's main demands, which ranged from amnesty and legalization to opposition to the ICE raids and U.S. wars.

“A simultaneous march of over 1500 took place in Oakland and Berkeley, Calif." From our correspondent in Tucson, Ariz.: "About 700 people, mostly Latin@ youth, came out for the rally and march. This was a big drop-off from previous marches (between 5000 and 10,000 marched on May Day 2007, and about 1500 last year).

“As one May Day supporter commented, ‘It may have been smaller, but we kept the tradition alive.’ Activists in the May 1 Coalition, which is supported by some 40 community and labor organizations, are determined to keep it alive in 2010 as well.

"The police refused to keep hate-mongering anti-immigrant demonstrators (all 10 of them) separated from the marchers. But troublesome incidents were avoided as marchers arrived at Armory Park for a fiesta of music and dance, thanks to the efforts of dozens of May 1 marshals.

"The morning rally was chaired by Isabel Garcia, head of Derechos Humanos. She told the mostly young audience about the origin of May Day as an international working-class day of struggle, which began with the fight for the eight-hour day by immigrant workers in the U.S. in the 1880s.

“Today, she stressed, we must not give up the demand for legalization of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants working in this country.

"Among the rally speakers was Araceli Torres-Ruiz, one of the Panda Express defendants. She and two other defendants, Marlen Moreno-Peralta and Omar Espino-Lara, face upcoming hearings before an immigration judge on their petition to remain here with their families and not be deported. The participation of organized labor was bigger this year than in past May Day events.

In Minneapolis, organizers were forced to hold an emergency national call-in campaign after they were denied permits for the May 1 march and rally. Although the city council passed a unanimous resolution in support of the action, authorities still refused the permits. Finally, the chief of police and mayor’s office agreed to allow the march to proceed.

Socialist Action was active in organizing the event. Our reporters write that over 500 “marched right through the Latino heart of Minneapolis,” but the permit dispute, swine flu rumors, and competing events apparently served to limit the numbers.

The primary slogan was “United since 1886 on International Workers’ Day.” Demands included, “Stop the raids and deportations” and “Unconditional legalization for all.”

May Day in Seoul

May Day events also took place throughout the world this year, from Cuba to Turkey to the Philippines. In some countries, the marches were buoyed in numbers by workers buffeted by the economic crisis, and the actions took the form of protest demonstrations. Over a million marched in France in actions sponsored by the country’s eight major union federations. Two weeks earlier, on March 19, 1.2 million had turned out to demand that the government do more to combat the economic crisis.

Our Socialist Action correspondent in Seoul, Korea, writes that the May 1 action there brought out about 20,000 people, with many chanting anti-government slogans. (Korea has been hard hit by the economic downturn.) When demonstrators attempted to march or take the train to the city center, police brutally attacked them—trapping thousands in the subway stations.

He reports that earlier in the day, since police had blocked political activity in the city center, "it took at least 30 minutes by subway to get to the protest area in Yeoiudo Park, near the National Assembly. The train was packed with demonstrators from trade unions and student groups. Many families with children took part. Quite a few had ‘No FTA’ banners (re: the pending Free Trade Agreement with the United States). Other protest issues included the plan to privatize parts of the National Health Insurance and evictions from housing.

"The largest groups were the trade unions, highly disciplined, all wearing the same vests, sitting together in sections. The contingents of university students were very energetic; many wore bandanas or carried flags protesting high tuition fees.

"I talked to a group of South Korean soldiers who had a petition protesting police brutality and the denial of free speech. They had pictures from last year’s May Day in the city center, with South Korean soldiers being beaten by police. The soldiers had formed a barrier to protect peaceful demonstrators from the police."