The U.S. capitalists have done everything they can to get rid of the observance of May Day, an international workers holiday celebrated around the world that originated in the 19th-century U.S. labor movement's fight for the eight-hour day. It is a sign of the changing face of working-class politics in the United States that workers from Latin America, in the words of a Spanish-language daily newspaper headline, have rescued May Day.

In recent protest actions in California and Minnesota, hundreds of immigrant rights supporters expressed fierce opposition to moves by state governments to deny a drivers license to applicants who cannot show proof of legal residency. In face of the brutality of the capitalist rulers and their stepped-up harassment of immigrants through raids and deportation by the hated Immigration and Naturalization Service cops, English-only laws, union-busting activities, and attacks by police against people of color, immigrant workers are taking the moral high ground. The self-confident tone of these class brothers and sisters is expressed not only in the growing size and frequency of protest actions but in the strength of statements such as, "We produce the wealth and should get the benefits!" and "We work hard--give us a green card!"

As the U.S. economic boom--which some capitalists bragged was unstoppable--slumps into stagnation, and the speculative frenzy of stock investment contracts, the rulers' assault on our wages, working conditions, and social benefits will deepen. Simultaneously they will reach for every tool to divide us--employed against unemployed; whites against Blacks, Latinos, and Asians; native-born against immigrants. As layoffs mount, the employers and the government that does their bidding, along with the rightists they give the green light to, will try to play on the insecurities of workers and farmers affected by the capitalist crisis. They will work to pit different sections of our class against each other, to weaken and divide the labor movement.

This has been the aim of the bipartisan offensive which the Clinton administration advanced with the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. That legislation built the INS into the largest federal police agency, eliminated constitutional protections in order to speed up deportations, and led to a rise in the number of immigrants arrested and expelled from the country. The same year Clinton issued an executive order barring federal contracts to companies that hire undocumented workers, asserting that "American jobs belong to America's legal workers." The Bush administration is moving to build on these measures, including proposing a "guest worker" law that would protect the bosses' ability to superexploit Mexican workers and shut off avenues to permanent residency.

The militancy of immigrant and other workers organizing unions in slaughterhouses, laundries, and other plants around the country and resisting the brutal conditions the bosses try to impose on them, and the growing boldness of the movement for immigrant rights are signs that the rulers have a problem, however. All workers and farmers should stand shoulder to shoulder with these struggles by immigrant workers that advance the interests and unity of all working people.
 
 
Related articles:
'We produce the wealth! We demand our rights!'
May Day rallies across the world
 
 
 
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