Vol. 72/No. 14      April 7, 2008

“My coworkers and I are utilizing our union bulletin board to share information about the demonstrations, to open a discussion around immigrant rights, and encourage everyone to take off work and hit the streets on May Day,” Jessie Hastings, a grocery store worker and Young Socialist member in Seattle, told the Militant.

May Day actions have been called in many U.S. cities. These include Boston; Chicago; Houston; Los Angeles; Miami; New York; San Francisco; San Jose, California; Seattle; Twin Cities; and Washington, D.C.

This movement began in 2006, when Congress was considering a bill that would criminalize undocumented immigrants who live and work in the United States and those who aid them.

In response some 2 million workers exploded into politics on May Day of that year. They carried out a one-day nationwide political strike—the first-ever in U.S. history. They organized rallies in over 140 cities and towns to demand legalization for all immigrants. The anti-immigrant bill went down to defeat.

That action was the first step toward reclaiming May Day as a workers’ holiday. Last year, half a million workers poured into the streets again on May 1.

This year in several cities struggles are fueling interest and determination among workers to demonstrate their strength to the employing class on May 1. This is the case in Los Angeles, where 138 workers are fighting government efforts to deport them (see above), as well as in Chicago, and in the Twin Cities.

In the Twin Cities, meat packers from Dakota Premium Foods were among the 30 people who met March 18 to plan a May 1 march and rally in St. Paul.

In New York, representatives of a dozen different organizations met March 20 at the Bayanihan Filipino Community Center in Woodside, Queens, to build a rally and march from Union Square in New York City and another action in Hempstead, Long Island.

The Chicago May Day action has been set for noon. About 30 representatives from a wide range of organizations met March 18 at the United Electrical Workers hall in Chicago to build the action. They called a “Unity Assembly” on April 5 to bring together all the forces in the area building May 1.

That same evening in Houston, 30 workers gathered at a community center on the southwest side of town to build the May 1 action there.

“Many are talking about voting in 2008, but we are going to vote with our feet on May Day,” Cesar Espinosa from the Central American Resource Center (Crecen), an organization for Central American immigrants, told the meeting.
 
 
Related articles:
Workers in Chicago: ‘All out on May Day!’
Wheatland Tube workers fight no-match firings
Inside the ring and out, Van Nuys workers fight effort to deport them  
 
 
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