May Day 2008
Put forth on May 1, 2008 by XicanoPwr
Posted in Immigration
May Day, better known as International Workers’ Day, has approached us once again. May Day began in America at the time we once were working more than 8 hour shifts and employers did not care for the safety of their workers. That was then, now, many associate May Day as an immigrant event. Yet, throughout the world, people are celebrating this day.
The past two years, I live blogged the May Day events that occurred throughout the US. If there is a reason many feel May Day is an immigrant event, it probably had to do with the events that occurred on those days. In 2006, it was the year of Great American Boycott of 2006, known in Spanish as El Gran Paro Americano. It was estimated over a million people participated in the demonstrations. But lets not forget the what occurred last year.
Fearing that the same thing would occur, the police state decided to be prepared the corporate media played down the events that occurred throughout the US. But who can forget the tragic events that occurred in Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park?
This year, the news media has basically declared May Day over because the turnout for the May Day marches will be much smaller to their liking to report it. Maybe if they were actually reporting about America’s ugly underbelly that is deep-seated with undertones of class and ethnic conflict instead of covering the typical latest celebrity scandal, they would realize that the organizers of the May Day protests have stepped up their efforts.
In San Francisco, an antiwar march by the Bay Area International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) plan to shut down all 29 ports on the U.S. West Coast in protest against the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. They will also take up demands for immigrant rights. Supporters of the ILWU should meet in San Francisco at Mason and Beach (in Fishersmans’ Wharf) at 10:30 am on May Day. A community group has called a noon rally, and immigrant rights activists are building for a 2 p.m. rally at Dolores Park and a march to City Hall under the theme, “Workers United Without Borders,” and calling for amnesty for undocumented workers. For more details click here
In Southern California activists are also mobilizing. In San Diego, an immigrant rights march starting at City College will call for legalization for all, an end to raids and deportations, and the right to migrate for future immigrants.
Up the coast in Seattle, immigrant rights groups will also join an ILWU march in the morning before going to an immigrant rights’ march in the afternoon.
In the Midwest, the Voces de la Frontera and Immigrant Workers Union are organizing marches in support of immigrants’ rights in Milwaukee and Madison. (h/t xoff at Uppity Wisconsin) Milwaukee marchers will assemble at 10:30am, corner of 5th St. & Washington, march to Veterans Park (north of Art Museum). In Madison, the rally will begin at 11:30am. They will march from Brittingham Park to Dane County Building. For more details click here
In Texas, several activist and community groups are organizing for a protest in Austin, Houston, San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley.
In Boston, immigrant and labor rights advocates will hold their at the Boston Common Bandstand, starting at 4 pm. At 5:30 pm the rally participants will march to Copley Square to demonstrate their protest at the government policies against undocumented migrant workers, demanding an end to the raids and deportations and full legalization for all migrant workers and their families.
In Rochester, NY, the Rochester Alliance for Immigrants Rights will be holding their rally at 6pm at the Manhattan Square Park.
In Chicago, a broad array of organizations, including the March 10 Coalition for immigrant rights, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and a wide range of community and religious organizations will kickoff at 10am at Union Park and begin their march to Downtown at noon. They hold their protest rally in Federal Plaza where Mayor Daley will give the first speech.
This year I will be doing something new. I just signed up at CoverItLive which allows me to provide information in real time, instead of constantly updating this post. CoverItLive allows me to interact with you, the readers. Comments will appear instantly instead of waiting for me to approve your message if you happen to be a first time commenter. I know that I will miss something so I hope you will be part of this little experment let us know what is happening in your area.
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Tags: Anti-War, Immigration, May Day, protests | 
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This is the blog of Edmundo "XicanoPwr" Rocha, a social worker, an activist, freelance writer and founder and editor of The Sanctuary. My interests include: immigration reform, critical race theory and it's interaction with equality/inequality and freedom/oppression as they relate to the experiences of people of color in the Americas.
Para Justicia y Libertad is a Latino-centered political blog focusing on the humanistic perspective of politics, history, and society as they relate to the Latina/o community throughout Texas and the United States.
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Don’t forget Massachusetts, XP. There’s a big march on the outskirts of Boston here. Two processions are leaving from the immigrant heavy areas of East Boston and Everett and ending up in Chelsea, Massachusetts, where there will be a big rally. Thousands are expected to show up.
i just don’t know how they will fix this immigration thing
The City of L.A. is in danger of having to file bankruptcy.
This strike cannot kill the city. But there is a point where the workers’ right and the city’s needs meet.
Remember, all but TWO of the companies that signed with Chavez’s Farmworker’s Union went bankrupt.
The City of L.A. is not a private company and, as a government, has the power to tax. However, it becomes more and more obvious where that tax money comes from in circumstances like these.
:0
Don’t Call This Country America
Speak your mind
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