May Day USA
ON 1 May, millions of immigrant workers took to the
streets for their rights, in the largest protest and boycott in the
United States in decades.
The protests were huge: in Los Angeles 500,000 to
1,000,000 demonstrated, in Chicago 400,000 to 600,000, hundreds of
thousands in New York City, 100,000 in Atlanta, 100,000 in San
Francisco, and 75,000 in Denver. In total, protests took place in over
150 cities and across the country.
But the radical new dimension in the situation was
the hundreds of thousands of workers who boycotted work and went on
strike, the first national political strike in recent memory in the US.
In a magnificent demonstration of the enormous power
of the working class, many corporations that rely on immigrant workers
were forced to scale back or close down completely, especially retail
stores, restaurants, meatpacking plants, and construction sites.
In Los Angeles, truckers shut down the country’s
largest shipping port, and an estimated one-third of the city’s small
businesses were shuttered. Half of the stores in the city’s fashion and
garment district were closed.
In Florida, more than half the workers at
construction sites in Miami-Dade County did not show up. In the
meatpacking industry, eight out of 14 Perdue Farms Chicken plants were
shut down and Tyson Foods, the world’s largest meat producer, had about
a dozen of its 100 plants shut down. Cargill Meat Solutions, the
nation’s second-largest beef processor, ‘voluntarily’ closed, giving its
15,000 workers the day off.
Lettuce, tomatoes and grapes went unpicked in fields
in California and Arizona, which contribute more than half the nation’s
produce, as scores of growers let workers take the day off.
Israel Banuelos, 23, and more than 50 of his
colleagues, skipped work, with the grudging acceptance of his employer,
an industrial paint plant in Hollister, California. "We were supposed to
work", Mr Banuelos said, "but we wanted to close down the company. Our
boss didn’t like it money-wise". (New York Times, 2 May)
Young people were at the forefront of this new
movement. Throughout the country, activists organised walkouts in high
schools and colleges. The Associated Press reported that "The impact on
some school systems was significant. In the sprawling Los Angeles
Unified School District, which is 73 percent Hispanic, about 72,000
middle and high school students were absent - roughly one in every
four". (2 May)
Nor were the protests limited to the United States.
In San Diego, immigrant rights groups organised a march to the US-Mexico
border, to meet up with a protest on the other side of the border in
Tijuana. Traffic all along the border was slowed down due to the boycott
and protestors forced some crossings to close.
May Day was born in the United States, on 1 May
1886. For decades, the working class and socialist traditions of May Day
were virtually erased and wiped out, but 120 years later, we have seen
its re-emergence in the United States, now the epicentre of global
capitalism. Rather than some pale imitation of the past, The Great
American Boycott 2006 is the music of the future.
Philip Locker
Boston
MAY DAY 2006 was a truly historic day of strikes,
walkouts, protests and boycotts throughout the United States. It marked
an important step forward for the immigrant rights’ movement. Although
many politicians, non-profit groups and churches that previously
supported immigrant rights’ rallies backed out of the immigrants’ May
Day protests, millions upon millions still demonstrated throughout the
country. Thousands of small businesses shut down, and hundreds of
thousands of workers went on strike.
In Boston, the main immigrant rights’ coalition
pulled out of the May Day actions. The churches, trade union leaders and
politicians backed out, too. The leaders of the previous two immigrant
rallies specifically told people to go to work and school and to ignore
the 1 May National Immigrant Strike and Boycott, and refused to call a
central demonstration downtown.
Given this, Socialist Alternative (CWI in the US)
immediately moved to get a rally permit for the centre of Boston, and
called for an emergency coalition in solidarity with the national
strike. With other activists, we were able to call a rally that was
endorsed by over 25 immigrant, worker and progressive organisations.
Despite a concerted campaign by the ‘liberals’ to
sabotage and censor all mention of our event, our protest was a success.
Around 3,000 rallied on Boston Common, in a spirited demonstration of
support for equal rights for all immigrants.
This demonstration was in marked contrast to
previous immigrant rights’ rallies in Boston. These were overwhelmed
with American flags, and demonstrators were forced to sit through
politician after politician talking about the virtues of the
‘alternative’ anti-worker McCain-Kennedy bill [proposing a
‘guest-worker’ scheme].
But during the May Day rally, the most common image
was that of Che Guevara. The May Day rally unapologetically called for
amnesty for all undocumented workers. Workers’ struggle was stressed by
nearly every speaker.
Hank Gonzalez and Bryan Koulouris
Seattle
THE 1 May rally and march in Seattle was a powerful
expression of strength by the immigrant working class. Thousands of
workers in Seattle and across Washington State participated in job
actions and strikes, with the biggest actions in the agriculture
industry. In addition, thousands of high school and college students
walked out of school.
Organisers place the number of protesters at 30,000,
which mirrors the turnout for 10 April. Following the same route as 10
April the protesters flooded the streets, creating an enormous,
beautiful, snaking sea of people. It was truly an empowering, inspiring
demonstration. These two protests were the largest in Seattle since the
15 February 2003 march against the Iraq war, which also had 30,000
people.
Unfortunately however, the leadership of the 1 May
rally called for a ‘silent protest’, which stood in sharp contrast to
the incredibly energetic and combative atmosphere on 10 April. This was
due to the reformist outlook of the top organising groups.
Overall, the march was peaceful except for two
incidents which reveal a potential polarisation in society between the
immigrants and their supporters, and a racist right-wing reaction. The
first incident involved a lunatic driver who decided to drive his car
into the marchers; fortunately no one was seriously injured. The second
occurrence was the appearance of several neo-Nazis who stood at the foot
of the Federal Building waving a flag with a swastika emblazed upon it.
They were quickly taken into the building by several heavily armed
government agents.
Bryan Watson
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