Printer-friendly version
By Nadin Abbott (excerpt from Nadin Abbott's blog)
May 1, 2013 (San Diego)– Hundreds of Union Members and supporters came out today to the streets of San Diego to march for both labor right and immigrant rights. Pedro Rios of the Friends Committee (from El Cajon) said that “May Day is a day we are reclaiming for our community.”
Marches started in 2006 “when there were macro demonstrations around the country,” including San Diego. At the national level, this is about Immigrant Rights, which are connected to labor rights. May Day also celebrates the events of the Haymarket on May 1st, 1886 when a bomb went off at the Haymarket in Chicago, killing police officers and strikers alike.
Labor leaders, immigrants themselves, were hauled before the court and were found guilty of setting this bomb off. They received the death penalty and ironically became a symbol for workers around the world. This is why May Day is International Labor day.
Around the world this is a holiday. In Mexico, where I grew up, the eight martyrs were remembered, but in the United States May Day was just another day. We have lost this day. So now, that we are seeing it recovered, it is striking. You might ask why? The workers were demanding a right most Americans workers take for granted. the eight hour work day.
Read the full bog entry here: http://nadinabbottblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/hundreds-march-on-mayday-in-san-diego/
Comments
May Day has none to do with the Communist Party
Unless, all snark aside, Chicago Illinois in 1886 was in the USSR....then perhaps May Day would be a communist holiday
Given that the USSR was not even around, even in anybody's imagination, and that Illinois became a State on August 26, 1818... I think we have firmly established it has nothing to do with any Comunist party. The USRR would come to be in 1917.
That the Communist Party in the USSR adopted it, with almost every other country around the world, communist or capitalist, it makes no difference...and the Cold War is over. A few countries don't...officially, including the country of origin, has little to do with the Communist Party and all to do with American Labor history.
it is a historic remembrance, of workers marching peacefully to get a right you might not realize people died for, the eight hour day. And they were immigrants too. Many of them were Irish and Jews, and Italians and Germans, who had to fight, and die, for the eight hour day.
As to people not having rights, there are basic rights recognized to each person in the US whether they are citizens or not. They are enshrined in the Constitution and guaranteed in the Bill of Rights and the 13th and 14th ammendments.
The National Labor Relations Act of 1932 also guarantees the basic rights of workers to organize. Has it lost some teeth? Yes...but there you have it. Some of those teeth were lost with the 1947 Taft Hartley Act...
And of course there is the International Law, of which the US is a signatory state, that guarantee essential rights.
and let's face facts, how exactly are we going to physically deport 11 million people? And quelle surprise, a good percentage are Europeans, with a very small percentage of Chinese.
Fact is, immigration reform is needed, for logistical reasons, if nothing else. And Sir, unless you are a descendant of the First Americans, we are all immigrants.
Nadin Abbott.
Ed for clarity.
May Day?
Illegal immigrants have NO rights. What is it about the word "illegal" that you all do not understand? And a demonstration on May Day? Why choose the special day of the Communist Party to stage your march?