May Day Union Square: ‘Legalization & jobs for all workers!’

May Day at Union Square was a stunning sight as thousands poured into the park to send a resounding message of repudiation against the recently passed SB1071 law in Arizona. They demanded legalization for the undocumented as well as jobs, housing, education and social services for all.

Union Square has been the site of previous May Day rallies. This year a program of speakers and revolutionary rappers was followed by a two-mile march downtown to Federal Plaza. Their ranks grew along the way as they chanted “Boycott Arizona!” and “Si se puede!” (Yes, we can!).

May 1 organizer Teresa Gutierrez (right). WW photo: Deirdre Griswold

People of all nationalities who crowded the sidewalks of lower Broadway were clearly friendly to the march. As they read the signs and heard the chants, some joined in while others gave peace signs and thumbs up.

When the last of the huge crowd was finally able to squeeze into Federal Plaza for a second rally, it was possible to put a number on the demonstration: 25,000 angry but hopeful people had come out to demand legalization for all undocumented workers and their families and to denounce the bill for “immigration reform” being readied by Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat.

This bill would make “securing the border” its top priority and would force all workers to carry a biometric identity card to prove their citizenship status to their bosses.

Eight out of every 10 marchers appeared to represent Latin American and Caribbean communities, but there were also significant contingents of Filipinos, South Asians, Africans and Pacific islanders.

Charles Jenkins of the Transport Workers. WW photo: Deirdre Griswold

In addition, African Americans, who were well represented among the speakers, emphasized the great importance of Black-Brown unity against racism and discrimination.

This was the fifth May Day action to be called by the May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights, which formed in New York after the tremendous movement of immigrant workers across the country began in the spring of 2006. Demonstrations and what amounted to a general strike on May 1, 2006, had tied up whole cities, especially in the West and Southwest, in opposition to the reactionary Sensenbrenner bill.

Several speakers at this year’s May Day demonstration represented workers in large unions — Charles Jenkins of the Transport Workers, Clarence Thomas of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Mike Gimbel of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Brenda Stokely of the Million Worker March Movement co-chaired the rally. They all challenged the labor movement as a whole to take a clear stand supporting immigrant rights.

Bilingual Hip-hop artists rouse the crowd

Rebel Diaz WW photo: Deirdre Griswold

At the Union Square rally several well-known Hip-hop artists, including Rebel Diaz, rapped in defiance of repressive authority. Their cultural performances in English and Spanish, interspersed with a broad collection of speakers, added both emotion and revolutionary politics to the program.

Large contingents came from the Bronx, Queens and Washington Heights in upper Manhattan. Day laborers, whose right to work is under serious threat, came in buses and vans from Long Island and New Jersey. Organizations that mobilized included Vamos Unidos, Desis Rising Up and Moving, Committee to Support the Struggle of the Haitian People, Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment and several Ecuadorean groups. A spirited Puerto Rican and Honduran delegation moved the crowd.

WW photo: Monica Moorehead

Vicky Palaez, a popular columnist from El Diario/La Prensa, addressed the crowd amid many cheers. A young Mexican girl bravely spoke of how her father had been torn away from his family.

Commenting on arrests that happened that very day in Jackson Heights, Queens, May 1 Coalition spokesperson Teresa Gutierrez said: “This shows that it is not just enough to repudiate the Arizona legislation. Mayor Bloomberg has even done that at the same time that the police carry out terror against day laborers and street vendors in New York. This is why the May Day marches around the country were so important, as it shows the movement is not going away but is building.”

WW photo: Deirdre Griswold

Immigrant rights activist Isabel Garcia in Tucson, Ariz., spoke to the second rally by telephone. Cheers went up as she reported that thousands had demonstrated there, too, despite the terror tactics of Homeland Security and its immigration arm, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The protest also stressed that the overall economic crisis now devastating the working class is what is driving right-wing politicians and government repression. Many speakers pointed out how the bosses and their political lackeys are fueling a hate campaign in order to prevent workers from uniting and fighting for jobs, housing, health care and education.

WW photo: John Catalinotto

Larry Holmes of the Bail Out the People Movement, which helped build the May Day protest, spoke about doing everything possible to respond to the racist attack in Arizona, including exploring an action on June 19, an important date in the struggle against slavery known also as “Juneteenth.” Holmes also urged those present to be in Washington on May 8 for a national march for jobs.

Bernadette Ellorin of the Filipino organization BAYAN-USA and a co-coordinator of the May 1 Coalition, closed the Federal Plaza rally by saying that “the solution for the anti-immigrant, anti-worker climate is for all of us to build the broadest anti-imperialist working class movement in the very belly of the beast.”

Workers World Party members helped out in many aspects of the organizing for the May 1 protest and took responsibility for tasks on the day.

Email: dgriswold@workers.org