May Day 2011

Today is May Day, which since 1890 has been a day to celebrate the international labor movement and commemorate the infamous Haymarket Massacre, when the Chicago police killed numerous demonstrators during a general strike (fighting for an eight-hour work day) in 1886. Around the world today people will be marching, singing, shouting, and waving placards in the streets of their towns and cities. About an hour ago Kath stopped in to pick up the proofs that arrived here from our printer, en route to Seattle's celebration on this second amazingly consecutive day of sunshine.

This year's May Day has special significance in the US, thanks to the egregious attacks on workers rights underway in numerous states, most famously in Wisconsin by notorious governor Scott Walker. This year's theme, here in the US is one that gladdens my heart: the alliance between organized labor and immigrants. These two groups have been traditionally pitted against one another. More recently, organized labor has begun to see the light-- begun to understand and acknowledge that workers and immigrants have shared, common interests at stake. And so, as Allison Kilkenny notes in the Nation, this year

The San Jose May 1 Coalition is hosting a march for immigration rights, while the protests of Governor Scott Walker continue in Wisconsin. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will speak at Milwaukee’s May Day march today in one of more than 100 marches and rallies that will be held across the country.

The AFL-CIO is live-blogging May Day actions and also  tweeting updates under the hashtag #MayDay. In a written statement, the union’s blog reads: “These rallies and marches will show workers’ rights and immigrant rights are connected.”

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, founder and executive director of Voces de la Frontera, says that there is now “an unprecedented alliance” between labor and immigrant rights communities in the wake of Walker’s bill that eliminate bargaining rights for public workers.  “We want to send a message to corporate America, politicians and others that working people will not be divided,” she says.

VDLF’s website features a video in Spanish advertising the Wisconsin solidarity May 1 march.

Sheila Cochran, secretary-treasurer of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, AFL-CIO, and its chief operating officers tells the Journal Sentinel that instead of blaming immigrants for lack of employment opportunities, workers should hold their employers accountable for encouraging a race to the bottom in a frenzy to maximize profits. Cochran says it’s in labor’s interest to see comprehensive immigration reform so wages and working standards aren’t driven down further.

Internationally, May Day protests are garnering much attention. Eight people were arrested during a protest in Brighton, and massive marches occurred in Russia and Turkey. More than 3,000 blue-collar workers took to the streets of Taipei for their May Day protest over low incomes, long hours, and the widening wealth gap, and in Kuala Lumpur 20 protesters were arrested for failing to disperse from an “illegal assembly.”

May Day

May Day (aka International Workers' Day), for those who aren't historically minded, has since 1890 been a day to celebrate the international labor movement and commemorate the infamous Haymarket Massacre, when the Chicago police killed numerous demonstrators during a general strike (fighting for an eight-hour work day) in 1886. And for me, personally, it's the 112th anniversary of the birth my extraordinary grandmother, Helen Jannusch Timmel.

On this May Day, The Los Angeles Times reports that dockworkers at 29 ports up and down the West Coast of the United States have stopped work for the day to protest the US's ongoing war against Iraq.

I'm also heartened to see the Bangor Daily News's report that a Maine jury has refused to find six protesters arrested for civil disobedience guilty of criminal trespass. No one who regularly reads this blog will be at all surprised to hear that I found the following absolutely fascinating:

Brendan Trainer, assistant district attorney for Penobscot County, prosecuted the case. He referred questions to District Attorney R. Christopher Almy.

“I think that the public in Maine is so disgusted with the war in Iraq that they demonstrated their disgust with this verdict,” said Almy, a Democrat. “And, that they are upset with [Sen. Olympia] Snowe and Collins for getting us involved in this debacle.”

State law, he said, does not allow the prosecution to appeal a not guilty verdict.

Almy, who praised Trainer’s presentation of the case, said the verdict most likely would affect whether his office prosecutes protesters arrested in the Federal Building in the future.

“At this point,” Almy said, “we’re going to have to consider the precedent that this verdict sets and we may very well have to consider giving these cases to the U.S. attorney to prosecute because this state court case may preclude successful future prosecutions.

“Also, I would like to say that Snowe and Collins got us involved in this mismanaged war and it may be up to them to persuade the U.S. attorney to take on these cases,” he concluded.

When informed of the verdict, Jen Burita, a spokeswoman for Collins, said Wednesday, “We are pleased that the matter has been resolved.”

U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby, who is based in Portland, said she would have to research whether her office had jurisdiction to prosecute people arrested in the federal building in Bangor. Many years ago, she said, protesters arrested at the Federal Building in Portland were prosecuted in federal court.

A woman juror who refused to be identified talked to the defendants on the courthouse steps after the verdict. She said that the war really did not factor into the verdict.

The juror said that the state did not meet its burden of proof on the first element needed to prove them guilty of criminal trespass - whether the protesters were in the Federal Building knowing they were not licensed or privileged to be there.

“I testified that I felt we had an obligation to be there,” Freeman said, when asked if he felt he had a right to be in the Federal Building after he had been told to leave.

He speculated that his acquittal and that of his co-defendants would increase the number of protests against the war.

Happy May Day to us all!

ETA: There is, as I write this, a march supporting Latino workers, in progress. I can hear more than one helicopter, monitoring it (probably out of concern for rush hour traffic than in any real interest in the march itself). The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has an article noting some of the day's activist events.