Boston May Day 2010 Condemns Arizona Bill Calls for Immigrant Workers’ Rights

BOSTON/Boston Common - About 500 people rallied on the Boston Common at noon Saturday to commemorate May 1st International Worker’s Day 2010. For the fifth year since the Boston May Day Coalition formed in 2006 the rally and subsequent march brought together a variety of students workers and other activists. Represented groups included the ANSWER Coalition the Student Immigrant Movement the Worcester Immigrant Coalition United for Justice with Peace and the Boston Anti-Authoritarian Movement (BAAM) among many others. The Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society organized an anti-authoritarian anti-capitalist feeder march that started in the North End at 11 a.m. and joined the Common rally at noon. The group introduced a musical and theatrical presence into the gathering and post-rally march. The rally began with a special performance by members of the Glover VT - based Bread and Puppet Theater. With life-sized cardboard cutouts of the eight victims they presented the story of May Day’s origination that of “The Haymarket Martyrs ” a group of eight Chicago immigrant workers hanged in 1886 for organizing for the eight-hour work day. This year’s May Day event carried a sober tone as it came just a week after Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed SB1070 a state bill that cracks down on illegal immigration. Speakers and marchers heavily addressed the legislation. Dorothea Manuela of the Boston May Day Committee named the theme of the gathering as “Unity Between Immigrants’ Rights Movements and Labor Movements.” “The labor unions have to do the job that they have been charged with and that is to organize the unorganized!” Manuela said. With chants of “Si se puede ” Manuela introduced first speaker Miguel Moreno Uruguayan immigrant and Fitchburg resident for whom she served as an English interpreter. “We are human beings ” said Moreno. “We’re not illegal. We’re not criminals and that’s why we have to fight to defeat the Arizona SB bill 1070.” Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner also criticized the Arizona legislation as an example of racism towards immigrants in America. “The focus is on people of color coming into the country in greater numbers ” Turner said. “We have to stand together as a people and say ‘No!’ We will not let you abuse any people in this country or the world.” Turner called for “a movement in this country that links us together to fight racism militarism and economic exploitation” and ended by saying “This country has a great potential to rise above the evil that it has been practicing over the past 400 years.” “Rebel Journalist” John Ross a Mexico City journalist recounted how May Day began in the United States with the “Haymarket Martyrs ” and noted that the holiday is not officially recognized here. “United States does not mark May 1st as International Workers’ Day although the rest of the world does ” Ross said. “Today is Law Day honoring police officers in a country where this holiday which is as American as apple pie as American as taco con salsa as American as polish sausage as Americans we have had this holiday obliterated on our calendar.” Elizabeth Ponce a member of the Student Immigrant Movement wore a red graduation gown and recounted her struggles as a Peruvian immigrant high school student in the United States denied the right to financial aid for college due to her lack of a Social Security number. “I’m undocumented not illegal and I’m definitely not scared to say it!” Ponce announced. “In the end I got into all seven [colleges that I applied to] but I couldn’t go because of a nine-digit number that meant nothing to me more than my SAT scores. Now I know it matters more than all of my hard work in the last seven years of my education here.” Jennifer Zaldana a speaker from the ANSWER Coalition and the Party of Socialism and Liberation (PSL) presented her views on U.S. involvement in overseas conflicts. “The people of the countries that United States wages wars upon are seen as uncivilized human beings as second-class citizens and the poor and working-class are seen in the same way right here in the United States ” Zaldana said. “And just as it is mistaken to send our sons and daughters our babies to fight this unnecessary fight in Afghanistan it is unfair for the people of the U.S. to feel confined in their own neighborhoods trapped within the borders of our own cities.” From the labor side Mike Upton strike captain and member of UFCW Local 791 spoke about the importance of his union’s strike. “When you stand there and you want a voice you say ‘how can I fight corporate America’? You people have a voice and the louder you scream the more they hear!” Upton said. “I am living testimony to this. The corporation that I am fighting is called Supervalue. 300 people took on a $44 billion a year corporation. And you know what we did? We brought them to their knees.” After the rally the march from the Common began at 1 p.m. going through Downtown Crossing and Government Center with a stop at the JFK Federal Building and making a final 2 p.m. stop at the Armed Forces Career Center on Tremont Street. During the march Zaldana said of the recent legislation: “It is a complete form of apartheid that is going on and if it can happen in Arizona it can happen here as well and that’s a very scary thought.” Boston May Day Committee organizer Sergio Reyes an immigrants’ rights activist and former political prisoner under the Chilean Pinochet dictatorship spoke about the particular importance of this year’s May Day observance. “The International Workers’ Day is something that workers – progressive workers that is – have attempted to celebrate commemorate in the United States ” Reyes said. “And it actually was energized in the year 2006 by the immigrant workers that came out in Boston in the streets. Now immigrant workers for the last four years since 2006 have been under constant attack but the attack actually escalated this year with the passing of the Arizona anti-immigrant racist law. I am so glad to see so many people here that are not necessarily immigrants who are actually signing up with immigrant workers because that’s the most fitting way to honor those who lost their lives for the rights of workers. When we have the unity of all workers whether we are immigrants or not. I think that this is why this is so important this year 2010.” The March from the Common ended with a “die-in” action on Tremont Street. Several people donned black trash bags and lay on the ground to symbolize immigrant deaths in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers while Bread and Puppet members sang. After the march some members of the group went on to join the May Day celebrations simultaneously taking place in Chelsea Everett and East Boston. Photos by Diana Mai. Bookmark/Search this post with: Delicious Digg StumbleUpon Reddit Newsvine Facebook Google Yahoo Technorati