Good Day to Walk Off Your Job and Join a Demonstration

Long ago and not so far away, in this very country, average everyday folks stood up against their bosses, against the town militias, against the industries that owned their boom towns. They fought and, in several cases, died for the right to workplace regulations. The 40-hour week. The weekend. Child labor laws. Safety regulations. The right to organize a union at all. Those posters you have at work that tell you your rights as a worker. And on and on. While sweatshops still exist here in America, and while laws continue to go unenforced when workers aren't fully versed in their rights, those achievements came because of the organization of labor unions and agitators like Joe Hill, Mother Jones, and tons of other heroes. Today—May Day—is an international holiday celebrating the labor movement, and that's why thousands of people will be walking through town at rush hour, holding up traffic, holding up signs.

Expect a four-mile progression of mostly immigrant workers and the blue-collar citizens who love them. It's nothing new for immigrants (legal and illegal) to be the ones fighting for labor rights in this country. Indeed, they were a huge part of what we'll call the labor movement heyday now about a century ago.

photo courtesy of pdgibson

According to the Times:

May Day marches are planned in several U.S. cities, including Los Angeles and Chicago. Activists with El Comité Pro Reforma Migratoria y Justicia Social (Committee for Immigration Reform and Social Justice), key organizers of the Seattle demonstration, expect about 3,000 participants in the march, scheduled to start at 4 p.m. at Judkins Park in the Central Area, run through the International District onto Fourth Avenue and end at Seattle Center.

Meanwhile, the Minutemen who patrol the borders will be demonstrating...um, against workers rights?...in Yakima and Seattle. A Minutemen representative told the Times, "...Immigration is not a phenomenon of just Southern California or New York. Now it's all over, and with it all the cultural changes that immigrants bring." Maybe someone should clue her into the centuries-old history of immigrants in America, how it was founded by and for immigrants, how the only reason she's here is because of immigrants, how they've always been everywhere in this country, and will continue to emigrate here as long as we have jobs for them, some semblance of respect for human rights, and that good ol' American dream.

(To be fair, the Minutemen probably demonstrating against illegal immigrants, while the immigrants and others will be demonstrating for the right to work safely and fairly.)

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By Kim Ruehl in News on May 1, 2008 8:36 AM

Comments [rss]

Tom

Kim, this is a wonderful and beautiful post. I think about people like my mom, a legal immigrant who works hard yet works for a company that still tries to take advantage of her basic rights as a worker just because the company mostly employs immigrants. Anyway, kudos... well said.

ruffhauser

I guess that depends on what parts of the culture you want to change.

Troy Morris

(To be fair, the Minutemen probably demonstrating against illegal immigrants, while the immigrants and others will be demonstrating for the right to work safely and fairly.)

To be fair, they should really use that distinguisher illegal then. And really, they make it seem like changing culture is a bad thing. It's what this nation is founded upon. People who hate immigrants are really un-American and may as well go back to England.