May Day in Los Angeles, 2005

On April 30th, 2005, thousands of people marched in a Los Angeles May Day celebration organized by MIWON (Multi-Ethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing Network). The worker’s march and rally was one of the largest May Day events in the United States, and the majority of those who participated were Latinos. A variety of organizations and groups were involved, including labor unions and student groups. LA’s diversity was well represented by the presence of Chicano, Mexicano, Korean, and Filipino workers. Hundreds of union members from Justice For Janitors/SEIU Local 1877 were involved, representing immigrant workers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America. Many dozens of demonstrators marched with the flag of the United Farm Workers, honoring those who toil in California’s agricultural fields. The thousands marched along Broadway, a downtown LA street that is a center for immigrant life and work, and popular chants were raised against the Iraq war, cuts in social services, and attacks upon immigrant workers. It was a huge and militant march that indicates a revitalization of the labor movement in the US, thanks to the organization and political militancy of immigrant workers. Click here to see more photos from LA's May Day parade.

International Workers Day, or May Day, began in the US as part of the struggle demanding an eight-hour workday and better working conditions. In 1886 labor unions pushed for an eight-hour day by calling for a general strike on May 1st, in Chicago. Working conditions were miserable, with most laborers toiling for 6 days a week, twelve hours a day, without breaks or benefits of any kind. At a mass demonstration for the eight-hour day at Chicago’s Haymarket Square, someone set off a bomb that killed several policemen. Afterwards, officials arrested eight men and charged them with murdering the police officers. Three of the labor leaders were eventually hanged. The executions and the repression of the labor movement in Chicago set off protests and demonstrations around the world. In 1889, the International Socialist Congress meeting in Paris, France, declared May 1st as International Workers Day, and since that time workers all over the world have rallied on May Day.