------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the May 3, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- IMMIGRANT STRUGGLE BRINGS MAY DAY HOME By Gery Armsby New York On May 1, immigrant workers of many, many nationalities will bring a worldwide tradition to this city--the May Day workers' celebration, or International Workers' Day. It's fitting because New York is well known as a U.S. city boasting a huge immigrant population. People from all over the world come here to live and work--and to demonstrate for their rights. A bright red poster advertises this year's May Day events here in 21 different languages. Organizers of the May Day Mobilization for Workers Rights have raised their demands on the poster, the first of which is "Amnesty for all immigrants, present and future." A rally in Union Square in Manhattan will be followed by a march from the garment district to the International Monetary Fund. According to May Day Mobilization literature, the march will also demand the rights of immigrants "to live with dignity and without fear, to jobs with fair pay and decent conditions, to decent housing, education and health care and the right to organize." Around the world, May Day is celebrated with strikes and demonstrations, demanding justice not only from individual bosses but also from the whole boss class. That's why the New York march will confront the IMF. The IMF is responsible for privatization and economic austerity programs in many developing countries, forcing workers to leave their homelands and seek jobs in the U.S. because of layoffs, displacement and deepening poverty. May Day was born from the struggle in the U.S. for the eight- hour day. Masses of workers, Black and white, took to the streets in cities across the country in 1886 with the demand, "Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will." After that first May Day, a wave of fierce repression ensued from the bosses resulting in the execution of five labor leaders in Chicago, known as the Haymarket Martyrs. Chicago was the center of the struggle for the eight-hour day and a center also for the then mostly European-immigrant working class. Despite the sacrifice of those Haymarket Martyrs, the message of working class struggle spread around the world and soon May Day was celebrated on every continent, encouraged and supported by the international socialist and communist movements. As the workers' struggle day grew in popularity, the demands issued by workers also expanded to include the call for a minimum wage, an end to racism and national chauvinism and an end to imperialist wars. During the height of the Cold War against the Soviet Union, the bosses here whipped up a propaganda campaign against May Day. Now, while May Day had its origins in the U.S., it is celebrated far less here than in other parts of the world. But the new influx of immigrants is bringing the world movement back to New York and back to the United States, and with it is coming a new appreciation of May Day as a workers' holiday. Readers interested in attending the demonstration and march can learn more by calling (212)254-2591 or visiting the Web site www.itapnet.org/chris. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
