Rallies and marches in downtown Los Angeles, Little Tokyo and Boyle Heights will commemorate International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day, on Monday, continuing a tradition that dates back to the 19th century.
The first rally began at the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles at 5 a.m., organized by the Los Angeles May Day Coalition, which also organizes a rally and march, at 5 p.m. . m, also beginning at this same intersection.
Protesters will head to Pershing Square for a scheduled show.
A three-day caravan began Wednesday in Ventura County to educate farm workers on their labor rights.
The march will then resume, continuing to Grand Park, in front of City Hall, where there will be another program at 6 p.m.
The theme of the march is “Solidarity is power: the right to citizenship, the right to organize, the right to strike and the right to housing”.
The coalition includes the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, United Teachers of Los Angeles, Service Employees International Union, IATSE Local 839, National Union of Healthcare Workers, Coalition for Immigrant Human Rights, Communist Party USA and Socialists Democrats of America, Los Angeles Chapter.
Revolution Club LA will hold an event and rally, at 3 p.m., at the intersection of First Street and Central Avenue, Little Tokyo, in which they will demand “No to the American NATO war against Russia, stop the threats of the United States against China and not to World War III,” the organizers said.
The eighth annual Boyle Heights May Day will begin at 4:30 p.m. with a rally at the intersection of Mathews Street and Cesar Chavez Avenue in Boyle Heights.
A march will follow, with protesters heading west on Cesar Chavez Avenue, then south on Chicago Street, stopping at the Hollenbeck Community Police Station, where a protest is planned.
Since April 1, a new law has come into force in Los Angeles which, among other things, guarantees some 70,000 store and supermarket employees greater stability in their working hours.
Speakers will include Josefina Rizo, whose 16-year-old son, José Méndez, was shot and killed by Los Angeles Police Department officers in 2016.
Police said Mendez was driving a stolen vehicle and pointed a shotgun at them. In 2017, the police board ruled the shooting was justified and a review by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office found that officers Josué Mérida and Jeremy Wagner used reasonable force to defend themselves and others.
The march will continue to Mariachi Plaza for another program.
Boyle Heights May Day is organized by the CSO Center, whose May Day demands include the legalization of all who have entered the United States without permission, the protection of public education, and community control over the Department of Los Angeles County Sheriff.
How did the May Day commemoration begin?
Labor groups have been organizing rallies and demonstrations on May Day since 1890.
These events commemorate the anniversary of the Haymarket Affair on May 4, 1886, when what began as a peaceful rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square in support of striking workers for an eight-hour work day
The rally ended when an unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they moved to disperse the rally, the bomb explosion and subsequent gunfire resulted in the death of seven police officers and at least four civilians.
Labor Day or Labor Day is a national holiday dedicated to celebrating the contributions and achievements of American workers. We tell you the story of the United States Department of Labor holiday.
Eight anarchists have been convicted of conspiracy in a trial that their supporters have called unfair and a gross miscarriage of justice. Seven were sentenced to death and one to 15 years in prison.
Illinois Governor Richard J. Oglesby commuted two of the sentences to life in prison, while another committed suicide in prison before his scheduled execution. The other four were hanged on November 11, 1887.
Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld pardoned the other defendants in 1893 and criticized the trial.