When the “Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005” threatened to even further criminalize undocumented workers and their families, millions of documented and undocumented immigrants and their allies took to the streets across the nation to demand justice.
The series of demonstrations, which ran from roughly March 10 to May 25, 2006, included a day-long boycott of United States businesses and schools known as “The Great American Boycott” that took place on May 1. Internationally, particularly in Mexico, unions and individuals held a “Nothing Gringo Day” boycott of all U.S. goods in solidarity with the boycott in the U.S.
The date chosen for this historic action – intended to demonstrate the invaluable contribution of immigrants, documented or otherwise, to the U.S. economy – was not random. Throughout the world, the first day of May is considered a union and workers’ holiday.
May Day is also known as International Workers Day or Labor Day throughout most of the world and is largely seen as a foreign phenomenon in the U.S., even though its roots are in Chicago.
Part of the reason for this is that the U.S. government deliberately countered what they saw as the Soviet influence of May Day by declaring May 1 “Loyalty Day,” originally “Americanization Day.”
The fact that our country’s Labor Day falls in September and not the international date of May 1 may be more of a symbol than a cause of our isolation from other labor and social movements, but the value of organizing ourselves and allying with workers the world over cannot be overstated.
On May 1, 1886, a coalition of United States trade unionists, anarchists and socialists of various stripes organized a national general strike to demand an eight-hour workday at a time when owners slaved workers for nearly twice that each day.
When the U.S. government first surveyed the length of the average workweek in 1890, they found it was about 100 hours long, compared to the 40-hour week and two-day weekend won by organized labor.
In Chicago, 10,000 people participated in the peaceful, three-day strike, but tensions between the demonstrators and the police boiled over and officers shot and killed four people. The resulting rally on Haymarket Square also ended in bloodshed when a bomb exploded, setting off more police shootings.
Four anarchists were convicted in a show trial and executed, although their convictions were overturned after death. It was the outrage over these deaths that led to the Second International establishing May Day as an international holiday to commemorate labor martyrs, particularly the Haymarket anarchists.
Every protection enjoyed by working people, from a minimum wage to child labor laws, was fought tooth and nail by the companies that benefitted from the exploitation of workers. Had it not been for the pioneers of the labor movement in the U.S., we would still be serfs in a sham democracy with no power to organize for our own interest against the already organized interests of our employers.
And there are some people in this country that would love to see that happen and are actually working to see that it does. Because the people representing corporate interests are doing what they always do when the economy goes south – maximizing their profits at the expense of the safety, dignity and the humanity of workers while doing anything they can to undercut victories already won by unions. But when times are hard, we can’t afford for our unions to get soft.
When Cesar Chavez led the United Farm Workers in their “Delano Grape Strike,” which secured a collective bargaining contract for over 10,000 agricultural workers, he faced massive opposition from nearly all fronts. But in the end, he was able to rely on the members of the United Farm Workers and their supporters to stand for their own interest and “throw off the yoke of being considered as agricultural implements or slaves.”
Then, the people were empowered and believed that they could win social and economic justice for themselves and their community. Now, the people are cynical and we don’t believe it can be done. Chavez believed that, “Yes, it can be done, si, se puede,” and proved that it could on more than one occasion.
But he couldn’t have done it alone; he couldn’t have done it without the support of thousands of motivated, engaged people supporting themselves by supporting their union and, above all else, their right to have and participate in a union.
The Republican party – which oversaw the largest expansion of government spending since the New Deal and the broadest, most aggressive assault on financial regulation since the Great Depression under George W. Bush – is trying to turn back the clock on vital labor rights won with the blood and sweat of U.S. workers who fought for the basic, human protections that the “free market” did not provide them.
From their dogged opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act to the stripping of collective bargaining rights from public unions in Wisconsin by its Republican-dominated state senate, the GOP is waging a corporate-funded war of aggression against labor and, by proxy, working people and the rapidly evaporating “middle class.”
That middle class is itself a product of strong union protections and higher union wages. It was the unionization of blue-collar professions like butchering that incentivized skilled manual labor and helped working class men provide comfortable, suburban lives for their families.
And it was the savage and extensive “union busting” and mechanization of that same profession that turned it into one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, one performed almost exclusively by below minimum-wage, undocumented workers who get no medical coverage.
To this day, even in “union towns” like San Francisco, corporations are fighting union employees on everything from overtime to medical benefits. UNITE HERE Local 2, a service employees union largely made up of immigrants working in the city’s many hotels, has been locked in a battle with several large hotel chains including the Hyatt for years.
Local 2 recently reached a tentative agreement with Starwood Hotels and Resorts, the proprietor of the Westin St. Francis and Palace Hotels, ending a boycott of both businesses. However, the union is still involved in negotiations with the W Hotel and is still calling for a total boycott of it and all Hyatt hotels in the city.
Local 2 is a self-described “fighting union” and they have proven unafraid to strike for what they see as their due, but no union wants to strike. Striking costs money that could be used for other things and every day striking is a day not working – but it is also an effective strategy that has worked again and again.
That’s why the custodians of corporate interest are so intent on smashing unions that use them and making sure that others can’t. A union without collective bargaining rights, like the badly mutilated public ones in Wisconsin, is hardly a union at all and working people should reject policies that create them.
Wake up working people: the easy-credit circus has left town and is never coming back. Don’t look for another financial bubble to hitch your family’s needs to; invest in the only thing that’s ever paid off — your own labor.
Lots of people are feeling disillusioned with electoral politics. With both parties delivering so little on such lofty promises, it isn’t hard to see why. President Obama promised meaningful change in U.S. immigration policy, going so far as to parrot the UFW slogan “Si, se puede,” but has only delivered hopeful rhetoric, increased deportations via ICE and failed to effectively advocate for the shattered DREAM Act.
But there is no disputing the direct effect you can have on your own welfare if you combine the power of your labor and that of your fellow worker with the will to be paid and treated justly.
Millions took to the streets in 2006 and pressured their legislators enough that the potentially disastrous H.R. 4437 did not pass the Senate. Unfortunately, the effort to preserve labor rights has not been as successful. We don’t have to settle for Republicans or Democrats, but we have to secure our own economic and political empowerment and unions have been and continue to be the best tool for achieving that.
As the “Grandmother of all agitators” Mary Harris “Mother” Jones said, “You don’t need a vote to raise hell.”
The series of demonstrations, which ran from roughly March 10 to May 25, 2006, included a day-long boycott of United States businesses and schools known as “The Great American Boycott” that took place on May 1. Internationally, particularly in Mexico, unions and individuals held a “Nothing Gringo Day” boycott of all U.S. goods in solidarity with the boycott in the U.S.
The date chosen for this historic action – intended to demonstrate the invaluable contribution of immigrants, documented or otherwise, to the U.S. economy – was not random. Throughout the world, the first day of May is considered a union and workers’ holiday.
May Day is also known as International Workers Day or Labor Day throughout most of the world and is largely seen as a foreign phenomenon in the U.S., even though its roots are in Chicago. Part of the reason for this is that the U.S. government deliberately countered what they saw as the Soviet influence of May Day by declaring May 1 “Loyalty Day,” originally “Americanization Day.”
The fact that our country’s Labor Day falls in September and not the international date of May 1 may be more of a symbol than a cause of our isolation from other labor and social movements, but the value of organizing ourselves and allying with workers the world over cannot be overstated.
On May 1, 1886, a coalition of United States trade unionists, anarchists and socialists of various stripes organized a national general strike to demand an eight-hour workday at a time when owners slaved workers for nearly twice that each day.
When the U.S. government first surveyed the length of the average workweek in 1890, they found it was about 100 hours long, compared to the 40-hour week and two-day weekend won by organized labor.
In Chicago, 10,000 people participated in the peaceful, three-day strike, but tensions between the demonstrators and the police boiled over and officers shot and killed four people. The resulting rally on Haymarket Square also ended in bloodshed when a bomb exploded, setting off more police shootings.
Four anarchists were convicted in a show trial and executed, although their convictions were overturned after death. It was the outrage over these deaths that led to the Second International establishing May Day as an international holiday to commemorate labor martyrs, particularly the Haymarket anarchists.
Every protection enjoyed by working people, from a minimum wage to child labor laws, was fought tooth and nail by the companies that benefitted from the exploitation of workers. Had it not been for the pioneers of the labor movement in the U.S., we would still be serfs in a sham democracy with no power to organize for our own interest against the already organized interests of our employers.
And there are some people in this country that would love to see that happen and are actually working to see that it does. Because the people representing corporate interests are doing what they always do when the economy goes south – maximizing their profits at the expense of the safety, dignity and the humanity of workers while doing anything they can to undercut victories already won by unions.
But when times are hard, we can’t afford for our unions to get soft.
When Cesar Chavez led the United Farm Workers in their “Delano Grape Strike,” which secured a collective bargaining contract for over 10,000 agricultural workers, he faced massive opposition from nearly all fronts. But in the end, he was able to rely on the members of the United Farm Workers and their supporters to stand for their own interest and “throw off the yoke of being considered as agricultural implements or slaves.”
Then, the people were empowered and believed that they could win social and economic justice for themselves and their community. Now, the people are cynical and we don’t believe it can be done. Chavez believed that, “Yes, it can be done, si, se puede,” and proved that it could on more than one occasion.
But he couldn’t have done it alone; he couldn’t have done it without the support of thousands of motivated, engaged people supporting themselves by supporting their union and, above all else, their right to have and participate in a union.
The Republican party – which oversaw the largest expansion of government spending since the New Deal and the broadest, most aggressive assault on financial regulation since the Great Depression under George W. Bush – is trying to turn back the clock on vital labor rights won with the blood and sweat of U.S. workers who fought for the basic, human protections that the “free market” did not provide them.
From their dogged opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act to the stripping of collective bargaining rights from public unions in Wisconsin by its Republican-dominated state senate, the GOP is waging a corporate-funded war of aggression against labor and, by proxy, working people and the rapidly evaporating “middle class.”
That middle class is itself a product of strong union protections and higher union wages. It was the unionization of blue-collar professions like butchering that incentivized skilled manual labor and helped working class men provide comfortable, suburban lives for their families.
And it was the savage and extensive “union busting” and mechanization of that same profession that turned it into one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, one performed almost exclusively by below minimum-wage, undocumented workers who get no medical coverage.
To this day, even in “union towns” like San Francisco, corporations are fighting union employees on everything from overtime to medical benefits. UNITE HERE Local 2, a service employees union largely made up of immigrants working in the city’s many hotels, has been locked in a battle with several large hotel chains including the Hyatt for years.
Local 2 recently reached a tentative agreement with Starwood Hotels and Resorts, the proprietor of the Westin St. Francis and Palace Hotels, ending a boycott of both businesses. However, the union is still involved in negotiations with the W Hotel and is still calling for a total boycott of it and all Hyatt hotels in the city.
Local 2 is a self-described “fighting union” and they have proven unafraid to strike for what they see as their due, but no union wants to strike. Striking costs money that could be used for other things and every day striking is a day not working – but it is also an effective strategy that has worked again and again.
That’s why the custodians of corporate interest are so intent on smashing unions that use them and making sure that others can’t. A union without collective bargaining rights, like the badly mutilated public ones in Wisconsin, is hardly a union at all and working people should reject policies that create them.
Wake up working people: the easy-credit circus has left town and is never coming back. Don’t look for another financial bubble to hitch your family’s needs to; invest in the only thing that’s ever paid off — your own labor.
Lots of people are feeling disillusioned with electoral politics. With both parties delivering so little on such lofty promises, it isn’t hard to see why. President Obama promised meaningful change in U.S. immigration policy, going so far as to parrot the UFW slogan “Si, se puede,” but has only delivered hopeful rhetoric, increased deportations via ICE and failed to effectively advocate for the shattered DREAM Act.
But there is no disputing the direct effect you can have on your own welfare if you combine the power of your labor and that of your fellow worker with the will to be paid and treated justly.
Millions took to the streets in 2006 and pressured their legislators enough that the potentially disastrous H.R. 4437 did not pass the Senate. Unfortunately, the effort to preserve labor rights has not been as successful. We don’t have to settle for Republicans or Democrats, but we have to secure our own economic and political empowerment and unions have been and continue to be the best tool for achieving that.
As the “Grandmother of all agitators” Mary Harris “Mother” Jones said, “You don’t need a vote to raise hell.”