Thousands take part in marches and rallies in Los Angeles to mark May 1 – Daily News

Thousands of people gathered in Hollywood for the first of three rallies and marches planned to celebrate International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, continuing a tradition dating back to the 19th century.

Early in the afternoon of Wednesday, May 1, workers, union members and leaders, and their supporters gathered for a rally at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and North Gower Street, then marched through Hollywood in a procession ending on Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue.

“Are we ready to march for our freedom? Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Immigrant Human Rights, asked the crowd before the march. “Are we ready to march for our rights as workers? Are we ready to march for housing for all? Are we ready to march for citizenship for all?

The crowd roared with approval after each question.

Salas said Hollywood was the appropriate setting for this year's march, given the success of last summer's writers' and actors' strikes that halted production but resulted in significant labor gains. work for union members.

“We are here in Hollywood, California, because right here – thanks to our working brothers and sisters – we saw the power of unions as they rose up and created a 'hot summer of work' and fought for their rights as workers,” she said.

She later added: “Every year that we march…we plant a seed of justice with our feet, with our voices, with our fists. We plant the seeds of justice. So, together, we will see the seeds of justice bloom.

The theme of the march was “Solidarity is power: the people united”. The Los Angeles May Day Coalition said the protest was rallying support for better wages, housing for all, a path to citizenship, the right to strike, and calls for a ceasefire in war-torn areas and at the end of all wars.

The coalition behind the event included the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, United Teachers Los Angeles, Service Employees International Union, IATSE Local 839, National Union of Healthcare Workers, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, the Communist Party of the United States, and the Democratic Socialists of America. –Los Angeles.

Another protest at MacArthur Park was planned for Wednesday at 4:30 p.m., calling for “Worker Power Worldwide!” and “Don’t comply with the genocide!” »

Organizers say that after the rally at the park, there would be a march to the USC campus “in support of the pro-Palestinian encampment.”

Boyle Heights' ninth annual May Day took place at 4:30 p.m. with a rally for immigrant and worker rights at Mariachi Plaza, 1831 First St.

The Boyle Heights May Day was organized by the Centro CSO, whose May Day demands include legal status for anyone who enters the United States without authorization, protection of public education, and community control over the sheriff's department of Los Angeles County.

Labor groups have held rallies and demonstrations on May Day since 1890, originally commemorating the anniversary of the Haymarket Affair on May 4, 1886, when what began as a peaceful rally on Haymarket Square in Chicago in support to workers on strike for an eight-hour workday has ended. with an unknown person throwing a dynamite bomb at police as they acted to disperse the meeting.

The explosion and subsequent gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians. Eight anarchists were convicted of conspiracy in a trial that their supporters called unfair and a serious miscarriage of justice. Seven were sentenced to death and one to 15 years in prison.

Illinois Governor Richard Oglesby commuted two of the sentences to life in prison, while another committed suicide in prison before his scheduled execution. The remaining four were hanged on November 11, 1887. Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld pardoned the remaining defendants in 1893 and criticized the trial.