There was a moment early on in the Mayday festivities in New York City that qualified as surreal. An elderly Chinese woman took a break from toting her “immigrant rights now” sign through Union Square and took off her shoes to rest her feet and talk with some friends. Moments later, a young, scruffy college student walked past and offered her a copy of “the socialist worker.” She laughed and shook her head. It may or may not have occurred to our young idealist (in a beret, no less) that this woman in all likelihood risked her life to escape a communist country.
This is not an attempt to undermine his efforts or scoff at university idealism, just a way to highlight some of the noticeable changes that have taken place since the first large scale mayday immigrant rights marches two years ago.
I was in Los Angeles that day in 2006 and I was awed as a spectator. I saw the peaceful, powerful message being sent and was touched, even inspired. Close to a million people made their way through the downtown streets with a simple message: we’re here and it’s our America, too. Generations of families marched side by side because, as one young protestor told me: I don’t want to lose my mom.
On this day in Union Square, there were noticeable differences. For one, the turnout was minimal. Less than 1000 people, even. And it looked suspiciously like many other disorganized laundry list lefty parades I’ve been to in the past 10 years. The Mumia people were there, the socialists, the animal rights people, police brutality folks, Iraq vets against the war, groups carrying signs with Hitler moustaches drawn on the president’s face: the message of immigrant rights was lost in the confused and frustrated stew of liberal outrage.
The people who generally burn the American flag at their events were marching with people who understand the flag’s significance more than most: people who risked their lives to come here, work and very much buy into the system. It reminds me of what I saw when I visited the UC Berkeley Campus after the bombing started in Afghanistan in 2001. People were out there, too, with their vegan signs and their racial justice pamphlets: worthwhile causes, mind you, but it all becomes a numbing static blur when you get away from the central issue.
Some of those undocumented people might LIKE George Bush or think Mumia should fry. It’s an ignorant assumption that people demanding immigrant rights will want to get on the animal rights bandwagon. Contrary to the conventional argument, it’s not all the same fight.
It should be noted, though, that a lot has changed in the past two years concerning the fight for immigrant rights. Raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency have torn apart families and destroyed communities in pockets all over America. It has become evident, also, that as a result of the economic downturn in this country, fewer Latino immigrants are sending money to their families back home. Most people I talked to said that fewer people came out this year because they’re either afraid of being detained or they can’t afford to take a day off work.
We should also remember, however, that the son of an immigrant is running for president. The politics of identity force us to stop at Barack Obama’s blackness, forgetting that he is the son of a man who came to America for a new life, just as all of those who march did.
Mayday is kind of a wacky holiday to begin with, however. It’s a pagan holiday that got blended with the Virgin Mary and eventually came to represent the struggle for workers rights. Except, of course, Americans celebrate their workers rights holiday months from now with barbecue and Home Depot shopping on a monday.
Until 2006, Mayday in America wasn’t much more than a time for campus communists to hand out papers and for others to celebrate “loyalty day” (which is what the US government changed the holiday to back in the cold war after the soviets adopted it) by dancing around a pole. Only after the immigrant rights movement adopted it did it become a significant American Holiday (however unofficial).
And after that significant turn, it almost feels more significant here than in most of the world. Barring demonstrations in Turkey and the Philippines (among other countries), where people marched in response to soaring food prices, most of the world’s Maydays this year seem obsolete. An old woman in the Ukraine holds a picture of Lenin, crying. Thousands march through Havana with portraits of the now nearly irrelevant Fidel Castro.
Even in America, organized labor seems a little outdated. Yesterday, a union boss in Indiana gave his endorsement of Hillary Clinton, saying America needs a leader with “testicular fortitude”.
Keeping in mind a disappointing turnout in most American cities this year, the fight is still significant. The voice still resonates. And particularly now, with the difficulties America is facing.
Another curious anniversary celebrated on Mayday: Five years ago on May 1st, our president stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared Mission Accomplished in Iraq.
The phrase “mayday” is also used by pilots and policemen as a distress call over the radio. It has nothing to do with theday itself, the phrase is an anglicized version of the French phrase m’aider, which means literally: “help me”.
It is fitting, then, that on this day, with all that we have to contend with in present day America, the future of our country, our recent immigrants, can celebrate the anniversary of the day they first made their voices heard.
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