On Saturday, May 1, Los Angeles will honor the contributions of immigrants, workers, and those who fight to create a more just society for all. This year, will mark a new era of possibility in a time of desperately needed change. Our work continues under the new Administration as we enter into what looks to be the winding down of the COVID-19 pandemic. If it was not clear before, it is clear now that the problems that existed before the pandemic have been exacerbated because of it. We need immigration reform, we need to protect workers and take a giant leap forward towards racial justice.
This year’s theme will be “The Work Continues / La Lucha Sigue” and we will focus on lifting up immigrants, worker rights and fighting against anti-Asian hate. We will be organizing a hybrid march /car caravan and rally. We want to lift up our solidarity as community, faith, immigrant rights, LGBTQ+, labor and Muslim organizations, who continue to stand strong with one another in the face of our current challenges.
GOALS
To have a successful, socially distant action with impact that lifts our collective demands.
To display publicly our collective power and commitment to advance immigrant and worker rights.
To underscore the need for immigration reform and pro-worker legislation, honor our fallen colleagues and members to COVID-19, and take a stand against white supremacist brutality against Asian and black community members.
This is the year we move an agenda that says #YEStoImmigrants, to see four bills become law: The American Dream & Promise Act, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, the Citizenship for Essential Workers Act, and most importantly, the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, which maps a path to citizenship for the 11 million.
This is the year we step up to pass labor laws like the Protecting the Right to Organize Act and roll back union-busting efforts like California growers’ effort to restrict organizing in the fields. Workers’ right to organize, including fair union elections, is the beginning of a broadly varied, strengthened workforce that participates fully in this democracy.
This year we rise against racial violence, including anti-Asian attacks and everyday police brutality that kills black and brown people. We also resist white supremacist violence that laid waste our Capitol, as well as subsequent efforts, through hundreds of anti-democracy bills in state legislatures, to suppress the vote. We demand passage of the For the People Act to ensure this country stays a democracy.
And finally, on this May Day, we remember our fathers, brothers, sisters, mothers, grandparents and others felled by the COVID-19 pandemic that hit immigrants, people of color and workers especially hard. We mourn their loss, we honor their legacy and reiterate, on their behalf, that #TheWorkContinues, #LaLuchaSigue.
ENDORSEMENTS
ACLU of Southern California, AFSCME 3299, Alliance for Community Transit – Los Angeles (ACT-LA), American Federation of Musicians Local 47, ANSWER Coalition, Bend the Arc Jewish Action Southern California, CA STATE CLUW (Coalition of Labor Union Women), California Faculty Association – Los Angeles, Central American Resource Center- CARECEN , Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Coalition for Community Control Over the Police, Communist Party USA, Community Power Collective, DSA-LA, Equality California, Ford & Wallach, Garment Worker Center, Korean Resource Center, Latino Community Foundation, LCLAA LA Chapter, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, National Union of Healthcare Workers, Promesa Boyle Heights, Pilipino Workers Center, Rideshare Drivers United, SCOPE LA, SEIU 121RN, SEIU Local 99, SEIU Local 721, SEIU Local 2015, SEIU United Service Workers West, Students For Quality Education/ La F.U.E.R.Z.A, Teamsters Local 396, The K.W. Lee Center for Leadership, UC-AFT Local 1990, UCLA Labor Center , UFCW Local 770, United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers Local 36, USW Local 675, and Women’s March Action.
There is also a separate May Day Boyle Heights action scheduled to begin at 11:00 AM. See https://www.facebook.com/events/732446717634585. Join Centro CSO and various allies in Boyle Heights for our May Day 2021 in Boyle Heights! Endorse now and make your donation https://tiny.one/CentroCSO
The March will start at 11 AM on Mathews/Cesar E. Chávez, stop at the LAPD Hollenbeck Station to protest police, then rally at Mariachi Plaza to demand legalization for the undocumented, no deportations, good jobs, healthcare, housing, an end to privatization efforts on education, and a stop to Chicano, Latino, and Black killings by killer cops.
May Day originated in the 19th century and was originally a day to demand better working conditions, pay, safety, etc. In 2006, May Day was overtaken by a demand for immigrant rights – a law (by Sensenbrenner – The Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 H.R. 4437) would have made the conditions for the undocumented absolutely dismal. Los Angeles saw millions take to the streets. In Boyle Heights, we have been honoring these demands and adding our own. This will be the 6th year in a row that we march on May Day.
Endorsers:
MEChA de CSULA
Questions/Comments: 323-943-2030; CentroCSO@gmail.com; twitter.com/CentroCSO
At 2 PM on May Day, there is also a Car Caravan opposing Kroger’s greed. Community organizations, leaders and national unions are mobilizing for the third unified demonstration to demand these Food 4 Less and Ralphs grocery stores not be closed because of hazardous duty pay for essential grocery workers. We will be taking to the streets on International Workers Day as a symbolic action for all frontline workers that have risked their lives during the pandemic and to increase pressure on the corporate bully and the property owners alike. All community residents and workers are invited to join us at the Ralphs on Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson in South Central at 1:45pm PST, as we prepare our car caravan with posters, flags and banners to show solidarity for the communities directly affected by this attack and to raise awareness of our demands.
We will Car Caravan from Ralphs in South Los Angeles to Food 4 Less in Hollywood. Car Caravan begins at 2pm PDT, Press Conference begins at 3pm PDT. Ralphs 3300 W Slauson Ave 90043 to Food 4 Less 5420 W Sunset Blvd 90027
Our List of Demands:
- Demand Kroger keep the 3 stores in Los Angeles open
- Demand all national retail and drug store chains in Los Angeles County provide employees with a $5 hero pay raise until the Safer at Home Order is lifted.
- Public acknowledgment and legislative action from all City Council members and Eric Garcetti that Kroger is directly attacking Black & Brown communities (especially the elderly) in Los Angeles and contributing to food apartheid.
The coalition organizations consist of the following: Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, Southern Christian Leadership Conference of SoCal, UFCW Local 770, Baptist Ministers Conference of SoCal, Black Workers Center Los Angeles, Ground Game LA, SEIU Local 721, Union del Barrio, United Workers Assembly, Families of Park Mesa Heights, Harvard Boulevard Block Club, Hyde Park Organizational Partnership for Empowerment (HOPE)
There’s a free on line labor and culture concert from HotHouse with Jon Langford and Sally Timms, Bill MacKay and Marvin Tate, & Labor Salutations: Aislinn Pulley, Jorge Mujica, Don Villar, Bob Reiter, Alderman Andres Vazquez. On HotHouseGlobal: 5p, PST, free with registration via ticket link or sliding scale: $0-20: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/international-mayday-concert-tickets-151112534659
Jon Langford and Sally Timms have been performing together in and around UK Punk Rock band the Mekons since the early 1980s. This acoustic duo situation is most likely born of pandemic necessity because they prize collaboration above all else and love to work with other writers, artists and musicians like Vito Acconci, Kathy Acker, Roger Knox, The Sadies, Will Oldham, Greil Marcus, Johnny Dowd, Lee Scratch Perry, Freakwater, The Magnetic Fields, Handsome Family and many more. Watch on the HotHouseGlobal Twitch channel for free, although the suggested ticket price is $20.
Finally the RCP/RevComs are sponsoring a May Day event from 2-5 PM at Magic Johnson Park, 126th St. at Avalon Blvd. in south LA. They describe it as follows: “On International Revolutionary MAY DAY, The Revcoms announce: A Declaration, A Call To Get Organized Now For A Real Revolution. Let’s get down to basics: We need a revolution—nothing less!
*Masks and social distancing required*
To everyone who can’t stand this world the way it is… who is sick and tired of so many people being treated as less than human… who knows that the claim of “liberty and justice for all” is a cruel lie… who is righteously enraged that injustice and inequality go on, and on, and on, despite false promises and honeyed words from people in power (or those seeking power)… everyone who agonizes about where things are headed and the fact that to be young now means being denied a decent future, or any future at all… everyone who has ever dreamed about something much better, or even wondered whether that is possible… everyone who hungers for a world without oppression, exploitation, poverty, and destruction of the environment… everyone who has the heart to fight for something that is really worth fighting for: You need to be part of this revolution.
This revolution is not just “a good idea”—it is actually possible. Find Out About a Real Revolution, The Leadership of Bob Avakian, and the Revolution Clubs. We Are Human Beings — We Refuse to Accept Slaver
