Coalition calls May Day Rally

Mar 21, 2009

The May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights held a news conference on March 17 at Union Square to announce the upcoming May Day rally in New York City, which has been held there each year since 2005. The historic May 1st marches and rallies in 2006, when millions of overwhelmingly immigrant workers from Latin America carried out a one-day general strike across the U.S., have helped to raise political consciousness that International Workers Day is a significant day of solidarity among all workers of all nationalities, especially in the midst of this catastrophic capitalist economic crisis.

May 1st Coalition members—immigrant groups, unions, laborers, students, human rights activists and all workers—are calling on President Barack Obama to pass immediate immigration reform that includes recognition of human rights for all immigrants; immediately ending the raids and deportations that Immigration, Customs and Enforcement is carrying out, affecting thousands of immigrant working families; and stopping racist profiling.

Speakers at the press conference were Teresa Gutierrez, May 1st Coalition coordinator; day laborers’ representatives Marcos Neira, Roberto Meneses, Carlos Canales and Mario Rodriguez; Christina Hilo, National Alliance for Filipino Concerns; Walter Sinche, Ecuadorian Immigrant Rights Group Pachamama; Larry Holmes, Bail Out the People Movement; and Mike Gimbel, a New York Central Labor Council delegate.

—Report and photo by Monica Moorehead