Impossible to work

Oh how I love a nice big May Day Protest. Though, to be fair, this was not a particularly energetic demonstration in comparison to the last one I took part in, which was may day 2002 in Paris. French people actually get upset when a fascist is a stone’s throw away from being president of their republic.

All that aside, it was a good march. A lot of people were out in the streets on Monday. A lot of families with children. The radicals even chilled out for the day in solidarity. That was cool, but somewhat surreal. The families were the best part. Small children with flags (lots of American, Mexican, Polish, Bolivian and Salvadoran flags in particular. Was I just nowhere near the Puerto Rican contingent?) Babies in strollers. Moms and Dads making sure their little ones didn’t get lost in the enormous crowd. These were great things to see.

In addition to all of these people were lots of bluetooth headsets for cell phones. This was interesting for all of the obvious reasons, but primarily because of an exchange I listened in on while marching. I had missed meeting up with my friends who were closer to the start of the march and so I marched all by my lonesome the whole way. Around Randolph and Racine, a latina activist in her early to mid 20s was talking to a friend who was watching the news at home. Said activist was unhappy with the contingent of red flags, radicals and revolutionaries. According to her, this was supposed to be “an immigration march.” Instead of starting an argument with her I said something about being happy that they were there adding to the numbers and moved along.

But really, our route took us through Haymarket Square, and isn’t that the whole reason we march on May Day in the first place? Isn’t it the international workers day? Am I insane to believe that immigration was the main focus of this year’s march because of its importance to worker’s rights? In this case, aren’t the more centrist activists and the more radical leftists fighting for the same thing? Shouldn’t we all be carrying red flags on May Day? OK, maybe not. But we certainly shouldn’t be pissed off about socialists marching on May Day. The radicals were respectful, but there I was this woman marching in a protest on the day radicals are supposed to be out in the streets demanding change and generally disrespecting the capitalist system and she was complaining about their very presence?
Harsh.

Call me crazy, but slogans like “Bush escucha, estamos en la lucha” and “Sí se puede” sound like calls for revolution as well as for immigration reform.

My personal experience being somewhat skewed, check out what sepoy, pdcs and moacir had to say. And of course, a few pictures.