May Day marchers claim mark on history
Protests — some peaceful, others explosive — express anger
Demonstrators with a NEW YORK laundry list of grievances rallied here, teachers picketed in Philadelphia, and police in Paris fired tear gas to disperse angry political protesters Monday as May Day was marked with events around the world.
May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, annually prompts rallies highlighting workers’ rights.
In the USA, thousands of demonstrators turned out, many protesting the policies of President Trump. In New York, chants of “Sí se
puede” (Yes we can) and “The people united will never be defeated” bellowed through Union Square Park. Demonstrators came from across the nation to make their voices heard on a variety of issues, ranging from the Black Lives Matter movement and refugees to climate change and the Puerto Rico debt crisis.
“We’re seeing a consistent awakening of people to the realities of the Trump administration,” Bernadette Ellorin, 40, one of the event’s organizers, told USA TODAY. She said Trump supporters and the mainstream media think of such efforts as “small and ineffective.”
“If you study history, it is these type of actions, the people marching on the streets, that actually make history,” she said. “So this is our contribution toward making history, toward making change.”
Rafael Perez, 25, was among a large group supporting Puerto Rico. Perez, a grad student studying at CUNY-Hunter, is a native of the island. He said 1.6 million Puerto Ricans who benefit from Obamacare and Medicare won’t have coverage if Congress doesn’t act to protect the programs.
“People are going to suffer. It’s a battle of inequality, and it has to stop.”
In Oakland, four protesters were arrested while shutting down an Alameda County administration building in an act of civil disobedience, the East Bay
Times reported. Several hundred people gathered outside the San Francisco Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.
“My parents were put in concentration camps during World War II, and no one stood up for us. What’s happening now, with Trump’s immigration policies, is the same situation,” Joyce Nakamura told the Times. “I feel obligated to be here.”
In France, scores of hooded youths threw firebombs at security forces as the country’s main unions drew a massive turnout for a “day of mobilization” against far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, the Associated Press reported.
Le Pen faces a runoff election Sunday against centrist Emmanuel Macron.