Fear of change to N.Y. Constitution
demand that we have a unified voice . . . . Yes we can!”
Eric Josephson, 65, a retired member of Transport Workers Union Local 100, said he came to show his support for workers’ rights, and his disdain for Trump’s policies. “I’m out here today to at least lend one more body to the struggle against the ever more vicious and increasing attacks spearheaded by Trump, and pretty much the whole capitalist class,” he said. The worst elements are the ones who are emboldened now. Trump is no fascist. But open racists are emboldened to come out in a way that they never were before. It’s very worrisome. And I’m hoping I can contribute against that.”
Mayor de Blasio spoke at a later rally in Foley Square, and he assailed Trump for creating “division and fear.”
“This is a purposeful attempt to demonize immigrants,” de Blasio said. “It is an attempt to demonize people of color, to suggest that somehow immigrants are a danger to this nation — which makes no sense in the ultimate nation of immigrants.”
But the mayor was not without his own critic, who heckled de Blasio over “broken windows” policing and gentrification.
In Union Square, Trump supporters and detractors got in each other’s faces for a bit, but physical confrontations were averted.
About a dozen Trump supporters jeered those rallying at Foley Square, but police moved them across the street and the protest of the protest was peaceful.
At Foley Square, city Controller Scott Stringer called Trump “backward.” “You don’t build walls, you don’t ban people, you don’t sit and raid people,” Stringer said. “You let America and this city be what it is, an integrated place, an opportunity for all people in this country.
“When they come for the Muslims, they come for me as a Jew. When they come for the Latino community, they’re coming for the African-American community. We are in the same boat.”
City College student Yatziri Tovar said she’s in the fight for the long haul and emphasized her point with a T-shirt that said “#HereToStay.” “This is the beginning of it,” she said of Trump’s first 100 days. “If we need to march for four more years, we’re going to do that.” HAVANA — A protester briefly disrupted the start of Cuba’s largest annual political event on Monday, sprinting in front of May Day marchers and brandishing a U.S. flag before he was dragged away. President Raul Castro watched along with other military and civilian leaders and foreign dignitaries as the man broke through security and ran ahead of the tens of thousands in the pro-government march. Plainclothes officers struggled to control the man but eventually lifted him off the ground and hauled him away in front of foreign and Cuban journalists covering the parade. Havana’s May Day march, Cuba’s largest regular gathering, is a choreographed display attended by hundreds of thousands of workers. ALBANY — The head of the state AFL-CIO and members of a breakaway group of state Senate Democrats came out strongly Monday against a convention to develop possible changes to the state Constitution, saying it could lead to a diminishment of worker rights.
Voters this year, as they are asked to do every 20 years, will decide whether to approve a constitutional convention.
State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento and members of the Independent Democratic Conference said they fear deep-pocketed out-of-state interests would spend big to try to water down worker, women and other rights at a constitutional convention.