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International Day of Worker’s Resistance - Bay Area Wobbly contingent on May Day

By Dean Dempsey - Industrial Worker, June 2006 

International Workers Day, 2006, was undoubtedly one of the largest May Day celebrations in U.S. history, as upward of 1.5 million people participated in day long walk-outs, strikes, and protests all across the nation. Chicago estimated 700,000 took part in their May Day action, with one-third of the city’s students refusing to attend school. Denver received at least 75,000 people, or one-sixth of the city’s population, in a rally outside the state capitol. Los Angles organizers say about one in every four of students were absent as more than one-million people who took part in May Day marches and boycotts.

Solidarity actions dubbed the “Great American Boycott” also occurred in Mexico and Central and South America. Thousands of people marched in Mexico in support of the immigrant rights struggle in the U.S. Among the May Day marchers was Zapatista leader Marcos, saying, “[We call on] the inheritors of Emma Goldman, John Reed, Julius Rosenberg, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, the Indian people of North America who are tied to us with ties of pain and rebellion and all of the Chicano community, for supporting this workers' fight.”

About one million people took to the streets in California alone. In northern California, San Jose received about 100,000 thousand marchers on their city streets. Nearby cities that participated in May Day actions include, Santa Barbra, Modesto, Fresno, Watsonville, Oakland, and many, many others. And here in San Francisco, organizers estimate upwards of 100,000 partook in day long actions and boycotts.

With actions starting as early as 7:30am and going on well into the evening, the momentum to stop all attacks, legislative and domestic, against immigrants and their allies carried strong among the thousands who stood united for justice. A group calling itself, “May Day in the Bay” organized an 8:30am rally and snake-march through the financial district of San Francisco with the goal to cause economic disruption to those who chose to ignore the national call for a general strike and boycott. The action was very successful, with over a thousand anarchists, families, laborers, immigrants and many others taking part in the permit-free action. The tactical team ensured the safety of the marchers as we stood united in demanding immediate amnesty for all immigrants, the de-militarization of the U.S. and Mexican border, and the repeal of all neoliberal trade agreements that directly cause the displacement of working people. May Day in the Bay pledges to maintain, “Active resistance until we are all free to move” and for “resistance against all attacks on immigrants, deportations and detentions!” They add that the “demand for full amnesty and free movement of people…aims at justice for immigrants at the same time as it aspires to a world free from all such destructive divisions.” As a gesture of solidarity to those without papers, May Day in the Bay encouraged all documented participants to not carry their ID’s to the day’s actions.

Within the main march, several groups were present, such as the Anti-Imperialist Contingent, organized by May 1st Alliance and Deporten a la Migra Coalition, as well a contingent with a banner that read “Arab and Muslim Immigrants Against Racism and War.” And for the first time in recent Bay Area history, there was a contingent of the Industrial Workers of the World at the May Day actions. About 45 Wobblies and supports marched in our contingent, carrying the red and black worker’s flag and a large banner that read, “IWW” below a black cat that is poised to fight. Long time IWW organizer Bruce Valde say’s, “When Fellow Workers were calling for an IWW contingent on May Day in San Francisco, my first thought was in ten years in this union the best we ever did was a couple of wobs carrying a banner. But times have changed. There were Fellow Workers everywhere. Various union supporters and marchers thanked us for showing up. It was a great success.”

The city wide boycotts were most effective, as they directly demonstrated the effect immigrants have on the economy. Here in San Francisco, the heavily Mexican, Central and South American Mission District, was virtually shut down, as hundreds of businesses were closed and thousands refused work. Among them was El Chico Produce, who also distributed free water to May 1st demonstrators. El Chico employee, Gracila, said this about their closing: “All the workers here are Latino’s and we wanted to show our support; even though Monday is one of our busiest days, it was worth it.” Another worker adds, “[We did this] for necessity, to be united. We must lose some to gain something better.” This is the nature of struggle, and hundreds of thousands across the U.S. demonstrated this with the dedication to defend all immigrants and to deconstruct all state, economic and domestic oppressions.

Several IWW members took part in strikes, including the majority of the Spanish speaking Wobblies at the Community Conservation Centers Inc., or commonly known as Berkeley Buy-Back recycling. Management was aware that the union-workers would not show up and could only accept it as fact and do nothing about it. Other workers contributed by organized “call-in” days and walkouts at their workplace.

As momentum for this movement builds, further alliances are being made between non-immigrants and immigrants alike. The Industrial Workers of the World is working to enhance such relationships, bridging the gaps between workers that nationalist bosses have created. This new Civil Rights movement primarily aims at unifying all workers and defending those who are unjustly targeted by state repression. The IWW will continue to take its rapid growth rate, encompassing all workers through celebration, struggle and resistance. And as professor James Green, author of Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing That Divided Gilded Age America, observes, “People are feeling the need to go into the streets to [take] extraordinary action [as] part of an international community of workers. That’s what was important about May Day of 1886 is that people were demonstrating not only as U.S. citizens, but as citizens of the world, the larger world community of workers.”