May 1 has long been day of action for the labor movement. On Friday, invigorated by minimum wage protests that have spread across the country, it will join forces with another activist movement with momentum.
Marino Mauricette / For Harriet / Via Facebook: forharriet
Labor organizations have planned rallies across America on May 1 in honor of International Workers Day, when demonstrators traditionally protest low wages and poor working conditions.
But this year, the May Day rallies will include slogans that have echoed from the streets of Baltimore to Chicago, New York, Oakland, and elsewhere, with unions and worker groups joining forces with those protesting police brutality. It's another sign of the ties between the two movements, manifested by the placards supporting workers' rights, immigrant rights and the Fight for 15 campaign to raise the minimum wage, which have all been common sights at police brutality protests this week.
In effect, movements calling for racial, social, and economic justice are converging, as they have in the past, with labor organizers playing a role. For Friday's May Day demonstrations, labor organizations and unions have listed police brutality as a major grievance to be protested.
The links were clear during a day of national protest by Fight for 15 activists on April 15, when #BlackLivesMatter activists were a strong presence.
And on Wednesday, a rally in New York's Union Square in support of the Baltimore protesters was planned by "organizations that stand for social, racial, and economic justice," according to its Facebook invite. Organizers who had recently returned from Baltimore described the poverty and lack of jobs there, which they said were contributing factors to the both peaceful protests and rioting.
That's set to continue on Friday. Dock workers at the Port of Oakland have said they will shut down the port from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to march against police violence, according to a spokesperson for the port interviewed by the San Francisco Business Times. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents about 1,200 workers at the port, organized the action with the unusual support of port employers, the report said. Business owners have been notified in advance of the one-day work stoppage, when millions of dollars worth of cargo will sit unloaded from ships.
In addition to shutting down the Port of Oakland, workers there plan to disrupt morning the commutes of tech workers.
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