On May Day, a Precarious Union of Interests

On May Day, the traditional workers holiday that falls on May 1, the Occupy movement will join hundreds of unions, immigrants rights and grassroots organizations and untold number of participants in New York City’s streets under the banner, “legalize, unionize and organize.” As the momentous date approaches, there is still some confusion and friction both inside and outside the May Day 2012 movement.

The main source of friction comes from the general strike that many Occupy activists will participate in on May Day. The general strike (“No work, no school, no shopping, no banking”) was first called for by Occupy Los Angeles last December. It has dominated the media conversation surrounding this year’s May Day celebration, yet labor unions cannot legally endorse a general strike, and most undocumented immigrant workers are situated too precariously to give up a day of work or participate in an unlawful assembly.

Over the course of May 1, Occupy activists are also expected to join over dozens of union picket lines throughout the city, and then activists and union groups will join immigrant workers in a permitted march down Broadway from Union Square to Wall Street, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Their combined goal is to do what the Occupy movement has not truly been able to do: unite the whole 99 percent. But bringing together the interests of young radicals, organized labor and immigrant workers has required months of difficult planning, and still has many organizers nervous as they ponder a range of possible bad — very bad for the undocumented — scenarios involving the NYPD.

“The hope is that this is a historic coming together of different groups with different motivations,” said Jackie Vimo, director of policy at the New York Immigration Coalition, a 25-year-old organization that advocates for government policies that support undocumented immigrants, and has helped organize this year’s permitted May Day march.

A very short history lesson

While May Day began with organized labor, the immigrant rights movement reinvigorated its observation in the United States, beginning in 2006 with the sweeping “Day Without an Immigrant” protests. But May Day has a great deal of historical significance for all groups taking part in this year’s events.

May Day was declared a national workers holiday in 1886, a year of mass strikes nationwide, many of which were devoted to the creation of an eight-hour day. Although May Day is widely celebrated around the world, the celebration became less significant for American labor after a series of legislative blows in 1946. The most prominent of these 1946 laws was the the Taft-Hartley Act, which criminalized general strikes, the last of which happened earlier that year in Oakland, California. But just last year, the labor movement officially got back in on the action, when many unions joined the immigrant activists and endorsed “A Day Without Workers.”

“The labor council, which has always been a very conservative body, but has new leadership, they’re publicizing [May Day] and that’s a total transformation,” said Jackie DiSalvo, a member of CUNY’s faculty union, and who organized Occupy Wall Street’s Labor Outreach Committee.

A coalition of old and new forces

For the past few months, Vimo and DiSalvo have been involved in organizing “4×4″ meetings, where representatives from labor unions, Occupy Wall Street, immigrant rights organizations and the May 1 Coalition — the group planning the permitted rallies and march from Union Square to Wall Street — have been figuring out how to make a big noise while minimizing the risk of arrest for those in the permitted marches.

The day will begin early in Bryant Park, where people will gather — without a permit — from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.. The midtown park will serve as a staging ground for a wide variety of teach-ins, music performances, workshops and public art.

Meanwhile, Occupy University will be hold six classes in Madison Square Park from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., including “Occupy Algebra” and “Poetry and Political Feeling.” On the arts side, art is given broad interpretation.

“Mutual aid is the goal, so you’re going to see a lot of creative disruption, bands of elves, acrobats descending from buildings,” said Aaron Bornstein, a participant in the May 1 Arts Cluster. “Join us, this is going to be beautiful. We’ll start in Bryant Park, then moving through the park and funneling out into the 99 Pickets.”

The 99 Pickets Campaign, organized by labor unions, will picket various corporate headquarters in the city between the hours of 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Other demonstrations will take place all over the city. For instance, the students of Paul Robeson High School in Brooklyn plan to stage a walkout strike against school closures and budget cuts.

At 2 p.m., those in Bryant Park will follow a permitted march to Union Square, where more demonstrations and workshops will occur. The union square gathering is permitted by the city. Tom Morello from the band Rage Against the Machine will lead many — the goal is 1,000 — guitarists in song, and musical performances by Das Racist, Dan Deacon, Immortal Technique, Bobby Sanabria and other artists are scheduled. At 5:30 p.m., Occupy, labor and immigrant and community organizations will march together from Union Square, down Broadway and finally to Wall Street, where organizers have been allotted 15 minutes for speeches.