By Fighting Words Staff
Clark Park on the southwest side of Detroit was the scene of the annual International Workers’ Day commemoration.
There was an opening rally with speakers from numerous organizations and unions operating in the Detroit area.
The striking workers from the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) from the University of Michigan mobilized the largest delegation for the event.
May Day has its origins in the 1886 general strike which called for an 8-hour day. A massacre of workers in Chicago in 1886 remains a rallying point for the global working class movement some 137 years later.
The holiday celebrated around the globe has been suppressed for decades in the United States due to the anti-communist outlook of the ruling class. It was the immigrant community again in 2006-2007 which rejuvenated the event over the last 17 years.
This year’s May Day came amid widespread unrest among the workers and youth in France; industrial actions in Britain within the healthcare, education, transport, among other sectors; and the possible strikes in the U.S. involving the automotive and delivery industries. The Writer’s Guild of America has walked off the job impacting the television and entertainment sector as a whole.
As the rate of inflation increases and the capitalist class remains committed to the further exploitation of the workers and oppressed peoples, there will be an increase in resistance by the people internationally.
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