In several dozen countries around the world, May 1st is celebrated as International Workers’ Day. It commemorates the historic struggle for the eight-hour workday and the broader pursuit of better working conditions for the working class, everywhere, that is, except officially in the United States. This commemoration stems from the Haymarket Massacre in Haymarket Square, Chicago, on May 4, 1886, the culmination of a series of protests that had been ongoing since May 1 in support of striking workers demanding an eight-hour workday. Since then, thousands of people in various cities have taken to the streets to demand better working conditions, including the workers in this country.
Michigan was not the exception.
Demonstrations in Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, and Detroit drew hundreds of people last Friday afternoon. Janitors, nurses, teachers, retirees, anti-Trump protesters, and members of other sectors once again gathered and marched together in unity, under the slogans “Money Out of Politics,” “Healthcare for all”, “Workers Over Millionaires,” and “ICE Out.”
“Here we are,” said UAW Region 1A Director Mark DePaoli to several hundred who gathered at Roosevelt Park in Detroit. “140 years later, and we’re still fighting for the same things. We got the eight-hour workday, but in reality, we still fight that every day in the form of forced overtime, and I know some of us out here got healthcare, but for the overwhelming majority, it’s unaffordable and unattainable.”…