Protests are planned across the world on Friday in honor of International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day, including in the Pacific Northwest.
Organizers have planned demonstrations in Portland, Seattle, Salem, Vancouver and other cities in the region. In fact, the Pacific Northwest has a long history and awareness of May Day marches and celebrations.
May Day memorializes the events of the Haymarket Affair of 1886, when a bombing and riot during a labor protest in Chicago killed seven police officers. Seven labor organizers were sentenced to death for conspiracy in connection with the deaths.
Steven Beda, an assistant professor of history at the University of Oregon, specializes in the history of labor in the Pacific Northwest. He said many in the labor movement came to believe that these men were convicted because they were immigrants, not because they committed a crime…