May First: Workers Day March in Juárez

Braceros and farm workers marching.
Today, May 1st, 2008, we joined the teachers in Ciudad Juárez to celebrate the International Workers' Day and to demand justice for the border farm workers and the braceros. More than 300 farm workers, braceros and relatives of braceros participated in the march that started at 10 a.m. at the Benito Juárez Monument and ended in dowtown Juárez.

Our group marched behind the teachers of the Resissste movement who have been struggling since last year against the attempts by the government of Felipe Calderon to privatize their health and retirement benefits. These benefits are rights won by the teachers many decades ago as a result of their historic struggle.

Issste is the public entity in charge of health, retirement and other social benefits. Under federal law, employers are obligated to pay taxes for each worker, who are also deducted a portion of their salaries, to fund the social programs provided by Issste. But last year the government decided to privatize these programs and put them in the hands of private health corporations and the banking system. Under this new scheme, the teachers will receive less health services, the deductions will increase, and the banking system will use the retirement funds for profit making purposes.

Poor pigs dressed as Mexican politicians...
At the end of the march the teachers took over the stage were the authorities were watching the march, to denounce the privatization of their rights. At the front of the march the teachers had a truck carrying pigs dressed as members of the Mexican Congress, president Calderon and the leaders of all the political parties.

The braceros and the farm workers were behind the teachers. They were not invited to participate in the workers' march. But at one point they just burst into the march shouting "El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido!".

The braceros and the farm workers have been taking part of the workers' day every year since about 2004.

The workers' march in Ciudad Juárez is only one of the many marches that took place all over México and all over the world to commemorate International Workers' Day. Many marchers by migrants took place also across United States. The massive migrant marches were held in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.

United States is one of the few countries that don't celebrate International Worker's Day on May 1st. This is ridiculous since this celebration originated in this country.

Many farm worker women participated in the march
HISTORY OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKERS' DAY

On May 1st 1886, a labor organization from Chicago decided to held a demonstration to demand the Eight Hours Working Day. At that time, workers were working from 10 to 16 hours a day. This organization, the Knights of Labor, called for a demonstration and more than 80,000 workers participated. Albert Parsons, was one of the leaders and organizers of the demonstration. At the demonstration, the workers decided to initiate a national strike. In a couple of days, about 340,000 workers were participating in the strike. Another demonstration took place outside a factory, McCormick, with the participation of more than 6,000 workers. August Spies was one of the speakers at this demonstration. But the cops attacked the workers opening fire and killing one worker. To protest the repression, a new protest was planned for May 4 at Haymarket Square. Spies, Parsons and Samuel Fielden were the speakers of the Haymarket protest. Almost at the end, about 200 policemen attempted to disperse the workers. Suddenly, somebody throws a bomb which exploded killing a cop. The police started to shoot to the crowd. Seven police officers and four workers were killed. As a result of these deaths, the leaders, Parsons, Spies, Fielden and five more were charged for the death of the first police officer and were sentenced to the death penalty. Four were hanged, one committed suicide in jail and the rest were changed to jail for life.

On 1889, the Second Workers International declared that May 1st will be the day to commemorate all workers of the world in memory of the martyrs of Chicago.

United States decided not to celebrate May 1st in order to bury the historic memory of the struggles of working people in this country.