'May Day' Rallies Across LA Celebrate Diversity, Workers' Rights
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - Rallies were held around Los Angeles promoting equality and workers' rights Saturday, known as "May Day."
After a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of union members, immigrant-rights advocates and community activists took part in marches while holding signs in downtown Los Angeles.
The Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition started a march and car caravan at Broadway and Olympic Boulevard, ending at City Hall.
About 200 cars were driven in the caravan and about 500 people marched, said Jorge Mario Cabrera of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.
"Through the May 1 march and car caravan in downtown Los Angeles we want to send a clear message to the Congress of the United States that our community will accept nothing less than what's contained in the president's U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021," said Juan Jose Gutierrez, executive director of the One Stop Immigration and Educational Center.
Members of the Los Angeles May Day Coalition held a "socially distanced march" and car caravan beginning at Los Angeles State Historic Park. That march was also in support of the U.S. Citizenship Act, along with Sen. Alex Padilla's Citizenship for Essential Workers Act.
Centro CSO: Community Service Organization held a march through Boyle Heights, rallying briefly outside the Los Angeles Police Department's Hollenbeck Station then ending at Mariachi Plaza, where another rally will be held.
Members of the Bus Riders Union and the Labor Community Strategy Center, meanwhile, held an International Workers Day block party, including a screening and discussion of the film "Finally Got the News," which focuses on "the great organizing of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and the Dodge Revolutionary Action Network."
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)