PPH Covers May Day Rallies
Written by Jacqueline Kook Monday, 04 May 2009 15:27
PPH Takes to the Streets to Cover May Day Rallies Across NYC
Metal fencing barricades reserved half of Madison Avenue from 23rd to 26th streets for demonstrators and gathering passersby. Behind the small black stage, seven samulnori players from YKSEC: Empowering the Korean Community tied on white sashes that held their hour-glass shaped Korean drums close to their chests; their constant drum helped start and carry the chants: "Obama-Escucha-Estamos-en-la-Lucha!" Despite the threatening rain clouds, sign-carrying members of community organizing groups and 32BJ SEIU gathered along Madison Square Park to shout the message loud and in unity to New Yorkers, legislators, President Obama, and the world: the immigrants and immigrant workers, along with their supporters of the United States demand comprehensive immigration reform now. Organized by The New York Immigration Coalition, other groups present included: Make the Road New York, Restaurant Opportunites Center of New York (ROC NY), La Union de la Communidad Latina, Queens Community House in Jackson Heights, Workers United, New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF), and YKASEC-Empowering the Korean Community.
Workers MarchOn this international holiday to celebrate workers' rights, thousands are marching to demand respect and dignity.
May Day protests started at noon in New York City and are expected to last well into the evening. Many of the city's demonstrations focused on immigrant rights - a topic that brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the the nation's streets in 2006. Immigrant worker coalitions from around the city gathered in a rainy Union Square park --site of the first May Day events in the United States, and Madison Square Park.
Community News Production Institute reporters Abdulai Bah and Jacqueline Kook spoke with immigrant workers and activists who gathered in Union Square and Madison Square Park as the protests began, including: Carla Lopez (La Union de la Communidad Latina), Felix Ortiz (New Immigrant Community Empowerment), Robert Blair (32 BJ of SEIU), Shari Finkelman, Scott Burbridge, David Jiménez (Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York), and Chung-Wha Hong (New York Immigration Coalition).
This story aired as part of May Day coverage on Free Speech Radio News.
Rally in Albany Earlier this week on Tuesday several hundred domestic workers and their allies brought the message of workers' rights to the New York State Capitol.
They were there to lobby for a Bill of Rights. After a five-year struggle, this could be the year that state lawmakers finally pass the legislation that would provide domestic workers with the same rights that other workers have fought for and achieved. Community News Production Institute reporter, Ravi Ragbir, files this report.