Hundreds of workers gathered at the 24th and Mission plaza this morning to celebrate May Day, and this year, the ongoing war on Palestine is high on their list of priorities.
“The center of the Mission, from 24th and Mission — from the heart of the immigrant community, we tell Palestine that we are with you,” said Berta Hernandez, standing on the bed of a U-Haul truck parked in the middle of Mission Street. “We condemn aggression and genocide, and demand that the government of this country stop its military aid to the state of Israel.”
The rally shifted between Spanish, English and Arabic, blending together the experience of workers, immigrants and oppressed people in Palestine and beyond. Between speeches, the crowd, which filled the entire intersection of 24th and Mission streets, beat bucket drums, shook tambourines and chanted: “Viva, viva, Palestina!”
Violet, a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement, drew a parallel between the police arresting protesters at Columbia University, police brutality in San Francisco and Israel’s military killing Palestinians.
“We see the connections to Palestine,” said Violet. “This city was built on the backs of Black, Indigenous, poor and working people … the same people who are now being pushed out, gentrified out, and displaced out of their homes.”
May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, is an annual celebration of the working class, commemorating the Haymarket affair, a general strike in 1886 in Chicago that ended in a bomb-throwing and police shooting on workers. Eight people were killed and dozens were injured, and the day has since been celebrated, largely outside the United States.
Various labor groups, each with their proper banner, filled the plaza and then the entire intersection of 24th and Mission. After more than an hour gathered in the plaza, the crowd began marching north toward City Hall.
Protesters at times spanned an entire block of Mission Street, as police flanked both sides. The event had its own security people, too, wearing yellow vests and riding bicycles. As the crowd passed, residents looked on and raised peace signs, or called out “Free Palestine!” in solidarity.
The origins of May Day were not forgotten, however, as workers gave examples of protests against their bosses — and the payoff from organizing.
Mario, a Oaxacan man who had worked in the Fresno countryside under what he called inhumane working conditions when he first moved to the United States, said that he and fellow workers filed a lawsuit against his employers. After an exhausting legal battle, they ultimately won. Today, Mario works with Dolores Street Community Services, the homelessness and affordable-housing organization.
Socorro, a Marriott worker, said that workers from 70 hotels went on strike in 2018 and won their demands when they negotiated their new contract.
“We are going to fight because we want more salary, more money,” she said. Gesturing around the plaza, she added: “There are so many people on the streets living the war — it is here, too.”
Eder Juarez, a Guatemalan man who worked at Voodoo Love, a Cajun Creole restaurant on Belden Place, said his employer owes him wages, and that he and fellow employees did not receive sick leave or breaks, and were harassed by the owner. Alvarez said he has filed a claim with the city. The owner of Voodoo Love could not immediately be reached.
Reem Assil, the Palestinian owner of Reem’s California restaurant at 25th and Mission streets, called on the crowd to come together to fight for justice “for all oppressed people,” whether by boycotting or withholding labor or refusing to participate in institutions that perpetuate injustices.
“Ultimately, we are bound by the same struggle for freedom with working class communities,” said Assil. “The attack on working-class immigrant communities here and in many of our homelands, in the Global South, from the Americas to the Philippines to Haiti — is perpetrated by the same culprits.”
“Free Palestine, free us all.”
Shame they can’t exercise their right to free speech without defacing public property
Do these dilettantes know that homosexual acts are illegal in Gaza, and that women are second-class citizens?
My thoughts exactly. Gaza and beyond (safe Israel), these ppl would be told to go home and make a baby.
The “war on Palestine” really? It would be great if these people could become a little more educated about the history of the middle east and this conflict, apart from a 20 second Tik Tok video.
Please elaborate.
(Hold my beer). I don’t remember much of 2006. I do remember however when the news came out how they voted Hamas into power. Yeah, that Hamas, sporting the stated goal of destroying the state of Israel and killing all the Jews. Anybody with half a brain knew how this was going to end, and here we are.
Since I could go to Israel without being worried about being tossed off the tallest building, l’m solidly on team Israel.
protesters’ required reading:
Hamas Charter
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp
This is ridiculous. Typical narcissist and self absorbed SF lefties jumping on a fashionable cause, without a clue. Tying disparate cross cultural social causes, while blatantly ignoring others which are much more germane. What about the brutality of hamas? The rejection by Palestinians of numerous two state solutions over the decades? Educating their children to hate Jews, which is rampant in Palestinian Territories? The present naked antisemitism displayed on campuses? No, go on banging your plastic buckets and chanting robotic slogans, as if you make any difference.