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1 Introduction On May 1, 2006, for the first time in decades, May Day became a rallying point for hundreds of thousands of Americans. Immigrant workers and their supporters coordinated a nationwide protest of America’s immigration policy. Their plan was to stage an economic boycott “under the banner ‘Day Without an Immigrant’” to draw attention to the tremendous contribution those workers make to the American economy. While this remained the official focus, “the day evolved into a sweeping round of protests intended to influence the debates in Congress over granting legal status to all or most of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country.”1 Demanding more lenient immigration laws, some 400,000 people turned out for mass marches in Chicago and more than a half million in New York. Shops and restaurants in these cities and in Los Angeles closed for the day as workers left their posts to march in the large, peaceful demonstrations. Throughout California, produce went unpicked and goods were not shipped, as those workers took to the streets as well. And throughout the Midwest, major meatpacking companies like Tyson Foods and Cargill shut down operations as they faced the reality of the temporary work disruption.2 The mostly Latino demonstrators made their political point as they demonstrated their impact on the nation’s economy. One of the more notable characteristics of the May 1, 2006, protests was the overwhelming presence of American flags. The marchers also carried Mexican and other national standards during the march, but they were fewer in number. In part, this was in response to criticisms voiced by those opposed to immigration reform, who had labeled the protestors “un-American” for displaying pride in their home countries during smaller demonstrations staged earlier that year. Immigrants and their supporters then emphasized their commitment and claim to the Stars and Stripes on May 1 by making sure American flags outnumbered all other national symbols.3 The politics (and cultural politics) of immigration reform that lay at the heart of this flag debate were central to the demonstration. 2 Introduction Yet, even as the demonstrators struggled to show their American patriotism , the organizers of the boycotts and marches chose May 1 as the rallying point for their larger movement. Interestingly, according to news reports, for most immigrant and native-born workers and reform advocates, May 1 was known as International Workers’ Day—not as an American May Day with roots in the U.S. labor movement.4 Workers and radicals around the globe had taken up that holiday over the course of its one-hundred-plus-year history. Now immigrant workers brought it back to the land of its birth as a focal point for recognizing their contribution to America’s economy. May Day would have this brief renaissance on U.S. soil in 2006, but most people would experience it as an imported tradition . Perhaps some remembered May Day’s history in America, and saw the added significance that gave to the immigrants’ cause as a patriotic, national one, but it is likely they would have been few and far between.5 Celebrated for centuries as a rite of spring, May Day took on new meaning in the United States during the late nineteenth century. The American labor movement initially set aside May 1 to make a nationwide demand for the eight-hour workday in 1886. From that moment on, May Day became known as something other than just the herald of spring: it became an annual event for labor’s push for the shorter workday. In time, new agendas were added to this secular holiday. Most notably, anarchists, socialists, and communists claimed May Day as their own. It was to be more than a day to usher in the eight-hour demand; it would be the harbinger of the new international socialist order, a new world that would emerge after the anticipated demise of capitalism. As the example of the 2006 May 1 demonstrations shows, most Americans are unaware of this history. For them, the term “May Day” is more likely to conjure up images of thousands of Russian troops marching in lockstep, accompanied by innumerable tanks, arrayed before Communist Party leaders gathered in Moscow’s Red Square. The holiday is typically seen as a Soviet relic of the Cold War. For many in post–Cold War America , where the union movement has shrunk to an all-time low and most citizens downplay the existence of class divisions, the very...

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