An inside perspective on Seattle May Day 2015

By Eulalia Engel

Once widely celebrated as Beltane, May 1st was a day to celebrate the renewal and life bearing qualities of spring. Recently, this day has come to commemorate the rights of the working class, the fight for the 8-hour workday, and the Haymarket Square Massacre that took place in Chicago, Il in 1886. May 1 is recognized around the world as the International Workers Holiday. It is a day known for demonstrations, protest and calls for social evolution. Though International Workers Day is not recognized on May 1st, in the country that birthed it, the US code of law, 36 U.S.C. § 113, does state the first day of May is national “Law Day”, inviting citizens to reaffirm their loyalty to the United States and cultivate respect for the law that is vital to a democratic way of life.
This year’s May Day demonstrations in Seattle started out with the May!st Black and Lumpen BlackLivesMatter march in the morning. Food Not Bombs provided the marchers with burritos and water. Mark Cook, a founding Black Panther Party member, gave a very powerful call to action to the relatively small crowd that attended. All the while news and police helicopters loomed overhead. The Immigration Reform and Labor Rights march at Judkins Park followed this. Testimonies were given by those suffering first hand the violence at the dystopian US/Mexico border, family members of the 43 students missing in Ayozinapta, and activist groups calling to repeal the North Atlantic Federal Trade Agreement and collecting signatures to stop the Trans Pacific Partnership. The sense of urgency one felt that these things had to be changed in a reasonable time frame was unsettling. Thousands then participated in a peaceful march to the courthouse downtown.
After an emotional day of both hope and angst, next was the Anti-Capitalist rally. We gathered on the Seattle Central green and people discussed politics and made friends. When time grew near for the march to start, cops in full riot gear on bicycles came out in hordes. It was here on Capitol Hill that I observed a clash of egos between riot cops equipped to the hilt and a small group of confrontational youth, armed with angst, rocks and a large red firecracker.
The march was going great at first. There was an ordeal being made around a guy exercising his right to open carry a rifle and organizers trying to ask him to leave in attempts to prove themselves as a noble social justice warriors. A man in a kilt was playing bagpipes and protestors laughed at the cops lined up outside of Urban Outfitters, protecting the private property that is notorious for aiming its merchandise to young hipsters. The moment the “riot” started is bleak. I am guessing it was when the protest got near I-5. You can get permits to protest, but do so in a way that it does not block too much traffic. That would make the city officials look bad.
When the commotion started, I looked for the “rioters.” The only previous acts of resistance I saw from the “rioters” during the march were some toppled over dumpsters and a small red firework. I’ve read that a ladder was thrown and a road cone knocked over, too. Good thing we’ve got a bunch of new juvenile prisons. But this had already happened when the “riot” officially started. Finding myself on the “front line” between the police and the crowd, I was confused when tear gas and flash grenades were being tossed my way. Suddenly there were loud BANGS, smoke, lines of cops using their bikes as shields to knock lingering people out of the way, people yelling at cops, cops yelling at people, tear gas, pepper spray, 30 people with cameras, two without, and a lady yelling at me from her condo to “Get a job!” It was all incredibly surreal. Yet in all the chaos, I found myself feeling very safe and comforted because for whatever reason, it felt staged. Then, it dawned on me “I am one of the ‘rioters.’” Up until then I thought of myself of being incredibly well behaved and simply taking pictures.
May Day and its history remind us that we still have a lot of progress to make. The proclivity to greed, rampant in our society, is enjoyed at the expense of those not privileged enough to see past surviving in their own immediate environment. Dictated by fear, bureaucracy and social-economic status, the majority of us are only told “you are free.” This “freedom,” while only an idea, stays real so long as people do not challenge the ideas, rules, policies, institutions, and historical perspective. For those of you that have a different idea of freedom, wishing for a brighter future of community created wealth, personal accountability, and people power so that we can freely use human ingenuity and creativity to transform dying landscapes created by the outdated ideas of a win-or-lose life model into a hopeful future that will support and sustain all forms of life.
May Day is your holiday.