For May Day and Immigrant Workers

In the '70s, a layer of young revolutionaries and communists emerging from the great social upheavals of previous decade set out to revive May Day, International Workers Day, here in its nation of origin. Marches, rallies, celebrations and other events sank new roots for the holiday.

However, as an excellent May Day editorial by Freedom Road points out, it was the great immigrant levantamiento of earlier this decade that really reclaimed May Day for the working class here. No surprise--since Germans and other Europeans fled the repression of the revolutions of 1848, immigrants from around the world have been the sparkplug of militant struggle and revolutionary movement in the class here again and again.

Now, as the editorial points out, the deepening depression has reactionaries scapegoating and attacking immigrants, just as they have in similar crises in the past. One of this country's finest songwriters, Tom Russell, has an answer for them.