May Day, The Perfect Day For An Immigration Protest

Former King 5 anchor Lou Dobbs recently penned an article on the CNN website questioning the choice of May Day for the recent immigration protests:

Dobbs: A peculiar day for immigration rallies

May Day was a peculiar choice for those demonstrations, a day in many countries in which international socialism is celebrated and a reminder of those old Soviet Union military parades.

Now the "May Day" connection is actually a minor part of his article but in fact it is the major reason why the day was selected because:

May Day also refers to various socialist and labor movement celebrations conducted on May 1, unrelated to the traditional celebrations, to commemorate the Haymarket martyrs of 1886 and the international socialist movement generally. The latter event is an important holiday in Communist and Socialist countries.

Understand that the immigration protests are put on by groups such as International Answer

In addition to anti-war activism, ANSWER is involved in advocacy for rights for illegal immigrants, for whom it supports immediate and unconditional amnesty.

ANSWER was more prominent in the promotion of a May Day "Day Without An Immigrant" strike and boycott, because this call was controversial within the immigrant rights movement, contributing to a growing division between its left-wing advocates and moderates who believed a strike and boycott would be counterproductive

For those unfamiliar with International Answer:

Act Now to Stop War and End Racism — also known as International ANSWER and the ANSWER Coalition — is a American protest organization involved in the post-9/11 anti-war movement.
...
ANSWER characterizes itself as anti-imperialist, and its steering committee consists of socialists, Marxists, civil rights advocates, and left-wing progressive organizations from the Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, Filipino, Haitian, and Latin American communities. Many of ANSWER's leaders were members of Workers World Party (WWP) at the time of ANSWER's founding, and are current members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a Marxist-Leninist organization that formed in 2004.

Just whatever you do, as the Seattle Times pointed out in an article about the local protest, do not question their patriotism.



Update:
Some really good pictures of the Seattle Rally from the My Own Side Blog by way of Sound Politics with lots of Marxist, Socialists, ANSWER and of course, you gotta have Che.