May Day Protests

Overview of May Day protests around the world in the video below.  Marchers demanded an end to austerity practices, support of workers' rights, and immigration reform (in the U.S.).  Globally, eyes turned greatly on the deaths of Bangladeshi garment workers recently in the news and where the toll has now surpassed 400.

 

In the U.S. mainstream press, despite tens of thousands in the streets in major cities across the country, the event was largely ignored, with the exception of Seattle (where protesters clashed with police at the close of an otherwise peaceful day) and Washington D.C. (where May Day marchers marched into a confrontation with white supremacists in front of the White House).  

Radical Media also captured this protester-police confrontation both inside and outside a Gap store where the crowd very intensively chanted, "The workers united will never be defeated" and "Who do you protect? Who do you serve?"  Police arrested protesters inside the store.

In local Seattle news, The Stranger's Slog reported FBI agents in Seattle and Olympia showing up at homes, at least one school (Seattle University), a jogging area, and a non-profit serving "street-involved youth."  Not even attempting to "look Serpico" or "anarchist" - the two (domestic terrorism) officers were rumored as fairly cheesy (shall we say?) in style, asking if people wanted .. to talk about May Day.  Some Slog posters seemed to comment that they had arrested the wrong people.

The Slog had this comedic variation from a January 2013 Will Potter.