The May 1st rally and march in Seattle was a powerful expression of strength by the immigrant working class. Thousands of workers in Seattle and across Washington State participated in job actions and strikes, with the biggest actions in the agriculture industry. In addition, thousands of high school and college students walked out of school.

Organizers place the number of protesters in Seattle at 30,000, which mirrors the turn out for April 10th. Following the same route as April 10th the protesters flooded the streets, creating an enormous, beautiful, snaking sea of people. It was truly an inspiring demonstration. These two protests were the largest in Seattle since the February 15, 2003 march against the Iraq war, which also had 30,000 people.

Unfortunately however, the leadership of the May 1st rally called for a “silent protest,” which stood in sharp contrast to the incredibly energetic and combative atmosphere on April 10th. This was due to the reformist leadership of the top organizing groups, in particular the Committee for Amnesty and Social Justice (which recently has decided to drop “amnesty” from their name).

Overall the march was peaceful except for two incidents, which reveal a potential polarization in society between the immigrants and their supporters, and a racist right-wing reaction. The first incident involved a lunatic driver that decided to drive his car into the marchers; fortunately no one was seriously injured. The second occurrence was the appearance of several neo-Nazis who stood at the foot of the Federal Building waving a flag with a swastika emblazed upon it. They were quickly taken into the Federal Building by several heavily armed government agents.

The King County Executive, Democrat Ron Sims, was invited to address the rally. This follows an April 10th speech by the Democratic mayor of Seattle Greg Nichols that highlights the maneuverings of the local Democratic Political machine, which is scrambling to stay at the head of this movement in order to control it and keep it within “safe” channels.

In Seattle, Socialist Alternative energetically mobilized for the May 1st action. At the April 10th rally, we were the only organization leafleting for the May 1st. We organized two public meetings to publicize the May 1 rally. Also, we were in frequent contact with the media, this was a result of Socialist Alternative being the only Seattle area organization listed on the noHR4437.org website.

Socialist Alternative sold 240 papers and raised $316 in fighting fund and handed out approximately 2500 leaflets to advertise for two upcoming events (an open branch meeting with NAFTA being the topic and a movie showing of “Walkout” which tells the story of the 1968 Chicano student walkouts in Los Angeles).