While nearly 100 organizations are joining what’s expected to be one of the nation’s largest May Day marches, taking place Monday from the Westlake District to Downtown Los Angeles, Boyle Heights residents and activists are being called to join a local march and rally the same day but at a later time.
Participants in the May Day Boyle Heights 2017 event are set to gather and assemble on Evergreen Street just south of César Chávez Avenue at 3 p.m. From there, they will march to Mariachi Plaza where they will hold a rally against President Trump’s immigration agenda –increased deportations and the call of a new border wall under the Trump administration– as well as against police brutality.
The Boyle Heights commemoration of International Workers Day is being organized by Centro CSO (Community Service Organization), which describes itself as a “neighborhood organization; completely funded by the people.”
In a video posted online, organizer Sol Márquez says there are particular issues that affect Boyle Heights residents, like the high number of officer-involved shootings in the neighborhood. “If you’re Chicano and are for Chicanos, come to a place where there’s a lot of Chicano history for our self-determination,” she says in the video.
Watch the video here:
It’s likely that some of the marchers in Boyle Heights will also participate in the larger May Day march which, according to a press release, is being held “in resistance, unity, and defiance of efforts by the current Administration to curtail, weaken, or take away basic rights and freedoms for most Americans, with the exception of the 1% at the top”.
Participants in the earlier event are expected to gather at 11 am at MacArthur Park. Around noon, they will march along Wilshire Boulevard to downtown’s Grand Park where a massive rally is expected to take place, in front of City Hall.
The route for the earllier march can be seen here. The event is being organized by the May Day Coalition of Los Angeles, which includes some 100 Los Angeles organizations.
