Denver speaks out for workers on May Day
Denver, CO – On Friday, May 1, public spaces saw protests, rallies and events celebrating International Workers’ Day. About 100 attended a May Day rally at the Colorado State Capitol to hear activists, organizers and workers speak in support of workers everywhere.
Grassroots groups such as Aurora Unidos Community Service Organization (AUCSO), Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, Denver-Aurora Community Action Committee (DACAC and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) put on the May Day rally, inviting all those who stand against the billionaire agenda threatening community safety, and who stand for labor rights, public services and education to attend.
Alfredo Carbajal of AUCSO spoke to the crowd about issues plaguing immigrants in Denver and Aurora, including the GEO Detention Center in Aurora, which holds over 1500 people.
Carbajal stated, “For over a year now, we’ve witnessed the international targeting of our Black and brown friends and family with racist policing, detainment and family separation. From guard mistreatment to malnourishment and medical neglect, we have heard it all.” AUCSO works closely with families targeted by immigration enforcement and private for-profit prisons like GEO.
Carbajal continued, “Immigrants, workers and students are in the fight for a more just path to legalization and true self-determination.”
Miles Thompson, chair of DACAC told the crowd, “The police serve as a tool used by the bosses to stifle the progress that labor unions fight so hard to make, in addition to terrorizing our neighbors from oppressed nationalities.”
Thompson continued, “At DACAC, our fight for community control of the police is linked intrinsically to the labor struggle, and for Black and Chicano liberation. We oppose any and all suppression carried out by the corrupt police that harm civilians of all backgrounds.”
Condemning Aurora’s current police chief, Todd Chamberlain, for protecting “killer cops and slandering victims of police brutality,” Thompson pointed out that Chamberlain was not elected by the people and chose to serve the ruling class. Thompson also made a call to action, encouraging those who stand with the working class to use May Day to connect with like-minded organizers.
Kyle Burroughs of FRSO stated, “Which side are you on? As the CEO at UPS, Carol Tome, and her ghouls, see a potential boom in profits from automation. Buildings are closing down, tens of thousands of my coworkers at UPS are kicked to the curb and told they can't work their livelihood anymore, their healthcare and what bit of financial stability they had stripped of them. Which side are you on?”
Burroughs also denounced the war on Iran and the need to “drive a stake through the heart of the parasite class, the capitalist class.”
Burroughs continued, “There's so much to fight against, but there’s also so much to fight for.”
After the event at the capitol, many organizers and attendees went on to support other May Day events happening later that day.