Las Vegas demonstrators mark May Day in the rain

A coalition of left-leaning groups, human rights activists and immigrant advocates took to the streets of Las Vegas on Tuesday, marking May Day in tandem with labor-oriented demonstrations around the world.


The “holiday,” also known as International Workers’ Day, was an opportunity for protests on everything from garment industry working conditions in Bangladesh to the leadership of President Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. It took a local flavor in Las Vegas, with demonstrators aligning with Clark County teachers’ fight for higher compensation and pushing back against immigration enforcement actions and the revocation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS).


“As mass incarceration, racism, inadequate access to health care and education, unjust immigration policies such as revoking TPS and family separation, economic inequality, and employee abuse affect working class communities in Las Vegas and throughout the USA,” the coalition said in a statement, “the Las Vegas May Day Action Committee reminds people of the bond of solidarity between all communities who share the struggle against oppression.”


More than 30 groups planned to participate, including the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT rights organization; The New Black Panther Party Las Vegas; the Nevada Conservation League; Las Vegas Democratic Socialists of America; ¡ARRIBA! Las Vegas Worker Center, a group advocating for day laborers; and A-Cafe, a weekly meet-up of Anarchists.


International Workers Day is celebrated on May 1, roughly aligning with the anniversary of the Haymarket Affair, a riot that took place May 4, 1886 in Chicago. At least eight people were killed when an unknown assailant threw a bomb at police and chaos ensued. The event touched off a wave of xenophobia and the men convicted of inciting the violence were viewed as wrongfully convicted martyrs of the labor movement.
