A May Day march drew hundreds to Milwaukee. Here's why 4 people decided to join in.
Hundreds of students and community members marched in downtown Milwaukee Monday during the annual May Day strike.
May Day, an international labor holiday, honors and recognizes workers in all occupations. Voces de la Frontera, Wisconsin's largest immigrant rights advocacy group, organizes a march each year. A second march will take place Tuesday in Madison.
On Monday, Voces focused on its statewide campaign to restore driver's licenses to all adults regardless of immigration status. The march also featured students speaking out for better school lunches.
The march traveled from the Voces de la Frontera building,1027 S. 5th Street, to Zeidler Union Square Park.
The Journal Sentinel interviewed marchers Monday about why they got involved and what May Day means to them. Here's what four of them had to say.
Milwaukee resident stands in solidarity with immigrant workers
Nicholas Sinthasomphone, 36, is a first-generation Milwaukee resident.
He was marching for his parents who migrated to the U.S. from Laos.
"A lot of international working class people, whether war-torn or otherwise come here are sold the American dream and after they get here they realize that it's something completely different," he said.
He said although Milwaukee has a diverse community, it is still very segregated.
"I'm here to show solidarity with all of the marginalized people and all the international community residing here in Milwaukee," Sintahsomphone said.
A school worker takes off to march for those who cannot
Joshua Taylor, 30, of Milwaukee, marched for worker's rights and stood with a sign that read: "Revolution is the solution to capitalist violence."
Taylor took the day off from his job at Milwaukee Public Schools as a paraprofessional and substitute teacher. He said he did so to march for those who were not able to do the same.
"I have (paid time off) and health benefits," he said. "And I think everyone deserves that."
A high school student calls for better school lunch
Jeffery Payne, a 16-year-old student at Milwaukee Marshall High School stood with a megaphone, shouting "May Day."
Payne marched for better school lunches — calling the current meal offerings "atrocious" — and also to support friends who are immigrants.
A survey of more than 1,000 MPS students by Youth Empowered in the Struggle (YES), a youth arm of Voces, found that the quality of school lunch was the "most pressing issue" for those surveyed.
A teacher marches for her friend who recently immigrated
Alondra Garcia, 26, is a bilingual teacher at MPS and a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which allows immigrants who came to the U.S. as a child to work and go to school.
Garcia came to the United States in 1999 from Mexico. Now a second-grade teacher, she said it is important to set an example for her students. She took the day off from work and explained to her students why she was marching.
She participated in support of driver's licenses for all, including people who are undocumented, and dedicated her march to her friend who recently immigrated from Colombia.
"I've been a support system to him," she said. "He's told me ... how bad it is at the (border). There is so much that needs to get fixed."
Jessica Rodriguez is a Report for America corps reporter who focuses on news of value to underserved communities for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be reached at jessica.rodriguez@jrn.com. Please consider supporting journalism that informs our democracy with a tax-deductible gift to this reporting effort at JSOnline.com/RFA.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee students, residents march on May Day for workers rights
