May Day!

Lots of cities have May Day marches but lately Seattle’s May Day has been unique.

Once again this year there was the usual march of immigrant workers demonstrating for immigration reform, but once that was over, a few hundred young people, dressed in black -following the suggestion of anarchist websites – staged their own march downtown to taunt the police, smash windows, and spread their message of anti-Capitalism.

Unlike last year, this year the damage was limited to a few small businesses.

But the mayor is worried that this is turning into an unwelcome tradition.

“I’m a pretty passionate guy. I’m someone who fights for change,” said Mayor Mike McGinn. “I just never considered throwing a rock at a police officer as a part of the ‘change.'”

Even sympathizers are losing patience – this young man followed the vandals picking up the trash they’d just dumped.

“It’s just old hat now,” he said. “I understand a lot of their concerns, with globalization and all that kind of stuff. But breaking stuff – that’s not helping anything.”

What I noticed was – during the immigration march nothing happened. Any hooligan who tried to infiltrate their ranks was rebuffed, because obviously immigrants like our economic system. That’s why they’re marching against deportation. One of their signs made a reference to Seattle’s legalization of pot: “To heck with pot,” it said, “legalize my mom.”

Because they want to stay here legally and work.

Whereas the anti-capitalists – most of whom appeared to be from this country – were just out to break stuff.
Makes you wonder who we ought to be deporting.