May Day– more than any other day– is a holiday for the 99%. For decades, on May 1, workers around the world have honored the memory of Haymarket Square and striking Chicago workers who were fighting for an 8-hour work day.

From Wikipedia…

The Haymarket affair (also known as the Haymarket massacre or Haymarket riot) refers to the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square[3] in Chicago.

It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour day. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they acted to disperse the public meeting. The bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians, and the wounding of scores of others.

In the internationally publicized legal proceedings that followed, eight anarchists were convicted of conspiracy, although the prosecution conceded none of the defendants had thrown the bomb. Seven were sentenced to death and one to a term of 15 years in prison. The death sentences of two of the defendants were commuted by Illinois governor Richard J. Oglesby to terms of life in prison, and another committed suicide in jail rather than face the gallows. The other four were hanged on November 11, 1887. In 1893, Illinois’ new governor John Peter Altgeld pardoned the remaining defendants and criticized the trial. [Emphasis added.]

The Haymarket affair is generally considered significant as the origin of international May Day observances for workers.[4][5] The site of the incident was designated a Chicago Landmark on March 25, 1992,[6] and a public sculpture was dedicated at the site in 2004. The Haymarket Martyrs’ Monument in nearby Forest Park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark on February 18, 1997.[2]

When I was growing up in the 1960s, May Day was not celebrated widely in the US. On the TV news, we watched May Day marches in the Soviet Union, and the corporate media billed May Day as a Communist holiday. Thanks to selective education in the public school system, I had no idea that May Day was connected to early battles for workers’ rights in the US.

As wealth inequality between the 99% and the 1% has grown, the US economy has crumbled, forclosures and layoffs have skyrocketed, unions have been attacked, and the middle class has dwindled, May Day has grown in popularity in the US. In 2010, with the passage of SB1070 by the Arizona Legislature, immigration reform and the rights of the undocumented became a May Day cause. Thousands marched in Phoenix and across the US.

Although immigration reform, pay equity, and economic and social justice are pivitol May Day issues, we must remember that May Day is not a Soviet holiday, not a Communist holiday, not a Latino rights holiday, not a women’s rights holiday, not a gay rights holiday, not a black power holiday. May Day is a workers’ holiday.

There are two types of people in the world–workers and owners. As long as the 99% willingly divide themselves with words and deeds into warring factions, we will not win this struggle.

In the spirit of May Day, here is John Nichols of The Nation, speaking in Tucson this year, about uprising, the Occupy movement, and the importance of worker solidarity. Below are links to related videos.

John Nichols of ‘The Nation’ on corporate media, solidarity, and the lessons of Wisconsin

Arizona Unionists Rally in Phoenix to Protest Anti-Labor Laws

Arizona Unionists and Democratic Legislators Speak Out Against Anti-Labor Laws

Arizona Unionists and Supporters Protest Proposed Anti-Labor Laws

Jobs with Justice, Occupy Tucson, and Union Workers march to save postal jobs

Loneprotestor chronicles the rise and fall of Russell Pearce in 5 minutes.

This video is a tribute to the organizing skills of Randy Parraz and the grassroots Citizens for a Better Arizona, who spent the entire summer gathering over 18,000 signatures to force the recall election of Arizona state senate president Russell Pearce. Pearce’s claim to fame was as a sponsor of the ALEC-written SB 1070, the infamous “papers, please,” law requiring anyone stopped by police for any reason to produce proof of citizenship. Now that we’ve seen Pearce’s backside, guess who might be next?

Under Arpaio, a new documentary film by Tucson’s own Pan Left Productions is definitely a must see movie.

The film by J.M. Aragon aired on Saturday to a packed house at the Salt of the Earth Labor College’s first class of the fall semester.

I have been in Arizona long enough to have a general knowledge of Arpaio’s dastardly deeds– the neighborhood sweeps for illegal aliens [his terminology], the racial profiling, the tent city jails in the desert, the chain gangs, the pink underwear, the bologna sandwiches, and the investigations of Arpaio that never go anywhere.

But I was shocked by what I didn’t know– murder and torture (on video tape) inside the Maricopa County Jail; trumped up traffic charges to back up police stops (thanks to SB1070); intimidation, arrest, and detention of elected officials (including several members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors) and others who challenge his authority or tactics; destruction of evidence by the Sheriff’s office; and millions of dollars in lawsuits brought against him.

Aragon and co-producer Mary Charlotte Thurtle have created a chilling documentary by weaving together interviews of Latino activists who have been targeted by Arpaio; interviews of lawyers and family members of prisoners who were murdered by Sheriff’s deputies inside the jail; surveillance video from the Maricopa County jail; videos of traffic stops as they happen; and Arpaio’s speeches.

The big questions that I came away with are: Why isn’t Arpaio in jail? Who votes for this guy? Has anyone been tortured and murdered in the Pima County Jail?

The current version of Under Arpaio is a director’s cut, according to Aragon. During the next few months, he will be showing the film to small audiences around Tucson and raising funds for broader distribution. He plans to have a larger viewing at The Loft in the future.

It is a marvelous film, which deserves national attention. This film made me glad I don’t live in Maricopa County. Here’s the trailer.

This powerful video by Bisbee activist Alison McLeod brought tears to my eyes.

Citizens for a Better Arizona is sponsoring a Recall Pearce canvas operation in Mesa on Saturday, March 5. Tucson activists– including Tucson’s Chapter of Progressive Democrats of America– are organizing local activists to go to Mesa for this event.

Only 17,000 people in Pearce’s Mesa district voted for him, and now he’s the most powerful man in Arizona. It’s time for the other ~99% of Arizonans to say he does not represent us.

For more information, check out this facebook link.

PDA is organizing a van and carpooling for this event. Contact Salomon Baldenegro Jr. at sbaldenegro@gmail.com for further details and/or if you can offer a ride or would like a ride.

Friday afternoon, Americans Against Immigration Amnesty (AAIA– a right-wing group from Utah) and the Pima County Tea Party Patriots held a Dump Dupnik Rally in front of the Sheriff’s Office.

Not to be outdone, supporters of Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik held a counter rally at the same location.

Depending upon which Arizona Daily Star article you read, either 200 or 350 people attended the rallies. (My guesstimate is about 200.) The group was pretty much evenly split between supporters and detractors of the sheriff.

Although the Star continues to report that the Dupnik recall effort is based his speech against hatred and vitriol at the press conference following the shooting of  Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, I contend that it is all about his anti-SB1070 stance and that his heartfelt words about hatred in America are just an excuse for action. The primary backer of the recall effort is AAIA, the brainchild of a right-wing talk radio host in Utah, is an anti-illegal immigrant/pro-SB1070 group. Locally, the Pima County Tea Party Patriots and right-wing talk radio host Jon Justice– also SB1070 aficionados– are trying to fan the recall flames. If yesterday’s rally was any indication, Dupnik has plenty of supporters in Tucson.

There was no lack of opinions or creative signage at the dueling rallies. For a taste of the events, check out the video below.

After the Tucson massacre and the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords early this month, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik called on the nation to do some soul-searching and blamed hateful, vitriolic speech for creating an atmosphere of hate in this country. Dupnik’s honesty in the face of tragedy won him hundreds– if not thousands– of supporters and enemies and catapulted him to the national stage with interviews on several television networks.

Now, a right-wing, anti-immigrant group– Americans Against Immigration Amnesty (AAIA)– from Utah has started a recall effort against Dupnik. Here is their vitriol against Dupnik from AAIA website. Compare AAIA’s totally inaccurate description of Dupnik’s comments below with the actual video footage above.

“Beginning the day of the horrific events in Tucson, Arizona that claimed the lives of 6 and injured so many others, we were deluged with emails and phone calls from members and non-members in Arizona, as well as across the United States concerning the actions of Pima County Sheriff, Clarence Dupnik.  Our members and Americans in general were bewildered by the Sheriff’s shameless political grandstanding and irresponsible comments within hours of this tragedy.  As one member of AAIA said, ‘the Sheriff has forever sullied his office, uniform and badge’.

In light of the requests from our members and Americans across the nation, we have completed our research, conferred with the appropriate legal experts and have concluded that the recall of Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupinik is the appropriate course on behalf of the citizens of Pima County.  We will therefore proceed with such a recall effort and are preparing the Petitions to be forwarded to Pima County registered voters to begin gathering the required signatures.  Our goal will be to gather 110,000 signatures in the coming weeks and this matter will promptly proceed to a recall election.”– Dan Baltes, Executive Director, Americans Against Immigration Amnesty

Americans Against Immigration Amnesty is a section 527 political organization with members in 47 states.

Dupnik’s speech is sad and soulful– not “shameless political grandstanding,” as AAIA describes it. Who is helping to promote AAIA’s efforts? FOX News (we already know what they think of Tucson), the Pima County Tea Party Patriots, and local right-wing shock jock Jon Justice.

Why are AAIA, FOX, the Tea Party Patriots, and Justice really after Dupnik? It has absolutely nothing to do with his comments after the Tucson massacre. These groups are targeting him because he was one of the few elected officials in Arizona who took a firm stand against SB1070– Arizona’s strict anti-immigrant legislation– last year. In a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, Dupnik didn’t mince words about SB1070

I have argued from the moment that this bill was signed that it is unnecessary, that it is a travesty, and most significantly, that it is unconstitutional.

Pima County, where I am sheriff, shares 123 miles of border with Mexico. Patrolling this area for illegal immigrants is like trying to keep water from passing through a sieve.

The pro-SB1070 Pima County Tea Party Patriots (not to be confused with the Tucson Tea Party) is planning a Dump Dupnik rally for this coming Friday. There are rumblings of a counter-protest by Dupnik supporters– which locally probably outnumber his detractors. The Pima County Democratic Party is suggesting donating blood to the Red Cross as a peaceful protest to the Tea Party.

The bottomline is: the right-wing is trying to suppress freedom of speech, silence Dupnik, and intimidate politicians from speaking from their hearts. We can’t let them get away with that. I’ll let you decide what to do about it.

UPDATE: Who said it was OK for the Utah group to recall our sheriff? Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall. Doesn’t Barbara like Clarence?

2010 Scrooge of the Year: Governor Jan Brewer

Governor Jan Brewer handily won the Tucson Jobs with Justice Scrooge of the Year Award on Saturday evening at the anual awards dinner.

Seven people were nominated for the 2010 Scrooge Award, but Repulbican politicians dominated the field with  five of the seven nominations. Tucsonans who nominated these would-be Scrooges– two teachers, a former politician, a union leader, and two new media representatives– presented impassioned, detailed, and often sarcastically humorous nominating speeches in front of a crowd of nearly 100 who attended. Here are a few highlights from the nominating speeches.

Brewer was nominated for signing SB1070, lying about beheadings in the desert, scapegoating immigrants to win her election, allowing lobbyists to run the government, championing cuts education and healthcare (while offering additional business tax cuts), defending her transplant patient death panel.

State Senator Russell Pearce was nominated for being the father of SB1070 and other offenses similar similar to Brewer’s but Pearce continues to blaze new trails into white supremacy, immigrant scapegoating. and Constitution-tweaking. While Brewer is seen as more of a dupe and a follower, Pearce is more of an evil doer.

Current Superintendent of Public Instruction and Attorney General-elect Tom Horne was nominated for overseeing the dismantling of public education in Arizona, for standing idly by while the Arizona Legislature repeatedly hacked away at K-12 and university education budgets, and for spearheading the discriminatory anti-ethnic studies law that targets one program at one high school.

Superintendent of Public Instruction-elect John Huppenthal was nominated for being one of those Arizona Legislators who repeatedly hacked away at K-12 and university education budgets; as head of the state’s public education system, it is feared he will kill it.

US Senator Jon Kyl (the 2009 Scrooge of the Year) was nominated for being controlled by corporate lobbyists and saying “no” to any idea or legislation that was suggested by President Obama– regardless of whether it or not it was good for the country– No on healthcare reform, No on financial reform, No multiple times on extension of unemployment benefits, No on plans to help small businesses, No on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, No on the Dream Act, No on the New START treaty.

Southern Arizona Leadership Council (SALC) was nominated for trying to control Tucson and southern Arizona politics and governments through ballot initiatives and manipulation in order to benefit their wealthy corporatist members.

Sean McClusky was nominated for leading the charge against the proposed 1/2 cent city sales tax by promoting the “cut waste first” slogan; failure of that ballot initiative will result in cutting jobs.

As you can see, party-goers had a very strong slate of evil-doers to choose from for the Scrooge Award. Party tickets (which cost $10) counted for 10 votes, plus party attendees could “buy votes– just like in a regular election in order to stuff the ballot boxes” for favorite candidates. In the end, it wasn’t even close; Governor Brewer won the Scrooge of the Year Award, hands down.

Here are the tallies:

• Kyl: 41
• McClusky: 60
• Huppenthal: 66
• SALC: 93
• Horne: 135
• Pearce: 136
• Brewer: 207

I guess State Senator Russell Pearce had his fingers crossed behind his back when he promised to tackle Arizona’s multi-billion-dollar, red-ink budget, evolving economic collapse, and unemployment problems before mounting his white steed, brandishing his gleaming sword, and valiantly attacking birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.

You’ll note in the story below that, as with SB1070, Pearce is letting an out-of-state group write the legislation for him.

Here is the scoop from Strike Everything, the Arizona Capitol Times reporters’ blog.

State Senator Russell Pearce

Pearce, allies will ring in the New Year with birthright citizenship bill
The national spotlight that lit up Arizona when lawmakers passed SB 1070 will be back sooner than some anticipated.

Sen. Russell Pearce and numerous out-of-state allies plan to unveil his birthright citizenship bill during the first week of January in Washington, D.C. The model legislation will serve as a template for lawmakers in 14 states, including Arizona, who hope to force a U.S. Supreme Court case that would challenge the longstanding interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment and end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens.

Daryl Metcalfe, a state representative in Pennsylvania who is pushing the birthright citizenship issue in his legislature, said the model legislation will give anti-illegal immigration lawmakers a starting point for the coming war against birthright citizenship and show unity among the members of State Legislators for Legal Immigration, as the group is known.

“First we have to have the language formulated,” said Metcalfe, a Republican from Cranberry Township, Penn. “Then you have the process of rolling that out to various legislators across the country that are interested in working on the rollout project and then bringing a number of us together … to actually announce the final working product, the final language that’s come out of our efforts.”

The high-profile rollout is likely to rile lawmakers and members of the business community who wanted birthright citizenship to take a back seat during the 2011 session, at least until the Legislature passes a budget and a jobs bill. Some lawmakers claimed Pearce pledged to put birthright citizenship on hiatus until those priorities were out of the way, though Pearce disputes the claims.

Pearce did not return phone calls seeking comment. But his stalwart ally in the House, Rep. John Kavanagh, said the unveiling won’t distract from the more immediate tasks of balancing the budget and putting the economy back on track.

“We’ll file the bill early. My understanding is we want to put the budget and the jobs bill to bed before we move on to this. But it will be this session,” Kavanagh said.

Kavanagh, a Fountain Hills Republican, said the rollout will get some attention, but he doesn’t expect it to last long.

“I guess you can get a day (of coverage), but that’s hardly the 1070 tsunami,” he said.

Hot off the press on the John C. Scott Show (the Jolt, 1330AM), LD28 Representative Steve Farley announced that Arizona’s Senate Republicans have elected Russell “father-of-SB1070″ Pearce as president of the Senate.

Here’s a link to the Capitol Times article.

Anchor babies and immigrants, beware.