May 1, 2007—For the second year in a row, May Day is back in the political consciousness of people across the U.S. In the streets of Southwest Detroit, thousands of immigrants, Latino/as, and other community members marched in support of just treatment of workers and immigrant rights.

May Day, the international workers' holiday, commemorates labor struggles from across the world. The immigrant and Latino/a rights movement has for the second year in a row chosen May 1st to gather, march, rally and call for a general strike to show the massive power and impact immigrants and Latino/as have in the US economy. Protests kicked off across the country in May 2006 with mobilizations of hundreds of thousands of people coming together to speak out against national legislation seeking to tighten regulations on immigration and punish undocumented living in the U.S.

In Detroit, marchers came together protesting unjust working conditions, discrimination on the job and in everyday life, the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, and policies designed to punish and intimidate workers who are an irreplaceable component of the U.S. economy. Speakers from Michigan Emergency Committee Against the War, Michigan Welfare Rights, the United Autoworkers Union, Latinos Unidos, and El Centro Obrero de Detroit spoke of the inspirational power of the new civil rights movement being forged by immigrants and lantino/as today.