The march was led off by about 150 members of the Canadian Auto Workers union from the GM auto assembly plant in Boisbriand, just north of Montreal. Earlier in the day 800 GM workers had gathered outside the plant offices to protest the closing of the factory, the only auto assembly plant in Quebec.

Stepping in behind the GM workers was a contingent of more than 150 from Radio-Canada, the federal-government-owned French-language TV network. The members of the Quebec Confederation of National Trade Unions have been locked out since March 23 following a one-day strike.

For Elsa LeGault and Judith Boivin, editing assistants in the newsroom of Radio-Canada, the central question is job security. "I have worked for R-C for nine years," LeGault explained, "but I am still not a permanent employee. I don’t even have a temporary contract that can be renewed. I can lose my job like that," she said, snapping her fingers. "And if ever I do become permanent, my seniority begins then. The nine years I’ve put in don’t count."

Behind the Radio-Canada workers came more than 100 steelworkers. Among them were 40 members of Local 7625 who made the 45-minute trip down from Sorel, an industrial town east of Montreal. They are on the picket line at La Fonderie Perle fighting a new owner trying to push back past gains of the workers and seriously weaken the union. A similar fight is taking place at Permacon in Montreal. Steelworkers from that plant also joined the march.

"The foremen act like they’re the principals of an elementary school, " said Johanne Molaison, as she marched in the contingent of 150 striking aircraft workers from Bombardier, the world’s third largest civil aircraft manufacturer. "They won’t let you miss work if one of your kids is at home sick or because of a snowstorm."

Molaison has worked for a year as an assembler. She summed up the feelings of a number of young workers who are the targets of disciplinary action by the company and were the driving force behind the first strike in 37 years at the company.

Joining the march were about 70 unionists employed by the cable company Videotron. Some 2,200 workers at the company, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, are scheduled to go on strike May 8 in a fight for job security and against contracting out of jobs. The bosses are demanding $300 million in concessions from the union, as well as the contracting out of work by the technicians, who would see their wages cut by as much as 34 percent.  
 
Thousands march in Los Angeles
Chanting "Sin licencia, no hay paz" (No license, no peace) and "Si, se puede," several thousand people marched here May 1 in support of equal rights for immigrants and to celebrate the international workers’ holiday.

"Davis: licencia!" was another popular chant, directed at California Gov. Gray Davis, demanding the right of the undocumented to obtain drivers licenses. The march went through downtown Los Angeles and ended in a rally at the federal building, which houses the main offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in this city. As the march made its way through El Centro, the downtown garment and jewelry district, hundreds of workers just getting off the job watched from the sidewalks. Dozens heeded the invitation of marchers to join the demonstration. Among those marching were hotel workers, gardeners, garment workers, teachers, janitors, and students.

Members of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union; the Service Employees International Union; the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the Immigrant Workers Union; and the Southern California District Council of Construction Craft Laborers marched with signs and banners identifying their unions. "Trabajo, si; migra no," "One drivers license for all," and "La clase obrera no tiene frontera," (The working class has no borders) read some of the signs carried by participants. In one 12-story building containing factories on each floor, a large banner was hung outside the factory window about six stories up that read, "Latinos unidos por la legalization" (Latinos united for legalization).

Patricia, a housekeeper who drove from Orange County to participate in the action, said she came because the fight is important. "And if we keep doing what we’re doing today, I know we are going to win what we’re fighting for," she said.

The march, which was sponsored by the Multiethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing Network (MIWON) and a coalition of other groups, was the third annual demonstration of its kind.  
 
Millions rally in Cuba
Throughout Cuba, some 7 million people joined the May Day celebrations. Cuban president Fidel Castro addressed a huge gathering at Revolution Square in Havana. Castro spoke about the recent vote engineered by Washington at a UN-sponsored meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, slandering Cuba for so-called human rights abuses.

"We were condemned in Geneva by those who believe that this sea of people gathered here, which can be seen from every corner of the globe, has been deprived of its human rights," Castro said. "I am certain that not one of those Latin American countries that promoted, cosponsored, or supported this project could gather even 5 percent of the number here in their respective capitals."

"Our people’s glorious tradition of rebellion and patriotic struggle," continued Castro, "to which we must today add a full and profound understanding of freedom, equality, and human dignity; their solidarity and internationalist spirit; their self-confidence and heroic conduct; 43 years of tenacious and unrelenting struggle against the powerful empire; a broad and solid political culture and an extraordinary humanism--all of these qualities cultivated by the Revolution--have made Cuba a unique country."

"Wretched indeed is the destiny of hundreds of millions of people in this part of the world, who, from a truly human perspective, have been as yet unable to emerge from humanity’s prehistory," stated Castro. "And it will not be possible for them to escape such conditions while the pillage that slaughtered tens of millions of their native ancestors, successively turning their countries into colonies, neocolonies, and economically dependent and underdeveloped countries, continues to govern their destiny."

"Latin America exhibits the greatest differences between the richest and the poorest," the Cuban president pointed out. "The enjoyment of wealth, education, knowledge, and culture are the preserve of those who, accounting for a tiny fraction of the population, receive the larger parts of the goods produced in their countries."

Castro emphasized, "To those who so foolishly speak and repeat the imperialists’ slogan that no democracy and no respect for human rights exist in Cuba, let me repeat: no one can question the fact that, despite being very small, our country today is the freest, fairest, and most supportive country on the planet. It is also by far the most democratic.

"There is only one party," he said, "but this neither nominates nor elects candidates. This is completely forbidden: it is the citizens from the grassroots level who propose, nominate, and elect candidates. Our country enjoys an enviable and ever more solid and indestructible unity. The media is public and does not and cannot belong to private individuals. It carries no commercial advertisements and it does not promote consumerism; it entertains and informs, educates and never alienates."  
 
Action in Greece back Palestinians
In Athens, Greece, a May Day march, organized by the Athens Labor Center with the participation of the General Federation of Workers of Greece and the public sector unions, assembled at the U.S. embassy and marched to the Israeli embassy to protest the continued occupation of Palestinian towns and villages by the Israeli army.

"There is no peace without justice--a state for Palestine now!" chanted the several thousand participants, along with slogans demanding that the government end its assault on social security. Many tens of thousands of working people--union and nonunion--have taken to the streets in the past year in defense of social security and living pensions.

In Reykjavik, Iceland, more than 10,000 people participated in a May Day march, according to Morgunbladid, the main daily paper there. Organized by the Delegate Council of the trade unions in Reykjavik, the demonstration was joined by numerous Palestinians and youth who carried Palestinian banners and signs demanding that Israel stop the killings and withdraw their army from the occupied territories.

The Federation of Apprentices also joined the action with their demands for student housing and a better wage for trainees. Two apprentice students, marching alongside a couple of Young Socialists, explained that they were from another part of the country and had to come here to finish their apprenticeship. But the school had no housing. For more than a decade the Federation of Apprentices had a housing project for the students, which is about to fall apart because it is too big an economic burden. This, they said, is one of many examples of discrimination facing young people who live outside of Reykjavik.

Natasha Terlexis in Athens, Greece; Nan Bailey in Los Angeles; Atli Freyr Fridbjörsson and Sigurlaug Gunnlaugsdottir in Reykjavik, Iceland; and Brian Williams in New York contributed to this article.  
 
 
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