Hundreds of East Bay workers gathered at the Federal Building in Oakland Monday, fighting not only for their rights, but for the rights of others calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Signs, flags and demonstrators filled Clay Street in hopes of sending a clear message to law makers and government officials.
“We are here to say immigrants, workers, students, families, we are the ones who make this country work, and we need to be respected and have really true freedoms in our lives,” Lily Fahsi-Haskell of Critical Resistance, said.
Taking their message to the streets -- a coalition of hundreds of workers, students, union and non-union members marched through downtown Oakland, stopping traffic, and calling for a ceasefire and the end to U.S. military aid to Israel.
“It is our tax dollars at work that pay for the bombs to be sent over there. And we’re here to say, ‘not in our names.’ If we are workers, we are on strike today, this is May Day, International Workers Day and we are not having our tax dollars and our earnings go to bomb people in other countries,” Fahsi-Haskell said.
“I hope that it will shine a light on Palestinian workers first and foremost. I hope that it will also show that labor unions here in Oakland, we do not want our tax money and our labor used for a genocide,” Monica McCown of the Arab Resourcing Organizing Center, said.
For nurses like Martha Khul, she said the violence in Gaza is a workers’ rights issue.
“We think that all workers from around the world should be able to live, take care of their families, earn a living, have healthcare, peace and justice,” she said. “We think that as nurses in particular the nexus for all of us is that we all have those rights.”
A day of action, and demands, that protestors hope will be heard from the town...To the capitol.
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“This day is really rooted in the call to shut down the economy, to demand what we as community members think is just and fair,” Fahsi-haskell.
