Tens Of Thousands Expected For May Day Immigration Rally In LA

[babylonsister]

Immigration activists plan May Day rallies

Tens of thousands are expected to protest for reform, such as legalization, though policy differences push groups to separate their events into seven marches. Four will be held in downtown L.A.
By Teresa Watanabe
May 1, 2009


Buoyed by perceptions of a bright political climate for immigration reform, thousands of activists plan to rally today in Los Angeles and nationally for migrant and labor rights.

But even as President Obama, a Democratic Congress and many immigrant activists agree on the major outlines of a reform package, some Southern California activists say differences among them have shattered previous unity and resulted in plans to field separate marches.

At least seven marches are scheduled, including four in downtown Los Angeles, as traditional May Day celebrations of workers' rights have expanded to include immigration reform.

Downtown march organizers are projecting between 20,000 and 60,000 participants, far fewer than the hundreds of thousands who turned out in 2006 to protest House passage of legislation that would have criminalized actions by illegal immigrants and their supporters.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rallies1-2009may01,0,7459575.story

[hedgehog]

1. That is bad news. The last thing you want when facing the possibility

of a flu epidemic is people gathering in large crowds - even open air crowds.

"Perhaps most instructive of the outbreaks described is the story of Philadelphia, where a corrupt administration did nothing to quarantine early influenza victims. The director of the city health department refused to halt a Liberty Bond parade, despite doctors' warnings that the virus would spread through the crowd. Physicians fared no better with the newspapers: One doctor demanded that an editor print his warning that the bond rally "would bring together 'a ready-made inflammable mass for a conflagration.' The editor refused."

The population was left to suffer and die. Half a million residents may have fallen sick; 759 died in one day. In the week of Oct. 16, 4,597 Philadelphians died of pneumonia, a secondary infection that frequently finished off flu victims"

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20040215&slug=influenza15

[babylonsister]

2. That was my first thought, too. Might not be such a hot idea

now.