May 1 is International Workers' Rights Day in most countries of the world, though not here. Barack Obama chose to celebrate it in Afghanistan. Here follows an account of an anarchist/labor rally and march today in Washington, DC.

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Crowds milled around the White House the early evening of May 1, a spectacular day. The usual cast-iron gates seemed more protective than ever, even though the president preferred Afghanistan to this scenario closer to home: an Occupy DC rally and march.

Would the Occupiers be distinguishable from all these tourists? I wondered.

There were so many nationalities--parents and kids, turbans and saris, hardly a black person in sight. You can tell the American whites from others because they are smug and loud. Are they part of the 99 percent? They don't seem to be, exuding prosperity as they do.

Where are the Occupiers? I ask a policeman. "Who?" he asks. "The protesters. Are they on the other side?" "No, they'll be here."

It's seven and I don't see them. Here comes another crowd, but protesters don't wear peach-colored shorts.

The lady with the red, white, and blue lai has departed. Here's a picture:

What a mess it will be if protesters do show up. Some officious guy in all black asks me where they are. The clumps of tour groups are marching for them.

DC Occupy doesn't like me. I've visited them a few times. They treat me like the one percent, which I'm not.

They're gone from the DC encampments, I was told later. The ones at McPherson were rudely and roughly dispersed in the act of complying with the orders by policemen in horseback, who had been affable a week ago. Park police, who were supposed to be nicer than the others.

Two guys in light blue, Oxford cloth shirts pass by--plainclothesmen? I stare uneasily. They stare back.

There's a guy sitting on the curb with signs. Two police immediately join him, from a distance. "Bin Laden was on the right side, Arab. We're on the wrong one," reads one. "US Out of Afghanistan," reads another. There must be at least fifty of them. He's not Occupy, he says, but he'll demonstrate with them. He's lining the street with signs as tourists watch.

In Oakland and Seattle today, the rallies stormed, but here it didn't rain--God didn't want to soak the tourists.

Wow, a crowd of teenage girls in uniforms. They're dressed too warmly. Sweaters and dark stockings. I ask one where they're from. Brooklyn. What school? Beth Jacob of Bar Park. There must be one hundred of them. Orthodox Jews, no doubt.

The Occupiers first rallied at Malcolm X Park this afternoon in Columbia Heights, 1.5 miles away, a woman later told me. There were many speakers, along with a Union choir that sang a capella. A few hundred people showed up. Lots of Communists, she said.

Look, the tourists are marching for us. Here are the peace people around that tent that's been there since 1981, the twenty-four-hour vigil by a lady named Concepci ó n. There is a petition linked to the site www.whitehousepeacevigil.org , collecting signatures to persuade the government to build a permanent structure to replace the tent and make it more inhabitable all times of the year.

A woman on metal crutches, in her mid-fifties, is an Occupier who's been with the group since its inception at the beginning of October 2011. She wears a red and white khafiya, expressing sympathy with the Palestinians. She said she was injured in February by a policeman on a horse he couldn't control. That on top of Lyme disease and arthritis. She has been in every state on the continent. She was trained as an EMT when she was in the army, so that she served as a medic for Occupy DC. "Why are these things always all about the police?" I ask her.

It's now about 7:40. A chant rises from a distance: "We are the 99 percent!" over and over again. Awesome. "The people united will never be defeated!" they continue and repeat. The group of three hundred fills the width of the road. By this time the tourist crowds have dwindled, but those who remain are friendly and inquisitive. The marchers are headed up by a giant sunflower dragon (see picture under title; here is another):

One man clearing up the dragon later asks me what I would eat if I were one. "The one percent!" I answer.

The crowd stops in front of the White House. Speakers have traveled from as far away as the Philippines, Honduras, and Bengla Desh. I see Che Guevara on the back of a shirt and on a flag. This is the leftist event I have attended since I used to follow ANSWER.

Here is a photo of a reporter photographing himself as he narrates what's going on:

A few people stand around one carrying an Israeli flag. I am amazed to see one within such a leftist assemblage. I go closer. Some people are attacking the people attending the flag. The Israel people's arguments back aren't terribly convincing. "What chutzpah," I think to myself. I ask a man standing next to me to please lift a corner of the flag so that I can photograph it. "I'm not Jewish, so I won't," he answers with a straight face. Heil Hitler! But the flag is unassailed and tolerated otherwise. Quite moving actually.

  

Speakers representing labor unions recall pivotal events from the past, massacres and triumphs. The International Workers' Rights Day originated with the Haymarket Riots in the late nineteenth century, I read. But it is now celebrated nearly everywhere but here.

Says another speaker: "We may not see it in our lifetimes, but it happened with the Soviet Union, with China, and with Vietnam! Fascism is here! Millions of lives could have been saved!"

"Join us! Join us! Join us! Fight back!"

I leave soon after. The event is breaking up. The police barriers stashed neatly nearby were not necessary. I did hear one policeman mutter, "We've got'em in our trunks." Riot gear, probably. Tasers. Not tonight, Josephine. We gave peace a chance.

Authors Website: http://www.wordsunltd.com

Authors Bio:

Marta Steele is an author/editor/blogger who has been writing for Opednews.com since 2006. She is also author of the 2012 book "Grassroots, Geeks, Pros, and Pols: The Election Integrity Movement's Nonstop Battle to Win Back the People's Vote, 2000-2008" (Columbus, Free Press) and a member of the Election Integrity movement since 2001. Her original website, WordsUnLtd.com, first entered the blogosphere in 2003. She recently became a senior editor for Opednews.com. She has in the past taught college and worked as a full-time as well as freelance reporter. She has been a peace and election integrity activist since 1999. Her undergraduate and graduate educational background are in Spanish, classical philology, and historical and comparative linguistics. Her biography is most recently listed in "Who's Who in America" 2019 and in 2018 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Who's Who.