PHOTOS: May Day joy in protest

People gathered for the 20th year, showing support for workers and immigrants.

Banners, signs, flags, and feathers. The annual May Day march through Seattle was lively, colorful, and peaceful.

Hundreds of people marched from the Central Area through Capitol Hill to downtown, expressing support for workers and immigrants.

At the head of the demonstration, dozens of elaborately costumed dancers from the group, CeAtl Tonalli, led the way with beating drums, stomping feet and a swirling cloud of incense.

Banner- and sign-waving contingents representing activist organizations, trade unions, left-wing political parties, and social service providers followed.

Asian Counseling and Service Referral Service employee, Thu Van Nguyen, marched with her co-workers as a mini-brass band played behind her.

May Day is about celebrating workers, she said.

“I’m a worker and I’m glad to have that value as a worker,” Nguyen said.

The international holiday should get more attention in the United States, said J.M. Wong, who was marching with a group of women of color and families.

“I’m celebrating the legacy of workers’ resistance and how it’s still happening globally,” she said.

Further down the line was a group of young people from Southwest Youth & Family Services. Suri Emigdio held a mega-phone and led them in a chant.

“We are the immigrants! We are the immigrants! The mighty, mighty immigrants! The mighty, mighty immigrants!”

Emigdio, who identifies as Mexican, is concerned about deportation and family separation policies, she said.

“All the Hispanic people and Mexican people that are going through a lot right now, it’s just important for them to know that we’re supporting them,” she said.

The demonstration made brief stops in front of the site of the new King County youth detention center, and in front of Amazon headquarters for a rally to support security guards’ unionizing efforts, and then concluded in front of the federal courthouse. There, dozens of police officers stepped in and separated a handful of hecklers from the main group of demonstrators.

The march was organized by the group, El Comité.

“I know in the community there’s a lot of fear about what Trump is calling us and doing to us, and people are afraid,” organizer Jorge Quiroga said. “But we have to show that we are not going to be pushed back.”