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Spurred by the passage of the anti-immigrant law, SB1070 in Arizona, and by the lack of federal comprehensive immigration reform, hundreds of thousands of people turned out for May Day marches all over the nation this weekend. Rallies took place in major cities from New York to San Francisco. Los Angeles played host to the largest assembly of pro-immigrant rights demonstrators on Saturday as the number of people who took to the streets of the city’s downtown far exceeded conservative police estimates of 50,000. In the resurgent May Day marches, activists in LA and around the nation displayed solidarity with immigrants and their advocates in Arizona decrying the legislation that many fear promotes racial profiling. More than a week after signing the controversial bill into law, Governor Jan Brewer has yet another polarizing measure before her desk. Arizona lawmakers are seeking to ban ethnic studies programs currently offered by the Tucson Unified School District as the state Superintendent of Public Instruction has deemed it as promoting “ethnic chauvinism.”

Uprising correspondent Chris Bennett filed a report from LA’s May Day March.

NOTE: The music at the end of the report is by Marisoul from the band La Santa Cecelia