Small, Uninterested Crowds Mark May Day

Pro-communist groups celebrating May Day, the holiday that honors workers worldwide, encountered a handful of hostile Christian fundamentalists, scattered supporters and mostly uninterested crowds Sunday in separate rallies in Los Angeles.

About 250 marchers from the Progressive Labor Party and the International Committee Against Racism paraded up Broadway from Olympic Boulevard to 1st Street, chanting communist slogans, waving red and yellow flags and drawing a mostly mild reaction from people watching.

The organizers had fought in court for the right to walk up Broadway, overturning a Los Angeles Police Commission decision that would have restricted the groups to nearby Spring Street, which is nearly empty during the weekend. Broadway merchants had complained that the parade disrupts business on the county’s busiest pedestrian street.

“Everybody is standing outside, paying attention” to the parade, said Albert Saghian, owner of Sexy Fashion. “This is terrible. If they want to be like this, then they should go over to the Soviet Union.”

Later, in MacArthur Park, a group affiliated with the Revolutionary Communist Party and a group describing itself as “Christian patriots” traded taunts and jeers in May Day demonstrations and counterdemonstrations.

As the Christian group chanted “Marxist slaves, Jesus saves” and waved yellow signs with Bible verses and a crucifix, the leftists responded by waving an effigy of Uncle Sam and told passers-by, “It’s right to rebel.” Most of their chants were in Spanish to appeal to the predominantly Latino crowd in the park.

Members of the communist group draped red banners from a couple of trees and blew whistles to drown out the Christians, who sang “God Bless America.” A handful of Contra rebel supporters told the communists to go to Nicaragua if they did not like it here.

Watched by Police

Helmeted police officers watched, warning both sides at one point to keep their distance. Except for one scuffle between members of the rival sides, most of the confrontation was confined to shouting.