All out for May Day! / NYC Info
NYC: This Friday, Stand in Solidarity for Worker & Immigrant
Rights
All out for May Day 2009
Gather at Union Square
14th St. & Broadway in Manhattan
2pm Music & Culture
4pm Rally
5:30 March to Federal Plaza
On May 1st, 2009 thousands and thousands will be marching
around the country demanding worker and immigrant rights.
We urge you to join these demonstrations. In New York, the
May 1st Coalition is gathering at Union Square. Take the
day off to join these protests.
For more information visit www.may1.info, email
may1@leftshift.org or call 212.561.1744
See you on May 1st at Union Square!
Apr 26, 2009
May 1 is May Day -- International Workers' Day. It began in the
United States a long time ago during the struggle for the eight-hour work day,
but that history is not well known here, and for good reason. The scions of
capitalism who feed us their ideology don’t want workers and oppressed
people to know their own history of struggle.
But this year, like every year, workers around the world will take part in
demonstrations, meetings and other actions to mark May Day. In Cuba and other
socialist countries, May Day is a holiday that celebrates the role of workers
in creating a new society.
In 2006, immigrant workers and their supporters revived the tradition of May
Day in the United States by holding demonstrations and work stoppages involving
millions of workers.
This year May Day will be commemorated with demonstrations in New
York, Los Angeles, Detroit and other cities and towns from coast to coast. Once
again, immigrant workers and their allies will mobilize to demand pro-worker
immigration reform and an end to the detentions, raids and deportations that
have torn apart thousands of families.
U.S.-born workers have every reason to join their immigrant sisters and
brothers to make it clear to the bosses and the ruling class that “no
worker is illegal.” Solidarity among all workers is a necessary component
to combating racism and creating the kind of unity that can turn back the
growing attacks on all workers and the oppressed.
The wealth created by the working class is being sucked into the bottomless
pit of capitalist greed at an ever-increasing rate. Workers’ tax dollars
have been diverted by the trillions to bail out banks and corporations and to
fund the Pentagon’s continuing wars and occupations in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, unemployment and mass layoffs are soaring. Wages, benefits and
pensions are being slashed. Budget cuts threaten what remains of social
services. Health care is out of reach for tens of millions. Quality education
is but a costly dream for many youth. Home foreclosures and evictions are
devastating cities and communities while homelessness grows.
May Day is a perfect opportunity for working people of all backgrounds, ages
and nationalities to come together to demand social and economic justice as
well as show solidarity with immigrant workers. Whether the slogan is “A
job is a right” or for a “Moratorium on foreclosures and
evictions,” now is the time for workers to assert their demands.
As the capitalist collapse continues its downward spiral, workers will
continue to find great contradictions in a system that creates fabulous wealth
for a small minority and increasing poverty and misery for the majority.
Objective conditions will create the basis for a growing understanding by
workers that their aims and needs are irreconcilable with those of the
capitalists.
Every demand made for social and economic justice, every step forward in
unity and solidarity, will hasten the day when workers as a class will be able
to act in concert on their own behalf to reclaim the wealth they create and use
it for the benefit of humanity, not for the profit of a wealthy few.
