The May Day Union Square Coalition
MEDIA ADVISORY
CONTACTS: Michael Bellamy (216) 571-4517
EN ESPANOL: Teresa Gutierrez (917) 328-6470 Daniel Vila (718) 414-9558
Email: bellamymichaeld@gmail.comvila4
WHY WE ARE MARCHING ON UNION SQUARE ON MAY DAY
Monday, May 1 — Union Square, NYC
Gathering starting at Noon
Marching at 5:00 PM
International Migrants Alliance-USA Chapter (IMA-USA) “We stand with the workers of the world on May 1st, International Workers’ Day at Union Square. It was in the US where May Day began in a general strike in 1886 to demand an 8-hour work day. The US enters a new period under the Trump administration– a brazenly fascist, racist and anti-im/migrant president — in his first 100 days we have seen his administration attack immigrants, migrant workers, and working-class people of color through his proposed Executive Orders. Trump has made clear that refugees are not welcome. We call on all migrants and refugees to stand up against this new face of U.S. imperialism. Trump is pitting the U.S. working class so we must strive to create bridges, not bans or walls, to connect our struggles together. This May Day 2017, just like in 1886, we support the calls for a general strike and to shut down businesses.”
South Asian Fund For Education, Scholarship and Training(SAFEST) “It’s important to celebrate May Day because we celebrate the labor movement and the Working middle class. Without this important movement, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy time off, a weekend, a 8 hour work day and many other things that many take for granted today”
Movimiento Cosecha “We are mobilizing to show people the power they have in their communities. We are not politically affiliated because we believe that we should not depend on others to create change for us and that the most powerful tool we have is our own strength.”
Nodutdol for Korean Community Development: “Our members are going to Union Square to condemn Trump’s military escalation toward the Korean Peninsula and to demand an immediate end to the THAAD deployment in Seongju, South Korea. This latest provocation is part of Trump’s war on the people, and as immigrants and children of immigrants, we condemn his actions that harm us at home and abroad.”
Terrea Mitchell, Peoples Power Assembly: “To represent marginalized communities of which I am a member; it is important that we fight for Immigrant lives, Muslim lines, Black Lives Matter, and persons with disabilities and against this fascist and racist presidential Administration. That’s WHY I AM GOING TO UNION SQUARE ON MAY DAY.”
BAYAN USA: “Filipinos are calling to shut it down on May 1st because our people are amongst those that are facing increasing state violence and fascism. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has listed over 300,000 Filipinos who could face deportation, with other estimates ranging as high as 800,000. This May Day, we will join with thousands to demonstrate our decisive and collective strength in the streets. We will unite in solidarity with the peoples of the world to resist state repression and fight for liberation!”
HondurasUSAResistencia: “As Hondurans fighting against the effects of the US-sponsored coup in our country, we will be at Union Square to demand asylum and permanent residency for all Central Americans in the U.S. We also will march to demand that the U.S. stop interfering in our countries.”
International League for Peoples Struggle: “The rise of an open fascist and racist regime such as Trump’s is rooted in a economic system in a long-term decline. That is the system of monopoly capitalism, or imperialism, which is also escalating US war and militarism overseas as it represses and divides the working class and oppressed minorities in the US. But these conditions are a fertile ground for people’s resistance and revolutionary struggle that is more decisive than the ruling 1% in not only shutting down the current system, but building pro-people alternatives.”
Committee to Stop FBI Repression: “We are marching on May Day in solidarity with all refugees who have been turned away from their country due to war and US aggression. Specifically, we stand in solidarity with Rasmea Odeh, a Palestinian American who due to state-driven attack on her for her activism, is being deported. We’re united against the Trump’s Agenda and we’ll continue fighting beyond May Day!”
International Action Center: “May Day in every country for more than 100 years is a measure of the workers consciousness and determination to confront the whole rotten capitalist system that needs racism, war and repression to keep us divided. As a global class we grow stronger when we defend the most oppressed. Build international solidarity.”
Sisa Pakari Cultural & Labor Center: “We invite all workers and immigrants to Strike on May 1, International Workers Day or May Day. We will be at Union Square and march in defense of workers rights, an end to all deportations, and an end to US wars of agression and interference in the affairs of other countries.”
Party for Socialism and Liberation: “We are going to be at May Day at Union square because now more than ever we need to stand up against the Trump Agenda and Trump’s attack on workers and immigrants.”
Workers World Party: “The Trump administration’s anti-immigrant attack is meant to divide the working class. We must unite to defend migrants in order to defend all workers. On May 2, the movement will defend any worker
Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network: “The fight to free Palestine from Zionist settler-colonialism lies at the heart of international solidarity among the workers and oppressed peoples of the world. And as the Palestinian prisoners’ movement’s struggle escalates with the biggest mass hunger strike in years, so must our resistance to US imperialism, the key enabler of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people.”
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