Guest MINDSETTER™ Martha Yager: A Day Without the 99 Percent
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Imagine a real national strike – a day when all workers take to the street to fight for decent pay and benefits for all of us. Traffic shut down. Transportation shut down. Stores and businesses shut down. And millions of people in the street demanding change!
Okay, so we aren’t there yet. But at the rate the 1% is going in its attacks on workers, unions, immigrants, education, and women, it could be coming sooner rather than later! And groups in Wisconsin and Oakland have held huge strikes that show the potential of the power of the people.
This year May Day (May 1st) in Providence will hold a solidarity march for dignity and respect. Workers and people who want to work but can’t find a job, people who belong to unions and people who don’t, immigrants and citizens, will march together to call attention to several key issues facing us today: the ongoing foreclosure crisis; the dismantling of our education system through closing of community schools, firing of dedicated teachers and privatization; the constant harassment and criminalization of people of color, especially immigrants; the systemic attack on organized labor by corporations; and senseless cuts to programs that support our communities.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTMay Day organizers in Rhode Island and throughout the country are calling for a “Day Without The 99%”, asking people from all walks of life to take time during the day to show solidarity. Refuse to shop. Refuse to use a bank. In some way, indicate that there is not “business as usual” that day. Join the local May Day action. Bring your children – show the kids what people power looks like.
The event in Providence begins at 3:00pm at the Dexter Training Ground (between Cranston and Westminster Streets, behind the Armory). A march to downtown will begin at 3:30pm, stopping at the School Department (stop privatization of public schools and focus on real education), Verizon Offices on Washington St (workers still don’t have a contract), City Hall (Our Money, Our Jobs, Our City), Bank of America (symbol of all the big bad banks that put making huge profits over people) and the Federal Building (Deport ICE, End the “(In) Secure Communities” program, don’t mend it). At each stop there will be a few brief speeches and chants. At the end of the march everyone will return to the Park (there will be buses to help with that) for music, food, information sharing, children’s activities and a joyful celebration of community.
“Working people need the May 1st holiday more than ever – for both inspiration and solidarity,” said Mary Kay Harris, Direct Action for Rights and Equality lead organizer and part of the group organizing this May Day.
“May Day is a day for workers, a day to remind the banks and corporations that they are nothing without their workers. It is time for them to stop enriching themselves and their shareholders at the expense of workers.” states Martha Yager of the American Friends Service Committee, and May Day organizer. “And it is a day to for workers to remind each other that we are all in this together.”
Can’t join the march at 3:00? No problem! There will be students joining the march from various schools, several union groups will join the march along the way, there will be a feeder march of students and workers from Brown to downtown. Or you can just join the group at the park.
Why May Day? May Day is the people’s holiday. It is celebrated in 80 countries around the world since the first event in 1886, when the labor movement in the United States organized a General Strike to win the eight hour day. The holiday had been suppressed in the U.S. until 2006, when millions of immigrant workers around the country organized a “Day Without An Immigrant” to call for comprehensive immigration reform and worker’s rights. Since then there have been efforts to reclaim the holiday and expand the coalition to include the whole 99%.
