May Day Planning Meeting #3

May Day Planning Meeting #3
Facebook Event Page [ LINK ]

Organizing May Day 2010 has been going really really well so far, we're beginning outreach, and workshop preparations, the propaganda committee is gearing up to start producing posters, fliers, zines, etc. and will soon need help distributing that material. Puppet Making workshops with All The Saints Theater will beginning in March. We'll need volunteers to help them facilitate workshops with different groups as well as produce the massive puppets for the PARADE! We also need bands and promoters to help set up some benefit shows to cover some of the cost of this entire organizing process.

If any of those things seem interesting to you, please consider getting involved! If you know an organization who might like to endorse this years May Day get in touch! We can use all the help we can get. There is a lot of work to do!

http://maydayrva.org
maydayrva@gmail.com

Next Meeting: Sunday February 7, 2010
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Where: Plant Zero | Zero E. 4th Street (just across the 14th St. Bridge) in Studio #3



May Day! Workers of the World Unite!

This is our day! International Workers Day! Our day to recognize and appreciate the social and economic achievements of the international labor movement. The struggle began in 1884 when the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution that would enact an eight-hour workday beginning on May 1, 1886. On May 4th, 1886 during a general strike for the eight hour day in Chicago, police fired on strikers and killed a dozen people in what has become known as the Haymarket Massacre. In 1890, Labor activists, Leftists, Socialists and Anarchists began celebrating May 1 as the International Worker's Holiday to achieve "...the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, the class demands of the proletariat, and universal peace."

With the specter of a market free of government regulation that reaches far beyond the familiar borders of the United States, there is a need, more than ever, for a labor movement that demands for the rights of working people, and holds accountable the government and corporations for the injustices that we are forced to endure at the mercy of the wealthy.

The Struggle Continues! We must Organize!

There is no time better than now! From the office worker in a business suit to the construction worker in coveralls, no one has been left untouched. Corporate greed permeates every aspect of our lives as workers are laid off without benefits and left to fight to save their homes from foreclosure. While the city becomes a destination for the suburban middle class, protections for lower income residents are virtually non existent. Urban planners are heralded for ushering new life, income and opportunities into the area, but they also inadvertently pave the way for gentrification and the displacement of those who depend on the proximity of jobs and public transportation to survive. Developers left unchecked by city government are threatening Public Housing residents with the prospect of becoming homeless. All the while, institutional racism continues to permeate our culture, with hate groups on the rise in both membership and influence. And despite the popular movement demanding health care for all, the decision has been handed over to the insurance companies.

The economy has reached an all time low and workers are left to fend for themselves with few solutions. Immigrant and migrant workers continue to be scapegoated drawing attention away from the role of corporations and the destabilizing effects of free trade agreements. Recognizing our similarities rather than differences, we are united around the core principle that we must link arms and fight back in the spirit of those that came before us in a true display of solidarity.

This May Day we wish to demonstrate the presence of a labor movement in Richmond that is ready to fight against the multitude of injustices in our communities. We wish to unite individuals, faith based groups, unions, students, teachers and progressive organizations who will stand in solidarity with one another, for economic & social justice, freedom, and equality! And overall, we wish to better define the overlapping issue of capitalism that exists at the root of all our working class woes.