Despite Rain, May Day Rally and Celebration are Successful

An audience of around 50 people attended the May Day rally for workers and immigrant rights at the Liberty Pole on May 1st. A slew of speakers made connections between the immigrant rights movement, the anti-racism movement, and the anti-war movement both regionally and nationally. The rally took place despite a wave of terror launched by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who, days before the rally, raided a Mexican restaurant in Buffalo, NY taking into custody some sixty workers as well as another three farm workers from Wayne County, NY on May 1st, according to the Rochester Alliance for Immigrant Rights.

After the rally there was to be a May Day picnic and outdoor social that had to be relocated because of rain. The Anti-war Storefront on Monroe Avenue generously donated their space for the picnic to take place. Approximately 40 people attended; there was food, hula-hooping, sidewalk soccer, music, dancing, and radical readings from authors such as Emma Goldman, Voltairine de Cleyre, the Haymarket Martyrs, the Industrial Workers of the World, and others.

Photos: Rochester Against War May Day photo gallery | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6