Rochester May Day 2010 Demonstration

Date:
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Time:
2:00pm - 5:00pm
Location:
Liberty Pole, East Ave. & E. Main Street, Rochester, NY

BAIL OUT WORKERS, NOT BANKS!!
EQUALITY FOR ALL WORKERS!!

May Day, or International Workers' Day, occurs on May 1st. It is a holiday originally founded in the United States and that is celebrated all over the world but not here. The day commemorates the Haymarket Massacre of 1886 where working people, demonstrating with a demand for the eight-hour day, were fired on by police. Many were killed and the leaders of the march were framed and hung. Since then, celebrations and demonstrations have been held world wide on May Day to uphold the fight against oppression and exploitation wherever they occur in our highly segregated and highly unequal society.

In 2006, millions of undocumented workers struck and marched on May 1st against the villainous Sensenbrenner Bill (H.R. 4437) that would have made undocumented immigration to the United States a felony. That bill was defeated amidst the rise of the modern movement for immigrants' rights. In 2008, May 1st saw dockworkers organized in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union refuse to move any cargo on West coast ports in protest against the Iraq War.

Today, working class people in the US face ever worsening conditions. Median annual income for has plummeted from $43,416 a year in 1975 (in 2004 inflation-adjusted dollars) to $35,100 in 2004 and the housing crisis turned financial meltdown has only sharpened the edge, especially for young workers.

* Whereas Mayor Bob Duffy and Secretary Arne Duncan see fit to curb democracy with Mayoral Control, paving the way to bust our unions with charter schools, and...
* Whereas the federal government sees fit to fatten insurance corporations and leave workers with an excise tax, and...
* Whereas our gay, lesbian, bisexual, and especially transgender brothers and sisters have next to no protection in employment, housing, free speech in the military, or marriage equality, and...
* Whereas our undocumented hermanos y hermanas face unequal pay, face unequal housing, and live in fear of racist persecution, and...
* Whereas women were promised equality but still make 76 cents to their male coworkers' dollar and now face renewed attacks on their right to choose what to do with their own bodies, and...
* Whereas our rights continue to be dismantled and our arab and Muslim brothers and sisters face daily humiliation and persecution, and...
* Whereas the banks got bailed out and we got sold out, and...
* Whereas restoration of the tradition of May Day is long overdue...

We must plan a May Day demonstration.
We must stand in solidarity across lines of age, gender, race, sex, nationality, and sexual orientation.
We must begin to rebuild the Rochester Left.

Banks get bailed out, we get sold out.
An injury to one is an injury to all.

FULL EQUALITY FOR ALL WORKERS
BAILOUT THE WORKERS, NOT THE BANKS

Saturday, May 1st, 2PM meet at the Liberty Pole
Rally at Liberty Pole, across from Bank of America
Then march past: Chase Building, D&C, City Hall with an end rally at the Federal Building

Afterward (4:30-on): Gathering at the Flying Squirrel Community Space (285 Clarissa St)