May Day celebrations return to North Carolina

And you are invited!

May 1 is celebrated around the world as International Workers Day. Often overlooked in America, May Day actually was born here - specifically in Chicago  - after the 1886 Haymarket Massacre, where police fired on workers during a general strike for the eight-hour workday.

Triangle Jobs with Justice would like to invite everyone to take part in a May Day 2012 mobilization in Durham, NC.

What: May Day 2012 celebration
When: May 1 beginning at 3pm followed by 5pm potluck, 6pm march through Durham, and 7pm rally
Where: the People's Plaza (aka, CCB Plaza), 201 N Corcoran St, Durham, NC, 27701

From the invitation:

May Day is important this year as a day of action for economic justice and equality.

Over the past year, we have been inspired by people’s movements, resistance and actions around the globe. We have experienced an awakening over the past year that has created a new political movement and a focus on economic justice, and we believe that May Day 2012 is an opportunity for us to cultivate a broad and potent coalition of communities, organizations, and others seeking to build a different city and a different world. We believe that it can be not only a moment to demonstrate our discontent, but to begin to think together toward building self-determination for and from our communities.

Join us on May 1 as we rally for:

• Good jobs and living wages
• The right to join a union, the right to organize for all workers, and the right to collective bargaining
• Justice for immigrants, including amnesty and an end to deportations
• An end to police brutality, mass incarceration of communities of color, and all forms of oppression and discrimination
• Public sector jobs and services and public budgets that meet human needs

The schedule of events includes:

3 p.m. Arts and Cultural Festival at People’s Plaza (CCB Plaza) in Durham

5 p.m. Potluck

6 p.m. March through downtown Durham starting at People’s Plaza -

7 p.m. Rally and speeches at People’s Plaza

Speakers at the rally will include our own MaryBe McMillan, Secretary-Treasurer of the NC State AFL-CIO. Joining MaryBe at the mic will be speakers from the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC, AFL-CIO), All of Us NC, the North Carolina DREAM Team, and Black Workers for Justice.

For more information, contact Katya Roytburd at 518-588-7553.