May 1st Coalition: UNIONIZE, LEGALIZE, ORGANIZE

This May Day, Occupy Wall Street is rising up in solidarity with the immigrant rights movement. Years before #OWS, May Day was revitalized in the U.S. as a day of mass mobilization against the unjust, racist U.S. immigration system. On May Day 2006, the May 1st Coalition helped organize the largest protest in NYC history, bringing hundreds of thousands of people to the streets in a march stretching over 26 city blocks. This year, as we gather as a unified front for economic justice in a Day Without the 99%, they are leading the struggle to UNIONIZE, LEGALIZE, and ORGANIZE.

via the May 1st Coalition:

Dear Brothers and Sisters

We bring you excellent news and a message from the May 1st Coalition.

On this May 1st 2012, there will a unified celebration. We immigrants have united with the most important unions of New York, the working class along with Occupy Wall Street. This has come about after long and intense debates, at which point we concluded an agreement to realize a single act on May 1st in historic Unión Square.

This agreement and example of unity was proposed to all the delegates at the National Conference and to the peoples, States and Counties of this country.

Also, given the incapacity of Congress and its two chambers, the White House and the corrupt political system of the United States, we propose on May 1st to transform our multifaceted forms of organization and struggle into one center of PEOPLE’S POWER, consisting of union power, of social power, including those from the countryside, in the sweatshop factories, and throughout the poor neighborhoods, all as an alternative to capitalist and imperialist power.

We demand LEGALIZATION for the 12 and perhaps 20 million undocumented immigrants which will in turn allow the youth to pursue higher education. Furthermore, no youth should be obliged to enter the Armed Forces and sent to fight imperial wars.

In calling for legalization for all NOW, we are demanding an end to:

deportations immigration raids the fracturing of families We demand debt forgiveness on houses lost and the return of those houses and property of the 15 million families affected by the mortgage crisis brought on by the avarice of the Banks.

We demand immediate employment for the 40 million chronically unemployed, whose ranks are swelling by the prolonged crisis and recession of the capitalist system on an international level. We Occupy to Create People’s Power.

We demand immediate freedom to the thousands of immigrants currently being held prisoner in the jails and concentration camps. We want immediate closure to the Center of Torture and extermination in Guantanamo. MR. OBAMA, ENOUGH OF YOUR LIES AND DEMAGOGUERY. Stop the torture!

We demand a halt to all war preparations against Iran. No to the utilization of nuclear arms against civilian populations. The United States is not the COP of the world. Troops out of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and an end to all imperialist military bases around the world.

As always, we will fight for civil rights and the human rights for education, health and employment without discrimination of any type.

To our friends the people of Iran, we are always with you.

FRATERNAL GREETINGS TO ALL WOMEN WHO STRUGGLE. THEY ARE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL IN THE UNIVERSE.

It is only Revolution that will set us free. It is now time to CREATE, CREATE PEOPLE’S POWER IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST OF IMPERIALISM.

We will see you on May 1st in Union Square

Event Info:

MAY DAY 2012: UNIONIZE, LEGALIZE, ORGANIZE
A Day Without the 99%
no work | no shopping | no housework | no school

Rally for Worker & Immigrant Rights:

• Jobs, Education and Housing for all
• Stop the Deportations!
• Legalization for the undocumented now
• Justice for Trayvon Martin, End Racist Abuse
• No border Militarisation or U.S. Wars abroad

Tuesday, May 1st

• Gather 12 noon | Union Square
• 4 pm Unity Rally with May 1st Coalition, Labor & the OWS Movement
• March to Wall Street 5:30 pm stopping at MTA & Post Office along the route
• Know Your Rights Trainings • Speakers • Cultural Performers All Day

More on the May 1st Coalition:

The May 1st Coalition for Worker & Immigrant Rights was formed in 2006 in response to the massive mobilizations of immigrants against the repressive Sensenbrenner legislation in New York and around the country. Supporting the many actions in the spring of that year, the May 1st Coalition was formed as a need to organize the largest May Day rally in decades. Many of the organizations that formed the May 1st Coalition had organized for May Day in 2005 as well with the aim of reviving the spirit of May Day in this country after decades of dormancy.

Our coalition believes that May Day symbolizes a spirit of struggle and fightback that is urgently needed today. Whether it is the massive unprecedented deportations of almost a million workers since 2008 or the attacks on unions or public sector workers, the dire and deepening economic and social crisis demands a militant organized response from the people. We must struggle to act in our name as workers.

Since 2006, we have organized the annual May Day Rally at Union Square, supported and organized many campaigns for labor and immigrant rights and have worked to build local and national alliances with all those in the fight for social justice. Our coalition stands firm in the need to build alliances with all those in the fight for workers rights, against U.S. wars abroad and connecting each and every struggle. An injury to one is an injury to all.