May Day honors workers’ rights

When Patrick Hughes’ ancestors came to the United States, they came for opportunities they didn’t have in their native lands.

Hughes, president of Iowa City Federation of Labor, compared his ancestors’ story to immigrants today.

“With current immigration law, I wouldn’t be standing here. Most of you wouldn’t be standing here,” Hughes said Friday during the May Day 2009 celebration in Iowa City.

May Day is celebrated throughout the world, honoring workers’ rights. In the U.S., May Day also brings to light the struggles of immigrants, said Ryan Spurgetis, a member of the May Day Organizing Committee. The Iowa City event Friday in the pedestrian mall included speakers, music, food and activists groups’ tables.

Current immigration laws don’t work for the common people, Hughes said.

“We’ve got an immigration system here that is broke,” he said.

Hughes encouraged unionization for all types of workers, including recent immigrants.

“As a carpenter, I used to be angry at those folks,” Hughes said. “But you know what, a carpenter is a carpenter.”

All are working for the same things, he said, money to put their kids through school or pay for a home.

Union workers are three times as likely to have health insurance and four times as likely to have a pension as a non-union worker.

“We need decent wages in this country. We need to rebuild the middle class,” Hughes said. “Union wages and union benefits rebuild the middle class.”

Karen Kubby, former executive director of the Emma Goldman Clinic who now co-owns Dawn’s Hide & Bead Away, encouraged the more than 30 people who gathered for the noon hour program to think of May Day not only as a remembrance of workers’ struggles, but for the many meanings of the word “may.”

In statements such as “May I have an eight-hour work day?” may is a permissive word, she said. In other statements such as “We may have real change in this country to have health care for all” the word may is full of potential, she said.

Gene Baur, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, spoke about the conditions in meat packing factories.

“Animals are seen as unfeeling units of production,” Baur said. “On today’s factory farms, unfortunately bad becomes normal” for animals, employees and consumers, he said.

Baur encouraged the people in attendance to empower agricultural systems that do not exploit animals and people, such as farmers markets and community gardening.

http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20090502/NEWS01/905020323/1079/NEWS01/May+Day+honors+workers++rights

Remember workers’ rights

What comes to mind when you think of May Day? Baskets left on your front door? Candy? Flowers?

How about workers striking for labor rights? Unless you are from outside of the United States and Canada, the latter association is one with which you may not be familiar. Nearly everywhere in the world but the U.S., May 1 is International Workers’ Day or Labor Day — yet, this celebration of workers’ rights is based on an event that occurred on American soil. On May 3, 1886, in Chicago, striking workers from the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company gathered for a rally demanding an eight-hour work day. When the working day ended, a group of strikers non-violently confronted strikebreakers leaving the plant — and police fired on the crowd, killing two workers. The next day, May 4, a non-violent rally was called in front of the plant, located at Haymarket Square, to protest police violence. The rally occurred without much incident, until about 10:30 p.m., when the crowd was commanded to disperse by police, who began advancing on the speakers. An unknown person threw a pipe bomb into the crowd, and the police proceeded to open fire. In all, eight police officers and four workers were killed in the incident. Eight labor leaders were tried in connection with the bomb throwing — seven of them convicted and sentenced to death by hanging, in what has been characterized as a miscarriage of justice due to the spurious evidence against the defendants. Led by the American Federation of Labor, international workers called for a day of solidarity with workers in the fight for the eight-hour work day. May 1, 1890, was declared the date of the first International Workers’ Day, partly as a memorial to the Haymarket martyrs who died for workers’ rights, and has stood as a day of recognition for most of the world ever since. Due to the work of an alliance between politicians and conservative labor unions, the U.S. recognizes laborers in September, making a conscious decision to disassociate Labor Day from its radical beginnings. But May Day would not die. In 2006, May 1 was selected by immigrant rights’ groups in the U.S. for the Great American Boycott, a general strike by immigrant workers to protest immigration reform legislation. Also called “A Day Without an Immigrant,” the day was intended to highlight America’s dependency on immigrant workers. Millions of people across the country participated in marches, rallies and demonstrations.

The spirit of May Day continues in Iowa City as a day to honor those who have made great sacrifices both to ensure that many of us only have to work eight hours a day, five days a week, and to fight for those whose labor is still exploited.

We of the May Day Organizing Committee call upon the community to participate in this year’s May Day celebration. The event will be from noon to 9 p.m. Friday on the pedestrian mall in downtown Iowa City.

The laborer-and-immigrant rights centered festival will feature speakers including author Gene Bauer and other speakers during the noon hour. From 3 to 5 p.m. there will be labor and immigration-themed workshops, information tables of local social justice groups, a pie-eating contest, and the beginning of children’s activities. After 5 p.m. there will be speakers and music by local artists, including Liberty Leg and Matt Grimm and the Red Smear. For more information, contact may-day-ic@googlegroups.com.

http://press-citizen.com/article/20090430/OPINION02/904300313

May Day Schedule

If there’s bad weather (looks like there’s a chance), events will be held at the Wesley Center at 120 N. Dubuque Street starting at 3PM.

Otherwise, here’s the schedule as of Thursday. A concrete one will be available for handout on the day itself and will be distributed downtown.

12:00 – 12:20 Gene Bauer, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, on Conditions in Meat Packing Factories

12:20 – 12:35 Patrick Hughes, President of Iowa City Federation of Labor, on Employee Free Choice Act

12:35 – 12:50 Karen Kubby, former Executive Director of the Emma Goldman Clinic, on The History of May Day

12:50 – 3:00 BREAK

3:00 – 3:40 Vernon Jackson, on the Prison Industrial Complex

3:40 – 4:00 Hula Hoop contest

4:00 – 4:40 Carlos Rich, Midwest Immigrant Health Project, on Combating Anti-Immigrant Racism

4:40 – 5:00 Piece of the Pie Eating Contest

5:00 – 5:20 Dow Voss, on History of Labor Movement and Current Issues

5:20 – 5:30 Dave Leshtz, Representative Loebsack’s office, on Upcoming Immigration Legislation

5:30 – 5:45 Amy Logsden, Iowa Citizen Action Network Political Director

5:45 – 6:25 Band – Televangelists

6:25 – 6:40 Paul Street, political author and commentator, on Radical Movements for Economic Change

6:40 – 6:55 Carlos Rich, Immigrant Access to Health Care

6:55 – 7:35 Band – Matt Grimm and the Red Smear

7:35 – 7:50

7:50 – 8:05 Juan Manuel Galvez Ibarra, University of Iowa College of Public Health Center for Health Communication & Social Marketing, on the Humanitarian Challenges Faced by Latino Immigrants

8:05 – 8:50 Band – Liberty Leg

BRING YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS, HOMIES, AND COMPANARO/AS!

Second Press Release

Date: Monday April 27, 2009

WORKER AND IMMIGRANT CENTERED EVENTS FOR MAY 1, 2009 IN IOWA CITY

May Day has been a significant date for many working people since the late 19^th century. From the battles over the 8-hour day to the general strike, walkouts and rallies of 2006, workers have utilized May 1 to gather with each other and assert their rights.

The May Day Organizing Committee is an Iowa City group made up of members involved in local labor, community and student organizations. We are planning events and activities centered around worker and immigrant rights issues for Friday May 1, 2009 in the downtown pedestrian mall of Iowa City starting at 12-1 PM, then continuing from 3-9 PM.

There will be guest speakers, music, food, informational tables, and children’s activities. Everyone is encouraged and welcome to attend.

Some of the speakers:

• Gene Baur is an activist, best-selling author, and president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, the first animal rescue organization dedicated to farmed animals. Gene will be speaking about working conditions in the agricultural and meatpacking industries.

• Paul Street is a journalist, author, historian, political commentator and Iowa City resident. Paul will be speaking about the ‘people’s economic stimulus plan’.

• Patrick Hughes is the President of the Iowa City Federation of Labor. Patrick will be speaking about the Employee Free Choice Act.

If there is bad weather, activities will be held in the Wesley Center starting at 3PM

Bad Weather Backup: Wesley Center

120 N. Dubuque St.
Iowa City, IA 52245

Next Meeting

Date: Sunday, April 26, 2009
Place: Iowa City Public Library
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Location: Room D

Flyers

Here are the flyers made for May Day below in PDF form. Print them, xerox them, distribute them, post them up everywhere!

UPDATED APRIL 27

Construction Worker (English)

Construction Worker (Spanish)

Woman Raised Fist (English)

Woman Raised Fist (Spanish)

First Press Release From the May Day Organizing Committee

May Day has been a significant date for many working people since the late 19th century. From the battles over the 8 hour day to the general strike, walkouts and rallies of 2006, workers have utilized May 1 to gather with each other and assert their rights.

The May Day Organizing Committee is an Iowa City group made up of members involved in local labor, community and student organizations. We are planning events and activities centered around worker and immigrant rights issues for Friday May 1, 2009 in the downtown pedestrian mall of Iowa City starting at 12 PM.

There will be guest speakers, music, informational tables, educational discussions, and children’s activities until 9 PM. Everyone is encouraged and welcome to attend.

Speaker Paul Street

Here is a bio on one of our speakers, Paul Street. Paul will be talking about the ‘People’s Economic Stimulus Plan’.

Paul Street is an independent radical-democratic policy researcher, journalist, historian, and speaker based in Iowa City, Iowa, and Chicago, Illinois.  He is the author of four books to date: Empire and Inequality: America and the World Since 9/11 (Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2004); Segregated Schools: Educational Apartheid in the Post-Civil Rights Era (New York: Routledge, 2005); Racial Oppression in the Global Metropolis: a Living Black Chicago History (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007); and (most recently) Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics

Street’s essays, articles, reviews, and commentaries have appeared in numerous outlets, including the Chicago Tribune, Capital City Times, In These Times, Chicago History, Journal of American Ethnic History, Social History, Review of Educational, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, Dissent, Black Agenda Report, Dissident Voice, Black Commentator, Monthly Review, History News Network, Tom’sDispatch, AlterNet., and (above all) ZNet and Z Magazine. From the base of ZNet, Z Magazine, and Black Agenda Report, his essays are picked up and reproduced (often in numerous languages) across the planet/World Wide Web in venues too numerous to track and mention.

Street’s writings, research findings, and commentary have been featured and presented in a large number and wide variety of media venues, including The New York Times, CNN, Al Jazeera, the Chicago Tribune, The Times of India, Morning Star (England), Al-Alkhbar (The News in Beirut, Lebanon), WGN (Chicago/national), WLS (ABC-Chicago), Fox News, the Chicago Sun Times, the Capital City Times (Madison, WI), and the Iowa City Press Citizen.

Street has appeared in more than 60 radio and television interviews/broadcasts and on the popular live Web book-chat at “Firedog.” Lake

Street possesses a doctorate in modern U.S. History (with an emphasis on the history of industrial and class relations) – a degree that he will soon be marketing on E-Bay – and once hit a 25-foot jump shot over the outstretched arm of Michigan Wolverine basketball great and future NBA veteran Ricky Green.

Street has taught various aspects of U.S. history at a large number of Chicago-area colleges and universities.  He has been strongly attached to Left political and intellectual culture since he read Volume 1 of Das Kapital and Leon Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution (the first at a snail’s pace) in the basement of a house in DeKalb, Illinois in the spring of 1978.   He was the Director of Research at The Chicago Urban League from 2000 through 2005.

Street is a (sixth-grade) graduate of (the original John Dewey) Laboratory School at the University of Chicago but it was all public schools after that. Teenage delinquency may have saved him from ruling-class indoctrination/socialization at one of the nation’s elite universities or liberal arts colleges and put him on a fateful path to the once-exciting ”little red schoolhouse on the prairie” – the formerly Marxist History Department of Northern Illinois University.  The best childhood education he received came from the social movements of the 1960s – a pedagogical engagement that begin with hearing Martin Luther King, Jr, speak at Chicago’s Soldier Field during the long hot summer of 1966. Much of Street’s writing revolves around criticism and exposure of what King called “the triple evils that are interrelated”: racism, economic exploitation (capitalism), and militarism-imperialism. He thinks that other and related evils, including sexism and ecocidalism (and authoritarianism more generally) deserve equal consideration

http://www.zmag.org/zspace/paulstreet

Speaker Gene Baur

Here’s some background on one of our speakers. Gene will be talking about working conditions in meatpacking and agricultural industries.

Gene Baur grew up in Hollywood, California and worked in television, film and commercials, including some for McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants. Today, he campaigns to raise awareness about the negative consequences of industrialized factory farming and our cheap food system. He lives in rural New York state and is the co-founder and president of Farm Sanctuary, America’s leading farm animal protection organization. Gene holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from California State University Northridge and a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University.

After volunteering and working with various environmental and human rights causes, Gene turned his attention to animal agriculture. He has conducted hundreds of visits to farms, stockyards, and slaughterhouses to document conditions, and his pictures and videotape, exposing factory farming cruelty, have been aired nationally and internationally, educating millions. He has testified in court and before local, state and federal legislative bodies, and has initiated groundbreaking legal enforcement and legislative action to raise awareness and prevent factory farming abuses. He played a significant role in passing the first U.S. laws to prohibit cruel farming systems – including the Florida ban on gestation crates, the Arizona ban on veal and gestation crates, and the California and Chicago bans on foie gras. His efforts have been covered by leading news organizations, including the New York Times, The Larry King Show, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, National Public Radio, ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN. His book, entitled Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals and Food, was published by Simon and Schuster in March, 2008 and has become a National best seller.

http://www.genebaur.org/