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Feel like celebrating the International Day of the Worker, but not sure how? Want to experience that sweet, sweet communal energy of hundreds of people coming together in support of labourers for a May Day rally, but you don’t know where to turn?
The Toronto Labour May Day Committee’s got you covered.
On Saturday, May 1 at 1pm over 20 speakers will take part in a Zoom conference of sorts organized by Tynan Liebert, Martin Reilly and several other union members and communist organizations in the Greater Toronto Area.
"We're going to hear about the pressing needs of workers,” Liebert, a member of CUPE Local 2, told The Hoser over a call earlier this week. “It's our day, so people that attend the event are going to hear what the working class is experiencing: its struggles, its victories, its defeats and perspectives put forward by its representatives for liberation."
The speakers will include NDP MP Niki Ashton, activist and spokesperson for 1492 Land Back Lane Skyler Williams, Health Providers Against Poverty representative Dr. Naheed Dosani and anti-poverty activist and the executive director of Foodshare Paul Taylor.
It will also feature representatives of the Hamilton and District Labour Council, Durham Region Labour Council, ATU 113, OFL, OPSEU, the Left-Worker-Communist Party of Iran, Iraq and Kurdistan, and a number of socialist and communist organizations like Fightback and Socialist Action.
"It's a who's who of radical labour in Ontario," Liebert said.
And there might even be a surprise operatic appearance to sing a May Day favourite.
Liebert and Reilly organized a similar event for last year’s May Day, which ended up being the most attended online May Day rally in Toronto.
“It’s the one day on the calendar that belongs to wage labourers,” Liebert said. “For people that work with their hands and also with their minds, by the exploited, without regards to race, sex, nationality or where you're born.”
This year the May Day Labour Committee got over 25 unions to endorse the event, as well as New Brunswick NDP interim party leader Christopher Thompson and Matthew Green, the NDP MP for Hamilton Centre.
The committee commissioned Hamilton cartoonist and Hoser contributor Simon Orpana to make three historical posters that explain the history and importance of the International Workers Day, featured here:
You can access the May Day Zoom rally here: tinyurl.com/56bbk86a
