Dear John,
The COVID-19 pandemic has put inequities in health care, wealth, housing and education in the District on full display. May Day is needed now more than ever as we struggle to build a more compassionate and worker centered world. We hope you can join our allies in the movement on May Day for socially distanced solidarity actions and educational events!
And we want to take this opportunity to offer a belated welcome to our newest DC JWJ organizer! Eliana Rondon joined DC JWJ in March, and many of you have had a chance to work with her already. She is a passionate organizer and we are excited to have her join the Reclaim Rent Control campaign and help us make DC JWJ a bilingual organization that can support our Spanish-speaking neighbors.
You can learn more about Eliana on our blog, and reach her at [email protected].
Shut Down DC – International Workers Day Actionar and Wheat PastingFriday, May 1st, Exact Time TBA
RSVP HERE
On International Workers Day, Shut Down DC will bring the stories and visions of working-class people to the nation’s capital. They are inviting all types of working people – healthcare workers, warehouse workers, grocery store workers, solid waste workers, students (students are workers too!), people working in prisons, and laid-off and unemployed workers – to share their stories and visions for the future. They will take those stories straight to the politicians and bureaucrats who are controlling our government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis. Shut Down DC will commit to making sure that every story submitted gets displayed somewhere on the streets of DC – Whether it’s wheat pasted on a bus station or projected on the side of a building. Online, they will hold an essential workers’ town hall to lift up the stories of essential workers who are laboring through the COVID-19 pandemic.
WPFW – May Day 2020: Together We Stand!
Friday, May 1st, 9 AM – 7 PM
Which side are you on is the urgent question for May Day 2020! The global pandemic has punctuated the fact that workers vs. the corporations is the name of the governmental game. Listen Friday, May 1st, 9am until 7pm to WPFW in Washington, and WBAI in New York, as workers and union organizers around the globe offer analysis on workers’ rights and well being and how the people can create a worker-centered world. All power to the people!
ONE DC – May Day Webinar
Friday, May 1st, 5 PM
ONE DC is hosting a May Day Webinar to commemorate International Workers Day, celebrating the struggle for workers’ rights. This year is the 134th anniversary of May 1st, 1886, the day that the 8 hour work day was put into effect. We want to honor this by creating a space for community members to share and discuss the results of our COVID-19 survey and the impact of the pandemic on employment and housing. We also want this to serve as a space for political education around racial capitalism and solidarity economics. This is especially crucial now as 26 million people in the U.S. have been laid off from work, with no guaranteed unemployment or assistance to pay rent or bills. Register today!
Anakbayan DC – May Day! A Filipino History
Friday, May 1st, 6 PM
To celebrate Labor Day, learn about the importance of laborers and labor unions in Filipino and Filipino-American history from the Gremios de Impresores of the Spanish Colonial era to the Delano Grape Strike instigated by the manongs of California to the J-1 workers seeking legal and financial aid in the time of COVID-19.
Labor Notes – May Day: System In Crisis—A Working-Class Vision for the Future
Friday, May 1st, 5 PM
Celebrate May Day with a discussion from leading labor voices about how we can build a radical working class response to the current crisis. May Day, international workers’ day, is a time to honor and celebrate the radical traditions of the labor movement. In the midst of the current crisis it is more important than ever to build on the militant legacy of May Day and organize a fighting, working-class resistance that demands a better world for us all.
In solidarity,
Nikko Bilitza
Organizer
DC Jobs With Justice
