Unity and Solidarity on May Day

The King-Davis Labor Center was filled with unity and solidarity at the People's World May Day rally. Workers' fightback on all continents was highlighted in a slideshow. A certificate of appreciation was presented to newly elected State Rep. Joshua Hall who ran on the Working Families Party line.

Gwen Mills, Secretary-Treasurer of UNITE HERE, showed a video message from Yale graduate teachers Local 33 president and faster Aaron Greenberg, inspiring support for their struggle against Yale and Trump for union recognition. Kermauli Brown, AFT CT medical assistant at Community Health Services, Mustafa Salahuddin, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1336, and Ciro Gutierrez member leader of SEIU 32BJ also spoke. Excerpts from Gutierrez follow:

"This May Day has been - as never before - a day of struggle and opposition to the anti-migrant policy of the Trump Administration. Standing against this administration, immigrant workers have argued that we are not criminals, we are hard workers — many of us are union members with long history of social struggle. Trump knows that and wants to extinguish the flame of resistance against the injustice that, along with many others, we keep burning in this country.

"May Day is a day when the world remembers the sacrifice of the martyrs of Chicago in their struggle to establish the fair, 8-hour work day. But it must also be a day to measure and forecast the future of working-class struggles.

" Millions of Americans have taken the streets to oppose Trump's immigration policy, its attack on the environment and its support of the interests of millionaires and billionaires. This May Day community organizations, movements of faith, labor unions and legislators raised their voice to unite the people to resist to win.

"Nearly 1000 people were at the "Here to Stay" rally at the state capitol defending the rights of immigrants, celebrating their diversity and honoring a healthy climate. All the highest elected officials of the state publicly declared their allegiance to the rights of all state residents, regardless of their immigration status, and their opposition to the harsh immigration policies of the Trump Administration

"This is a united front that will not only resist the Trump administration, but eventually, replace it."