Community Members will march and rally across PA to stand up for Immigrant and Workers’ Rights, and more than 160 businesses will close in solidarity.
WHAT: Marches and Rallies to mark International Workers Day in Reading, Allentown, and Philadelphia. More than 160 businesses in those three cities will be closed in solidarity, and will encourage their employees and patrons to join the May Day mobilizations.
DATE: Wednesday, May 1, 2019
WHEN and WHERE:
ALLENTOWN:
11:00am: Rally starts at the corner of 7th and Hamilton Street
READING
10:00am: March starts at the MRPA Organizing Center at 501 Washington St
10:30am: Rally in front of the Berks County Courthouse on Reed St
PHILADELPHIA:
11:30am: March starts at the MRPA Organizing Center at 7221 Rising Sun Ave
11:45am: Rally at the 5 Points Statue on Rising Sun and Cottman St
WHO: Members of Make the Road Pennsylvania, Indivisible Berks, Dominican Association, We the People PA, March on Harrisburg, Women’s Medical Fund, Shut Down Berks Coalition, One Pennsylvania, Juntos, Lehigh Valley DSA, Power Lehigh Valley. Large and small business owners who will be closing their businesses in solidarity, employees, and community members.
BACKGROUND: Around the world, International Workers Day is celebrated by working communities, and for many years in this country, MayDay has also become a day to celebrate and stand up for immigrant rights. Here in Pennsylvania, workers will join together in to demand a raise in the state minimum wage and to stand in solidarity for immigrant rights and workers rights. In Reading, Allentown and Philadelphia, more than 160 businesses large and small have agreed to close their doors in solidarity and encourage their employees and patrons to join the rally demanding workers rights.
For the last three years, members of Make the Road PA have rallied and taken the streets on May Day. While the day is an international celebration, the dangers for workers and immigrants continue. Anti-immigrant legislation, immigration and police raids in our neighborhoods, wage theft, worker exploitation, all these things are tearing communities apart.
Members of Make the Road PA and other community organizations will take to the streets this International Workers Day in solidarity with workers and immigrants around the country and around the world who are striving for a world of justice and dignity for all communities.
Information provided to TVL by:
Ashleigh Strange
https://www.maketheroadpa.org//
