May Day Celebration Targets Pandemic ​“Recovery”

Labor Day is Sunday, and labor is ready.

Not the official Labor Day — the September barbecue holiday that union-busting industrialists created in the U.S. to try to drown out the original holiday marking the dignity and collective potential of workers.

The holiday recognized throughout the world is International Workers Day. It falls on May 1. Labor-oriented activists in New Haven have created a new tradition of marking it each year with hours of exhibits, music, speeches, and food on the Green.

This year’s celebration begins at noon, and culminates with a 4 p.m. march for justice. (Check out the pictured flyer to see the list of sponsoring groups.)

Sunday’s event comes at a time when workers are grappling with the effects of a pandemic that disproportionately endangered teh health and economic prospects of workers at the lowest economic rungs and workers of color, observed Catherine John, one of the organizers. So that will be one of the themes of the event, with issues ranging from acceess to affordable health care to housing to immigrant rights to Yale’s tax breaks. 

“Where’s our recovery?” John asked in a conversation previewing the event, on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program. ​“Maybe on Sunday we’ll come together and find out on the Green.”

She also spoke during the interview about the ​“period poverty” campaign to pass a state law requiring free access to menstrual products in prisons and schools, a campaign she has helped spearhead. Click on the video below to watch the full interview.