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News :: Miscellaneous |
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May Day Celebration in Champaign-Urbana |
Current rating: 0 |
by Mahir Saul and Anand Pillay
(No verified email address) |
28 Apr 2001
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A celebration of Mayday is taking place on May 1, 11A.M. to 2 P.M. in the UIUC quad on the south side of the Illini Union, with the participation of many community groups. Mayday has, over the past hundred years or more, been celebrated as an international day of workers' solidarity, and originated with events in Chicago in 1886. It is celebrated in almost every country of the world. |
A celebration of Mayday is taking place on May 1, 11A.M. to 2 P.M. in the UIUC quad on the south side of the Illini Union, with the participation of many community groups. Mayday has, over the past hundred years or more, been celebrated as an international day of workers' solidarity, and originated with events in Chicago in 1886. It is celebrated in almost every country of the world.
Between noon and 1 P.M. there will be speeches. The contributions will be from:
Jim Barrett; teaches history at UIUC and researches nineteenth and twentieth century U.S. working class history. Professor Barrett will speak about the history of Mayday.
Marianne Ferber; a recently retired professor of economics at UIUC and is well known for her feminist perspective.
Minkah Makalani; a graduate student of history at UIUC, and a member of the Black Radical Congress.
Sarah Kanouse; a local artist and activist who will talk about her experiences at the current protests in Quebec City against the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Ronald Peters; a professor of labor relations who heads the Labor Education Program for the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at UIUC. He will talk about the movement against sweatshops.
Mike Griffin; a long time labor activist based in Decatur who is involved in the Workers Democracy Movement and Warzone Education Fund.
Entertainment will include local musician and activist Paul Kotheimer, street theater by the School for Designing a Society, and poems by the Associated Newspoets as well as Maria Silva.
Many organizations in the community will have booths and tables: Association for Academic Professionals, Champaign County Living Wage Association, Colombia Support Network, Food Co-op, Graduate Student Organization, Green Party, Interfaith Council for Workers' Justice, Independent Media Center, Progressive Resource/Action Coalition, SEIU Local 880, Socialist Forum, Union of Professional Employees, Women Against Racism, and YMCA.
There will also be a gigantic arch of red balloons. |
