29 April 2016 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 1st:
Celebrate Workers’ Power and Unity
on International Workers’ Day!
All days of the year, workers everywhere rebel in a million small, usually isolated ways against unbearable conditions. But on May 1st, the International Day of the Working Class, we strive to unite our common struggles against the imperialist capitalist system and to empower our class, the mighty proletariat, to lead the way in rooting out all forms of exploitation and oppression.
For us, employed and unemployed workers, living in precarity and poverty, preyed on by cops and slumlords, taught mindless obedience at school, betrayed by bourgeois politicians, and turned against one-another by anti-people ideologies, each day is a struggle for survival. While we toil to make the world go round, the capitalists reap the rewards and call the shots. They make the wars, plunder stolen lands and subjugate Indigenous nations, batter us with austerity cuts, put us out of jobs and criminalize poverty. They deserve nothing, the people deserve everything!
This year, the Sudbury May Day Committee (SMDC) was formed to be the coordinating centre for a local coalition of progressive and revolutionary groups and individuals, united for an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, combative, and festive May Day. We call on Sudbury’s workers young and old, revolutionary students and youth, and people in poverty to join us this Sunday, May 1st, for a demonstration and other festive events to celebrate workers’ and people’s power!
See below for more information on each event.
May Day Art Attack: Crafts and Snacks
1-3PM ★ Myths & Mirrors’ Clubhouse @ Victory Park, 496 Frood Road
Back for a second round this year, it's the May Day Art Attack! A fun and educational afternoon of artistic creation for all ages, making arts and crafts inspired by working class power and popular resistance, in celebration of International Workers' Day!. There will also be face-painting, flag decoration, and sign-making for the evening demonstration. Supplies will be provided but we also welcome bringing your own. Free snacks and beverages will be served. Location is wheelchair-accessible.
May Day Demo: Evening Rally & March!
7PM ★ Parking lot in front of Food Basics in the Flour Mill, 400 Notre Dame Avenue
The streets of Sudbury have been quiet on May Day in recent years, but this year there will be an evening rally and march to demonstrate the power of the working class and renew our commitment to fighting for a new world, free of capitalist domination and all oppression! Come fly your flags, bring your banners, bang your drums, and together take the streets in true proletarian style.
May Day Musicfest @ the Frood:
Ft. Kevin Shaganash & Local Working Class Artists
Doors @ 9:30PM ★ The Frood Hotel & Pub, 557 Kathleen Street
A radical party and Musicfest to cap off a day of working-class festivity and militancy this May Day! With rousing performances from KEVIN SHAGANASH and local artists who live the struggle: CRYPT ★ ZHAWB DEEZ ★ LADY MCGRUES ★ GHOST THE BANDIT ★ TREEZY ★ MIKE MAJOR ★ PERSPECTIVE ★ KONCEPT ★ SWEEZY ★ PRYNCE ★ ZAK YUNG ★ TROUBLED YOUTH
The Frood has long roots as a popular hangout in Sudbury's immigrant and proletarian Donovan district. Join us there to close International Workers' Day 2016 with a night of songs celebrating the people's resistance and struggle against capitalism, colonialism and imperialism. Also expect boisterous speeches, comradely atmosphere, announcements of major new revolutionary initiatives, and rad red booklets and swag on sale.
$4 or pay with you can! There will also be a door-prize raffle and 50/50 draw – all proceeds go to your local revolutionary artists and activists, allowing for an even bigger May Day next year.
May 1st belongs to the whole of the working class: the employed and unemployed, the organized and unorganized, here and elsewhere! And let’s not forget those of us doing household reproductive work, those super-exploited through racialized or feminized labour, all those who suffer most under the current system of exploitation, alienation, and oppression of workers and the people. Let us strive to unite our class, the only force capable of leading a revolutionary movement to dismantle the power of capital over the world. See you on May 1st!
Organized by SUDBURY MAY DAY COMMITTEE with endorsements from:
★ Revolutionary Communist Party
★ Revolutionary Workers' Movement – Sudbury
★ Revolutionary Student Movement – Sudbury
The site for the Sudbury working-group of The Media Co-op has been archived and will no longer be updated. Please visit the main Media Co-op website to learn more about the organization.
The Sudbury working-group of The Media Co-op was formed to create independent media in the North, to speak to our issues and outlooks on our communities as well as the world around us. Independent media provides an avenue for people who are wishing to gain critical perspective on the issues that matter most to us, and to give a voice to those people and stories that you won't find in the mainstream media.
The Sudbury working-group site is no longer being updated and has been archived.