If you’re Downtown Wednesday in the early evening, you may notice a group of marchers singing and chanting as they parade through Pittsburgh’s Downtown streets. It’ll be a diverse group gathering celebrating International Workers Day, or May Day, which honors the labor movement and the working class.
Wednesday’s event begins at 5:30 p.m. at the United Steelworkers Building on the Boulevard of the Allies and involves a coalition of grassroots organizations, social justice initiatives and labor unions.
Immigrant voices are a focus, and there’s a reason for that: While the U.S. honors workers on Labor Day in September, most countries do so on May 1.
The annual Pittsburgh celebration is designed to uplift marginalized voices and recognize the workers who “move this country and march for immigrant justice, workers’ liberation and a more just society that includes all peoples, genders, creeds and economic situations,” said Jessica Ríos Viner, president of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.
The event is family friendly and accessible (English-Spanish translation will be provided), and is a collaborative effort led by LCLAA Pittsburgh, the Thomas Merton Center,
Casa San José, and the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance.
The May date commemorates the 1886 Haymarket affair, a national strike for an eight-hour workday that led to a bombing and violent clashes between workers and police.
The PUP is the publication of the striking workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
