[opirgyork] THURSDAY: Honouring our Communities: 9th Annual May Day & Bus from Jane Finch & Mayworks Events!

Tue Apr 29 11:32:43 PDT 2014

*Honouring our Communities: The 9th Annual May Day of Action + Bus from
Jane Finch Info*

On May 1st, International Workers Day, we will march to reclaim May Day for
just people's struggles and to Honour Our Communities. We are unified in
our fight against poverty and capitalism. We oppose attacks on rights and
income of workers, irrespective of status. We demand an end to immigration
detention because no one is illegal. We will continue our support for
Indigenous peoples' movements for self-determination. We oppose
colonialism. We are in solidarity with struggles against Canadian
imperialism. We insist on an end to environmental destruction. We resist
patriarchy, racism, ableism, homophobia and transphobia both in our
day-to-day work and as larger systems of oppression. Join Us!

*Thursday May 1st*
*5:30 PM*
*Allan Gardens, Corner of Dundas & Sherbourne*
*On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/451818364949535/
<https://www.facebook.com/events/451818364949535/>*

--

*Join JFAAP Bus to Downtown on May 1st*
*Jane Finch Action Against Poverty (JFAAP) joins our community allies
across Toronto to commemorate International Workers’ Day. *

On May 1st, International Workers Day, we will march to reclaim May Day for
just people's struggles and to Honour Our Communities and to demand
justice, dignity, and status for all!

There is a free school bus leaving from the Jane-Finch community to down
town join May Cay of Action. Please contact JFAAP to register for the bus.
The bus will leave for down town at 4:30 PM sharp and will be back at 8:00
p.m.  Free meal and refreshments will be provided.

Date: Thursday, May 1st

*Pick-up locations: *
1. 35 Shorham Drive at *4:15 pm *
2. Yorkgate Mall (No Frills Parking Lot) *4:30 pm*

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*Take a moment and imagine with us.*

Worlds. Without rich or poor. Where land and freedom are sacred. Where wars
are mere nightmares. Where home is not just an endless longing. Where
migration is both celebrated and unnecessary. Worlds with bread and roses.
Where we honour those that came before us and together write new futures.
Where we are whole and not just what is written on our bodies. Worlds where
we belong to the land, the four legged and the winged ones, not them to us.
Worlds that are attuned to the earth's polyphonic harmonies.

On May Day, let's breathe together, and see the whole.

Apart, many times we have faltered, many times we have lost sight. We are
parts of the greater puzzle, each of us responsible to all our relations.
These worlds are not just hopes; the must be plans. Our plans. Our
struggles are not just to end immigration detentions or to ensure services
and status for all. For each one freed, each one fed, each one dignified is
a new flame in the fires we are stoking. Our songs and stories, our words
and pictures together are the blueprint for what will come after. Each
pipeline blocked, each mining company bankrupted, each shelter reclaimed
lays the foundations for these worlds. Every child taught, every elder
honored, each dead remembered, every living being fought for, sprouts new
seeds, deeper roots.

This May Day let us conspire; let us breathe; let us march; let us imagine
and then birth; let us be stronger, together.

--

Coordinated by a coalition of community groups including No One Is Illegal
- Toronto, May 1st Movement and Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. To
endorse the event, fill out this form http://bit.ly/1mtIrSZ

JOIN MAY DAY!

- Organize a contingent: bring a group of people from your class,
organization, neighbourhood, or union local to this demonstration, bring
your demands, banners, flags and signs.

- Help fund a bus, food, transit tokens, ASL, and materials for the day. If
you or your organization or union local can make donations of money or
in-kind, please help us make this day as participatory and accessible as
possible. Cheques can be made to No One Is Illegal and mailed to 260 Queen
Street West, PO Box 60006, Toronto, ON M5V 1Z8. Please put May Day in the
memo line and email nooneisillegal at riseup.net to let us know.

- Get the word out. Call, text, and email your friends. Share the facebook
events, or better yet, start your own! Make sure to tag everything,
including pictures and videos after, with the hashtag #May1TO.

****************

*2. **The Struggle For Economic Justice: May Day Celebration and Panel
Discussion*

Monday May 5, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm, Free
York Woods Library, 1785 Finch Avenue West
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/773351199342360/

A community event in honour of International Workers’ Day featuring a
series of performance by Nomanzland and a photography exhibit by Errol
Young. These performances will be followed by a panel discussion on the
campaign for the $14 minimum wage, the campaign to raise Ontario Works (OW)
and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) rates, and issues of poverty
at large (such as cuts to social programs). Panelists will speak on how
these issues have been affecting communities of racialized immigrants and
working people and various ways in which we can work collectively for a
just society. Speakers include residents and activists from the Jane-Finch
community (Leticia Ama Boahen and Suzanne Narain) and Lawrence Heights
community (Kaydeen Bankasingh) and organizers from Workers’ Action Centre
(Sonia Singh and Acsana Fernando).

Food, TTC tokens and childcare will be provided.

Co-presented by Jane Finch Action Against Poverty and West-Side Arts Hub

Co-sponsored by Workers’ Action Centre and Ontario Coalition Against
Poverty.

This event is part of the 29th annual Mayworks Festival of Working People
and the Arts, taking place from May 1 - 15, 2014 at various GTA locations.
For more details on this year's program, artists, and festival partners,
please visithttp://mayworks.ca/.

*The Demonstration*

*Opening Reception:* Wednesday May 7, 7 pm - 9 pm, Free
*Exhibit Runs from:* May 1 - June 8, Free
*Gallery Hours: *Thursday - Saturday, 1 pm - 7 pm
Whippersnapper Gallery, 594b Dundas Street West
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/224403721087882/

Historian Eric Hobsbawm writes that, “Next to sex, the activity combining
bodily experience and intense emotion to the highest degree is the
participation in a mass demonstration”. Coco Guzman’s immersive
installation The Demonstration explores the interpersonal dynamics of the
crowd and the intense emotional narratives generated when a large group of
people comes together for a common purpose. The audience is invited to
wander within the scene of this grotesque demonstration/parade composed by
human-size papier-mâché figures and on-site drawings and to reflect on the
place that protest/celebration and gathering takes in our neoliberal
societies.

Co-presented by Whippersnapper Gallery.
Co-sponsored by The Public, Opirg York, CUPE 1281.

This event is part of the 29th annual Mayworks Festival of Working People
and the Arts, taking place from May 1 - 15, 2014 at various GTA locations.
For more details on this year's program, artists, and festival partners,
please visithttp://mayworks.ca/.

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