A-Infos (en) US, SF, CA: May Day events 4/28 and 5/1

[Joseph Hill <rts_eastbay@yahoo.com>]

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      A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
            http://www.ainfos.ca/
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACTS:     Alli Starr (415) 285-9734
         Karen Martin (510) 684-1089
http://www.reclaimmayday.org
info@reclaimmayday.org


WHAT: THE 4TH ANNUAL RECLAIM MAY DAY CELEBRATIONS AND
ACTIONS

WHEN/WHERE:     RECLAIM MAY DAY CELEBRATION Saturday,
April 28 11AM-4PM AND ACTION, 4PM onward, IN DOLORES
PARK, San Francisco, 

RECLAIM THE STREETS, RECLAIM MAY DAY STREET PARTY,
JUSTIN HERMAN PLAZA, San Francisco, Tuesday, May 1,
gathering at 5:30 PM.  March and street party to
follow.

Join us in our 4th year of commemorating
International Worker's Day and the Celtic festival of
Spring.  We meet to celebrate our communities and
to continue the struggle of our courageous
predecessors in envisioning a future full of freedom &
justice in solidarity with each other and our shared
planet.  This year we will especially focus on the
corporate takeover of San Francisco, the
gentrification of working class neighborhoods and
resistance to the prison/industrial complex.

This year we will have two events, including a large
cultural celebration on Saturday, April 28, and a
Reclaim the Streets party on Tuesday, May 1.

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, DOLORES PARK CELEBRATION AND
ACTION:
The Saturday, April 28 celebration will take place in
Dolores Park.  The festivities start at 11:00 A.M.
with a MayPole dance organized by the Reclaiming
Collective.  There will also be a FREE vegan picnic,
sponsored by Rainbow Grocery and catered by San
Francisco and
East Bay Food Not Bombs.  The S.F. Bicycle Coalition
will provide valet bicycle parking.  The afternoon
celebration will culminate in a festive march, which
will start at 4PM.

Performers for April 28th include: Utah Phillips,
Teatro Campesino, San Francisco Mime Troupe, Company
of Prophets, Labor Heritage Rockin’ Solidarity Chorus,
La Pena Community Chorus, Art & Revolution, Folk
This!, Tango for Protest, youth performers from
Horizons DJ Project and Youth Speaks, Mario Balcita,
Copper Wimmin, Kendra Kimbrough Dance Ensemble, 85
year-old folk singer
Faith Petric, and more!

TUESDAY, MAY 1 RECLAIM THE STREETS ACTION AND
CELEBRATION:
The Tuesday, May 1 Reclaim the Streets action begins
at 5:30 P.M. at Justin Herman Plaza.  A renegade
procession and street party is expected, with hundreds
of animal-and otherwise-costumed participants, bands,
sound systems and more.  Reclaim the Streets is a
decentralized, direct action movement that started in
London.  Reclaim the Streets uses street parties to
take back public spaces – the street – from cars,
corporations and the police state; and to return those
spaces to the public for celebrating, socializing,
art, food, music, and community.  Please see
http://xinet.com/rts for more information.

THE TRADITION OF MAY DAY:
May Day is International Workers’ Day, a time of
celebration and solidarity throughout the world,
except in the United States where it actually began.
May Day commemorates the 1886 nationwide movement of
hundreds of thousands of working people who fought for
the eight-hour day, as well as the Haymarket affair,
when 8 labor organizers were arrested and four were
hanged for calling for the eight-hour day.  These were
pivotal events in our labor history, one of the most
visionary uprisings in U.S. history.

May Day is also descended from the Celtic holiday of
Spring, called Beltane.  The Maypole is a symbol of
fertility and regeneration.  People celebrated their
relationship to the land, and rejoiced in its bounty,
by dancing, singing, feasting, and building bonfires.
May Day celebrations were later suppressed by both
church and state.  There was an attempt to import May
Day customs to America by Thomas Morton to Merry
Mount, Massachusetts, but this too was suppressed by
the Puritans.  Reclaim May Day and Reclaim the Streets
join with people in cities all over the world in
continuing the tradition of celebrating May Day.


May Day history/Photos/Artist Bio's Available upon
Request.

###


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