Mayday 2007: Immigrant rights are worker’s rights

Posted by admin on May 1st, 2007

Immigrant rights are worker’s rights: Justice for All!

TUESDAY, MAY 1
Gather at 6pm at Clark Park @ Commercial Drive and East 14th Avenue
March to Grandview Park for gathering @ 7:30 pm

==> Family-friendly march.
==> There will be food, water and snacks during the demo.
==> Rest vehicles will accompany the march.

With imperialist globalization, workers in Canada are facing undeniable attacks. Hard-won wages, benefits and social services are now being cruelly eroded as Canada joins other imperialist countries in forcing increased labour flexibility in the name of ‘free trade’ and the neo-liberal agenda. Even workers’ solidarity is being criminalized and the right for workers to unionize or to fight for their legitimate rights is under attack.

Even more vulnerable and attacked are Canada’s immigrant, migrant, and undocumented workers whose numbers in Canada are increasing and whose exploitation is intensifying. Canada has always used migrant and immigrant labour to fill its relentless demand for cheap labour, but now, under the deepening crisis of imperialism and its never-ending pursuit for private profit, there is a renewed push in the country to bring in a greater number of cheaper, mobile, and flexible migrant labour. This push towards cheaper more mobile migrant labour is clearly evident in the Canadian state’s thrust to expand the country’s Temporary Foreign Workers Program.

This May Day, we will also be joining migrants, refugees and their allies across Canada who will again demonstrate against the deportation and detention of migrants and refugees, for a full, inclusive, unconditional and ongoing regularization program, and for full rights and dignity for immigrant communities against racism, poverty, and criminalization. Our march on May Day coincides with marches in the US as we collectively assert that immigrant rights are workers rights.

Hundreds of thousands of people live without status, without sufficient access to health care or education, and in great fear of being detained or deported, all the while being the most exploited in the workplace. For decades immigrants have been scapegoated, and now since 9/11, the false link between immigrants and terrorism has developed. Thousands of migrants, especially immigrant women, are forced to live in poverty; while thousands of temporary workers perform hard and dangerous labour, yet are denied their basic rights.

Join us this May Day, as we join with workers around the world in celebrating the militant tradition of May 1 as a day to oppose the exploitation and oppression of workers. We are coming together as workers in our various communities to expose the harsh impact of neo-liberalism upon Canadian workers. We also are continuing the courageous struggle of immigrants and migrants in North America for their full rights and dignity.

– STATUS COALITION, a coalition of community-based organizations in the Vancouver area belonging to movements and struggles of the people of the Global South (Asia, Africa, Central and South America, Middle East, the Caribbean region) and the struggles of such migrant communities in Canada.

– MAY DAY 2007 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE, was initiated by International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS) participating organizations in Vancouver in 2006. It is made up of democratic and progressive individuals and organizations coming together to organize educational and political activities in the spirit of international workers’ and people solidarity for May Day 2007.

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