NEW HAVEN – Five peace and labor organizations in Connecticut have been selected to receive People’s Weekly World Newsmaker Awards at an annual May Day rally to be held here on May 4.
The groups will be honored for organizing efforts that promote peace and preserve state and national social programs, jobs and equal opportunities for working people and their families.
Headlined “The World Says No to War,” the rally will celebrate the millions of working people across the globe who have participated in peace demonstrations, rallies and actions in the past six months in opposition to the war on Iraq.
Citing Rev. Jesse Jackson’s call to Yale for “Wages in New Haven, Not War in Iraq,” the rally will demand that “the billions being spent on military aggression and corporate interests must be reclaimed for jobs and income security, child care, health care and the preservation of Social Security, affirmative action, the right to join a union, the rights of immigrants, and the protection of our environment and all living things on earth.”
Organizations being honored include:
• Connecticut Labor Against the War, consisting of unions and labor councils who passed resolutions calling for an end to the military buildup and war on Iraq
• UNITE! union, which is organizing immigrant workers at 300 Cintas laundries nationally, including one in Branford, Connecticut.
• The One Connecticut coalition of over a hundred advocacy, social service, labor and religious organizations who, together with state workers’ unions and big city mayors, led the opposition to Governor Rowland’s cuts in human services and layoffs of state workers
• Promoting Enduring Peace, a national organization based in Milford which was a leader in organizing the Peace Train to New York on Feb. 15, and the conference on the USA Patriot Act held at Quinnipiac University April 26
• The Connecticut Coalition for Peace and Justice, which helped form vigils against war on Iraq in towns and campuses from the greater Hartford area to Middletown.
The awards will be presented by the unions at Yale who are previous recipients and who held a one-week strike in March in their effort to win decent contracts and union recognition.
May Day, international workers day, was founded in the USA in 1886 during a bitter strike in Chicago to limit the work day to eight hours. It is celebrated around the world as a time for working people to organize for better working and living conditions.
A cultural presentation highlighting peace actions by workers around the world, music and refreshments will be included. Contributions will be accepted for the People’s Weekly World. For information call (203) 624-8664.
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