This is an appeal to climate activists and ecosocialists to join a bloc on the London May Day Protest on Wednesday 1 May.
The annual International Workers’ Day protest was started in the 1880s to commemorate the murder of strikers in Chicago by the police and to celebrate the strength of working people in resisting capitalism and oppression.
One of the best developments at the ‘Battle of Seattle’ in 1999 which kick started the anti-capitalist movement, was the unity of the ‘Teamsters and the Turtles’ where trade unionists and climate activists united to see a common enemy in the World Trade Organisation and the other institutions that reinforce global capitalism.
More recently in Germany a strike by Verdi public sector transport workers linked up with student protestors for joint rallies, arguing that the fight for a shorter working week and better public provision of buses and trains was also a key environmental demand. The Guardian newspaper reported one bus driver saying “Bus drivers and climate activists might not seem like allies at first glance. In fact, we’ve often been pitted against each other, but we actually have a lot in common,” he said. “We need proper funding for our public transport in order to reach our climate goals and in order to improve our working conditions. We are clearly so much stronger when we fight together … now I can proudly say I am a climate activist myself.”
To this end we would like to invite people to join a climate justice/ecosocialist bloc on the march on Wednesday 1 May, meeting at Clerkenwell Green at 11:45am to join the march which is gathering around 12noon. Bring flags, banners, leaflets, whatever you like in a show of unity and solidarity and a fight for a better world.
Please share with relevant networks and allies who might be interested.
