MARQUETTE — At 4 p.m. today, the Upper Peninsula Regional Labor Federation and partners will be hosting a May Day Rally at the Marquette Commons.

May Day is an international holiday, also known as International Worker’s Day, meant to celebrate workers and honor labor movements. May Day was originally held to commemorate the Haymarket Affair, in which workers in Chicago struck for an 8-hour work day.

“Bring signs appropriate to the occasion and your beliefs, but also appropriate to what we hope is a big family event,” said Brad Veley, Lake Superior Regional Indivisible Steering Committee member. LSRI is a partner in the May Day event. “Prepare for a joyous gathering, making some new friends, discovering you’re not alone in how you’re feeling these days, and that there is hope for a better future. But there’s a very serious thread running through this: a better future is going to require all of us working together.

“After the speakers are done, we will invite participants to bring their signs and walk on the sidewalks to the Post Office, west to Harlow Park, and back to the Commons. This is not a protest. We consider ourselves protectors and defenders of democracy, honest government and civic responsibility.”

In addition to the rally, LSRI is independently calling for a “Day of No Shopping, No School, No Work” today.

“Friday will be a day of celebration mixed with energetic solidarity and demands for dramatic economic change, and that means political change,” said Veley. “We’re seeing the end result of 40+ years of trickle-down economics, tax cuts for the wealthy, and cuts to programs that help everyday working families, healthcare, the environment, and our infrastructure. Working families are having to decide between buying food or paying the rent, or the medical bills with a paycheck that covers only a fraction of each.”

Veley said of the single-day strike that “no one can do everything, but everyone can do something.”

“This event is about our UP unions, laborers and brother and sister workers around the world,” said Veley.

Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.