May Day 2021 in the Twin Ports

This year the Northwoods had the good fortune of not just one, but three powerful events for May Day – International Workers Day.

The first event was held at 10am at the corner of Lake Avenue and Superior Street in downtown Duluth.  The amazing activists of Camp Migizi, along with Duluth Youth for Climate Justice, gathered for a very colorful and creative event featuring puppets and banners calling attention to the need to stop the Line 3 pipeline, and to protest the water of this region. 

The second event was held at noon at City Center Park in Superior.  This rally was called to demand that the PRO Act be passed.  The PRO Act (Protect our Right to Organize) would make it much easier for workers to join unions, as well as roll back some of the reactionary measures of the 1948 Taft-Hartley Act, like the ban on sympathy strikes.  This event was sponsored by the Superior Federation of Labor, the Duluth Central Labor Body, United Steelworkers Local 9460, Twin Ports DSA and the Northwoods Socialist Collective.  About 50 people participated.  At the event Superior’s mayor Jim Paine, read a declaration officially declaring May 1^st International Workers Day in Superior.  A small continent of Trump supporters in pick-up trucks gathered nearby, but didn’t intervene.

The PRO Act is something that the AFL-CIO has been pushing hard for.  The Democratic Party promised to pass it as soon as they controlled the House, Senate and White House, but you know how those promises go.  While the Act passed the House during the Trump administration (when it had no chance of becoming law), it is now stalled in the Senate and Biden administration has fallen silent on the issue.  This goes to show that for change to happen, it has to come from people taking to the streets and building social movements, rather than relying on Democratic or Republican politician.

The final event held on May Day in the Twin Ports was MMIWG2S (Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirits) event at Canal Park.  This powerful event consisted of an Awareness March, followed by a ceremony at the waterfront.

We at the Northwoods Worker thank all of the organizers and participants of these amazing events.  There is obviously a lot of appetite for change, and look forward to working on all of these issues in the year ahead.  The struggle continues!

>> The article above was written by Adam Ritscher.