“Stand up!” “Fight back!”
The chants echoed Friday through a May Day rally at Alonzo Weaver Park in South Memphis where nearly a hundred people gathered to hear labor union representatives and community organizers touch on topics ranging from labor rights to corporate greed, the environment, voting rights and immigration enforcement.
Lawyer Gordon Pera represented Memphis’s newest union: employees of Novel Booksellers.
“Our movement’s demands are very reasonable — not just enough to get by but enough to thrive,’’ Pera said.
Richard Massey of Teamsters local 667 called for a minimum tax on large corporations, asking for a “fair tax code in Tennessee.”
“We push to ensure that Tennessee is not a tax haven for wealthy tax cheats but a beacon of opportunity,” he said. “Opportunity for every man, woman and child in this state, regardless of their tax bracket and regardless of their ZIP code.”
Erika Alegria with the Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope, said the immigration crackdown and environmental abuses give every Memphian a call to action:
“Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!’’ Alegria told the crowd. “Our families are being kidnapped, killed, starved, and separated. Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Our air, water, and world is being polluted. Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is the call this is my call of distress.”
She reminded demonstrators that Immigration enforcement is still impacting local communities — and the Memphis workforce.
