Martin Luther King Day of Celebration Luncheon
Tompkins County Immigrant Rights Coalition and
Midstate Council on Occupational Safety and Health
encourage you to attend the
Martin Luther King Day of Celebration Luncheon
Monday January 15, beginning at 11:30am
Beverly J. Martin gym
During lunch, a number of community and worker leaders will give short presentations about their work. Following lunch and from 12:45-2:15pm, these leaders will pair up in breakout “action circles.” You will be invited to attend one of these action circles. The MLK Day planning committee has a goal of highlighting these grassroots and community activists, helping them and us to connect and link up the various issues with which they are struggling. They then want to engage us to take an active part in solidarity with the action circle that we choose to attend. This is all part of connecting to the Poor Peoples’ Campaign, a national effort which will launch sustained civil disobedience actions starting on Mothers’ Day. The four pillars of the Poor Peoples’ Campaign are racism, militarism, poverty and climate justice.
Two of the action circles are of particular interest those concerned with immigrant rights.
Crispin Hernandez, the farmworker leader who is the plaintiff in the lawsuit to force New York State to recognize the rights of farmworkers to organize collectively, will co-lead one of the action circles. The predominantly immigrant NY farmworker rights’ movement is paired up with the Mentors for Change (formerly the Ultimate Reentry Organization). The Mentors for Change work to empower men and women coming out of prison. Our action circle is entitled Two Sides of the Same Story. We will be looking at the similarities within these two groups of oppressed workers. How can we be in solidarity with them and what action steps can come from this circle of sharing?
The second circle is ‘Seeds of Solidarity: Starting from the Personal and Growing Movements.’ This action circle will be exploring the interconnections of the personal and the grassroots work with youth, immigration, farmworkers, refugees, culture and community done at different spaces like Ithaca Welcomes Refugees/Al-Huda/MRC, T.C. Immigrant Rights Coalition, and the Youth Farm Project. Doing advocacy, raising awareness, education and justice work, and creating alternatives will be part of the discussion.
The day is organized in solidarity thanks to the Multicultural Resource Center, Greater Ithaca Activities Center, Center for Transformative Action, Cornell Public Service Center, GreenStar Natural Foods Market, Ithaca College’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, Campus Life at Cornell University, Ithaca College’s Center for Student Leadership & Involvement, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, & community volunteers! For more information,