Boston Is a Union Town

On Monday, September 1st, Boston turned out for Labor Day to demonstrate that we’re not just a sanctuary city: we’re a solidarity city. Labor groups, elected representatives, activist groups, religious groups, and others all came together to declare that we’re a working community built on workers’ power, and that we’ll stand together in the face of anything thrown at us. We took over the city, shutting down streets downtown (on move-in day, of all days), spreading the message throughout town that we support workers over billionaires and people over profits.

We at Mass 50501 are so grateful to be included in the lineup of organizations participating in the parade—and we had a ton of fun building our float (credit to Tesla Takedown for letting us borrow their Floppy Elon!), listening to the music pouring out of the truly impressive mobile soundsystems, and walking by the displays the labor organizations created. It was a day of community gathering, powerful chants and speakers, and a surprisingly large number of inflatable caricatures. 

As we face continued and escalating federal overreach into our communities, the lessons of the labor movement are more important than ever: they may claim to have power over us, but there are more of us than there are of them, and they need us to comply to retain their position. As long as we stand together, we can overcome any opposition they turn on us. We need to keep this spirit of solidarity in the forefront of our minds as times get tougher under the increased pressure of the administration against our communities. We’ll keep working to find ways to build solidarity within the movement, and we hope you’ll keep working with us.

Thank you to the Greater Boston Labor Council for organizing the day, to the many musicians and artists who kept the beat of the day, to our many fellow marching organizations, and to those of you who came out to participate—we loved sharing the day with you all, and we hope to do it again at our next big coalition event on October 18th!

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