Union members should turn out by the thousands for three events in New York at the time of the Republican National Convention. Bring your family. Bring your friends. Bring your friends’ families!

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN

The first event is being organized by United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ)on Aug. 29. Approximately 250,000 are expected to march past the convention site at Madison Square Garden “to protest the Bush Administration’s deceit and destruction,” as UFPJ describes it.

UFPJ has rejected the city’s offer to rally on the West Side Highway, calling it “a remote stretch of sun-baked highway [that] makes a mockery of our right to assembly.”

“Our medics have told us that the West Side Highway isn’t a safe place for seniors, children, and people with disabilities to rally,” UFPJ said. “Our sound engineers have told us that it’s not possible to set up a quality sound system there. Many of our members have told us that they simply will not go to such an awful and marginal location. And our common sense has told us that this deal was a set-up by a Republican mayor openly hostile to free speech.”

UFPJ is pushing to hold its rally, as originally planned, in Central Park. “Central Park is the only sensible place for us to rally. We filed a new permit application [on Aug. 10] with the NYC Parks Department to rally in Central Park on Aug. 29, using the Great Lawn, North Meadow, and East Meadow…Our march plans remain unchanged: We will assemble beginning at 10 a.m. at Seventh Avenue and 14th Street, and step off at noon for our legal and peaceful march past Madison Square Garden.”

For more on the UFPJ event see www.unitedforpeace.org.

THE LINE

The second event that union members should make a point of taking part in is “The Line.” On the morning of Sept. 1 from 8:13 to 8:31 a.m. from Wall Street to Madison Square Garden at least 5,000 people will form a Bush unemployment line to highlight the millions of American workers who have been forced onto unemployment lines during the presidency of George W. Bush. The Line is being organized by the New York State AFL-CIO, People For the American Way, and the Imagine Festival of Arts, Issues, and Ideas.

Over two million jobs have been lost in the last four years. The jobs being created pay on average 25 percent less than the jobs that were lost.

LABOR DAY RALLY

The third event is the New York Central Labor Council’s early Labor Day rally at 4 p.m. on Sept. 1. down Eighth Avenue, a few short blocks away from Madison Square Garden. This will be labor’s big rally, an opportunity to focus attention on working families’ opposition to the Bush oligarchy. Be there for your family, your job, your country!

This story courtesy ILCA.