From Earth Day to May Day

May, 2024

April 22nd marked the 54th celebration of Earth Day. First celebrated in 1970 and born from the environmental and Indigenous justice movements, Earth Day is a reminder of all of our connections with and responsibilities to the Earth that we all share.

This month we celebrated International Workers Day on May 1st, May Day. May Day has always been a day of international solidarity amongst all workers—a day to celebrate our collective strength and power, and our potential to make transformative change in our economies.

Our friends at Movement Generation share that “If you globalize the economy, you globalize the ecosystem.”. Our communities around the globe, and especially in the Global South, have been and are being exploited for their resources and labor, creating conditions of economic and environmental destruction. Yet, the countries who pollute the least (especially in Central and South America and throughout Africa), are the most impacted by the disasters of the ongoing climate crisis.

Migrant workers in the US and beyond often work in industries that have to keep going, despite the heat, storms or fires. When the wildfires raged in British Colombia last summer, migrant workers were forced to continue working despite the smoke, heat and danger. Undocumented workers are  more likely to experience exploitation, harm and even death on the job and the ongoing climate crisis adds fuel to the flames.

We have always known that the migration journeys of our JFMF community are rooted in the worsening political, economic and environmental conditions of our homes. These worsening conditions are a direct result of the ongoing exploitation of workers, extraction of resources from the land, and militarization of the West.

We hold that truth with the truths that Black, Indigenous, Migrant and People of Color communities, and poor and working class white communities, around the country, and around the world, have always been at the forefront of remembering and rebuilding towards environmental and climate justice. More and more, the environmental and climate justice movements are centering, prioritizing and resourcing racial justice as a core mission of the work for a healthy, safe and resilient planet.

As we continue our organizing work for migrant justice in WNY, we must always remember that our collective liberation is inextricably connected to the liberation of our land and labor.

From Earth Day to May Day, solidarity forever!

Written by Emily Terrana