The Green Party of New Jersey will not be participating in the 33rd Annual Labor Day parade. This follows the announcement that the American Labor Museum will honor PBA locals instead of labor unions. Despite the GPNJ’s annual participation in this event for over a decade, the party rejects the notion that police unions should be honored for Labor Day.
Historical material conditions demonstrate that police institutions are violent, racist, and anti-labor constructions. The Green Party of New Jersey commits itself to standing up for laborers and workers on all days of the year. Labor Day is meant to celebrate the working class, a rare but welcome national symbol of class solidarity.
Today, the hardships facing workers in New Jersey are countless, and yet, the American Labor Museum is making a political decision to enshrine the police (whose budget has only continued to increase) as an example of the working class. This conflation is materially incorrect.
Rather, the 33rd Annual Labor Day parade appears to be a political move for the Democratic Party to bolster its relationship with the police, a trend that continues to disenfranchise non-white working class New Jerseyans. This is especially true in 2025, with frequent raids by ICE, often accompanied or assisted by local police, even when doing so is supposed to be illegal.
The GPNJ supports police and prison abolition.
We stand with the working class against police violence. We condemn the decision by the American Labor Museum to honor PBA locals, and we are outraged by the erasure of labor this year. In this critical moment where undocumented workers are more at risk of losing their jobs and getting kidnapped by the ICE thugs, Democrats should be working together as an united front to protect them by passing the Immigrant Trust Act instead of marching down the street pretending to “save us” from the current fascist administration.
What about celebrating Labor Day by standing firm against the dangers of losing our freedom of speech with the passing of the IHRA bill, or taking a stand for Palestine? This state’s politicians, from local through federal level seats continue to support Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people despite the clear demands of the people of New Jersey. Let us not forget that our elected officials work for us, the people, and not for their own interest.
We invite you! Join us to celebrate Labor Day on August 31st, at 3:30pm, at The HUUB in Orange, NJ with folks who value our workers’ efforts to continue uplifting this country’s economy.