New Jersey-based human rights activist Lawrence Hamm will be keynote speaker at next month’s annual Labour Day banquet.The event at Fairmont Southampton, together with the yearly running race and march through Hamilton on Monday, September 5, will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Labour Day in Bermuda. This year’s theme is ‘Sustaining Trade Unionism.Mr Hamm is president of the People’s Organization for Progress based in Newark. A Bermuda Industrial Union press release says he has been a relentless advocate for African-American people and the cause of human rights for more than 30 years.While a Princeton University student during the anti-apartheid movement, he organised protests drawing attention to the university’s financial investment in apartheid South Africa.In 1986, Mr Hamm travelled with Rev Ben Chavis throughout the Deep South to retrace the route of the 1960s Freedom Rides, conducting voter registration drives in Alabama.The banquet takes place on Friday at the Fairmont Southampton Resort and Spa. Tickets, priced $100, are available at BIU headquarters or from Senator LaVerne Furbert at 292-0044 or lfurbert[AT]biu.bm.In addition to the usual events, former BIU leader Ottiwell Simmons, journalist Ira Philip and union man Collin Simmons will lead discussions on the trade union movement in Bermuda. Members of the public will be able to take part. Meanwhile Rev Joseph Whalen will address the topic ‘religion and trade unionism’.