Tomorrow is May Day, the international day of the worker, and there should be protests and marches on a global intensity but for this post I want to talk about here in the US.
On May 1st, workers, students, and families across the United States will refuse business as usual in the next national mobilization planned after No Kings. As many as 3,000 events are anticipated across all 50 states, building on more than 1,300 May Day actions last year.
In Chicago, Illinois, the school district officially made May Day a “civic day of action” with instructional time and field trips to the 1pm rally in that city planned. In Guilford County, North Carolina, the board of education voted to provide teachers the option of attending the May Day rally to pressure legislators for much needed resources for the school district. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, more than 160 actions are planned statewide and the state will launch its Truth Commission aimed at documenting human rights violations by ICE agents. In Detroit, Michigan, the City Council passed a resolution declaring May 1, 2026 as May Day, recognizing it as a day to celebrate the power, dignity, and solidarity of working people. In Durham, North Carolina, the Board of Education voted to make May 1 a teacher workday, enabling teachers to attend the rally. Missourians are coming together across the Show-Me state to: protest corporate-backed lawmakers ignoring the will of voters by gutting paid sick days and passing an Everything Tax on working families, grow the movement of service industry workers’ efforts to unionize, halt AI data center developments, and demand corporations like Amazon and Enterprise, headquartered in St. Louis, cut ties with ICE.
Across the country, more than a dozen cities have announced plans for “No Work, No School, No Shopping” modeled off of Minnesota’s day of truth and freedom organized this past January.
May Day Strong is an effort anchored by 500 labor and community organizations making three demands:
- Tax the Rich: so our families, not their fortunes, come first
- No ICE, No War: no private armies to serve authoritarian power
- Expand democracy, not corporate rule
Those demands are backed by the Real Affordability Agenda, a concrete policy blueprint covering housing, wages, health care, education, and worker power with over 100 bills to tax the ultra-rich to fund schools and critical services being presented in state houses across the country.
There is a massive plan for the May Day celebration…..preparations are being made….
May Day is not just a show of force. It is a test of everything we have been building. May Day is how we build the muscle to keep fighting from May 2 onward.
Workers and communities moving together is the only thing that has ever shifted power away from those who hoard it. That is what May Day is for.
To those defeatists out there they will say this is a waste of time….to them I say….’nothing ventured, nothing gained’….at least people are starting to realize that they need to be heard….to them I say keep shouting.
If the halls of government will not listen then take it to the streets and be heard.
If you are interested in the day then I can help….May Day Strong’s website has a searchable map to help people find May Day actions and sign up to host their own. Signing the May Day pledge is another way to get connected and receive more information about events.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”