Tag: May Day

May Day 2026

Happy May Day!

Today is the first of May and the International Day of the Worker….how many know the history behind May Day?

You know me any chance to drop some history and I am there…..

May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, is a holiday celebrating workers and the history of labor organizing. Every year on May 1st, working people around the world join together for a day of remembrance and demonstrations. The holiday is a significant display of international solidarity and worker power. In Los Angeles, May Day unites the labor movement with advocates for immigrant rights and other community organizations.

The origins of May Day can be traced back to international labor organizing in the late 19th century. The holiday originated from a movement demanding improved working conditions and greater recognition for workers’ contributions. In 1884, a national federation of unions announced a campaign to establish an eight-hour workday by May 1, 1886. Workers in cities across North America went on strike leading up to that date in one of the era’s largest and most tumultuous periods of worker unrest.

In May 1886, police in Chicago shot striking workers, prompting activists to organize a protest in the city’s Haymarket Square. When a bomb exploded at that protest, killing one police officer and wounding others, police opened fire into the crowd, resulting in the deaths and injuries of both police and protesters. Eight protesters were arrested for inciting violence. The ensuing trial was considered by many to be unfair and resulted in the execution of seven of the eight men (1). This series of events would come to be known as the “Haymarket Incident” or “Haymarket Affair.” The image below is a newspaper clipping reporting on the executions from the Watertown Republican, November 16, 1887. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress’ “Chronicling America” digital project (2).

In the years following 1886, international labor groups and socialist advocates endorsed the commemoration of May 1 as International Workers’ Day or May Day. In some places around the world the “Chicago Martyrs” are still memorialized in May Day activities. But in the U.S., May Day celebrations became less common during the height of the Cold War.

What is May Day?

May Day should always be about the worker and their place in society.

Do not let some pseudo-intellectual tell you any different.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Taking It To The Streets

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.

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/as-many-as-3000-events-anticipated-for-national-may-day-mobilization-as-workers-educators-and-communities-demand-workers-over-billionaires/

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”