May Day

Workers In India Are On The March

May 8, 2025 Vijay Prashad, People's Dispatch. Resist! India, Labor Movement, May Day, National Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

90% of Indian workers are in the unorganized sector. This does not mean that they are outside trade union structures, but only that most workers must fight very hard to form unions. There are unions in the formal sector, of course, but there are also unions in occupations that are designed in such a way as to make unionization difficult. For instance, rural health care workers do not work in a factory or in a shop, but across vast distances with very little contact with each other. And yet, rural health workers – or Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers, as they are called – have fought to set aside every barrier and build trade unions.

We Must Adhere To The People-Centered Development Philosophy

May 5, 2025 Friends of Socialist China. Strategize! China, Common prosperity, May Day, Revolution, Socialism, Trade Unions, Working Class

During the New Democratic Revolution, the Chinese trade unions united and mobilised the broad masses of workers to bravely throw themselves into the revolutionary torrent against imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism with a fearless revolutionary spirit. They fought bravely and made important contributions to achieving national independence and people’s liberation and establishing the new China. During the period of socialist revolution and construction, the Chinese trade unions united and mobilised the broad masses of workers to actively participate in the construction of New China with a sense of ownership and passion, worked hard and built enterprises with arduous efforts, and sang the strong voice of the times that “we workers are powerful”.

Workers In South Asia Celebrated May Day

May 4, 2025 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. Resist! Asia, Global South, May Day, Working Class

Thousands of workers took to the streets in different parts of South Asia to celebrate International Workers’ Day on Thursday, May 1. A sea of red flags and chants of “workers of the world unite” and “long live the martyrs of Chicago” reverberated in the atmosphere. Workers in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and elsewhere marched in discipline and raised the demands for fair wages, better working conditions, and employment rights for everyone. They reiterated their resolve to fight against capitalist exploitation and to create an alternative socialist world, extending their solidarity to the anti-imperialist movements across the world.

May Day In Europe Unites Struggles And Resistance

May 3, 2025 Ana Vračar, People's Dispatch. Resist! Austerity, Europe, Labor Movement, May Day, Militarization in Europe, Palestine Solidarity

On May 1, hundreds of events commemorating International Workers’ Day took place across Europe, with tens of thousands of workers mobilizing for better working conditions, an end to austerity, and a radical rethinking of the region’s role in the world. Rallies and marches sought to reclaim the political significance of May Day, as left and progressive groups joined trade unions to reaffirm the need for a militant labor movement to confront the far right, militarization, and exploitation. Demands ranged from workplace-centered issues, like improved health and safety and shorter working hours, to broader international calls for peace, the severing of ties with Israel, and a rejection of racism and austerity.

May 1: Cuba’s Determination And Resistance On Full Display

May 2, 2025 Bill Hackwell and Cheryl LaBash, Resumen English. Resist! Cuba, Mass Action, May Day, Revolution

The massive outpouring filled the emblematic Plaza of the Revolution in Havana this morning to show their resolve that they will not go back or give in to the maximum pressure that U.S. policy imposes on the Cuban people. For the first time since 2022 when the scaled back May Day celebrations gathered in other venues for economic reasons, today the march returned to the Plaza in an unmistakable response to the unrelenting extra territorial starvation measures imposed by Cuba’s rapacious neighbor to its north. At exactly seven o’clock, as the sun broke into the plaza, the first notes of the National Anthem were heard.

Join Palestinian Workers’ May Day Call To Act Now Against Israeli Genocide

April 27, 2025 Mondoweiss. Resist! Genocide, Israel, Labor Movement, May Day, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity

The Labor for Palestine National Network, National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), and U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) join the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions-Gaza’s 2025 May Day call* in urging U.S. unions to “go beyond statements and speeches and create real pressure”—including “general strikes and widespread civil disobedience”—against the ongoing bipartisan, U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza, and to “coordinate efforts with the student movement” against the Trump regime’s domestic assault on Palestine solidarity and on “civil liberties and freedom of expression.”

ICE Can’t Erase What Lelo Juarez Built

April 27, 2025 David Bacon, Labor Notes. Organize! Farm Workers, ICE, Immigrant Rights, May Day, Worker Rights

In 2022 I went to Washington State for May Day, and the following year as well. Just south of Canada, in Bellingham and Mount Vernon, Community2Community and Familias Unidas por la Justicia celebrate the workers holiday in the tradition followed by the rest of the world. They march. For me, a child of the Cold War, when May Day was the forbidden Communist holiday, it's a time to appreciate how the world has changed. Brightly-painted hand-made signs and banners call out—“Another World is Possible!" —a May Day sentiment if there ever was one. Some demonstrations can be formal exercises.

World Federation Of Trade Unions 2025 May Day Declaration

April 22, 2025 Fight Back! News. Resist! Anti-Imperialism, International Solidarity, May Day, Worker Rights

The International Class-oriented Trade Union Movement, the workers, and the militant unions all over the globe honor with struggles the 139th anniversary of the workers’ struggle in Chicago in 1886. The World Federation of Trade Unions, the most historic international trade union organisation, representing more than 105 million workers all the length and breadth of the world, sends a cordial and militant message to all the workers and farmers, to the ordinary people of toil and labor, on the occasion of International Workers Day, which constitutes a lasting and bright milestone of struggle.

We Win Peace When We Struggle For It: Cuba And The Zone Of Peace

May 25, 2024 Claudia O'Brien Moscoso, Black Agenda Report. Strategize! Americas, Cuba, May Day, US Foreign Bases, Zone of Peace

In the midst of May Day Celebrations in Cuba, on May 4th and 5th participants from 30 countries gathered in Guantanamo, Cuba for the 8th International Seminar for Peace and the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases. Representatives from social movements for peace, and mass based organizations from around the world came together for two days of discourse and dialogue on the conditions of peace and war during these times of US/Western backed Zionist genocide in Palestine, and the western led invasion of Haiti (with many of the same foreign interests involved in both), to declare the necessity to work towards peace and to close down all foreign military bases that are a direct threat to the sovereignty of those lands and to peace worldwide.

Chicago: May Day March For Palestine Prepares For Protest At DNC

May 6, 2024 Vince Olson, Fight Back! News. Resist! Chicago, DNC, Illinois, Israel, May Day, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity

Chicago, IL – On May 3, the Coalition to March on the Democratic National Convention held a rally and march to celebrate International Workers Day. The 400 attendees heeded the call from the coalition to come stand with Palestine for May Day and vowed to show up again to protest against the Democratic National Convention (DNC) when the convention comes to Chicago August 19 through 22. The coalition linked labor and immigrant rights movements in this event, as well. A special speaker at the rally was Artemio Arreola of Casa Michoacan and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Don’t Like War? Then Don’t Work!

May 4, 2024 Peter Cole, In These Times. Strategize! Antiwar Movement, Dockworkers, May Day, Ports, Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs

May Day — a legal holiday for workers in most countries — was born in Chicago. On May 1, 1886, workers shut down America’s greatest industry city, and other cities too, to demand the 8-hour workday. In 1894, the U.S. Congress intentionally created a Labor Day at another time of the year, but some Americans continue celebrating the original, real Labor Day. On May 1, 2008, 10,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), one of the strongest and most militant unions in the United States, walked in those Chicagoans’ footsteps. They did so by walking off the docks at all 29 West Coast ports, completely shutting down America’s Pacific trading network.

This May Day, Workers Mobilized For Palestine

May 3, 2024 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. Resist! Columbia University, International Peoples' Assembly (IPA), Israel, May Day, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Student Activism, Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC)

On May Day, workers around the world mobilized for the liberation of Palestine. “This May Day, workers of the world are called to declare their solidarity with Palestine, to denounce the Israeli Genocide, and to call for an end to all aggressions in the region and to all wars,” wrote the International People’s Assembly. “Beyond the call for a ceasefire we must say no to the transportation of arms and arms caches to Israel. Workers in all industries – especially workers in the transport sector – that can withhold their labor in order to halt the continued slaughter of the people of Palestine are emphatically called to do so!”

May Day 2028 Could Transform The Labor Movement And The World

May 1, 2024 Shawn Fain, In These Times. Strategize! Autoworkers, General Strike, Labor Movement, May Day, Unions, United Auto Workers (UAW), Worker Rights and Jobs

Members of the United Auto Workers courageously fought corporate greed at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis last fall during the historic six-week Stand-Up Strike. Because of their determination and commitment, we won record contracts with the Big Three automakers. After decades of falling behind, UAW autoworkers are finally moving forward again. We made a lot of ambitious demands at the bargaining table. One in particular may not have gotten the same attention as the reinstatement of cost-of-living adjustments or the reopening of the Stellantis assembly plant in Belvidere, Ill. — but it could also prove transformational: We aligned our contracts to expire at midnight on April 30, 2028.

More US Activists Face Harassment By Authorities Upon Return From Cuba

May 8, 2023 People's Dispatch. Resist! Cuba, Customs and Border Patrol, May Day, State Repression

On May 7, several members of the US-based National Network on Cuba (NNOC) who had participated in the May Day Brigade, were detained and harassed by US Customs and Border Patrol upon arrival to the United States from Cuba. The NNOC released a public statement on the evening of May 7, emphasizing that “In face of persecution, we reaffirm our right to travel to Cuba. Solidarity is not a crime – the US blockade is!” They added that several of the people who were detained by CBP also had their electronics seized and some were even threatened with jail time. The harassment of their brigade members comes just days after over a dozen members of the International Peoples’ Assembly delegation to Cuba were similarly detained and questioned at the Miami International Airport and the Newark Liberty International Airport. Other organizations that traveled to Cuba for the May Day activities such as LA US Hands Off Cuba, faced similar treatment by border officials.

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