Here is some information. There is something everyone can do.

May 1 3:30 – 5:30 PM ET Community Hosted

May Day! Workers over Billionaires: A Nationwide Day of Action

(Click the headline right up there for more info, or scroll down for yet more links and info)

The next National Day of Action is right around the corner, May Day, Friday, May 1st.

The national call is for no business as usual. This will look different in different places. In some locations, it will mean no work, no school, and no shopping. (snip)

May Day Actions

This May Day, we’re flexing our economic power as workers, students, and everyday people to send a clear message to the Trump regime: we will not do business as usual while they trample our rights, terrorize our communities, and drag us into a senseless war in Iran. 

So on May 1st we are taking action by: 

1. Hosting or joining a local May Day event
2. Participating in No Work, No School*, No Shopping

The first step: pledge to build power and take collective action with us on May Day. 

Note: A core principle behind all May Day events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values and to act lawfully at these events. No weapons are permitted under any circumstances. (snip)

Mayday Protest – National Day of Action

It’s time for the conditions and standard of living that the working class deserves. We’re beginning a year of action on May 1st with a series of protests, strikes, and other direct action opportunities.

MAY 1 NATIONAL DAY OF ACTIONS:

THRIVING WAGES
The working class people have been taken advantage of for far too long! Join us as we mobilize to create worldwide plans of action for THRIVING WAGES. We are demanding at least $20/hr as well as better union laws, the ease of information for organizing co-ops, and better working conditions. But wait, there’s more! We are also demanding mandatory PTO, paternal leave, and good benefits.

Why do we want these demands?
Inflation over the last year has risen over 7% and continues to climb.
Rents and housing costs have skyrocketed.
The costs of consumer goods as greatly increased.
Yet corporations and billionaires have doubled their wealth in 2 years as the working class has struggled during a pandemic that has killed over 850,000 Americans and counting. (snip-MORE)

Activism history for May 1st:

May 1, 1886 May Day was called Emancipation Day in 1886 when 340,000 went on strike (though it was Saturday it was a regular day of work) in Chicago for the 8-hour workday. May 1, 1890 May Day labor demonstrations spread to thirteen other countries; 30,000 marched in Chicago as the newly prominent American Federation of Labor threw its weight behind the 8-hour day campaign.

May 1, 1933 Dorothy Day The Catholic Worker newspaper was founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. Dorothy Day said, “God meant things to be much easier than we have made them,” and Peter Maurin wanted to build a society “where it is easier for people to be good.” Peter Maurin

May 1, 1948 Senator Glen Hearst Taylor (D-Idaho) was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, for trying to enter a meeting through a door marked for “Negroes” rather than using the “whites only” door, and convicted of disorderly conduct. Taylor was the Progressive Party candidate for Vice President, running mate of Henry Wallace. He was in Birmingham to address the Southern Negro Youth Congress.

May 1, 1965 Second Factory for Peace opened in Onllwyn, Dulais Valley, in south Wales, employing disabled miners. Tom McAlpine, active in the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament, and a supporter of cooperatives and industrial democracy, established Rowen Engineering in both Wales and Glasgow, Scotland.

May 1, 1967 Soviet youths openly defied police and danced the twist in Moscow’s Red Square during May Day celebrations. In the early ‘60s the Twist had been banned in Buffalo, New York, and Tampa, Florida. The religious right claimed the Twist was actually a pagan fertility dance. Are you old enough to remember Chubby Checker? — May 1, 1971 Five days of anti-war May Day protests began in Washington, D.C., resulting in over 14,000 arrests—the largest mass civil disobedience in U.S. history. — May 1, 1986 One million South Africans demonstrated their opposition to apartheid in a strike organized by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)

So, some of us don’t get around much anymore. Some of us may be somehow constrained to go to work. Some of us have waited all week to buy a few needed groceries. Maybe we wanted to participate, but just forgot and now it’s tomorrow, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to do it. How can we participate? Well, click onto any or all of these links to find out. There is no fault or fail in not being able to do the primary actions, but there are other ways to participate, and even if we don’t find a way, we can certainly work toward being able to observe a personal May Day now and then on our own. We can simplify, and always work to keep our spending where it will be most useful to community. And maybe we can watch someone else’s kids or pets while they go and do. Benefitting our communities while not feeding the already-wealthy with our commerce, labor, and dollars will benefit people, and is the objective. Above this graf are resources. May Day is tomorrow. Let’s do all we can!