I Want You to March with Me This May Day

This May Day, I’ll be one of the millions who will peacefully take to the streets to denounce the cruelty and corruption of this administration and the oligarchs it serves. I will march because I believe our lives are worth more than dollars and cents. Every one of us deserves the right to live in dignity with hope for the future. I invite you to join me. 

May Day began in the 19th century, when industrial workers came together to demand something we now take for granted: an eight-hour workday. At that time, even children worked twelve or more hours straight in factories, every day. We too easily forget how far we have come, and that victories like these were won by organized people.

In 1884, there was an extreme concentration of wealth in the United States, so labor organizers called for a general strike every year on May 1st until all workers achieved “eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, and eight hours for what we will.” It took many strikes and marches, advances and setbacks, but the eight-hour workday ultimately became the law of the land in 1940. 

This year, the organizers of May Day Strong are calling for everyone to participate in a new version of a general strike — with no work, no school, and no shopping — wherever you are. There will be large, peaceful marches you can easily join in cities and towns in every state. 

May Day Strong’s rallying cry is #WorkersOverBillionaires, at a time when the difference between rich and poor is even worse in this country than it was in the 19th century. The top one percent in this country controls more wealth than the bottom 93 percent, while one man – Elon Musk – controls more than 52 percent of American families. 

Every four seconds, Musk and billionaires like him rake in more than the average person makes in a year. Extreme wealth is concentrating even more, fueled by the more than $1 trillion in tax cuts granted by the Trump administration to the ultra-rich and corporations last year. But there’s more at stake than income inequality. We all know that a basic right in a healthy democracy is to have free and fair elections: while this ideal has never really been true for many of us, it’s a hardfought right that guarantees us having a voice in how the country, and our daily lives, are run. That is precisely why it is under attack at this very moment. 

That’s why the organization I lead, People’s Action, has joined May Day Strong and more than four hundred partner groups across the country to host democracy bootcamps and solidarity schools, so every community can be prepared to defend democracy. You can join a solidarity school where you live, or organize your own. The materials we have developed for these trainings are freely available to anyone who wishes to use them, in English and Spanish, at organizingfordemoracy.org. 

May Day has long served as an inspiration for the immigrant rights movement. For two decades, it has called for May 1st to be a “Day Without Immigrants,” as a way to show solidarity and make the work and contributions of immigrants visible to everyone. 

This year’s organizers also found inspiration in Minneapolis, where faith and union leaders called for schools and businesses to close for a “Day of Truth and Freedom” on January 23rd, to protest the violent treatment of immigrants and peaceful protesters by federal agents.

More than 75,000 people poured into the streets of Minneapolis to express their outrage, and thousands more did in other cities. It worked: in the face of this solidarity, clear evidence the people of Minneapolis would stand together and protect each other, federal agents left the city.

Who answered the call in Minnesota? Workers of all sorts, small business owners, neighbors, mothers with children, pastors with their faithful, doctors, nurses and teachers. That is, everyone who believes violence is never the answer, and that we all deserve better. 

I am also inspired by the people of Hungary, who just ended the authoritarian rule of Viktor Orbán with their most effective tool: their votes. Despite all of Orbán’s efforts over sixteen years to restrict, silence and intimidate civil society, Hungarians united around a simple truth: they want to live in a future free from fear. Together, they won. And if they can do it, we can, too.

This year, I find inspiration in everyone who has marched before me, and in all those across the country who are finding their voices as we step into the streets in this dark moment. Because it truly is up to us. No one is coming to save us: we must rely on each other.

So I invite you to march with me this May Day, then let’s organize to win elections and protect our right to vote this November. Together, we can prove the power of organized people. I’ll be marching in Florida this year, and if you are nearby, you are welcome to join us. But wherever you are, I encourage you to do something. You will make new friends when you do.

It does not matter why, how or when you decide it is time for a change. It could be today. What matters right now is that we show up for one another, and we learn how to organize with new neighbors to create a democracy where every one of us has a voice, a vote, and the right to live with dignity. You can choose to do this now.