May Day 2026 Statement
May Day: a special day for all working men and women, when workers across the globe celebrate their fight against the misery and oppression they endure under the collective boot of a handful of rich leeches: the capitalist class. It is a day to celebrate the rising class consciousness and determined struggle of the workers to end all exploitation of man by man. In this way, it serves as a day not only of remembrance but of militant action. This fact remains true despite the attempts of the class enemy and their social democratic lackeys to debase it as a mere holiday or obscure its revolutionary origins. Moreover, the legacy of May Day is especially significant to the workers of the United States as an integral but purposefully suppressed part of their history.
The 1880s was a period of rising action for the workers’ movement, particularly against the 14+ hour workday, which at the time was the norm. The working class, understanding the need for militant trade-union struggle, began organizing around the demand for an 8-hour workday. But this was only one demand out of many. The fact was that the workers fought against not just their own bosses but a whole class of exploiters, the bourgeoisie. The workers, understanding this reality, called for coordinated mass strikes across the entire country, a general strike of workers on May 1, 1886. The movement began to swell, and hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike. The police, fulfilling their role as the attack dogs of capital, met the striking workers with violence. The capitalist sought to crush the movement. In Chicago, the police drew first blood when they fired into a crowd of striking McCormick workers, killing two, on May 3.
The same day, Chicago workers issued a statement: “Your masters sent out their bloodhounds – the police – ; they killed six of your brothers at McCormicks this afternoon. They killed the poor wretches, because they, like you, had the courage to disobey the supreme will of your bosses. They killed them to show you, “Free American Citizens”, that you must be satisfied and contended with whatever your bosses condescend to allow you; or you will get killed!”
This wave of strikes and militant working-class action across the country came on the heels of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and the upheavals of industrialization in the US. Though the day began in Chicago, May 1 developed into a day for the whole world’s working class, a day to remember that our fight as workers for a new world is a just, historical fight, to honor the lives of our predecessors through action and continue the fight against the exploiters, steadfast and brave. May 1 is therefore a day to acknowledge the global scope of our struggle, the unity of the working classes of all nations – united by our shared conditions of exploitation against our one common enemy: capitalism.
Today, 140 years since the uprising in Chicago, capitalism continues its periodic crises in new forms. Gaza lies in ruin, its people ravaged, in the wake of the genocidal onslaught of the Israeli imperialist war machine. In Ukraine, the war rages on as workers on both sides continue into their fifth year of mutual slaughter on the battlefield, fighting to further the aims of their capitalist overlords. Iran and Venezuela have faced direct attacks by the US military in just the first three months of this year, resulting in thousands of deaths and billions in profits for the military industries. And here in the US, prices for everyday goods, housing, and more continue to rise while wages stagnate and the job market collapses. More and more workers are turning to excessive overtime, side work, or even a second or third job just to make ends meet, while the stock market maintains a years-long rise. Our fight as the working class, to end the system that creates all this misery, continues.
May 1 is as much about our past as our future. The struggle for the 8-hour workday reflects our struggle today: against the de facto re-extension of the working day, for the right to a stable, permanent job, with shorter hours, free access to education and healthcare, and the freedom to engage in recreation, culture, and social life outside of work. But anything that is won can only be won through struggle. The workers’ struggle for a new world has endured for centuries, and it will continue to endure until capitalism is defeated once and for all. It is our responsibility, our duty, to carry this fight forward, to win the final victory for the workers of the world.