May Day Strong: How to participate in the economic blackout on Friday “No school, no work, no shopping”

Workers around the world will be taking part in activities to commemorate May Day on Friday. On this year’s International Workers Day, community groups, democratic organizations, and labor unions in the United States have organized an economic blackout across the nation under the banner May Day Strong with a motto of “no school, no work, no shopping.”

There are over 3,000 May Day actions planned from coast to coast and in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico according to Neidi Dominguez, founding executive director of Organized Power in Numbers. She told The Guardian that the protests are a response to Trump administration policies and actions, like the unilateral military actions in Iran and Venezuela, as well as proposed threats such as deploying ICE agents to polling centers when the midterm elections take place this fall.

The movement says that actions in the past like the day without immigrants in 2006, Black-led corporate campaigns and Minnesota’s resistance to ICE occupation have show that collective actions can be effective tools to bring about real change.

How to participate in the May Day Strong economic blackout

May Day Strong is calling on workers, students, and families to rally, march, and take action, refusing business as usual, on Friday 1 May and demand a nation that puts workers over billionaires. The organizers are demanding that the United States “tax the rich so our families, not their fortunes, come first. No ICE. No war. No private army serving authoritarian power. Expand democracy. Hands off our vote.”

You can find an event near you by visiting the May Day Strong website where you can also sign the May Day Pledge.

“When the billionaires break every rule, it’s going to take more than a rally to stop them,” says the organization. “Together we will flex our collective power in a tremendous day of action.”

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