Welcome To May Day, Did You Remember To Blackout Strike?
There is power in a union!
Today is May Day and, as you may know, there are going to be hundreds and hundreds of protests across these United States in support of labor unions, workers rights, immigrant rights and so forth. You may even be going to one yourself, in your very own city! Or maybe you want to, but don’t know where to go, in which case you can click right here and find out.
May Day is celebrated in 95 countries around the world (but not the United States) as International Workers Day. The date was initially chosen by the American Federation of Labor as a day for worker solidarity in commemoration of the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago … but American politicians really did not want to commemorate the Haymarket affair and instead decided upon the more sanitized, less political Labor Day. And, unlike Labor Day, we don’t generally celebrate International Workers Day with barbecues or white parties in the Hamptons, and there are no rules for which shoes you can wear afterwards (though we recommend avoiding those made in sweatshops). The goal, ultimately, is to celebrate it with a global general strike meant to help the wealthy robber barons learn that workers actually do have the power to grind everything to a halt if we so choose.
That is actually something everyone was reminded of during the early days of the pandemic and promptly forgot again soon after. The one thing we really should have taken away from those days was the fact that the vast majority of people we really relied upon to simply function in our day-to-day lives were the people working the kind of jobs that very frequently do not pay a living wage — the people working at grocery stores, delivery drivers, farmworkers, retail workers, etc. etc. Unfortunately, it does seem like the main takeaway from that time was that evil forces from the Left (which had almost zero political power at that time) conspired to pretend a pandemic was happening for the sole purpose of forcing them to wear face masks, stay six feet away from us at all times, and then take a vaccine so they didn’t have to do that anymore. For reasons.
But I digress.
I was going to write, today, about things that need to change — and there are obviously a lot of them, but there are also a whole lot of things out there that have changed for the better in recent years when it comes to the way Americans look at labor rights. Like, the mere fact that today we are expecting hundreds of thousands of people to participate in a protest encouraging something as radical as “no work, no school, no shopping” is an incredibly positive sign. The fact that schools in Madison, Wisconsin, and nearly 20 districts across North Carolina — two states that, mind you, went to Trump in the last election — are actually shutting down for the day because the teachers are all going to the protests is pretty amazing. In Chicago, the Chicago Teachers Union and Mayor Johnson were in favor of canceling school today, and although that didn’t work out and schools will still be in session, the day is being declared “a day of civic action” where kids will learn about the importance of civic engagement and be able to take “field trips” in order to attend the May Day rally in Union Park at 1 p.m.
I have to say, that’s not something I can imagine happening a few years ago.
We’ve seen New York City elect Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, who is kicking ass and getting a ton of things done, despite the desperate protests of right-wing pundits. Bernie Sanders is (still) the most popular politician currently in office. Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, who is currently running for governor in the state, is pledging to repeal the state’s right-to-work law, and Democratic legislators in Virginia are getting serious about repealing theirs (even though, unfortunately, Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger opposes it, and instead is “open to reforms”). Americans, by enormous margins, are in favor of the government doing more to make things more affordable and to improve our labor rights and protections.
The number of Americans in unions increased to 16.5 million last year, the highest in decades, increasing by 463,000 over 2024. Even Republicans are trying to present themselves as pro-union these days, and at least one (Josh Hawley) has reversed his stance on right-to-work laws. I don’t think that’s out of the goodness of their heart, I think it’s because they know that anti-labor-rights rhetoric doesn’t sell the way it used to.
Multiple recent polls have shown that 82 to 90 percent of Americans support guaranteed paid time off. You hear far more people talking about work-life balance than you do about “job creators.” Hell, even the Right’s campaign to force women to give up their jobs to become tradwives keeps pushing the narrative that women will be happier at home raising children than they would be working for “soulless corporations.” It’s gross as hell, but it’s also pretty strange to see anyone on that side deriding “soulless corporations.” I mean, “soulless corporations” have always been their favorite. (And probably still are, they just realize it’s not cool to say so anymore.)
Am I saying that Republicans are now going to be allies in the fight for workers’ rights? Oh hell no. I mean, they still really want to bring back child labor. But the vibe shift is there.
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I don’t know. Things are pretty horrific all over these days and there’s not a whole lot out there to cling to — but there are good signs out there that people want more and are willing to fight for it, and that’s not nothing.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
I admit that I did do a smitch of finishing-up-work-for-the-week today for THE MAN, but since THE MAN is actually Commie Mommie Rebecca, I thought it appropriate.
But now I'm done and going to respect May Day like all good French people, who, even if some of them are right wing nutters, do love a good day off.
I am not at work today because it's May Day, and Italy respects that.
So I have been drinking in the Roman sunshine, and it's been pretty nice.