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WHAT IS MAY DAY STRONG, THE ‘NO WORK, NO SCHOOL, NO SHOPPING’
PROTESTS AGAINST TRUMP?
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Kim Kelly
April 22, 2026
The Guardian
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_ Day of action to support workers set for 1 May – who is
organizing May Day Strong, and how can people join? _
Protestors march during a nationwide shutdown demonstration against
ICE in Minneapolis in January., Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty
Images
Anyone who attended one of the 3,000 No Kings protests in March
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might have learned of the latest effort to protest
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against Trump administration policies: May Day Strong.
The single-day protest on 1 May is taking its cue from the massive day
of action that shut down Minneapolis
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in January by asking Americans not to shop, work or go to school.
Rallies, marches and teach-ins will also take place across the
country.
“The labor movement in our country cannot advance while ignoring the
assault on democracy,” said Neidi Dominguez, founding executive
director of Organized Power in Numbers and executive team member of
May Day [[link removed]] Strong.
“And the pro-democracy movement can’t ask working people to defend
abstract principles while they can’t afford housing, paying bills or
accessing healthcare. We need a national movement that does both.
That’s why labor and community organizations are throwing down hard
this May 1.”
What is May Day Strong?
Organizers are expecting more than 3,500 actions
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the country – from street protests to walkouts – “under the
banner of workers over billionaires, taxing the rich, demanding ICE
out, money for people not wars, and expanding democracy”, said
Dominguez.
Since 2024, the May Day Strong coalition has been hosting Solidarity
School organizing trainings
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sharing toolkits and encouraging people to set up their own May Day
events. The labor unions involved are already using their
institutional muscle to help, too: the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU)
successfully fought to have 1 May declared a “day of civic action
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city, and the National Education Association (NEA) has posted a handy
May Day planning guide [[link removed]]on its
website.
The goal is “a nationwide day of economic disruption”, organizers
said – by bringing business as usual to a halt, protesters will show
how powerful the working class can be when it flexes its collective
muscle.
Who is organizing May Day Strong?
The May Day Strong coalition is made up of a formidable list
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of America chapters, pro-democracy groups such as Indivisible (who
have jumped on board to amplify the May Day message), and labor,
racial justice, anti-war, pro-democracy, climate justice, immigrant
rights and reproductive justice organizations.
That intersectional approach is a core aspect of their work, Dominguez
said: “There’s more of us than there are of them. We just have to
organize ourselves together.”
Where can I find May Day Strong events in my area?
May Day Strong’s website has a searchable map
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sign up to host their own. Signing the May Day pledge
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is another way to get connected and receive more information about
events.
Is it a general strike (and does that matter)?
No – at least not in 2026. “A general strike is basically a work
stoppage that paralyzes multiple major industries,” said Eric Blanc,
an assistant professor of labor studies at Rutgers University.
That’s not what May Day Strong is planning for this year. As many
organizers have noted, it will take years to organize a full-on,
sustained general strike in the US – which is why 2028 has emerged
as a target date.
Rather, May Day Strong organizers are amplifying the call for “no
work, no school, no shopping” that anchored Minnesota’s Day of
Truth and Freedom
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on 23 January, bringing millions of protesters out to demand an end to
ICE’s occupation in their cities.
General strikes are rare in the US, though historically they have been
one of organized labor’s most powerful tools. In 1877, railroad
workers launched a strike that paralyzed the nation; in 1919, workers
in Seattle shut down the city for five days. Minneapolis saw its own
general strike in 1934
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when unionized truck drivers brought the city to a standstill and lit
a signal fire for other workers across the midwest to organize.
However, the passage of the 1946 Taft-Hartley Act essentially outlawed
the general strike and severely limited workers’ ability to strike
in solidarity with one another. The US hasn’t seen a true general
strike since.
The tactic remains a potent lever for political change in other
countries, such as India and Italy. “Experience across the world
suggests that it may take such an action – or at least the credible
threat of one – to reverse authoritarianism in the US,” said
Blanc.
What is the May Day 2028 general strike?
That inconvenient piece of anti-labor legislation is exactly why the
United Auto Workers’ call for
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a May Day general strike in 2028 has generated so much excitement. The
union and its lawyers are well aware of those legal constraints, which
is why they had to find a loophole.
In April 2024, Shawn Fain, president of the UAW, publicly called on
all unions
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across industries and sectors, to align their contract expiration
dates for 1 May 2028
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If those unions’ contracts expire, so do the no-strike clauses that
many contain; with no contract, there’s nothing stopping members
from going on strike. If it just so happens that thousands – or
millions – of workers find themselves in that situation on the same
day, well, there’s not much the law can do to stop it.
Several major unions, including the CTU, the NEA, the American
Federation of Teachers and the American Postal Workers Union, have
already pledged to join them. The May Day Strong coalition is also
working to support the 2028 general strike by giving non-union
organizations a way to get their members ready to participate.
“The fact is: without workers, the world stops running,” Fain
wrote in an op-ed for In These Times
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“A successful general strike is going to take time, mass
coordination, and a whole lot of work by the labor movement. As
working people, we must come together [[link removed]]. We can
no longer allow corporations, politicians and borders to divide us.”
What is the history behind May Day?
May Day, or International Workers’ Day, was first celebrated in the
US in 1886, when anarchist labor organizers Lucy and Albert Parsons
led 300,000 striking workers
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Chicago on the first American May Day parade. While the first of May
has a much older history rooted in ancient pagan rites and the
changing seasons, in a political context it has since become known as
a global day of celebration, struggle and remembrance for the working
class.
May Day is an official holiday in 66 countries and is celebrated
informally in many others, marked by marches, parades, strikes and
demonstrations. However, in the US, 1 May is designated “Loyalty
Day”; the workers’ holiday, Labor Day, has been relegated to the
first Monday in September. And, yes, the lack of recognition for May
Day is very much intentional
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This has been a source of frustration for labor’s left flank for
decades, and the recently renewed focus on 1 May as a day of
collective action nods to labor’s history as well as its future.
As Fain said: “It’s time we reclaimed May Day for the working
class.”
_Kim Kelly is an NYC-based freelance music journalist whose writing
has appeared in Rolling Stone, NPR, Spin, Pitchfork, Kerrang and the
Atlantic. She's currently a contributing editor at Noisey, VICE's
music channel._
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