FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, January 23, 2026
CONTACT: press@maydaystrong.org
Unai Montes, u.montes@peoplesaction.org (Bilingual) 310-962-7369
Last year marked the most May Day mobilizations in the history of the country, this year organizers say will be even bigger
Chicago, Illinois – On a national call, a dozen representatives of labor and community groups from Minnesota, Chicago, and nationwide announced to thousands of attendees the call for May Day 2026 to be a day of rallies, marches, and walking out from school, work, and shopping.
The May Day Strong effort is organized under the banner “Workers over Billionaires,” as they take on what they say is a billionaire agenda that has spiked the cost of living for working people, slashed public budgets, and redirected those funds to millionaires, billionaires, and giant corporations.
“Billionaire ballrooms won’t pay our bills. But We the People are taking peaceful, nonviolent action to rebuild our democracy on May Day and beyond. While our families struggle to afford everyday expenses, public dollars are taken out of our pockets and put into ICE budgets, private prison corporation contracts, military deployments to Venezuela, and giveaways to big oil. We must hold the politicians who make our housing, health care, and utilities unaffordable accountable at the ballot box. The corporations who profit off our pain need to be held accountable by their customers. Our families and our communities are organizing to build an economy that works for all of us, and the peaceful and prosperous future we deserve,” said People’s Action Executive Director Sulma Arias.
“We need to stay focused on the corporations driving, profiting from, and enabling the fascist attacks on our communities. We need to make sure their executives understand they won’t have peace if we don’t have peace. We have to directly challenge corporations like Target, Hilton, and Palantir and show them that fascism isn’t just bad for democracy, it’s also bad for business,” said Executive Director of the Action Center on Race and the Economy Saqib Bhatti.
May 1st is universally recognized as International Workers Day. In the US, organizers say they will rally working-class people nationwide to demand their elected officials from city councils to governors to Congress stand up to the federal attack on working people.
“On May 1st 2026 we need to take what the people of MN are going to do this Friday January 23 to the entire country: We are not going to work, we are not going to shop, and our kids won’t go to school that day. They will be with us in the streets. We must stand together to fight this government that is not taking care of us but instead is killing us. An immigrant worker is not who is standing between us and a better paying job, it’s a billionaire and we need to keep naming them and taking them on,” said Executive Director of Organized Power In Numbers Neidi Dominguez.
“The immigrant rights movement and organized labor movement have a long history of working in solidarity to improve the lives of workers, their families, and their communities. But the unprecedented threats we’re facing from this alliance between the wealthy and the racist requires us to go even further and move powerfully as one movement. That’s why I’m proud of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) being part of May Day Strong, working together to make 2026 the year we became even more united in overcoming the oppression and abuse by the powerful. ¡Sí, se puede!,” said Fair Immigration Reform Movement Managing Director Andy Kang.
Echoing a call from Minneapolis in the wake of ICE’s occupation of that city and the murder of Renee Good, many are already calling for the 1st to be a day of “no school, no work, no shopping,” while others are planning rallies and marches in their city that day.
“We need to protect our students and our schools from efforts to defund and dismantle protections for vulnerable students. We invite parents, teachers and others who care about public schools to join us at freethefuture.net. Join us as we organize in our communities and build towards May Day,” said Chief of Staff at the Center for Popular Democracy Oona Chatterjee.
“Under the Trump administration, the creation of fear has become a governing strategy in our communities. It’s enforced through raids and surveillance, and reinforced by corporate decisions that profit from it. Media companies like Telemundo and Univision took millions to air messages telling immigrants to self-deport or live in fear, while tech corporations like Palantir built the infrastructure that makes repression scalable. This goes far beyond immigrant communities: protesters are surveilled, journalists are censored and arrested, workers face retaliation, and entire communities are criminalized for refusing to stay silent. When corporations align with policies advanced by Donald Trump and choose profit and political compliance over people, fear becomes a business model designed to keep communities quiet,” said Political Director at Mijente Tania Unzueta.
On the call, in addition to building momentum toward this May Day, speakers announced their support for the people of Minneapolis and their plans to participate in this Friday’s national day of action being mapped at iceoutforgood.org. They announced plans to push statehouses to tax the ultra-rich, as states like Massachusetts have done, to fill the holes in school, transit, and public health budgets created by the current administration.
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About May Day Strong:
Workers Over Billionaires is organized by the May Day Strong Coalition, stretching from labor, to multi-issue advocacy groups and everyday workers who are fed up with the billionaire agenda. You can find a full list of organizational partners here. We are united in common purpose: building a multi-racial movement to get real wins for working people.
We hosted more than one thousand actions May 1st, 2025 and Labor Day 2025 and are planning A Day Without Workers for May 1st, 2026. Economic non-cooperation and withholding our labor is how we will win.
About People’s Action:
People’s Action is a proud national network of 38 member-based, power-building organizations in 29 states with more than a million members and tens of thousands of national volunteers. We are from every background, speak many languages, and live in small towns, cities and rural areas. We are all of us!