By Howie Hawkins
May 1, 2020

May Day, or International Workers Day, is celebrated with marches and rallies every May 1 to lift up the working people and their demands for freedom, equality, and justice. That is the Red tradition of May Day. But there is also an older Green tradition in which cultures the world over celebrate as Spring arrives in temperate and arctic climates or the wet season arrives in tropical climates. This Green tradition of May Day celebrates all that is free and life-giving on the green Earth that is our common wealth and heritage. These Red and Green May Day traditions are complementary.

I don't know what has happened in America. People seem to have less and less respect for the working class, many seem to have an absolute disdain for any type of labor. Combine this with an overall lack of respect for education and skills training- decrying those who go to college or those with college degrees goes hand in hand with a hatred for union trained workers.

If federal minimum wage doesn't go up, the skilled wages don't increase. When my father wanted me to join the Plumbers and Pipefitters union in 2000, the wages for an apprentice are the same as they are today.

This Labor Day, we can't help but think about the insanity that is our country's desperate need for countless people-hours to transform our infrastructure and renew public services while, at the same time, countless people and families across our nation suffer for lack of living-wage jobs.

But as crazy as that problem is, the solution makes perfect sense: an Eco-Socialist Green New Deal. Greens have fought for it. And the idea is catching on, thanks to the tremendous effort of our members and candidates. Will you give to the Green Party of New York today so we can keep up the fight at this pivotal time? Because you and I know there is nothing the corporate power structure would love more than to erase the most essential, radical demands of the GND. We cannot allow that.

• Solidarity with the Communications Workers of America members at AT&T who are striking over unfair labor practices.

One of my junior political advisors and I went out this morning and walked the picket line with local union members and their families. It's time for AT&T to step up and send folks to the table who can make decisions. We join our fellow workers demanding that they bargain in good faith.

• Black and Green: Wednesday, May 1, 2019 at 7:00 p.m.

In February 2018, 20,000 school employees walked out in West Virginia. At least 20,000 more walked out in Oklahoma. Then 40,000 teachers left work in Arizona. Teacher walkouts followed in Colorado, Kentucky & North Carolina. By 2019 Los Angeles & Oakland saw school walkouts.

Marshall, Michigan – A walk between two labor landmarks in Marshall on Saturday, May 4 will give people an opportunity to "spring into action", put some of their own labor into cleaning things up, and talk afterward about next steps. The event, which is open to the public, is posted at https://www.facebook.com/events/289001138684843/

The walk will start at 11:30 am at the intersection of East Drive, East Mansion Street, and Michigan Avenue, across from the VFW Hall -- original site of the house where a union known as the Brotherhood of the Footboard was founded in 1863.

Corporate media absolutely won’t tell you this, but this year’s Los Angeles teachers strike is the latest chapter in the long running struggle against the privatization of public education in the US. With massive public support, 30,000 teachers have voted a settlement that increases their wages a little, brings back nurses, librarians and counselors to each and every one of the city’s 900 schools, caps class sizes and charter school expansion and more. 

At high noon, October 3, 2018, over a hundred underpaid, fast food workers, their families, union supporters, and community members including Greater Milwaukee Greens marched on a Milwaukee McDonald's to demand a $15/hr minimum wage.

With the Fight for $15, many of us had demonstrated there over the last couple of years. We exposed the injustice of McDonald's making billions of dollars in profit while the people who do the real work are struggling to survive. This time would be different.

Green Party candidate for Michigan Governor, Jennifer V. Kurland, said today that eliminating the prevailing wage in Michigan places skilled trade workers in jeopardy at a time when they are needed most. The ramifications, she added, will be long term and negative.

"For a party who touts fiscal responsibility as a key value, Republican lawmakers in Lansing certainly didn't make a fiscally responsible decision for our state on Wednesday," Kurland said.

April 13, 2018 – Last week public school teachers throughout Oklahoma and Kentucky courageously followed the example of West Virginia’s educators, by committing to statewide wildcat* strikes. Between 2008 and 2015, per-student education spending in Kentucky fell by 11.4 percent; in Oklahoma, by 15.6. In both states, as in West Virginia, lawmakers paired disinvestment from education with tax cuts for high-earners and business interests.

WV Governor Justice (R-CoalBaron) came up with what turned out to be a low-ball offer, which teachers flatly rejected. It was probably because earlier in the year Justice had been pushing for tax cuts on the inventories of his many extraction industries.