The Green Party stands with those fighting for worker and immigrant rights
May 1st is International Workers Day, a global holiday recognizing the historic struggle of working people throughout the world. It is interconnected with the struggles being led by immigrants, climate justice activists, the Black Lives Matter movement, young people and the LGBTQ+ community.
Below is a collection of essays written by Green Party activists in celebration of May Day.
May 01, 2018
By The Santa Clara County Green Party
We began this month by honoring those who have fought for labor rights and whose sacrifices led to the international May Day observances for workers! Who knew that what they fought for, such as the 40-hour work week, would be threatened today, by the wealth gap and income crisis many families face.
May 01, 2018
By Brendan Phillips
As May Day approaches, I reflect on great on labor heroes. People like Mary Harris Jones, Big Bill Haywood, and Joe Hill. Those who helped bring us the eight hour workday, sick time, maternal leave, and other worker protections. They showed us the power of unionization, solidarity, and direct action. We saw what lengths the ruling class will go to protect their power at Haymarket Square, when they went so far as to murder labor activists.
May 01, 2018
By Howie Hawkins, May 1, 2018
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 that cultures the world over celebrate as Spring arrives in temperate and arctic climates and 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.
May 01, 2018
By The Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts
Over the last year we have seen a massive assault from the Federal government on every kind of program and protection. From the lackluster response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, to the opening of the Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, it seems we can take nothing for granted anymore.
May 01, 2018
By Ajamu Baraka
On this day, known as International Workers’ Day, the Green Party Power Project (GPPP) expresses its solidarity with workers in the United States and abroad and re-commits itself to the historic task of building an independent political formation that centers the values, needs and aspirations of the working class and poor.
We also say without any equivocation that any political party that is serious must center an unrelenting attack on the four interrelated issues that confront humanity in general, but specifically workers and the poor in the United States and abroad: White supremacy, neoliberal capitalist exploitation, war and ecological devastation.
May 01, 2018
By Kevin Zeese & Margaret Flowers
Seventy years of attacks on the right to unionize have left the union movement representing only 10 percent of workers. The investor class has concentrated its power and uses its power in an abusive way, not only against unions but also to create economic insecurity for workers.
At the same time, workers, both union and nonunion, are mobilizing more aggressively and protesting a wide range of economic, racial and environmental issues.
