On May 1, 1886, hundreds of thousands of workers in the US went on strike or walked off the job in support of the eight hour day. A few days later, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, a rally was held in support of the eight hour day. The rally ended in violence when an unknown person threw a bomb into the crowd, which subsequently led to a frame-up trial in which multiple militant workers were prosecuted for the bombing despite the fact the majority were not present at the rally in the first place.
One hundred and forty years later, the economic demands that birthed that movement have still not been won. Let May Day 2026 serve as a reminder that the final resolution of our grievances can only come about through the conquest of political power by the working class. Imperialism strives for domination, not freedom: until the working class overthrows imperialist dictatorship, even the most generous and far-reaching concessions to the workers remain in danger of being revoked. The state unions, as government-backed managers of these concessions, have overseen the transfer of billions of dollars from the workers back into the pockets of the imperialist bourgeoisie. The struggle for concessions must be brought in line with the struggle for power, not counterposed to it. The state unions sacrifice both the short and long-term interests of the workers on the altar of labor peace. They promote the lie that the only way to make “real gains” is by abandoning the class struggle, integrating within the imperialist system, and maintaining labor peace at all costs. This can only sabotage both the labor movement and the revolution.
The labor movement in the US has been in decline for decades now. This is due to the internal contradiction of the movement, which remains trapped within the dogma of state unionism and suffers from both right and ultra-left deviations. While the ultra-left denies the possibility and necessity of struggling for the daily demands of the masses, the right promotes every sellout contract and reformist caucus victory as “progress”. In fact, the corporatist schemes of the establishment unions such as Trump’s Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups, labor banking, and cooperation with Democratic and Republican Party machine politics is evidence of the growth of fascism within the labor movement. The NLOC fights against these deviations by relying mainly on the consciousness of our class and the initiative of the masses, who are mostly unorganized. In contrast to the state unions, who divide the workers by firm, bargaining unit, and job classification, and limit the scope of their demands, the NLOC promotes industrial unity and the broadening of the struggle beyond the arbitrary divisions created by the bourgeois legal system. Also in contrast to the state unions, in which career NGO employees and Democratic Party functionaries dominate the masses, the NLOC develops new leaders from among the rank-and-file workers.
May Day is a day to celebrate the awakening of workers to class-consciousness, show solidarity to all the toiling people of the world, and advance the struggle to overthrow exploitation and oppression in general. That is why today, the New Labor Organizing Committee says: workers of the world, unite!