May Day Strong: Power through Solidarity
May Day Matters
Most of us are workers. Even among the managers, supervisor and various types of bosses - most folks are showing up and doing work to create wealth for someone else. The people keeping the wealth are amassing power and making decisions about the work that we do. I’m not talking about the person who sets the weekly schedule or approves time off requests. I’m talking systems: the people who decide whether or not thousands of people keep their jobs and the conditions under which our work is done, and what happens to the products of our labor. Those folks have been making some harmful decisions lately, like neglecting to provide any consequences related to the Epstein Files, or passing anti-trans legislation, or weakening voter protections and generally trying to dismantle democracy. This is part of why May Day matters. May Day has historically been a moment for people all over the world to recognize the incredible power we possess as workers when we turn to and depend on each other. It is a day to remind powerful people that we have our own power and are not afraid to wield it.
This week, we are again called to send a message on May Day: Our lives are not forfeit for the sake of profit. Our neighbors' lives are as sacred and worthy as our own. Children are not to be used as collateral to the recklessness of unchecked power, and no one is expendable as canon fodder: not in this country and not in our names. This Friday, that message is delivered via economic impact: NO WORK, NO SCHOOL, NO SHOPPING!
Because we deserve better and we owe it to each other to fight for it and win.
May Day and Our Multi-issue Lives
Respect, regard, care, self determination… These are our birthright.
While May Day is about labor and workers rights, there’s more to consider as we watch fascism roll in like high tide. May Day is about how we build power, how solidarity saves lives and how our labor is tied up with every other aspect of our lives. Meaning May Day is necessarily intersectional. If we look beyond the one-to-one approach to social justice, we can notice that . labor is about economic justice, that economic justice is about fair wages, fair wages means employment access for trans women, which means health care for all, which means environmental justice, which means Land Back, which means reparations, decriminalization, and on and on.
“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”
– AUDRE LORDE
May Day Strong Means Moving Together
The sheer number of terrible things we face can seem like a massive edifice: no windows, no doors, no discernible way in. It is painful to know that something MUST be done while feeling lost about what and how.
And yet: our values demand change. Every unmet need deserves to be answered. Every unfairly weighted system must be brought into balance. People of conscience, people of faith, and people committed to community have a responsibility to love, support, and protect one another. We feel the impulse toward right action, but what are the next right steps? When the crises grow and our everyday lives feel so comparatively small, how do we decide what to do?
Have you ever had a leak in your roof, or have water leak into your basement? It takes a tornado to move a house from where it stands, but a steady trickle of water in the right conditions will eventually split it open from the inside out. Have you ever made a clay pot? A well-made ceramic pot can remain intact for centuries, but a whisper of air inside wet clay can cause it to crack or shatter.
You don’t have to be a tornado or a hammer. If we are persistent and patient, eventually our little cracks will spread and connect and create a growing fissure that reaches a critical breaking point.
“Everything Worthwhile Is Done With Other People” –
MARIAME KABA
Every time you add yourself to a number of people acting for change, you make a difference.
You can join the many people who are:
Urging legislators away from complicity with authoritarianism
Learning about/taking strategic action on policy, electoral, and resistance topics with the UU Solidarity Initiative
Using art and creativity to proclaim their values and help people imagine new possibilities for the kind of world they want to live in
Providing material support to organizers and activists, such as meals, gas, and cash
Boosting the signal of people sharing news, writing, and media that uplift struggles for justice.
Gathering all the news they can about the ways we are resisting and winning and sharing it!
Using mass actions like May Day Strong to as opportunities to educate people about policy issues and opportunities for action (Download and distribute the flyer below)
It is through our actions that the long arc bends toward justice. It is through our works that our faith is enlivened.
Whatever you end up doing on May Day, there is a place for each of us in the beloved company of changemakers. We belong here, in this work, together. Join us this Friday; whether you are marching in the streets, sharing independent protest coverage on your phone, or walking someone’s dog so they can attend to the work they are called to do, your offering is needed. When we show up together, we are powerful. When we move together, with persistence and patience, we can use our shared power to create the change we want to see.
In solidarity,
Atena