Thousands in US join ‘no school, no work, no shopping’ May Day protest and economic blackout | May Day

Thousands of people took part in economic disruption for International Workers’ Day as part of 3,500 “Strong May Day” events taking place across the country today. Organizers called for “no school, no work, no shopping” with strikes, marches and marches. block parties and demonstrations held outside institutions such as the New York Stock Exchange.

In Manhattan this afternoon, protesters from the youth-led Sunrise Movement chained themselves to the front of the stock exchange, while more blocked exits from the property. About 100 protesters joined them before they were arrested and removed about an hour later. A small crowd was playing music and chanting: “Tax the rich!”

Sunrise protesters led demonstrations in other cities that resulted in arrests. They are in Portland, Oregon Hilton occupied the hotel lobby Where Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials are alleged to be staying, and in Minneapolis, Minnesota, six Sunrise protesters They were arrested for blocking the bridge.

May 1 has long been an annual day of protest for the labor movement, and this year many active movements came together to demand no ICE, no war, and taxation of the rich. The powerful May 1 coalition includes labor unions, immigrant rights groups, political organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America, and organizers behind the No King protests.

Early this morning, a group of Amazon employees, Teamsters, and local politicians marched from the main branch of the New York public library to Amazon’s nearby corporate offices to demand that the company cut its contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and DHS. In the capital of the country, Protesters at Free DC organization They blocked intersections across the city and held handmade banners that read “Workers outnumber billionaires” and “Health care, not war.”

Healthcare workers affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Chicago We walked to the Amazon warehouse, It bears a giant sign of owner Jeff Bezos’ head. a group Protesters in Memphis, TennesseeHe slept in the streets and blocked the entrance to Elon Musk’s xAI data center.

As the day progressed, protests and marches filled with union workers, mariachi bands, students, teachers, politicians and more began from the midwest to the west coast. Photos and images of the crowd filling the streets Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Madison, Wisconsin and Raleigh, North Carolina, spread on social media.

Friday’s economic disruption builds on a similar coordinated effort in Minnesota in January, when tens of thousands of Twin Cities residents walked out of school and tried to take to the streets to protest federal immigration agents storming the city.

Leah Greenberg of Indivisible, one of the main organizations behind No Kings, called the May 1 economic shutdown a “test of structure” for the movement.

“We want people to take a step to use their power more in every aspect of their lives, as workers, as students, as members of local organizing centres,” he said. “It’s important for building the muscles to become more uncooperative.”

Teachers unions and students were an active part of the fight, a continuation of their months of organizing against ICE. At least 15 school districts in North Carolina gave teachers permission to attend the statewide “Kids Over Corporations” May 1 rally to fund public education. In Chicago, the teachers’ union fought to make May 1 a “civil action day” and won. Schools were also closed Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where teachers plan to demonstrate.

“As educators, we feel a real responsibility to the young people in the families we serve,” Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and Illinois Federation of Teachers, said earlier this week. “We want to connect people not just to the affordability crisis, but to the crisis of our institutions that are currently marginalized and the impact it has on our youth.”

Sanshray Kukutla, a Purdue University student in West Lafayette, Indiana, and an organizer of the campus’ Sunrise Movement chapter, helped coordinate the local strike for students, teachers, workers and residents. “We are taking collective action to send a message to the billionaire class: it is our labor, our spending and our participation that keeps the whole system going, and if we don’t work, they have no profit,” Kukutla said.

Some labor unions are also planning to strike today. Nurses at the University Medical Center of New Orleans He announced that they would start a five-day strike for a fair contract.

Organizers say the day of action is an effort to call a general strike, which was essentially banned by the Taft-Hartley Act of 1946 and has not occurred in the United States since. As a temporary solution, United Auto Workers (UAW) president Shawn Fain called on unions to call for a general strike on May 1, 2028, ensuring that existing union contracts expire together.