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Labor unions, democratic organizations and community groups are organizing an economic blackout this year to commemorate May Day, International Workers Day, inspired by the economic blackout in Minnesota during the massive ICE operation in the state.
May Day Strong events are being planned across the US, with organizers calling for “no school, no work, no shopping”, in protest of government policies they say put billionaires’ needs above those of workers.
Neidi Dominguez, founding executive director of Organized Power in Numbers and an organizer, said that the number of May Day events this year had more than doubled compared with last year.
“Last year, there were about 1,300 May Day actions across the country. This year, we think there’s going to be more than 3,000,” said Dominguez. “Minneapolis really gave us the biggest push in real time to do it. We have a long way to go to take massive disruption actions like in other countries, where people will go on general strikes and they can shut down their country, but I think we’re getting more and more close to people having consciousness about their own power as workers.”
Dominguez said the protests were a reaction to actions and threats from the Trump administration, including the proposal to send ICE agents to polling places during the midterms, and unilateral military actions on Venezuela and Iran.
She said the actions this year were a step towards building a bigger movement.
“We’re really trying to actually start organizing people to see that the power that we collectively have to do economic disruption is really the power that we need in this moment to not just defend ourselves, but defend democracy,” she added.
Dominguez noted that several cities, including Los Angeles and Chicago, are preparing for city-wide economic blackouts.
In Chicago, several local labor unions and community groups, including the Chicago Teachers Union, SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana, Indivisible Chicago and the Chicago Federation of Labor, jointly announced an economic blackout for Chicago for 1 May.
“May Day has to become bigger in this moment,” said Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and Illinois Federation of Teachers. The unions have backed the economic blackout planned for May Day. “This is about building a more popular united front.”
“As educators, we feel a very real accountability to the young people in the families that we serve. Educators are institution builders that help to create the infrastructure for how Americans see the project of our American democracy,” said Davis Gates. “We want to connect people not just to the affordability crisis but the crisis of our institutions being marginalized in this moment and the impact on our young people.”
In Los Angeles, the LA May Day coalition, comprising more than 50 local organizations, is organizing an economic blackout around numerous demands, including immigration rights, voting rights, abolishing ICE, anti-war protests and defending workers’ rights.
Pedro Trujillo, director of organizing at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (Chirla), one of the groups involved in organizing the day of action, said May Day had historically been a day of immigration and labor rights groups coming together to advocate simultaneously for these issues, including the day without an immigrant boycotts of about 20 years ago.
“Twenty years ago, we had mega marches here in downtown Los Angeles that shut down the city, and so we’re bringing back that energy of shutting it down,” said Trujillo. “We’re at 101 endorsing organizations. This includes unions. This includes non-profit groups, grassroots groups and faith groups as well, that have officially endorsed our demonstration.”
He noted the day of action had grown from about 85 endorsing organizations last year as protests and activism support has grown in the US through the Trump administration, from massive No Kings protests to protests against ICE operations.
“That goes to show that people are ready to get active,” he added. “They’re ready to get connected with other networks, and we’re seeing folks from other sectors as well join, which is something similar that we’ve seen in like marches, like the No Kings marches, you get some folks who are unlikely marchers, folks who are even elderly, they’re out there demonstrating as well, because they’re tired of what they’re hearing about in the news and seeing in their streets.”
