What is May Day?
In more than 140 countries, May 1 is celebrated as a workers' holiday. May Day started in the U.S. in 1886 when American labor organizations called a general strike, beginning on May 1, to demand the eight-hour workday. On May 4, 1886, Chicago police opened fire on the strikers in what is known as the Haymarket Massacre. Today we celebrate May Day, or International Workers' Day, in honor of the Haymarket martyrs and the international working class. It is a day when workers throughout the world take to the streets to fight against exploitation.

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Why we marched on May Day:

Jobs, Homes, Peace
Today we stand before the edge.  Official unemployment stands at a rate of 8.5%.  When underemployed and discouraged workers are included, unemployment is actually 16% (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Within the next few months, a new wave of foreclosures will hit.  A million mortgages, a total of nearly $110 billion in loans, will have their rates reset.  About three quarters of them will jump to more than ten percent interest, which will be unaffordable for many.  

Despite the hopes of many antiwar activists, the election of Democrats in 2006 and 2008 has not led to the United States ending the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan or Haiti.  In fact, they are expanding the war in Afghanistan and starting a new one in Pakistan, while only removing some troops from Iraq over the next three years.

Yes We Can, But No We Won’t
One thing must be clear by now: we cannot rely on the Democrats to give us what we want without our demanding it.  Even now, the Democrats back off their plans to punish executives at companies getting government bailouts who give million dollar bonuses to the very executives who created this mess.  They are planning to give $1.2 trillion to the corrupt, greedy fat cats who’ve been robbing America and the world for decades.

What is Being Done?
Across Europe, the people have reacted in anger to the crisis. The people of Europe have taken action. Riots in Greece over the shooting of a youth (and their economy) took a general character as the entire nation demonstrated and went on strike. Governments have fallen in Iceland, Latvia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Others teeter on the brink. A general strike in France has put the government on notice that the people will not pay for the mistakes of their rulers.

We must do the same. President Nixon was forced by the American people to pull out of Vietnam, to create the Environmental Protection Agency, to pass the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.  The American people were mobilized and organized, and demanded from their government.  If we organize nothing, if we demand nothing, that’s what we’ll get, nothing.