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Agitators and protesters are expected to gather in cities across the country Friday for May Day, boycotting work, school and shopping in demonstrations driven by the “Workers Over Billionaires” motto.
Nearly 500 organizations are planning more than 750 events, including roughly 200 virtual events, that will take place in New York, Washington D.C., Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles and other metropolitan cities.
“On May 1, 2026, workers, students, and families rally, march, and take action across the country to demand a nation that puts workers over billionaires, with many refusing business as usual through No School. No Work. No Shopping,” May Day Strong, which is the main organizer of the demonstrations, describes the event.
Activists are organizing nationwide May Day protests and boycotts under a “Workers Over Billionaires” message, drawing on a long history of labor demonstrations rooted in 19th-century struggles for workers’ rights. (Photo by Elijah Nouvelage / AFP via Getty Images)
May Day’s roots trace back to the 19th Century, when Marxists, socialists and labor unions called for a day of strikes in Paris and later became a national holiday in the Soviet Union after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
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The first May Day protest occurred in 1886, with Chicago at the center of the demonstrations. At the time, several hundred thousand unions, socialists, anarchists and reformers took to the streets to advocate for the eight-hour workday.
Several days later, the protests turned deadly.
On May 3, 1886, violent agitators at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company clashed with police, who opened fire on the crowd, killing at least two, according to reports.
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Illustration depicting the Anarchist (Haymarket) Riot on May 4th, 1886 in Chicago. Shows a bomb exploding among the police. (Colored wood engraving by T. de Thulstrup after H. Jeanneret.)
The following day at Haymarket Square in Chicago, an unknown agitator threw a bomb at police, killing one officer instantly and leading to a violent battle that killed several more law enforcement officers and protesters.
The riot became known as the “Haymaker Affair,” and the events led to the executions and hangings of the Haymarket Martyrs, a trial which is still debated over injustice and controversy today.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has already endorsed the events taking place this Friday, saying that “meaningful solidarity and community resistance” are cornerstones of the historic demonstration.
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Mayor Brandon Johnson answers questions during a news conference at Chicago City Hall on Feb. 25, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service)
“Encouraging participation allows Chicagoans to honor our history while advocating for our future,” Johnson said. “We look forward to a day of meaningful solidarity and community resistance to the forces trying to tear us apart.”
“The history of May Day in America is rooted in Chicago,” Johnson added. “It was in our city that workers organized around the simple demand of an eight-hour workday and raised the consciousness of a gilded nation through the Haymarket Strike.”
With the central theme surrounding the American worker against the billionaire class, economists are skeptical that a single-day boycott has any impact at all on large companies and the so-called elite.
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Protestors arrive in front of the White House on June 22, 2025, to demonstrate support for the Islamic Republic of Iran amid U.S.-Iran tensions. (Asra Nomani/ Digital)
“If you’re talking about [non-perishable activities], like going to the movies, you’ll go see the same movie on Saturday,” University of Maryland Economics Professor Emeritus and former chief economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission Peter Morici told Digital.
Morici noted that if consumers boycott purchases for a single day, they will purchase the same products and shop at the same venues regardless of a one-day strike.
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“Somebody will go to store B instead of store A,” Morici explained. “All this is a bad storm and a way for the left wing getting everybody riled up.”
“It’s not a hit on the billionaires,” Morici added. “You’re angry about your circumstances. So what do you do? You burn the place down and make your circumstances worse. The local shops that are going without a day. The very people they want us to patronize are the people that could get hurt.”
