On May Day 2026
Resist U.S. imperialism

Since its origins in 1886 in the United States, May Day — declared International Workers Day at a socialist conference in 1889 — has been commemorated by millions of workers, especially in the Global South, with strikes, rallies, marches and other acts of militant protests against capitalist exploitation and imperialist plunder. 

This year inside the U.S., the AFL-CIO federation has issued a national call for May Day actions in many cities, which is a progressive step forward. But Workers World states that this call falls short of what is needed to connect all issues to the current war crisis. 

May Day was born out of the class struggle — the struggle of the exploited working class fighting for better working conditions versus the exploitative class of the bosses.  

But since every issue is a worker’s issue, how can any call for May Day ignore what is taking place in West Asia and centered right now with the U.S. war on Iran? May Day is a perfect opportunity to demonstrate that there is a class difference between being generally against wars and being anti-imperialist — one that shows which side of a war you are on. 

U.S. and Israeli war on Iran

On Feb. 28, the MAGA administration and its crony, the apartheid Zionist illegal state of Israel, declared war on the sovereign country of Iran by massacring close to 170 children who were attending school in Minab, Iran. They also assassinated the beloved Islamic leader, Seyyed Ali Khamenei. The U.S. committed these war crimes while supposedly negotiating with Iran.

Iran has been in the crosshairs of U.S. imperialism for almost 50 years since its people carried out a revolution in 1979 and regained the rightful control of its oil and other precious resources from the colonial grip of the British and U.S. Big Oil profiteers. The U.S. and Israel have targeted Iran for Iran’s consistent material support for the liberation of occupied Palestine.

Citing the United Nations Charter (Article 51), Iran struck U.S. military bases and installations located throughout West Asia, as well as Israel’s major city, Tel Aviv. At the same time, Iran established control of the Strait of Hormuz, making Iran the gatekeeper for 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas exports.  

Since Feb. 28, the U.S. government has wasted billions of dollars for a criminal war that has led to higher gas prices and a huge spike in the costs of food, fertilizer and other essential goods worldwide, including here at home.

Our enemy is imperialism not Iran

Whenever the world’s workers and oppressed peoples are fed up with corporate and banking interests destroying their local economies with fiscal demands, low wages or military aggression, the U.S. regime falsely claims that these peoples’ governments are a “threat to [U.S.] national security.” This ploy is used to justify more and more U.S. tax dollars being diverted towards military spending instead of  funding essential social programs and repairing crumbling infrastructures at home.  

It’s not Iran that shut down U.S. hospitals and schools. It’s not Iran that caused rising houselessness. It’s not Iran that cut funding from public assistance, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). It’s not Iran that cut Medicaid, Section 8 housing, childcare, etc. 

It’s not Iran that sent armed thugs from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol to detain and deport our migrant siblings, causing the deaths of at least 50 migrants.  

When the U.S. government is not scapegoating Iran, it is scapegoating China, Russia, Venezuela and Cuba for the ills caused by U.S. capitalism. These are countries deciding their paths of social development for their own populations, denied to them by decades of underdevelopment policies by imperialism. These paths are referred to as the right to self-determination and are recognized by the United Nations.

Solidarity with the resistance is a May Day issue  

When the U.S. declares war on working and oppressed peoples, they demand the oppressed disarm. Yet, what other alternative is there besides armed struggle to liberate a nation of people living under the boot of an oppressive foreign power? How can nonviolent tactics achieve lasting peace when an enemy is armed to the teeth and hell-bent on destroying liberation movements or overthrowing progressive and revolutionary governments?

Imperialism is an economic system that cannot survive for one second unless it profits from low wages for workers, from theft of whole countries’ resources and by using white supremacy to divide the working class.  

The billionaire ruling class — not just individuals — is the outgrowth of capitalism on a global scale. Inside the U.S., the two major capitalist parties — Democrat and Republican — fundamentally exist to uphold the interests of this oppressive system. The MAGA president, as depraved as he clearly is, owes allegiance to this class like all the presidents who preceded him. 

The people of Iran, occupied Palestine, Cuba, China, Venezuela, Lebanon and the majority of the world are demanding with their actions that populations located in the richer countries in the Global North join them in their struggles against imperialist aggression —our common enemy. This starts openly by siding with the resistance. 

Those forces resisting imperialism are exposing the reality that global capitalism — imperialism — cannot be reformed. This decaying system must and will ultimately be disposed of on a global scale and replaced by a socialist system that will empower the collective labor of the working class to bring about full equality for all.

So let’s make this year’s May Day a day of solidarity with the resistance movements in Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, Cuba, along with the growing resistance against ICE, mass incarceration, job layoffs and racism at home.

The workers struggle knows no borders. An injury to one is an injury to all!