May Day and Memorial Day Remembrance and Reflection

May 1, or “May Day”, is International Workers Day, a global holiday that honors and commemorates the struggles of the working class. While often ignored in the US, it’s widely celebrated around the world as a time to recognize the power of collective action and the essential role workers play in our communities. May Day remembrance offers a chance to pause and recognize a truth that often gets buried in the noise: workers make this country run. They always have. I started writing this piece as NJ Transit rail workers went on strike, making commuting a nightmare for so many across the state. While headlines focused on delays, detours, and disrupted routines, the real story was about the workers: their demands, their frustration, their refusal to be invisible any longer. These are people who are fed up, who demand to be seen, heard, and valued. From warehouse packers to teachers, caregivers, nurses, bus drivers, janitors, and retail workers, it’s everyday people, usually underpaid, often invisible, who keep our communities functioning. 

This past year, we have seen what happens when workers organize and take action right here in the US. More than 270,000 people went on strike in 2024. Hollywood writers, healthcare staff, teachers, delivery drivers and more all striking for better wages and working conditions. Union drives rose sharply for the first time in decades with Amazon Labor Union (ALU) and Starbucks workers leading the way. 

In New Jersey, there have been real wins too. The Pay Transparency Act, which will come into effect as of June 1, 2025, will require salary and benefit disclosures in job postings, a step toward pay equity, especially for women and people of color. And starting this July, domestic workers, largely immigrant women who’ve long been excluded from basic protections, will finally be covered by a statewide bill of rights. These victories didn’t fall from the sky. They were fought for by organizers, community leaders, activists and everyday people who decided to mobilize and fight for wages and working conditions that are dignified and equitable. 

Still, we have a long way to go in our fight for economic justice. Victories like these exist in tension with the larger system we’re in, a system that has concentrated power and wealth at the top, while leaving far too many, especially marginalized communities, struggling to survive. Neoliberalism, the dominant economic ideology of the past 40 years, told us that if we privatized services, deregulated industries, and left all to the almighty market to resolve, the benefits would eventually trickle down. We know that they in fact have not. As Nonprofit Quarterly recently wrote in their powerful piece, “As Neoliberalism Crashes, What Comes Next?” Neoliberalism has never worked for the masses and is now visibly failing, crashing under the weight of inequality, ecological crisis, and mass despair and disillusionment.

Where do we go from here?

With wealth disparity at historic levels and many New Jerseyans facing growing inequality, food insecurity, a housing crisis, and limited access to quality education and clean water, it is clear alternatives are needed. Our system is broken. We must do better. We need to do better! We need an economy centered in care, equity, and collectivism. Worker-owned cooperatives are one possibility, allowing employees to have real say in the decisions that shape their economic lives. These aren’t experiments or just hopeful ideas. Worker self-directed enterprises (Yes! even in the nonprofits spaces) already exist and work in places across the country and abroad, proving that businesses or organizations do not have to exploit and extract to survive and thrive. Shared ownership and democratic governance have been proven to lead to better outcomes. When workers own and manage their workplaces, they make decisions that benefit themselves, the communities they live in, and the broader economy. 

Reimagining alternatives also involves reshaping our understanding of our purchasing power and our responsibility as consumers in the marketplace. In “What is an Ethical Supply Chain—and Why Does It Matter?” Abdullahi Lawal raises a crucial point: it’s not enough to say we support workers if the goods we consume are produced under exploitative and inhumane conditions. Employers and institutions need to do better, and we as consumers must demand more. We must require more accountability, more transparency and support companies that actively align their operations with values that protect worker dignity from beginning to end. 

We can’t talk about labor without talking about race. As Cassandra Welchlin and Erica Smiley wrote in “How the Black South and Labor Can Unite to Create Pathways to Good Jobs,” Black workers in the South, especially women, are at the center of the labor movement and its future. If we’re serious about justice, like those of us committed to social justice work are, we have to follow the lead of those who’ve been doing this work for generations.

And I can’t write about May celebrations without consideration of Memorial Day, a time to honor those who gave their lives in military service. But honoring service should also mean fighting for the freedom and dignity of those still here, working, struggling, and showing up every day. Historically, veterans have played major roles in advancing labor rights at home. It’s time we continue that tradition by ensuring that all workers can have access to living wages that allow all human beings to live and thrive.

May Day and Memorial Day both ask us to remember and recommit to the idea that democracy doesn’t stop at the ballot box. It must show up at work, in the ways we care for each other, and in the structures we build together. As the old, defunct ways unravel, we must reimagine, remake and co-create what’s next, not just in policy, but in practice.

All of these struggles, whether for fair wages, safe workplaces, or racial and gender justice, are intensifying alongside growing threats to our most basic human rights. We’re up against powerful forces, and we have to be just as organized, just as strategic, and even more rooted in community. Neoliberalism has shown us what happens when the wealthy and powerful act in coordinated self-interest. It’s now time for the rest of us to do the same. Real change requires coalition – across sectors, across race and class, across regions. We must come together, stand with one another, and push back with the full force of our collective power. That’s how we build a future that truly works for all of us.

In Solidarity,