May Day is an annual celebration of workers’ struggle against capitalism. And workers have been doing just that in the fantastic strike wave of 2022 and now 2023, with millions of workers taking strike action and fighting back.
May Day’s origins lie in the general strike for an eight-hour working day, put down by police gunfire in Chicago in 1886, and in the foundation of the Second International, bringing together revolutionary socialists around the world in 1889. Its history shows us the power of the working class to transform society, and the need to overturn the capitalist state.
The Socialist Party’s links with the organised working class – the agent of socialist change – are fundamental to our work. Each year, we ask groups of workers and trade unionists to support the Socialist newspaper and its ideas by financing a May Day greeting. There has been a fantastic response to our campaign reflecting the strike wave. We have once again received pledges totalling over £8,500, represented by 94 greetings across 12 pages.
Scott Jones, May Day greetings organiser
