The International Workers Day or MAY DAY is on May 1. Photos from past years.

Wednesday, April 29, 2020. New York City – The International Workers Day or MAY DAY is on May 1. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, I will not cover events this year.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, almost 18,000 people have died of COVID-19 in New York City. More than 56,000 people have died in the United States of America. New York City is the epicenter of COVID-19. The United States of America is now at the heart of the global coronavirus crisis.

workers.org says, “May Day — International Workers’ Day — will be celebrated on May 1 across the U.S. despite the challenges imposed by the pandemic.

Activists in many cities are protesting from their cars about a range of key working-class issues, including health, safety and economic well-being in the context of COVID-19. Others are holding “virtual” protests.

Dozens of endorsers have signed on to a general strike call initiated by the Cooperation Jackson coalition: Peoples’ Strike on May Day.

Solidarity with prisoners and migrants, among the most oppressed and exploited sectors of the working class, is an emphatic theme. Organizers are also paying tribute to im/migrant communities who revived May Day in 2006 with a general strike of millions, raising awareness coast-to-coast in the U.S. about this historic day of workers’ resistance.

Revolutionaries are keeping May Day alive, a tradition that started in 1886 with the militant fight for the 8-hour day — then as now led by im/migrant workers.”

peoplespowerassemblies.org says, “Utmost concern and solidarity to all dealing with the current situation. The struggles of the peoples of the world have shifted to creative actions like webinars, petitions, “car rallies,” wildcard strikes and walkouts, calls for rent, mortgage, utility and tuition moratoriums, and other means of showing solidarity with each other everywhere in the “belly of the beast” and with workers worldwide.

Stay well, support each other, and fight this government and system which puts profits so much before the peoples’ welfare.”

“May Day Workers Solidarity: Caravan For Our Lives”

“As COVID-19 continues to spread across the US, the complete inadequacy of the US healthcare system and the failure of the government response is on full display. Essential workers are put at risk every day with low pay and without necessary protective gear. Widespread testing is unavailable. Millions without work face the prospect of rent bills they cannot pay and evictions to follow. Prisoners and migrants in detention centers are at particularly high risk of contracting COVID-19, as social distancing and basic sanitary measures are impossible under prison conditions. Billions are spent on criminal wars instead of addressing the pandemic. Governor Cuomo has refused support to undocumented migrants.

The caravan will follow social distancing and other safety protocols, and is in opposition to reactionary demonstrations over the past weeks that have demanded people return to work, a policy that would result in completely unnecessary mass infection and death. Workers and scientists should decide when to reopen the economy, not right-wing reactionaries. The caravan will show solidarity with working and oppressed people across New York City, especially hospital, transit, grocery & incarcerated workers at the front line of this crisis, and lay the blame where it belongs: at the doorsteps of Trump, DeBlasio, Cuomo and Wall Street.” MORE INFO: https://www.facebook.com/events/1103860133313209/

“May Day Rally with the New York State Communist Party”

“Join leaders in the Labor, tenant, peace, electoral, and Native people’s movements, and the New York State Communist Party for a celebration of our working class and the struggle for deeper democracy and socialism in the United States.

The program will include short speeches, cultural performances, singing, and a commemoration of fallen Comrades.” MORE INFO: https://www.facebook.com/events/260981251955202/

These are photos I took in past years.