Solidarity is a verb
May, 2025
On May 1st the world celebrates International Workers' Day, or May Day. Workers from around the world celebrate the struggles, wins and current fights for workers in all sectors to be held with dignity, respect and a fair, living wage. It is a day of both radical remembrance of our shared histories and a day of radical imagination for truly liberated lives free from oppression and the freedom to work, live and dream without the constraints of capital and imperialism. It is a day of hope.
May Day is also a day of solidarity; a day of standing beside our brothers, sisters and siblings with whom we share a common fight, even if we stand on different terrain in the struggle. We stand in solidarity with farmworkers, with nurses, with homecare workers and with sex workers, even if we have never walked a day in their shoes. We say “I see you, and I am choosing to be with you” to our comrades in the struggle for fair, safe and just working conditions, whether they are here on Turtle Island or elsewhere in our connected world. May Day is a day of commitment to action.
May Day is also a day to till the earth and unbury the roots of our current political and economic crises. It is a day to remember that there is no capitalism without white supremacy and patriarchy; there is no worker justice without racial and gender justice. A day to see (and keep seeing) the connections between stolen land in the so-called United States and stolen land of the people of Palestine. To see the connections of farmworker struggles led by Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez in the 1960’s and 70’s and the current struggles for fair and safe conditions of farmworkers today in Western New York, Georgia, Colorado and Washington State. To see the ways in which our current oligarchy is still funded and fueled by the profits made off of the backs of enslaved African peoples on the stolen lands of Indigenous peoples. It is a day to time travel, to take action and to be in the work, hands dirty and brow wet with sweat so that all workers can be free.
May Day asks us see solidarity as what it is; a verb. “To be in solidarity” is to take a stand and take a risk. People have taken risks to show and act on their solidarity for as long as people have been resisting, and right now, we need folks to evaluate for themselves what kinds of risks they can take for people they may never meet. What type of risks can you, whoever you are, take to stand alongside migrant families, Queer and Trans people, people with disabilities, workers and the planet? Where can you stretch beyond your comfort zone to show up, cook, care, give, act so that we can all be safe and free?
Today we think about Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan who a week ago was arrested for acting in solidarity, for taking a risk, with a person in her courtroom. When notified that ICE was waiting for Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an undocumented person, with an administrative warrant (a warrant NOT signed by a judge), Judge Dugan allowed Eduardo to leave from a different door in order to have a chance at continuing his life in the US. Judge Dugan is not a superhero, she is not perfect or even always on the right side of our movements, but she had an opportunity to be in solidarity, to take a risk for what is true and right, and she took it.
As we pass the 100 day mark of this administration, we are no doubt already exhausted. We have seen the news of deportations, raids, crack downs and the steady drumbeat of oppression by ICE, and we know that it is not new nor is it slowing down. We know that the system isn’t only being uncovered, but is no longer hiding its cruelty and ferocious assaults on migrant and Queer and Trans communities. The constant realities of the roots of our current system in white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism and imperialism are shining in disco neon white-hooded lights, and it begs a question: which side are you on?
This May Day, and everyday, we hope that you choose the side of solidarity. That you choose to take a risk, to put your neck out and open your hands to hold those that have been fighting, clawing and building their lives in the shadow of empire. Will you be the verb with us?
Written by Emily Terrana