What is International Workers Day? - May 1st.

Posted on 04/30/2026

What is International Workers Day?

Also known as May Day or Labour Day in some countries, International Workers’ Day is a global celebration of the working class and labor movement, which occurs every year on May 1st.

Since 1890, workers and labor groups have taken to the streets on the first of May – a date chosen to commemorate the Haymarket affair, in which protests for an eight hour work day came to a tragic and bloody end when an unidentified person threw a bomb into the crowd and police fired indiscriminately on the striking workers.

It is now a national public holiday in many countries, and each year, workers of all backgrounds join together to march for our rights and collective power.

May Day in LA

Los Angeles has a particularly special relationship with May Day. In addition to celebrating the day’s ties to labor, in LA, May Day has become an important day for immigrant rights groups.

As far back as the early 2000s, groups like the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), Korean Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA), and others began coming together in a multiracial working class coalition to advocate for both immigrants and workers.

On May 1st, 2006, as punitive immigration laws were debated in Congress, massive protests for immigrant rights erupted right here in Los Angeles. These “A Day Without Immigrants” demonstrations helped forge strong and lasting bonds between immigrant and labor groups in our city.

Since then, the streets of Los Angeles have been home to massive protests every year on the first of May, in solidarity with workers, immigrants, labor groups, and working class people everywhere.

Solidarity is Power: The People United