Up Next in Protest: May Day Strong
No rest for the weary, as the saying goes, but this protest asks people to jam up the economy, just for one day, by staying home from school, work, and shopping.
On the heels of the successful No Kings Day Three, which drew millions of Americans to rallies across the country and the world, a large coalition of democracy defenders, labor unions, and others is planning another top-tier, peaceful, and nonviolent demonstration on May 1 — May Day Strong — a sort of general strike in which people are asked not to go to work or school and not to shop.
Says the May Day Strong website: “On May 1, 2026, workers, students, and families rally, march, and take action across the country to demand a nation that puts workers over billionaires, with many refusing business as usual through No School. No Work. No Shopping.”
That’s because organizers know that a single protest won’t change a regime with authoritarian bent. Mary Frances Berry, former head of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, told me, “It’s crucial, though, to be persistent; success takes time.” Berry looked to the past for example: “Anti-Vietnam protests took time to succeed, and there is always room for the opposition to define you as too radical or something.” The iconic civil rights leader also reminded us that the “Free South Africa” movement took a year and a half of daily coordinated protests. “My history teaches us to resist.”
Saturday’s No Kings Day saw over 3,300 demonstrations with more than 8 million participants rallying against the authoritarianism of Donald Trump. That the protests were so highly attended was no surprise given that Trump’s disapproval rating sits above 60 percent. Participants included Democrats, Republicans, and independents; people of all races, genders, religions, and sexual orientations; and people in red states as well as blue and purple states. The protests were peaceful — and fun.
“Non-violent protest is a means of saying we don’t agree with you [President Trump].…They help to push the politics, getting politicians to eventually or right away respond,” Berry said.
Those who protested over the weekend want to see change in life-defining circumstances and an end to controversies. Their pocketbooks are pinched. They are frustrated with the reversal of rights in this country. They are scared for their neighbors who are rounded up, detained, and deported.
Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, was part of The Contrarians’ No King’s Day coverage Saturday. He said rising costs are hurting people, “whether it’s rent, mortgages, gas, eggs, bread, food.” Morial further defined Americans financial pain: “the increased cost of health care, the loss of health care for many folks, and the difficulty in getting support for higher education. And then the final and most extreme is the massive job losses.”
History has shown that the greater the pain, the greater the protest. “So the pain quotient … is moving every day. Sixty days ago, the Iran war was not on the radar screen.” Morial lamented, “We’re spending $2 billion a day to fund this war” while other domestic priorities are not met.
Meanwhile, Indivisible and others are now using another tool: economics.
“We’ve seen that boycotting works because businesses don’t want to lose money, whether or not they agree with you,” said Berry, an outspoken activist who was jailed for her nonviolent protests during the Free South Africa movement.
Boycotts have long been effective in American resistance. Segregation on public buses ended after a year into the Montgomery bus boycott, which began in 1955. When Black Americans and their allies began boycotting Target after it ended some diversity programs — after the anti-diversity Trump was elected — the department store’s revenue fell. The store has been scrambling ever since.
That’s why May Day Strong is calling for a school, work, and shopping hiatus on May 1, the International Workers’ Day. “Noncooperation is simple in principle: we withhold our labor, our money, and our participation. We don’t go along,” Indivisble’s website says. The group outlined three goals:
Tax the rich so our families, not their fortunes, come first;
ICE out: no unchecked federal enforcement power in our communities;
Expand democracy, not corporate control; defend free and fair elections.
When the government works for only some, it’s incumbent on us to stand up and speak out — with our labor, our minds, and our wallets.
April Ryan, host of The Contrarian’s The Tea With April Ryan, is the longest-serving Black woman reporter in the White House press corps. She is the author of “Black Women Will Save the World,” “The Presidency in Black and White: My Up-Close View of Three Presidents and Race in America,” “Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House,” and “At Mama’s Knee: Mothers and Race in Black and White.”
I’m in.