Indivisible Debrief: Reflections on May Day
On May Day, Indivisibles joined a coalition of over 280 other organizations and labor unions for a day of action and “No Work, No School, No Shopping.” It was an economic disruption to show Trump and his billionaire buddies that we – the workers, the students, the everyday people – have economic power and we aren’t afraid to flex it.
There were thousands of actions nationwide, including rallies and marches that disrupted business as usual. In Los Angeles, thousands of people marched downtown, filling the streets with immigrant workers, students, and union members sharing the rallying cry “Workers Over Billionaires.” Chicago’s May Day march was the largest the city had seen in years, in part because the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Public School District came to an agreement where students and staff were able to participate during the school day. In North Carolina, 22 school districts cancelled classes on May Day because of how many teachers joined protests in Raleigh.
Our Strategy: May Day as a Structure Test
But May Day was about more than a single day of action. In the lead up to May 1st, we shared our strategy of treating May Day as a structure test — to assess our movement’s ability to do big economic disruption.
This was the first time we’ve asked our movement to engage in this type of broad economic disruption, which was inspired by the Day of Truth and Freedom in Minnesota. And it was a high-bar call to action: asking folks to skip work and school, attend midweek rallies and protests, and to completely withhold their spending. It’s an escalation from our usual tactics, but we know that we will need more escalated, urgent tactics as we continue to fight back against the Trump regime’s authoritarian overreach.
May Day provided an opportunity to test our movement’s ability ahead of the midterm elections, when we will likely need to engage in higher-bar calls to action to defend our elections. And now, we want to be candid about our assessment with our movement so that we can all better understand where we need to continue to build in order to successfully leverage our economic power.
Our Assessment
Based on our participation survey, we estimate that 6.5% of the Indivisible movement, or about 60,000 people, participated in some version of “No Shopping” on May Day, from completely refraining from spending, to shopping small and local and only buying absolute essentials. Even less participated in “No Work.” For reference, organizers estimate that 50,000 people in the Twin Cities took part in the Day of Truth and Freedom.
60,000 is a lot of people leaning into a structure test! We understand that there wasn’t a catalyzing event to spur action, like what happened in Minnesota with the murders of Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and other civilians at the hands of ICE. And we appreciate everyone that took part in “No Work, No School, No Shopping” in whatever ways they could. But it’s clear that we have a long way to go in order to bring more of our movement along with us as we escalate our tactics towards higher-bar actions like economic disruption and midweek protests.
The midterm elections present the most pressing threat right now. We know that Trump and his MAGA Republicans are going to try to sabotage the election. And the Supreme Court just gave them a head start: their decision in Louisiana v. Callais effectively gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, paving the way for states to redistrict in ways that dilute the political power of Black voters. And when faced with the threat of a stolen election, a Saturday protest planned weeks or months in advance will not be enough. It won’t meet the level of urgency that moment requires.
Instead, we’re going to need to engage in those higher-bar actions, refusing to go along with business as usual while our elections are subverted. We need to create such a backlash to Trump’s actions that he feels the pressure and is forced to stop. This might mean middle of the week protests that require folks to skip work or school. It might also mean economic noncooperation or boycotts aimed at corporations that are enabling election sabotage. We don’t know exactly what the threat will look like yet, but leveling up our ability to do economic disruption ensures that we’re prepared to really meet the moment.
What Comes Next?
We’re going to continue to analyze our learnings from May Day to inform what comes next. And we will share that analysis and subsequent action steps with you as we have them.
But what we already know is that we have to keep building on what we accomplished on May Day to ensure we’re ready to take action to protect our elections and defend our democracy. And the best way for you to help us build is to keep organizing in your local community, so that a critical mass of folks are prepared to do high-bar actions to defend our elections.
Some ways you can do that include:
Talking to the people you know that attended No Kings, but didn’t participate in May Day. Make sure they understand the strategy and what we’re planning for. Help them develop a plan so they’re able to participate next time.
Making connections with other activists, organizations, and unions in our local community so that you all can come together and collaborate in rapid response moments.
Organizing your coworkers or fellow students so that they’re ready to walk out with you in response to election subversion. It’s less daunting AND you have more power if you call out of work — or walk out — together.
Identifying what support your community needs so that they can actually participate in higher-bar actions and start fostering the relationships and connections needed to ensure that support is available and accessible. For example, if students at your local high school can’t skip school for a midweek protest because they rely on school lunch in order to eat that day, can you work with others in your community to provide a meal to participating students instead?
Building relationships with local businesses to bring them to our side. Talk to the owners about the role they can play in economic disruption by closing in solidarity on key days of actions or allowing workers to participate in protests.
We started with a structure test on May Day, but it doesn’t end there. We’re ramping up our election defense efforts and will keep you updated on new developments and new actions to take. But in order to really flex our power when the stakes are high, we need to start building that power locally now.