The International Committee of the Fourth International and its daily publication, the World Socialist Web Site, are organizing the International Online May Day Rally at 3pm US Eastern Time this Friday, May 1, to provide a unified revolutionary socialist program to workers around the globe in the struggle against imperialist war, dictatorship, and austerity. Workers and young people have issued statements urging the broadest participation in the event, which will feature speakers from throughout the world.

A federal worker from Ontario said:

My name is Erik, and I fully support the World Socialist Web Site, the Socialist Equality Party and the International Committee of the Fourth International’s drive to mobilize the working class in revolutionary action. With the Trump administration and genocidal Netanyahu regime’s flagrant attacks on Iran, the world lurches forward toward total war between all the major parties. It is clear that the capitalist ruling class does not operate in a manner conducive to the flourishing of humanity, but rather takes steps to ensure a future for no one but the wealthiest few. The rest of us are to be left to languish in the misery incurred by a world ravaged by war, environmental catastrophe and territorial domination, driven by an insatiable appetite for profit.

This is not the world we deserve nor the one we have to endure: through a united, international mobilization of the working class we represent the greatest revolutionary force capable of standing up to the crisis of capitalism and abolishing the plague of imperialism that serves as its natural and inevitable expression. We will find no allies or victories within the bourgeoisie, the trade union bureaucracies or the multitude of pseudo-left parties looking to funnel our political grievances back into the corpse of electoral politics. The charge must be spearheaded by worker-led rank-and-file committees guided by socialist thought and infused with revolutionary aspirations. Reform is fantasy; revolution is survival.

Greg, a retired high school teacher, sent in the following solidarity statement:

What we are seeing in the world today is an utter lack of vision and principled leadership. This seems acutely clear in the West. However, it is not exclusive to the West. This follows two devastating global wars in the last century—one of which ended with the use of nuclear weapons twice on Japan. Clearly we have not learned the lesson that the root cause of these conflicts is a system of brutal global economic exploitation that impoverishes people, particularly those already suffering poverty, and that reveals utter contempt for the earth and our natural world.

Sadly, this whole system is backed up by the disease of militarism, which states that might makes right. We are also now seeing this clearly displayed by Canada's own government under Prime Minister Mark Carney!

Shashwat, a student from Bihar, India in discussion with an SEP (Canada) member, wrote:

I hope my comrades in the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) and the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) are in good health and continue their determined struggle against worldwide reaction. I express my solidarity with their efforts to organise the International Online May Day Rally.

For many of us, May Day stands as a reminder of the oppression and exploitation inherent in capitalism, as well as the struggle and sacrifice of brave working-class fighters. It teaches us that to effectively confront capitalism, we must strive for its abolition, with revolutionary organisations serving as the necessary vehicles for this struggle. In support of May Day, I stand with workers across the world in their fight against oppression and tyranny, and for justice. Today, only a socialist transformation of society can offer a lasting answer to war and the broader degradation of social life. It is through such a transformation that humanity and our planet can be freed from reaction, superstition, hatred, and cruelty. A struggle grounded in solidarity remains the only path forward—towards progress, scientific advancement, peace, and, most importantly, liberation from exploitation and oppression.

Referring to the brutal police crackdown against the eight-hour movement in Chicago in 1886 and the frame-up of the Haymarket martyrs, which served as the inspiration for May Day as a day of international working-class solidarity, Frank, a retired autoworker from Windsor, stated:

As was proven by the sacrifices made in Chicago at the Haymarket Square, we are stronger united. Our history in pushing forward sensible progress for the working class is unfortunately filled with death and suffering against forces much bigger than us. But in light of the disastrous results of that day in Chicago, we saw it invigorate the movement for progress for all. It is talked about and remembered all over the world.

Dan, a postal worker and leader of the Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee commented:

I am a Canadian postal worker, and we are in our third year of contract negotiations. The protracted negotiations continue because postal workers consistently reject the massive concessions proposed by the Canada Post Corporation, Carney’s Liberal federal government, and the union that supposedly represents us.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) agrees that Canada Post should be profitable, and it was they who first proposed eliminating our weekends and holidays off to accomplish this. Other concessions coming down the line under the banner of “postal transformation,” include more-than-halving the workforce within 10 years, eliminating door-to-door delivery within 5 years, selling post office real estate to land developers, using AI for surveillance, and using automation to push workers to their breaking point. At sorting hubs—massive warehouses where parcels and mail are sent off to local depots—workers report declining mental health as speedups and harassment come from above.

But these attacks do not go unnoticed by us postal workers!

We first mounted a national strike in November 2024. This was weeks after an overwhelming strike mandate that was sat on by the union apparatus. That strike lasted a full month, before our union capitulated in the face of a patently illegal Liberal government back-to-work order. Because the CUPW leadership knew there was strong rank-and-file sentiment for defiance, it ordered us back to work without a vote or even the right to discuss the way forward at mass membership meetings. We were unceremoniously demobilized a week before Christmas, traditionally the post office’s busiest time of year.

The CUPW would have us believe that striking is a waste of time, and under their leadership, it very well might be. They have coordinated with the Canadian Labour Congress to isolate our struggle from the wider national and international logistics sectors, and redirect our justified anger towards pressuring this or that elected representative—the same political representatives, I should note, that are spearheading the attacks against us.

As we struggle under increasingly unbearable conditions, the union demands that we put aside our grievances for the moment, and wait for our chance to vote for the Liberal Party or the New Democratic Party (NDP) in the 2029 elections. The Liberal party is currently in power, and the NDP kept the Liberals in power for the past seven years.

On this May Day 2026, workers need to take stock of how society is set up, and who it benefits. The oligarchs, the corporate monopolies, and the billionaires have never seen their wealth increase so fast! Meanwhile, workers are paying for a war we don’t support. Inflation is bringing basic necessities out of reach for vast swaths of workers. And AI is being used by the ruling class to cynically justify the era of the “mega layoff.” It should be clear on this May Day that these attacks are not directed exclusively against Canadian postal workers. Rather the government and corporate Canada are trying to demonstrably impose a major defeat on us to set an example for all public sector workers, logistics workers, and beyond that workers across Canada and internationally.

If the government-corporate-union alliance is successful in undermining a historically militant section of workers, postal workers in my case, the same tactics and even bigger cuts will be applied against workers at large. The alternative is for all workers to recognize their independent class interests and fight back together. Start building rank-and-file committees in your workplace today! Aligned with the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees, we are the only social force capable of re-directing society’s resources away from the parasitic, war-crazed billionaire class, and placing those resources towards meeting the crying needs of the working class and all humanity.