May Day

 Dear Friends,

Let me take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a very happy May Day.

The concept behind May Day is extremely profound. It is the understanding that real power lies in solidarity, and that when working people in our country and around the world come together, there is nothing that can stop us in the struggle for justice. 

It is also a day in which we recommit ourselves to take on the incredible greed and power of the corporate elite and the exploitation and misery they create — not just here in the United States, but internationally.

Clearly, one of the great crises facing the global community today is that the basic right of ordinary people to control their own lives at home and at the workplace is on the defensive.

And the root of this crisis is the fact that a handful of incredibly wealthy people are exerting enormous economic and political power over the planet.

These are people who are so addicted to greed that they are willing to step over working people, many with families and young children, in order to satisfy a pathological desire for more, more and more wealth. 

Unbelievably, in the global economy today, the top 1 percent owns more wealth than the bottom 99 percent, and a handful of billionaires own more than the bottom half of the people around the world — and that is more than 3.7 billionpeople.

And things have only gotten worse during the pandemic.

According to a recent study by Oxfam, the wealth of just the 10 richest people on the planet has doubled since the start of the pandemic, while the incomes of 99 percent of the people have declined. While oligarchs are spending huge sums of money buying fancy yachts, paintings, social media companies, and joy riding into space, global income and wealth inequality has led to the deaths of more than 21,000 people each and every day. 

So where do we go from here?

We must start by taking this moment to reconceptualize what a genuinely progressive global community looks like: one based on human solidarity, that recognizes every person on this planet shares a common humanity, that we all just want our children to grow up healthy, have a good education, have decent jobs, drink clean water, breathe clean air, and live in peace. 

We also know that if the middle class in this country and working people around the world are going to live that reality, it must start with strengthening the trade union movement internationally. 

People here in America and around the world must awaken to the realization that people can no longer just be cogs in the machine.

People here in America and around the world need to stand up and say:

“We need decent wages.”

“We need decent working conditions.”

“We need decent schedules.”

“We want to be heard.”

“We want respect on the job.”

Because the truth is, neither the United States nor the international community can sustain itself when so few have so much while so many have so little. 

All people who want to work — regardless of where they are from — should be entitled to a good-paying job with decent benefits.

All people — regardless of where they are from — should be entitled to health care as a human right.

All people — regardless of where they are from — should be guaranteed decent and affordable housing.

All people — regardless of where they are from — should have the right to a secure retirement with dignity.

All people — regardless of where they are from — should be entitled to a complete education.

So on this May Day 2022, let us keep our eyes on the prize.

Let us realize the struggles of working people everywhere — from teachers protesting in Hungary to Amazon workers in Staten Island — are connected.

Let us realize that when workers organize and succeed anywhere they are increasing the influence that working people have in the political process everywhere.

And let us realize, most importantly, that when people of all backgrounds stand together in solidarity, there is nothing we cannot accomplish — including creating a world in which all people live in peace and unity. 

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders