Comrades, sisters and brothers,

Today, on May Day, we gather to celebrate. But more urgently, we gather to resist. To remind the world, and ourselves, that the working class has always been the heartbeat of progress, of justice, and the voice of resistance.

We stand together at a time of deep global crisis. Neoliberalism told us “There is no such thing as society." It stripped public services, hollowed out solidarity, and commodified our lives. Tech billionaires are now turning communities into markets, workers into data points. Authoritarian and far-right governments are rising, not only feeding on inequality and fear, but launching direct attacks on our rights to organise, to speak, and to strike.

They fear us, because they know: when workers organise, we win.

From the Philippines to Perú, from Belarus to Zimbabwe, trade unionists are being silenced, criminalised, and repressed. And in Myanmar, the military junta has declared war on unions: banning them, imprisoning their leaders, targeting members with violence and terror. Yet our comrades there continue to resist, underground and above, keeping the flame of freedom and justice alive.

Their struggle is our struggle. Their resistance is our call to action.

We must fight back against the repression of trade unions, everywhere it happens. Because the attack on one is an attack on all.

No one knows this better than workers. In construction, we build cities, bridges, and futures with our hands and sweat. Too many of us are migrants, working informally in the shadows. We risk our lives on scaffolding, in the rush for profit that comes before safety. When we fall, the world moves on. But we don’t. We rise. We organise. We demand change.

And from the forests, we draw strength and hope. Forest workers and indigenous land defenders stand between the Earth and climate collapse. They fight not only for jobs and ecosystems, but for the right of all humanity to a liveable future. The legacy of Chico Mendes lives in their struggle: a reminder that defending the forest means defending life, justice, and generations to come.

Together, we are bound by the same fight: to turn precarious work into dignified work, and to transform survival into resistance.

Our history is not written in comfort. It is written in strikes, uprisings, and in the refusal to be silenced. From the first May Day martyrs to today’s resistance in Myanmar and beyond, our legacy is built on collective resistance, and on the unshakable belief that another world is not only necessary, but possible.

May Day is not nostalgia. It is a call to action: to organise, to defend, and to fight back. Every right we hold was not given. It was won. And today, we fight on: for wages, for safety, for justice, for dignity, for freedom, and for peace.

In this struggle, each of us matters. We are never alone. We are a movement. And together, we can realise our collective strength.

Solidarity forever. Happy May Day!

Ambet Yuson

BWI General Secretary

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