Celebrating International Workers' Day
Every year on the first of May, International Workers' Day—also recognized as May Day, Labour Day, and Worker's Day—marks the struggle of working people worldwide in their fight for dignity, freedom, and the fruits of their labor. Here is a sampling of books, zines, and more to help you get in the spirit. Labor is entitled to all it creates!
P.S. We can't fit it all here, but check out our Labor tag for more like this.
P.P.S. We also carry a lot of cool and thematically appropriate posters. Hang them on your wall or bring them to the march!
Firebrands: Activists You Didn't Learn About in School
This illustrated history celebrates American changemakers and revolutionaries that are often left out of public…
History of May Day
This history of the struggles to establish working rights and the formation of a national day of action and…
A People's History of May Day: 1886-Present
Connect with the powerful history of May Day, from its origins as an ancient celebration of spring to…
Big Red Songbook : 250+ IWW Songs! (2nd Edition)
In Chicago of 1905, representatives from dozens of radical labor groups united to form One Big Union—the Industrial…
From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend: An Illustrated History of Labor in the United States
Spanning America's history, from its colonization to the Trump era, this comprehensive history explores what it has…
Patch #240General Strike
In Europe, strikes are a fundamental part of democracy. It's a necessary tool for us to resist the oppression of them…
$20 Superpack: Labor Stories
It's important to think about the labor that creates everything that you touch, purchase, and make use in your day. So…
Direct Action & Sabotage: Three Classic IWW Pamphlets from the 1910s
The pamphlets reprinted here were first published in the 1910s amid great controversy. Even then, the tactics of direct…
The Death and Life of American Labor: Toward a New Workers' Movement
Union membership in the United States has fallen below 11 percent, the lowest rate since before the New Deal. Labor…
Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery
Use your power to overthrow the powers that be. Starhawk examines how we can make meaningful change in our communities…
Labor Law for the Rank & Filer: Building Solidarity While Staying Clear of the Law
Laws - especially labor laws - are often written in difficult to parse language. However, it doesn't have to be…
Sticker #524I Would Prefer Not To
Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity! Let everyone know that you'd just rather not with this white whale of a sticker. Herman…
Feminista Frequencies: Community Building Through Radio in the Yakama Valley
In the 1970s, Chicana and Chicano activists faced challenges organizing migrants farmworkers and other Spanish-speaking…
Patch #016Organize
Want to change the world? Here's your first step. Organize! That’s one of the most important steps towards getting any…
Strike!: Revised, Expanded, and Updated Edition
Strike! narrates the dramatic story of repeated, massive, and sometimes violent revolts by ordinary working people in…
Unions for Beginners
Do you appreciate your forty-hour, five-day workweek? Having a safe working environment? Unions made it possible. As the…
Punching Out: Solidarity on the Factory Floor
In 1952 Marty Glaberman was a Detroit autoworker who had participated in wildcat strikes and UAW union policing of…
Sticker #242Record Profits = Unpaid Wages
CEOs like to think that they are the reason their companies are valuable. But you know better. Slap up this sticker to…
This Has Always Been a War: The Radicalization of a Working Class Queer
In this timely and powerful account, author Lori Fox examines capitalism and patriarchy through the lens of their own…
Stone Butch Blues
Join lesbian Jess Goldberg for sexual travails and a journey through the confusing, strict ideas of gender and how…
Mutual Aid: An Illuminated Factor of Evolution
One hundred years after his death, Peter Kropotkin is still one of the most inspirational figures of the anarchist…
Bananeras: Women Transforming the Banana Unions of Latin America
This book chronicles how Bananeras, the female banana workers in Latin America, have been waging a powerful revolution…
Kids on Strike!
Reaching the early 1900s, almost two million children were employed in the United States—sorting coal in Pennsylvania,…
Why Don't the Poor Rise Up?: Organizing the Twenty-first Century Resistance
The question posed by the title is most often asked by people who have no idea what it's like to be poor and who…
Patch #006Solidarity
You don't have to be Émile Durkheim or Peter Kropotkin to appreciate the message of unity, cohesion and mutual aid…
As You Were #5: A Punk Comix Anthology: This Job Sucks!
Shitty jobs? They happen. The 5th volume of As You Were, a punk comic anthology, features graphic novel short stories…
Detroit: I Do Mind Dying
This book chronicles the formation of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement and the League of Revolutionary Black…
Sticker #194I Didn't Go To Work Today
Freedom is just an illusion, until you take hold of it. Cut class, skip work, frolic out of bounds. Take back that…
$25 Superpack: Get Activated!
Time to shake up the world, and shake up your life. These books (and a zine) contain motivating and actionable stories…
Dynamite!: The Story of Class Violence in America
A history book that's nothing but action, "Dynamite!" is all about violent acts committed in the name of class equality.…
Solidarity Unionism at Starbucks
Legendary legal scholar Staughton Lynd teams up with influential labor organizer Daniel Gross in this exposition on…
On The Books: A Graphic Tale of Working Woes at NYC's Strand Bookstore
A David and Goliath story, On The Books is the first-hand comic strip account of the labor struggle at NYC’s legendary…
Dixie Be Damned: 300 Years of Insurrection in the American South
It's one of the biggest fights against injustice you've never even heard about. In 1891, coal companies in eastern…