A call to action this May Day: defending workers’ rights, empowering democracy, and challenging billionaire-led exploitation

Every year on May 1, the world celebrates the great holiday of all workers – International Workers’ Day, or May Day. This day has its roots in the late 19th-century labor movement and was originally tied to the struggle for better working conditions and shorter working hours. Since then, it has come to symbolise global workers’ solidarity in the fight against exploitation, coercion, and oppression, and for a truly democratic society – politically, socially, and economically.

Today, this spirit of international unity remains significant. Approximately 516 million workers – about 17 percent of the global workforce – are members of trade unions. However, immense pressures persist. The policies of multi-millionaire and billionaire capitalists, especially “cloud capitalists” like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, are eroding worker rights. Wage suppression, longer hours, insecure employment, and increasingly harsh working conditions are becoming the norm. On top of this, division is sown based on ethnicity, nationality, or other social factors. Many workers are forced to flee their homelands due to war, environmental disasters, or economic hardship—yet are simultaneously exploited and scapegoated in their new communities.

DiEM25 are endeavouring to counter these false narratives of the oligarchs used against workers, and are putting forward policies to point in the direction of a just and more democratic society to achieve human rights equally for all. A very relevant policy for this is our GNDE Green Jobs Policy, and how it relates to our six Policy Pillars.

Two of the Policy Pillars – Democratic Europe and Open Europe – relate specifically to how cooperative workers’ ownership and control of enterprises can facilitate better democracy, more equality and a sense of unity among and between workers no matter their ethnic, cultural or national background.

Democratic Europe

This policy is distinctive in that it focuses not on gaining power for a party or donor, but on empowering individuals and society through true democracy. Today, exploitative practices dominate, and ‘democratic’ institutions are often controlled by the very wealth they enable. That wealth is produced by workers—who are then manipulated by the institutions their labor sustains. A viable path forward is to give workers the democratic right to own and control their workplaces. If widely adopted, this would redistribute power and wealth, fostering a more equal society and deeper democratic engagement. Democracy in the workplace builds democratic culture more broadly—educating people on its value and practice. Both public and private enterprises could be made accountable to communities through citizen assemblies, putting real power in the hands of the people.

Open Europe

A significant driver of support for xenophobic or anti-migrant policies is the fear of job competition. By eliminating exploitative labor practices through workplace democracy, we can remove this fear. Democratic enterprises do not seek cheap labor to maximise profits; they view migrant workers not as threats, but as partners and equals. Shifting away from monopolistic corporations will strengthen local economies and create meaningful, fair employment. In democratic workplaces, migrant workers would have equal say and full protection, allowing them to participate in their communities without fear of exploitation.

On this May Day 2025, guided by DiEM25’s vision and policies, we look forward to a future in which the wealth created by our collective labor benefits all – not a handful of ultra-rich men, but the many who work. “Workers of all countries, unite” remains a rallying cry worth repeating – because there is still a world to win, and a humanity to prevail.

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