Communists and socialists celebrated their “May Day” holiday on Friday with parades, marches, and proclamations around the world.
In China, the Communist government predicted through its Global Times newspaper that “solid economic growth in the first quarter of 2026” would produce a “May Day travel and consumption boom” that will “validate the strong resilience, inherent vitality, and steady upward momentum of China’s economy.”
That actually sounds a lot more like capitalism than communism. The Global Times paid no attention to the ideological underpinnings of May Day, instead gushing over all the money that consumers might finally be willing to spend, lifting the moribund consumer economy out of its years-long funk.
“The May Day consumption boom is not only a vivid manifestation of the holiday economy, but also an organic integration of residents’ consumption upgrading and high-quality economic development,” the Global Times gushed. May Day’s founders would have been horrified to hear the world’s biggest communist government talking about the economic vitality of consumption.
Over in Vietnam, the old-time faith was kept alive with a parade in Hanoi on Tuesday to “recognize the contributions by Vietnamese workers to national socio-economic development.” Red flags were waved by the 1,000 marchers, and slogans were shouted:
The Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (VGCL) celebrated May Day 2026 as the 140th anniversary of International Labor Day, which was inaugurated with a violent strike over long workdays at Haymarket Square in Chicago in 1886. The May Day holiday was officially declared by the socialist Second International in 1889 and retroactively dated back to the Haymarket riots.
VGCL Standing Vice President Thai Thu Xuong said that over the past 140 years, May Day has “become a symbol for the global labor movement, celebrating the value of work and the strength of the working class.”
The Cuban Communist government staged a rally in Havana under the auspices of “Army Gen. Raul Castro Ruz, leader of the Revolution,” and President Miguel Diaz-Canal.
The Cuban affair was far more militant and belligerent than Vietnam’s march of a thousand sunflower-bearing workers, with Cuban speakers angrily denouncing “the intensified economic, commercial, financial, and energy blockade imposed by the United States government.”
“Fidel Castro continues to call us to resist and win. In the most difficult circumstances, there has not been, and will not be, an impossible task,” said speaker Yolaidis Hernandez Valdes of the Chemical Industry Business Group.
“Our enemies have tried and tested everything. They thought they would see us afflicted, surrendered, and here we are, committed and firm with our foot in the stirrup and fighting,” said Osnay Miguel Colina Rodriguez, president of the Organizing Commission of the 22nd Congress of the Central Workers of Cuba (CTC).
North Korea’s May Day celebration was predictably horrifying, with mandatory declarations of absolute loyalty to the Kim dynasty and its grim “Juche” ideology. Every North Korean state paper was required to write a gushing May Day editorial celebrating the achievements of the regime.
The state-run Rodong Sinmun, for example, proclaimed May Day as a “significant holiday powerfully demonstrating the revolutionary spirit of the Korean working people who have made epoch-making miracles and changes through their unyielding struggle under the leadership of the great Workers’ Party of Korea despite all sorts of trials.”
“The Juche weaponry carrying the absolute strength of the DPRK and the proud creations symbolizing the era of overall transformation are associated with the boundless loyalty of our working people, and the pure patriotism of our working class and agricultural workers is also reflected in the independent development foundations of the national economy and the rapid growth of agricultural production,” the editorial raved.
“As there are the working people upholding the Party and the state with their precious sweat and passion while sharing the destiny with the country, our Party is so strong and Korean-style socialism is always emerging victorious,” the editors declared.
American socialists called for a “no school, no work, no shopping” economic “blackout” on Friday, to protest “a nation that puts workers over billionaires.” The May Day coalition demanded an end to immigration enforcement, no wars, and higher taxes on the rich.