type: timeline_event
By March 19, 2026, nearly 100 solidarity schools had been organized in cities across the United States in preparation for the May 1 general strike, operating under the banner of "No Work, No School, No Shopping." The solidarity schools — part teach-in, part organizing workshop — were training participants in strike logistics, workplace rights, rapid-response coordination, and community mutual aid in advance of what organizers described as the most ambitious coordinated labor action in modern American history.
The largest solidarity school sessions were drawing significant attendance. Chicago led with a session drawing 400 attendees, organized in coordination with the Chicago Teachers Union and local labor council. Boston's event brought 250 people from more than 70 organizations into a single planning space. The Bay Area and Memphis each hosted sessions with 150 and 100 attendees respectively, with dozens of smaller events in mid-sized cities and college towns from coast to coast.
The organizing infrastructure was coordinated through the May Day Strong coalition, which worked closely with Labor Notes to develop standardized curricula and training materials. The National Education Association had formally endorsed May Day actions, with educators joining the organizing effort alongside National Nurses United and other unions. The solidarity schools drew heavily on the model pioneered during the January 2026 Minneapolis general strike, which had demonstrated that effective strike action required weeks of advance preparation, community buy-in, and logistical coordination.
The May Day Strong coalition was building on a foundation of more than 1,200 actions that had taken place across 2025, encompassing walkouts, sick-outs, work slowdowns, and solidarity rallies. Organizers described the May 1 action as qualitatively different from prior efforts — not a series of independent local actions but a coordinated national strike with a unified set of demands centered on ending immigration enforcement violence, reversing DOGE-driven federal layoffs, restoring democratic accountability, and halting the Iran war.