Democrats, teachers’ unions, socialists join forces to shut down schools for communist holiday

Teachers’ unions forced school closures in U.S. cities Friday as part of the national “May Day Strong” protest, leaving families scrambling for childcare while students lost instructional time.

The protests complement staged events of roughly 600 groups representing billions of dollars organizing some 3,000 protests nationwide for the communist labor holiday, according to Fox News.

The protesters include hardline communist organizations and groups affiliated with Democrats, such as Indivisible, MoveOn.org, the American Federation of Teachers and at least 13 state and local chapters of the Democrat National Committee, noted Fox.

Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) canceled all classes after Madison Teachers Inc. collected signatures from 70% of staff pledging to participate in pro-illegal immigration protests tied to the broader May Day organizing push, reported Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR).

“Our students are experiencing heightened anxiety, leading to absences and trouble concentrating at school,” according to a statement from the union via WPR. “They are afraid that ICE agents will come for them.”

But Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Wisconsin Republican running for governor, took issue with MMSD’s decision, noting that fewer than half of the district’s students are proficient in reading.

“Yet the district is shutting down for a day with just a week’s notice because the teachers’ union is taking a day off in solidarity with immigrants instead of focusing on teaching kids to read,” said Tiffany, reported the Cap Times.

The last time MMSD closed schools over staff demonstrations was in 2011, when teachers flooded the state capitol to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s legislation curtailing collective bargaining rights, reported the publication.

Chicago Public Schools remained open for May Day, but the district negotiated an unusual arrangement with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).

The district agreed to provide bagged lunches and transportation downtown for CTU’s pro-labor protest for up to 100 schools, while also reviewing 45 May Day field trip requests, reported ChalkBeat.

The district leaned on a reserve pool of nearly 10,000 substitute teachers to cover expected absences but declined to specify how many staff requested the day off.

“We need you there – because we’re taking on the billionaires who are underfunding our schools, shortchanging our communities, and imperiling democracy,” said CTU in a statement.

In North Carolina, district leaders faced a similar dilemma as thousands of teachers submitted leave requests to attend a Raleigh rally demanding more state education funding, reported the local News Observer.

The paper said statewide 20 districts were closed because of teacher absences.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, the state’s largest district, voted to cancel school after more than 1,800 staff members said they would not attend, said ChalkBeat.

The sprawling coalition of labor unions, immigrant advocacy groups, Democrat Party committees and self-described communist organizations, including the Maoist Communist Union, is fulfilling a promise made during the last “No Kings” protest to stop work, learning and shopping to celebrate the annual communist holiday.

“On May 1, 2026, workers, students, and families rally, march, and take action across the country to demand a nation that puts workers over billionaires, with many refusing business as usual,” said the protest web site.

But the movement has its own billionaire problem, combined with a China problem.

At the organizational core of the coalition sits a network of groups bankrolled by Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech billionaire operating out of Shanghai, the commercial center of communist China, The Lion reported previously.

Singham funds the People’s Forum, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, ANSWER Coalition and Code Pink, organizations critics say carry water for Chinese Communist Party propaganda, said Fox.

Fox called the combined Democrat-Communist network “sprawling” and dubbed the combination a “red-blue alliance,” which may be making some traditional liberals uneasy.

“The increasing willingness of mainstream Democrats to align with extremist socialist groups is a major factor in why the Democratic Party is losing the center more and more, and why so many lifelong Democrats find themselves feeling politically homeless,” Democrat strategist Melissa DeRosa told Fox.

That’s in addition to selling the public a fight against “rising authoritarianism and for expanded democracy” that’s being financed by communist China – as CTU is trying to do.

Still, those reservations are not stopping traditional Democrat constituencies such as teachers’ unions from adopting strident, anti-capitalist themes.

“The billionaires may have their big bank accounts and secret PACs, but we have something their money can’t buy: People power,” said CTU about the demonstrations backed up by the network’s own billions of dollars.