4 nonfiction reads for International Workers’ Day 2026

The Seattle Public Library loves to promote books and reading. This monthly column is a space to share reading and book trends from a librarian’s perspective.

Since the establishment of International Workers’ Day in 1889, May 1 has been an important date for labor unions, immigrant rights advocates and organizations that strive to advance the cause of workers’ rights. 

Ahead of International Workers’ Day, we invite readers to explore the past, present and future of the labor movement, including an overview of American labor history, a deep dive into anti-racist activism in Seattle, an interrogation of the very concept of solidarity and a look at how contemporary movements can advance the rights of vulnerable people without speaking for them. 

“Fight Like Hell” by Kim Kelly. You’ve heard of Mother Jones and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., but can you name a labor activist who is Indigenous, incarcerated, queer or disabled? 

Journalist Kelly takes readers through key moments in the American labor movement, centering the stories of lesser-known labor leaders: ordinary people who placed themselves at risk and found common cause despite tension and disagreement to fight for safety, respect and the empowerment of working people. 

Two lessons emerge: Change does not depend on a single leader with a plan but on many people making small decisions that together alter the world. And successful coalitions do not require agreement; they require imperfect alliances, solidarity through shared interests and an element of mutual aid. 

From the Lowell mill girls’ strike of the 1830s to contemporary efforts like Assembly Bill 5 in California, where gig workers fought for full labor rights, “Fight Like Hell” takes readers through a living tradition of struggle and progress that is still very much alive today.

“Seattle in Coalition” by Diana K. Johnson. Dubbed the Battle of Seattle, the famous protest of the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in November 1999 thrust Seattle into national and international headlines. But prior to the turn of the 21st century, communities of color in Seattle and the Northwest had spent decades organizing to address the same issues of labor, globalization and the environment.

Johnson’s compelling research adds new context for familiar people, places and events: the Chicano youth-led occupation of Beacon Hill Elementary School, which led to the creation of El Centro de la Raza; and how the occupation of Fort Lawton led to land reclamation by Native American activists and the creation of Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, sustained by solidarity from groups like the Black Panthers.

“Solidarity” by Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor. “Solidarity” is a powerful rallying cry — but what does it really mean? Hunt-Hendrix and Taylor explore the concept of solidarity from its roots in ancient Rome, to how it informed the labor movements of the Industrial Revolution, to the worker strikes and social movements of the modern day, such as Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street. 

They propose that transformative solidarity — the kind that truly moves us toward a just and egalitarian world — requires individuals, institutions and societies to prioritize the common good, and to strive urgently to build systems that offer everyone respect, dignity and a stable foundation on which to build a life. 

Hunt-Hendrix and Taylor invite readers to ask, “What can enable us to come together despite entrenched social divisions and the immense power of self-interested elites?” The answer is ultimately found by acknowledging our interdependence with all other living things on our shared earth.

“Not Your Rescue Project” by Chanelle Gallant and Elene Lam. Solidarity is also at the heart of “Not Your Rescue Project.” This thought-provoking book challenges the notion that migrant sex workers — predominantly racialized women who have left or been displaced from their home countries and who provide sex as a service — are victims of human trafficking and require rescuing.

With a clear and persuasive voice, Gallant and Lam reveal the realities of migrant sex work without victimization, stigma or sensationalism, and demonstrate the ways in which regulation, charity and criminalization can create more poverty, trauma and further displacement. The voices of migrant sex workers are loud and clear in the demand for a central role in determining their own futures as workers with the same rights found across other industries. 

In the words of an organizer from Empower Foundation-Thailand: “I am called illegal, … trafficking victim. Just like the women fighting to be educated, fighting to vote … to love, to live safely … we will not stay in the cage society has made for us, we will dare to keep crossing the lines.”