The Future Belongs to Workers

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‍By: Priya Dadlani, Communications Officer, Storytelling

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As May comes to a close, we’re sitting with the spirit of International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day, as a reminder that workers have always been the ones to disrupt, build, and reimagine new worlds. Nearly every protection and dignity workers have today—from weekends to workplace safety to collective bargaining rights—was fought for through labor struggle and collective action. Rooted in the legacy of the Haymarket Affair, May Day honors the ongoing fight for self-determination led by workers most exploited and excluded under capitalism. This year, that call feels especially urgent. At Third Wave Fund, we are continuously learning from our grantee partners who not only believe another world is possible, but are actively practicing it. 

The moment we are in demands more than celebration of past wins. It asks us to pause and critically examine the ways capitalism, hierarchy, and extraction continue to shape our movements, organizations, and relationships to one another—including within philanthropy. We are operating within and against large systems built to exclude, criminalize, and exploit workers, particularly those who are QTBIPOC, disabled, migrants, and/or sex workers. Yet these same communities continue to be the most visionary organizers, caregivers, and strategists among us.

Earlier this month, we uplifted two multi-year grantee partners, DecrimSexWorkCA and Trans Income Project, who are building worker power at the intersections of racial justice, trans liberation, and economic justice while centering sex workers and trans communities. 

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DecrimSexWorkCA, a QTPOC sex worker-led statewide coalition, is organizing toward the full decriminalization of sex work through policy advocacy, mutual aid, leadership development, and cultural work rooted in solidarity and collective care. As they shared with us: “We challenge criminalization and economic exploitation by organizing with and for working class sex workers, creating structures grounded in solidarity, autonomy, and liberation.”

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“We challenge criminalization and economic exploitation by organizing with and for working class sex workers, creating structures grounded in solidarity, autonomy, and liberation.” — DecrimSexWorkCA

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Meanwhile, in Louisiana, Trans Income Project is demonstrating what it means to materially care for community in real time. Through direct cash assistance, HRT access, food distribution, support groups, and public policy advocacy, they are building systems that prioritize dignity, agency, and survival for trans people—especially those engaged in sex work. “TIP was founded by a group of sex workers, transgender folks, and allies as a strategy to uplift each other with direct material support. We step in where policy work and government aid alone can’t or intentionally won’t reach to meet the needs of trans folks in our community. Our programs include cash and food distribution, community support groups, and HRT access,” they shared.

These organizations remind us that capitalism is not inevitable. As a nascent system in the arc of humanity, it can be dismantled.  Across our movements, people are remembering and re-indigenizing ways of being rooted in trust, interdependence, shared stewardship, care, cooperation, and horizontal leadership. 

And that work requires resources. It requires space and time to experiment, to fail, to adapt, and to keep building toward futures we may not yet fully know how to reach. In this political moment, one that continues to place obscene profit over people, workers, and survival, we urge you to support and resource the organizations—like our grantee partners—carrying this work forward. 

In the words of late Beat poet Diane di Prima, “NO ONE  WAY WORKS, it will take all of us shoving at the thing from all sides to bring it down.”

Check out our International Workers’ Day post on social media here, and share it with your community!

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