May First/People Link engages in building movements by advancing the strategic use and collective control of technology for local struggles, global transformation, and emancipation without borders. Flowing from that mission, our organization redefines the concept of “Internet Service Provider” in a collective and collaborative way. Like any democratic membership organization, we gather together each year to evaluate the past year’s experiences, plan the coming year’s work and elect a Leadership Committee to apply what we’ve decided. Like a coop, we pay dues, buy equipment and then we all use that equipment as we need to for websites, email, email lists, and just about everything else we do on the Internet. As a movement organization, we participate in (and often lead) campaigns, struggles, coalitions and network of left, progressive and social justice organizations in the U.S., Mexico and Internationally. Learn more about our organization by reading our official documents.
May First/People Link is a member of the Media Action Grassroots Network, the Association for Progressive Communications, the US Social Forum and actively participates in the Left Forum, the Allied Media Conference, the Mexican and International Coop movements, and other movement coalitions and gatherings. We are committed to building movements for global transformation and emancipation.
May First/People Link is binational, based in the US and Mexico. Our member-elected Leadership Committee is drawn from both countries to allow us to build a strategic vision with an international perspective that matches the potential of movement as we continue to develop communication opportunities that cross borders.
Over 800 May First/People Link members pay dues to support our work. One important benefit of membership is access to our first class web, email and other hosting services, based entirely on free and open source software, hardened to defend against denial of service attacks, and with a track record of fighting corporate and government requests for data.
May 28, 2019: You are about to vote on what might be the most important decision about May First in our organization’s history. The Leadership Committee of May First/People Link is proposing to its members a major change in our organization’s structure and decision-making processes effectively turning us into a non-profit coop. This is the result of months of research, consultation with you, working with lawyers and intense discussion in our leadership bodies (which were expanded to all members wishing to participate).
May 21, 2019: We are making changes to our support ticket policy that have political implications and so we want you, as members, to know about these changes and share with us any thoughts you may want to share. Nearly all communications between members seeking help and support with our online resources happens via one web site: https://support.mayfirst.org/. Launched a full 12 years ago, our support site contains a remarkably rich archive documenting not only our organization’s history, but also a critical history of free software, and the experiences of movement activists in using it.
Apr 17, 2019: May First has sponsored the largest movement convergence/consultation program on technology: the two-year Technology and Revolution program. It has led the organization of the Racial Connections Network, the main network of movement technologists. It has participate in all kinds of coalitions and campaigns involved literally thousands of organizations. And it has, in its membership, over 850 members most of whom are organizations in their right – a total of about 2300 activists…in both the United States and Mexico.
Aug 30, 2018: Thursday, September 27, 3:00 pm U.S. Eastern For all sorts of reasons, the upcoming mid-term elections are attracting much more than the normal interest. Not only has there been a surge in progressive candidates nationwide but the lingering issues of technology and its powerful, and not always positive, role in elections looms larger than ever. What do elections, these and those of the future, mean for our movements and what does technology and the struggle to preserve and democratize it have to do with them?
Aug 2, 2018: August 23, 2018 – 3:00 pm U.S. Eastern time Once one of the Americas’ most progressive governments, the regime in Nicaragua is battling a popular uprising that grows each day as the government repression, paramilitary attacks and murders and consistent refusal on the government’s deepening intransigence. The meaning of the Nicaraguan situation for our struggles in the hemisphere and world…and in place like Mexico and the United States needs to be on everyone’s agenda.
May First/People Link offers two different webmail programs. You will always see the same email regarless of which program you use. Roundcube has a friendly and simple iterface, making it the easier of the two programs to use. Horde, on the other hand, offers more than just email - you can share calendars, to do lists and more with other members of your group. Feel free to try both and decide which one makes sense for you.