Volunteers, not payroll
Every shift is worked by volunteers. Nobody profits — that’s the point, and it’s how the discounts stay deep.
Our story
Not making a profit
Not making a profit
since 1975
Fifty years in existence, thirty-five on the West Bank — and still run entirely by volunteers.
May Day Books is a volunteer collective dedicated to selling left-wing literature — and we’ve been at it since 1975. We’re a no-profit bookstore with a progressive educational mission, independent of the corporations that run the country and control the media. People from all over the world, the country and the Twin Cities shop here, because a store like this — non-partisan across the whole left, everything discounted, nobody taking a cut — is unique in the United States.
The store lives below street level at 301 Cedar Avenue, in the heart of the West Bank community — down the steps, under the Afghan Relief Society. The shelves carry activist, labor, socialist, anarchist, feminist, Indigenous, African-American, Latino, LGBTQ, green, DIY and working-class writing, plus fiction, history and music. If a movement printed it, we’ve probably shelved it.
And because we answer to volunteers instead of shareholders, every book is 15–20% below cover price. All the time. We’re not amateurs — we’re just not in it for the money.
Why “May Day”?
Named for the eight-hour day
Our name originated in the U.S. — in Chicago, in the fight for the eight-hour day in 1886. May Day was later declared an international day of labor, and it’s celebrated by working people, socialists and unions all over the world. It’s a paid holiday in many nations — except in the country of its birth.
May Day Books carries on the tradition in its original home.
“I never died,” says he.
— Joe Hill, 1915
How a no-profit bookstore survives
The collective way
Cash, check & donations
We keep it simple: cash and check only, and donations — write checks to “May Day Books” — help the store survive.
Books keep arriving
A constant stream of used books comes in from leftists around the city and from estates, and it all goes back out the door at honest prices.
Mayday has been my favorite bookstore for years and years. If you're looking for political books, it's got the best selection you can find, and a regular discount.
Many books with great topics that are of interest to me. The man that runs the store is always in the know on what's in stock and will be and is able to match customers with their interests. Definitely my favorite bookstore in the twin cities.
A mainstay in Minneapolis for a reason! Broad spectrum left books, including some good fiction and culture writing, with all the classics of anti imperialist/liberation writing.
Beyond the store
Visit the Blog
The blog & the record
Volunteers have written book and culture reviews on the May Day blog since 2007 — and the store appeared on public-access TV’s Democratic Visions alongside Veterans for Peace in 2021.
Fifty years. Still here.
Come see why — 301 Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55454 · open Mon–Sat · 1–5 PM.