Portside

The following is an excerpt from Sims’ speech at the Council’s Convention in Wenatchee, lightly edited for clarity.

The responsibility organized labor carries towards all working people is always on my mind. In this moment, it is at the forefront. 

There are few things that Americans support as strongly as they support organized labor. Public support of unions is at a generations-long high, including nearly 90% support of unions among young workers.  Working people are organizing in rates not seen in decades, seeing the potential of worker solidarity to radically shift the power balance in this country, to claw back some measure of economic security from the fruits of our own labor, to reach into the pockets of billionaires and corporate bosses and take back what is ours by right. 

At a time when trust in our foundational institutions is wavering, when political violence and charged rhetoric is rising, unions remain a place of unity, and of hope. It is essential that we rise to meet the expectations of working people’s hope. The stakes are too high for us to fall short. 

Yes, more working people are standing in their dignity and demanding respect. But as working people are rising, as worker momentum is growing – threats to working people and our families and communities are growing, too. 

We have to name these threats and we confront them. Fascism is growing in the United States, and globally. Fascism is not a new ideology. But we must recognize what it looks like today, and how it threatens working people. 

Fascism is the forcible suppression of opposition, it is the violent enforcement of a supremacist society, it is the disempowerment of the people and forced obedience to anti-democratic, authoritarian leadership. 

Fascism is a dismantling of the rights that our movement was founded to protect. The Preamble of the WSLC Constitution is clear: 

“We pledge ourselves to the more effective organization of working people;
to securing full recognition and enjoyment of the rights to which they are justly entitled;
to the achievement of ever higher standards of living and working conditions;
to the attainment of security for all the people;
to the enjoyment of the leisure which their skills make possible;
and to the strengthening and extension of our way of life and the fundamental freedoms which are the basis of our democratic society.
We shall combat resolutely the forces that seek to undermine the democratic institutions of our nation and to enslave the human soul.
We shall strive always to win full respect for the dignity of the human individual whom our unions serve.”

Fascism is the opposite of organized labor, a movement that has been the principal force in this country for turning misery and despair into hope and progress, in the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. We must continue to be that force.

Because it is our people, us, the working class who are under attack. Fascist ideology targets some workers explicitly – immigrants, people of color, disabled people, trans and queer people. But what fascists want for this country threatens us all.

The political violence we witnessed on July 13 was disturbing and the result of the growing violence and hate that’s been rising in this country. But that doesn’t let Donald Trump off the hook, he doesn’t get a pass on his plans for our country.  

The ultra-right wing ideology that’s taken root in conservative institutions and in the Republican party led by Trump is a threat to working people everywhere. 

Trump has promised that if elected, he will use the power of his office to punish dissent, to defy democracy, to violently suppress opposition. But Trump is not an isolated danger. He is supported by a growing ultra-conservative, regressive coalition. And they are clear-eyed in their aims. 

Some of you may have heard of Project 2025. It’s a policy paper from the Heritage Foundation, a far right think tank who hand-picked Trump’s Supreme Court appointees. The Heritage Foundation is an incubator for the anti-worker, anti-democratic policies that underpin fascism. Project 2025 was crafted by more than 100 conservative groups and leaders, including many who served in Trump’s administration and who likely will serve again if he is elected. 

And Project 2025 doesn’t mince words. It calls for the dismantlement of the NLRB, and to eliminate workers rights and protections, including corporate regulations that protect workers. 

Click to check out more of the AFL-CIO’s materials on Project 2025

It seeks to cut taxes for corporations and the ultra-weathy, to shift more wealth from workers to billionaires. It calls for the destruction of civil rights for women, for LGBTQ folks, and for people of color. It calls for the mass detention of immigrants, and to rip apart immigrant families. It would go after medicare, disability supports, and healthcare for millions. It lays out a plan to fire thousands of public employees and replace knowledgeable, civil servants with political appointees loyal to the authoritarian leader who appointed them. And it calls for violent repression of civil movements, to empower the President to control the Department of Justice and weaponize the government against the people.

Let me be clear, Project 2025 is not a long-shot wish list. It is a 900-page, how-to document, ready to be implemented on day one. 

Siblings, we must understand: fascists are organized. They are empowered in this moment. They believe that they will win. But they will not.

We will not let them. Working people will not let them win. Organized labor will not let them win. 

We have tried and true methods to deploy, and models we can look to for success. 

Look at France. In EU Parliament elections in June, the National Rally, an ultra-conservative party peddling fascist ideology picked up a significant number of seats. It looked poised to run the table and seize power in France’s own parliament. In response, French unions took to the streets. Organized Labor sounded the alarm, calling on all workers to stand together against fascism, and in defense of the democratic values that our movement defends across the world. 

French workers heeded the call. A broad coalition formed. They set aside political differences, recognizing that the things we disagree on pale in comparison to the threat of fascism. And they won. The workers won. 

Sims addresses delegates in Wenatchee.

Conceding to fascism is not inevitable. We must stand together. We must fight back. Here is how we do it.

We beat back fascism at the ballot box. We support pro-worker candidates who reject strategies to divide and diminish working people and our communities. We work to send Vice President Kamala Harris back to the White House, to continue to defend and expand our rights as workers, and as human beings. 

Here in Washington State, we reject attempts from ultra-wealthy donors to undo the progress this movement has made for working families, and fight to defend what we’ve already won. 

We defeat donor-bought ballot initiatives, and defend a union-made, green energy economy, support for long term care, and tax revenue from billionaires to fund kids’ education.  

Beyond the ballot box, we embrace unity. We reject divide and conquer strategies in our workplaces. We empower ourselves and our coworkers to call out fascism when we see it. 

We center racial and gender justice as an organizing strategy for building the broad, people-powered movement we need to win. We reject the concentration of power in the hands of a few, and instead work towards the liberation of all people.

And we strengthen our organizing, even in the face of growing attacks on our rights.Our movement does not back down. We never have, and we never will. 

IBEW Local 46 Limited Energy Electricians on the picket line.

That’s not empty rhetoric. Our siblings are showing us the way. 

Look to our IBEW Limited Energy siblings, who held the line for more than two months to win their contract. Or to UAW Academic workers at UW, who united across departments to force the admin to concede to their demands for fair pay. Or educators in Port Angeles who fought and won for their students, and their schools. Or Boeing fire fighters, no more than a hundred and twenty workers, who faced down one of the biggest corporations in the world, and triumphed. 

Siblings, we are ready. We know how to win. And our solidarity, our strength is needed.

April Sims is the President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO. She is a member of WFSE and UA, and the first Black woman to be elected as President of any AFL-CIO state federation. 

A service of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO (WSLC) and its affiliated unions, The STAND was launched on May Day 2011 to feature news about — and for — working people. Its reports and opinion columns focus on creating and maintaining quality jobs, joining together in unions, improving our families’ quality of life, and promoting public policies that will restore shared prosperity.

The STAND is a free service and accepts no advertising. Its Editor, David Groves, has been writing and publishing news and opinion in Washington state since joining the WSLC staff in 1992. Other progressive voices — both inside and outside the labor movement — contribute content to The STAND. Therefore, the positions and opinions expressed in The STAND aren’t necessarily those of the WSLC, though they often are. Contact the WSLC directly if you have any questions about the council’s positions on the issues.