Democrats were wrong to think that shifting demographics alone would hand them victory. What then determines whether workers respond to economic grievances with nativism or solidarity? In a word, organization.
Whether or not you agree with Lady Gaga’s estimation that American women are “fighting for their lives” following Trump’s win, the timing of the Republican nominee’s victory and The Handmaid’s Tale‘s spring 2017 premiere seems well-timed.
Unions must maintain unity among the workforce split by the Carrier deal, and educate its members on why they should not have voted for Trump. Election data seems to indicate that it was union white workers more than poor white workers who supported Trump to begin with. The divide between highly skilled and paid workers and minimum wage workers harkens back to the 1920s when unions focused primarily on craft workers rather than the expanding industrial workforce.
What had been cautiously optimistic when the episode had premiered just a few weeks before was now upsettingly fantastical. In the wake of Donald Trump’s win, a pro-immigration woman of color being elected president seemed less realistic than the alien trying to kill her.
From local to local, the labor movement needs to transform into an effective machine for fighting the Right.
The Fight for 15 has grown into one of the nation’s largest progressive movements, alongside movements by undocumented immigrants, Black Lives Matter and environmental activists fighting global warming. Beginning with fast-food workers four years ago, the Fight for 15 now includes other groups, including childcare workers, home-care aides, airport workers and adjunct professors.
This election proved that you overlook the labor movement at your peril. Democrats took rank-and-file union members for granted. They must make labor central to the conversation again
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Hiring freezes, an end to automatic raises, a green light to fire poor performers, a ban on union business on the government’s dime and less generous pensions — these are the contours of the blueprint emerging under Republican control of Washington in January.
these are the contours of the blueprint emerging under Republican control of Washington in January.
As we enter the new era of Donald Trump, amid a welter of conflicting signals, only one thing seems clear when it comes to the U.S. military. Whatever extreme figures end up in key posts in the Trump version of the national security state, as TomDispatch regular William Hartung indicates today, yet more money will be sent swirling down the Pentagon's drain.
The battle lines are clear. Democracy is in peril and the left must take itself seriously electorally and politically. Ruth Potts speaks to Gary Younge, who was based in Muncie, Indiana, for the US election, about the implications of Donald Trump’s victory.
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