“In good times, organizations wrest and secure our gains. In bad times, they help withstand the inevitable chaos from backlash, repression and sectarianism.”
The heat is on: Early voting has started. MAGA candidates are running strong. It’s not too late to get involved. Increasing numbers of votes for Democrats in battleground states helps lay the groundwork for more sweeping victories later. Here’s how.
Reinvigorating class-based politics in the US depends on more than inspiring candidates like Bernie Sanders: it requires durable working-class political organization. Here’s what one group learned about organizing working people around bread-and-butter issues.
Two extensive union programs—one long established, one new—are focusing on swaying working-class voters who, like most Americans, don’t belong to unions.
Even in Trump country, pro-union sentiment is rising. But can labor and its allies turn that sentiment into power?
Concerned labor group leaders are organizing ad campaigns and phone banks as Trump’s populist message on trade and jobs draws in union voters. In the coming months, the AFL-CIO, which has not endorsed a candidate in the primary but has encouraged members to support the Democratic nominee, will launch digital attack ads against Trump and will ramp up its door-knocking campaign.
Through workers associations, work centers, and “alt-labor” groups, millions of workers — along with part-time workers, temporary workers, and those who work for employers that have no union — are using new tactics to fight against that inequality of bargaining power. The groups are not competing with traditional unions, but rather working alongside them and in tandem.
Through workers associations, work centers, and “alt-labor” groups, millions of workers — along with part-time workers, temporary workers, and those who work for employers that have no union — are using new tactics to fight against that inequality of bargaining power. The groups are not competing with traditional unions, but rather working alongside them and in tandem.
The AFL–CIO is a multifaceted institution composed of scores of autonomous unions, so President Richard Trumka’s leadership can hardly turn around this cumbersome vessel all that quickly. But the new emphasis is clear: the unions should ally with progressive partners and devote more energy to make the kind of changes in social policy that can benefit millions of poorly paid and insecure workers.
The recent AFL-CIO convention marked a long overdue strategic shift. The shift is to speak for the whole working class.
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