This is a month-by-month guide to the big fights — electoral, labor, international — that we can anticipate ahead of time in 2026. I hope it will be useful for Democratic Socialists of America leaders, union organizers, and movement activists thinking about how to make the most of the next twelve months.
Of course, politics is much, much more than elections and union contract campaigns. We don’t know what might happen in Donald Trump’s threatened war with Venezuela or in the ongoing fight over tariffs. Israel has already violated the ceasefire in Gaza and has kept up a lower-profile terror campaign there, but that could escalate further. The battle to win the year ahead, and to put MAGA and Trump on the defensive, will be waged in countless struggles, both in those we can anticipate and those we can’t.
New York City’s new socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, will be inaugurated on January 1, with a major block party planned to celebrate the occasion.
When Congress resumes in January, it’ll be plunged right back into the fight about the future of health insurance and the subsidies provided to buy Obamacare plans. Republicans are on the defensive, because the end of the subsidies means a major increase in premiums for millions — including a disproportionate share of residents represented by Republicans. The ongoing controversy over the Jeffrey Epstein documents shows no sign of abating either. The drip-drip stream of revelations about Trump’s connections to Epstein and his administration’s attempts to stonewall the release of more documents won’t help tamp down on interest. It’s impossible to say what’s in the documents to come, but it’s conceivable this could envelop the administration in 2026. By the end of the month, we’ll know whether the federal government will shut down again as well — the government’s funding runs out once more on January 30.
Ongoing and potential labor fights:
- First contract battles continue at Starbucks and…
Auteur: Neal Meyer
