The US labor movement, like the nation at large, stands at a crossroads. The next few years might well determine whether the United States descends into an era of “electoral autocracy.” We believe this period will also set the parameters of the union movement’s power and influence for years to come, for the state of democracy and worker organization have long been deeply intertwined.
For decades, the forces that have steadily eroded effective democracy and increasingly marginalized organized labor have exacerbated each other, making us vulnerable to the authoritarian danger we now face. Yet that very danger also represents an opportunity to overcome deep-seated institutional inertia, drawing elements of a cautious labor movement out of their defensive crouch, and helping them devise forms of struggle that might both revive the labor movement and renew American democracy.
President Donald Trump’s second term in office has, in a way, broken a spell. For years, the pre-Trump status quo kept labor locked in a pattern of slow decline even as democracy was increasingly stifled and abridged by voter suppression, gerrymandering, filibusters, and the overweening power of organized money. But the decades-old dysfunctional status quo that gave rise to Trumpism is now crumbling under the weight of the most lawless, antidemocratic, rights-trampling administration this county has seen since the nineteenth century.
History suggests that fighting to defend and revive democracy in its moment of maximum peril can create a window of opportunity for labor. Past experience — both in the United States and other nations — teaches us that when unions fight to defend democracy and win, they position themselves for periods of explosive growth and increased worker power. For its own sake and that of our democracy, it is imperative that the US labor movement grasp this lesson and seize the window of opportunity that is now being opened by the urgent needs of this…
Auteur: Stephen Lerner
