Short of a General Strike, How Can Labor Stop Trump From Stealing the Election?: Lessons from Chile’s uprising—and from the 2000 Florida recount fight.

• October 30, 2020
• Posted in Class Struggle, Election 2020, Elections, Labor Movement, Mobilizing, Organizing, The Nation

There has been a lot of social media chatter about a general strike here in the United States if the results are ambiguous and Trump tries to steal the election. It would be amazing if national trade unions here were prepared to take the same actions in November 2020 that Chile’s national unions took in November 2019—but there’s absolutely no indication that people in positions of power in significant sectors of the US economy are ready to act as boldly as Chilean leaders did. Read More

Getting Out of Tight Corners: Anyone who thinks civil unrest isn’t coming on November 3 isn’t paying attention

• October 19, 2020
• Posted in Election 2020, Labor Movement, News, Trump, Unions

Anyone who thinks civil unrest isn’t coming on November 3 isn’t paying attention. The most important lessons from Florida in 2000 and Germany in 2019 have a common thread: ordinary people need to be willing to defy Democratic Party leadership, and even some trade union leadership, to save the country from an even worse misery. Read More

Biden Needs to Talk About Jobs on Labor Day. And Every Day.: If he does, he just might win in November.

• September 4, 2020
• Posted in Election 2020, Labor Movement, Published work, The Nation, Unions

Instead of allowing a deliberate undermining of 21st century essential public services, Biden could stitch together race, gender, jobs, unions, and good government in one powerful speech. For example, he could explain that at union-busting FedEx, workers earn half what their counterparts do at the post office for service that is no better and often worse for higher charges—and that the difference is who gets the income: workers or shareholders? Read More

We Really Need to Tax the Rich: In California, they’re making it happen.

• June 3, 2020
• Posted in Election 2020, Strikes, The Nation, Unions

Rather than rely on presidential candidates as our saviors or endlessly revise utopian policy proposals, it is crucial that we examine which strategies, led by whom, are winning and why. Read More

Celebrating May Day Starts by Taking Workers Seriously: Here in the United States, workers need a lot more than another holiday.

• May 1, 2020
• Posted in Class Struggle, Labor Movement, Organizing, Strikes, The Nation, Unions

“…here in the United States, the date is barely known beyond those immigrants whose home countries honor it, or among the most committed labor activists. Yet May Day commemorates the lives of four labor organizers in the United States who were hanged in Chicago after being falsely convicted of throwing a bomb into a group of police.” Read More