As the rising tide of right-wing reaction led to the reelection of Donald Trump as president, the shortcomings of workers’ unions and their leaders in the U.S. have been clear for all who want to see.
Starting in the late 1930s, the bureaucratic union leaderships in the U.S. placed all their eggs in the basket of the Democratic Party and its pro-capitalist agenda. Relying on the Democratic Party for rhetorical support and a handful of laws that at least allowed unions the legal right to exist, union leaders gave up on attempting to mobilize their members to build real power. This strategy stifled the dynamic, massive workers’ movement and the struggles that took place between 1934 and 1946 that had won significant gains. In recent decades, constant losses in jobs, working conditions, wages, and benefits for the working class with little or no reaction from their unions or the Democratic Party has led some workers to actually begin to support Trump and other capitalists and politicians like him, even though they are the very class enemies that workers need to fight! Workers’ reliance for decades on both the Democratic Party and legalistic methods for protecting workers’ rights set the stage for Trump and placed the unions in a position of weakness as he has begun his renewed attacks on workers.
In just the first month of this Trump presidency, he has turned the union bureaucracy’s world upside down by decapitating the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). This is the body formed in response to the massive workers upsurges of 1934 and intended to regulate the relations between bosses and unions. Although it never put workers and unions on a level playing field with the capitalists, it at least was a place where workers could go for some redress when their employers violated contracts and the law. Now that Trump has removed two of its members, even that not-so-helpful institution is out of commission for at least the foreseeable future. Now, workers and their union leaders have nobody in government who they can look to for that kind of help.
During the presidential campaign last year, most unions went all in for Harris and the Democrats, redoing the same playbook they’ve used for decades. Shawn Fain, the President of the United Auto Workers (UAW), called Trump a “scab” over and over, even though Trump is a capitalist boss and now politician, not a poor worker desperate for a job. He and others said that Harris would help workers, even though she proudly proclaimed, “I am a capitalist.” Fain in particular spoke of “eating the rich” and fighting the billionaires, yet his leadership supported the Democratic Party with its many billionaire donors.
Now that Trump has taken the reins of power, the Democrats stumble around filing desperate lawsuits to stop him and are clearly unable to stop his authoritarian moves. Union leaders don’t have any answers either. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) rejoined the American Federation of Labor (AFL) last month, hoping to regain some of the clout they have lost in the political infighting. Teamsters president Sean O’Brien cozied up to Trump and Republicans over the summer and has complimented Trump since. Harold Dagget, longtime president of the International Longhshoremen’s Association (ILA) has also cozied up to Trump, hoping Trump will protect so-called “American workers.” And even Shawn Fain of the UAW, who loudly criticized him during the campaign, is now saying “we’re ready to work with Trump.
Decades of these contradictory statements and policies, and now the dangerous strategy of trying to work with Trump, are all signs that the bureaucrats leading the labor movement have no real response to the dangers he poses.
Yet even now, despite the dangerous conditions under a Trump presidency, they still have a powerful force at their disposal. That force is the working class.
Even in its current weakened state, the working class is potentially still the most powerful force in the U.S. With about 14 million workers organized in unions, and as many as one hundred million not organized in unions, the working class is the largest and potentially most powerful social force in the nation. If those 14 million union members mobilized in their own interests, despite what the bureaucrats say, it could change the balance of forces. If tens of millions more workers not already in unions also joined in struggles against the bosses and their politicians, that could build tremendous power.
The question then becomes, what are union leaders doing to organize and mobilize this worker power for the class struggle that we need to engage in? The answer right now is…very little.
Efforts to get Democrats elected and lobbying politicians for change or generosity won’t get us anywhere. Desperate lawsuits to try to throw monkey-wrenches into Trump’s attacks won’t either. Lawsuits may slow Trump down a little. But underlying problems remain. For too long, workers and our unions have allowed our fate to be put in the hands of two political parties that don’t look out for our interests.
What really matters is mobilization from below. We need to organize in mass numbers, with our own initiative and leadership, fighting for our own interests, not the interests of the Democratic Party or bureaucratic union leaders.
It was workers, organizing and struggling collectively, who won the mass strikes of 1934 in Toledo, San Francisco, and Minneapolis. It was those strikes that led to the creation of the NLRB, and to decades of workers getting better wages and benefits. Only through struggle did workers win gains and force change to occur.
The same will be true today. Supporting Democrats and their legal wrangling won’t move us forward. Cozying up to Trump and the capitalists who support him also won’t get us anywhere.
But working people, when we put our minds to it, can change the world. We’ve done it in the past and we can do it again. But to do so, we have to change direction and pursue our own power.
