CARTOON: The Labor Union Betrayal Democratic Party Defenders Always Conveniently Forget
The fascist purge is going to be brutal, but there is an opportunity. It won't take long for many workers who voted for Trump to find he has betrayed them as bad as the Democrats have.
Cartoon by Mark Taylor / DeMOCKracy.ink
The Working Class & The Corrupt, Collapsed Democrats
There is an opportunity for a labor movement outside both corrupt, bought-off parties. That is where the focus needs to be, not in trying to transplant a vertebrae or two into the shriveled, jellied spine of the Democratic Party.
By Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy.ink (11/11/24)
Four or five decades ago the world of labor was a news beat and most major newspapers had reporters and columnists reporting on the world of workers. With corporatization of the media, that beat has largely withered away.
But In These Times magazine reporter Hamilton Nolan, is one of the few exceptions to such journalistic malpractice. Recently, Nolan had a Substack column on the aftermath of the Democrats’ disastrous election fiasco, To Unfuck Politics, Create More Union Members (11/8).
In the piece Nolan argued for the Democrats to get back to their working class roots. Turns out empty woke platitudes, identity division and celebrity endorsements have nothing to do with the world most people are suffering in the grim Corporate States of America. Nolan argues the 2024 Democratic Party collapse offers an essential lesson for the Democrats, if they are up to seeing it:
“Here is the most important point I will make in this column: “Union members” and “the working class” are not synonyms. Ten percent of American workers today are union members, meaning that 90% of “the working class” are not union members. Joe Biden did a lot of good things for union members. So union members backed the Democrats. What does all of that mean to the other 90% of working people? Nothing. So the working class at large drifts away.
“Do you want to make the working class vote Democratic? You need to make more of the working class union members.”
It was a good commentary but there was one thing missing that uniformally goes missing in most of the recent commentary I read on the left on the issue of Democrats and unions. I put this response up on the comments section of Nolan’s column:
I'd like to take a moment to think of Darrin Polansky.
Darin, 58, a husband and father of two children, was a railworker recently killed on the job. A passenger was injured. ( https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/bnsf-worker-killed-when-vehicle-is-struck-by-train/ )
I subscribe to the Railroad Workers United newsletter and like clockwork there are notices of railworkers killed and injured on the job. Nolan, there can be no mention of the Democrats and unions without mention of the betrayal of Biden/Harris and the entire Democratic Congressional delegation and corporate Dem establishment of the railworkers and their plans to strike.
Have the Democrats done a few things to help unions? Yeah, sure. But when the moment came for the opportunity for a union to make a huge difference and show workers across the country the true power they have through the generosity -- or withholding -- of their labor, Biden and the Democrats revealed themselves and betrayed them like a bunch of slimy Wall Street Republicans.
That betrayal at such a critical point is the true nature of the Democratic Party. They will talk some fluffy stuff and hand out the occasional cold chicken wing to workers, but when the real moment for solidarity arrives. they always skedaddle back to their Daddy Donors and Republican compatriots.
At this time of real, true fascism, trying to nudge the fascist-enabling minority party into giving a damn about workers is doomed to failure. Labor needs to tell both parties to F-off and strike (literally) out in a new path, demonstrating to all workers from the tomato field to the software designer's desk that this country, this economy and all of our futures depend upon the generous labor of American workers, a resource that will no longer permit itself to be exploited and shit upon by the oligarchs and the Republican/Democrat corporate uniparty.
The fascist purge is going to be brutal and there will be need for true brother and sisterhood among labor. It won't take long for many workers who voted for Trump to realize he will betray them as bad as the Democrats do. There is an opportunity for a labor movement outside both corrupt, bought-off parties. That is where the focus needs to be, not in trying to transplant a vertebrae or two into the shriveled, jellied spine of the Democratic Party. The left has been trying that for decades and when Harris/Walz blew it, who did the DNC establishment blame? Properly, themselves? No. Of course not. They and MSNBC boxheads blamed the progressives and liberals ... whatever the hell those terms mean anymore in relation to the Democratic Party.
Screw the Democratic Party. Time for something completely new.
Nolan gave the comment a ‘like’.
The ‘bait-n-switch’ reality
There is an opportunity for the genuine left with Trump’s resounding victory. It won’t take long for Trump’s billionaire-protection scam to begin impacting his working class fans. Funneling more of the nation’s dwindling wealth and resources into the pockets of the Elon Musks and Peter Thiels of the new techno-feudalism will not go well with Trump’s working class supporters. The ‘bait-n-switch’ reality that neither party can be trusted will become a harsh reality as workers see that nobody in the ruling corporate class gives a damn for them and their families.
Will the Democrats have any courage to assess what just happened and make the genuine top-to-bottom foundational reforms needed? I have my doubts, but, perhaps a serious leftist movement focused on the daily needs of working families and not trendy campus purity litmus tests. Perhaps a new party? Where it all goes and how it rolls is anyone’s guess, but one thing is certain — workers are gonna’ get screwed, again.
Hamilton Nolan: Can Labor Movements Save America?
The Majority Report (10/17/24)
Hamilton Nolan, labor writer at In These Times and author of the How Things Work newsletter on SubStack, discusses his recent book The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor.
“I tell people on the political left if you want to teach people about like socialism and Marxism and these things, it's not about reading a book. Let them go through a union campaign and let them try to negotiate a Union contract at their job and they will understand perfectly you class power and class war.”
29-minute video
Hamilton Nolan Book: “The Hammer: Power, Inequality, And The Struggle For The Soul Of Labor”
58-minute video
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I remember as a teenager reading about how many railroad workers were killed in the days of coupling the trains, and how the widows and children were left with nothing. That was one of the many reasons that workers began to seriously organize in this country. And today, the railroad owners refuse to keep up with repairs, and don't keep safety measures as they cut employees. When Biden did not take the side of the rail workers, it was obvious that he was never a so-called union man.
Trump supporters are going to be incredibly disappointed. They fell for Trump's con again.