Unions and community organizations uniting against the dictator

Hundreds of organizers gather in Chicago to lift up workers over billionaires.

By Maria Peralta

In a powerful display of collective unity, over 500 organizers representing labor unions as well as state and local progressive organizations from 35 states met in Chicago this month as part of a growing movement against President Donald Trump’s authoritarian agenda that attacks workers, immigrants and democratic institutions.

The gathering coincided with the Good Trouble Lives On national day of action, commemorating the legacy of civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis, and met with the goal of building on the coalition efforts of labor and community and civil rights organizations in cities and states across the country to fight Republican cuts to vital services to fund tax breaks for the rich and to demand the restoration of health care, education, and civil and immigrant rights.

“We have to summon our history to rise to the historic moment we’re in today,” said Chicago Teachers Union President Stacey Davis Gates, who hosted the gathering at the union’s headquarters and is one the leaders of the May Day coalition of organizations. “Enslaved Africans broke the back of the confederacy through a general strike and a coalition with abolitionists. We’re going to need that organizing and level of coalition to confront Trump’s attempt to bring the confederacy back. It won’t be stopped just in the courts or at the ballot box.”

As food prices rise almost 3% and housing prices are up 3.8% compared with the same time period last year, Trump and House and Senate Republicans have waged an all-out attack on workers’ rights and on working families, including:

• Dismissing tens of thousands of federal workers and contractors,

• Stripping collective bargaining rights for over one million federal workers,

• Pushing through a deadly budget with healthcare cuts that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will hurt over 10 million people while giving tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.

• Racially profiling immigrant workers for deportation and conducting aggressive mass raids, one of which led to the death of farm worker Jaime Alanis.

Legal challenges to these unconstitutional and inhumane attacks continue, and the labor movement is pushing for the passage of federal legislation that would restore collective bargaining rights to federal workers.

Neidi Dominguez, director of Organized Power in Numbers, which runs worker-focused campaigns in the South and Southwest, said that since May Day this year, her organization has contacted about 3.5 million people through peer-to-peer texting and phone banking. “What we’re hearing is that affordability continues to be a huge issue, as well as folks fearing the government being weaponized against them,” Dominguez said. “We’re also encountering Trump voters who are saying ‘We’ve made a mistake,’ and so we’re using that opportunity to bring them in.”

The energy in Chicago is part of the building surge of worker resistance we’re seeing across the country. Since Jan. 1, there have been 530 official strikes and labor actions across the country, compared with 496 in the same time period last year. High-profile labor fights, including WNBA players’ contract demands for equal pay, have been part of the chorus of voices pushing back against corporate power.

The organizations in this coalition plan to train thousands of workers in how to build effective cross issue coalitions and create “strike ready” cities and states and aim to reach 30 million voters by this Labor Day. Building on earlier national days of action, from Hands Off to May Day to No Kings, Good Trouble, and others, organizers are aiming for over 2,000 rallies on Labor Day this year.

“We know what we are up against. The consolidation of power is happening quickly. We know that the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of the few has been a steady march for decades,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, which had dozens of member organizers participate in the Chicago convening.

Based on the millions of people across the country demanding an America that works for everyone, this Labor Day might well be the largest we’ve seen yet.

Maria Peralta is a strategic campaigns consultant with over 25 years of leadership experience in progressive politics, labor organizing, voting rights and democracy. Most recently, Maria served as National Political Director for the Service Employees International Union.

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