DSA

United States labor history is mostly a history of defeats. If that were not true our country would more closely resemble Sweden, with its high union density, social democratic culture and cradle to grave free health care. I used to soften the blow of this information to my community college labor studies students with the proviso that nonetheless the U.S. working class has won some important, lasting victories along the way; and if that were not true the United States would more closely resemble Germany and Italy in the 1930s, with their crushed working class organizations and repressive surveillance state.

Unfortunately. since my retirement from teaching a couple years ago the impact of our continued and accelerating defeats has eroded what remained of those victories to the point we are now rapidly losing their democratic legacy and headed downhill on fast skis toward a fascist America. And since similar forces are at work elsewhere in the global capitalist economy, Sweden no longer provides quite the exemplary utopian example it once did (it now has small co-pays for office visits and drugs), and Germany seems to be forgetting its own historical lessons.

Be heartened

But as we are have learned in recent weeks, with the largest single day demonstration in US history (No Kings), and the people-powered victory of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani over billionaire cash and fear-mongering in the New York mayoral race (and its echo in Seattle), a growing number of people understand the dangers we are facing and are committing themselves to fighting back with effective forms of action. I am heartened by this; we all should be. We will need this scale of continued participation and many more wins in the contests with fascist billionaires on all fronts before we can restore the democratic institutions that are being destroyed before our eyes and build a better society in place of the one we’re saddled with.