{"id":14787,"date":"2026-04-25T01:31:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T05:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/?p=14787"},"modified":"2026-05-02T00:31:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T04:31:24","slug":"the-cause-of-labor-is-the-hope-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2026\/04\/the-cause-of-labor-is-the-hope-of-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The cause of labor is the hope of the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/span>his May Day will come after nearly sixteen months of authoritarian rule marked by brutal domestic and global violence.<\/p>\n

At home, the state has deployed terror against the most vulnerable members of the working class\u2014our immigrant neighbors\u2014and anti-ICE protesters.<\/p>\n

World politics has entered a new era with the illegal and unconstitutional U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran. The ongoing war is yet another morbid symptom of the late American empire. Conscious of its declining power and driven by a lunatic narcissism reminiscent of Caligula or Nero, the Trump administration seeks to demonstrate its virility through violence. The war\u2019s horror is only matched by its absurdity, as it becomes increasingly clear how little the U.S. state thought through the consequences of their reckless actions.<\/p>\n

This disastrous war is a great setback for the regime. But as Trump and company become weaker, they also become more volatile and dangerous.<\/p>\n

With Trump\u2019s approval ratings sinking and likely to fall lower given the shock to the economy, the midterm elections pose an existential threat to his administration. The likelihood of a manufactured crisis being used as a pretext to destroy democratic rights looks increasingly probable.<\/p>\n

In the face of war and authoritarianism, most workers realize we must act to stop this regime, and many are looking for alternative political strategies.<\/p>\n

Building the resistance<\/h4>\n

The resistance in Minneapolis, culminating in mass strikes at the end of January, gave us a glimpse of potential working-class power.<\/p>\n

The question is how to transform broad yet diffuse opposition to Trumpism into the kind of organized labor action that can take powerful and decisive action against the regime.<\/p>\n

We have seen resistance in varied spaces, from mass protests like No Kings to neighborhood networks to community and labor activism. While all these play a role, unions are of particular importance because they remain the one organized section of the working class with mass numbers, even while unionization levels are low. Organized labor\u2019s reawakening to politics, uneven and contradictory as it may be, represents a significant breach in the post-war consensus that has dominated the movement for the better part of a century.<\/p>\n