Hope in Dark Times

http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/4857
Date Written:  2017-01-01
Publisher:  Against the Current
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21525

The most dynamic and emergent forces in U.S. politics today are on our side, and possibilities for a radical transformation of the system have not yet been foreclosed. Whether we make good on them is up to us.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

There's no sugarcoating it - the Trump administration is going to be a disaster for working people of all races and backgrounds. If early reports are any indication, a unified Republican government is eager to take an axe to Medicare and Medicaid, the federal tax code, business and environmental regulations, reproductive health, and workers' rights.

It seems very likely that Trump's appointments to the Supreme Court will result in an anti-union decision in the pivotal Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case, which would impose a right-to-work regime on the entire public sector.

While the Republicans are short of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, it also seems likely that they will attempt to push a national right-to-work law covering the private sector through Congress. If these efforts are successful, then the labor movement as we have known it since the New Deal will be finished.

Considering the circumstances we're in, it would be very easy to succumb to despair. But a sober reading of the situation makes it clear that all is not lost.