Opinion: “To have a successful pro-democracy movement in the [U.S.], we must recognize working people’s struggles as central to stopping authoritarianism, not separate from it. […] Countering the power of bosses and landlords builds a base of people who won’t accept it from the White House either.”

Excerpts from the article:

>To have a successful pro-democracy movement in the United States, we must recognize working people’s struggles as central to stopping authoritarianism, not separate from it.

>I’m the founding executive director of Organized Power In Numbers (OPIN). Before that, I helped lead the campaign to win Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and organized car wash workers in Los Angeles. Lofty speeches about democratic norms don’t move working people. Winning does. Fighting for power at work, increasing the minimum wage, lowering utility bills, and providing free healthcare are the same as fighting for democracy.

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>However, not all workplace organizing automatically builds that larger sense of power. Some unions negotiate good contracts and go quiet when ICE raids their members’ neighborhoods, when states close polling places, or when Black women lose 319,000 jobs in the public and private sectors. Focusing only on workplace interests without connecting to the bigger fight against authoritarianism leaves those union members isolated and feeling powerless.

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>To win against fascism, candidates, campaigns, and movements will have to connect with and run on the agendas that matter to working people.

>At OPIN, we’ve reached more than 27 million poor and working-class people in the Sunbelt over the last six years. Through thousands of organizing conversations, the common thread was that housing costs, groceries, and utility bills keep them up at night. We organize our campaigns around what workers need: clear pathways to dignified jobs and stronger communities, not lectures about civic duty.

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>Countering the power of bosses and landlords builds a base of people who won’t accept it from the White House either.

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>Now we need those movements to merge, for more of us to move, to take risks collectively, for all of our well-being.

>Labor can’t advance while ignoring the assault on democracy. And the pro-democracy movement can’t ask working people to defend abstract principles while they’re still fighting for a voice of their own.

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>That’s why labor and community organizations are planning for a day of action on May 1 around taxing the rich, protesting ICE and illegal wars, and expanding democracy, all together.

The link to the article (‘To Stop Trump, the Pro-Democracy Movement Must Center Workers’ by Neidi Dominguez): https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/center-workers-for-democracy