Part Five – Building a Real Alternative: Get Organized

Trump’s anti-“radical left” rhetoric is aimed at grassroots activists fighting for a more just and democratic future. By reviving Cold War fears, he seeks to divide working people and weaken the labor movement. But across the country, workers are fighting back — organizing unions, running for office, and demanding real solutions to the crises we face.

Part five of this essay dives into why a militant, democratic labor movement is essential to challenging corporate power, combating climate change, and resisting the slide toward authoritarianism. From Amazon warehouses to AI ethics protests, from rail yards to classrooms — workers are getting organized.

Part One – Trump Tariffs: The Madman Theory Applied to Economics (and what we should do about it)
Part Two – Boast About Jobs, Suppress Worker Power
Part Three – The Global Axis of the Far Right
Part Four – Cracks in the Trump Coalition: Civil War Among the Elites

Trump’s rhetoric rarely attacks unions head-on; instead, he targets what he calls the “radical left” — knowing full well that many of its most committed organizers are embedded in labor movements. His rhetoric paints grassroots union activists as ideological extremists while presenting pro-Trump union leaders as pragmatic allies. This strategy exploits internal divisions within unions, reframing rank-and-file organizing as part of a broader threat to American values. The “radical left,” in his language, is cast as godless, socialist, communist — the enemy within. It dredges up the nightmares of the Cold War, invoking a new McCarthyism to delegitimize not just political opponents but the very idea of militant, democratic, class-conscious unions.

I was not a big supporter of most of Barack Obama’s policies. But he said something I thought was very important in the last week of his election campaign in 2008. His opponent, John McCain, pulled out a Cold War card and accused Obama of being a socialist. Instead of caving to the McCarthyite pressure, Obama answered, “My Bible teaches me I should be my brother’s keeper.” Obama was far from a socialist, but he refused to be cowed by the rhetoric.

It’s important, when talking to Christians who support Trump, to remind them of the message of Jesus: mercy, compassion, care for the poor. What is more aligned with the teachings of all major religions — taking care of the people, the earth, and social justice — or making America rich again (one of the slogans on the wall of the GOP convention)?

Let’s not mince words. The reason Trump goes on these wild Cold War rants is because the elites do fear socialism — even the mild dose of the 1930s New Deal. From the end of World War II to today, there is nothing the elites hate more than democratic public ownership. Republicans and Corporate Democrats have done whatever they could to undo the New Deal (of course, the GOP have been far more militant in this), and they are frantic now that it’s so obvious something like the New Deal is needed again. This is why Trump so hates what he calls the Green New Scam.

You have to be purposely blind not to see that some form of democratized, decentralized socialism is the only way out of the climate crisis — and to avoid new wars driven by an insatiable military-industrial complex.

The Trump chaos is also an opportunity. People are getting organized.

Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s rallies “against the oligarchy” have drawn large, enthusiastic crowds in cities across the country.

Progressive candidates at every level must be elected — because political power, in the final analysis, resides in government. That’s not only where laws are passed — laws that now mostly protect private wealth and enforce a system of low wages and high prices.

Workers should run for office. Unions can do more to help progressive candidates win.

If you are a member of a pro-Trump union, push back. Talk to your fellow workers. Show them how Trump’s policies will screw them in spite of all his pro-worker talk. Talk with respect, the objective is to persuade not win an argument. It starts with listening carefully and analyzing deeply what we’re hearing.

If your leadership is tied up with Corporate Democrats, run against them. The policies of the Corporate Democrats tilled the soil for the MAGA movement and the slavish attitude of some union leaders has done a great deal of harm.

Within unions, workers are fighting to elect militant, class-conscious leaders who will fight on two fronts: Trumpist Republicans who weaponize Cold War rhetoric and fear to divide workers and push an anti-union agenda, and Corporate Democrats who talk labor while working to contain militancy and protect Wall Street from real redistribution of power.

If you are a union member, look for like-minded people, go to meetings, and elect progressive leaders. Push your union to organize unorganized workers.

Unorganized workers are getting organized. Over the past three years, the U.S. labor movement has seen its most energized wave of organizing in decades. Union election petitions surged — reaching nearly 1,800 in 2024 alone — as workers in sectors from tech and retail to manufacturing and hospitality launched drives for representation.

The moment demands bold campaigns to organize the unorganized — even if it means defying the NLRB. With the Board paralyzed or weaponized against workers, waiting for legal recognition becomes a trap. But the law has never been the only path to power. Workers have the right to organize and strike, even without official certification. They can fight for contracts, build shop-floor strength, and assert their demands through direct action. Legality cannot define the limits of labor’s power — only organization can.

If you work and are not in a union, get organized.

Tech workers can disrupt for-profit, militarized surveillance AI — and support the development of public, non-profit AI trained to serve human needs. AI has enormous potential to help plan a decentralized, democratic economy. Everyone should learn to use it — we need millions of people training AI to serve humanity, not profit and war. This is a crucial front of struggle. The original training of AI can be overcome. This article is proof of it.

As reported by NPR, which might explain why its federal funding is threatened, thirteen former employees of Peter Thiel’s Palantir are publicly condemning the company for violating its ethical principles by supporting Trump-era immigration policies. In a letter shared with NPR, they criticized Palantir’s $30 million contract with ICE to track migrants, saying the company has abandoned its original mission to protect the vulnerable and responsibly develop AI. There have been similar actions by tech workers at Open AI and Google.

Soldiers, intelligence agency workers, and police can refuse to follow orders that trample on people’s basic rights. We need more whistleblowers like Dan Ellsberg (if you don’t know who he is, look up the Pentagon Papers).

Cops are in unions too. Police are being asked to perform an impossible and dangerous job: to be a buffer between those who own stuff and those who don’t. That doesn’t lead to safety — for them or for the community. It’s an endless cycle of crime and jails that, like the arms race, is very profitable for some. Police need to elect union leaders who refuse to play along and who actually advocate for policies that respect constitutional rights, democratize policing, and support candidates for office who will address poverty and the underlying causes of most crime.

A progressive police union leadership refused to expel protestors from the Wisconsin legislature in 2011 and instead marched in their support.

Journalists are in unions too, and we need them to be brave — to get over their own Cold War assumptions and report on the real world. Face up to the existential threats of the climate crisis and nuclear war. Stop focusing on the partisan political theater — it’s not far from taking a professional wrestling show at face value. Expose where actual power resides, and report on those who are organizing for constructive change. Dare to push your editors to allow stories and opinion pieces that go beyond the officially acceptable narrative. Use your unions to give you the strength to fight.

I was a carman mechanic in a railroad union for five years, a driver in a postal union for three, and I’m a member of a film union now. Sometimes it can seem like it’s hard to be heard, or the right-wing forces seem too strong. But a lot of what people thought would never change has been thrown into the air. People have lost their ideological moorings. They are looking for solutions. Let’s not lose this moment to those who would push us toward a digital Dark Age.

Everyone needs to support this struggle with money and organizational backing. Whatever front you are working on — from climate to war to human rights — tie it to the workers’ movement. Only organized workers have real power to challenge the elites. Unions have money to fund organizing and election campaigns, and most importantly, the power to withdraw their labor. While union density is low, critical sectors are organized. Strikes can shut down trucks and trains, mass communications and governments, seaports and airports.

Workers can strike for political objectives — not only for wages and working conditions. Only a powerful people’s movement, with organized workers in the lead and as the backbone, can insist on solutions to the climate crisis and demand governments reduce the risk of nuclear war.

In almost every community in North America, people are organizing — link up with them if you’re haven’t yet.

Run for office, or volunteer to help progressive candidates.

Knock on doors and talk to your neighbors, do the same at work and school, form committees to advocate for real solutions.

Join forces with others, let’s follow the example of the early Christians and put secondary disagreements aside and build a movement that is broad and inclusive.

We all need to get better at listening and discussing things with each other. Let’s deepen our understanding of the reality and urgency of our situation — and not get distracted and divided by inflammatory rhetoric.

Talk to your friends and neighbours. Ask them what they think about these issues. Let us know what they say and how theAnalysis.news can help. We can work together to overcome the propaganda and lies that are holding people back.