{"id":32415,"date":"2024-03-20T13:30:27","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T20:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=32415"},"modified":"2024-03-20T13:30:28","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T20:30:28","slug":"can-unions-rebuild-our-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/03\/20\/can-unions-rebuild-our-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"CAN UNIONS REBUILD OUR DEMOCRACY?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alex Han\/In These Times<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CanUnited Auto Workers members attend a solidarity rally as the UAW strikes the Big Three automakers on September 15, 2023, in Detroit, Michigan. (photo: Bill Pugliano\/Getty Images)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

19 march 24<\/strong> (RSN.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Our institutions have failed to protect democracy. Can unions take up the fight?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

For so many of us, these are mostly dark times interrupted by brief windows of hope\u2009\u2014\u2009and the road ahead is daunting. No matter how this year\u2019s presidential election plays out, the contest\u2019s ultimate winner will surely be pessimism, one of the few things Americans across the political spectrum seem to be in alignment on: pessimism for the future, pessimism for possibilities of transformation, pessimism for the idea that justice will win the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We exist in a political system built on institutions seemingly unable to fulfill even the basic function of producing policies that huge majorities of Americans support, like lower prescription drug prices<\/a>, less debt, increasing the minimum wage, a cease-fire in Gaza<\/a>. It\u2019s no wonder that public polling shows, according to the Pew Research Center<\/a>, that \u201cAmericans\u2019 views of politics and elected officials are unrelentingly negative, with little hope of improvement on the horizon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s little evidence that our political system is anything but broken, and confidence in these failing institutions\u2009\u2014\u2009from Congress to the news media to organized religion to the Supreme Court to the White House\u2009\u2014\u2009continues to decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The necessary conversations in our movement spaces are mostly quite simple: What\u2019s left? What\u2019s worth salvaging? What can we carry with us? For those of us who see the power and potential of organized workers, the questions are sharper: What has our crumbling democracy meant for working people? Where are the centers of power within our labor movements? And, most importantly, can unions and workers ultimately change the horizons we\u2019re walking toward?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(It is important to note that\u2009\u2014\u2009from Starbucks Workers United<\/a> to the United Auto Workers<\/a>\u2014we\u2019ve seen some hopeful examples recently of unions setting such new horizons.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of our biggest challenges in answering these questions is that our politics\u2009\u2014\u2009within labor, within our social movements\u2009\u2014\u2009don\u2019t seem to evolve; they only stumble from crisis to crisis. We exist in an interconnected landscape that previous generations could never have imagined, but the algorithmically fueled engines of online interaction seem to divide and distract as much as they connect. The panopticon of social media has actually served to atomize us, endangering the very idea of collective experience and action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be a mistake to simply blame our pitfalls on technology. For all our talk of solidarity, we have to be honest with ourselves that our movements so rarely live up to anything that truly resembles and honors it. Part of this conundrum is a familiar dynamic\u2009\u2014\u2009for many of us on the \u201cpractical Left,\u201d our view of the world has been defined by what we are not and the forces we are arrayed against. But the answers aren\u2019t as simple as saying \u201cwhat we are for\u201d and \u201cwhat we are against,\u201d which can force us into cycles of reaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our response must be a refusal to allow our imaginations to be limited by our immediate needs\u2009\u2014\u2009and recognize instead that the steps toward building a better world require setting our sights and horizons higher than mere survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We desperately need these new horizons, and we need to raise them beyond the contours of our practicality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demonizing enemies is an adequate organizing strategy for the nihilist Right, which aims to hold onto power for the good of a handful of elites. If our project is not just defending democracy\u2009\u2014\u2009but demanding and creating it\u2009\u2014\u2009then we require a different approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We should open ourselves to seeing the signs of a bigger horizon wherever we can find them. Is the demand for a shorter workweek one that can help us lift our eyes? Can we imagine reconstructing our unions and organizations into ones that can respond to our real needs and hopes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labor is, indeed, the source of all wealth. The collective actions of those who provide that labor are the building blocks of democracy\u2009\u2014\u2009and the way to construct new horizons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Han\/In These Times United Auto Workers members attend a solidarity rally as the UAW strikes the Big Three automakers on September 15, 2023, in Detroit, Michigan. (photo: Bill Pugliano\/Getty Images) 19 march 24 (RSN.org) Our institutions have failed to protect democracy. Can unions take up the fight? For so many… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32415"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32416,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32415\/revisions\/32416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}