Since returning to office, the Trump administration has waged a comprehensive assault on the working class. From shredding the union contracts of over 50,000 federal workers overnight, to waging an illegal war on Iran that has killed thousands and displaced billions in economic costs onto working families, to the ongoing domestic war against immigrant workers who serve as pillars in our communities, Trump and his billionaire friends are committed to rolling back every gain working people have fought for and won through fierce struggle.
At the same time, the Trump administration has forced through the “Big Beautiful Bill” in an attempt to gut every agency upon which working class people are surviving – robbing tens of millions of their healthcare, their SNAP benefits and more at a time when inflation is through the roof. While we’re told that the national unemployment rate is somewhere between 4-8%, the true unemployment rate – including people without full time work and those earning poverty wages of less than $26,000 – is comparable to Great Depression levels, at nearly 25%.
In response to this deepening crisis for working people in all pockets of the country, the Democratic Party has argued that the only way to defeat Trump is to vote them back into office during the midterms this year. But if the Democrats can’t put up any fight to Trump’s agenda now, what should make us think that they will do anything vastly different?
On this Labor Day, we must remember where our power really comes from as working people. The benefits that we enjoy today were not a result of any benevolent politician. From labor rights to civil rights, every right we have has been won by working people joining together, taking the streets and fighting for it. That will be the only way we defeat Trump’s anti-worker agenda.
Today, the majority of Americans – at least 60% – view themselves as part of the working class, and increasingly despise the system of capitalism that prioritizes profits for the few over the majority of people’s needs. We have to work to survive, while the billionaire class continues to get richer and richer off our backs. In reality, we are the people who make society run everyday. Shouldn’t we be the people who run society?