“The denial or observance of [the right to bargain collectively] means the difference between despotism and democracy.” Senator Robert F. Wagner, speaking after the Supreme Court upheld the National Labor Relations Act in 1937
On many fronts, Americans have been inattentive to the strength of the institutions that undergird our democracy. To the extent that we have focused on democracy-affirming activities as a society, we have fixated primarily on those related pretty narrowly to elections: the mechanics of voting, campaign finance, and political misinformation. These are all important challenges, but they occur relatively far downstream in the process of building a democratic ethos in our nation. All the while, we have allowed a critical upstream institution—the labor movement—to undergo a slow and painful downward spiral. That spiral has come at the hands of conservative judges, big corporations, and the inattention of institutions and Americans who are not directly engaged with unions. And now that our democracy is clearly under great stress as a result of the early actions of the second Trump Administration, the long-simmering threats to the labor movement take on even greater significance.
It is critical that we understand these threats and act quickly to stanch the bleeding because labor is one pro-democracy institution that has held firm through this most recent attack. Labor unions have been behind many of the highest-profile cases challenging the actions of the...
United States President Donald Trump has taken to social media to announce that South Africa will not be allowed to attend next year’s Group of 20 (G20) intergovernmental forum in Miami, Florida. ...