Solidarity Sunday: Organizing in Political Turmoil
The images of the last 10 days are indelible…
- A sitting President steps down months before his bid for re-election.
- A former President raising his fist and shouting "fight!" in defiance of an attempted assassination.
- One of the most iconic labor leaders of our time, who (only 8 months ago) almost came to fisticuffs with a sitting Republican senator, addresses the Republican National Convention.
- A Republican VP candidate with working-class roots talking directly to the working people of our country vowing to "protect the wages of American workers."
Like it or not, this is the environment we find ourselves recruiting and organizing in at the local level. These are the topics of conversation happening in living rooms, in social circles, at the bars, and on the jobsite. It's a fact that we can acknowledge or ignore.
We have two choices:
· Let it tear us apart locally (and you can see that rear its ugly head in social media groups, chat rooms, and reddit threads).
· Or lean in and rally our members and prospective members in solidarity and embrace the fact that local unions are a highly sought-after bunch with power to swing elections in favor of working families.
The words of Sean O'Brien rang a bell with millions of workers who "are not interested if you have a "D," "R" or an "I" next to your name. We want to know one thing…What are you doing to help American workers?" The reason he made such a splash was because he was advocating for his members.
No longer can politicians on either side take our votes for granted. They are speaking to us because we matter. The tectonic shift in sentiment toward working people means that those who represent us must work to earn our votes and be held accountable for how they vote in local, regional, and national elections.
It renews the opportunity for local labor leaders and organizers to refocus on the issues that really affect working families, and it offers those we are organizing with the best opportunity to belong to an organization with a higher purpose that transcends politics.
It gives us a chance to be that unifying factor that so many people long for in this country from all walks of life. We can talk with integrity to the people we are recruiting about belonging to an organization with a higher purpose that transcends politics all together. We must sell that we are the highest and best chance for workers to address concerns about economic stability, job security, future opportunity. We are not subordinate to a party, we are a party.