Our Current Moment of Increased Labor Organizing Could Become Something Much Bigger
Trying to win progressive change without rebuilding the labor movement is a fool’s errand. That’s why the union victories at Starbucks and Amazon are so promising: the current uptick in labor militancy could become a transformational upsurge.
People march in the “Fight Starbucks’ Union Busting” rally and march in Seattle, Washington on April 23, 2022. (Jason Redmond / AFP via Getty Images)
The US labor movement seems to be stirring.
Amazon workers at a Staten Island, New York, warehouse known as JFK8 won a shocking union election last fall. Starbucks workers are racking up victory after victory in their cross-country organizing drive. The Teamsters’ new president, Sean O’Brien, is preaching an old-fashioned “class struggle” unionism that takes aim at what he calls the “white-collar crime syndicate known as corporate America.” Socialist militants are “salting” — taking jobs at Amazon, Starbucks, and elsewhere to try to unionize workplaces.
What’s driving this outbreak in militancy? What organizing lessons can we draw from recent months and the distant past? And how can we convert the current momentum into a lasting labor upsurge capable of transforming US politics?
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