Resistance to the Trump administration is growing. Nationwide demonstrations on October 18 drew millions of American citizens to protest actions taken by the White House and its appointees.
The government shutdown has resulted from the refusal of the White House and Congressional Republicans to negotiate over the health benefits needed by 20 million Americans. So far, the Democrats in Congress have stood firm in protecting vulnerable people from losing their healthcare.
The number of successful organizing campaigns and strikes reflects this growing resistance. This issue of the Label Letter, as well as earlier editions this year, recount workers’ achievements in unionizing and improving their wages and benefits.
These acts of resistance have prompted rightwingers’ calls for restrictions on Free Speech and Assembly. They have enacted them, too. We see government agencies created to support workers and the public at-large being destroyed through calculated moves, including underfunding, staff cuts, and the perversion of the agencies’ legislated missions.
The Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, the EPA, and the Department of Justice come to mind immediately. The same twisted philosophy employed against these agencies is subverting the military, the FBI, and other protective services.
Meanwhile, the administration exults in the demonization of immigrants, the razing of the East Wing of the White House, and the construction of a gilt ballroom by and for billionaires.
The Labor Movement is determined to protect the social and economic improvements it helped to create. Now the goals of equality and fairness to all are threatened by a rogue administration devoted to toxic policies based on opposition to the rights we enjoy. Resisting this march toward authoritarianism is a duty.
John Lewis, the great civil rights leader and Congressman, wrote, “When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something.”
His words were never more apt.
