A few weeks into the new decade, international headlines were dominated by the catastrophic bushfires raging in Australia and Trump’s dangerous escalation of hostilities with Iran. Both stories are stark examples of the two most destructive forces facing the world in the 2020s — climate change and endless war.

The blame for much of the misery caused by global warming and militarism can be laid at the feet of the US government, US corporations, and US-dominated international institutions. Together they constitute an empire, making undemocratic decisions that have dire consequences for working-class people across the planet.

Considering the AFL-CIO’s long record of aiding and abetting imperialism, as I recently wrote about in Jacobin, the US labor movement bears responsibility for many of the historical injustices the US government and US capital have inflicted on our fellow workers abroad. At the same time, workers in the United States are well-positioned to use our collective power to oppose this global empire — particularly by taking on the military-industrial complex, the fossil fuel industry, international finance capital, and similar forces that cause so much harm around the world.