The Rising Left Can’t Ignore Labor’s Ongoing Crisis
Working people in America are facing a crisis of living standards, Sam Gindin argues, but this has not translated into a crisis for the capitalist system. To challenge ruling class power, the Left still needs to sink deeper roots into the labor movement.
The Left’s recent electoral victories have generated enthusiasm among young people, helping move them “from protest to politics.” But social transformation will require building a much deeper base beyond the election cycle, starting with organized labor. (Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis via Getty Images)
As the Trump administration stumbles from scandal to scandal and worries over artificial intelligence reach a fever pitch, there seems to be little relief in sight for working-class Americans confronting a stubborn cost-of-living crisis. The failure of both Republicans and Democrats to advance real solutions to the affordability crunch has opened the door to hopeful socialist election victories, including Zohran Mamdani’s triumph in New York last year and several left-wing wins in congressional primaries this summer. Yet organized labor by and large has continued its long retreat, and the prospects of significant national policy change still look remote.
Sam Gindin is one of the most exacting and capacious thinkers on the socialist left today. With decades of experience in the labor movement as research director for the Canadian Auto Workers (which merged in 2013 with the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers Union to form Unifor, today the largest private sector union in Canada), his political orientation is grounded in the reality of the contemporary state of organized labor. His perspective is also informed by a careful study of the current political-economic conjuncture, evident most notably in his important work with Leo Panitch, The Making of Global Capitalism.
Damage magazine editor and frequent Jacobin contributor Benjamin Y. Fong recently interviewed Gindin about the current political moment. They discussed the contemporary crisis of capitalism, the privileged position of organized labor among social movements, and the crucial importance of organizing Amazon today.
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