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THE LABOR MOVEMENT IS IN A FIGHT FOR ITS EXISTENCE AGAINST A
NEOFASCIST THREAT  
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Bill Fletcher, Jr.
August 21, 2025
In These Times
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_ For unions to survive, they must embrace antifascism. _

Jaime Contreras, Executive Vice President of SEIU labor union 32BJ,
speaks during an immigrant rights protest outside of the Department of
Justice headquarters in Washington, D.C. on June 9, 2025. , BRYAN
DOZIER/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

 

In countries across the capitalist world, trade union movements are
being challenged to their very core by the growth of right-wing
populist and neofascist mass movements. What makes this situation
especially dangerous is that labor unions and supporters are facing
not just maniacal leaders or even military juntas, but
a strengthening political alignment between segments of the
capitalist class and these same right-wing social movements.

The post-Cold War rise of right-wing populism overlapped with, but had
different roots than, neoliberal authoritarianism which, over the
second half of the 20th century, curtailed the growth for left and
progressive politics, while the ability to protest became increasingly
limited. During this period, capitalist states reduced their role in
any degree of wealth redistribution and enhanced their
repressive apparatuses. 

Right-wing populist and authoritarian movements arose in different
countries in very different ways. In the United States, their rise
preceded the emergence of neoliberalism as a growing, reactionary
response to the progressive social movements of the 1930s and
following decades. This later combined with the rise of neoliberalism
in the 1970s and the stagnation of living standard for the average
working person. 

Neoliberalism also brought with it increased wealth polarization and,
therefore, panic within the middle strata of society resulting in the
classic dilemma for the middle strata: were they going to be crushed
between the rich and the poor or was there another solution?

Neofascism (or ​“postfascism”) has emerged as an outgrowth of
loosely entwined right-wing populist movements. In some cases,
neofascism arose through a revolt against the impact of
neoliberalism, and in other cases as revolt against the welfare state.
In either case, what has come to unite these various movements has
been _revanchism,_ i.e., the politics of revenge and resentment by
those who believe something has been taken from them by the
​“other.”

It is here that race, sex, gender and religion become critical
categories for identifying scapegoats. Revanchism has been accompanied
by the politics of the mythical return to a better time — a
time that allegedly existed where everyone knew their place in society
and ​“we” all lived comfortable lives.

The modern trade union movement arrived at a detente with the
dominant sections of capital in most countries following World War II.
This does not mean there was an absence or abandonment of class
struggle, however, rather that class struggle shifted in form. In many
cases it shifted to other-than-union working class organizations, or
it took the form of struggles by segments of the working
class — women, migrants, workers of color — resisting
various forms of systemic economic and non-economic oppression.

Whether through co-determination, tripartism, or industry agreements,
the leadership of much of organized labor in the United States
concluded that ​“peace in our time” had arrived, despite the
fact that the larger working class, particularly among marginalized
populations — frequently lacking collective organization and the
right to freely organize, protest or bargain — were experiencing
the underside of this brokered peace between the labor movement
and capital.

NATIONALISM MEETS REVANCHISM

Up until about a decade ago, trade union movements in the advanced
capitalist world largely downplayed the significance of the rising
right-wing populist and neofascist movements. To the extent to which
it was acknowledged, there was a tendency to treat the question of
right-wing authoritarianism as a marginal movement. In the 1980s, the
National Education Association took steps to educate its members about
the dangers of white supremacists and other right-wing authoritarian
formations which had become very active in the Midwest and North West.
Among the larger trade union movement, such actions were the
exception, not the rule. 

Neofascists claim to be in opposition to ​“globalism,” whereas
much of the established trade union movement often seems to have
accommodated itself to neoliberal globalization, even when unions are
critical of certain elements of neoliberalism. For the far right,
globalism is only partly about the globalization of capitalism, but
more commonly refers to the migrant surge of the last 40 years,
relocation of jobs overseas and what is seen as the disappearance of
borders. Globalism, for those on the far right, is about the breakdown
in parochial ways of thinking and acting. As a result, nationalism
becomes the flag to protect not the nation state, but the old
ways — traditional values. Nationalism becomes linked with
revanchism and the idea that these old ways of doing things have been
threatened and the possibility for a good life has been taken away
from the average person.

To the extent organized labor failed to pay attention to shifts in the
methods of work and in the workforce itself — and particularly
the growth of casualization and the informal economy — it
appeared to its critics to be a movement for an ​“elite,”
though it is highly unlikely that most trade union members would think
of themselves as such.

Despite electoral-political engagement by trade unions, there has been
a stark reluctance by most union leaders and leadership bodies in the
United States to explicitly name the fascist threat, or the broader
threat posed by right-wing authoritarianism. This aversion must be
situated in the context of the chronic illness that has befallen the
U.S. trade union movement — and, for that matter, many other
trade union movements in the advanced capitalist world.

This illness amounts to a decline in the face of the neoliberal
offensive and a failure to accept that the terms of the post-World
War II labor/​capital truce no longer hold. In fact, unions in both
the public and private sectors are currently being obliterated by more
politically-reactionary segments of capital. Rather than pushing the
limits on democratic capitalism, the trade union movements have up to
this point largely accommodated themselves to defeat, albeit
a slow-moving defeat. 

Neofascism sees the trade union movement as its enemy while at the
same time trying to appeal to the working class who make up labor’s
membership.

With the rise of right-wing populism and neofascism, the crisis has
become acute. Neofascism sees the trade union movement as its enemy
while at the same time trying to appeal to the working class who make
up labor’s membership. However, to win over this base, the far right
is harkening back to previous pseudo pro-worker appeals by embracing
racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic politics that can present as
being in the interest of everyday working people.

TOWARD AN ANTIFASCIST LABOR MOVEMENT

The response of the global trade union movement to these efforts has
been uneven at best. On the one hand, an international alliance of
antifascist unions
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was established through the work of Italy’s Confederazione Generale
Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL, the left-wing trade union confederation).
Similarly, a 2022 report commissioned by the German trade union
movement, the Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB), indicated that there
has been a high level of educational work conducted by European labor
federations and confederations to raise awareness regarding the threat
from the far right. These are promising efforts, but don’t yet
amount to large-scale active campaigns conducted against the far right
(whether in the workplace or communities) as well as campaigns against
forms of discrimination and oppression that are often exploited by
these same forces.

In the United States, efforts have been equally uneven. Until very
recently, almost no anti-far right educational efforts were being
conducted within the union movement. Though there have been some
educational programs that have focused on racism and sexism, even
those are more often than not very incomplete. The reluctance to touch
on matters that most union leaders perceive to be ​“divisive”
has repeatedly led to a retreat into the focus on the
economic — including militant economic rhetoric and
struggles — as if that will serve as the unifying force of union
members. Despite decades of efforts in that direction, when facing
down a far-right threat, they rarely succeed.

At the same time, principally in response to President Donald
Trump’s second administration, resistance efforts have been taking
place. In the federal sector, rank and file union members led by
progressive local union leaders established the Federal Unionist
Network (FUN) as a means of coordinating fight-back efforts to the
attacks on federal sector workers by the Trump administration. This
has been especially important in light of the anemic state of most
federal sector unions.

Recently, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) displayed
great courage when one of its key leaders in California was assaulted
and arrested during a protest against Immigration and Custom
Enforcement (ICE) raids and kidnapping of immigrants. SEIU and other
unions mobilized their members, and those of other unions, to demand
their leaders release and to oppose the ICE raids.

The Chicago Teachers Union, along with other local unions, helped
organize nationwide May Day protests this year and is seeking to build
continued protests against anti-worker, anti-democratic practices by
the Trump administration. And, in higher education, the American
Association of University Professors, the American Federation of
Teachers and the National Education Association have all engaged in
active protests and other mobilizations.

Yet, with the exception of Standing for Democracy
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and mobilization group, and the recently-founded group Labor for
Democracy [[link removed]], there have been
limited efforts to contextualize the current attacks in light of the
growth of a mass fascist movement. In that sense, much of the current
resistance work, as powerful and as essential as it is, misses the
point that these are not normal circumstances. These are not fights
against the expected assaults by conservative, neoliberal forces. The
trade union movement is in a fight for its very existence, and for
the existence of even a semblance of democracy and economic justice.

Throughout modern history, in U.S. trade union circles, it has been
suggested that building a militant struggle for economic justice will
unite workers and defeat the far right. Yet the fact remains that the
trade union movements in Italy in the 1920s and Germany in the early
1930s attempted just that course and were met with disastrous
political results.

There is no room for silence or middle ground. Trade unionism must
either be anti-fascist, or it will be nothing at all.

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Bill Fletcher, Jr. [[link removed]]
is a talk show host, writer, activist, and trade unionist. _The Man
Who Changed Colors_ is his latest novel. His first novel is _The Man
Who Fell From the Sky_. He is also co-author (with Fernando Gapasin)
of _Solitary Divided_, and the author of _​“They’re Bankrupting
Us” — Twenty Other Myths about Unions._ You can follow him on
Twitter, Facebook and at www​.bill​fletcher​jr​.com.

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Reprinted with permission from In These Times. All rights reserved.
 
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