And what we can do about it
There has been some saber rattling from the Trump administration recently about potentially doing to large cities like Boston what it’s already done to LA and DC: pushing the boundaries of executive authority to send the National Guard and the military into Democratic Party controlled metropolises over what amounts to a series of reactionary fever dreams.
Will it happen here? Hard to say. But such quasi-legal armed occupations are clearly aimed at rallying President Donald Trump’s core white working- and middle-class suburban base by attacking cities … a base that his administration is trying to distract from the very real negative effects of massive cuts to Medicaid and a host of other vital programs triggered by the passage of the “big, beautiful” law this summer.
As Boston Mayor Michelle Wu aptly pointed out in a recent interview on GBH’s Boston Public Radio: “‘The constant push that cities are dangerous, cities are, you know, unclean, cities are horrible places because people who look different from each other and might hail from different countries of origin at whatever point in their family tree . . . Because that’s not true in reality, because we don’t have real proof that we can point to that narrative that enables us to sort of lord it over them, we’re going to try to create that by causing some kind of confrontation.’”
But it’s more than that. Every policy initiative coming out of the Trump administration is aimed squarely at destroying any part of government that helps working people, the vast majority of the US population, in any way and keeping the parts of government that provide more money and power to American corporations and the tiny minority of rich people that control them.
True, the Democrats have also pushed an agenda that benefits corporations far more than working people in the last few decades, but they’re not as feral as the current crop of Republicans—who have put our nation on an even faster track than the Dems to return us to the robber baron politics of the late 1800s, in which the rich have all the money and power and everyone else has precious little of either.
And in the cities like Boston and states like Massachusetts that the Dems control, the situation for working people—citizens and immigrants alike—is still somewhat better than it is in many Republican-controlled areas. Which isn’t saying much, but let’s at least keep it that way for the rest of the second Trump presidency. Then let’s aim higher than the 1960s apex of American social democracy when things were pretty good for most white workers, but still terrible for most workers of color. Let’s fight for a decent life for everyone this time out.
As Labor Day approaches, then, it’s important to remember a couple of things: First, we have some pro-worker reforms (like an almost-adequate minimum wage and better-than-nothing state health care program) worth defending in the Bay State. Second, and more importantly, the robber baron era led directly to the massive and repeated democratic upheavals involving millions of Americans and then-recent immigrants like my own family. Which in turn fueled pro-worker reforms from the Progressive Era through to the New Deal that mass organizations like labor unions into major political players for decades post-World War II. If people back then could organize to improve their own lot in even tougher conditions, then so can we.
Thus, if you’re looking for things you can do to blunt the Trump administration’s threats to Boston and Massachusetts, here are a few suggestions based on the actions of the social movements responsible for Labor Day becoming a federal holiday (directly after the huge Pullman Strike) in 1894:
- Protest
As someone who spent decades helping organize grassroots political actions of all descriptions, I know that protests can often seem futile. Nevertheless, they are one important arrow in the quiver of working people seeking political redress. And we only keep our Constitutionally-guaranteed First Amendment right to protest by doing it regularly. When protests are timely enough and large enough and well organized enough, they can change the game politically. Making me think that if the Trump administration sends troops to Boston, the best thing readers can do is leave your workplaces, schools, and homes and get into the streets to demand they leave … daily until they do.
- Build mass organizations in support of democracy
Whether you’re in the workplace, at school, or at a religious institution, starting or joining clubs, associations, and unions that discuss the importance of democracy to a free society and take political action in its defense when appropriate is a great thing to do. If these groups, particularly old and new labor unions, grow large enough then it will become possible to call general strikes—the most powerful political tactic in the hands of working people in which millions of us literally shut everything down until our key demands are met. A subject I wrote about earlier this year.
- Work hard to make connections between the cities and the suburbs
This is something that wasn’t necessary in the late 1800s, but is critical for new popular movements of today to take seriously. Authoritarians like President Trump always strive to divide and conquer groups of people that could stop them if they united. That’s definitely happening right now; so figure out ways to encourage solidarity between working people in the burbs and working people in the cities. Which will help stop tactics like sending troops into cities to sow division between natural allies in their tracks.
- Engage in formal political organizing to help put power in working people’s hands … where it belongs in a true democracy
A. If you’re a Democrat, push the Democratic Party to serve working people rather than the rich. Though it may seem useless to try, recognize that politicians always respond to sufficiently strong stimuli and those protests you’re doing can be a good one, depending on what they are asking for. Demand the Dems serve the people rather than elites and agree to win real reforms like raising the national minimum wage and instituting Medicare for All, if you help them get back into power at the federal level.
B. If you’re in an existing pro-worker third party, build that. If nothing else it puts more pressure on the Dems to improve. And if it has game, it might become a major party one day that’s far better than the existing ones.
C. Unsatisfied with the options on offer? Start a new political party for working people and build that. Maybe it will catch on in ways other third parties have not. I recommend focusing its political strategy on the kind of “minimum program” of very bread-and-butter reforms that I called for in a column last spring.
Mull all this over while celebrating Labor Day this Monday, but don’t forget to celebrate May Day, May 1, the original workers’ holiday—the one that really scares the wannabe aristos—when it rolls around. Both are as American as apple pie, too, and great days for big protests for democracy and big parties!
Apparent Horizon—an award-winning political column—is syndicated by the MassWire news service of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism.