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Jared Abbott is a researcher at the Center for Working-Class Politics and a contributor to Jacobin and Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy.
The evidence is overwhelming: workers are abandoning the Democrats and center-left parties around the world. Class dealignment is radically changing politics, and the Left needs a program to win the working class.
The New York Times’ David Leonhardt has written a compelling overview of the improbable rise and spectacular fall of the New Deal order. But he understates the difficulty in reviving a form of American social democracy.
A new study examines the Democratic rhetorical and campaigning failures that may help Republicans entrench their position as the new party of the American working class.
It’s tempting to see America’s declining religiosity as nothing but good news for the Democrats. The real picture is more complicated.
A new study clearly shows that Democratic candidates aren’t embracing progressive economic demands. Is it any wonder why more and more working-class people are tuning these politicians out?
Class dealignment posits that Democrats have been losing working-class voters in favor of middle- and upper-class voters. Is this actually happening? And to what extent is it a problem?
Lainey Newman and Theda Skocpol’s Rust Belt Union Blues makes a compelling case that left-wing success in the rust belt depends on reviving the presence and stature of unions — and the sense of social connection they offer — in local communities.
The impact of UN sanctions on Iraq has been difficult to quantify — and that’s part of the problem.
Conspiracy theories are common and dangerous, but they probably can’t explain why Americans don’t trust the government.
It’s clear that the GOP is capturing new parts of the working class. It’ll take credible appeals to workers’ frustrations and economic interests to win them back.
Across the world, inflation doesn’t necessarily stop the Left from winning elections, but it severely limits what leftists can do once in office.
Everyone on the Left wants a more coherent, effective movement. But we’ll get there by devising creative new strategies for building our working-class base, not by launching yet another national progressive organization.
Reinvigorating class-based politics in the US depends on more than inspiring candidates like Bernie Sanders: it requires durable working-class political organization. Here’s what one group learned about organizing working people around bread-and-butter issues.
Why the United States spends so much but gets so little public transit.
Progressives write off Republican-leaning counties across America to their own detriment. With working-class candidates, populist messaging, and effective organization, we can make major inroads in “Trump country” that will pay dividends for years to come.
Without a radical change in its relationship to working-class voters, the Democratic Party is hurtling toward doom.
To win universal social programs and pro-working-class politics in America, the Left needs to win outside of traditional Democratic strongholds. And that means having the message and organizing that can capture the attention of millions.
The Democrats managed to win last November’s presidential election, but what about the next one? Given the party’s dependence on white suburban voters and the threat of resurgent Trumpism, they will most likely double down on their risk-averse 2020 strategy. That will only mean inviting further working-class defections.
After Bernie Sanders, democratic socialists in America face a vital strategic dilemma. Do we go the Justice Democrats route of winning gains as the junior partner in a progressive coalition, or do we take a gamble on more independent class organization and struggle?
If we’re going to change the United States, socialists will have to win the working class. And we urgently need a strategy and an organization to do just that.