Labor Must Take the Lead in Building an Anti-Monopoly Coalition

US society is at a critical crossroads. The path society takes can lead the country into a stronger democracy that allocates its resources for the good of humanity over the profits of private monopolies. Conversely, society can also move further towards fascism, where democracy is at best an empty word and where the working class can barely afford to survive. The direction society takes is largely dependent on the will of its constituents. Suppose we as a country choose democracy and prosperity. In that case, we need to form a multi-fronted force that struggles for political independence from the monopolies: big business, banks, and Wall Street. This force will be referred to as the Anti-Monopoly Coalition.

Labor, and in particular, a class-oriented trade union movement, has a crucial role to play within this Anti-Monopoly Coalition. Labor is to be the heart of this coalition. While the coalition is to unify all progressive and democratic forces (such as workers, students, urban professionals, farmers, small-business owners, etc.), the working class is the force that has the power, if leveraged correctly, to bring the economy to a halt until its demands are met. The workers control the production, the shipment, and even the commerce of goods. The bosses and monopolies that dictate policies to society are the ones who rely on the working class the most.

For labor to play the leading role in the Anti-Monopoly Coalition, it first has to work tirelessly to bring unity to the trade union movement. Concretely, this effort will have the following immediate goals:

1. Ending any prejudices within the unions, such as racism, sexism, and anti-immigrant sentiments, breaks up solidarity and even prevents entry to the organized labor movement by key sections of labor.
2. Organizing the unorganized to bring unity between unionized and non-unionized labor.
3. Pushing for a nationwide right to organize and against any attempts at systematic opening of shops, such as so-called “right to work” laws.
4. Amalgamating small craft unions into unions on industrial lines.
5. Pushing to overturn laws, such as the Taft-Hartley Act, which restrict solidarity strikes.
6. Forming caucuses within unions that struggle for trade union democracy, as the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) is working on.

As the Anti-Monopoly Coalition emerges, organized and militant labor must be ready to take leadership. To ensure success, labor has to work on the above goals. In working on these goals, militant labor leaders will inevitably clash with the bosses’ agents and reactionary trade union leaders within the unions that obstruct the independent political action of labor.

To learn more, join the Harry Bridges School of Labor class on July 2, 2025, called Labor and the Anti-Monopoly Coalition.