Credit: Betto Rodrigues
In a recent national discussion about America’s deepening political crisis, organizers from across the country raised the same alarm. Grassroots activists, health care workers and church leaders tell them that America’s poorest people are being crushed by job losses, racism and shrinking social protections. In fact, an economic revolution is underway, driven by technology replacing jobs on an escalating scale. This creates a crisis and an opportunity. The crisis is that it is being opportunistically politicized by MAGA/billionaire forces, in what many call “a drive toward fascism.”
The opportunity is that millions are mobilizing against both these economic and political threats. Participants identified two main groups in this fight. “There are people who’ve been relatively economically secure – government workers, doctors, scientists, nurses who are losing jobs to AI or through political purges,” said registered nurse Rita Valenti from Georgia. “Then there are those who have lived in crisis for a long time, who are disproportionately Black, immigrant and Indigenous.”
Many believe the administration has little interest in governing. Its real goals, they said, are control over people and wealth. “If you can’t produce for ‘massa,’ they have little use for you,” said Maureen Taylor, Detroit resident and State Chair of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization. She sent an October 22 gathering of respected activists a warning that the federal government had announced:
- Some housing subsidies will be interrupted starting in November.
- Food Stamps will be delayed, with no date specified for their return.
- Monthly Medicaid premium costs may double or triple in November.
These political changes reflect deeper shifts in the economy. In the past, America’s ruling class expanded industry while keeping workers divided. White skilled workers received better pay and housing, while Black and poor workers faced low wages and police violence. Now, as digital technology replaces more jobs, people are beginning to see who their real enemies are.
CONNECTING SEPARATE STRUGGLES
People are having to fight in new ways. Many are linking their struggles instead of treating them as separate issues. In New Orleans, at the 20th anniversary commemoration of Hurricane Katrina, the capitalist roots of climate change, mass incarceration, detentions and eugenics in public health were laid bare.
From the South to the Midwest, anger is spreading. “There’s shock that these bastards are stealing money from the poor for the one percent,” said Ethel Long-Scott, revolutionary leader against poverty and for human rights from California. She added that people are trying to unite – “disabled people and care providers, for example.” Still, many fights remain defensive, pushing back against harm, but not yet questioning the system itself.
Even professional workers laid off from government agencies “aren’t yet making the connection to the class nature” of what’s happening, one speaker said. Many still rely on the Democratic Party, though “some here aren’t confident there’ll even be elections.” Revolutionaries who join these fights can help others see that only a united working class can defeat fascism.
New alliances are forming, but old divisions remain. “Some folks here said we need immigrants put out to save jobs of Black people,” reported Maureen Taylor. Others described similar tensions. Yet job losses, Medicaid cuts and automation hit people across color lines. “Federal workers being laid off or fired by the millions have the same class enemy as those who are threatening to withhold Food Stamps from 42 million recipients. I watched a TSA worker on TV explain that after he leaves that stressful job without pay, he drives for DoorDash® to pay for his daughter’s schooling.”
Government violence against immigrants could soon be turned against striking unions, but many labor leaders still act “as if the old social contract still exists,” she said. “This economic fascism is meant to burn that away.” In contrast, the Federal Unionists Network has gone beyond workplace organizing to call on a united resistance against GOP budget cuts, mobilizing a convergence of federal workers with broader urban working-class movements.
“The attacks have a straight-up white supremacy,” said a Georgia activist. “The violence was always under the surface – now it has permission to be out there.” She recalled how their governor’s campaign showed him “in a truck with a shotgun,” promising to chase immigrants out. Yet immigrant communities are responding with courage and creativity. Across the country, they are building “sophisticated mutual aid hubs” to survive growing hostility.
Ethel Long-Scott pointed out the need to move from defensive fights to transformative strategies and demands, such as the new popular movement that is fighting to ensure affordability and meeting basic needs by calling on cities to use “public wealth” for public good. Examples are:
- Chicago proposals for Green Social Housing, “Bring Chicago Home” revenue proposals and “Cut the Tape” development initiatives;
- New York activists’ promotion of city-run grocery stores, fare-free transit, municipal provision of basic needs, free childcare;
- Oakland proposals for self-governed shelters, community land trusts, housing cooperatives, sweat equity model.
UNITY AGAINST A SYSTEM
Faith leaders are stepping forward, too. Some have joined demonstrations and defended immigrants from state violence. A Detroit participant said her pastor even felt frustrated after not being arrested at a protest. “They ask, ‘What the hell are we going to do about this fascism?’ – in those words,” she said.
Courts have become both battlegrounds and barriers. Some local judges have challenged parts of the Trump agenda. Yet “lower courts are also stripping Medicare funding from the poor,” one participant said. Meanwhile, “The Supreme Court are MAGA enablers.”
Participants agreed on one lesson: people must build their own power. “In 2005 during Katrina, it became clear – no one’s coming to save us,” said a Southern organizer. Unity of our working class is vital to saving ourselves and our planet.
Despite fatigue and fear, hope remains. “The future is up to us,” one leader said. The challenge now is deciding what real political unity looks like, especially when disagreements run deep. And as people see that capitalism is the problem, not the solution, they face a new question: “What kind of system can meet basic needs sustainably?”
Revolutionaries can use each battle as “schools for revolution,” building working-class unity deliberately, step by step. Part of that is using all available means and media to crush ruling class messaging while building collective strategies. Another important part is offering a vision of hope and concrete accomplishments, to counteract discouragement and despair.
Across the country, more Americans are reaching the same conclusion: survival – and justice – depend on acting together as a class.
Published on November 4, 2025
This article originated in Rally!
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