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.

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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 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, a newly formed strategy center and mobilization group, and the recently-founded group Labor for Democracy, 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.