APL on 2021: With Paralysis at the Top, Working Class Movements Rising to the Task

The American Party  of Labor wishes a happy end of the year to all working class and oppressed people in the United States and around the world, and a happy celebration of all religious and secular holidays marked at this time of year. At the end of this tumultuous year of struggle, we bring attention to those who have lost their lives to the virus and whose families, friends, and co-workers all feel the profound void in their celebrations left by those lost to government mismanagement, for-profit healthcare, and the inability of the Democrats to pass any legislation to help working people . We offer our solidarity too to those workers who continue to work and receive no break during “peak season” when the ruling and middle classes rely on the working class to deliver their items, cook their food, and otherwise furnish their holiday. For those of us who work for a living, and have student loans—and other debts—the rise of the omicron variant represents yet another challenge, this time with the hope of government assistance fading or lapsing. Women and the LGBTQIA+ community have also come under substantial legal attack through bills proposed in Republican-controlled states. Roe v. Wade and the basic legal rights of LGBTQIA+ people are under deliberate attack. Make no mistake, these bills are an assault  on the basic principles of a just society—the equality of all people, and their right to pursue their life as they wish.

This new year, let’s continue to organize with like-minded forces for peace and democracy, and build an internationalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-fascist working class alternative across the country, in our hometowns.

Facing these challenges, the people of the United States have received no meaningful changes or initiative from the Biden administration. Every progressive demand, the demands that got Biden elected, and made him the most voted-for presidential candidate ever, from environmental reforms to relieving student debt, has been rolled back and lost, once again, in congressional “compromise.” The hope of electoral, incremental changes has never been dimmer, as congress stands paralyzed and divided rigidly down party lines. 

At the turning of this year, though, we also remember the tremendous struggles and victories achieved in 2021 across the country, particularly in the organized labor movement and the movement for police accountability. This has been a year unlike any in recent memory for workers’ organizations. Workers at Starbucks, one of the largest employers in the US, have begun talking about unionizing after the torch-bearing vote to unionize in Buffalo, New York. Workers at Kelloggs effectively countered streak-breaking tactics and won victories for part and full-time workers in their new contract. Workers at several Amazon facilities continue to struggle to unionize, and another vote has been called in Bessemer, Alabama due to illegal corporate meddling in the original election. This year also saw the murderers of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery charged and convicted after the mass movement in the summer of 2020. The Rittenhouse ruling, on the other hand, shows the need to continue building our movement for working-class solidarity against right-wing terrorism and violence. 

Looking back on this year, and considering the next, we as working people face unprecedented challenges, from the workplace to our own bodies, but see in those challenges avenues through which we can take back control of our lives. This new year, let’s continue to organize with like-minded forces for peace and democracy, and build an internationalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-fascist working class alternative across the country, in our hometowns.