Bill Fletcher Jr is a longtime trade unionist, writer, and former president of TransAfrica Forum.
The late AFL-CIO leader John Sweeney was an admirable figure who had a vision for reinvigorated US labor unions. But he only tried to reform a union movement that needed a more fundamental refoundation.
The Black Lives Matter protests have had an electrifying impact. To build on that momentum, we need to forge strategic unity between different struggles against oppression, in the US and the wider world.
Bernie Sanders is a boon to progressive politics. But we need a movement that rebuilds the networks and organizations of the Left.
The recent killing of two New York City police officers can’t be allowed to silence the movement against police brutality.
Liberals write off the South, but no justice can be achieved in the United States without progressive movements winning there.
The Left needs a more coherent vision for its work inside the labor movement.
The struggle for structural reforms is essential to changing the “common sense” of the US political arena. But it is not enough to wound the rabid beast; one must ultimately bring it down.