Marble Falls        Workers and their unions are caught in a bind in many countries around the world.  The right, whether in the UK, USA, France, and many other countries has gained ground among working families that were the backbone of left-progressive political formations.  Trump and other so-called populists have eroded worker support and left union leaders caught between a rock and a hard place.  In the US that means problems for the Democrats, in the UK, it means headaches for the Labour Party, in France, the Socialists have just about been driven off the ballot nationally, and so it goes in many countries.  Populists have won ground on cultural issues certainly, but they have also gained support for being willing to attack sacred cows, use social media aggressively and without restraint, tactically attacking first and looking later, and touting economic baubles for workers, even while larding breaks and advantages to the rich.

Tactically, it’s always easier to attack than defend, but left-progressive parties are also stuck with having neglected the primary base too long, or taken it for granted.  Too often rather than stepping forward on issues like worker and union protections and benefits, they have spent more time and energy trying to attract new sectors, assuming that their traditional base had nowhere else to go.  Now Democrats and Labour are paying the price in different ways.

In the UK, at the last count more than 700,000 people had signed up for a convention to start a new, more progressive party than Labour, ironically co-led by a former leader.  In France, La France Insoumise has become a strident voice for progressives.  In the US, unions are starting to be more pointed in their critique of the seeming “stand-pat, wait for the midterms” stance of the Democrats.  There’s no full-scale schism like in the UK, but barnstorming by Bernie Sanders and AOC that attracted huge crowds across the county had to be noticed.  The surprise primary victory of an avowed socialist in New York City has some of the old lions wringing their hands.

Interviews with union leaders are indicative of the problem.  It’s no secret that some want party leaders to take off the gloves and get into the ring faster and harder in order to keep their members with them.  The evidence of huge support for the Democratic Party among higher income, better educated, suburban constituencies is disconcerting to unions, and underlines policy problems that are no longer focuses on their dominant issues.  Other union leaders make the point that they can’t divine what the real program of the party is now.

There are stirrings here and there.  Some moderate Republicans talk about an alternative party that isn’t Trump-centric.  Old friends and comrades still are boosting other mechanisms to find a path whether its fusion or ranked choice voting, but finding it hard to get traction.

From the cheap seats, it seems to me if there’s no party that can legitimately claim allegiance and represent itself as a workers’ party, it’s only a matter of time before the fractures are so bad, they can’t be healed.  Who knows then where people will find a home, but the clock is ticking.