Building Workers Strike Back in Your Area!
Trump and his billionaire-filled administration have carried out unprecedented attacks on working people, unions, immigrants, and the antiwar movement. At the same time, Democrats and Republicans are carrying out vicious budget cuts in cities and states across the nation.
Sixty percent of Americans think Trump is out of touch with the concerns of ordinary people. A majority are now either afraid or pessimistic about the rest of Trump’s term in the White House. But working people correctly understand that the Democratic Party also represents the rich and will not fight Trump — 69 percent say the Democratic Party is also out of touch with working people’s needs.
Clearly, millions of working and young people are hungry to fight for a different society. There has never been a bigger opportunity in our lifetimes to build a working-class fightback. We need an offensive, fighting strategy to defeat the attacks from Trump, the Republicans, and the Democrats. And we need to go on the offensive to win historic victories like free public healthcare funded by taxing the rich, a $25/hour minimum wage, and unionizing corporate behemoths like Amazon.
Unfortunately, this fighting strategy is not coming from the labor leadership, most of whom follow a business unionist approach of seeking peace with the bosses rather than going to battle with them. Business unionism has also meant that labor leaders are completely tied to the Democratic and Republican Parties — the parties of the bosses.
This is exactly why we have launched Workers Strike Back, based on the fighting strategy used successfully to win historic victories through socialist Seattle City Councilmember (and Workers Strike Back co-founder) Kshama Sawant’s ten years in office.
We need to urgently build Workers Strike Back across the nation. Our work building Workers Strike Back in our local areas also needs to be connected politically with our national objectives of building fighting movements to win ambitious victories!
The first thing groups should do in a new area is organize a watch party for our monthly WSB national zoom meetings. This can help you become integrated into our national movement.
In the month of May, we’re building towards the May 31st National Day of Action using the “Free Public Healthcare - Tax the Rich!” petition.
If you are excited to start building Workers Strike Back in your area, read on and contact organizers at solidarity@workersstrikeback.org to help you get started!
1. Host a Watch Party for the Monthly WSB Zoom Meeting!
Organizing a watch party for our monthly national Zoom meetings is one of the most important ways to build Workers Strike Back in your area.
These meetings are opportunities for members to actively discuss the most effective strategy to build our movement, ask questions, and prepare for key battles ahead.
Watch parties help connect new people who are interested in learning more about WSB’s approach to fighting both parties and the billionaires, and they play an important role in building our cohesion and collective strength as a national organization.
Hosting a watch party can help bring together a core of people to build support for our campaigns, table with our petitions, and politically develop members so they can build WSB on the strongest political basis. These meetings are an important way to raise the political level of our local work and to learn how to most effectively put our fighting strategy into action.
People have organized watch parties across the country, including in places like Peoria, Ann Arbor, Olympia, Everett, and more. To get started planning your watch party, email solidarity@workersstrikeback.org and let us know you’re planning to host in your area. We can help you plan and provide political support. Find a space with a reliable internet connection to host your watch party. Libraries, community centers, and college campuses often have free or low-cost meeting rooms.
Talk to people in your area about how we need to go on the offensive to build a movement to tax the rich to fund the things working people need. Let them know you’re building Workers Strike Back in your area and our fight for free public healthcare. Invite them to join you at the watch party on June 1 to talk about how when we fight—we can win.
Examples of our past monthly meetings
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March Meeting in Ann Arbor
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May Day in Kansas City
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March Meeting in Peoria
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April Meeting in Boston
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December Meeting in Seattle
2. Table With a Petition!
One of the best ways of building Workers Strike Back, and meeting people who will be excited by our work and join us, is to have a political table weekly. Pick a location with plenty of foot traffic of working-class and young people, such as a popular grocery store or transit stop.
We are starting to use the “Free Public Healthcare - Tax the Rich!” petition nationally this year. We have already begun testing it in Seattle, Boston, and in other areas, and the initial feedback from working people already confirms that this is an electrifying demand. Furthermore, we are also seeing that the frustration over the Democrats failing to fight for it is a compelling point. People understand that if we are going to win free healthcare, we will have to fight for it independently of the Democrats. Independent ballot initiative campaigns can be a way to make a breakthrough.
This fighting strategy can have a powerful national appeal.
3. Phonebank for National Campaigns
In May, our main priority will be tabling and phonebanking to build for the May 31st National Day of Action for Medicare for All.
This day of action has been announced by organizations such as National Single Payer, Physicians for a National Health Plan, and other progressive organizations, and we’ve been invited to join them.
Stay tuned for upcoming dates in May to help phonebank!
Bring a resolution for a vote in your union local
Argue for a Fighting Strategy in Your Union’s Contract Battle
Fight the Budget Cuts!
If you are in a Union..
We plan to have a draft resolution for union members to bring to their locals, which will call for endorsing universal public healthcare in general, and the May 31st event in particular, including a call for the leadership to mobilize rank-and-file members to the day of action.
Reach out to solidarity@workersstrikeback.org for help!
As we voted on at our WSB national convention, we are a national movement, not a loose association of chapters. WSB members everywhere should be connected to the national objectives of WSB. We want to learn from our collective experience of how to most effectively use a petition, to table on a street corner or at an event, or how to organize a fighting public comment to the local city council on key issues. We need to all learn how to bring a resolution in our local unions, how to join any union workers who are on strike, and how to talk about Workers Strike Back on their picket line.
We are working on written guides for each of these areas of work, and will put it up on the website as each one is finalized. We will also be doing On Strike episodes on building Workers Strike Back nationally.
All of these general politically educating lessons can concretely be put to use throughout this year to use the healthcare petition and other campaigning to both get new people involved in WSB and to build the political strengths of WSB members.