Building Real Democracy Starts on the Shop Floor

The fight for democracy in America didn’t begin, or end, at the ballot box. As labor organizer Erica Smiley, executive director of Jobs With Justice and co-author of The Future We Need: Organizing for a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century, reminds us, our democracy has always been "in training," a work in progress shaped as much by picket lines as polling places.

"Unions are schools for democracy," Smiley explains. In workplaces where people of all backgrounds must build consensus and fight for fair contracts, we learn the skills that sustain a pluralistic society. It's no surprise, then, that authoritarian movements often begin by attacking labor rights and education, because that’s where people learn to resist.

From union-busting in the U.S. to neoliberal trade policies abroad, the erosion of collective bargaining has left millions disenfranchised not just politically, but economically.

And that’s not just bad for workers: it’s fatal for democracy itself.

If we want to rebuild democracy, we can’t just “vote harder.” We need to organize smarter. That means backing unions, pushing for economic policies that distribute power, and demanding that corporations, especially those exploiting AI and automation, share the wealth they’re extracting from human labor.

As Smiley says, “Whoever’s in the White House, they still need us to make the cars.” That power can’t be ignored, unless we choose not to use it.

We may not know what the next 15 years will bring. But if we organize now, we might just build a democracy worth fighting for.

The song you heard in this week’s Gaslit Nation is “This Time” by Howard Jeffrey. Check out his music here: https://howardjeffrey.bandcamp.com/track/this-time. If you have a song to share on our show, submit your music to us at Gaslit Nation – we love hearing from you!: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1-d_DWNnDQFYUMXueYcX5ZVsA5t2RN09N8PYUQQ8koq0/edit?ts=5fee07f6&gxids=7628

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EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION:

• August 25 4pm ET – Join the Gaslit Nation Book Club for a powerful discussion on The Lives of Others and I’m Still Here, two films that explore how art and love endure and resist in the face of dictatorship.

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