On December 4, just four weeks before the U.S. assault on Caracas, the Professional Staff Congress union of the City University of New York (PSC CUNY) approved a resolution opposing U.S aggression against Venezuela. In that resolution, passed by more than a hundred delegates from more than 26 different campuses, the PSC agreed that it would “oppose any U.S. military intervention, coercive action, or aggression against Venezuela and any regional expansion of the conflict.” More recently, On January 3, United Auto Workers 4811 (UAW 4811), which represents almost 50,000 workers at the University of California also issued a statement critical of Trump’s attacks on Venezuela, correctly describing how every dollar spent on regime change is a dollar that could have been spent on education.
These statements are a welcome development and yet another sign of the growing anger and rising resistance of the U.S. woking class, which has been catalyzed by the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter Movement, the brutal U.S.-supported genocide in Gaza, Trump’s authoritarian overreach at home, and now his attacks on Venezuela.
Unfortunately, despite the rising anger of millions of union members across the country, most unions and union leaders have remained silent on the question of U.S. foreign policy, and even those that have passed resolutions have largely failed to back them up with action. With the rare exception of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) — which shut down West Coast ports for George Floyd and has blocked the shipment of weapons to Israel — and UAW 4811 — which called a wildcat strike against the university’s crackdown on Pro-Palestine student protesters — labor has led not a single political strike in the United States in decades. Just as they did in 2003, in the lead up to the Iraq War, the majority of union leaders in the United States, including Shawn Fain and Sean O’Brien, leaders of two of the country’s largest unions, are looking the other way, pretending that what happens in Gaza and Venezuela has nothing to do with the conditions of labor at home.
But we know that’s a lie. We know that attacks on working people abroad are part of a larger assault on working people everywhere; we know that Gaza and Venezuela are training grounds for attacks on U.S. workers; and we know that every dollar spent on the imperialist war machine is a dollar taken from the mouths of the working class at home and around the world.
The media is already treating Trump’s outrageous assault on Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro as a fait accompli, as if there is nothing that can be done except sit back and watch the trial and intrigue unfold. But as his press conference on Saturday made clear, Trump believes he and his criminal gang of cabinet members and advisors are running Venezuela, and the U.S. military remains on high alert, prepared to unleash new levels of violence if Venezuela doesn’t comply with Trump’s demands to open the country up to U.S. capital. In other words, this is a conflict that is likely far from over. Just as the war in Afghanistan eventually spilled over into Iraq, Iran, and Libya, the attack on Venezuela may lead to increased conflict across Latin America and the entire world. While what happens next will have a lot to do with how the Venezuelan masses respond, the U.S. working class and organized labor also have the power to play a decisive role in this conflict. But this will require huge protests, demonstrations, and most importantly, massive labor strikes like those that shut down Italy and Spain, and which helped to end or curtail those countries’ military aid to Israel.
Putting their money where their mouth is, unions like the PSC-CUNY and UAW 4811, alongside the social movements, particularly the movement for Palestine, the Democratic Socialist of America, and labor activists and allies from unions across the country, must take action now to build a movement of labor against the war and against U.S. imperialism. Trump’s war is widely unpopular — almost 70 percent of Americans said they were opposed to attacking Venezuela — and a mass strike of millions of workers has the power to significantly weaken or even topple Trump’s government. Some might say such an action in the United States is unprecedented, but so was Trump’s tactical kidnapping and extradition of a sitting foreign leader. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, and strongly-worded denunciations, as important as they are, are not enough. Shawn Fain has already laid down plans for a general strike in 2028 that would put at the center important bread and butter demands from labor. But why not take action now for our siblings in Venezuela? If Trump gets to 2028 strengthened by triumphs abroad against the international working class, he will be in a better position to defeat us at home, with repression if necessary as he has already been doing with immigrants and pro-Palestine activists.
Even without a major strike, organized labor has the power to make a real impact, particularly in New York City where Maduro is currently being held. The Transit Workers Union (TWU), which runs the buses and trains, the PSC-CUNY and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), which run the schools, and the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and District 37 (DC37) workers who staff the offices, have the power to shut down the city if they wanted to. Even just a small portion of those hundreds of thousands of union members who are opposed to the war have the power to stage massive demonstrations, raising the spectre of a city-wide general strike, the likes of which could empower and embolden NYC labor for decades. The leaders of our unions will tell us that their hands are tied and that such actions are illegal. But there is no reason why we should settle for nothing but bureaucratic diplomacy and well-framed resolutions when we are literally the ones who make this city and this country run.
Whether it’s Democrats or Republicans, the powers that be like to keep us divided. They want us to focus exclusively on our own narrow interests. They want our horizon to extend no further than the next contract battle. They want us to donate, vote, speak out, and then go home, all so that we forget where our power as workers really comes from: our solidarity with each other. This is why the future of the labor movement must be anti-imperialist.
James Dennis Hoff is a writer, educator, labor activist, and member of Left Voice. He teaches at The City University of New York.