https://vimeo.com/434077922 If Trump wins, he will be convinced that he has a mandate for authoritarianism and further irrationalism; trade unions must become organizations of the class, not just cheerleaders of the Democratic Party. Bill Fletcher joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news podcast. Transcript Paul JayHi, I'm Paul Jay and welcome to theAnalysis.news podcast. A convergence of events, including the murder of George Floyd, the pandemic, and a deep economic crisis has produced a rebellion in the streets and a shift in public opinion that wasn't expected even just a few months ago. This mass movement is taking place in the run up to a November presidential election, an election that many consider one of the most important in American history. Now joining us to discuss the movement and how to sustain the movement and build into a more transformative motion and what that means to be in the context of a presidential election, what it means for the movement, is Bill Fletcher Junior. Bill's been an activist since he was a teenager from graduating from college. He went to work as a welder in a shipyard. He's worked for several labor unions. In addition to serving as a senior staff person in the national AFL-CIO, Fletcher is the co-author of Solidarity Divided The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path towards Social Justice, and he's the author of, They're Bankrupting the US and 20 Other Myths About Unions. Thanks for joining us, Bill. Bill FletcherPleasure, Paul. Thank you very much for inviting me. Paul JaySo the movement faces some challenges or obstructions, even you could say, both from the right, meaning Trump and kind of strengthening of a police state and law and order society, but also from the exert leadership of the Democratic Party, which traditionally and now would like to merge the movement that's taking place into simply an arm of the Biden election campaign. On the other hand, it's not like the results of this election don't matter to the movement. So it's a complicated moment for activists and the people involved in trying to organize and lead. What do you see as sort of the main challenges and how is the movement dealing with them? Bill FletcherWell, you know, it's interesting, Paul. I was thinking about your introduction and for the last several election cycles, people. Have frequently said this is the most important election of your life, whatever that election cycle was and. I started feeling like it was the boy who cried wolf. But what I realized is that what's been happening is that the polarization in US electoral politics has been sharpening with each election cycle. And it's brought us to this point where this particular election. I do believe is one the most important in U.S. history because if Trump wins, I truly believe that he will be convinced that he has a mandate for authoritarianism and further irrationalism. And even if he doesn't win. I'm very worried about the kind of provocativeness that he's engaged around with, the right-wing, neo-fascist wing. So this is a very deadly moment. Now, the Sanders campaign, the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders, was obviously of great significance and then came in for a landing for two reasons. One was he was outflanked by Biden, who had a Southern strategy, and Bernie didn't, in my opinion, and then the COVID crisis. And in the aftermath of Sanders suspending his campaign, a significant minority within his campaign announced that they weren't going to be participating in the election by voting for Biden, Biden was the nominee, and I think that one of the things that this reflected was a misunderstanding of what's ...
No transcript available.
POWERED BY BLUBRRY
