From organizing to preserving the environment, progressive activists and politicians in the United States have been effective in their efforts to bring about change.
.jpg "How progressives are gaining ground in the United States") |
| [Progressive politics in USA] |
At first look, it is difficult to ignore the sense that the political landscape in the United States has swung to the right in recent years on a broad scale. Among the events that have occurred are the election of racist and sexist Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States in 2016, his refusal to concede defeat and the storming of the Capitol that he supported, and the transformation of the Republicans - one of the two major parties - into a support organization for all of this. These findings seem to provide credibility to the hypothesis. A distorted perspective, on the other hand, fails to see that there is also movement on the opposite side of the spectrum. In the United States, the power of leftist and progressive forces has steadily grown - a trend that has gone largely overlooked in Germany.
Uprising is a novel by Lukas Hermsmeier that was just released. These factors, which are also affecting politics in the White House and in Congress, are brought to light in America's New Left by author David Brooks. As a result, how did it come to pass that Joe Biden, the long-time mainstream Democrat, is suddenly announcing the end of the trickle-down economy and demanding that the richest and largest firms pay their fair amount of taxes and pay for their own benefits? A significant increase in state spending in infrastructure, social services, and education? "In the United States, a new type of transition has occurred, a cultural shift that has received less attention and whose implications are just now starting to be felt." Not only has the nation swung to the right, but it has also shifted to the left. "We are seeing an increase in polarization, which is especially worrisome for watchers from the center, but also should provide reason for optimism in a number of ways," says the author.
I, too, set out on a tour across the United States in order to come to know this "other" America. I served as Vice Chairman of the United States Parliamentary Group for twelve years, during which time I made several trips to the United States of America. I got to know members of Parliament from all political parties, formed connections with think tanks and the media, and, of course, kept up with the latest happenings in my own country. Following my stint in the German Bundestag, I decided to go to the United States to learn more about progressive politics. I met Lukas Hermsmeier right at the start of my tour, and he told me about his book project on America's new left, which I found fascinating.
When the author writes Uprising. America's New Left, he takes us back to the beginning of the new upswing - the occupation of Zucotti Park in Manhattan by Occupy Wall Street 10 years ago this month. It offers light on the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which is considered to be the most powerful socialist movement in the United States, and whose membership has grown significantly in recent years. He also takes a look at the Democrats in the United States Congress. The Black Lives Matter movement, which erupted throughout the nation after the police officer Derek Chauvin's shooting death of George Floyd, is also mentioned in the novel, which is not surprising. The need of getting to the bottom of the issue is emphasized by Hermsmeier, who discusses the critical evaluation of American leftist politics, as well as the question of how many police officers and how many jails the United States of America really needs at all. He highlights various points of activism, such as the fight against man-made climate change, in which young people in particular are engaged, and the commitment of indigenous peoples to resist the destruction of their lands for the profit of oil companies. He also highlights the importance of education in activism. He also demonstrates how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a young socialist from New York, came to be involved in politics:
Hermsmeier also brings us to Bessemer, Alabama, where employees at an Amazon facility are attempting to form a union despite obstacles. He tells how Jeff Bezos' organization did nothing to prevent this from happening: "Employees were led to group sessions where they were informed that they would be better off without activism...." The corporation created an anti-union website and posted anti-union propaganda on the walls of the restrooms. Even the traffic signals in front of the property were modified, reducing the number of possibilities for the union to contact the company. " The initial effort at organizing a labor union failed miserably. However, there is fresh hope since the vote will have to be re-run as a result of Amazon's unfair acts. "It is not frequently that the general public expresses an interest in labor organizations."
Many people believe that unions in their present form are out of date, and that their decision-making procedures are opaque, hierarchical, or even corrupt in nature. Those who seek complete freedom, such as corporation executives, perceive them as a danger to the market economy. However, this is changing as more and more people take the initiative to organize themselves from below. It has finally been achieved in the New York borough of Staten Island: at the end of March, a majority of workers in an Amazon warehouse in the United States decided to establish a union representative for the first time. hierarchical or even corrupt, as is the case in many other parts of the world. Those who seek complete freedom, such as corporation executives, perceive them as a danger to the market economy.
However, this is changing as more and more people take the initiative to organize themselves from below. It has finally been achieved in the New York borough of Staten Island: at the end of March, a majority of workers in an Amazon warehouse in the United States decided to establish a union representative for the first time. hierarchical or even corrupt, as is the case in many other parts of the world. Those who seek complete freedom, such as corporation executives, perceive them as a danger to the market economy. However, this is changing as more and more people take the initiative to organize themselves from below. It has now been achieved in the New York borough of Staten Island: towards the end of March, a majority of workers in an Amazon warehouse in the United States decided to establish a labor representative for the first time.
Hermsmeier's book should be essential reading, at the very least for everyone who has a professional relationship with the United States. But I also think it's worth recommending to everyone else. Hermsmeier's extensive knowledge of the country, where he has lived and worked as a journalist for the past eight years, aids in the understanding of the United States of America. Hermsmeier conducted his study by traveling to the locations where the events took place and interviewing activists from a variety of different groups. My personal observations of the nation corroborated the impressions I had had from the book. In my conversations, which included those with young members of the DSA in Philadelphia, a historian in Manhattan, and a trade unionist in Chicago, I learned about the racism that still prevails in many parts of the world; about the radical nature of some demands, which is unusual for us in Germany; and about the optimism of those who are working for change.
Scott Marshall, a communist unionist who works in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, approached me while I was having coffee with him at Starbucks. He encouraged me to join the union. We were greeted with a cheerful wink in return. After voting to unionize in December of last year at a Starbucks branch in Buffalo, New York, the company's employees have been organizing in other branches across the country, despite fierce opposition from the company's management and shareholders. We were greeted with a cheerful wink in return. After voting to unionize in December of last year at a Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York, the company's employees have been organizing in other branches around the country, amid fierce opposition from the company's management and shareholders. We were greeted with a cheerful wink in return. After voting to unionize in December of last year at a Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York, the company's employees have been organizing in other branches around the country, amid fierce opposition from the company's management and shareholders.
My personal experience over the past twelve years has taught me that focusing solely on the political center in a polarized country was and continues to be wrong. When Donald Trump was elected President, there were de facto no contacts between him and those around him who went on to form the government in the United States. And when it comes to Bernie Sanders, the majority of people in our country still remember the amusing photo of him wearing his gloves during Joe Biden's inauguration.
Despite this, little is known about the fact that he has since risen to become the prominent chairman of the United States Senate Budget Committee and that his progressive supporters now account for about half of all Democrats in the United States House of Representatives. This nation has been subjected to repeated stories about the "wings" of the Democratic Party, whose disagreement is believed to be prevented by Joe Biden's social and climate policy package Build Back Better. The left in Congress has brokered a settlement with the White House that is supported by 90 percent of Democratic MPs and is only opposed by two Democratic senators - Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema - who are also Republicans.
The left-wing movement in the United States has increased in strength. It is critical to have a distinct perspective in this situation: it is not true that radicalization is occurring on both the right and the left. Those who defend democracy are being disciplined, while those who favor the storming of the Capitol are being supported. The Republican Party is evolving at breakneck speed into a far-right cult. We are unable to maintain a neutral posture towards a political party that refuses to acknowledge democratic election results in Germany, either.
America has changed: "For the first time in a long time, a spirit of optimism from below can be sensed in the United States for the first time in a long time." Lukas Hermsmeier writes about the rise of a segment of the political spectrum that has received far too little attention in Germany thus far. "It is anything but permanent, but it occurs again and again, in more and more places, with greater and greater force," he writes about the rise of a segment of the political spectrum that has received far too little attention thus far. His book has the potential to and should alter that.
The author Stefan Liebich was a member of the German Bundestag for Die Linke from 2009 to 2021.