Community members, trade unionists, and labor activists from across Missouri and Kansas gathered in Kansas City, Missouri in mid-August to develop a political program that focuses on our current moment, the labor movement’s necessity to fight back against organized big business and fascism, and organizing the unorganized.

The event was co-sponsored by the Kansas City Communist Party USA and the People Before Profits Education Fund. Attendees included a generous mix of young workers, trade unionists, and former union officers. The educational was fruitful and thought provoking, and gave a breath of life to every attendee on the march forward to combat fascism and build working class power on the shop floor.

The stakes for labor, the need to oppose anti-labor forces, and the importance of battling anti-democratic policies have rarely been so great. With the Trump administration escalating attacks on working families and, in the process, on our constitutional and democratic rights, the necessity for a labor-led people’s front was constantly emphasized.

Due to the recent Supreme Court decision, civil service workers now face the largest union-busting campaign in U.S. history. The entire Veterans Administration’s workforce and their collective bargaining rights were axed. Immigrant and migrant workers still continue to endure brutal ICE raids. Attacks on diversity and affirmative action at the workplace are being launched with impunity, showing a heightened racist and sexist assault by the capitalist class.

Most notably, attendees learned where our working-class communities fit into, and are affected by, the vicious cycle of monopoly capitalism, stagnation, financialization, and deepening inequality. Another major point stressed was the breaking of the New Deal coalition in the 1970s, which has led to our current crisis, among other things. It was mentioned that since the Jimmy Carter presidency, more than 60 million U.S. workers have been displaced from their jobs due to mass layoffs, plant closures, and the decline of various manufacturing sectors.

With every crisis, however, there is the working-class response. Labor activists stressed the concepts of solidarity, organizing the working class in its entirety, building class-struggle unionism by raising class consciousness in our communities and workplaces, and building toward a higher level of working class political independence. The necessity of growing union density was hammered home throughout.

“The labor movement faces a life or death scenario for its very survival under these reactionary conditions,” members of the CPUSA Labor Commission stressed.

Throughout the session, the attendees discussed groundwork labor organizing, developed practical skills, learned how to build unity in the workplace, and dove into the concept of “workplace concentration.”

The Labor Commission’s new pamphlet, Labor Fight’s Back, was the anchor document for the entire educational event. The pamphlet is now on its second printing after a quick first run earlier this year. International Publishers, the CPUSA’s publishing house, also was present at the event. Several dozen labor books were sold, including American Trade Unionism, Working Class Giant: The Life of William Z. Foster, and A Short History of May Day.

Further discussions were had regarding the role of the Communist Party USA and how party members must take deliberate and conscious action to develop class consciousness, fight discrimination, and build unity between workers. This led to members considering concrete actions and making a commitment to champion the concepts across Missouri and Kansas.

In doing so, attendees pledged to be held accountable to take concrete steps to build worker power and class consciousness on the shop floor in their communities.

Michael, an attendee from St. Louis, told People’s World after the event that “The Labor’s Fight Back educational was extremely rewarding; it provided a clear direction to move towards in our ceaseless work of building up the labor movement and defying fascism.”

“I think, at least for me,” Michael continued, “it also helped create a sense of confidence to address those we want to seek a fighting constituency. I ultimately can’t wait to enact the plans we set in place to reach out to our communities, and I can’t wait to engage in another educational.”

The opinions of the author do not necessarily reflect the positions of the CPUSA.

Images: CPUSA