Main report to the 2025 Labor Commission Conference in Chicago given by Steve Noffke, chair of the CPUSA Labor Commission, on Sept 27 at the Unity Center.

On behalf of the CPUSA Labor Commission, welcome to Chicago. We want to give a special thanks to the organizing committee for all their hard work in preparing for this event. We are fortunate to have our party co-chair Rossana Cambron with us, and Joe Sims with us in spirit. I also want to give a special shout-out to Scott Marshall, a former chair of the Labor Commission and a longtime leader of our party. And of course, there’s Bea Lumpkin, who needs no introduction.

Two years ago, we met here under different conditions. The Teamsters had run an active contract campaign and won a fresh deal with UPS. The UAW was on the brink of what would become the Stand-Up Strike. Amazon, Starbucks, hotel workers, healthcare workers, casino workers, and many others were on strike or winning good contracts. We recognized the attack on labor and new forms of exploitation by corporate America, but we also saw the growing fightback and a tremendous confidence in our future.

But then in 2024 came the election of Trump, the ascendancy of the most reactionary elements of corporate America led by the tech giants, and the active implementation of Project 2025. When someone tells you what they are going to do, it’s wise to believe them. We’ve seen:

• An unprecedented attack on immigrant workers, with Trump sending ICE agents throughout the country.
• The removal of bargaining rights for 1.3 million federal workers — the single greatest union-busting act in our history.
• Tariffs and economic policies that are wreaking havoc on our economy, causing rising inflation, and higher unemployment.

• Cuts to Medicaid funding and the closing of hospitals, many in rural areas.
• Attacks on the rights of African Americans, Latinos, Indigenous people, women, and the LGBTQ community, with a particularly violent emphasis on attacking trans people and even our children.
• A government ruled by presidential fiat, with a Supreme Court that does whatever he wants. When Trump says “jump,” the six reactionary judges say, “how high?”

And on and on.

As Trump continues his rush toward billionaire-bankrolled autocracy, the question is: how can he be stopped? What can the working class do to not only defend ourselves, but to fight forward?

“When you don’t know what to do, do what you know how to do.”

I’m reminded of something Kenny, a construction worker from St. Louis, said to a National Committee meeting years ago. An older worker told him that to avoid getting hurt on the job, “When you don’t know what to do, do what you know how to do.”

Organize!

For us, that means organizing and fighting back. Organize a union where you work. Organize support for picket lines. Organize to support immigrant workers being detained and deported. Organize to make your union stronger and more militant. Organize unorganized workers. Organize May Day demonstrations and Labor Day demonstrations. Organize! Boycott Target and Home Depot.

And we are seeing that happen at the grassroots. Starbucks workers are planning for a national strike. Sadly, we just learned that layoffs are coming this weekend, and organized stores will likely be hit first. Amazon workers are continuing to organize under very difficult conditions.

Workers at the BOSK battery plant in Kentucky voted to join the UAW after a nasty anti-union campaign led by Ford, a partner in the joint venture. Now the struggle is to ensure they win their democratic right to a union given the dismal situation facing the National Labor Relations Board and unchecked union-busting.

Healthcare workers, hotel workers, and many others are fighting for their rights, resisting the capitalist onslaught. I’m sure we’ll hear about other struggles taking place here.

We are seeing new forms of struggle. May Day Strong and Labor for Democracy are two, but there are other coalitions forming at the grassroots level.

Though there seems to be some hesitation at the national level in the union movement, it didn’t stop the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists from calling for a national day of action to stand against Trump’s anti-labor and anti-working class policies. We need to step up our efforts to support this call.

There are some union leaders who are ducking their heads and hoping this will pass. Others don’t see the need to bring the fight to Trump — “just wait until the 2026 elections,” they say. And there are many honest leaders who oppose Trump and his policies but don’t see a clear path forward. Frankly, with all that Trump has thrown at us, it’s easy to get confused. But the only real path forward is to continue to fight and organize. It’s during the struggle that strategy and tactics will become more obvious.

Our labor movement was built on militancy, unity, and action. Most everyone knows about the great sit-down strike in Flint that brought General Motors to its knees. But there were dozens and dozens of sit-down strikes at that time, in many different industries all across the country. It was a mass movement of workers demanding a union and improvements in their lives. We need that mass movement now. It probably won’t take the form of sit-down strikes, but it will require the same sense of urgency and a creative use of tactics.

Which brings us to our gathering today and tomorrow. This is not a “meet once, go home, and wait for the next meeting” event. Our goal is to exchange ideas and experiences about how to build better, stronger unions and how to build the Communist Party our country needs. We need to figure out how to help build that mass movement; these goals are not mutually exclusive. Our discussions need to draw conclusions on how we fight forward. Hopefully, we’ve put together an agenda that allows us to do that.

Speak up. We need to hear what is going on where you work. What are the problems you face? Outside of the formal meetings, talk to other comrades. At the end, let us know what worked and what didn’t. Participate in our monthly assembly meeting and offer suggestions to make it more relevant. We can organize many different forms to meet the needs of comrades and friends from around the country.

If you come across a problem in your organizing and your club can’t help, contact us at laborcommission@cpusa.org. We’ll get back to you and set up a meeting with other organizers to help out — we did this just last week.

And write up your experiences for People’s World. The paper is a great way to build relationships with other workers and union leaders. You’ll hear about some of those experiences in a workshop later on.

So let me conclude again with what Kenny once said: “When you don’t know what to do, do what you know how to do.” And comrades, we know how to organize and we know how to fight. Let’s begin the discussions!

Image: DC 9 members at the 2025 NYC Labor Day Parade by Spencer Pazer (NYC Central Labor Council on Facebook); UAW at the Detroit Labor Day Parade by UAW (Facebook)