Last Sunday, Voices for New Democracy hosted our latest monthly political forum discussing prospects for the upcoming 2022 elections with friend, contributor, and MIT professor Phil Thompson.
Following up on his recent writings in the New Labor Forum (‘Is Now the Time to Break with the Democrats?: A Debate‘ and ‘Democratizing the Knowledge Economy: Will Labor Accept the Challenge?‘), Thompson contends that today’s moment is the one the Left has been waiting for since the 1970s, and outlined some of the key (and sometimes contradictory) trends of today’s political moment:
- The rise of the far-right, anti-democratic radicalization among the conservative movement
- Right-wing attacks on immigrants, labor, climate, and other progressive priorities
- Timid union leadership hesitant to seize power
- Long-standing weaknesses and failures of the Democratic party
- Resurgence of labor organizing among service sector workers and strong public support for unions
- Left-wing radicalization among young people and certain legacy institutions
- Progressive movements expanding and pushing local government to the left in strongholds like New York
- The growth of the knowledge economy and the possibilities it presents for organizing and the role of consumers
- And much more
Watch the full forum below.
Voices for New Democracy 