First of all, let’s get this clear: the result of Janus, as decided today by the Supreme Court, is devastating to millions of working families. Janus is a power grab — plain and simple — by the wealthy elite, taking collective power away from workers.
Beyond that, I see a lot of people saying that this will forever hinder the labor movement. I also see a lot of people saying that, long term, this will force a vibrant, mass, militant labor movement.
And I just don’t know if either is true. I think sometimes we can get lost in theory, and we forget to take massive action. If my experience in the field the last five years have taught me anything, it’s that, you really don’t know some things. I mean, I have a pretty good spidey-sense at this point about how a particular worker whom I’ve talked with extensively might react under the pressure of a particular boss scenario, for example. But I’m not going to kid myself that I understand how movements of millions of people, all caught up in the totally complex web of national and international politics, squares at the end of the day.
In general, I strongly doubt those who claim confident knowledge about those sorts of things.
I think it’s up to us to make change happen, and that means doing the work as always: always increasing the pressure, working harder, working smarter.
Repeat: we don’t know if our work will ultimately result in any sort of macro-liberation.
You can take that in a pessimistic way. But I think that’s what precisely makes the work beautiful: we may very well lose. It is up to us to win, if we will. Take massive action. Organize.
Or don’t take massive action. We can do that too. Totally viable, and we can guarantee the continued fall of the working class.
Up to you. Up to us.
For me, I’m too f*cking angry, and I can’t take it any more.
The Last Organizer 