Workers from across the globe have continued to mobilize. It would be long and tedious to list the proletarian struggles and social revolts of the last few months at the international level. They have touched every region of the world, from China – especially in the province of Guandong – to Iran, Lebanon, South America, Africa, Greece. At the time of writing, the public service strike in Canada is affecting hundreds of thousands of proletarians, while massive work stoppages have taken place in the various transport corporations in Germany. Recently Portugal has become another center of activity as teachers, railway workers, airline workers, and other have continued a massive strike wave that has rocked the country. Even Sweden has been affected by a railway strike. The proletariat in other countries such as France, Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom have continued their struggle against the bourgeoisie. With 67% of French respondents stating that they believed these strikes should be “intensified,” it is clear that these shutdowns and protests will continue.

These strikes and the others in Europe are clearly linked to the collapse of living conditions across the world as a result of the war in Ukraine. In the case of struggles that are not directly for wage increases in the face of inflation , as in France, the worldwide increase in inflation is still the main immediate factor driving the present dynamic of struggle as well as the need to extend and unite the demands. In themselves, as the struggles in France and UK illustrate, the present mobilization of proletarians expresses the tendency towards the process of the mass strike, as the “universal form of the proletarian class struggle resulting from the present stage of capitalist development and class relations”. (Rosa Luxemburg, The Mass Strike) Because any struggle is in our days confronted by the entire state apparatus, including the unions and the left and leftist political forces, it is necessary to extend and generalize it by means of strikes, mass delegations to other workplaces, mass picket lines, street demonstrations, etc. It is the only way to impose a relation of forces favorable to workers on the capitalist class and to defend, even temporarily, the proletariat’s living conditions. The present concrete historical situation confronted by these struggles are the increasing crisis of capital and its drive towards generalized imperialist war. Both have direct implications on the ruling class’ policies and attacks against the working class. In particular, the march towards generalized war, which implies the development of a war economy in all countries, the increase of military production and expenditures, worsening budget deficits, complicates the ability of capital to respond to workers’ economic demands. It also means that the development of strikes and street demonstrations, even those controlled by the unions, tend to put at risk the ability of the bourgeoisie to manage the political situation.

The demands of war and its preparation can only exacerbate the antagonism and the confrontation between the working class and the capitalist class. That is why even in so-called democratic countries, the state is exerting more and more repression against any nascent proletarian struggle, even if it is controlled by the unions. As we can see in France and in the UK, the unions’ control and policy aims at preventing any dynamic of generalized struggle and strike and, if they cannot oppose it, to derail it. As we will see below, this union policy is not unique to the UK and France. But even if this union control was enough for the ruling class in the past, nowadays the urgency and the necessities for the march towards war economy and the generalized imperialist war itself require the state to implement and intensify anti-strike and anti-demonstration laws of all kinds – it is the case in the UK, in the US, as well as in France. Furthermore, if not enough to prevent the development of the struggle, the use of police repression is direct and massive as we can see in France. It is another dimension of the present class struggle with which proletarians from the historical core of capitalism, the so-called democratic countries, are confronted.

The present historical situation, the state of capitalism and its drive towards imperialist war, ensures that even historically “rich” capitalist powers no longer have the means, nor the time, for the “luxury of democracy.” They are compelled to join in the direct and massive repression that the “poorer” capitalist powers typically use against their populations and working class.

The United States has likewise seen a number of strikes that, despite their small size relative to the movement in Europe, point to the continued confrontation between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie as a result of the war and the reliance of “democratic” powers to directly repress the working class. In January nurses in two hospitals in New York City went on strike over pay and “chronic understaffing” before agreeing to a new contract that included a pay increase and provisions for hiring new nurses. [1] In Los Angeles a three-day strike shut down school as educational workers such as custodians, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and other service workers picketed the LAUSD headquarters with the support of the United Teachers Los Angeles Union. [2] “Middle America” sees worker activity with strikes continuing in Ohio at the INEOS Pigments Plant 2 in Ashtabula. [3]

The largest and most important battleground for the American proletariat with the onset of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine so far has been the American railroad system. During three years of Covid and austerity 115,000 railroad workers have toiled under unsafe conditions in one of America’s most profitable industries. Overworked under the “precision scheduled railroading” system and laboring since 2019 without a contract, a pay raise, or guaranteed days off, railroad workers had numerous incentives to strike. The United States government moved to squash the labor dispute by invoking the Railroad Labor Act, a federal law enacted in 1926, to override the workers vote for strike. [4] While President Joe Biden’s Emergency Board granted pay raises to the railroad workers, the more pressing concerns of sick-leave and the “precision scheduled railroading” system were mostly left unaddressed with workers only receiving one day of paid-leave a year. [5]

Both the United States government and the unions remain the largest obstacles to an American strike wave. Whether it is through preemptively halting a strike as occurred at caterpillar, or by negating various new contracts as is the case in New York City, unions have been an indispensable tool for the bourgeoisie in 2023. [6] In the railroad labor dispute unions likewise acted in support of the bourgeoisie with Teamsters’ president, O’Brian, declaring that Pres. Biden was not responsible for the outcome of the dispute. [7] Occasionally the government has stepped in directly, as was the case with the derailed U.S. railroad strike. [8] So far the situation has not escalated like in France with massive protests challenging the police directly in street battles, but it is obvious the overwhelming force of the American police state apparatus is another massive obstacle facing any movement by the proletariat.

Rosa Luxemburg’s declaration that “history is the only teacher, the revolution the best school for the proletariat” still rings true today. While the proletariat struggle in the United States may not match the match the size of the efforts in Europe, workers across the globe are not only engaged in the same struggle but have the opportunity to learn valuable lessons. Victory will be impeded, not supported, by the unions and their bureaucracy. Furthermore, worker struggles must not be sectionalized into different fields and workplaces but generalized as much as possible. Finally, even modest gains by the working-class can threaten the bourgeoisie in this state of imperialist war. The inability of the bourgeoisie to grant railroad workers sick-leave and support nurses during anThe largest and most important battleground for the American proletariat with the onset of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine so far has been the American railroad system. During three years of Covid and austerity 115,000 railroad workers have toiled under unsafe conditions in one of America’s most profitable industries. Overworked under the “precision scheduled railroading” system and laboring since 2019 without a contract, a pay raise, or guaranteed days off, railroad workers had numerous incentives to strike. The United States government moved to squash the labor dispute by invoking the Railroad Labor Act, a federal law enacted in 1926, to override the workers vote for strike. [9] While President Joe Biden’s Emergency Board granted pay raises to the railroad workers, the more pressing concerns of sick-leave and the “precision scheduled railroading” system were mostly left unaddressed with workers only receiving one day of paid-leave a year. [10] understaffing crisis seemingly points to both the fragility of the system and the general malaise of capitalism. With a growth of NWBCW committees in the United States, it is time for communist militants to use this moment to illustrate these lessons to the American proletariat.