The only thing that can stop Trump is a general strike

Unions are a bulwark against fascism. That means that Canadians have to build our labour militancy too.

If you’re looking for a single image that sums up why the United States has been incapable of resisting the fascism of Donald Trump so far, you should start here:

Now, because some countries, France notably, have low trade union density as a percentage of all employees, but have very high collective agreement coverage, you have to look at this graph alonside another:

(It is funny that the OECD has this graph’s scale reaching 150%)

Having the right to collectively bargain your working conditions isn’t just good for employees, it’s a bulwark against fascism. Through a union, workers’ legal and democratic power balances the power that the bosses have. And this balancing act is what helps to keep fascism in check, especially when the bosses take over government.

Without worker power, the bosses start to do some pretty nasty things. Things like working their workers’ bodies into the ground, stealing their wages, shutting up factories and throwing hundreds of people out of work, etc. When there is no union present, the power that the bosses have to make unilateral and harmful decisions is unchecked, leaving workers with very few tools to fight back.

The United States has very low union density, compared to other OECD countries, making it a sitting duck for a fascist take over.

So far, American institutions have not demonstrated that they are capable of standing up to Trump. Amid the waves and waves of layoffs, programs and funding cancelled and deportations, no intstitution has managed to step in and stop him.

Sure, there were some layoffs that were reversed when Trump’s administration realized they needed things like nuclear monitoring staff. But even the courts are impotent in the face of a president that doesn’t care what the courts say, as we have seen with mass deportations this past week.

This has left only one option for many people: protest. Smaller protests outside of Tesla storefronts, acts of vandalism, and mass rallies.

But none of these have the same power as a general strike, unions’ break glass in case of emergency option.

A general strike is not a rally. The workers who are in the streets during a general strike are *not working* and they commit to refusing to work until a demand is met. When workers en masse refuse to work, they stop the economy from functioning, forcing the government to change course.

General strikes are routinely called in countries where organized workers oppose what a government is doing. From Nigeria to France, from Serbia to India, from Greece to Hong Kong, workers around the world understand that their most powerful action is to simply not go to work, and instead, pour into the street.

Except, in the United States. The lack of union opposition to Trump is tangled up in the reality that unions simply do not have the kind of power (and therefore leverage) to call a general strike. The low union density has made the United States a sitting duck for a fascist takeover. And what’s worse, leadership of the unions that do exist, from the Teamsters to UAW, have backed Trump or Trump’s policies (Brother Shawn Fain saying that Trump’s tariffs are being done well for example). Regardless of whether or not that’s true for the auto industry, it doesn’t change the fact that Trump and his acolytes are fascists, and Fain and his acolytes should be calling a general strike to stop them.

I could go on about how Americans can build their capacity quickly to try and stop Trump, but what’s more interesting for me as a Canadian is what this all means for Canada.

While some of Canada’s union leadership seem to think that scoring election wins through the Liberals to stop Poilievre is all that we need to do right now, the reality is that fascism is at our front door as well, and no election is going to change that. Unions need to be wholly oriented towards the fascist threat, and ready to pull the trigger with a general strike when necessary.

Luckily, we aren’t that far away from making this a reality. In 2022, Ontario was on the brink of a wildcat general strike when Doug Ford tried to override Charter rights during a CUPE educational workers strike. The only reason that the general strike didn’t happen was because Ford backed off. And I’m sure that Ford backed off because he had enough advisors saying that a general strike would be imminent.

Now, had CUPE given the green light to their allies to go on strike anyway, could Ford have been brought to heel in general? Probably, but that’s for someone to study sometime else (and in particular, the actions of CUPE’s leadership during that crucial few weeks).

But regardless, there is hope for us. Every time you read in Canadian media that we need to bring back conscription to boost our military’s capacity, you should think to yourself — no — we need to bring back militant labour. Expanding the power of the security state at a time of rising fascism is a ridiculously bad idea (obviously) but engaging people in struggle is not. Engaging people in struggle is necessary work and will pay off whether the facist threat marches across the Canadian border or is passed down by our own leaders.

Even though our union density is higher than in the United States, the right to strike in Canada is fragile. In Quebec, where union denisty is highest and where the largest strike in Canada’s history happened just last year, the government has introduced a law to limit strikes and strike actions. Unions are under attack in Alberta. And many unions’ leadership are the membership’s worst enemy. There is lots to be done to strengthen our right to strike in Canada, and crucially, to expand union membership, and we have no other choice but to do this.

If we want to fight fascism, follow the cues of the fascists — they come for trade union leadership first because they’re the ones who pose the greatest threat.