On February 19th, 2026, the Graduate Student Employees Union, CWA 1104 Education Division, conducted a public panel with the name “Fascism and Working Class Struggle.” The panel description read as follows:
“Following Max Horkheimer's insight "Whoever is not willing to talk about capitalism should also keep quiet about fascism," in his latest book Late Fascism, Alberto Toscano writes ‘Whoever is not willing to talk about anti-capitalism should also keep quiet about anti-fascism.’
In the midst of internal repression, imperial war and anti-worker policies, and attacks on democratic institutions and popular will we witness growing everywhere, many talk about development of fascism and resistance against it. However, what really is fascism and why is the working class struggle against it as a class struggle necessary and fundamental? How is what we are facing a class oppression against the working class that needs to be opposed and overcome by working class power? What kind of dangers await us in the upcoming process, including the next elections, and how should the working class develop power for these dangers in the future? How can we create broad solidarity against the roots of these crises in a profit-oriented system that has no care for human life?
In the latest CWA convention, the resolution #80A-25-06, ‘A Generational Fight for Our Freedoms,’ was unanimously passed, naming the fight against authoritarianism a primary objective of the whole union and committing mass educative initiatives to this purpose. Taking up this call, we must pursue the matter further, into the real economic causes of what we are seeing in capitalism and working class mass action against it using productive power.”
This piece covers this panel and presents an edited transcription of the insights shared by the participants. The panelists we invited were Steve Zeltzer (CWA Newsguild), Carol Lang (PSC CUNY), Gabriel Prawl (Million Worker March), and Russ Bellant (journalist, author and former unionist). We include here abridged versions of each panelists’ contributions. The full panel can be accessed here.
Our first speaker was Steve Zeltzer, who is a member of CWA Pacifica Media Workers Guild, labor journalist, videographer and host of Work Week Radio. He is a supporter of the United Front Committee For a Labor Party and a member of the Labor for Palestine network. Zeltzer began our panel by highlighting the importance of the labor movement having this discussion of fascism and understanding what fascism really is. Emphasizing that we are at a moment where the post-WW2 institutional structure set up by the US is falling apart, his remarks brought forth the necessity of understanding US fascism within this framework of US imperialism globally. The rise of fascism in the US must also be analyzed with its rise in Europe, which he again highlighted has been preceded and influenced by the migration wave from the Middle East caused by US wars and intervention. Zeltzer also mentioned that we have warfare between sections of the ruling class in the US unseen since the Civil War, with Republicans threatening their opponents with jail and murder.
Speaking further on US imperialism, Zeltzer highlighted how the US was able to extend its international hegemony through its attacks on workers resistance and communists in the US. AFL-CIO, which CWA is part of, was set up as a pro-imperialist union and had collaborations with the CIA. Importantly, the Trump administration recently restored funding to the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, involved with these operations. Zeltzer noted, though, that workers in the US cannot fight the capitalists in the US while supporting their international agenda.
Deregulation and deindustrialization, as bipartisan policies, were central capitalist policies in the US that laid the groundwork for fascism and led their attack on the working class. Unions were unable to fight privatization and outsourcing of jobs, because that meant fighting the Democrats as well, and they didn’t offer the working class an independent political line. The destruction of the industrial base in the US left millions of workers without a future, and made it possible for fascist politicians to rhetorically oppose this to appeal to these workers.
Another important aspect of the current moment highlighted by Zeltzer is techno-fascism, with figures like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos and others using AI and technology not only to enhance their wealth but to destroy the working class and eliminate workers. Fascists like them, Zeltzer mentioned, were put in positions of power by Trump and subsequently used the government to eliminate public workers. They have also organized internationally to support fascism in other countries like Germany and Argentina. The fascist attack on the working class also involves the expansion of ICE, described by Zeltzer as a Gestapo-like operation that terrorizes workers and immigrants. Another significant ideological pillar of Trump and the techno-fascists is deregulation, including of the financial system. Increasing speculation, noted Zeltzer, is bound to lead to a crisis and bubble, causing the dollar's decline and hyperinflation in the US. Fascists, Zeltzer continued, want to eliminate bourgeois democracy and say openly that they don’t believe in the constitution. Their ideology is that they should run everything.
US imperialism’s crisis and the rise of fascism also has to do with China. Zeltzer said that since US understands that it cannot compete with China economically, it is increasing militarism, decided to militarily invade Venezuela to stop the oil flow to China, destroy the Cuban government, and attack Iran (again to stop oil flow to China). This inter-imperialist rivalry is about solidifying US economic power by military intervention.
Against all these, Zeltzer stated that Democrats have no program. They support capitalism just like the Republicans and have not even been able to implement reforms such as single-payer healthcare, shut off money to ICE. They also voted for the trillion-dollar military budget. This is because they support imperialism and its budget.
Zeltzer concluded by noting that we need to mobilize in a general strike movement. Shawn Fain called for a general strike in 2028, the first time it was raised by a national union, but Zeltzer warned that we cannot wait until then. He noted that he thinks there will be an effort to declare martial law, pointing to the FBI recently seizing ballots in Atlanta, Georgia, and using ICE to terrorize people trying to vote. Republicans can’t afford an election; if one occurs, they will lose completely. As a result, we need millions of workers organizing around a general strike, against threats of martial law, and in support of democratic elections, single-payer healthcare, and ensuring that the development of AI is under the control of the working class. Democrats cannot fight the fascists, Zeltzer continued, and cannot stop imperialism, and that is why the working class needs to organize itself independently in the US and internationally. For this, we need to link up with workers internationally against common capitalist enemies.
Our next speaker was Carol Lang, a historian at CUNY, Bronx College, a member of CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC), the faculty and staff union at CUNY, as well as a founding member of the Labor Education Project on AFL-CIO International Operations. Lang started her talk by reminding us of the accuracy of Rosa Luxemburg’s description of humanity’s options at the turn of the 20th century: socialism or barbarism. She criticized union officials and politicians like Zohran Mamdani who call Trump fascist but do not act accordingly, and called for a stronger analysis of fascism. “Fascist” must not be a mere epithet, considering that history shows us the racist, militarist and genocidal nature of fascism. The working class must, instead, be prepared for the eventuality that people will be put into concentration camps.
Lang also mentioned that capitalism cannot produce as it used to. It relies on tariffs and military production to confront imperialism’s enemies abroad. Internally, the US government is buying up warehouses across the country to detain not only immigrants but anyone who dissents. These again illustrate how fascism is more than an epithet - it means that society is in a deep crisis.
The trade union bureaucracy holds responsibility in the miseducation of the working class regarding the nature of fascism, often presenting fascists merely as a bunch of bad guys. Lang also criticized Mamdani’s support for NYS Governor Hochul in the midst of her attempt to bust the nurses’ strike, funding the hospitals’ efforts to hire scab workers.
Lang noted that one of the things significant about fascism as opposed to a military government, for example, is the use of forces like the SS or ICE, usually populated by lower-middle class in society. In the US, the rise of fascism also includes an attack on academic freedom in the universities and an attack on freedom of speech in general. One example was the firing of four CUNY adjuncts for their support for Palestine. The Chancellor of CUNY, Lang mentioned, not only accepted the IHRA definition of antisemitism, but also set up an anonymous reporting system open to the public against CUNY instructors. This causes, Lang reported, a fear among the CUNY community of criticizing the government and the status quo, which she expressed as another sign of a fascist system. The US situation is analogous to the book burning of Nazis: it may not be as glamorous, but as Lang emphasized, certain books are being taken off the shelves in libraries. This general climate and Trump’s policies severely impact political discussion within CUNY, and even discussing certain topics like the blockade of Cuba cause one to be chastised.
Even though there is no counter-power and Trump controls the state, Lang noted that she would not say the US is a completely fascist country yet because of the ongoing resistance, outcry and uprising against the government. However, she echoed Zeltzer’s point that there might be a complete fascist takeover with the outbreak of further wars and the looming economic crises as a result of the administration’s deregulation policies. The ongoing crisis, she also mentioned, is also due to US imperialism’s war against China and the danger posed by China economically and technologically.
One aspect of fascism that was also emphasized by Lang was the manipulation of the working class and their attempt to present themselves as fighting for the good of the workers, in reference to Mussolini and Hitler. Mussolini, for example, presented himself as offering a party for everyone that will keep capitalist exploitation of the workers at bay, and Hitler nationalized Jewish property to give it to his supporters.
Lang also accentuated the importance of a general strike, noting that the working class has to go further to take power. Warning of an upcoming world war and reminding us again of Luxemburg’s “socialism or barbarism,” Lang concluded on the note that the current union leadership cannot show the necessary resistance against fascists because they are more afraid of the working class and communism than they are of fascists. Instead, we need a communist leadership that can fight against capitalism and fascism.
Our following speaker was Gabriel Prawl, the past president and the first African-American president of Local 52 of the International Longshore Workers’ Union (ILWU), which has a long history of working-class internationalism and using union power to oppose wars, imperialism, and apartheid. Prawl began his contribution by reminding us that the first thing that the Trump administration did when it came to power was to attack DEI, black workers and union workers.
Prawl then mentioned that he is contributing to our panel as the Seattle co-chair of Million-Worker March and not in his capacity as the chapter president of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a constituent group of AFL-CIO. He described the process by which, on April 5th, 2025, during the No Kings mobilization, he was part of organizing a separate rally to march to a detention center in Seattle. After a successful rally, a town hall was organized on April 15th at the Martin Luther King Labor Council Building to give rank and file workers the chance to speak and express their voices. Officers and labor unions were welcome to come but did not show up. The town hall was named “Where Do We Go From Here?” inspired by a 1967 speech of the same name by Dr. King, who was also a member of ILWU Local 10. Prawl described that after the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Dr. King here was talking about economic justice and tackling poverty, and that he was against the Vietnam War.
The deeper systemic issues Dr. King was referencing still continue. Prawl said that the Trump administration is enacting a plan, Project 2025, which is a capitalist, white supremacist plan to attack the working people and bring capitalism in the US back to what it was before Reconstruction. Workers, Prawl continued, have the power to do one of the most important and powerful non-violent actions to challenge this crisis, and that is the general strike.
After discussing the way forward in the aforementioned town hall and the power of workers, Prawl mentioned that AFL-CIO retaliated against him, claiming that he was inciting violence and would make other workers lose their jobs because of their no-strike clause. He emphasized that in their town hall and movement, they made it clear that everyone can do something—if one cannot strike, they can call in sick, or refuse to shop. In Minneapolis, Prawl said that individuals doing rapid response got killed. The No Kings rally brought many people together, but that also did not change anything. Labor, though, has a plan: to use the ultimate thing that workers can do, leverage their productive power.
Dr. King said our choice is community or chaos, and we need to build our community and power, which is difficult with the divisions administration creates. Looking at history, Prawl said that civil rights and labor rights are the same fight, with the former learning from sit-down strike tactics of labor. Community and workers want the labor movement to lead, Prawl continued.
Prawl asked: why is labor afraid to have important conversations? Democrats are looking to the election, but the Trump administration is trying to start a war to make sure elections don’t happen. A general strike does not happen overnight. We need to prepare and work towards that final action that will change things fundamentally. Rapid response, immigration support, and Know Your Rights initiatives are important, and we need to do them, but we also need to educate people that we need to go into a general strike. This is a fight all of us must be in, both for us and for the future of next generations.
Dr. King stood up against the Vietnam War and got killed. Dr. King was not a dreamer, Prawl said, but a revolutionary. He was not a part of Democratic or Republican party when he got killed. Unless we come together, we cannot stop the capitalists, the parasites draining the working class. We passed the stage of marching and protesting; we can do these things but these will not end what we are facing. Only a general strike will shut things down.
Our last speaker was Russ Bellant, who as a labor organizer worked for the United Steelworkers, AFSCME, and the International Union of Operating Engineers for many years. After retiring, he founded the Anti-Fascist Organizing Committee in Detroit and wrote three books on fascism, including Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party. Bellant began by mentioning how Trump told government agencies not to negotiate contracts with American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) to break the union. Trump is spending $35 billion on concentration camps, crippling the National Labor Relations Board and aligning with Elon Musk to build a robotized workforce to replace workers.
The key to fighting fascism is to know what it is. Fascism can be said to have begun in 1929 with Italian fascism, where the squadristi, later to become the Black Shirts, began attacking agricultural workers, burning farmers’ cooperatives and killing their leaders. At the time, the industrialists, the emerging sector of the capitalist class in agrarian Italy, inspired and sponsored fascism to attack working-class organizing and crush the unions, political working class political parties, and strikes.
Bellant emphasized that they were very explicit that the goal of all this was to tame the working class, with squadristi going to union meetings and strikes and beating and killing unionists. Once in power, leaders inspiring strikes received death sentences, with the same happening under Nazis. The National Socialist Labor Front was created by employers. Fascism’s founding and central purpose, Bellant said, was the complete subjugation of workers for unrestrained exploitation.
Three features can be identified for fascism. Firstly, one-man rule. Secondly, the creation of a cadre to enforce terror and eliminate opposition. Thirdly, an emerging capitalist sector for funding and inspiring the fascist solution for monopolizing power in the workplace and society. How do these apply in the US?
Trump’s attacks on the congress, the courts and the media leave little doubt on what the first aspect means in the US today. Creation of cadre was there in the first Trump term, but it has extended. Here, Bellant talked about the book Unhumans by Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec. Jack Posobiec is a long-time friend of Trump and his project is endorsed by JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr., co-published by Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon. This book argues, Bellant continued, that if you believe in fairness and equality, you are unhuman and you must be crushed. The book, which discusses 20th century dictators who violently crushed their opponents, is unknown on the left but is a best seller amongst MAGA.
Regarding the leading capitalist sector, it’s big tech which is creating a mass change in the structures of power in the US and beyond. Musk got Trump elected, said Bellant, under the condition that Vance became the VP. Then, he got permission to strip assets from the databases of government agencies, which were then fed into Palantir’s databases. The vision of these fascists, Bellant said, as Michael Brock articulated, is to create domains where there is no concept of citizenship or a constitution, but instead rulership is by rich elites and “citizens” are under contractual relationships in a kind of neo-serfdom. The building of datacenters is infrastructure to have a profile on everyone. Whereas the environmental problems with datacenters have gained most attention, the fundamental issue is the usage of the datacenters for this political project.
But Trump is not only focusing on the US, Bellant thinks. He is building the Fourth Reich, with what he is doing in Europe and his plans to take Greenland and Canada and unite the white world. The Board of Peace that gives him lifetime rule as an alternative to the UN is part of this plan. Remigration conferences seek to expel the nonwhite people out of Europe, and migration is seen as a threat to Western civilization. The fascist AfD party of Germany, first place in the polls, is praised by the US administration. The National Rally in France is gaining huge support. The Fourth Reich agenda is international because that’s also the scope of big tech. Palantir was brought in as a national contractor for the UK’s military and intelligence reorganization by the Labor Party. This shows the need to build international solidarity.
The other allies fascists have, Bellant said, is the Christian Reformed Evangelical Church, for whom a main figure is Peter Hegseth. This group is a leading advocate for ending the US constitution and creating a theocratic society. Doug Wilson of this group wrote a book saying that slavery is good for everybody, Bellant reminds us. At the same time, state power is used, as in Texas, to establish Turning Point USA chapters in every high school to indoctrinate the youth.
Bellant’s contributions brought us to the end of our panel. We thank again all our panelists and participants for such an insightful panel. Our event brought together a wide range of perspectives on fascism and the working class struggle against it, and was organized by our ongoing GSEU political education series which will continue next year and over the summer. We invite all grad workers to further events of our education initiatives and are open to all suggestions for similar suggestions for events.
