The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor Highlight

When she gave an off-the-cuff speech to this effect on an internal call with the AFL-CIO’s executive council just after the Supreme Court’s anti-abortion decision was leaked, she was not inspired by the response. “I said, ‘This is the first step to authoritarianism.’ That’s where we’re headed. If we don’t understand that, and we don’t understand that we have to step out right now, and not just say that we’re for Roe v. Wade, but that we’re for women—for women having equal rights in this country… It’s not about health care. It’s not about an abortion. It’s about whether or not women have equal standing in this country, and whether or not we’re going to claim that power as working people. That’s the moment that we’re in right now. And I don’t think—I mean, maybe they’ll surprise me. But I don’t know that this labor movement, the leadership of this labor movement, is ready for this moment.”