SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
Minnesota Democratic Congressional-elect Ilhan Omar speaks at an election night results party on November 6, 2018 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Omar won the race for Minnesota's 5th congressional district seat against Republican candidate Jennifer Zielinski to become one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress. (Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
The Democratic Party has regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives and with this shift will come a new cadre of forceful female leaders committed to narrowing the gaps that so divide us.
"In the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, our greatest scarcity is not a lack of resources but the absence of political courage and moral imagination."
--Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
The six victorious candidates profiled here are remarkable in many ways. All women of color, these trailblazers often drew from their own personal stories to connect with and win over the hearts of voters. Each is heading to Washington to advance a bold social and economic justice agenda, with a strong focus on reversing inequality.
Deb Haaland, of New Mexico's 1st District, will become one of the first two native American women in Congress (along with Sharice Davids, who won a seat in the Kansas delegation). Halland is a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe and a former head of the New Mexico Democratic Party.
On the campaign trail, Haaland didn't mince words about the economic unfairness she sees in the country: "America isn't broke, but we have been pillaged by billionaires and big corporations who get rich off our infrastructure and expect working people to foot the bill. No more."
To get those billionaires and corporations to pay their fair share, Haaland goes far beyond calling for the repeal of the Trump-Republican tax reform. She'd like to see taxes on individual income and corporate profits rise back to post-World War II levels. She also calls for the introduction of a small tax on financial market transactions and a more robust estate tax.
Haaland will also be a powerful voice in Washington against Trump's hateful immigration policies. On the government's separation of immigrant families, Haaland draws from her own family's experience. Her grandmother was forced into an "assimilation" boarding school when she was eight years old.
Ilhan Omar will become the first Somali American woman in Congress, taking the Minnesota District 5 seat vacated by Keith Ellison when he decided to run (successfully) for Minnesota Attorney General.
On the campaign trail, inequality was at the core of Omar's message: "The wealthiest of our country have accumulated their wealth through a system that keeps people in poverty," she said.
Omar's economic justice platform was one of the most ambitious and detailed in the whole congressional candidate field. To lift up the bottom of the income scale, for example, she supports a federal job guarantee program that would provide a $15 per hour, full-time job to anyone who needs one.
To address income and wealth concentration at the top, her policies range from taxing Wall Street speculation and breaking up the big banks to strengthening the estate tax and hiking income tax rates on the wealthy. Omar also endorsed Medicare for All and debt-free college.
As a former refugee, she will be a strong voice in Washington for immigrant rights and economic justice. In a rebuke to President Trump's Islamaphobia, she opened her victory speech in Minneapolis with the Arabic greeting "as-salam alaikum."
To address income and wealth concentration at the top, [Ilhan Omar's] policies range from taxing Wall Street speculation and breaking up the big banks to strengthening the estate tax and hiking income tax rates on the wealthy. Omar also endorsed Medicare for All and debt-free college.
Rashida Tlaibwill join Omar as one of the first two Muslim women in Congress, filling the Michigan 13th seat long held by John Conyers. Tlaib has been a passionate supporter of workers rights as a state legislator and lawyer. Just a month before the election, she was arrested while blocking a street in front of a Detroit McDonald's during a "Fight for $15" protest for higher wages and union rights.
Like several others on this list, Tlaib's economic priorities include Medicare for All, debt-free college, and making the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share of taxes. She already has a track record of standing up to billionaires -- and winning. When Michigan officials dismissed residents' concerns about pollution from a factory owned by the Koch brothers, Tlaib trespassed on the company's property to collect samples herself. Her bold action led to the Koch brothers being forced to remove the pollutants from Detroit's riverfront.
Ayanna Pressley was uncontested in her race in the 7th district of Massachusetts, becoming the first black woman to represent the state. In the spring, she won an upset primary against Democratic incumbent Mike Capuano.
A former Boston city council member, Pressley says her priorities in Washington will be "economic inequality, the wealth and wage gap, structural racism, and gun violence."
Pressley has developed a detailed economic policy agenda, including fair taxation to pay for robust mass transit and other public infrastructure improvements. On Wall Street reform, she calls for a new Glass-Steagall Act to separate commercial banking services from investment banking, as well as tougher sentences for banking executives who engage in fraud and negligence that jeopardizes working Americans' retirement and savings.
On the campaign trail, she decried the rising inequality in her own city of Boston, pointing out that rich and poor neighborhoods that are not far apart geographically have average life expectancies that range from 92 to less than 60 years.
"These types of disparities, Pressley explains, "are not naturally occurring; they are the legacy of decades of policies that have hardened systemic racism, increased income inequality, and advantaged the affluent."
Veronica Escobar earned 68 percent of the vote in her bid to fill the Texas 16th district seat vacated by Beto O'Rourke when he ran for senate. She'll be one of the first two Latina representatives from the Lone Star state (along with Sylvia Garcia from Houston).
A former El Paso county judge, Escobar is committed to fighting for immigrant rights and economic justice in the U.S.-Mexico border community that is her hometown.
"I see the impact of income inequality everyday and will fight to fix our broken economic system, while protecting the gains made by working families and fighting for tax reforms that support the families I represent," she said.
One of the proposals Escobar touted on the campaign trail: scrapping the cap on Social Security contributions so the wealthy pay the same rate into the program as everyone else.
Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez, after her shocker defeat of a 10-term incumbent in the June primary, strolled to victory as the new member of Congress from New York's 14th district, earning 78 percent of the vote. At 29, she's the youngest woman ever to hold a seat in the House.
In the months leading up to the election, Ocasio-Cortez lent her political star power to support other candidates and to mainstream bold progressive proposals like Medicare for All, debt-free college, and raising taxes on corporations and the ultra-wealthy.
Ocasio-Cortez also calls for carbon taxes to help speed up the transition from fossil fuels to 100 percent renewables. "Right now, the economy is controlled by big corporations whose profits are dependent on the continuation of climate change," she said during the campaign. "This arrangement benefits few, but comes at the detriment of our planet and all its inhabitants."
In her acceptance speech Tuesday night, Ocasio-Cortez said, "In the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, our greatest scarcity is not a lack of resources but the absence of political courage and moral imagination."
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
The Democratic Party has regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives and with this shift will come a new cadre of forceful female leaders committed to narrowing the gaps that so divide us.
"In the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, our greatest scarcity is not a lack of resources but the absence of political courage and moral imagination."
--Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
The six victorious candidates profiled here are remarkable in many ways. All women of color, these trailblazers often drew from their own personal stories to connect with and win over the hearts of voters. Each is heading to Washington to advance a bold social and economic justice agenda, with a strong focus on reversing inequality.
Deb Haaland, of New Mexico's 1st District, will become one of the first two native American women in Congress (along with Sharice Davids, who won a seat in the Kansas delegation). Halland is a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe and a former head of the New Mexico Democratic Party.
On the campaign trail, Haaland didn't mince words about the economic unfairness she sees in the country: "America isn't broke, but we have been pillaged by billionaires and big corporations who get rich off our infrastructure and expect working people to foot the bill. No more."
To get those billionaires and corporations to pay their fair share, Haaland goes far beyond calling for the repeal of the Trump-Republican tax reform. She'd like to see taxes on individual income and corporate profits rise back to post-World War II levels. She also calls for the introduction of a small tax on financial market transactions and a more robust estate tax.
Haaland will also be a powerful voice in Washington against Trump's hateful immigration policies. On the government's separation of immigrant families, Haaland draws from her own family's experience. Her grandmother was forced into an "assimilation" boarding school when she was eight years old.
Ilhan Omar will become the first Somali American woman in Congress, taking the Minnesota District 5 seat vacated by Keith Ellison when he decided to run (successfully) for Minnesota Attorney General.
On the campaign trail, inequality was at the core of Omar's message: "The wealthiest of our country have accumulated their wealth through a system that keeps people in poverty," she said.
Omar's economic justice platform was one of the most ambitious and detailed in the whole congressional candidate field. To lift up the bottom of the income scale, for example, she supports a federal job guarantee program that would provide a $15 per hour, full-time job to anyone who needs one.
To address income and wealth concentration at the top, her policies range from taxing Wall Street speculation and breaking up the big banks to strengthening the estate tax and hiking income tax rates on the wealthy. Omar also endorsed Medicare for All and debt-free college.
As a former refugee, she will be a strong voice in Washington for immigrant rights and economic justice. In a rebuke to President Trump's Islamaphobia, she opened her victory speech in Minneapolis with the Arabic greeting "as-salam alaikum."
To address income and wealth concentration at the top, [Ilhan Omar's] policies range from taxing Wall Street speculation and breaking up the big banks to strengthening the estate tax and hiking income tax rates on the wealthy. Omar also endorsed Medicare for All and debt-free college.
Rashida Tlaibwill join Omar as one of the first two Muslim women in Congress, filling the Michigan 13th seat long held by John Conyers. Tlaib has been a passionate supporter of workers rights as a state legislator and lawyer. Just a month before the election, she was arrested while blocking a street in front of a Detroit McDonald's during a "Fight for $15" protest for higher wages and union rights.
Like several others on this list, Tlaib's economic priorities include Medicare for All, debt-free college, and making the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share of taxes. She already has a track record of standing up to billionaires -- and winning. When Michigan officials dismissed residents' concerns about pollution from a factory owned by the Koch brothers, Tlaib trespassed on the company's property to collect samples herself. Her bold action led to the Koch brothers being forced to remove the pollutants from Detroit's riverfront.
Ayanna Pressley was uncontested in her race in the 7th district of Massachusetts, becoming the first black woman to represent the state. In the spring, she won an upset primary against Democratic incumbent Mike Capuano.
A former Boston city council member, Pressley says her priorities in Washington will be "economic inequality, the wealth and wage gap, structural racism, and gun violence."
Pressley has developed a detailed economic policy agenda, including fair taxation to pay for robust mass transit and other public infrastructure improvements. On Wall Street reform, she calls for a new Glass-Steagall Act to separate commercial banking services from investment banking, as well as tougher sentences for banking executives who engage in fraud and negligence that jeopardizes working Americans' retirement and savings.
On the campaign trail, she decried the rising inequality in her own city of Boston, pointing out that rich and poor neighborhoods that are not far apart geographically have average life expectancies that range from 92 to less than 60 years.
"These types of disparities, Pressley explains, "are not naturally occurring; they are the legacy of decades of policies that have hardened systemic racism, increased income inequality, and advantaged the affluent."
Veronica Escobar earned 68 percent of the vote in her bid to fill the Texas 16th district seat vacated by Beto O'Rourke when he ran for senate. She'll be one of the first two Latina representatives from the Lone Star state (along with Sylvia Garcia from Houston).
A former El Paso county judge, Escobar is committed to fighting for immigrant rights and economic justice in the U.S.-Mexico border community that is her hometown.
"I see the impact of income inequality everyday and will fight to fix our broken economic system, while protecting the gains made by working families and fighting for tax reforms that support the families I represent," she said.
One of the proposals Escobar touted on the campaign trail: scrapping the cap on Social Security contributions so the wealthy pay the same rate into the program as everyone else.
Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez, after her shocker defeat of a 10-term incumbent in the June primary, strolled to victory as the new member of Congress from New York's 14th district, earning 78 percent of the vote. At 29, she's the youngest woman ever to hold a seat in the House.
In the months leading up to the election, Ocasio-Cortez lent her political star power to support other candidates and to mainstream bold progressive proposals like Medicare for All, debt-free college, and raising taxes on corporations and the ultra-wealthy.
Ocasio-Cortez also calls for carbon taxes to help speed up the transition from fossil fuels to 100 percent renewables. "Right now, the economy is controlled by big corporations whose profits are dependent on the continuation of climate change," she said during the campaign. "This arrangement benefits few, but comes at the detriment of our planet and all its inhabitants."
In her acceptance speech Tuesday night, Ocasio-Cortez said, "In the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, our greatest scarcity is not a lack of resources but the absence of political courage and moral imagination."
The Democratic Party has regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives and with this shift will come a new cadre of forceful female leaders committed to narrowing the gaps that so divide us.
"In the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, our greatest scarcity is not a lack of resources but the absence of political courage and moral imagination."
--Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
The six victorious candidates profiled here are remarkable in many ways. All women of color, these trailblazers often drew from their own personal stories to connect with and win over the hearts of voters. Each is heading to Washington to advance a bold social and economic justice agenda, with a strong focus on reversing inequality.
Deb Haaland, of New Mexico's 1st District, will become one of the first two native American women in Congress (along with Sharice Davids, who won a seat in the Kansas delegation). Halland is a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe and a former head of the New Mexico Democratic Party.
On the campaign trail, Haaland didn't mince words about the economic unfairness she sees in the country: "America isn't broke, but we have been pillaged by billionaires and big corporations who get rich off our infrastructure and expect working people to foot the bill. No more."
To get those billionaires and corporations to pay their fair share, Haaland goes far beyond calling for the repeal of the Trump-Republican tax reform. She'd like to see taxes on individual income and corporate profits rise back to post-World War II levels. She also calls for the introduction of a small tax on financial market transactions and a more robust estate tax.
Haaland will also be a powerful voice in Washington against Trump's hateful immigration policies. On the government's separation of immigrant families, Haaland draws from her own family's experience. Her grandmother was forced into an "assimilation" boarding school when she was eight years old.
Ilhan Omar will become the first Somali American woman in Congress, taking the Minnesota District 5 seat vacated by Keith Ellison when he decided to run (successfully) for Minnesota Attorney General.
On the campaign trail, inequality was at the core of Omar's message: "The wealthiest of our country have accumulated their wealth through a system that keeps people in poverty," she said.
Omar's economic justice platform was one of the most ambitious and detailed in the whole congressional candidate field. To lift up the bottom of the income scale, for example, she supports a federal job guarantee program that would provide a $15 per hour, full-time job to anyone who needs one.
To address income and wealth concentration at the top, her policies range from taxing Wall Street speculation and breaking up the big banks to strengthening the estate tax and hiking income tax rates on the wealthy. Omar also endorsed Medicare for All and debt-free college.
As a former refugee, she will be a strong voice in Washington for immigrant rights and economic justice. In a rebuke to President Trump's Islamaphobia, she opened her victory speech in Minneapolis with the Arabic greeting "as-salam alaikum."
To address income and wealth concentration at the top, [Ilhan Omar's] policies range from taxing Wall Street speculation and breaking up the big banks to strengthening the estate tax and hiking income tax rates on the wealthy. Omar also endorsed Medicare for All and debt-free college.
Rashida Tlaibwill join Omar as one of the first two Muslim women in Congress, filling the Michigan 13th seat long held by John Conyers. Tlaib has been a passionate supporter of workers rights as a state legislator and lawyer. Just a month before the election, she was arrested while blocking a street in front of a Detroit McDonald's during a "Fight for $15" protest for higher wages and union rights.
Like several others on this list, Tlaib's economic priorities include Medicare for All, debt-free college, and making the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share of taxes. She already has a track record of standing up to billionaires -- and winning. When Michigan officials dismissed residents' concerns about pollution from a factory owned by the Koch brothers, Tlaib trespassed on the company's property to collect samples herself. Her bold action led to the Koch brothers being forced to remove the pollutants from Detroit's riverfront.
Ayanna Pressley was uncontested in her race in the 7th district of Massachusetts, becoming the first black woman to represent the state. In the spring, she won an upset primary against Democratic incumbent Mike Capuano.
A former Boston city council member, Pressley says her priorities in Washington will be "economic inequality, the wealth and wage gap, structural racism, and gun violence."
Pressley has developed a detailed economic policy agenda, including fair taxation to pay for robust mass transit and other public infrastructure improvements. On Wall Street reform, she calls for a new Glass-Steagall Act to separate commercial banking services from investment banking, as well as tougher sentences for banking executives who engage in fraud and negligence that jeopardizes working Americans' retirement and savings.
On the campaign trail, she decried the rising inequality in her own city of Boston, pointing out that rich and poor neighborhoods that are not far apart geographically have average life expectancies that range from 92 to less than 60 years.
"These types of disparities, Pressley explains, "are not naturally occurring; they are the legacy of decades of policies that have hardened systemic racism, increased income inequality, and advantaged the affluent."
Veronica Escobar earned 68 percent of the vote in her bid to fill the Texas 16th district seat vacated by Beto O'Rourke when he ran for senate. She'll be one of the first two Latina representatives from the Lone Star state (along with Sylvia Garcia from Houston).
A former El Paso county judge, Escobar is committed to fighting for immigrant rights and economic justice in the U.S.-Mexico border community that is her hometown.
"I see the impact of income inequality everyday and will fight to fix our broken economic system, while protecting the gains made by working families and fighting for tax reforms that support the families I represent," she said.
One of the proposals Escobar touted on the campaign trail: scrapping the cap on Social Security contributions so the wealthy pay the same rate into the program as everyone else.
Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez, after her shocker defeat of a 10-term incumbent in the June primary, strolled to victory as the new member of Congress from New York's 14th district, earning 78 percent of the vote. At 29, she's the youngest woman ever to hold a seat in the House.
In the months leading up to the election, Ocasio-Cortez lent her political star power to support other candidates and to mainstream bold progressive proposals like Medicare for All, debt-free college, and raising taxes on corporations and the ultra-wealthy.
Ocasio-Cortez also calls for carbon taxes to help speed up the transition from fossil fuels to 100 percent renewables. "Right now, the economy is controlled by big corporations whose profits are dependent on the continuation of climate change," she said during the campaign. "This arrangement benefits few, but comes at the detriment of our planet and all its inhabitants."
In her acceptance speech Tuesday night, Ocasio-Cortez said, "In the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, our greatest scarcity is not a lack of resources but the absence of political courage and moral imagination."
"I think that the Democratic Party has to make a fundamental decision," says the independent Senator from Vermont, "and I'm not sure that they will make the right decision."
"I think when we talk about America is a democracy, I think we should rephrase it, call it a 'pseudo-democracy.'"
That's what Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Sunday morning in response to questions from CBS News about the state of the nation, with President Donald Trump gutting the federal government from head to toe, challenging constitutional norms, allowing his cabinet of billionaires to run key agencies they philosophically want to destroy, and empowering Elon Musk—the world's richest person—to run roughshod over public education, undermine healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and attack Social Security.
Taking a weekend away from his ongoing "Fight Oligarchy" tour, which has drawn record crowds in both right-leaning and left-leaning regions of the country over recent weeks, Sanders said the problem is deeply entrenched now in the nation's political system—and both major parties have a lot to answer for.
"One of the other concerns when I talk about oligarchy," Sanders explained to journalist Robert Acosta, "it's not just massive income and wealth inequality. It's not just the power of the billionaire class. These guys, led by Musk—and as a result of this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision—have now allowed billionaires essentially to own our political process. So, I think when we talk about America is a democracy, I think we should rephrase it, call it a 'pseudo-democracy.' And it's not just Musk and the Republicans; it's billionaires in the Democratic Party as well."
Sanders said that while he's been out on the road in various places, what he perceives—from Americans of all stripes—is a shared sense of dread and frustration.
"I think I'm seeing fear, and I'm seeing anger," he said. "Sixty percent of our people are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Media doesn't talk about it. We don't talk about it enough here in Congress."
In a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Friday night, just before the Republican-controlled chamber was able to pass a sweeping spending resolution that will lay waste to vital programs like Medicaid and food assistance to needy families so that billionaires and the ultra-rich can enjoy even more tax giveaways, Sanders said, "What we have is a budget proposal in front of us that makes bad situations much worse and does virtually nothing to protect the needs of working families."
LIVE: I'm on the floor now talking about Trump's totally absurd budget.
They got it exactly backwards. No tax cuts for billionaires by cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for Americans. https://t.co/ULB2KosOSJ
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 4, 2025
What the GOP spending plan does do, he added, "is reward wealthy campaign contributors by providing over $1 trillion in tax breaks for the top one percent."
"I wish my Republican friends the best of luck when they go home—if they dare to hold town hall meetings—and explain to their constituents why they think, at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, it's a great idea to give tax breaks to billionaires and cut Medicaid, education, and other programs that working class families desperately need."
On Saturday, millions of people took to the street in coordinated protests against the Trump administration's attack on government, the economy, and democracy itself.
Voiced at many of the rallies was also a frustration with the failure of the Democrats to stand up to Trump and offer an alternative vision for what the nation can be. In his CBS News interview, Sanders said the key question Democrats need to be asking is the one too many people in Washington, D.C. tend to avoid.
"Why are [the Democrats] held in so low esteem?" That's the question that needs asking, he said.
"Why has the working class in this country largely turned away from them? And what do you have to do to recapture that working class? Do you think working people are voting for Trump because he wants to give massive tax breaks to billionaires and cut Social Security and Medicare? I don't think so. It's because people say, 'I am hurting. Democratic Party has talked a good game for years. They haven't done anything.' So, I think that the Democratic Party has to make a fundamental decision, and I'm not sure that they will make the right decision, which side are they on? [Will] they continue to hustle large campaign contributions from very, very wealthy people, or do they stand with the working class?"
The next leg of Sanders' "Fight Oligarchy' tour will kick off next Saturday, with stops in California, Utah, and Idaho over four days.
"The American people, whether they are Democrats, Republicans or Independents, do not want billionaires to control our government or buy our elections," said Sanders. "That is why I will be visiting Republican-held districts all over the Western United States. When we are organized and fight back, we can defeat oligarchy."
"Imagine if federal worker unions and Democratic Party officials showed up at the plant gate of a company that was about to close its doors," said one labor advocate recently. "Why aren't the Democrats doing this?"
Congressman Ro Khanna is raising the alarm about mass layoffs in the U.S. economy resulting from President Donald Trump's failed economic policies. Over 4,000 factory workers lost their jobs this week due to firings or plant closures.
On Thursday, automaker Stellantis, citing conditions created by Trump's tariffs, announced temporary layoffs for 900 workers, represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW). "The affected U.S. employees," reported CNN, "work at five different Midwest plants: the Warren Stamping and Sterling Stamping plants in Michigan, as well as the Indiana Transmission Plant, Kokomo Transmission Plant and Kokomo Casting Plant, all in Kokomo, Indiana."
In a social media thread on Saturday night, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)—a lawmaker who has advocating loudly, including in books and in Congress, for an industrialization policy that would bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States—posted a litany of other layoffs announced recently as part of the economic devastation and chaos unleashed by Trump as well as conditions that reveal how vulnerable U.S. workers remain.
"This week," Khann wrote, "19 factories had mass layoffs, 15 closed, and 4,134 factory workers across America lost their jobs. Cleveland-Cliffs laid off 1,200 workers in Michigan and Minnesota as they deal with the impact of Trump's tariffs on steel and auto imports."
"We need jobs and currently at this time, the majority of the companies that we work with and represent our members at are not hiring." —Mark DePaoli, UAW
For union leaders representing those workers at Cleveland-Cliffs, they said "chaos" was the operative word. "Chaos. You know? A lot of questions. You've got a lot of people who worked there a long time that are potentially losing their job," Bill Wilhelm, a servicing representative and editor with UAW Local 600, told local ABC News affiliate WXYZ-Channel 7.
The United Auto Workers says the layoff fund set aside for those losing their jobs won't last long and find them new jobs of that quality will not be easy. "Our first concern will be to look around at all the companies where we have members and see if we can find jobs," said the local's 1st vice president, Mark DePaoli. "I mean, jobs are going to be the key. We need jobs and currently at this time, the majority of the companies that we work with and represent our members at are not hiring."
The pain of workers in families in Dearborn, as indicated by Khanna's thread, is just the tip of the iceberg. In post after post, he cataloged a stream of new layoffs impacting workers nationwide and across various sectors:
With public sector workers being fired in massive numbers nationwide due to the blitzkrieg unleashed by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, private sector workers are no strangers to mass layoffs within a U.S. economy dominated by corporate interests and union density still at historic lows.
Les Leopold, executive director of the Labor Institute who has been sounding the alarm for years about the devastation associated with mass layoffs, wrote recently about how the situation is even worse than he previously understood. On top of existing corporate greed and the stock buyback phenomena driving many of the mass layoffs in the private sector, Trump's mismanagement of tariff and trade policy is almost certain to make things worse, triggering more job losses in addition to higher costs on consumer goods.
In order to combat Trump, Leopold wrote last month, "Democrats should take a page from Trump and put job protection on the top of their agenda. As tariffs bite and cause job destruction, the Democrats should show up and support those laid-off workers."
Instead of simply calling Trump's tariffs "insane," which many rightly have, the Democrats "should call them job-killing tariffs," advised Leopold. "As prices rise, they can blame Trump for that as well."
With Trump's economic policies coming into full view, the picture is bleak for businesses large and small—and that means more pain for workers.
As Axios' Ben Berkowitz reported Saturday. "When everything gets more expensive everywhere because of tariffs, that starts a cycle for businesses, too — one that might end with layoffs, bankruptcies, and higher prices for the survivors' customers," he explained. "The cycle is just starting now, but the pain is immediate."
The "big picture," Berkowitz continued, is this:
The stock market is not the economy, but if you want a decent proxy for Main Street businesses, look at the Russell 2000, a broad measure of the stock market's small companies across industries.
—It's down almost 20% this year alone.
—That in and of itself doesn't make a business turn the lights off, but it says something about public confidence in their prospects.
—"The market is like a real time poll ... this is going to impact all businesses in one way or another undoubtedly," Ken Mahoney of Mahoney Asset Management wrote Friday.
In Sunday comments to Common Dreams, Leopold wanted to know where Khanna and other Democrats were last year when John Deere laid off a thousand workers.
"What do the progressive Democrats have to say about the tens of thousands of mass layoffs that take place each month? Radio silence," he said. "It would be useful if they had a policy that addressed Wall Street induced mass layoffs rather than just opposing tariffs, but I wouldn't bet on that."
On the question of silence and who, ultimately, will stand up for American workers—whether in the public or private sector—it's not clear who will emerge as a true defender or what forces would galvanize to truly represent the interests of the nation's working class.
"Imagine if federal worker unions and Democratic Party officials showed up at the plant gate of a company that was about to close its doors to finance hefty stock buybacks for its billionaire owners," Leopold wrote in early March. "A show of support for their fellow layoff victims and a unity message aimed at stopping billionaire job destruction would be simple to craft and easy to share. It would be news."
"Why aren't the Democrats doing this?" he asked.
"Thank you to the hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country who are standing up and speaking out for our voting rights, fundamental freedoms, and essential services like Social Security and Medicare."
In communities large and small across the United States on Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people collectively took to the streets to make their opposition to President Donald Trump heard.
The people who took part in the organized protests ranged from very young children to the elderly and their message was scrawled on signs of all sizes and colors—many of them angry, some of them funny, but all in line with the "Hands Off" message that brought them together.
"Thank you to the hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country who are standing up and speaking out for our voting rights, fundamental freedoms, and essential services like Social Security and Medicare," said the group Stand Up America as word of the turnout poured in from across the country.
A relatively small, but representative sample of photographs from various demonstrations that took place follows.
Demonstrators gather on Boston Common, cheering and chanting slogans, during the nationwide "Hands Off!" protest against US President Donald Trump and his advisor, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, in Boston, Massachusetts on April 5, 2025. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP)