Countering an Authoritarian Takeover with the Labor Movement: Alex Han & Tarso Ramos [Rewind-Uncut Conversation]

Laura Flanders and Friends: Intersectional Solution Centered Journalism on Democracy, Movements, Society and Culture

In a candid discussion with Laura, veteran union organizer Alex Han and U.S. Right Wing expert Tarso Ramos explore how workers are uniting against rising authoritarianism.

Full Conversation Release: While our weekly shows are edited to time for broadcast on Public TV and community radio, we offer to our members and podcast subscribers the full uncut conversation. These audio exclusives are made possible thanks to our member supporters.

DESCRIPTION: The United States is moving towards authoritarianism, but there is still a window of opportunity to reverse course. What could improve the chances of re-balancing power in the nation, and advancing towards that multiracial democracy that many still dream of? The answer is worker organizing, say Alex Han and Tarso Luís Ramos. "When we look at the history of U-turns from democratic backsliding to democratic revival, the success rate is about 50 percent," says Ramos. "Where there's active, vibrant union participation, the odds go up to about 80 percent." So what's holding Labor back? In early May of 2025, Laura sat down with Ramos and Han at a conference on “Labor in the Age of Authoritarian Politics”, held at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies (SLU) in New York. Ramos is a leading expert on the U.S. Right Wing and former Executive Director of Political Research Associates. He now serves as Senior Advisor to Future Currents, a strategic planning group of social and economic justice leaders. Han has spent most of his adult life in the labor movement, as an organizer and elected president of a large Chicago local. In 2023, he became Executive Director of In These Times, the long-running Chicago-based progressive magazine. In the wake of mass layoffs and the abduction of Kilmar Abrego García, a union member wrongly exported to El Salvador and now held in Tennessee, can enough workers and their allies band together to make a difference?

“I think of all of these times where I've shown up at a protest and I know every single person there. When that happens, I know we're not winning today.” - Alex Han

“I think the coup that we did not prepare for was the force accelerator that most people experience as DOGE. It's the Musk and Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen set of actors . . . They're interested in ringing the profits out of the public sector, and they're interested in accelerating the demise of civilian governance altogether.” - Tarso Luís Ramos

Guests:

Alex Han: Executive Director, In These Times

Tarso Luís Ramos: Senior Adviser, Political Research Associates; Senior Fellow, Future Currents

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Full Episode Notes are located HERE.

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Related Articles and Resources:

In These Times magazine

Political Research Associates

Future Currents

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