Anti-China, Anti-Worker, Anti-Environment: MAGA 2024’s Strategy is Here

Depending where you get your news about the United Auto Workers’ (UAW) strike, you might think it has nothing to do with democracy, a green economy, or China. But it’s about all of that.

The UAW’s strategy—the crux of which eschews mass work stoppages in favor of unpredictable work stoppages at rotating locations, leaving management unable to plan—is showing early signs of working.

It helps too that labor is cool again. You may have noticed that even most mainstream politicians support UAW now. Biden himself said he “stands in solidarity with UAW,” and has now officially walked the picket line—a first for a US president, and a major symbolic victory for workers.

Even Obama—Obama!—has come out in support of the UAW’s demands.

But why has Biden done the unprecedented here? And what does it have to do with the Republican response? There’s the story.

The reactionary right is opposing the UAW by narrating a linkage among Bidenomics, China, and the climate crisis.

It’s national-security rhetoric that’s part perversity thesis, part politics of deflection, and all defense of an oligarchic status quo that grinds the souls of workers.

Let me explain.