Juneau W. | Red Phoenix correspondent | Iowa–

The Republican Party has been ramping up its attacks on the working class, covering their tracks with scandals and the persecution of the most marginalized workers. As these attacks escalate, where is the other party? The Democrats sit on the sidelines, some waving their fists silently while others cheer on the wave of reactionary attacks, that is if they do anything at all. Constantly positioning themselves as defenders of the marginalized, the Democratic Party is quick to talk down to others, abandon those in need at the most crucial moments, and even serve as active participants in persecuting transgender people, immigrants, women, and all other marginalized groups. In times like this, it is as important as ever to know who the friends of the working class are and who seeks to continue the status quo, advancing the interests of the capitalists to divide and oppress the working class. 

We start with the transgender community which has been increasingly under fire, with Republicans ruthlessly attacking civil protections, access to healthcare, and even the personal lives of our transgender siblings and comrades. The Democratic Party, in seeing all of this, has taken the side of the Republicans. We’ve seen over the years countless Democrats, including high ranking ones, take the “meet them in the middle” strategy. Kamala Harris, in an interview with NBC, was asked whether she believes transgender people should have access to gender-affirming care. Her reply, “I think we should follow the law,” demonstrates the spinelessness of the party. The law in many states is that transgender people should not have this access. In the face of oppression are the people to just accept what is in order to avoid disagreement? The Democratic Party seems to think so.

While there are many states that have much worse laws for the transgender community, I would like to shift some focus to what made me want to write this article, or at least what was the final straw. In Iowa, the state where I live now, there has been a wave of anti-transgender legislation over the past three years, including barring people under the age of 18 from any level of gender-affirming care, regulating public bathroom usage, stripping people of civil protections, barring athletes from sports, and many many more attacks.

With the election for Iowa’s next governor getting closer, what does the Democratic candidate Rob Sand have to say about all this? When asked a loaded question about whether “biological boys or men” should be able to play women’s sports, he said “no” and labeled it a distraction. He responded to backlash by saying, “If you agree with someone on seven out of twelve issues, vote for them. If you agree with someone on twelve out of twelve issues, see a psychiatrist.” Sand is downplaying genuine concerns of the people and making a mockery out of them. And while he and many other Democrats say they support transgender people, even if it isn’t on all issues, they evidently do not. A concession like participation in sports demonstrates their willingness to negotiate and work with bigotry which poses a threat for all rights of transgender people. 

And it’s not just in Iowa, of course, where these things are happening. Pete Buttigieg has described there being a “fairness issue” with transgender people participating in sports. California Governor Gavin Newsom hosted a podcast episode with Charlie Kirk where they both agreed that transgender people should be barred from sports, saying, “I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that.”

Prominent Democrats across the country are picking up this “fairness issue” and pushing it forward as though it’s some fact and some humble concession “across the aisle” in the name of moving forward. Is putting the rights of working people up for debate something we should really be content with? Of course not! And as this idea spreads throughout the party, we will no doubt see a rollback on the defense of transgender people, isolating that community and adding to the persecution that our fellow workers already face. This cannot go on.

In addition to the transgender population being persecuted, we of course cannot talk about the current administration without mentioning immigration. DHS deported over 600,000 immigrants in 2025. How have the Democrats responded? They’ve raised signs, waved their fists silently, and when they do act it’s through court decisions that the administration just ignores while they seek approval from another court.

And let’s not forget the party’s own history of persecuting immigrants. As far back as September of 2024, the Biden administration was increasing ICE’s capacity to do mass round-ups of immigrants. This gave the Trump administration extra resources and allowed them to start their brutal mass deportation campaign even earlier. Let’s also not forget Obama’s presidency where ICE forcefully removed over three million people in an aggressive crackdown against immigrants, yet another assault carried out by the Democrats.

The Democrats today wave away this genocidal and repressive history with clunky quotations of Obama regarding “only criminals, not families,” when the very existence of many immigrants is criminalized, and if every single one, or even a quarter of those three million deported by Obama’s administration, were cartel agents, there would be crime around every corner, a Mad Max dystopia that simply does not exist!

Regarding reproductive rights and access to abortions, the Democrats failed here too. Since the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973, the Democrats held four supermajorities, controlling all branches of the federal government, and had ample political power to codify abortion rights, as they promised to do time and time again. To say they sat on the opportunity is to give them too much credit; their inaction was deliberate, as President Obama himself declared in 2010, “it’s not a legislative priority right now.” Abortion rights were a major issue to campaign on. They could dangle a basic human right in front of the working class like a carrot on a stick after they had already pushed people into accepting electoralism and preserving the status quo. Then, after 50 years of stalling, and under a Democratic administration, many millions of people lost the right to an abortion with the ruling of a single, unelected court. 

Time after time, we see the Democrats fail, intentionally, to deliver on their promises. The Democrats exist to dilute the demands of the working class, turning revolution into acceptance of the capitalist status quo. We could speak for hours on the shortfalls of that party on just social issues, let alone the party’s servitude to capital and deception of the working class. The railway strike in December 2022 comes to mind when rail workers were to launch a massive strike demanding sick and vacation days (not more, they were demanding to just have them! And in the throes of a historic pandemic!) only to be struck down, in an 80-15 vote in the senate, along with their demands, by the “most pro-union president.” Workers walked away with one day of paid leave per year and minimal increases in pay. The other reason they were striking was because of the unsafe practices that many rail companies were doing and the lack of upkeep of many railways, warning of a disaster. Sure enough, in February 2023, less than three months later, the infamous train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio took place, spilling toxic chemicals into the water of this small town, killing seven including a newborn.

Is this what we are to settle for? Are these the people we are to rely on in the face of fascism? The ones we should vote for if we agree on seven out of twelve issues, even if one of the other five is starving children because that’s “just the price of the free market?” No. The working class, being the backbone of everything in the country and the world, has not only the power but a responsibility to demand, and to seize, a better future. While we need to continue the fight for better conditions now and support strikers where we can, we must remember that we aren’t limiting our fight to a better capitalism, for more concessions from the ruling class, that can be mercilessly and cowardly ripped away. The fight must continue to be for socialism and establishing a system by and for the workers. The APL demands the liberation of the whole of the working class, not just a section, and rejects the deceptive facilitation of fascism by the Democratic Party and the more blatant fascism of the Republicans!

Categories: Discrimination, Government, Immigration, U.S. News