Fighting Trump’s Oligarchy in Solidarity with Federal Workers

The Trump regime, marked by a naked billionaire takeover of the federal government and an intensifying war on the working class, has awakened millions of Americans to the urgent need to take action. Today’s political terrain is unique in U.S. history and is evolving rapidly. As East Bay DSA responds, our most urgent priority is to support,

organize and shape the mass movement that began to develop in the early months of Trump’s administration.

Central to that mass movement is a rank-and-file organization of self-organized federal workers, the Federal Unionists Network (FUN). Since its creation in 2022, the FUN has grown dramatically in response to the threats posed by Trump and by Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE). The FUN has set the resistance agenda not only for their members, but for their unions, as well as for the AFL-CIO and the labor movement as a whole. Its March 13 livestream drew over 200,000 viewers.

We believe the struggle of the FUN and federal workers is highly strategic for three reasons:

First, federal civilian workers exceed 2 million in number, and live and work in cities and towns across the U.S.; some 150,000 live in California alone. This positions them uniquely to engage with locally-organized, nationally-coordinated actions.
Second, by its very nature, the FUN’s fight for what are normally thought of as economic issues around job security and union rights are inseparably political struggles as well. This brings a class-struggle framing to their demands to an extent not often seen in the struggles of union workers.
And third, federal workers occupy a dual role with respect to the federal state, as both insiders (with expertise in how it functions, whom it serves, and what impacts current threats pose to the working class) and an outside role rallying the broader working class to take action.

Two key goals of our campaign are (1) to organize federal workers in the East Bay, working closely with FUN organizers, and (2) to organize among non-federal workers and communities to link federal and local struggles.

Connecting the national struggle of federal workers with local organizing here in the East Bay is also especially strategic right now. As we saw both with the “Hands Off” rallies and May Day actions that drew several million participants, an important mode of struggle right now is locally-organized actions that are coordinated nationally. The FUN and its members have played a key role both in national coordination and in planning local actions.

Our chapter is well-positioned to connect federal worker struggles with the struggles of local unions in the East Bay. Our previous priority campaign around labor solidarity in 2022-24 fostered the creation of many trusting relationships at the rank-and-file and leadership level in multiple unions and labor councils in the East Bay. The chapter is also well-situated to connect with the “constituents” who depend on federal programs and funding in our communities, and integrate them in solidarity with federal workers to protect essential public services.

Beyond the solidarity we aim to build in the present moment, our campaign aims to knit together a durable and powerful alliance of working and poor East Bay residents that will be capable of winning transformative change to our political and economic system in the future.

Read our priority campaign resolution and check our Events calendar for upcoming meetings and actions.