Gaza and Minnesota: Progressive Politics and the Working Class in America

A Working-Class Victory in Minnesota 

In Minnesota, Uber and Lyft drivers recently won a major victory after a two-year fight with the companies. It was an important victory in the struggle for social justice in the United States. Uber and Lyft are famous for their oppressive treatment of their workers, and they used their lobbying clout as they have in other states to avoid having to pay the drivers a living wage. The issue was whether or not the drivers should be paid at least the minimum wage set by law in Minnesota. The companies claimed that, because the drivers were independent contractors, the law did not apply to them. The companies lobbied to protect their exploitative business model as they have in other states, but in Minnesota, the drivers were able to win.

A Fight Not Supported

The drivers’ long struggle for a living wage did not receive much support from students or other progressive activists across the country. We did not see massive demonstrations or national threats to boycott Uber or Lyft. No one proposed that universities or other institutions sell their holdings of shares in those companies. The Democratic Party was not split over the issue, and the elections of 2022 were unaffected by the drivers' struggle in Minnesota or in other states.

A Fight Supported

The lack of support for these working-class Americans in their struggle for a living wage contrasts strongly with the enormous support shown by American progressives for the residents of Gaza in the face of Israel’s invasion of Gaza last fall. We have seen massive demonstrations. We have seen protest encampments. We have seen the heads of major universities lose their jobs. Jamaal Bowman lost a Democratic primary election. The Democratic Party is deeply split over the issue of American support for Israel, and the issue may well affect the outcome of this fall’s elections.

Why are American progressives so passionate about the war in Gaza and so indifferent to the struggles of working-class Americans here at home?  

American Progressives Are Comfortable

Part of the answer comes from the fact that fighting for justice on the other side of the world is less risky than fighting for justice at home. Most progressive Americans live comfortable, middle-class lives and have little contact with working-class Americans.  The progressives mostly belong to the patrimonial middle class, and they have little interest in changing social arrangements from which they benefit. After all, paying the drivers a living wage might raise the prices that Lyft or Uber charges for rides. On the other hand, fighting for social justice in a place 6000 miles away does not risk upsetting social arrangements here in the United States. In fighting for justice in Gaza, progressives are able to feel a glow of virtue without endangering their own, comfortable, economic positions.

American Progressives Have Lost Sight of the Main Issue

American progressives' failure to support the struggles of working-class Americans may also spring from the fact that American progressives have lost sight of the core issue that underlies all of the issues that are prominent sources of conflict in American politics.  The core, underlying issue is the domination of American society by a tiny minority of wealthy people, and the skewing of public policy to favor that tiny minority. 

American progressive groups have lost site of the connections between their, specific concerns and this underlying issue. So, they do not develop a consistent and coordinated set of political priorities. Instead, they become prey to momentary, political passions. American progressives may become temporarily passionate about the death of George Floyd or about the plight of the Palestinians but do not consistently support policies to improve the lives of ordinary, American people.  

That is why tens of thousands of people mobilized to support the Palestinians in Gaza, but the Uber and Lyft drivers in Minnesota fought their battle alone.