Organize before History comes knocking on your door!

The foundations of democracy are under severe pressure worldwide, with the public sector at the centre of this attack. We spoke to Lina Jamoul, Deputy Secretary General of PSI (Public Services International), the global union federation of workers in public services, about how the labour movement can fight back, transforming the anger felt by many working people into hope for a fairer society.

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung: The far right is attacking the public sector worldwide. How is the far right acting, and above all, why?

Lina Jamoul: In the first year of the Trump administration 2.0 over 300,000 federal government workers quit, retired, or were laid off, an 80% increase from 2024. On his first day back in office, Trump issued an executive order reclassifying tens of thousands of government employees as ‘political appointees’, stating they could be fired if they didn’t advance the president’s political agenda, and stripped whistleblowing protections from them.

He has brought congress-mandated independent federal agencies, effectively under White House control. Musk’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ shuttered government agencies, defunded programs and offered more than 2 million federal workers a buyout. This is a snippet of how the far right is attacking public services worldwide, by deliberately and methodically hollowing out government institutions.

Why?

Because public service workers stand between an oligarch and complete state power. In Trump’s attempted coup on 6 January 2021, it was government workers who physically protected the ballot boxes from the mob. Under Bolsonaro, in Brazil, it was the Supreme court that protected democracy. And so, the far right must attack the public sector because we stand in their way, by virtue of being who we are and what we do.

There is another reason: The path of power for the far right is through the working class, who are understandably angry at politics, having materially lost out in the last few decades. Unions are an important obstacle for the far right on that path. And public service unions in particular, who often have higher density, can be one of the biggest obstacles. And so, they must attack us.

PSI is organizing an-ongoing global “Fight Back” campaign, one of the highlights was the international “Public Services Fightback Conference” in Madrid this September. Why did public sector unions come all together, and what was their goal?

Our affiliates in Spain talked to us about the threats if the far right were to win the elections, which includes draft legislation that would outlaw union representation in workplaces with less than 250 workers. The vast majority of public services are in the municipal sector, in workplaces with less than 250 workers. That could potentially mean that 6,000 local municipalities lose their right to union representation at the stroke of a pen. Our affiliates in New Zealand are potentially facing the elimination of employer check off. It sounds like a technical change, but it’s an attack on the unions’ ability to collect member dues, the ability to pool resources together, and therefore power.

These are only two examples, and there are many like that. So, public service unions are facing a sense of urgency, are facing institutional attacks, and at the same time, understand these are not isolated national attacks, but are part of a global trend that is coordinated. Our goal was to understand the threat, see the patterns, and explore means of facilitating transnational cooperation and strategies that enable us to resist these attacks.

(In Madrid) numerous union members have reported attacks on their jobs in the field, on workers’ rights, and on democratic institutions by the far right. Where have they successfully resisted, and above all, how? Can you give an example that particularly impressed you—one from which we can learn globally?

There were many inspiring stories. I’ll highlight one from Ireland, our affiliate Forsa, who talked about changing the culture of the union into an organizing culture and intentionally building power. They have been doing this work for over 10 years, and they are the fastest growing union in Ireland, just passing the 100,000 member-mark.

In 2023, far-right agitators mobbed libraries, attacked library workers and attempted to forcibly remove books they deemed ‘inappropriate’. FORSA, true to their name, responded in force. They met with hundreds of library workers across the country, responded with solidarity actions, and effectively halted the far-right attacks on libraries in Ireland. Had they not built an organizing culture in the union, years before the far-right attacks happened, they might not have been as successful at stopping the attacks. As Vincent Bevins told us, you need to build organization years before History, with a capital H, comes knocking at your door.

At the conference, it became clear: we need a positive vision for the future and hope. How can the labour movement spread hope for our societies in the future?

Michael Gecan, organizer and author, who spoke at our conference was interviewed by Studs Terkel, writer and pioneer of oral history, for his book ‘Hope Dies Last’. In that book, he says you can’t think your way into hope, you have to act your way into hope. And the labor movement does that every day for our societies. We provide the space, the organization, where ordinary workers can lay claim to our agency, which is ultimately our birthright, and in so doing we spread hope. That was captured beautifully in Madrid when Inga Dey, employee of the Frankfurt City Management and a member of the TVöD Federal Collective Bargaining Commission from ver.di, shared her story of being involved in strike action and how that’s transformed her.

Dr Lina Jamoul is PSI’s Deputy General Secretary and Head of Union Building. She previously led the Solidarity Center’s North Africa programme, launching its first Labour Leadership Initiative, and served as Executive Director of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees.