by Matt Duss

The Democrats’ Pro-Worker Agenda Can Go Global

As a candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris is signalling her rejection of a corporatist neoliberalism in favor of progressive, worker-first policies at home. Such a policy would build on the existing pro-labor success of the Biden administration, but it also presents an opportunity to move towards a more pro-worker foreign policy, without getting caught in great power competition.

Writes Matt Duss:

The United States can build a more equitable global order, or it can frantically try to maintain global primacy, but it can’t do both. The Harris-Walz team has an important task and a big opportunity to diminish this contradiction and complete this transformation. Just as the neoliberal era proved that giving carte blanche to big corporations—whether they’re car companies or weapons manufacturers—is not a means for achieving broad economic progress or security, the past 20 years of the “war on terror” showed that a heavily militarized foreign policy feeds global insecurity and shreds the fabric of international norms.

As outlined by Trump and Vance, the Republican vision is essentially zero-sum: The United States and its workers only win by others losing, and vice versa. The Harris-Walz team can offer a vision of contrasting solidarity, which doesn’t seek to build political consensus by vilifying the foreign enemy of the moment but rather seeks ways to uplifts workers and their communities in every country.

Read the full piece at Foreign Policy.

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