 America is on strike. From Alabama to the Midwest to California, workers across industries are heading to the picket lines. We haven't seen this kind of labor uprising in decades. So what can we learn from the big wave of strikes in 1946 after World War II? Just as with the pandemic, lots of Americans during the war were needed to do dangerous and difficult work and asked to make sacrifices for the public good. And as with the pandemic, the war ended with a massive pent-up consumer demand for goods and services, giving workers more bargaining leverage as they re-evaluated their lives and jobs. American workers during the war were analogous to essential workers during the pandemic. They worked long and grueling hours under sometimes life-threatening conditions. When the war ended, they expected to be repaid for their sacrifices, but their employers weren't so willing. Today's essential workers are enduring the same. From the end of 1945 into 1946, over five million workers across America went on strike to demand better pay and working conditions. Railroad workers, steel workers, miners, meat packers, electrical workers, and cross-industry general strikes in Oakland, Pittsburgh and Rochester brought the country to a standstill. The result? Union membership, which had doubled during the war, continued to soar. Workers won significant gains. The United Auto Workers secured a long-term deal with big three automakers that guaranteed them extensive benefits, time-off and pay increases that became the standard for labor contracts. Economic gains were shared widely, and America built the largest middle class the world had ever seen. For the next 30 years, the gains from the post-war economic expansion were shared. Of course, it was far from perfect. Women returned to second class economic roles. People of color were largely excluded from the prosperity. But post-war labor activism remained high and was central to broader social movements. In 1968, thousands of black sanitation workers in Memphis walked off the job to demand dignity and racial justice, eventually forcing the city to recognize their union and give them higher wages. Then in the late 1970s, the dawn of hostile corporate takeovers and trickle down economics pushed CEOs to put shareholder returns above all else. And in 1981, Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic controllers, ushering in an era of union bashing and pro-corporate governance that's continued ever since. The strike wave of 1946 may seem like distant history, but today we're at a similar inflection point, one with even higher stakes. 40 years of union busting and trickle down baloney is crushing the working class. Union membership is at a record low. Wealth inequality is worse than it's been in a century, but hundreds of thousands of American workers are fighting back and demanding better pay and working conditions. Ten thousand John Deere workers, over a thousand Alabama coal miners, New York City taxi drivers, healthcare workers, food production plant workers at multiple companies. Where will this 21st century strike wave take us? It's unclear that this will be a turning point, but it can and should be. Public support for unions is at a 50-year high, but less than 7% of private sector workers are unionized. The Protecting the Right to Organize Act passed in the House earlier this year would level the playing field by making it easier for workers to unionize and imposing real penalties on businesses that break labor laws. It's the toughest labor law reform in a generation. Passing it is absolutely essential to rebuilding worker power and economic prosperity. Beyond this crucial legislation, we must shift our thinking about the economic system, learn from the past, and not repeat the mistakes of Reaganism. Trickle down economics is nothing more than a cruel hoax designed to enrich the wealthy and corporations while draining money from the middle class and the poor. We can't let ourselves fall prey to the same fear mongering that destroyed the labor winds of the post-war years. And we can never forget that the working people of America outnumber the billionaires in money to interests. By a wide margin, if we show solidarity, we can reverse 40 years of stagnant wages, declining economic security, and widening inequality, and build a more prosperous middle class where the gains are shared by everyone. Let's seize the moment.