The Democratic National Convention on Thursday featured a video and speech from More Perfect Union reporter John Russell, who stressed to the Chicago crowd that the party has an opportunity to win over working-class people.
"Thank you to the workers that make this convention happen," Russell began. "Let's never forget how essential all of our labor is."
"I come from Appalachia," he explained. "We kept the lights on in this country for generations. But the wealth made by our broken backs and our black lungs never did trickle down. And Washington listened to rich men demanding that we stick with dirty energy at any cost."
"Across the country, working-class people are looking for a political home, after years of both parties putting profit above people," he said before taking aim at the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump—who has chosen Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), author of Hillbilly Elegy, as his running mate.
"Now Trump, a billionaire, says that he'll take on the elites, but then he promises handouts to Big Oil and he punches down at anyone with the guts to be different," Russell noted. "Populism that insists we are too different to get along is just divide and conquer by a different name."
"There's another sort of populism, with roots in this party, that we—in West Virginia—know well," said Russell, a resident of the state. He pointed to a century ago, when the term "rednecks" was used to deride organized coal miners who "wore red bandanas around their necks as they fought and died for respect and a living wage."
"Their fight yesterday is our fight right now," Russell declared to a roaring crowd. "It is our choice to build on this progress and to create a political home for the mass of working Americans fighting for control over their government, their workplaces, and their planet. And it is our moment to live up to. Let's get after it."
The Nation president and Jacobin founding editor Bhaskar Sunkara said on social media: "I'm pretty sure that John Russell just made the most radical speech in the history of the DNC. A call for class solidarity and a world where working people control their workplaces and their futures."
Antonia Juhasz, a senior researcher on fossil fuels at Human Rights Watch, also
responded with praise. Sharing the video, she said, "A great speech on climate action: Climate Action is action for workers, for justice, and for health from John Russell."
In addition to Russell's address, the DNC audience saw a two-minute More Perfect Union video in which he spoke to workers across the United States and highlighted positive impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act, which congressional Democrats passed and President Joe Biden signed two years ago.
One of multiple " influencers" or content creators to take the stage this week, Russell has a significant social media following and a newsletter calledThe Holler. Before West Virginia, he lived in Ohio, where he ran for state House in 2016 and Congress two years later.
Russell told Justice Hudson of the Wheeling Free Press that "we need a populism that doesn't divide us, but unites us."
"That's the way forward, especially as we are fighting against right-wing politicians who are offering us a fake version of populism—and we know it's fake because they want us to point fingers at each other rather than at the wealthy," he continued.
Russell also acknowledged that "we have not heard Palestinian voices on the stage, even as this party claims to be working to stop the carnage unfolding in the Middle East," and urged Democrats to
stop "silencing or burying their heads in the sand at protestors outside making the very simple ask of five minutes of speaking time so that Palestinians are represented."
Other champions of the working class who have addressed the DNC this week included United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—who also spoke Monday at a Progressive Democrats of America event, where he celebrated people across the country who are organizing "on a class basis" and "prepared to take on big money interests."
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