As Musk rampages through the federal government, the attacks on the NLRB are almost unmentioned but represent a major challenge for organizers.

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By Chris Brady

WEST END – More than 300 federal workers, union members, and community supporters rallied in Downtown Boston on Wednesday in front of the Tip O’Neill Federal Building to protest the Trump administration’s DOGE cuts to public services and illegal mass terminations of federal workers. The rally was a part of a national ‘Save Our Services’ day of action with coordinated protests in thirty cities across the country. 

The rallies were coordinated by the Federal Unionists Network, an informal group of federal workers across agencies and unions working together to strengthen federal unions and build solidarity across the labor movement. Boston’s action was sponsored by federal unions including the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the American Federation of Government Employee (AFGE), and the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), as well as the Greater Boston Labor Council, Boston Building Trades Union, and the MA AFL-CIO. It followed immediately after the higher education labor rally against federal funding cuts earlier at Government Center

Protesters formed a picket line outside of the O’Neill building, chanting, “Get up, get down, Boston is a union town!” before consolidating on the steps to listen to speeches from federal unionists, illegally-terminated workers, and Representative Ayanna Pressley.

Claire Bergstresser was illegally terminated from Housing and Urban Development, is a member of AFGE Local 3258, and spoke at the rally. 

“I became a federal worker committed to public service. I worked hard every day to enforce rights, listen to the community, and improve the well-being of our community. Today I am no longer a federal worker, but I am not relieved of my duty to serve the American people.”

Claire worked in the Fair Housing office, ensuring compliance with housing discrimination laws and enabling disadvantaged people to access housing programs.

DOGE front-man and world’s richest man Elon Musk has claimed that federal workers are “getting rich at the expense of the taxpayer”. However, on average federal workers make 24 percent less than their private sector counterparts. Thousands of federal workers have been fired, with hundreds of thousands of workers included in the crosshairs of future proposed cuts. 

Ellen Mei is the chapter president of NTEU 255, and works in the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Services, emphasized the vital public services at risk due to staffing cuts.

“At my agency, we are giving money to kids and families so that they have food to eat. We wouldn’t have to do this if companies paid their workers enough to buy three square meals a day. But now, the wealthy are deciding that not only do they want to keep paying workers peanuts, they’re saying that peanuts are all that us workers get to eat.”

DOGE has wrought wanton destruction onto the day to day functioning of the U.S. government. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), a fierce consumer finance watchdog created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, has stopped all work and laid off 95% of its staff. The National Park Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Forest Service, have all hemorrhaged staff, leading to questions regarding the maintenance of American natural resources. 400 staff at the Federal Aviation Administration were fired after the deadliest plane crash in sixteen years. Meanwhile, DOGE is currently trying to rehire employees they fired from the National Nuclear Security Administration because they didn’t realize these workers were essential to keeping the nuclear stockpile safe.

Federal workers are the canary in the coal mine. The name of Wednesday’s national day of action, “Save Our Services” (S.O.S.), is to signal to the broader labor movement – this is not just a crisis of federal employment but a crisis of public services and labor rights. The Trump administration has shown no intent to stop after federal workers, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has already been kneecapped, and the basic compromises labor has won from capital – Medicaid, food stamps, and environmental regulations – are on the precipice of annihilation.

A united labor movement is the only tool the left has available to defend against these attacks on workers rights and public services. It is critical that workers, both public and private, organize and push our unions to think creatively and radically. Boston is demonstrating that we are ready to fight back.

Chris Brady is a member of Boston DSA and a writer for Working Mass. He is also involved in the Federal Unionists Network.

On Wednesday, January 29th, 2025, Connecticut DSA’s Labor Working Group gathered at New Britain’s “Assembly Room” for their first Labor Happy Hour of the year. The Assembly Room looks more upscale at the outset with a chic white façade and a 20s style bar, but the prices are much more modest. Fitting for the working-class muckraker who wants to be ethical while still enjoying life’s comforts.

With the start of planting season just six weeks away, President Trump is cutting the legs out from under farmers all over the state. While we’re planting seedlings for the spring, many small farmers are wondering if the federal government will default on signed contracts or eliminate funding for critical farm infrastructure. 

As a farmer myself, these cuts are hitting close to home. While small farms don’t receive anything like the amount of federal subsidies Big Ag gets, small farms do have access to supports that help sustain and expand local agriculture. Some of these programs go all the way back to the Great Depression. For instance, the National Resource Conservation Service—Trump hasn’t censored its website yet—explains that the “NRCS was born out of troubled times — the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s.” Back then, FDR offered workers and farmers a New Deal. Today, Trump’s doubling down on a Raw Deal. 

Speaking personally, I applied for two grants that Trump has put at risk. The first is an NRCS grant to build a greenhouse. The grants are not guaranteed and farmers must demonstrate the money will measurably improve their ability to provide food for the local community. After talking to the Maine NRCS office, it looks like Trump has not halted this funding. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the NRCS specialist who inspected my farm as part of the application process has been terminated by Trump. So even in instances where the funding itself may continue, the danger is that slashing the federal agriculture experts who administer the funds and manage the grant process may delay the funding. This could mean missing the chance to increase the farm’s productivity for an entire growing season. And that can mean the difference between staying afloat or going under. Expanding greenhouse growing in Maine produces more local tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers instead of shipping them in from hundreds or thousands of miles away. 

My second grant request was to purchase equipment and supplies to upgrade my vegetable washing and packing (wash/pack) stations. Local farms prioritize fresh produce delivered within a few days of harvest, this puts a premium on efficiently cleaning and packing veggies for sale. The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association administers this grant with money originating in the USDA. The good news is that I’ve been approved by MOFGA for this grant in part or in whole. The bad news is that MOFGA is struggling to figure out if Trump will disperse these funds even though Congress has already approved them! And like the first grant, it’s time sensitive so even it if comes through, but comes through late, I won’t be able to use it this year and I will, subsequently, have to reduce the amount of vegetables I can harvest, clean, and pack… or I will have to work many more hours to do so. 

MOFGA reports that much of the more than $1 million in support for local, organic farms that it helps administer is up in the air. All this confusion comes at a particularly bad time for farmers as spring approaches. As Executive Director Sarah Alexander wrote, “The uncertainty and the barrage of information and actions that are coming our way are meant to overwhelm us, take up our energy and resources, and pull us away from our mission-oriented work.”

As an organic farmer, I love MOFGA and groups like Maine Farmland Trust are doing yeoman’s work defending local agriculture. But I have to say that working with federal and state workers from the USDA, the Farm Service Agency, the NRCS, the Maine Farm and Sea to School Network, and the UMaine Agricultural Extension has been one of the best things about being a farmer. Dedicated, friendly, and knowledgeable. These are the people who Trump has in his crosshairs. It’s not only a tragedy for people who’ve dedicated themselves to helping farmers, it’s a terrible loss of institutional knowledge that will hurt Maine farms for years to come.

My situation is tough at Fair Share Farm, but there are lots of farmers who are getting an even shorter end of the stick. Many have planned big projects and are counting on federal funding as a component in long-planned outlays. For instance, Kevin Leavitt—aka Farmer Kev—explained how Trump canceling a $45,000 payment has left him in the lurch in building a solar array—for which he’s also secured a $90,000 loan and put up $15,000 in cash—at Kev’s Organic Farm in Gardener, “I have a signed contract! Forget politics, forget policy, a contract is a contract. You can’t take it back. Without that reimbursement, it all falls apart for me. I can’t get my loan. I can’t pay the contractor. I can’t see a way forward.” 

Farms all over the state are stuck in similar dilemmas, from small farms like mine to bigger farms like Gorenson’s and Wolf’s Neck.

What about the politics of all this? Rep. Chellie Pingree in District 1—herself once an organic farmer—has been, to her credit, banging the drum about the damage Trump is doing to local agriculture. What about Jared Golden in farm-heavy District 2? He’s “awaiting more legal clarity.”

Where, you might ask, will all the money Trump robs from small farms go? I grow vegetables but I know a pig feeding at the trough when I see one. Musk’s Space X and Starlink have taken in billions in federal funds over the last decade and are looking for the bonanza to continue. 

The post Trump leaves Maine farms out in the cold appeared first on Pine & Roses.

Mayor Daniel Lurie is moving to oust police commissioner Max Carter-Oberstone, known for opposing dangerous police chases and pushing for independent SFPD oversight. This is a blatant power grab to silence any challenge to the police state. Carter-Oberstone’s independence and advocacy for reforms have put him at odds with the SF Police Officers Association, and now the Mayor wants him out. As socialists, we fight not just for reforms but for the full dismantling of policing and imprisonment. We support disarming the police, shrinking their power, and holding them accountable, all while organizing for a world without them.

Commissioner Carter-Oberstone’s removal will be heard before the Board of Supervisors on February 25. Join this letter campaign to urge them to oppose his removal, and attend the hearing in person to speak out!

Trump's and Musk's cut to federal agencies are facing resistance from the workers within. We spoke with two of them.

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