Shortly before midnight on February 4th, a flyer began to circulate on social media, urging union members and their allies in Washington, D.C., to make their way to a protest at 200 Constitution Avenue NW—the headquarters of the Department of Labor—the following afternoon. “FIGHT FOR WORKING PEOPLE: KEEP DOGE OUT OF DOL!” it proclaimed.
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Dismantling the Department of Labor would be an audacious undertaking for a President who owes his second term, in no small part, to the support of working-class voters. The D.O.L.’s mission is to foster the welfare of working people and to safeguard their rights and benefits. Like a growing number of tech oligarchs, Musk appears to regard the very idea of empowering the government to perform such functions as an affront. . . .
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DOGE’s incursions into U.S.A.I.D. and several other agencies were not met with preëmptive on-site protests, in part because they were conducted at breakneck speed, but a different scenario played out on February 5th, at the D.O.L., where hundreds of people showed up. Some of the protesters were members of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., which had helped spread word about DOGE’s impending visit. Others came from groups such as the National Employment Law Project, a workers’-rights organization with an office in Washington.
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Read the full article at newyorker.com.
