The emergence of the American Compass think tank, led by right-wing operative and Project 2025 contributor Oren Cass, represents a significant and potentially dangerous tactical shift within the most reactionary sections of the U.S. ruling class. Faced with the deepening crisis of neoliberalism and the growing militancy of the multiracial working class, a faction of the capitalist class, represented by figures like J.D. Vance, Josh Hawley, and Marco Rubio, are trying to co-opt the growing working-class discontent with the capitalist economy into the MAGA agenda.

Of course, their project is not attempting to end exploitation or promote genuine trade unionism, but an attempt to navigate out of the economic crisis by creating a “conservative labor movement” that is nationalist, xenophobic, and subservient to the interests of finance capital and the corporate backers of MAGA.

American Compass’ class character

To understand American Compass, we must first identify its class base. It is certainly not a workers’ organization in any sense of the word. It is a creature of the capitalist class and union-busters founded and staffed by former management “consultants,” Republican policy directors, and operatives from anti-union institutions like the Manhattan Institute.

Its function appears to provide an ideological and programmatic cover for a section of the monopoly capitalist class — particularly those tied to national-based industrial and energy capital — that want to reorganize the political system to better compete with their international rivals and suppress the popular resistance to the MAGA agenda. Their aim is to replace the failing neoliberal consensus, supported by both Democrats and Republicans, with an apparently more “stable” state-monopoly capitalist model, draped in the American flag and the cross.

At its core, American Compass’s program is a patchwork of reactionary ideas designed to divide the working class, both domestically and internationally, and strengthen the hand of big business for profit maximization.

What does American Compass propose?

The American Compass’ proposed economic policies are designed in the first place to supplement low wage work with welfare policies. Instead of raising wages, instituting a shorter work week for the same — or more — pay due to increased worker productivity, and overall better working conditions on shop floors, workers will be left toiling for the same, low wages while the corporations continue to rake in massive profits.

Their proposed Family Income Supplemental Credit (FISC) functions as a direct subsidy to monopoly corporations, such as Walmart and Amazon, allowing them to continue paying poverty wages while the government — of course funded by the taxes of workers themselves — makes up the difference.

Furthermore, the FISC is ultimately a mechanism for the reproduction of labor-power at a “manageable” cost to the capitalist class. Their proposed program will reinforce the “nuclear family” as the primary unit for creating, and disciplining, the next generation of workers. It will directly tie public benefits to wage work and even marriage.

The proposed 20% additional boost for married couples is of course masking a reactionary social policy that punishes single parents and non-traditional working class families. It aims to create even more of a tiered-wage system by pushing MAGA’s reactionary social agenda.

Their proposals for labor law “reform” are a transparent attempt to replace genuine unionism with state-sanctioned, employer-dominated “works councils.” Corporate unions, reminiscent of the early maneuverings of 20th century fascist projects, will be revived. The think tank strongly advocates for “collaborative” and “cooperative” labor relations and explicitly denounces an “adversarial” approach (think strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience, etc.).

Their goal is to officially transform what remains of our labor movement into organs of class collaboration tasked with managing the exploitation of their own members to increase “efficiency” and “competitiveness” for U.S. imperialism. In terms of union rights, they oppose card check recognition, the repeal of right-to-work laws, and sectoral bargaining. In no sense of the word do they support trade unionism.

In his writings on fascist Italy, Communist leader Palmiro Togliatti detailed how Mussolini’s 1927 Carta del Lavoro (Labor Charter) abolished the Italian trade unions and replaced them with state-controlled “corporations” (corporazioni). These entities grouped representatives of workers and bosses by economic sector. They were not democratic bodies or unions in any sense; the state-appointed officials and the overwhelming power of the corporations ensured that “collaboration” was a euphemism for suppressing workers’ interests and enforcing the economic priorities of the fascist regime and big business.

The most vicious aspect of American Compass’ program is the fascistic call to “tighten” labor markets through the mass deportation of undocumented workers through ICE agents. Like the rest of the MAGA regime, they are scapegoating immigrant workers for the wage stagnation caused by the crisis of capitalism itself. Like Trump, they seek to redirect justified working-class anger away from the capitalists and towards the most vulnerable section of the working class.

Part of this program involves a so-called “E-Verify System” purportedly to punish businesses for hiring undocumented workers. But in reality, this privacy-infringing system will inevitably create a surveillance state in the workplace. The intended result is to create a workplace where every worker is a potential informant and every job is held at the discretion of the state.

At its core, the program of American Compass is a reactionary, fascistic, and corporatist fraud. It offers the U.S. working class only a dystopian future of impotent yellow MAGA unions, increased state surveillance and dictatorship in the workplace, further exploitation, and more poverty wages.

Of course, we should know that the very existence of this project is a backhanded compliment to the growing power of our labor movement and working class. Big business is growing nervous, and rightly so. The majority of U.S. workers, and the American people overall, are rapidly rejecting rule by billionaires and corporations and are beginning to correctly link the battle for democracy to the contradictions of the capitalist economy, however limited it may be for now.

Images: A demonstrator holds up a sign referencing Starbucks profits as workers participate in a walkout and strike Thursday at the company’s first Reserve Roastery in Seattle by Lindsey Wasson (Creative commons), Exhausted, injured and angry: Autoworkers are ready to strike by Sarah Lazare (Creative commons).