Evan MacKay: Labor’s Voice for Cambridge

Aug 1, 2024 | Labor, Working Mass

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Knocking doors with former UAW local 5118 president Evan MacKay

By Henry De Groot

Mid-Cambridge – It’s almost 95 degrees and terribly muggy, but for Evan MacKay this is perfect canvassing weather.

“Hot days are the best for canvassing because people are more likely to be home,” Evan (they/them) relays to me as we set out to follow up with super-voters in a few apartment buildings a few blocks from Harvard square.

As a matter of fact, every day is a good day for canvassing according to MacKay. “I love canvassing. I know my neighbors better than ever before.”

And if it’s hot out, MacKay’s campaign to unseat incumbent Marjorie Decker in the Massachusetts 25th Middlesex district— which runs from Central Square to Harvard Square to Porter Square — is even hotter. In this primary race, held on September 3, a low turnout is a given. So the race will be decided by the habitual voters — who are typically better educated and lean more progressive — as well as voters who the campaign has been able to politicize and turn out to vote.

In Cambridge, well-educated, progressive leaning voters are numerous. And the campaign has an impressive roster of endorsements which should register with this informed crop of voters: Progressive Mass, Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts, Mass Alliance, Act on Mass, Our Revolution, and the Democratic Socialists of America have all endorsed. 

But still, it’s up to the campaign to get the word out about these progressive bonafides to convince every voter that MacKay is the true progressive in the race. And that means a lot of walking.

Bike Lanes and Other Big Issues

Earlier this month, I joined Evan on the doors to get a first hand look at this socialist, union-backed campaign for the state house.

In the park next to the Cambridge Public Library, I met up with a handful of veteran DSA activists, a UAW member, and a “paper” DSA member for whom this is their first DSA activity “IRL.”

MacKay’s campaign manager stamps this reporter’s Rose Buddy card.

Before we are sent off, Evan’s campaign manager hands me my “Rose Buddy Card,” a kind of frequent-flyer card for volunteers aimed at encouraging repeat canvassers. I’m reminded that this campaign is not about Evan, but about something bigger – building a socialist movement to win change for working people.

I follow Evan up our first driveway, where we are greeted by two middle aged home-owners enjoying a beverage on their deck. They could be my aunt and uncle, well-weathered townies who grew up in Medford before making their home in Cambridge decades ago.

They make it clear that they are not progressive voters, but still Evan listens patiently to them lay out concerns about the incumbent, Marjorie Decker. The husband begins a seemingly well-rehearsed tirade about the new bike lanes, but stops himself half-way through when he spots Evan’s red UAW hat. 

“Oh. You’re pro-union are you?” he asks. “I always liked unions. The working people of this country have it tough enough as it is.”  

And just like that Evan earns a vote, and with a wave goodbye, heads on to the next house.

The conservative couple proves to be an outlier. The next resident is more typical of this part of Greater Boston. A former engineer, the resident proudly shares his support for bike lanes, harm reduction, and additional development along Mass Ave to build more housing. He has even recently been attending city council meetings to support increased cycle lanes in the wake of several recent fatal collisions.

Evan speaks with the man about which issues the State House can help Cambridge address, and writes out a link to an Act on Mass video which explores corruption at the state government. The man expresses that he too would like to run for office, and Evan invites him to try his hand at local politics by knocking doors with their campaign.

Wondering if the voter will actually watch the video, I ask Evan if they think getting into such detail is worth the effort.

“It’s not just about earning a vote,” Evan relays to me. “It’s about educating people, empowering people, getting them involved.”

Before I know it, I’m trying to keep up with Evan as they bound up the stairs of a cramped apartment block that reminds me of a rabbit’s burrow, and I’m reminded by their pace that Evan is only 27. 

In the last unit of the narrow hallway, we meet a slight, older woman who is in the middle of making dinner. She tells us she is struggling to afford rent, and has been active in her local tenants’ union. 

“Marjorie wasn’t there for us on rent control” she relays, and asks for a handful of campaign literature to pass out to her neighbors. “If things keep on like they are, I won’t be able to live here anymore. We need change.”

We’re on the home stretch of today’s list when Evan is stopped by a former classmate in the street. 

“What are you doing?” they ask. 

“Running for State Representative,” Evan replies enthusiastically, before smoothly rolling into their election pitch. It seems you can’t go anywhere in Cambridge without running into someone who knows Evan, who has lived in the neighborhood for a decade.

Evan speaks with a friend we ran into on the canvass.

MacKay is committed to winning every vote.

On our last door, we speak with a supporter who met Evan at a community event the previous week. She holds Evan at the door to complain in detail about Decker’s faux-progressive politics.

“Whatever you’re doing, she’s taking notice,” the lady relays, as she shows us mailers from the Decker campaign.

“And by the way,” she says as we leave. “I watched that video you sent me. It really opened my eyes.” At least some of all this hard work seems to be making an impact.

Local Politics; Local Unions

When we spoke with Evan earlier this year, they relayed the importance of their union organizing experiences in informing their politics. 

“Through labor organizing, I developed a much deeper respect and lived experience for the power of everyday people and workers coming together to change problems. Our unions are, at their best, vehicles for helping workers come together to identify the problems in our workplaces and our communities and our lives and then work alongside somebody else and your co-workers to change them. And so my labor union taught me how to organize with my co-workers and it also really taught me that deep value of solidarity…

It’s through organizing with my union that I came to better understand what democratic socialism meant. And it is this recognition that we want workers to be collectively determining the conditions of our workplaces, and we want more power and resources to the workers and less to the CEOs in the corner offices and in the boardrooms.”

It is understandable why Evan’s message on the importance of unions, collective struggle, and the fight for socialism is inspiring to those who would like to see more labor leaders serving in the state house. And presumably that’s why UAW Region 9A, representing a massive surge in membership, bucking the rest of labor’s overall downward membership trend, from aggressive grad worker organizing in recent year,  and IBEW Local 2222, the local representing the thousands of Verizon workers and whose progressive leadership also bucked labor establishment in endorsing Bernie and who’ve taken on the state house workers union,   endorsed Evan.

But under pressure from MacKay, Decker too is trying to beef up her labor bonafides. In June, Decker spoke at a rally organized by the Massachusetts Building Trades Council in support of Project Labor Agreements, the construction agreements which mandate union labor and are a major strategy of the trades. Even this pandering should be seen as a result of the MacKay campaign’s hard work, as Decker suddenly assumes the mantle of ‘labor champion’ in response to pressure from her left.

The establishment wing of organized labor returned the support, with the MA AFL-CIO organizing a “labor walk” for Decker, in which union members canvass union households, last week. Area building trades were prominent participants. Especially for the building trades, membership participation in such events does not necessarily show genuine enthusiasm — often such unions offer a paid stipend to volunteers or require members to participate in volunteer work to avoid fines.

Join us this Saturday in Cambridge for a Labor Walk in Support of Worker Champion Chair @MarjorieDecker

We will be meeting at the Porter Square Mall at 37 White Street at 9:30AM pic.twitter.com/2KWpQMMrFl

— Massachusetts AFL-CIO (@massaflcio) July 25, 2024

It is disappointing but unsurprising that the more institutional wing of the Massachusetts labor movement is supporting the incumbent in this race. For many unions, political advocacy is less about impacting the results of the election, and more about accommodating themselves to the status quo — where backroom deals are cut behind closed doors. 

Anyone who follows Massachusetts politics, or merely works and pays bills in this state, knows that this model, even with Democratic supermajorities in both the state house and state senate, has totally failed to deliver for working people or organized labor. And as long as committee votes remain confidential, the status quo will empower Democratic politicians to pander to unions and other progressive interest groups while actually falling in line with state house leadership.

It is shameful that the MA AFL-CIO is sending union workers to canvass against a former local union president.

But perhaps this seeming misalignment is less surprising than it first appears. Evan was, after all, a New England co-chair of reform candidate Shawn Fain’s successful run for the UAW’s top job. Such reform campaigns, if launched in other unions, would directly threaten the jobs of those union leaders who consistently back establishment democrats. There is a direct link between the internal politics of the labor movement, and which politicians labor backs for public office.

But if there is a link between bureaucratic union leadership and labor’s failed alliance with the Democratic party, then the flip-side is true as well: the union reform movement and the fight for real working class politics are now reinforcing one another into a mighty challenge to the status quo.

For everyone who wants a more democratic labor movement, and a stronger alternative to the Democratic establishment in Massachusetts, the choice is clear: Evan is labor’s voice.

For Cambridge — For The Commonwealth

If we are to have any chance of delivering the reforms that working people need — rent control, public housing, increased minimum wages, reforms to policing, and more — we must take on the corruption of the Massachusetts state house. 

But politics as usual will not be overthrown merely by electing new faces or well intentioned progressives. It is only possible to build the power necessary to stand up to corporate politics if we organize as part of a collective movement, which challenges the economic system at the base of our social ills.

We need socialist politicians who will champion our policies unequivocally. We need politicians with union experience, who know how to unite workers in collective struggle. And we need an organization like DSA — and eventually a full political party — which centralizes this collective struggle so we can link our electoral work to our ongoing union and community work and our larger vision of a socialist Commonwealth. 

Evan has shown their competence leading fights on the shop floor. They are a proud member of Boston DSA and will be accountable to our organization and our larger movement. Now they are proving their ability to engage voters across Cambridge. There should be no doubt or contest who is better for labor, an entrenched Democrat or a DSA candidate with Evan’s credentials.

Socialists and union members, do not miss your chance to make a difference. Sign up to volunteer or donate to Evan’s campaign today!

Henry De Groot is the Managing Editor of Working Mass, and a member of Boston DSA and the DSA caucus Reform and Revolution. They are a proud Boston resident.

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