SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
"This weekend’s actions in the Hamptons and across the country," writes Kink, "mark the return of a real Worker's Labor Day and a working class ready, willing, and able to fight the class war that has been fought against us for the last 50 years."
(Photo: iStock via Getty Images)
'Workers Over Billionaires': It's Time to Put Heat on the Oligarchy
From the Hamptons to DC and across this nation, the working class get nothing but pain from the billionaire agenda. We’re fed up with fascist attacks and now we fight back.
Aug 30, 2025
It’s no longer hypothetical. It’s here and it’s obvious: America has been captured by an oligarchic class of about a thousand corrupt billionaires who have taken over our government for their own benefit and are actively working to impose crushing austerity and fascist rule over the rest of us.
The good news? The "rest of us” are 350 million strong and we’re fighting back harder than ever this Labor Day weekend, with hundreds of “Workers Over Billionaires” actions across the country, including on the home turf of the billionaire class in the Hamptons on Long Island, New York.
And we’ve also got our own war room of the working class: the Department of Class Solidarity, a new website that arms organizers, activists, and everyday people with the tools to expose the billionaires ransacking our democracy, with a state-by-state list of billionaires that includes details and dossiers on their devastating impact on our communities.
*****
The Hamptons are one of the places where right-wing billionaires have been plotting and planning in their hundred-million-dollar mansions, exploding billions of dollars into the campaigns of our corrupt president and his fully-captured, fully-fascist Republican Party, which aims to secure oligarchic control.
Hamptons habitués like Bill Ackman, Ken Griffin, Ken Langone, William Lauder, and Dan Loeb have tossed tons of cash at Trump and the Republicans, and they seem to be winning at the federal level: the billionaire-class has secured a set of trillion-dollar tax breaks and endless billions more in sweetheart government contracts and subsidy deals in return.
But in the streets, millions of Americans have marched, protested, and taken direct action to oppose the wildly unfair trillion-dollar tax breaks for the rich alongside hundreds of billions in cuts to healthcare, housing, education and transportation as well as the authoritarian kidnappings of adults and children from courts, schools, and workplaces for forced deportation by the corrupt oligarchic state.
At the local and state level, principled public servants have refused to cave in to the billionaire class and the fascist politicians they control.
In New York City, the winning campaign of Zohran Mamdani on an explicitly pro-working class, anti-austerity affordability platform has given hope to millions of New Yorkers who love their home and hate the extreme inequality that has made it so expensive.
Zohran crushed the billionaire-backed neoliberal misogynist Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary, but the billionaire class won’t take ‘no’ for an answer and have already spent another $19 million to attack Mamdani. It's just another reason we’re heading to their home turf and joining with thousands more nationwide to fight back.
****
Working-class New Yorkers get nothing but pain from the billionaire agenda. And we’re fed up with fascist attacks on families and workers intended to inflame and divide working-class communities to maintain billionaire control. Hundreds of thousands of us have marched in the streets against oligarchy, and we’re ready to fight harder for each other and for leaders that have our back.
This weekend’s actions in the Hamptons and across the country mark the return of a real Worker's Labor Day and a working class ready, willing, and able to fight the class war that has been fought against us for the last 50 years. I believe that we can beat the billionaires, and I believe that we will win.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
It’s no longer hypothetical. It’s here and it’s obvious: America has been captured by an oligarchic class of about a thousand corrupt billionaires who have taken over our government for their own benefit and are actively working to impose crushing austerity and fascist rule over the rest of us.
The good news? The "rest of us” are 350 million strong and we’re fighting back harder than ever this Labor Day weekend, with hundreds of “Workers Over Billionaires” actions across the country, including on the home turf of the billionaire class in the Hamptons on Long Island, New York.
And we’ve also got our own war room of the working class: the Department of Class Solidarity, a new website that arms organizers, activists, and everyday people with the tools to expose the billionaires ransacking our democracy, with a state-by-state list of billionaires that includes details and dossiers on their devastating impact on our communities.
*****
The Hamptons are one of the places where right-wing billionaires have been plotting and planning in their hundred-million-dollar mansions, exploding billions of dollars into the campaigns of our corrupt president and his fully-captured, fully-fascist Republican Party, which aims to secure oligarchic control.
Hamptons habitués like Bill Ackman, Ken Griffin, Ken Langone, William Lauder, and Dan Loeb have tossed tons of cash at Trump and the Republicans, and they seem to be winning at the federal level: the billionaire-class has secured a set of trillion-dollar tax breaks and endless billions more in sweetheart government contracts and subsidy deals in return.
But in the streets, millions of Americans have marched, protested, and taken direct action to oppose the wildly unfair trillion-dollar tax breaks for the rich alongside hundreds of billions in cuts to healthcare, housing, education and transportation as well as the authoritarian kidnappings of adults and children from courts, schools, and workplaces for forced deportation by the corrupt oligarchic state.
At the local and state level, principled public servants have refused to cave in to the billionaire class and the fascist politicians they control.
In New York City, the winning campaign of Zohran Mamdani on an explicitly pro-working class, anti-austerity affordability platform has given hope to millions of New Yorkers who love their home and hate the extreme inequality that has made it so expensive.
Zohran crushed the billionaire-backed neoliberal misogynist Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary, but the billionaire class won’t take ‘no’ for an answer and have already spent another $19 million to attack Mamdani. It's just another reason we’re heading to their home turf and joining with thousands more nationwide to fight back.
****
Working-class New Yorkers get nothing but pain from the billionaire agenda. And we’re fed up with fascist attacks on families and workers intended to inflame and divide working-class communities to maintain billionaire control. Hundreds of thousands of us have marched in the streets against oligarchy, and we’re ready to fight harder for each other and for leaders that have our back.
This weekend’s actions in the Hamptons and across the country mark the return of a real Worker's Labor Day and a working class ready, willing, and able to fight the class war that has been fought against us for the last 50 years. I believe that we can beat the billionaires, and I believe that we will win.
It’s no longer hypothetical. It’s here and it’s obvious: America has been captured by an oligarchic class of about a thousand corrupt billionaires who have taken over our government for their own benefit and are actively working to impose crushing austerity and fascist rule over the rest of us.
The good news? The "rest of us” are 350 million strong and we’re fighting back harder than ever this Labor Day weekend, with hundreds of “Workers Over Billionaires” actions across the country, including on the home turf of the billionaire class in the Hamptons on Long Island, New York.
And we’ve also got our own war room of the working class: the Department of Class Solidarity, a new website that arms organizers, activists, and everyday people with the tools to expose the billionaires ransacking our democracy, with a state-by-state list of billionaires that includes details and dossiers on their devastating impact on our communities.
*****
The Hamptons are one of the places where right-wing billionaires have been plotting and planning in their hundred-million-dollar mansions, exploding billions of dollars into the campaigns of our corrupt president and his fully-captured, fully-fascist Republican Party, which aims to secure oligarchic control.
Hamptons habitués like Bill Ackman, Ken Griffin, Ken Langone, William Lauder, and Dan Loeb have tossed tons of cash at Trump and the Republicans, and they seem to be winning at the federal level: the billionaire-class has secured a set of trillion-dollar tax breaks and endless billions more in sweetheart government contracts and subsidy deals in return.
But in the streets, millions of Americans have marched, protested, and taken direct action to oppose the wildly unfair trillion-dollar tax breaks for the rich alongside hundreds of billions in cuts to healthcare, housing, education and transportation as well as the authoritarian kidnappings of adults and children from courts, schools, and workplaces for forced deportation by the corrupt oligarchic state.
At the local and state level, principled public servants have refused to cave in to the billionaire class and the fascist politicians they control.
In New York City, the winning campaign of Zohran Mamdani on an explicitly pro-working class, anti-austerity affordability platform has given hope to millions of New Yorkers who love their home and hate the extreme inequality that has made it so expensive.
Zohran crushed the billionaire-backed neoliberal misogynist Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary, but the billionaire class won’t take ‘no’ for an answer and have already spent another $19 million to attack Mamdani. It's just another reason we’re heading to their home turf and joining with thousands more nationwide to fight back.
****
Working-class New Yorkers get nothing but pain from the billionaire agenda. And we’re fed up with fascist attacks on families and workers intended to inflame and divide working-class communities to maintain billionaire control. Hundreds of thousands of us have marched in the streets against oligarchy, and we’re ready to fight harder for each other and for leaders that have our back.
This weekend’s actions in the Hamptons and across the country mark the return of a real Worker's Labor Day and a working class ready, willing, and able to fight the class war that has been fought against us for the last 50 years. I believe that we can beat the billionaires, and I believe that we will win.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.