In 2024, the International Trade Union Confederation launched its global campaign For Democracy, laying out a vision for revitalising democracy built around workers. Across the world – on picket lines, in parliaments, at rallies and global meetings – workers are taking decisive action for democracy at work, in society, and in global institutions. They are mobilising in national elections, organising informal workers, exposing Corporate Underminers of Democracy, and advancing a new vision for the global economy.

But democracy is in peril. Inequality, corruption, war, climate change, and unregulated technology have led many workers to conclude that any alternative might be better than the catastrophic status quo. Democracy is not dying a natural death but being buried alive by greedy corporate titans and complicit state actors. These elites warp the instruments of democracy to profit themselves politically and economically at the expense of the vast majority of working people. They finance right-wing politicians who campaign on promises to punish the same elites only to enact policies that, in fact, increase elite power. They have a grim vision for the future: more power and wealth for themselves; more poverty and violence for the world’s workers.

The global trade union movement, the largest democratic social force in the world, has a better vision. Unions choose not a shallow democracy, in which the same policies prevail while the aspirations of the many are ignored, but a muscular, responsive democracy in which workers together set the course in our communities, workplaces, countries, and international institutions together. For trade unionists, democracy is not only a set of values but a daily practice. Its success or failure can only be measured by whether or not it delivers for workers. Unions organise their own democratic structures from the workplace to the global level, to democratically deliberate, assert collective power, and achieve clear improvements in workers’ lives. The success of unions is directly determined by the depth of this democratic practice and the sustainability of the material progress they secure. States and institutions should operate this way, too.

To restore confidence in democracy, national leaders must urgently expand democracy and deliver what workers need. In the ITUC’s 2025 Strategic Objectives, we articulate how unions are fighting for states to evolve beyond violent conflict and individual competition to embrace peace and the exercise of democratic collective power. Similar to how the climate crisis demands rapid reduction of carbon emissions, the democracy crisis demands rapid redistribution of resources to ensure social justice and prosperity for all workers. Elitism and technodeterminism must be abandoned in favour of a Just Transition and a worker-centred digital transformation.

That is why in 2025 this campaign evolves into a fight For Democracy that Delivers. See our timeline of action to join us.

We look forward to seeing you online and on the frontlines.