WASHINGTON — Elizabeth Warren insists she’s not running for president, but it’s clear the Massachusetts senator plans to take active steps alongside labor leaders, to shape the policy debate inside the Democratic Party at the start of the 2016 White House campaign.

Warren took center stage Wednesday at an economic conference sponsored by the AFL-CIO, offering an indictment of the nation’s economic policies during the past three decades under both Democratic and Republican administrations — without mentioning President Bill Clinton’s two terms by name.

“Pretty much the whole Republican Party — and if we’re going to be honest, too many Democrats — have talked about the evils of ‘big government’ and called for deregulation,” Warren told labor leaders, arguing the policies turned loose “big banks and giant international corporations” and did “whatever juiced short-term profits even if it came at the expense of working families.”

Some liberals are pining for Warren to enter the Democratic presidential contest, a move that would likely pit her against Hillary Rodham Clinton, the party’s leading contender should she enter the campaign as is widely expected.

Clinton, the former secretary of state, New York senator and first lady, has dominated early polls, but is being pushed by many Democrats to take a more populist stance on economic issues. Warren has resisted calls to enter the campaign, but her appearance before labor leaders served notice that she intends to influence the agenda this year.

“For more than 30 years, Washington has far too often advanced policies that hammer America’s middle class even harder,” she said.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called Warren “an inspiration” and said in prepared remarks the labor organization would hold similar summits this year in the first four presidential primary states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — to advocate for policies aimed at boosting wages.

Trumka said 2015 would be a “pivotal year … the year that politicians decided to stand up strong, or to retreat, afraid of responsibility.”

During last year’s midterm elections, Clinton touted the 1990s economic growth during her husband’s administration, noting that it helped bring prosperity to many middle-class families. She voiced support for raising the federal minimum wage and promoting paid family leave policies to help working families, particularly mothers.

Bolstering wages and household income remains at the top of the agenda for many Democrats, who acknowledge that while the labor market has begun to recover from the deep recession that began in 2008, wages have barely kept up with inflation. President Barack Obama unsuccessfully sought to increase the federal minimum wage last year but several states have taken steps to boost their minimum wages.

Warren said the economy had made strides — a soaring stock market, rising corporate profits and economic growth — but that progress had failed to translate into higher wages for workers. She said Washington leaders too often had chosen to shackle the “financial cops,” bail out Wall Street banks, sign trade deals that hurt workers and cut taxes for the wealthy.

Neera Tanden, a former Hillary Clinton policy adviser who leads the Center for American Progress, said Warren was “absolutely right,” adding the country shouldn’t be “fatalistic” about its ability to overcome economic challenges.

“So many people in Washington and in the country are pessimistic about our country’s chances and believe this kind of story out there that stagnating wages in the United States are just the way it is. That is false,” Tanden said.

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(AP Photo)

Jose Luis Magana