Solidarity& Workers’ Liberty For social ownership of the banks and industry US Right still strong after 3 Nov election SOCIALIST POLITICS CAN BEAT Pic: bit.ly/mraf-16 TRUMPISMSee pages 2-5 Special lockdown Vaccine, lockdowns, Students organise Green is more than subs offer capitalism towards January low-carbon Get six issues of Solidarity Latest on the pandemic, Rent strikes and plans for How much climate- by mail for £2: plus how capitalism the next term change is already “locked workersliberty.org/sub pushes pandemics in”? More on page 14 Pages 10-11, 16-18, 20 Page 19 Pages 6-7 No. 571, 11 November 2020 50p/£1 workersliberty.org Socialist politics can undercut Trumpism agitation against “socialism”, they ran scared of any clear message about changing society. They rejected more radical proposals (such as Medicare for All) and said little Editorial about less radical ones they supported on paper (a lim- ited public healthcare option). he Democratic establishment cannot comprehend US socialists and left-wingers argue that this vacuum “Twhat will happen after Biden is elected. We are not of positive vision and policies limited the possibilities for going back to business as usual. There is too much pain mobilising a mass movement or eroding Trumpism’s ap- out there, too much inequality, too much injustice. If we peal. cannot begin to address the crises facing this country, While Trump lost, he increased both his vote total then the future will be very, very dismal indeed. The peo- and his percentage share. He consolidated his support ple are giving us an opportunity now; if we blow it by not among white people (men, especially, in households on being bold and aggressive, the next Trump who comes over $100,000 a year but with little formal education) in along will be even worse than this one” — Senator Bernie smaller towns, and startlingly made some inroads among Sanders. black and Hispanic voters. The thousands of people who poured onto the streets The Republicans have probably maintained control of of US cities on news of Donald Trump’s electoral defeat the Senate. That control enables them to veto Biden’s were right to celebrate. choices for Cabinet appointments, and to block even the The vast majority of demonstrators will have voted for mild reform legislation he may push. The Republicans will the Democratic candidate, longstanding establishment continue to dominate state legislatures, allowing them neoliberal Joe Biden. Workers’ Liberty agreed with those to redraw electoral boundaries in their favour after this on the US left who campaigned for the Green Party can- year’s census. They still have all the right-wing judges didate, socialist and trade unionist Howie Hawkins. But Trump put into place. we understand why most left-wingers voted for Biden, in The social and political disarray which gave birth to order to defeat Trump. Trumpism will continue. Biden voters will see him as The extreme-right populist movement cohered around “doing nothing”, partly because he had little drive to re- Trump remains very much alive. So do the conditions of form anyway, and partly because the Republicans are so social and democratic decay which gave birth to Trump- well placed to block even the mildest measures. The idea ism. After a long string of scandals and purges of top of backing a Trump-like candidate, just to get “strong officials for not being compliant enough, Trump still got government”, will be boosted even among many who more votes than in 2016. dislike much about Trump. Insurgent labour and socialist movements can change Some form of Trumpism will surely survive as a very these conditions and confront and push back Trumpism. big movement, proclaiming the Biden government fun- There is a growing left-wing ferment in the US, coming damentally illegitimate in a hyped-up re-run of the agi- out of the Sanders campaign, the Black Lives Matter tation which argued Obama couldn’t really be president movement, and workers’ struggles, which can develop because (allegedly) he was born outside the USA. “In that direction. opposition” its extreme-right character may deepen fur- During the election that ferment was visible and had an ther. Most likely it will continue to reshape the Republican impact. There was the enthusiastic push to oust Trump, Party, and very possibly it could return to power. with increased turnout from young, black and Latinx vot- Yet the US left, in the broadest sense, has got stronger ers. More left-wing candidates, some calling themselves in the last decade or so. That stronger left, refusing to ac- socialists, won election to Congress and local offices. cept the limits set or accepted by Biden, and working to State referendums agreed left-wing proposals (on police revive and build up working-class organisation, can shift accountability, taxing the rich to fund services, restraining what is possible. police and court action on drugs…) Trump won Florida, Determined workers’ action can win concessions and but Florida also voted in a referendum to raise the state changes even under right-wing governments, as the US’s minimum wage from $8.56 an hour to $10 now and $15 explosive schoolworkers’ strikes in 2018-2019, many of by 2026. them in Republican-ruled states, showed. The conditions The US population as a whole has not moved to the for struggle will be better now than they were before the right. But Trump has been able to give the right-wing ele- election. Discussions among US labour movement activ- ments in the thinking of large sections of the population ists about resisting a possible Trump coup revealed sub- more political traction. stantial layers increasingly up for a fight. The Democratic leaders worked to narrow the focus to As part of solidarity, we should learn from comrades in Trump’s excesses, with an implied desire to return to the the US, whose struggles are, despite their difficulties, in pre-2016 status quo. Faced by aggressive Republican many ways more advanced than ours. □ 2 @workersliberty fb.com/workersliberty workersliberty.org Trump’s defeat: excerpts from the US left The working class needs a party ganisations of doctors, lawyers, and others endorsed him. Like all Democrats he has had the support the AFL-CIO hile breathless... expectations of a blue wave totally and all of the major labour unions with few exceptions, Wflopped, there was a red wave — our kind of red! So as well as most Black and Latino, women’s and LGBT or- far, 28 out of our 37 nationally-endorsed campaigns have ganisations. Trump, of course, still had much support from won; we have “squads” in [15] state legislatures... and we other sectors such as casinos and gambling, oil and gas, won 8 out of 9 major ballot initiatives. contractors and manufacturers and his own networks of We’re still just a political organisation [i.e. not a party], professionals. but contrast that with a Democratic Party that fails to lis- The election, as was to be expected, showed the coun- ten to working class people and fails to invest in building try divided geographically along traditional lines, with the grassroots power. It has become a failure — or perhaps coasts going for Biden and the Midwest and South for was never designed to empower us in the first place... Trump... Almost everywhere, the Democrats won the cit- So how does the working class build enough real power ies and the Republicans the rural areas. 90% of Black peo- in such a rigged system to eventually have our own party? ple and 65% of Latinos voted for Biden... Biden won more We’re figuring it out together! We know it starts with put- women’s votes, especially suburban women. The working ting boots on the ground to demand democracy, but it class is completely divided, Trump winning 55% of men goes so much deeper than that... Our chapters in every without a college degree while Biden won 43%. The ma- state of the country will be out asking our co-workers and jority of white workers support Trump, the overwhelming neighbours how we resist both fascism and neoliberalism majority of Black and Latino workers back Biden. (bit.ly/ and build a better world. (bit.ly/dsa-ms) dlbnewpol) Maria Svart, Dan La Botz, National Director of the Democratic Socialists of on the New Politics website America A referendum on Trump Fundamental discussion needed e are happy to see Trump go. Good riddance! This or the second straight election, US voters have actually Welection was a referendum on Trump. Biden was Frepudiated Donald Trump’s repulsive, racist and nativ- Not-Trump, nothing more. Biden has no solutions for the ist message... climate, poverty, racism, and nuclear war. Third-party campaigns appear to have been pretty The Hawkins/Walker campaign thanks our support- much overwhelmed by the polarisation of the two main ers for their donations and campaign work in a difficult capitalist parties. The Green Party campaign... is show- year for the Green Party and independent socialists. The ing a 0.23% vote, but we’ll need more time to see where media blanked us out. After the Democratic establish- Green results may be significant in local or state races… ment closed ranks to defeat Bernie Sanders, most pro- The socialist left, essentially a spectator in electoral gressive leaders lined up behind Biden without making terms, needs to be with the movements fighting the any policy demands on him. The Biden administration is battles that most matter — around racial justice, police now free to ignore them. brutality and prison abolition; on the sadistic treatment We will continue to fight for a Green New Deal, an of asylum seekers, family separations and terror raids in Economic Bill of Rights including Medicare for All, and immigrant communities; on the climate catastrophe; on a reprioritisation of federal spending from militarism to defending reproductive rights and Queer communities caring for the people and the planet.