Sean O'Torain.
Trump got what he deserved tonight in Chicago. He got kicked out of town. He has been asking for this for years. Think about it. Ever since Obama was elected Trump has been leading a campaign to see Obama's birth certificate. I have no time for Obama's policies but this was just a veiled racist attack on the first Black president. He has also been saying we, everybody knows who he means by we, that is white people, have to get our country back. He also refuses again and again to denounce the KKK. His father was arrested in New York in the 1920's as part of a KKK mob. The apple does not fall far from the tree. These campaigns of Trump have been his ways of expressing his racist views against Black people and building a white racist following. The fact he has just got an endorsement from the extreme right wing political moron Carson does not change this.
Trump is also a racist against Latino people. Those who come over the southern border, driven in desperation from their homes and jobs by the US imposed trade agreements such as NAFTA, to try and get a job, he calls criminals and rapists. Then there is his sexism. Calling women the most vicious and sexist names and abuse.He has attacked and attacks all Muslim people.
Trump has been building a movement in the Republican party based on the most right wing forces in that party and also on the wing of that party which has been most hit economically by the economic crisis and policies of the Republicans and Democrats. Desperate and seeing no other way out some of these have fallen for Trumps extreme right wing racist and sexist rhetoric.
It looked like Trump was sailing towards the Republican nomination. And he still may get that nomination. And it is not even excluded that he could win the presidency. But whatever happens on those fronts the Chicago youth tonight threw a spanner into the works. The Trump campaign is now going to be hounded wherever it goes. The most thoughtful wing of the capitalist class will see this even more than they already do and will try even harder to stop him. But they might not be able to. Or if they do they might do so in a way that would split the Republican Party. This in turn could open up a split in the Democratic Party and US politics could be thrown into a state of fragmentation.
Trump has been consciously working to create the confrontation he now faces. He attacks Black people, he attacks Latino people, he attacks women, at his rallies he attacks protesters saying he would like to punch them in the face and if anybody else did this he would pay their legal fees, his private security guards throw out protesters, his campaign manager attacks a journalist leaving her bruised, he leads chants against protesters: "get them out get them out." Then on Thursday night when a young Black man was being put out of one of his rallies a Trump supporter physically attacked him and Trump justified this. And incredibly the cops arrested the young man the Trump supporter attacked. Other protesters have been physically attacked at his rallies and he refuses to condemn this in fact he leads chants and shouts slogans and encourages this.
The authors of this Blog have been saying for some time that US capitalism is in a serious military, economic and political crisis. The events in Chicago on Friday night have brought this political crisis nearer to the surface. It is impossible to say which candidate will now win the nomination in either party. It is possible that major splits will take place with a number of major well known candidates. Trump in his ignorance openly expressed the most backward feelings in US society. On occasion he would try to hide this by talking about jobs going abroad etc when he and his companies were involved in this. The essence of his message was racist and sexist and an appeal to white working class voters who were left out of the economic growth of the past decades. US capitalism is in a dangerous situation. A new world recession lies ahead. The soaring stock markets will plunge. It is stuck in numerous wars and with up to two hundred bases spread around the world which it can no longer afford. To try and maintain it world wide military role it cuts the living standards of its own working class at home and lets its infrastructure collapse with the results being such as the mass poisoning in Flint, and elsewhere. US society is going to blow up. Class tensions and struggles will intensify.
In considering this there is another factor to be taken into account. This is the US working class. There are 14 million workers organized in the trade unions. The problem is that the leadership of these 14 million workers believe in capitalism, and because this leadership control the organizations of the working class, that is the trade unions, they have the capacity so far to hold down the rest of the working class, to keep the rest of the working class from struggling as a class. But this will not last forever. Already we have many many movements such as the movements for a higher minimum wage, against racism and sexism, against police brutality, against climate change and pollution, against the attacks on education and health and on and on. These are mainly being conducted by new movements, mainly of the youth and not organized in the trade unions. But these are signs of much bigger struggles to come. Much bigger struggles which will see the heavy battalions of the working class move into struggle, build new trade unions and transform the existing unions. Things will change. And when they do consider the new balance of forces that will be possible.
Think about this in the context of Chicago. Less than 1,000 Chicago youth closed down the big mouth racist Trump. We are all deeply indebted to them. But what about the other forces that were not there. In the Chicagoland area there are over 300 trade union locals. There are half a million workers affiliated to the Chicago Federation of Labor. This force operates transport, health care, education, utilities, industry and other sectors of the economy. It has hundreds of union full time workers and thousands of representatives. Without this unionized workforce the city could not work. Where were they tonight when the youth were shutting down Trump? They were not present. This is a disgrace.
The reason they were not there is because of the cowardly role of the trade union leaders who cling to the Democratic party and capitalism. The stranglehold of these leaders must be ended and these working class forces must be brought into action. New fighting leaderships have to built in the ranks of the trade unions and in the workplaces to this end. If this is done then under the hammer blows of events, of the coming inevitable increased attacks on workers by capitalism, the Chicago working class will move into action. There will be confusions as this happens because of the role of the union leaders. But into action the US working class will come. It will see that its interests are in unity, are in opposition to the corporations, are in opposition to the extreme right wing racist capitalist demagogues like Trump. They will see that they must unite as a class, unite the youth with the adult workers and together take on capitalism and build a new democratic socialist society.
Once again thanks to the Chicago Youth who on Friday night shut down Trump's big racist mouth. This was a victory of US and worldwide proportions. It will lift the spirits of workers in very country who are seeking a way to build a united movement for a better life. Let us work to get the wonderful Chicago youth reinforcements, to mobilize the 300 plus trade union locals, the half million trade union members in the Chicagoland area. Do not let the youth fight alone. Thank you again to the Chicago youth who stopped Trump from holding his rally.
3 comments:
You forget to mention Trump's tirades against Muslims. Seems as if he has denounced anyone and everyone except the kkkk. And we know who they represent.
I hope that it is the beginning of a mass movement, and it may well be. I know that word is already starting to go around about building for mass protests against Trump when he shows up in other cities. We'll see whether Trump tries to pull his racist rhetoric and incitements to violence back in a bit now -- at the last Republican debate, he was subdued and polite compared to his previous belligerent bully boy tough guy posturing, clearly trying to look more "presidential" now that he's close to the nomination. But he's powered by the white supremacists, evangelicals, and neonazis, so he may keep on openly urging them on and inciting violence.
It will be interesting to see what Hillary and Bernie do. Hillary has been pitching that she will unite the country. She will probably blame Trump for the violence, but say something like "responding to violence with violence will only make things worse." It will be really interesting to see what Sanders does -- I think that he has to find some way to support the mass response to Trump, but may criticiize "a small number who went a bit too far" or something like that. But that's just a guess. Jack Gerson
Thank you for your comments . Ropinder Sidhu I corrected my omission as soon as you pointed it out. But i should not have had to have it pointed out to me. Thank you. I was thinking about Trumps trajectory since Obama was elected when he had been attacking African Americans, Latinos, Women and omitted to point to his more recent anti Muslim tirades. i apologize. I have corrected this.
Thank you Jack for your thoughts on these issues. I feel that it is like watching a glass on the verge of splintering and breaking apart. The relatively stable two party capitalist system which served US capitalism so well is coming apart. The question I have is the tempo at which this will take place and the form it will take. Trump seems this morning not to be pulling back. I do not thin he can. I think if he continues there will be a a mass response against him but also probably a mass response for him. If this began to develop I am not sure what the capitalist class would do as things could get out of hand. There state apparatus could even begin to crack. This could have repercussions in the US military abroad. I feel it is not excluded that Trump could get the nomination. I feel that the capitalist class would be very reluctant to have him in the White House. All kinds of measures would be discussed. Some "legal" some perhaps not so "legal." Another problem is what alternative does the capitalist class have. It is not excluded that Clinton could lose the nomination. She has been so much part of the establishment wing for so long she is having a very hard time pretending to pull back. Her bootlicking about Nancy Reagan shows this. If she tries to pull back from the trade deals this would only strengthen the feeling that she will say anything to get elected. Could Sanders get the nomination? It is not excluded that assassination or assassinations could be on the cards. As I say it is a bit like watching a glass that is beginning to splinter, that is the US political system splintering but not knowing what way it will do so and what pieces will fly in what direction. If capitalism moves and blocks Trump and in doing so breaks the rules of the Republican Party he could split and go on his own. If this happened and Clinton used her super delegates and other methods to block Sanders he might go on his own. A new capitalist candidate might enter the field. I think the capitalist class are as much at sea as ourselves when it comes to who they think they can get as a reliable person to keep the pot from boiling over in mass street fighting, mass movements on the right and on the left.
What was very interesting yesterday in Chicago was that so many of the young anti Trump people were new to struggle. Not in left groups. This seems to indicate to me that a the door is opening to a new mass movement. We already have the movements on minimum wage, the environment, police violence and racism, sexism, the poisoning of cities and communities, fracking, this country is going to blow up. The old relative stability will soon be a thing of the past. Nobody should be surprised by this. The old relative stability is a thing of the past in just about every other country in the world why would it not be here in the US which has its fingers in just about every pie world wide. The US glass is going to fragment. It is impossible in my opinion with any certainty to foretell the tempo of this development or the way in which this will express itself but the relative stability of the last period is over. Even in that period we had the Occupy movement, the minimum wage movement, the anti police brutality movements. But now it seems broader and new forces are entering the scene. It was these who took the lead in Chicago last night.
Sean O'Torain.
Post a Comment