Trump and his gang will not have it all their own way.

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

I often used to talk about how the American workers and middle class are the first victims of US capitalism. People would react unfavorably to that at times given the living standard here compared to Bangladesh say or they would compare the conditions here to Iraq or Afghanistan where people's lives and their societies have been savaged by years of US foreign policies corporate wars.

But it is all relative. Even so, there is massive poverty here in the US.  There are millions of people that can barely get by. In most cases, US capitalism has managed to keep food prices relatively in reach although many do use credit cards for food and health care. Most riots in history are set off by food prices.

But Americans exists in a climate of never ending pressure to consume and to own more things. We work longer hours, get fewer holidays and have poor social services when compared to other advanced capitalist economies.

The recent election has placed in positions of power some of the more ruthless of the US bourgeois.  Trump admitted only today that American wages are too high. We are facing an intensified effort by the US bourgeois to drive our living standards even further.  The cost of defending US capitalism's profits and plunder abroad will continue to rob our children of a future and our planet as a home thsat can sustain human life.

Above is one of those stark examples of how contemptuous the US ruling class is when it comes to the American worker.  It is hard to imagine that some workers can actually think this man and the capitalist class in general are looking out for them. This is the result of a detachment from our own history, from the history of the working class and our struggle to build unions and the general struggle of all people beginning with the Native Americans against the savagery of the market.

But all is not yet lost. Trump and the present gang he is gathering around him, will force a movement to arise in response, a shift to the left in US political life. He has given the racists and the bigots fresh life, legitimized their destructive values and there will, as I say above, be serious clashes ahead. But there will also be great leaps forward. It is upon these we must build a mass direct action national and international movement against capitalism.  The global community needs new managers.