Driving Trump from Chicago Was a Magic Moment for Workers.

By Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

I was motivated to make this comment by a statement on this blog here.

Myself and others at Facts For Working People blog, have commented many times on the failure of the self-styled revolutionary organizations to build any significant presence or left current within the workers’ movement. There are many reasons for this; sectarianism, the twin evils of ultra-leftism and reformism, as well as a refusal to openly challenge and confront the catastrophic policies of the union hierarchy that have contributed greatly to the decline of our living standards. Benefits and rights that took decades to win through heroic rank and file struggle have been handed over to the bosses by the labor hierarchy as part of their strategic retreat policy.

The inability of the socialist left to adapt to the present situation and to reflect on its own failures and mistakes in a serious way has left it further isolated from the workers movement in my opinion, unable to adapt to the immense changes that have taken place over the past period and in the age of Trump.

While not all left groups appear to have been affected by these events in the same way, they have all been affected by them and the Socialist Workers Party’s position on the driving of Trump out of Chicago is exceptionally tragic.

Any class-conscious worker would revel in delight that the degenerate racist and misogynist Trump was driven out of Chicago by black youth in particular. But the SWP’s candidate for president Alyson Kennedy in a leaflet published after the Predator in Chief was denied an audience, called this action a “blow to free speech.”.  She basically accused this section of our class that kept Trump from inciting racial hatred in Chicago of an attack on the working class as a whole and the “…vital conquest of working people---of our right to speak, organize pickets, and mobilize protest rallies and marches.”

“Efforts to shut down those you disagree with set back workers’ struggles. The working class must defend free speech for all.”, the Socialist Workers Party argues here. The SWP also refers to this attack on Trump and his apparent right to racist speech as “thuggish actions” which is a bit of a red flag for the black worker as it is a term often used by the ruling class to describe black males in particular. I seem to recall Hillary Clinton was somewhat more cultured in her racist language fond of the term “predatory” with regard to some black males.

Nazi’s fascists, the KKK, racists, misogynists like Trump use the right of free speech in order to build a movement to deny the rest of us the right to free speech in a society that places one ethnic group or culture above all others. We have witnessed fascism at work in recent history and the 50 million or so victims of it. Fascism or the concept of white supremacy has not been good to the white worker.

That is why we deny them the right to use free speech to mobilize for this movement. But we do not call on the capitalist state to enforce this ban with their police and security forces. We call on the working class to mobilize against them. In Boston we saw some 40,000 march against the fascists that drove them off the streets there. Does the SWP think that was harmful to the workers' movement?  This is not denying free speech, it’s fighting fascism, nationalism and a philosophy that weakens working class unity and we can’t win, we can’t provide a decent future for our children without working class unity.

Driving Trump out of Chicago was a victory for all workers. If gang members stopped their activity against each other to battle fascists and racist elements this is not an attack on free speech. It’s defending free speech.

I was a rank and file union activist for many years. We had a lot of success in the workplace and the movement. Two of the strongest fighters and defenders of workers on the job, all workers regardless of their views, color, race, sexual orientation, and who had my back personally were both Christian as they saw themselves and one still attends his church and plays music in the church band. In 30 years, the self-styled revolutionary left played no role whatsoever in fighting on the job where the rubber meets the road. It’s time wasted fighting for workers rights at work when the revolutionary vanguard has to be built.

I still believe that a revolutionary current or leadership has to be built in the working class in order for the transformation of society to be successful. But I do not believe it can be built using the old method. I also know there are many serious and dedicated members of these organizations who were honest and believed in what they were doing. But I also believe there are far more socialists outside of these organizations than in them. Many of them burned out and turned off by the undemocratic patriarchal and middle class (petit bourgeois) culture of these organizations.

Driving Trump out of Chicago was a great moment in recent history and I am grateful to those that did it.

You can read or download the SWP leaflet here