Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
Member DSA
There is so much that is repulsive about the serial sexual abuser in the White House that’s it’s hard to know where to begin. But one thing that keeps bothering me is how on earth an open fascist, racist and promoter of violence against women can stay in office in a so-called democratic society. What sort of political party is it that allows fascists to run for office under its banner?
Well, Trump has cleared that up for us, a fascist party of course.
Leaving all that aside, Trump is seen above chatting with Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán during his recent visit to the White House. Orbán is a fascist and makes no bones about it, he hates Jews and his number one Jew on that list is George Soros so a lot of Trump’s supporters in the US will like Orbán. Israel’s Netenyahu, another fascist also has a soft spot for Orbán. Don’t be surprised at that, politics makes strange bedfellows as the old saying goes. The Zionists are grateful to the anti-Semites and anti-Semitism in general as it gives support for their claim that only Israel can provide a safe haven for Jews.
“Viktor Orbán has done a tremendous job in so many different ways,”, Trump says, adding that he is . “Respected all over Europe. Probably, like me, a little bit controversial, but that’s OK.” Too often the term controversial has been applied to describe Trump, including by the US mass media although that has shifted a bit. He is not controversial, he is a racist, fascist, con-man. liar and all the rest we know about him. Controversy can be a positive thing; it’s the subject of that controversy that matters.
During his reelection campaign in 2018 Orbán said, “We are fighting an enemy that is different from us, not open but hiding; not straightforward but crafty; not honest but base; not national but international; does not believe in working but speculates with money; does not have its own homeland but feels it owns the whole world.” Commenting in today’s Wall Street Journal William A Galston says of this language, “As numerous observers noted, this rhetoric replicates—almost verbatim—the anti-Jewish tropes of the 19th and 20th centuries.“ The Hungarian prime minister’s attacks on Jews and Soros in particular have forced a Soros backed university to close and has driven it from the country.
Another aspect of the “tremendous job” Orbán is doing according to Trump, is praising Hungary’s fascist past including one of its leaders Miklós Horthy. Under the Horthy regime, “Hungary became the first European country after World War I to impose quotas on Jews who wished to attend university. In the late 1930s, his government adopted racial laws that disenfranchised Hungary’s Jews and authorized the seizure of much of their property.” WSJ 5-15-19
Galston also points out that Fidesz, Mr. Orbán’s party has revised Hungary’s public school system to include anti-Semitic books that were published in Hungary prior to the advent of World War Two. Galston shares a quote form one of the authors, “Jews are the most serious and deadly enemies of Hungarians.”. Imagine how this will affect Hungarian schoolchildren. It is clear that this will drive Hungary’s remaining Jews out and hopefully in to Israel and the illegal settlements, hence the support from Netanyahu.
These are the some of the accomplishments Trump praises Orbán for. But it goes beyond that to issues even more important to the more sober bourgeois who are concerned about Trump’s destabilizing governance. As Galston points out, the prime minister has also basically shut down criticism and democratic rights, “…..by imposing restrictions on—or asserting control over—the opposition, the media, religious groups, academia, NGOs, the courts, asylum seekers, and the private sector.”
Trump’s new found friend has gone far further than Maduro in Venezuela in curbing democratic rights. And as we can see at the end of this short video clip, Trump appeals once again to his base, joining with Orbán in being proud defenders of Christendom throughout the globe.
But it’s not all been easy. There were huge strikes in January against low pay and the introduction of what trade union leaders described as the “Slave Law” that would allow employers to demand more overtime hours for their workers. The workers want the law repealed. The strikes spread and another German manufacturer was struck in March this year. Hungarian unions have been fairly compliant and have had numerous corruption scandals dog them but winds have changed. "Before, trade unions were seen as organizing aerobics classes and not much more," says Zoltan Pogatsa, a political economist……"But a new brand of leader has replaced the corrupt old guard, while fragmented groups have merged into more powerful units," . Consequently, 2019 has been termed the “year of the strike”.
Trump’s rise has not only emboldened Nazi’s and White Nationalists (Fascists) in the US, giving them confidence to venture out in to the open a bit and commit acts of violence against Muslims, Jews and people of color, it has emboldened right wing leaders like Orbán, Turkey’s Erdogan and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. At the request of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Trump is also supporting the Libyan general attempting to overthrow that country's government. He is at odds with the US state dept here.
But, as we have pointed out many times, the section of the US bourgeois behind Trump has become overconfident, has gone to far too fast and this prompted the series of strikes in education we saw last year and on in to 2019. As we explained, it was also the relative weakness or absence of the labor hierarchy that contributed to the rank and file educators movement as they were unable to prevent it.
Last year there were 20 major work stoppages involving 485,000 workers, according to the BLS-------- the highest in 33 years. The largest of these was in Arizona involving 81,000 teachers and staff totaling 486,000 workdays lost. The second was Oklahoma with 405,000 days lost. Stoppages occurred in other states, West Virginia, Kentucky, Colorado, North Carolina etc. This year, teachers with community support shut down the school system in Kentucky for six days. Facts For Working People has numerous reports and articles on these events here and here. There were also major education strikes in Los Angeles and Oakland CA.
The same is happening in Hungary and elsewhere and when Trump is brought down, and it’s hard to imagine that the more sober section of the US bourgeois will not find a way to do this before a serious catastrophe occurs, there will be a backlash against the right and Trump’s base. Having said that, nothing is guaranteed in this volatile climate, no one predicted the educators movement erupting.
The attacks on US workers are driven by US capitalism’s need to pay for the US military and its hundreds of bases around the world to maintain its global influence and support corporate profits. The US can no longer afford “guns and butter” to use Lyndon’ Johnson’s famous phrase. It never really did provide butter for millions but certainly a significant number that laid the basis for the American Dream and relative labor peace. Those days are over, and the destruction of social services and public education is directly connected to this aggressive foreign policy.
As Trump breaks bread with racist and fascist leaning leaders like Orbán, US workers and trade unionists need to recognize that these attacks by the right wing on racial and religious minorities, economic migrants, and so forth will turn very heavily on the trade union movement as they gain strength. The rise of new leadership in Hungary’s trade union movement will be replicated here as what the teachers began in places like West Virginia and elsewhere have not gone away despite efforts by the union hierarchy and many of the left and socialist forces that cover for them to undermine the importance and nature of their occurrence. In most instances they violated anti-union state laws and by-passed the existing leadership.
Given the size and tradition of the US working class, and the absence of no organized social force at this point to which they can turn, the response to the great shocks (and possible catastrophic events) will be violent and not at all pretty. But what is clear is that huge social explosions are awaiting the US at some point in the not so distant future. All bets are off when the slump hits.
Some further reading and thoughts on DSA
Democratic Socialists of America: Support for Sanders a Major Mistake
Labor and DSA Leadership Ignores the Mood, Offers No Alternative in 2020
Afscme Local 444, retired
Member DSA
There is so much that is repulsive about the serial sexual abuser in the White House that’s it’s hard to know where to begin. But one thing that keeps bothering me is how on earth an open fascist, racist and promoter of violence against women can stay in office in a so-called democratic society. What sort of political party is it that allows fascists to run for office under its banner?
Well, Trump has cleared that up for us, a fascist party of course.
Leaving all that aside, Trump is seen above chatting with Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán during his recent visit to the White House. Orbán is a fascist and makes no bones about it, he hates Jews and his number one Jew on that list is George Soros so a lot of Trump’s supporters in the US will like Orbán. Israel’s Netenyahu, another fascist also has a soft spot for Orbán. Don’t be surprised at that, politics makes strange bedfellows as the old saying goes. The Zionists are grateful to the anti-Semites and anti-Semitism in general as it gives support for their claim that only Israel can provide a safe haven for Jews.
“Viktor Orbán has done a tremendous job in so many different ways,”, Trump says, adding that he is . “Respected all over Europe. Probably, like me, a little bit controversial, but that’s OK.” Too often the term controversial has been applied to describe Trump, including by the US mass media although that has shifted a bit. He is not controversial, he is a racist, fascist, con-man. liar and all the rest we know about him. Controversy can be a positive thing; it’s the subject of that controversy that matters.
During his reelection campaign in 2018 Orbán said, “We are fighting an enemy that is different from us, not open but hiding; not straightforward but crafty; not honest but base; not national but international; does not believe in working but speculates with money; does not have its own homeland but feels it owns the whole world.” Commenting in today’s Wall Street Journal William A Galston says of this language, “As numerous observers noted, this rhetoric replicates—almost verbatim—the anti-Jewish tropes of the 19th and 20th centuries.“ The Hungarian prime minister’s attacks on Jews and Soros in particular have forced a Soros backed university to close and has driven it from the country.
Another aspect of the “tremendous job” Orbán is doing according to Trump, is praising Hungary’s fascist past including one of its leaders Miklós Horthy. Under the Horthy regime, “Hungary became the first European country after World War I to impose quotas on Jews who wished to attend university. In the late 1930s, his government adopted racial laws that disenfranchised Hungary’s Jews and authorized the seizure of much of their property.” WSJ 5-15-19
Galston also points out that Fidesz, Mr. Orbán’s party has revised Hungary’s public school system to include anti-Semitic books that were published in Hungary prior to the advent of World War Two. Galston shares a quote form one of the authors, “Jews are the most serious and deadly enemies of Hungarians.”. Imagine how this will affect Hungarian schoolchildren. It is clear that this will drive Hungary’s remaining Jews out and hopefully in to Israel and the illegal settlements, hence the support from Netanyahu.
These are the some of the accomplishments Trump praises Orbán for. But it goes beyond that to issues even more important to the more sober bourgeois who are concerned about Trump’s destabilizing governance. As Galston points out, the prime minister has also basically shut down criticism and democratic rights, “…..by imposing restrictions on—or asserting control over—the opposition, the media, religious groups, academia, NGOs, the courts, asylum seekers, and the private sector.”
Trump’s new found friend has gone far further than Maduro in Venezuela in curbing democratic rights. And as we can see at the end of this short video clip, Trump appeals once again to his base, joining with Orbán in being proud defenders of Christendom throughout the globe.
But it’s not all been easy. There were huge strikes in January against low pay and the introduction of what trade union leaders described as the “Slave Law” that would allow employers to demand more overtime hours for their workers. The workers want the law repealed. The strikes spread and another German manufacturer was struck in March this year. Hungarian unions have been fairly compliant and have had numerous corruption scandals dog them but winds have changed. "Before, trade unions were seen as organizing aerobics classes and not much more," says Zoltan Pogatsa, a political economist……"But a new brand of leader has replaced the corrupt old guard, while fragmented groups have merged into more powerful units," . Consequently, 2019 has been termed the “year of the strike”.
Trump’s rise has not only emboldened Nazi’s and White Nationalists (Fascists) in the US, giving them confidence to venture out in to the open a bit and commit acts of violence against Muslims, Jews and people of color, it has emboldened right wing leaders like Orbán, Turkey’s Erdogan and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. At the request of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Trump is also supporting the Libyan general attempting to overthrow that country's government. He is at odds with the US state dept here.
But, as we have pointed out many times, the section of the US bourgeois behind Trump has become overconfident, has gone to far too fast and this prompted the series of strikes in education we saw last year and on in to 2019. As we explained, it was also the relative weakness or absence of the labor hierarchy that contributed to the rank and file educators movement as they were unable to prevent it.
Last year there were 20 major work stoppages involving 485,000 workers, according to the BLS-------- the highest in 33 years. The largest of these was in Arizona involving 81,000 teachers and staff totaling 486,000 workdays lost. The second was Oklahoma with 405,000 days lost. Stoppages occurred in other states, West Virginia, Kentucky, Colorado, North Carolina etc. This year, teachers with community support shut down the school system in Kentucky for six days. Facts For Working People has numerous reports and articles on these events here and here. There were also major education strikes in Los Angeles and Oakland CA.
The same is happening in Hungary and elsewhere and when Trump is brought down, and it’s hard to imagine that the more sober section of the US bourgeois will not find a way to do this before a serious catastrophe occurs, there will be a backlash against the right and Trump’s base. Having said that, nothing is guaranteed in this volatile climate, no one predicted the educators movement erupting.
The attacks on US workers are driven by US capitalism’s need to pay for the US military and its hundreds of bases around the world to maintain its global influence and support corporate profits. The US can no longer afford “guns and butter” to use Lyndon’ Johnson’s famous phrase. It never really did provide butter for millions but certainly a significant number that laid the basis for the American Dream and relative labor peace. Those days are over, and the destruction of social services and public education is directly connected to this aggressive foreign policy.
As Trump breaks bread with racist and fascist leaning leaders like Orbán, US workers and trade unionists need to recognize that these attacks by the right wing on racial and religious minorities, economic migrants, and so forth will turn very heavily on the trade union movement as they gain strength. The rise of new leadership in Hungary’s trade union movement will be replicated here as what the teachers began in places like West Virginia and elsewhere have not gone away despite efforts by the union hierarchy and many of the left and socialist forces that cover for them to undermine the importance and nature of their occurrence. In most instances they violated anti-union state laws and by-passed the existing leadership.
Given the size and tradition of the US working class, and the absence of no organized social force at this point to which they can turn, the response to the great shocks (and possible catastrophic events) will be violent and not at all pretty. But what is clear is that huge social explosions are awaiting the US at some point in the not so distant future. All bets are off when the slump hits.
Some further reading and thoughts on DSA
Democratic Socialists of America: Support for Sanders a Major Mistake
Labor and DSA Leadership Ignores the Mood, Offers No Alternative in 2020
1 comment:
I think my comment referring to the Republican party as a fascist party is not really accurate for a number of reasons, not having an armed militia wing being one of them. Also, I think it is more accurate to say Trump clearly has fascistic leanings but he is not a fascist as Mussolini or Hitler was. I have criticized some on the left for using the term fascist way to liberally in the past to describe right wing politicians or extremists. It is to easy to label Trump as such but it is nor excluded in the period ahead. It is even possible, if he is removed or loses an election he could form a genuinenly extreme right wing or fascist party.
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