Trump's triumph in the United States: A giant step forward in the decomposition of capitalism!

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Trump is back in the White House after a landslide victory in the presidential election. In the eyes of his supporters, he is an invincible American hero, one who has survived every obstacle: the ‘rigged election’, the ‘judicial inquisition’, the hostility of the ‘establishment’ and even... bullets! The image of a miraculous Trump, his ear bleeding and his fist raised after a shot grazed him, will go down in history. But behind the admiration aroused by his reaction, this attack was above all the most spectacular expression of an election campaign that reached new heights of violence, hatred and irrationality. This extraordinary campaign, spewing out money and saturated with obscenities, just like its conclusion, the victory of a megalomaniac and stupid billionaire, reflects the abyss into which bourgeois society is sinking.

Vote against populism? No! We need to overthrow capitalism!

Trump has all the makings of a bad guy: he's an unmitigated vulgarian, a liar and a cynic, as racist and misogynist as he is homophobic. Throughout the campaign, the international press talked endlessly about the dangers that his return to office poses for ‘democratic’ institutions, minorities, the climate and international relations: “The world holds its breath” (Die Zeit), “An American nightmare” (L'Humanité), “How will the world survive Trump?” (Público), “A moral debacle” (El País)...

So should we have preferred Harris, chosen the side of a so-called ‘lesser evil’ to block the road to populism? That's what the bourgeoisie would have us believe. For several months, the new President of the United States found himself at the heart of a worldwide propaganda campaign against populism[1]. “Smiling” Kamala Harris constantly called for the defence of “American democracy”, describing her opponent as a ‘fascist ’. Even Trump’s former chief of staff was quick to describe him as a “would-be dictator”. The billionaire's victory only fuelled this mystifying campaign in favour of bourgeois ‘democracy’.

Many voters went to the polling station thinking: ‘The Democrats have given us a hard time for four years, but it still won't be as bad as Trump in the White House’. This is the idea that the bourgeoisie has always tried to put into the heads of the workers to drive them to the polls. But in decadent capitalism, elections are a masquerade, a false choice that has no other function than to hinder the working class's reflection on its historical goals and the means of achieving them.

The elections in the United States are no exception to this reality. If Trump won so widely, it was first and foremost because the Democrats are hated. Contrary to the image of a ‘Republican wave’, Trump did not attract massive support. The number of his voters has remained relatively stable compared with the previous election in 2020. It was above all Vice President Harris who, as a sign of the Democrats' discredit, suffered a debacle, losing no fewer than 10 million voters in four years. And for good reason! The Biden administration carried out ferocious attacks on the living and working conditions of the working class, starting with inflation, which caused the price of food, petrol and housing to skyrocket. Then there was a huge wave of redundancies and job insecurity, which ended up pushing the workers to fight on a massive scale[2]. On immigration, Biden and Harris, who were elected on the promise of a ‘more humane’ policy, have constantly tightened the conditions for entry into the United States, going so far as to close the border with Mexico and bluntly forbid migrants from even asking for asylum. On the international stage, Biden's unbridled militarism, lavish funding of massacres in Ukraine and scarcely critical support for the Israeli army's abuses also angered voters.

Harris' candidacy could not give rise to any illusions, as we have seen in the past with Obama and, to a lesser extent, with Biden. The proletariat has nothing to expect from the elections or from the bourgeois powers that be: it's not this or that clique in power that's ‘mismanaging business’, it's the capitalist system that's sinking into crisis and historic bankruptcy. Whether Democrat or Republican, all of them will continue to ruthlessly exploit the working class and spread misery as the crisis deepens; all of them will continue to impose the ferocious dictatorship of the bourgeois state and bomb innocent people around the world!

Trumpism, an expression of the decomposition of capitalism

The most responsible fractions of the American state apparatus (most of the media and senior civil servants, the military command, the most moderate faction of the Republican party, etc.) have nevertheless done their utmost to prevent the return of Trump and his clan to the White House. The cascade of lawsuits, the warnings of virtually every expert in every field and even the media's relentless efforts to ridicule the candidate were not enough to stop his race for power. Trump's election is a real slap in the face, a sign that the bourgeoisie is increasingly losing control of its electoral game and is no longer able to prevent an irresponsible troublemaker from acceding to the highest offices of state.

The reality of the rise of populism is nothing new: the vote for Brexit in 2016, followed the same year by Trump's surprise victory, were the first and most spectacular signs of it. But the deepening crisis of capitalism and the growing powerlessness of states to control the situation, whether geo-strategically, economically, environmentally or socially, have only served to reinforce political instability across the world: hung parliaments, populism, tensions between bourgeois cliques, governmental instability... These phenomena bear witness to a process of disintegration that is now operating at the heart of the world's most powerful states. This trend has enabled a madman like Milei to rise to the head of state in Argentina, and populists to come to power in several European countries, where the bourgeoisie is the most experienced in the world.

Trump's victory is part of this process, but also marks a significant additional step. If Trump is rejected by a large part of the state apparatus, it is above all because his programme and methods risk not only damaging the interests of US imperialism in the world, but also further increasing the difficulties of the state in ensuring the semblance of social cohesion necessary for the functioning of national capital. During the campaign, Trump made a series of inflammatory speeches, rekindling as never before the vengeful spirit of his supporters, even threatening the ‘democratic’ institutions that the bourgeoisie so badly needs to ideologically contain the working class. He has constantly fuelled the most retrograde and hateful rhetoric, raising the spectre of riots if he is not elected. And he never gave a thought to the consequences his words could have on the fabric of society. The extreme violence of this campaign, for which the Democrats are also responsible in many respects, will undoubtedly deepen the divisions in the American population and can only further increase the violence in an already highly fragmented society. But Trump, in the scorched earth logic that increasingly characterises the capitalist system, was prepared to do anything to win.

In 2016, as Trump's victory was relatively unexpected, including by himself, the American bourgeoisie was able to prepare the ground by placing in government and in the administration personalities capable of putting the brakes on the billionaire's most delirious decisions. Those whom Trump later described as “traitors” had, for example, been able to prevent the repeal of the social protection system (Obamacare) or the bombing of Iran. When the Covid pandemic broke out, his vice-president, Mike Pence, was also able to manage the crisis despite Trump's belief that injecting disinfectant into the lungs was enough to cure the disease... It was this same Pence who ended up publicly disavowing Trump by ensuring the transition of power to Biden while rioters marched on the Capitol. From now on, even if the army's general staff remains very hostile to Trump and will still do its utmost to delay his worst decisions, the new President's clan has prepared itself by removing the  “traitors” and is preparing to govern alone against everyone, leaving us with the prospect of a mandate even more chaotic than the previous one.

Towards an increasingly chaotic world

During the campaign, Trump presented himself as a man of ‘peace’, claiming that he would put an end to the Ukrainian conflict “in 24 hours”. His taste for peace clearly stops at the borders of Ukraine, since at the same time he has given unconditional support to the massacres perpetrated by the Israeli state and has been very virulent towards Iran. In reality, no one really knows what Trump will do (or be able to do) in Ukraine, the Middle East, Asia, Europe or with NATO, so versatile and capricious has he always been.

On the other hand, his return will mark an unprecedented acceleration of instability and chaos in the world. In the Middle East, Netanyahu already imagines that, with Trump's victory, his hands are freer than at any time since the start of the conflict in Gaza. Israel could seek to achieve its strategic objectives (destruction of Hezbollah, Hamas, war with Iran, etc.) in a much more head-on manner, spreading more barbarism throughout the region.

In Ukraine, after Biden's policy of more or less measured support, the conflict risks taking an even more dramatic turn. Unlike in the Middle East, US policy in Ukraine is part of a carefully devised strategy to weaken Russia and its alliance with China, and to strengthen the ties of the European states around NATO. Trump could call this strategy into question and further weaken American leadership. Whether Trump decides to abandon Kiev or ‘punish’ Putin, the massacres will inevitably escalate and perhaps spread beyond Ukraine.

But it is China that is the main focus of attention for US imperialism. The conflict between the United States and China is at the centre of the world situation, and the new President could multiply his provocations, pushing China to react firmly, for example by putting pressure on the USA’s Japanese and Korean allies, who have already expressed their concerns. And all this against a backdrop of escalating trade wars and protectionism whose disastrous consequences for the global economy are already being denounced by the world's leading financial institutions.

Trump's unpredictability can therefore only considerably reinforce the trend towards every man for himself, pushing all the powers, large and small, to take advantage of the ‘retreat’ of the American policeman to play their own card in a climate of immense confusion and increased chaos. Even America's ‘allies’ are already more openly seeking to distance themselves from Washington by favouring national solutions, both economic and military. The French President, as soon as Trump's victory was confirmed, called on the European Union states to defend their interests in the face of the United States and China...

An additional obstacle for the working class

In a context of economic crisis, at a time when the proletariat is regaining its fighting spirit on an international scale and gradually rediscovering its class identity, Trump's clique is clearly not, in the eyes of the American bourgeoisie, the best suited to managing the class struggle and pushing through the attacks that capital needs. Between his open threats of repression against strikers and his nightmarish partnership with a guy as openly anti-worker as Elon Musk, the billionaire's sweeping statements during the recent strikes in the United States (Boeing, dockers, hotels, cars, etc.) augur the worst and can only worry the bourgeoisie. Trump's promise to take revenge on state employees, whom he considers his enemies, by sacking 400,000 of them, also heralds trouble after the elections.

But it would be a mistake to think that Trump's return to the White House will encourage class struggle. On the contrary, it will come as a real shock. The policy of division between ethnic groups, between urban and rural dwellers, between graduates and non-graduates, all the violence and hatred that the election campaign generated and on which Trump will continue to surf, against blacks, against immigrants, against homosexuals or transgender people, all the irrational ravings of evangelicals and other conspiracy theorists, in short the whole mess of decomposition, will weigh even more heavily on working people, creating deep divisions and even violent political confrontations in favour of populist or anti-populist cliques.

The Trump administration will undoubtedly be able to count on the left-wing factions of the bourgeoisie, starting with the ‘socialists’, to instil the poison of division and ensure the derailing of workers’ struggles. After campaigning for both Clintons, Obama, Biden and Harris, Bernie Sanders unblinkingly accuses the Democrats of having “abandoned the working class”, as if this militaristic, proletarian-murdering party, which has frequently been in power since 19th century, had anything to do with the working class! As soon as she was re-elected to the House of Representatives, the left-wing Democrat Ocasio-Cortez promised to do her utmost to divide the working class into “communities”: ”Our campaign isn't just about winning votes, it's about giving us the means to build stronger communities”.

But the working class has the strength to fight back despite these new obstacles. While the campaign was in full swing, and despite the infamous accusations of playing into the hands of populists, workers continued to fight against austerity and redundancies. Despite the isolation imposed by the unions, despite the huge amount of Democratic propaganda, despite the weight of divisions, they showed that struggle is the only answer to the crisis of capitalism.

Above all, workers in the United States are not alone! These strikes are part of a context of international combativeness and heightened reflection that has been going on since the summer of 2022, when workers in Britain, after decades of resignation, raised a cry of anger, “Enough is enough!”, that resonates and will continue to resonate throughout the working class!

EG, 9 November 2024

 

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US elections