Walk-out against Trump and Tories
Donald Trump - the racist, sexist billionaire who currently occupies the White House - has announced he plans to visit the UK on 13 July. He is not welcome. And if he dares step foot in the country, he must be met with protest on an unprecedented scale. Trump’s latest planned visit comes shortly after the mass mobilisation of young people and workers following the Parkland school shooting in February. Clearly National Rifle Association (NRA) funding is more important to Trump than school students’ lives. By inviting him here in July, May is endorsing his disgraceful and callous behaviour. That’s no surprise - she’s cut from virtually the same cloth! In answer to his visit, on 13 July Socialist Students and Young Socialists are calling a student strike. And we are calling for all working class and young people to join in mass protests against Trump’s racism and sexism, his prioritising of profit over lives, and the entire capitalist system he and May represent. We need to show solidarity with those in America fighting for gun controls, as well as women’s and workers’ rights. We need to show May what we think of her appeasement. The mere threat of mass protest saw Trump off in February - it can do so again. And this time, May with him.
Organise Our fury should be directed not just at the US president as an individual, but at all the reactionary politics of hatred, division, and greed he represents. Any system which elevates a man like Trump to the position of most powerful individual on the planet is one which is utterly broken. Trumpism is a symptom of the rottenness and bankruptcy of capitalism, both in the US and internationally. It was by cynically posing as an ‘anti-establishment’ candidate that he was able to win support from a minority of angry, disenfranchised voters, including some from the working class. But it is this broken capitalist system and the billionaire class it benefits that both Trump and May seek to represent. While she may be less personally volatile and extreme, May also promotes the interests of the 1% at the expense of the majority. She also pushes racist and xenophobic ideas in order to sow division among working class people and take the heat off those really responsible for austerity and poverty: the capitalist class. While May might have been forced to drop some of her worst sycophancy when it comes to Trump, this planned visit speaks volumes. That’s why in building a movement against him, we must also build the pressure on our own weak, divided government.
We must fight to kick-out the Tories out and force a general election.
Socialism And we must link the fight against the divide-and-rule politics of Trump with the struggle for a society that is instead based on solidarity and equality. The best antidote to Trumpism is not the lesser evilism of corporate politicians like Clinton; it is the socialist alternative to politics on behalf of the super-rich. In place of Trump’s tax cuts for the mega-wealthy, we should campaign to take the wealth off the 1%. A socialist society would be one in which the vast wealth and resources currently concentrated in the hands of a tiny rich elite are instead publicly owned and democratically controlled by working class people. If you want to help build a mass movement against Trump, and if you want to organise to fight for socialism – for a society run in the interests of the 99% - join us, and get involved in the fightback today!
