On Tuesday, November 3, the US presidential elections will be held in a context of enormous economic and political crisis, and maximum social polarization. The uprising against police racist violence - in which millions of people have participated - is happening relentlessly, while the repressive forces of the State continue to commit new murders supported by far-right gangs that walk the streets, arms in hand. The United States is experiencing a turning point in its history, and its revolutionary consequences will be felt throughout the world.
Donald Trump encourages racist violence with anti-communist rhetoric
On August 23, in the town of Kenosha (Wisconsin), the police fired seven shots in the back at the african-american Jacob Blake in front of his three children. This was the trigger for new and massive protests in the streets. Three days later, in that same city, Kyle Rittenhouse, a far-right young man and declared Trump supporter, used his assault rifle against the protesters, killing two people while being protected by the police. A few days later, in Portland, Oregon, the city where protests have taken place daily since George Floyd's murder in May, Jay Danielson, a member of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, was fatally shot by an anti-fascist militant after a violent clash in the streets.
Trump's reaction was unequivocal. On September 1, he went to Kenosha not only to support the crimes of the police, but also to justified the murders perpetrated by Kyle Rittenhouse and qualify as “domestic terrrorism” the demonstrations against racism and police brutality. In the case of the death of the fascist Danielson, he demanded through social networks the arrest of the alleged perpetrator, who was finally shot dead by the FBI when they proceeded to arrest him.
This offensive by Trump, two months before the elections, aims to polarize the scenario to the maximum with three objectives. First, to hide the failure of his challenge to China and the unstoppable decline of US imperialism. Second, divert attention from the social and economic catastrophe the country is experiencing. Third, in the event that he is finally defeated by a narrow margin, justify a supposed push in the elections.
His crusade against the threat of "socialism" is very significant in this strategy. In the days that the Republican Party convention lasted, Trump became the guardian of law and order, of family and tradition, and launched a fighting message to mobilize a state apparatus plagued by racists and white supremacists, the sectors of the petty bourgeoisie that demand a strong hand to lower wages and smash the rights of workers - especially immigrants - and also backward workers who are desperate in the face of the crisis. Converted into the Führer of this social mass, and cheered by a sector of the ruling class, he is placing the class struggle on a level unknown since the 1930s.
The anti-racist struggle expresses the fury of the working class and the youth
Trump is responding to an objective dynamic that has its roots in the breakdown of US capitalism. The assassination of George Floyd was nothing more than a catalyst to unleash the greatest social mobilizations in American history. Neither the curfews, nor the thousands of detainees, nor the deployment of the National Guard were able to stop the uprising of millions of youth and workers, social activists and trade unionists, African Americans, Latinos, whites, Asians, of all races, under the banner of Black Lives Matter. A movement that has far surpassed the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, and even the mobilizations against the Vietnam War of the 1970s.
"Neither the curfews, nor the thousands of detainees, nor the deployment of the National Guard were able to stop the uprising of millions of youth and workers." (Caption for picture)
Bringing class contradictions to the fore, the ongoing struggle has unified the oppressed across any racial or national barrier, and has brought to light the profound setback in the living conditions of millions of Americans, beginning with the African-American community. The movement certifies something already known: the "American dream" has been shattered by the greed of an economic oligarchy that wants everything.
When the Trump administration, with the approval of the Democrats, has given the green light to a plan to inject $ 3.6 trillion into banking and big monopolies, when the Dow Jones has closed the second quarter of this year with a rise of 18 points, the highest since 1987, and when for the first time in history the 12 richest people in the country (the oligarchy formed by Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg…) summed a fortune of more than a billion dollars... ordinary people's lives are sinking.
Unemployment affects nearly 20 million workers, more than 40 million live below the poverty line (which extends to 32% of black children, 26% of Latinos and 11% of whites) and another 165 million (out of a total population of 325) do not have savings to cope with an unforeseen event. Is that making America great? The Trump administration also leads the world ranking in the Covid 19 pandemic, with more than six million infected and close to 200,000 deaths.
We need a party of workers and youth. The Democratic Party is part of the problem, not the solution!
This social abyss is the fuel that has inflamed the class struggle. The revolutionary beat at the heart of the empire boosted Bernie Sanders' candidacy. With a speech that called for a “political revolution” against the 1% of Wall Street, the creation of a universal public health system and social policies in favour of the majority, he became a benchmark for millions of oppressed. At the same time, the election of independent candidates or to the left of the democratic apparatus also expressed the process of radicalization of millions of young people and workers that has sowed panic in the North American and international bourgeoisie.
The capitulation of Bernie Sanders and his support for the candidate of the Democratic apparatus, the billionaire and Obama's vice president, Joe Biden, was hugely discouraging. A large section of the ruling class pushed hard to avoid the participation of a candidate who could beat Trump and who would inevitably have given the masses enormous confidence in their own forces. This sector wants to stop the current tenant of the White House because it sees the uncontrolled dynamics that events are taking, but they want to do it within the margins of the system. That is why it is so important that, in the face of all obstacles, the protest movement against a rotten establishment has resurfaced with this explosive force.
Polls carried out in the middle of the Covid crisis predicted a comfortable victory for Biden over Trump. However, the latest data published in the press and television seem to indicate a cut in this advantage, which would drop from 10 to 6 points. The Democratic apparatus is once again feeling the ghost of Hillary Clinton's defeat in 2016. It is an unequivocal condemnation that one can still speculate on a possible Trump victory. But the reason for this is obvious: the Democratic Party is a safe citadel of the capitalists, and their candidate, Joe Biden, an accomplished bourgeois politician whose aim is to shield the privileges of his social class against the aspirations of the masses.
The speeches of "support" for Biden's mobilizations are mixed with his racist past, his statements in favour of the police, against "socialism" and his support for large business groups. His attempts to make social discontent profitable at the ballot box, appeasing it and redirecting it to the waters of parliamentarism, collide with the instinct of millions of oppressed.
Of course, there is a widespread sentiment among millions to kick Trump out of the White House, but it coexists with a more than justified mistrust of what the Democrats can offer. It is clear that a defeat for Trump would be, above all else, a major victory for the movement and would come in spite of Biden and his team. In any case, the electoral outcome leaves a completely open scenario. The only certainty is that, whatever the outcome, the working class and the oppressed in the United States will have to resort to direct action and class struggle to confront their problems. In a process that has deep social roots, and that has been strengthened by the experience of these years, the need to build a party of workers and youth, with a consistent socialist programme, will break through with force.
