US PRESIDENT Trump, in his desperate attempt to win the November presidential election, has stepped up his war against the working class, branding all those who oppose him as socialists and communists.
He stated on the last day of the Republican Convention on Thursday evening: ‘This election will decide whether we save the American Dream or whether we allow a socialist agenda to demolish our cherished destiny.’
Trump portrayed his Democrat challenger Biden, a 100% supporter of US capitalism and imperialism, as a ‘Trojan horse for socialism’. He is now backing up his war against ‘socialists, communists, anarchists and agitators’ with federal troops!
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said: ‘We have assisted Wisconsin in the deployment of almost 1,000 National Guard and over 200 federal law enforcement personnel.’
These forces have been sent in to attack protesters who have risen up after the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Officer Rusten Sheskey shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back, leaving Blake paralysed from the waist down.
Trump’s tactic is to seek to win the election by bringing the USA to the brink of civil war to ensure that all of the USA’s gunloving right wing turn out to vote.
It is a deadly policy. A Trump supporter went to the Wisconsin protest on Tuesday evening, armed with his semi-automatic rifle. Video footage from the event shows a gunman in the middle of the street brandishing the semi-automatic rifle before firing off shots that hit multiple people. One person was shot in the head and one in the chest; two people died from the shooting on Tuesday and one person was hospitalised.
Having shown where he stood, the gunman surrendered to the police and thousands witnessed the police allowing him to go, ignoring the shouts that he was a killer. In fact, the police did not arrest him until the next day.
America is the centre of a colossal crisis of the world capitalist system. The USA has over 50 million unemployed; millions more are threatened with losing their homes; millions more are left with no health insurance, no benefits, and no money to buy food for their families.
Masses of workers are on the streets insisting that Black Lives Matter and are demanding jobs, housing, health care for all, and the disarming of the police.
Baseball leagues, the American football league, basketball leagues and tennis tournaments are all shutting down, with teams announcing that they will not entertain while people are being shot dead by the police.
The NBA ‘postponed’ Thursday’s play-off games after Wednesday’s fixtures were called off following a player walkout. Seven NFL teams cancelled practice on Thursday, while Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka pulled out of a WTA match in New York.
The US Tennis Association, ATP and WTA subsequently announced they were pausing play at the Western and Southern Open on Thursday and would resume on Friday, adding that ‘tennis is collectively taking a stance against racial inequality and social injustice’.
On Thursday night, Trump declared that he was the champion of the police and of US capitalist law and order. He deliberately fanned the flames to ensure that America’s pro-capitalist right wing turn out in force to vote for him, with their guns in their cars no doubt.
It is a desperate tactic, designed for the equally desperate crisis of US capitalism. The scene is set for a workers’ revolution in the US. This is a class war, not a war between Democrats and Republicans. This is a war begun by the US ruling class against the working class and the poor.
If Trump wins the election the US trade unions must declare a general strike to bring him down.
If Biden wins the election, the trade unions must immediately form a Labour Party to drive forward to expropriate the bosses and bankers to bring in a socialist USA.
A section of the International Committee of the Fourth International must be built in the USA to provide the necessary leadership to carry through this struggle. The American socialist revolution will transform the world forever!
