‘Things’ in the US have ‘gone too far’, as the British ruling class so delicately like to put it, and ‘have gotten out of hand’. As everyone knows by now, as Representatives and Senators were meeting on 6 January 2021 to validate the Electoral College votes, a mob of Trump’s fascist supporters broke into the Capitol building in Washington DC, where the US Congress meets. They killed a police officer, smashed windows, broke into politicians’ offices, took selfies, threw papers around and generally trashed the place. Someone was seen strolling through the building sporting a large Confederate flag – the flag of the Southern slave states that started the US Civil War. This is like someone wandering through the Houses of Parliament brandishing a Swastika flag. Some carried bundles of zip ties, which can be used as handcuffs – perhaps to take politicians hostage. Several were armed.
There was blatant police collusion. Some cops were videoed as they pulled apart barricades in front of the Capitol so that these fascists could get through, had selfies taken with them, then, eventually, graciously guided them out of the Capitol. The entire ‘Stop the Steal’ event had been publicly discussed on social media for weeks in plain sight, with detailed discussion of plans for that day, so police had detailed knowledge for weeks of the planned attack on the Capitol. The entire enterprise was blatantly encouraged by Trump speaking to the mob. His personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani joined in, urging their supporters to practise ‘trial by combat’. Even as participants in the attack were posting videos of their ‘heroic’ involvement with the mob inside the Capitol, others were trying to claim that it was a ‘false flag’ operation – leftists pretending to be Trump supporters.
Nor was this assault limited to Washington D.C. Across the US, other squads of fascists gathered in front of state Capitols. In Washington State, they broke into the Governor’s mansion. Across the nation these self-styled Patriots mounted their attacks – Oregon, Kansas, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Texas, Idaho, Arizona, Utah, Nebraska… Of course, this was a national conspiracy, openly planned, predicted and perpetrated by fascist White Supremacists, at the very highest levels, with the knowledge of so-called ‘law enforcement’.
After some stunned disbelief that this had actually happened, liberals began a tirade of pomposities and name calling. The fascists were ‘desecrating’, ‘disrespecting’, ‘vandalising’ ‘the Peoples’ House’, they were not protesters but ‘domestic terrorists’ etc. Although Biden has ignored requests from Black Lives Matter to meet, he had no hesitation in pointing to the vicious policing of BLM protests, compared to the absence of policing of the Trumpist fascists. The Democrats are now pursuing their typical strategy of relying on purely legal measures to deal with the problem. They are completely focussed on impeaching Donald Trump. Impeachment, if successful, has no practical consequences whatsoever – except boost Trump’s standing amongst his supporters.
Three months ago, in October, FRFI 278 reviewed political developments in the US and showed that the nation was heading towards Civil War. Some thought this claim was ‘wrong’ or ‘foolish’ or ‘absurd’ or ‘alarmist’. With Biden’s election, things would ‘return to normal’, political divisions ‘have to be healed’, we should ‘reach out to our political opponents’ and similar guff. Obviously, that wishy-washy cowardly liberalism isn’t working.
Some socialists maintain that the struggle against racism is a diversion from the ‘real struggle’ – the struggle for socialism, that it divides the working class and distracts it, that socialism will get rid of racism anyway, that it is merely a political struggle and fails to address the underlying social and economic causes of racism. Unity between black and white sections of the working class can only be achieved by making the fight against racism central to the struggle for social and economic emancipation and so position the Black working class in the leadership of this struggle. The road to socialism has to start with the struggle against racism.
It is time for all to wake up to what is really going on. No amount of legal grandstanding is going to stop this. The cause of all the violence is not Donald Trump, he’s just a glove puppet, as we warned:
‘It is not a question of Trump alone, but also of the social forces that put him there and the symbiotic relationship he has with them. The ‘White ascendancy’ – a reactionary cross-class alliance drawn from white Americans, similar to the ‘Loyalist ascendancy’ in Ireland, or to the Afrikaners in South Africa – has been central to the ability of the US ruling class to retain power over the two and a half centuries since the republic was founded. This alliance brought important privileges to the white section of the working class … Trump has worked to encourage the White ascendancy to come out of the shadows. He has legitimated it, given it confidence and actively worked to try to ensure its survival. Trump is on his way out of the White House, but we have certainly not heard the last of the Trumpism which is his legacy.’
The events of Wednesday 6 January 2021 are not an isolated incident, but just a trial run for future attacks by the Trumpists. It is vital that the Left place the struggle against racism at the very heart of their programme. There can be no socialism without the destruction of the White Ascendancy.
Steve Parker
