William Shakespeare-The Tempest
“I don't believe lies are something to stand on. I believe
lies are something to build on.”
― Philip
Roth, Our Gang
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes,
our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state
of facts and evidence.”
― John
Adams
“The Senator was vulgar, almost illiterate, a public liar
easily detected, and in his "ideas" almost idiotic, while his
celebrated piety was that of a traveling salesman for church furniture, and his
yet more celebrated humour the sly cynicism of a country store. Certainly there
was nothing exhilarating in the actual words of his speeches, nor anything
convincing in his philosophy. His political platforms were only wings of a
windmill.”
―
Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here
In his introduction to this book Joseph Kishore makes the following
point that the return of Donald Trump to power represents “the violent
realignment of the American political superstructure to correspond with the
real social relations that exist in the United States.”
He continues “Trump’s rise and return to power is not an
aberration but the product of deep-rooted crises in American and world
capitalism. His administration is carrying out a historic restructuring of the
state, tearing apart the remaining democratic constraints on oligarchic rule,
and preparing for global war.”
Why is this analysis made by the World Socialist Website so
important. Because the analysis, published by the World Socialist Web Site
(WSWS) following Trump’s second election, not only traces the emergence of
Trump, but the political forces also that enabled him, they provide an
essential strategy for opposing his government.
While there is a violent realignment of the American
political superstructure to correspond with the real social relations that
exist in the United States a similar process taking place in the working class.
The working class will need to realign its politics to meet head on the new
challenge. Part of that process is a systematic study of the articles contained
in this book.
Leon Trotsky was fond of saying that the motive force of
history is truth and not lies. The correct and truthful analysis made by the World
Socialist website has been met by a number of Pseudo Left organisations with hostility
at the temerity of calling Trump a Fascist.
Alan Woods, leader of the Revolutionary Communist
International (RCI), the successor to the International Marxist Tendency (IMT),
published an article that starkly illustrates the complacent and anti-Marxist
orientation of his political tendency. Revealingly titled “Trump victory: a
kick in the teeth for the establishment,” the article echoes Trump’s fraudulent
claims of being an anti-establishment figure while downplaying the immense
dangers posed by a Trump presidency to the working class.[1]
Woods writes “The ruling class of America – firmly supported
by the governments of Europe – was determined to keep him [Trump] out of
office, by fair means or foul. After Trump was ousted in the 2020 election,
everything was done to prevent him from standing again… All the numerous
attacks against him rebounded and turned against those who were seen –
correctly – as being involved in a conspiracy to prevent him from re-entering
the White House.”[2]
The World Socialist Website opposed Woods complacency
writing “This portrayal is false. The ruling class was not “determined to keep
[Trump] out of office.” Significant sections of the financial and corporate
elite, including billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, actively
supported Trump, viewing his authoritarian and pro-business agenda as a means
of furthering their own class interests. Others, like Jeff Bezos, have
proclaimed their support for Trump after the election.” [3]
The article went on to reiterate its position that Trump and his allies were
fascists.
The writer Sinclair Lewis was well aware of people like
Woods who downplayed the fascist danger writing “The tyranny of this
dictatorship isn’t primarily the fault of Big Business, nor of the demagogues
who do their dirty work. It’s the fault of Doremus Jessup! Of all the
conscientious, respectable, lazy-minded Doremus Jessup’s, who have let the demagogues
wriggle in, without fierce enough protest.”[4]
While the development of an American fascist oligarchy is a
new development the fear of an American oligarchy is not. In his book John Adams
and the Fear of an American Oligarchy Luke Mayville shows that Adams who was the
second American president spent most of his adult life warning about the
development of an American Oligarchy. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson dated 2 September
1813 he writes. Now, my Friend, who are the aristoi.? Philosophy may Answer “The Wise and Good.” But the World, Mankind, have by their practice always
answered, “the rich the
beautiful and well born.”
And Philosophers themselves in marrying their Children prefer the rich the
handsome and the well descended to the wise and good.”[5]
While it is one thing to describe Trump and his gang as
fascists it is another to set his dictatorship in the same context as the rise
of Hitlerite fascism in 1933. David North, the chairman of the International
Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site and national chairman of the
Socialist Equality Party (US), in his introductory remarks to the post-election
online webinar “The Election Debacle and the Fight Against Dictatorship,”
warned:
Now, it is not the position of the SEP and the WSWS that the
accession of Trump to the presidency is the equivalent of Hitler’s 1933
victory. The United States is not Weimar Germany, and the transformation of the
United States into a police state dictatorship backed by a mass fascist
movement will not, whatever Trump’s intentions, be achieved overnight. But it would be politically irresponsible,
and contribute to the success of Trump’s aims, not to recognize the dangerous
implications and real consequences of last Tuesday’s election. At the very
least, it is necessary to take Trump at his word.[6]
Not all are inclined to take Trump at his word. In a recent
collection of essays entitled Did it Happen Here, Perspectives on Fascism and
America the British historian Richard Evan took Umbridge that Trump is a fascist,
and his gang constituted an albeit small fascist movement.
He writes “The temptation to draw parallels between Trump
and the fascist leaders of the 20th century is understandable. How better to
express the fear, loathing and contempt that Trump arouses in liberals than by
comparing him to the ultimate political evil? But few who have described Trump
as a fascist can be called real experts in the field, not even Snyder. The
majority of genuine specialists, including the historians Roger Griffin,
Matthew Feldman, Stanley Payne and Ruth Ben-Ghiat, agree that whatever else he
is, Trump is not a fascist.”[7]
It is perhaps a little surprising that a historian of Evans
calibre should be so complacent and wrong. His solution to the crisis of
American democracy is also wrong and sows’ dangerous illusions. He writes “Whether
the US and its citizens succeed in preserving democracy and its institutions
depends largely on whether they succeed in identifying what the real threats
are and developing appropriate means to defeat them. Imagining that they are
experiencing a rerun of the fascist seizure of power isn’t going to help them
very much in this task. You can’t win the political battles of the present if
you’re always stuck in the past.
It is recommended that those workers and youth who recognize
that Trump is threatening dictatorship, and is a fascist should carry out a
thorough a study of the analysis made on the World Socialist Web Site and especially
the articles contained in this book and prepare themselves for the coming
momentous battles.
[1]
Trump victory: a kick in the teeth for the establishment-https://marxist.com/trump-victory-2024.htm
[2]
Trump victory: a kick in the teeth for the
establishment-https://marxist.com/trump-victory-2024.htm
[3]
Alan Woods, leader of pseudo-left RCI, hails election of Trump as “kick in the
teeth” to US ruling class.wsws.org
[4]
Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here
[5]
John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 2 September 1813- founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-06-02-
[6]
Alan Woods, leader of pseudo-left RCI, hails election of Trump as “kick in the
teeth” to US ruling class
[7]
Why Trump isn’t a fascist- https://www.newstatesman.com/world/americas/north-america/us/2021/01/trump-fascist
