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As Trump runs amok, organise to smash toxic capitalism

Young people with red and purple flags saying May Day 2025

Workers' struggle and solidarity, Questions of oppression, PRMI 30 April 2025

By PRMI reporters 30 April 2025 May Day 2025 follows the completion of the first 100 days Trump 2.0. It has seen a relentless barrage of attacks unfurl on immigrants, women, disabled people, the LGBTQ+ – in particular transgender – community, students, pro-Palestinian activists, civil servants. Barely a section of the working class has remained unscathed. The genocide of Palestinians in Gaza has deepened with Trump’s full-throated support for ethnic cleansing of the Strip, and the effective normalisation of Israel’s deliberate starvation of two million Palestinians. Settler and state violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has escalated, a process which some have called “Gazafication”. A dramatic shift in US policy over Ukraine has made abundantly clear that its involvement in the war was never about defending the Ukrainian people or their right to self-determination, but about prestige, great-power rivalry and economic interests. The impending trade war, a likely Trump-induced recession and inflation promise to make life even harder for the working class across the world, as well as in the US. As China is already suffering from serious economic and financial crises, a further wave of factory shut-downs has resulted from Trump’s tariffs. This is as the situation facing many in the country is already unbearable. It goes without saying that the largest burden of this horrific situation is borne disproportionately by the population of the neo-colonial world, by women and oppressed layers, and by youth. Trump and his allies support the super-rich This is not accidental. The policies of Trump and his allies across the world – Netanyahu, Milei, Modi, Putin, Xi, Meloni, Erdoğan and many others – are consciously intended to deprive those layers of their already restricted rights and ability to defend themselves and fight back. They do so not just to protect the super-rich, but to enable them to grab an even larger share of the world’s diminishing resources irrespective of the costs to the climate, mental health, the rights of women and children. The sharp upturn in attacks reflects a desperate move by the global ruling elite to save their system after the disaster of four decades of neoliberalism. A period in which living standards of the working class and poor were driven down, public services destroyed by privatisation and austerity. This was, despite heroic attempts to resist by the working class, a period in which the level of workers’ organisation and political independence declined. Even so, the capitalist system sunk deeper into crisis, with profits and investment low, and huge speculative bubbles culminating in the 2008 global recession. This was exacerbated by the pandemic. Globalisation replaced by protectionism Rejecting globalisation and the “rule of law” – by which they mean trade liberalisation and deregulation – the elite are turning to protectionism and the defence of “national”, i.e. national capitalist interests. Having not so long ago kept their distance from right-populism and even fascist tendencies, large sections of the ruling elite are now at best compromising with and often adopting these poisonous ideas. There is no immediate comparison between the situation we currently face, and that which existed in pre-war Italy, Germany and elsewhere. Then elections were completely replaced by open dictatorial rule, stormtroopers ensured the immediate suppression of resistance, mass arrests, executions and extermination camps were the norm. It would, though, be reckless to ignore how far to the right the ruling elite are prepared to go to protect their profits and their system, and the extremely harmful effect these policies have on working class people, the vast, overwhelming majority of the world’s population. Trump’s victory has enthused and encouraged right-wing and authoritarian forces across the world and accelerated the general rightwing shift of the ruling class. Netanyahu on steroids Netanyahu pushed by the far-right within his government has, after a brief and precarious pause, resumed and escalated Zionist Israel’s brutal genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza. Trump has provided steroids to the most rabid factions of the Israeli ruling class through his uninhibited endorsement of ethnic cleansing of Gaza, and his direct coordination and by flooding the Israeli state with billions in new weapons. Trump has also been waging an unprecedented domestic crackdown on the Gaza solidarity movement, including by allowing for the arrest and deportation of visa holders protesting Israeli policies and by threatening billions in funding cuts to universities who don’t cooperate. All these moves are designed to create a chilling effect amongst those opposing the genocide, and provide Israel with a freer hand to “finish the job”, as Trump himself put it. Imperialist division of Ukraine The Ukrainian people, having suffered three years of brutal occupation and war after Putin’s imperialist invasion, are discovering that their right to self-determination has been used as a bargaining chip by Western imperialism all along — with Trump now openly seeking to appease Putin. National and human rights are cynically sacrificed as the two imperialists negotiate the division of Ukraine and attempt to grab its natural resources. Clearly Trump’s legitimisation of Russia’s seizure of parts of Ukraine aligns with his desire to annex Greenland. While the pro-Ukrainian rhetoric of the EU leaders continues, a section is increasingly succumbing to Trump’s demands, while another is maneuvering in the hope of protecting its own interests as the US and Russia carve up the Ukraine. EU turns back on democratic rights Authoritarian leaders feel strengthened in their moves to restrict democracy. In Turkey, Erdoğan has gained the confidence to remove his main opponent from the next election and is moving to change the constitution a la Putin, which would allow him to stay in power beyond 2028. Despite the claims of the European Union leaders that in opposition to Trump it is still defending “democracy”, it has barely muttered a word about Erdoğan’s move for fear of alienating him, and losing an ally in their conflict with the US and in policing Europe’s borders. In Romania, the EU openly supported the suspension of last year’s election, after the right wing populist party won the

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Malcolm X: Hard Lessons from his Life and Death

Workers' struggle and solidarity, Racism and fascism, Anniversaries, Socialist feminism 21 February 2025

By Drew Frayne, Socialist Party Ireland, 21 February 2025 Sixty years ago el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, known to the world as Malcolm X, was murdered. His life is a map of 20th Century racism, and resistance to white supremacy, in the US and across the world. The personal and political life of el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, known to the world as Malcolm X, is a map of 20th Century racism, and resistance to white supremacy, in the US. His powerful life holds many lessons for revolutionaries today – particularly “the white man” (which includes the author of this article). From his childhood experiences with white supremacist violence and state oppression and evictions, to his rejection of soft-left reformism of JFK, he understood that the existence of Black oppressed class in the U.S. was not an accident—it was a necessary foundation for the U.S. empire. Unlike liberals and even many on the left, he refused to argue for what was merely “possible” under the system; he fought for what was necessary. His evolving politics later in his life – embracing a more internationalist, multi-racial, anti-imperialist, and pro-women perspective – demonstrated a radical clarity that remains essential for revolutionaries today. Malcolm’s deep distrust of white liberals and the left was well-earned. Marxist organisations struggled to recruit Black members – Stalinist and Trotskyist alike – largely due to internal racism. Unions historically sidelined Black struggles, treating them as secondary to economic issues, and failing to confront racism within their own ranks. During his lifetime, major unions locked Black workers out of economic power, helping to create divisions within the working class. Today, Marxists tend to focus on correcting his ideas, speculating on whether he would have become a socialist, rather than grappling with why he never did. The consequences of the left’s failure to integrate race and class have only deepened in the 21st century. The subprime mortgage crisis disproportionately targeted Black communities, widening racial and economic inequality. The Great Recession fractured the working class further. The absence of an organised and militant left in the U.S. has allowed reactionaries like Trump to exploit resentment while billionaires like Elon Musk posture as anti-establishment figures. The left’s failure to prioritise Black struggles isn’t just a moral failure—it’s a strategic one. Without rebuilding trust and making antiracism central to working-class politics, the left will remain irrelevant, ceding ground to reactionary forces. The state’s repression of Black anti-capitalist movements, from the Black Panthers to MOVE (the Philadelphia based Black anarcho-primitivist group bombed from a helicopter by Philadelphia PD in 1985), should make it clear—antiracism combined with anticapitalism are the ruling class’s greatest fear. Yet there is hope. Young white people today, particularly young women, are more anti-racist than ever, and their understanding of intersectional oppression gives them a powerful foundation for solidarity. The Black Lives Matter movement showed that meaningful unity is possible, with young white activists taking real risks alongside Black organisers. Now, the global movement against the genocide in Gaza is radicalising another generation, exposing the hypocrisy of liberals and the deep ties between imperialism, white supremacy, and capitalism. We are not in a revolutionary moment like the 1960s—we are in a period of far right, racist and misogynist authoritarianism ascendancy. But that only makes the stakes clearer. Malcolm X’s greatest lesson was that the struggle for liberation demands organisation, clarity, and action. The power to smash racism and capitalism lies in our hands. We must seize it and organise. Malcolm’s Early life up until Prison Sentence Starting before he was even born, Malcolm X’s family was on the receiving end of white supremacist terror. His father, Earl Little, was a Garveyite, a believer in Black self-separatism, and African repatriation. The simple Garveyite creed, of advocating that Black people build an independent life for themselves, made him a target. The Ku Klux Klan harassed the family in Omaha, Nebraska, circling their home on horseback, smashing windows, and threatening violence. They were forced to flee to Lansing, Michigan, but safety never came – not even in one of the most Northerly states in the US. Their new, predominately white, neighbours objected to having a black family living nearby and after they took a court case against the Little Family, a county Judge ruled to evict them. The land was for whites only. Earl Little of course refused to move and the situation escalated. In 1929, their home was burned to the ground, likely by the Black Legion, a white supremacist group active in the area. Earl Little was accused by police of setting the fire himself, in another act of intimidation, although the charges were later dropped. Two years later, Earl Little was found dead, his body mutilated on train tracks. The police called it a suicide, and the insurance company refused to pay out. Left with nothing, Malcolm’s mother, Louise, struggled to keep the family together for several years, but the state stepped in—not to help, but to tear them apart. She was declared “unfit” and institutionalised, while Malcolm X and his siblings were scattered into foster care. The young Malcolm X excelled in school, often the only Black person in his class, but racist teachers imposed limits on his future. When he said he wanted to be a lawyer his teacher called him racist slurs and told him to be a carpenter. The message was clear: America had no place for Black ambition or intellect. Disillusioned, he dropped out of highschool, pushed toward the only paths society left open — cheap labour or crime. At 20, Malcolm X was arrested for burglary and sentenced to ten years at Charlestown State Prison, Boston, Massachusetts. The sentence was far harsher than the white women who were caught with him. He wasn’t just sentenced harshly, he was made an example. He was given a decade behind bars, not just for burglary but for daring to cross racial lines. The police pressured the white women he was arrested with to accuse him of rape, but they refused. It

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