An essential lesson to take away from Trump 2.0’s recent imperial losses is that for the workers movement to win, it must unify with all forces which are resisting the hegemon. For Americans who take the anti-imperialist position, advancing this solidarity is the most practical way we can respond to the global gains which are being made by our movement; because if we simply celebrate these gains without doing anything ourselves, we’ll be acting complacent in the face of an accelerating imperial offensive. It’s only by taking an active role in building these solidarity networks, organizing the workers towards sabotaging the war machine, and economically cutting off the Zionist entity that we can combat the maneuvers of our ruling class.
On their own, these maneuvers have lately been quite effective; it’s because of the actions by Washington’s global challengers that Trump 2.0 has been experiencing major setbacks, at least on the international front. Trump was sent in to enact radical reforms, and to take the Biden administration’s policies to a new extreme. The reasoning of our ruling elites has been that capitalism needs major shake-ups in order to survive; and because the American workers movement is still so weak, these brazen actions are able to strengthen the system rather than endangering it. But this mainly applies inside the United States itself; whereas the popular masses here are unorganized, around the globe they’re overall continuing to gain power.
Even amid the fall of Syria, and this year’s neoliberal victory in Bolivia, the anti-imperialist forces which have sufficient strength are mounting a counter-offensive. We’re seeing this in Palestine, in Yemen, and now in Venezuela, where the people’s militias have been making Trump hesitant about invading. We must interpret these recent positive developments as opportunities for learning; as examples of successful Global South revolutionary struggle which those within the core must emulate. And to reorient our political practice in such a way, we’ll have to also learn from the history of how America’s workers struggle has done this in the past.
There are very close present-day parallels that we can find within many parts of this history. Almost exactly a hundred years ago in 1926, William Z. Foster observed how American labor had been captured by forces which sought to separate it from Latin America’s workers, and how we needed to respond to this by getting more involved within organized labor. He also pointed to the ultra-left forces that oppose these essential actions:
The American labour bureaucracy is committed one hundred percent to the imperialist programme of the American capitalists. One of the principal goals of American imperialism is absolutely to dominate the whole of the American continent; and in this it receives the entire support of the bureaucracy of the A.F. of L. In Latin America, the bureaucracy, by means of the Pan-American Federation of Labour, is working consciously on behalf of American imperialism. The entire programme of imperialism receives the support of the A.F. of L. The bureaucracy displays more hatred against Soviet Russia even than do the American capitalists themselves. Against this militant imperialism of the American labour bureaucracy, our Party has to make a struggle. Against the Pan-American Federation of Labour we have organised an anti-imperialist league and are carrying out a campaign against American imperialism throughout Latin America…
The greatest danger comes from the ultra-Left tendencies, and it is in that direction that we must turn our efforts to straighten out our policies. One of the ultra-Left weaknesses is the tendency to ignore the whole programme of building up a Left Wing in the trade unions and to use the Party machinery directly. Our principal instrument must be the broad Left Wing organisation in the unions. We failed in the anthracite strike to do this and so injured our work. The Party must realise that the Left Wing in the trade unions is not a rival organisation, but an instrument to do the Party work.
In today’s America, the most relevant ultra-left tendency is the one that’s centrally focused around adventurism, and uses violence or vandalism as a substitute for this labor organizing work. There’s a reason why ultra-leftism has taken on such a renegade, chaotic form at this particular moment: amid the state’s progressive crackdowns, and Trump 2.0’s seeming impunity in being able to attack the workers, the left is reacting by resorting towards the most flailing and reckless activities. When the revolutionary forces are on the retreat, the members of mass movements so often turn to adventurism, abandoning strategy in favor of lashing out.
These ill-conceived actions go along with an abandonment of hope in winning over the working masses, and there’s a clear line of reasoning behind such an attitude; it’s the mindset that encourages somebody to see the backward tendencies among the masses, and react with a blanket moral condemnation of the society in which they live. Unpacking this part of ultra-leftism is essential, because by doing so we can gain clarity about where our priorities need to be amid the kinds of perils that we’re facing at the moment.
If ultra-leftism is such a consistent problem, so much that the issues it was causing a hundred years ago mirror what we’re seeing from it today, what does this show about our route towards overcoming the present obstacles? It shows that especially within an imperialist country like the United States, where society has a large element that’s materially and ideologically invested in global exploitation, we must avoid the trap of acting in a way that’s isolated to the struggle inside one’s own country. A liberation struggle can only prevail if it pursues all of the alliances available to it, both locally and worldwide; and in the case of the USA’s workers struggle, acting in tandem with the forces fighting against our imperialist government gives us insight and direction which we otherwise would never come to.
Regardless, it’s our obligation to act in solidarity with the anti-imperialist forces; but doing so also gives life and intelligence to our own movement. We would be lost if we were to dismiss the strategic gains that Palestine’s armed resistance has been making; or if we were to disregard the achievements of Venezuela’s workers movement. Of course, there are many supposed “socialists” who commit errors like these, and we know what their practice looks like as a consequence. It looks like DSA politicians denouncing Venezuela, or condemning Palestine’s armed resistance; which, in addition to being an attack on Palestine’s liberation movement itself, objectively undermines the efforts to boycott “Israel.”
Such actions are highly damaging to the revolutionary cause in all areas; but by identifying why they’re so harmful, we can gain the clarity which will let us wage this fight effectively. The ultra-leftist and reformist forces are not waging the same fight that we are; for their own varying reasons, they’ve rejected serious efforts at global solidarity, and at building workers power. Because of these deficiencies in the American left, Trump 2.0 has so far been able to attack the masses without fear of pushback. But when the forces of solidarity gain more strength, we will see this power balance change, and the gains of the worldwide revolutionary forces will begin extending into the empire’s heart.
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