{"id":11160,"date":"2016-11-20T21:23:40","date_gmt":"2016-11-20T21:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=11160"},"modified":"2021-04-14T19:19:52","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T19:19:52","slug":"from-farages-brexit-to-trumps-brexit-plus-plus-plus-and-on-to-madame-frexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/20\/from-farages-brexit-to-trumps-brexit-plus-plus-plus-and-on-to-madame-frexit\/","title":{"rendered":"FROM FARAGE’S BREXIT TO TRUMP’S “BREXIT PLUS, PLUS, PLUS”, AND ON TO ‘MADAME FREXIT’? – a dialogue"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nWHAT DOES TRUMP’S VICTORY SIGNIFY? <\/strong><\/p>\n

– ALLAN ARMSTRONG IN CONVERSATION WITH<\/strong><\/p>\n

ALAN BISSETT, BRIAN HIGGINS, PAUL STEWART AND <\/strong><\/p>\n

JOHN TUMMON <\/strong><\/p>\n

(see short biogs at end)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01. ALLAN ARMSTRONG – 9.11.16<\/strong><\/p>\n

“An even greater leap into fantasy land is the belief that Brexit will provide a progressive example to other member states wanting to break away from the EU…. The first and unfortunately well-known non-UK person to celebrate Brexit was none other than the Right populist US Presidential hopeful, Donald Trump. With typical crassness he chose his new golf course at Turnberry in Scotland to declare his solidarity with Brexit… Another presidential hopeful, Marine Le Pen, of the French Far Right National Front, was the first significant European politician to proclaim her solidarity with Brexit.
\n<\/p>\n

In every EU state, where serious \u2018break-up-the-EU\u2019 forces exist, they are led either by the populist Right or the Far Right \u2013 the National Front in France, Alternative for Germany, the Swedish Democrats, the Danish Peoples Party, the True Finns, the Free Citizens Party in the Czech Republic, and Jobbik in Hungary. Even in Greece, the largest party advocating Grexit is the fascist Golden Dawn.<\/p>\n

Brexit can not be seen in political isolation. The last significant global shift to the Right followed Thatcher and Reagan\u2019s election victories in 1979 and 1980. However, this process started as far back as Chile in 1973, after General Pinochet\u2019s CIA-backed coup, and his bringing in the Chicago Boys to begin what eventually developed into a global neo-liberal offensive. There was nothing inevitable about this process, but the election of Thatcher and Reagan probably tipped the balance. This led to the rolling out of transnational corporate neo-liberalism across much of the world.<\/p>\n

Brexit has added to the possibility of a new significant shift further to the Right in Europe, although the fact that Trump has risen so far in the USA, shows that this Rightward shift could also take on a global form. We have seen the rise of the Far Right in eastern Europe for a number of years. Here the situation of rampant ethnic nationalism is beginning to resemble the eastern Europe of the pre-Second World War years. This is no longer confined to the east though. The rise of high-level Far Right politicians in Austria and France, also committed to ethnic nationalism, shows that this political descent into a \u2018carnival of reaction\u2019 is increasingly becoming a possibility. And their opposition to the EU is what unites these disparate and potentially antagonistic forces.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

from June 24th – The FUKers’ Black Friday or Red Friday for a Democratic European Revolution, 28.6.16<\/strong><\/p>\n

(http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/04\/june-24th-black-friday-or-red-friday\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n

_________<\/p>\n

In an earlier\u00a0posting (see above)\u00a0with regard to Brexit, I\u00a0raised the possibility of a\u00a0new further\u00a0Right populist\u00a0politics becoming dominant in the world, and\u00a0replacing the neo-liberalism associated with Thatcher and Reagan, to which most\u00a0social\u00a0democrats\u00a0eventually capitulated.<\/p>\n

I suggested at RCN and RIC meetings,\u00a0before the Brexit\u00a0vote,\u00a0that the possibility of the populist\u00a0Right winning a\u00a0majority\u00a0was real (and would not necessarily be blocked because a majority of the British ruling\u00a0class was against it). I also said at the recent October\u00a0RCN\u00a0aggregate\u00a0that I thought a Trump victory was now\u00a0likely.<\/p>\n

Trump clearly saw the link, dubbing his own campaign, “Brexit, plus, plus, plus”. Marine Le Pen, styling herself ‘Madame Frexit’, was\u00a0also quick to welcome Trump’s\u00a0victory. Two thirds of what I forecast above has come to pass. After 1979,\u00a0France held\u00a0out for a period\u00a0against the new\u00a0neo-liberal assault with the 1981-3 PSF-PCF coalition. Such an\u00a0interlude is very\u00a0unlikely to stop the slide to national right\u00a0populism in France today,\u00a0particularly since Sarkozy and\u00a0Hollande have\u00a0capitulated to\u00a0much of this already. This doesn’t mean that Marine Le Pen will necessarily win the French presidency, but that she is already dictating the grounds on which the mainstream parties will organise – a sort of preemptive Penozyandism!<\/p>\n

Neither Brexit nor Trump could have happened without the mobilisation of marginalised and alienated sections of the working class (particularly white males). But it was the backing of a significant, even if then\u00a0minority\u00a0section of their respective ruling classes (highlighted, in the UK case, by the most widely read\u00a0newspapers backing\u00a0Brexit) which was the\u00a0essential factor in these Right populist\u00a0victories.<\/p>\n

Before Thatcher\u00a0was able to impose full-blooded neo-liberalism (in an international\u00a0alliance with Reagan) she\u00a0had a period where she had to deal with those ‘Wets’ or Butskellite Tories still\u00a0attached to the old model,\u00a0before they knuckled under. From being initially an\u00a0outsider, in\u00a0relation to the British ruling class (whilst still\u00a0cultivating\u00a0links with its most reactionary agents\u00a0in the armed and security services), she brought the overwhelming majority of the British\u00a0ruling class behind her.\u00a0Then New Labour followed suit in its acceptance of neo-liberalism (Blatcherism),\u00a0adding some\u00a0social liberalism, also subsequently\u00a0accepted by Cameron’s Tories.<\/p>\n

After the Trump victory, there will\u00a0be a period of liberal outrage amongst some\u00a0Democrats and some\u00a0Labour figures\u00a0(especially on its\u00a0Right\u00a0–\u00a0as after the Brexit vote). However, just as the New Deal Democrats morphed into Clintonites and\u00a0Old Labour morphed into New Labour, so\u00a0both parties are likely to\u00a0morph into national populism too, especially\u00a0the\u00a0demand for even stronger controls on immigration and stepped up Islamophobia. I don’t think the Trump election campaign’s apparently\u00a0less gung-ho approach to international\u00a0politics beyond the Americas will last too\u00a0long either. 200 US generals\u00a0and admirals have already given him their seal of approval. Thus, just as Obama merely\u00a0recalibrated US imperial strategy after Bush, Trump will probably do the same after the\u00a0Obama\u00a0and especially\u00a0Hillary\u00a0Clinton years.<\/p>\n

Thus,\u00a0Trump is likely to follow a similar trajectory,\u00a0persuading a majority of the US ruling class that his national populist politics\u00a0can be utilised\u00a0in their interests. I suspect the\u00a0previously majority\u00a0Clinton\/Democrat\u00a0supporting section of the US\u00a0ruling class will quickly adjust to the new opportunities this right populist victory provides them, with more tax cuts for the corporations and the rich – and intensified attacks on public sector trade union organisation, following the Republican model in Wisconsin. They will go along with Trump’s ability to defuse working class\u00a0feelings of economic and social insecurity with a compensatory emotional\/psychological ‘security’ fed\u00a0by continuous state promoted\u00a0chauvinism and\u00a0racism.<\/p>\n

How Trump\u00a0will make use of his presidential\u00a0powers, and how real any\u00a0constraints\u00a0on him will be, once a majority of the US ruling class come to terms with the new situation, has\u00a0yet to be seen.\u00a0\u00a0It is interesting to see,\u00a0after the\u00a0Brexit vote, how May has quickly adopted\u00a0the mantle of UKIP\u00a0and has tried to\u00a0combine\u00a0this with the most reactionary powers of the UK constitution – the royal prerogative.\u00a0Many of these prerogative\u00a0powers\u00a0were\u00a0effectively given to the \u00a0presidency \u00a0in \u00a0the early\u00a0USA, which was constituted as an imperial republic.<\/p>\n

Thus, any real Left challenge\u00a0to the rise of the populist Right will have to confront the anti-democratic\u00a0nature of the states we live in. Sanders never even considered this in his initial challenge to\u00a0Clinton. Corbyn seems oblivious of this too. What would\u00a0remain of the current\u00a0Corbyn phenomenon after any early election is a moot point; but even in the very unlikely event of him winning an electoral\u00a0majority coalition for his diluted ‘Spirit of 45’ policies, he would likely\u00a0fare less well\u00a0than\u00a0the Mitterand\/Marchais\u00a01981-3 coalition in\u00a0France.<\/p>\n

And as I have suggrsted above, it is not only the neo-liberals\/social\u00a0liberals, from the remaining\u00a0Cameronite\u00a0Tories, through Clegg and Farron’s Liberals to Right Labour, that are likely to\u00a0bow to the logic of the populist Right. Right wing, UKIP-Lite. Blue Labour already promote ‘Family, Faith and Flag’. And we have already seen some on the Left\u00a0making their own adjustment to the nationalist orientation\u00a0promoted by the Right\u00a0populists. This could\u00a0pull more on the Left\u00a0into\u00a0a reactionary vortex. The Campaign for a European Republican\u00a0Socialist Party\u00a0has become very much more needed.<\/p>\n

\"aaeaaqaaaaaaaabmaaaajdewmdk5yjqwltiwntktndgzzi1imdcwlty2zdfkogfjnziwmq\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

2. PAUL STEWART – 9.11.16<\/strong><\/p>\n

Allan,<\/p>\n

Thanks for putting together a response so quickly. While I don’t find much of this contentious I think it’s overly catastrophist to assume an early impulse to ‘ unity’ within the ruling class.\u00a0 There remain innumerable contradictions as there always are within it and as for the political class and it’s dominant currents, it is in the midst of a huge crisis.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>3. ALLAN ARMSTRONG – 9.11.16<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hi Paul,<\/p>\n

Good to hear from you.<\/p>\n

I agree with your\u00a0statement, “There remain innumerable contradictions as there always are within it and as for the political class and it’s dominant currents, it is in the midst of a huge crisis.”\u00a0My reservations are directed at those who look to the liberal ruling class to stymie Trump and Brexit.\u00a0I think it is far more likely that the majority of the US\u00a0ruling class will come to some new\u00a0accommodation\u00a0with Right populist politics. May is\u00a0already\u00a0showing how this can\u00a0happen in the UK.<\/p>\n

I don’t agree with John Rees that Sanders would have beaten Trump. Rees\u00a0hasn’t abandoned his old SWP training, where mindless optimism replaces\u00a0more\u00a0serious analysis of what we are up against.<\/p>\n

Would Clinton have gone on to back a Sander’s\u00a0candidacy? I doubt it very much, or it would\u00a0have been the sort of support the Labour Right gives to Corbyn –\u00a0just itching for his downfall.\u00a0If Sanders had won the Democratic nomination, big\u00a0funds would have dried up,\u00a0the level of media hostility directed\u00a0against that “commie bastard” would have far\u00a0outstripped the liberal establishment reaction to the Trump candidacy.\u00a0Trump would then\u00a0probably\u00a0have\u00a0received the backing of key\u00a0sections of the\u00a0liberal\u00a0establishment. Just look at some of the forces they are\u00a0prepared to back across the\u00a0globe\u00a0(e.g. Saudi Arabia,\u00a0Israel,\u00a0Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front in Syria) and the e-mails from Hillary Clinton\u00a0directing operations against Sanders!<\/p>\n

In the very\u00a0unlikely event of Sanders\u00a0nevertheless then\u00a0becoming president (if he hadn’t been shot first!), he would have no institutional backing (something Trump\u00a0is already getting, e.g.\u00a0support from generals and admirals) and his New Deal mark 2\u00a0programme would be blown out the water. Sanders\u00a0believes in ‘US democracy’ and thinks the existing US\u00a0state can be used to bring about\u00a0his reforms. As\u00a0I\u00a0have already\u00a0stated, the more\u00a0strongly rooted PSF\/PCF government of 1981-3, with its much more significant\u00a0trade union backing, was unable to halt the slide to the Right in France, when that Right was less virulent than Trump\u00a0and his\u00a0backers.<\/p>\n

I would argue that for\u00a0the Left to even begin to\u00a0take\u00a0advantage of the\u00a0contradictions facing a US or UK\u00a0ruling class all\u00a0facing the imperial, social and economic\u00a0crises you point out, means being prepared to challenge the very\u00a0nature of\u00a0the state we\u00a0are living in, and not just hoping to\u00a0revive either the New Deal or ‘Spirit of 45’ within the existing political\u00a0system.<\/p>\n

If the\u00a0ruling class is in the process of moving away from\u00a0their current version of ‘internationalism’\u00a0– corporate global\u00a0neo-liberalism – it is all the\u00a0more imperative that socialists take up the baton of our\u00a0internationalism (Another Scotland, etc. etc.\u00a0\/Another Europe\/Another World are possible) and build resistance\u00a0around those in the front line of struggle against national chauvinism and\u00a0racism.<\/p>\n

We need to meet up soon\u00a0for good chat –\u00a0but Coors beer is banned!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"John<\/a><\/p>\n

4. JOHN TUMMON – 9.11.16<\/strong><\/p>\n

I agree very much with this, except for the comment near the very end that the Left must not attempt to relate to the politics of the far right. We need to have a full understanding of how far right, xenophobic campaigning in the present volatile political era achieves such resonance within some sections of the working class as well as how this manifests in different countries in the OECD. Just distancing ourselves morally and politically is not enough. A far stronger trade union and socialist movement in the interwar period failed to fully grasp the way the far right could appeal to large swathes of the dispossessed and downtrodden and its subsequent vicissitudes right up to the ‘Popular Front’ policy and beyond showed its ultimate political weakness. The history of Weimar is particularly important to this point.<\/p>\n

We must continue to work on this attempt to grasp our own era and why the right has had such a massive impact.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>5. ALLAN ARMSTRONG – 11.11.16<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hi John,<\/p>\n

I mustn’t have put across effectively what I was\u00a0actually trying to say.\u00a0I wasn’t arguing that the Left should not try to relate to those marginalised and alienated workers attracted by UKIP and Trump. I was trying to\u00a0argue\u00a0that the Left can not effectively challenge Right populists, and win support for an emancipatory alternative,\u00a0through\u00a0adopting their own\u00a0version of national\u00a0nostalgia. The world has moved on, and the only way that any attempt to bring back the old world could proceed, would\u00a0be to violently\u00a0force\u00a0tens of millions of recent\u00a0migrants\u00a0back to their places of origin. A\u00a0Left, which in any way bowed to this, would\u00a0follow the same path as the those\u00a0pre-First World War Social Democrats and pre-Second World War Stalinists.<\/p>\n

The Brexit and Trump alliances have\u00a0both been\u00a0made\u00a0up of different groups who want to turn the clock back. For the Left Brexiters it was back to the days before Thatcher, or revive the ‘Spirit of 45’. They voted with the\u00a0Right\u00a0Brexiters who looked to the British\u00a0imperial\u00a0 ‘glory days’ before Suez, or before\u00a0the Second, or\u00a0even the\u00a0First World War.<\/p>\n

There is a similar\u00a0coalition around Trump.\u00a0Its\u00a0working class component\u00a0looks\u00a0back to\u00a0the New Deal, particularly the period\u00a0from 1945 up until\u00a0Reagan. There are others, on the conservative\u00a0Right who see 1960-70s\u00a0Equal Rights\u00a0(e.g.\u00a0the Wade v Roe\u00a0ruling on\u00a0abortion) and\u00a0Civil Rights (leading to a\u00a0black President)\u00a0as the\u00a0legacy\u00a0they want to\u00a0overthrow. This\u00a0specifically\u00a0Right \u00a0(and not the\u00a0New Deal) nostalgia\u00a0represents\u00a0the\u00a0politics of\u00a0Trump and his Republican\u00a0neo-conservative backers.\u00a0\u00a0There is\u00a0also\u00a0is the\u00a0far Right Ku Klux Klan who backed\u00a0Trump, but\u00a0whose profoundly\u00a0reactionary\u00a0nostalgia\u00a0takes them back to before the American\u00a0Civil War. \u00a0Trump did\u00a0publicly\u00a0disassociate himself\u00a0from the KKK.<\/p>\n

However, if you want to give your support to\u00a0those New Deal\u00a0glory days, supported by many of Trump’s white\u00a0working class supporters,\u00a0it has to be recognised that a key feature of those\u00a0days, is\u00a0vehemently\u00a0opposed by Trump and the Right. At the time, the New Deal\u00a0was\u00a0only possible because of the power of working class organisations. This also applies to the UK Welfare\u00a0State\u00a0from 1945-79. This was also a period when\u00a0women,\u00a0black people and gays were expected to know and accept their place –\u00a0a\u00a0position\u00a0accepted by many white male workers,\u00a0their trade\u00a0union leaders and\u00a0Labour politicians at the time too.<\/p>\n

Workers confined their struggles to improving the terms of their wage slavery. They\u00a0hoped to\u00a0gain\u00a0‘house slave’\u00a0instead of ‘field slave’ status, or\u00a0at least a society with a\u00a0finely graded hierarchy of status, where white male\u00a0workers and their families\u00a0might be able to climb the social ladder and enjoy some privileges.<\/p>\n

However, whatever the limitations of the New Deal and Welfare State (and\u00a0these\u00a0must be recognised if there is to be any hope of advocating\u00a0a politics that moves beyond a\u00a0continued crisis-ridden world of\u00a0wage slavery and ‘nation’-states), those\u00a0trade union and political party leaders buttressing this post-Second World War\u00a0order\u00a0retreated in the\u00a0face of corporate capitals’\u00a0globalisation offensive. Nor\u00a0was it just these particular organisations which declined in size and influence. As you have shown,\u00a0the very workplaces (especially large scale industrial) and communities (public housing schemes), which gave them sustenance, were uprooted too. The old\u00a0industries and communities can not be brought back.<\/p>\n

This has\u00a0left\u00a0many workers or ex-workers\u00a0as more atomised\u00a0individuals without collective\u00a0organisation.\u00a0This is\u00a0the situation which allows\u00a0the ‘promises’ of\u00a0Right\u00a0populist\u00a0saviours to\u00a0appear\u00a0more\u00a0attractive and become a substitute for the collective organisation\u00a0of workplace and community,\u00a0trade union and political party. When the populist Right talks favourably about the working class, they haven’t revived the\u00a0notion of the working class\u00a0previously held, but now abandoned, by many Social Democrats. They welcome\u00a0a\u00a0different\u00a0working class, one now made up of atomised and dependent individuals – wage slaves hoping for a job in the benevolent master’s house. The\u00a0populist Right\u00a0detests self-organisation of the\u00a0working class (and women\u00a0and\u00a0blacks), which made the US\u00a0New Deal and UK Welfare State political\u00a0deals\u00a0possible (at the cost, of course, of trade union and Democrat\/Labour official\u00a0acceptance\u00a0of the ‘democratic’\u00a0nature\u00a0of their\u00a0states,\u00a0imperialism and the Cold War, and their\u00a0continued\u00a0acceptance of many\u00a0conservative\u00a0social\u00a0ideas).<\/p>\n

With the demise of that\u00a0old post-Second World order\u00a0social order, since\u00a01979,\u00a0we have been living\u00a0increasingly in a neo-liberal\u00a0world dominated by\u00a0global\u00a0corporate\u00a0capital. However,\u00a0the\u00a0rulers of this order\u00a0soon\u00a0became very concerned by the creation of a\u00a0wider and increasingly\u00a0transnational\u00a0working class, both\u00a0nationally\u00a0and internationally.\u00a0They recognised this challenge and began to\u00a0put into place a\u00a0strategy and the\u00a0policies to deal\u00a0with this. Hence all\u00a0their anti-migrant and nationality\u00a0legislation with its accompanying repressive state machinery. However, a battle has\u00a0emerged on the Right\u00a0between neo-liberals and Right\u00a0populists about the extent of national\u00a0protective measures\u00a0required to thwart the\u00a0emergence of a transnational\u00a0working class.<\/p>\n

Strengthened by the post-2008\u00a0crisis of neo-liberalism, the Right\u00a0populists have seized upon the precedents\u00a0already created\u00a0by neo-liberalism. They demand more extensive\u00a0and higher walls, and not\u00a0just for the\u00a0elite living in their own\u00a0walled and gated residential\u00a0communities. The Right populists also want stricter\u00a0citizenship\u00a0criteria and\u00a0wider\u00a0participation of the (right) people in the national state, contributing to\u00a0active\u00a0surveillance,\u00a0monitoring and control of ‘outsiders’.\u00a0‘We too\u00a0want our\u00a0place on the lifeboat. We mightn’t have paid for the\u00a0luxury tickets, but we can\u00a0help you stop\u00a0any of the steerage class getting to the\u00a0lifeboats, if you protect us too’.<\/p>\n

In the Right populists’ brave new world, workers, of course, will still suffer from\u00a0the alienation\u00a0resulting from the\u00a0lack of control of their working lives.\u00a0That is endemic to wage slavery. But they are to\u00a0be emotionally\u00a0compensated for this through their involvement in publicly\u00a0organised\u00a0campaigns directed at\u00a0various ‘others’ – whether non-nationals, ethnic\u00a0minorities, women and gays who do not know their place (in the ‘ghetto’, kitchen or closet). Or else\u00a0they can\u00a0feel useful and superior\u00a0through\u00a0reporting on their\u00a0‘illegal migrant’ or ‘benefit scrounging’\u00a0neighbours. Under existing legisaltion and security measures, many people have already been drawn into the apparatus of control of migrants,\u00a0asylum seekers and welfare dependents\u00a0as landlords, or\u00a0in their workplaces, schools, colleges or hospitals. And just in case\u00a0one feels uneasy in this state\u00a0policing\u00a0role, there is\u00a0punitive\u00a0legislation to ensure you perform your allotted role.\u00a0\u00a0 A section of the populist Right would extend this further, and encourage the emergence of supplementary vigilante activity.<\/p>\n

Until the 2008 Crash, the\u00a0dominant global corporate\u00a0elite had promised that their\u00a0ideal\u00a0neo-liberal world\u00a0would eventually improve the lives of\u00a0the vast majority of\u00a0people on\u00a0this\u00a0planet –\u00a0despite occasionally acknowledged\u00a0short-term pain for some. Now, after a nearly decade long period of crisis,\u00a0all that people\u00a0can see, in the USA and Europe,\u00a0is a\u00a0never-ending vista\u00a0of\u00a0austerity and war. Those in the Third World had\u00a0already come to understand\u00a0this\u00a0through the global corporate promoted\u00a0Structural Adjustment Programmes and through\u00a0repression by\u00a0their\u00a0local\u00a0domestic\u00a0client\u00a0governments.<\/p>\n

My\u00a0contention is that socialists should be building upon the most positive aspect of\u00a0recent global corporate\u00a0development – the\u00a0development of a transnational proletariat (those with nothing to sell but their labour, whether\u00a0currently in or out of work).\u00a0Opposition to these people is what unites the neo-liberals and Right populists. We must\u00a0look at the\u00a0world we now live in, and look\u00a0forward,\u00a0and not retreat to various\u00a0now reactionary national ‘utopias’.\u00a0\u00a0The old\u00a0Stalinist idea of\u00a0‘socialism in one country’ was\u00a0itself a continuation, under\u00a0new\u00a0circumstances,\u00a0of that held by\u00a0the Right wing of the old pre-First World War\u00a0Social\u00a0Democracy. Neither of these ‘national\u00a0road’ strategies could prevent the outbreak\u00a0of the\u00a0capitalist\u00a0barbarism of\u00a0the First\u00a0and Second World Wars.<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0instead of looking\u00a0forward, and\u00a0developing a new and\u00a0practical proletarian internationalism to meet the new situation we face\u00a0(as opposed to sect\u00a0internationals),\u00a0considerable sections of the Left (including many from a Trotskyist background) have stepped\u00a0into\u00a0the\u00a0national\u00a0shoes of old Social\u00a0Democracy and Stalinism.\u00a0You can clearly\u00a0see the continuity\u00a0in such\u00a0campaigns as the Militant\/CPB No2EU and the SWP\/CPB Lexit.<\/p>\n

Yet,\u00a0some of these socialist national\u00a0roaders, e.g. the SWP, do\u00a0recognise the threat to humanity posed by\u00a0an increasingly voracious\u00a0capitalism, through\u00a0its constant\u00a0degradation of our\u00a0environment. But,\u00a0how on earth can you\u00a0combat this\u00a0on a national basis?\u00a0\u00a0Those ‘international’\u00a0deals, from Kyoto to Paris,\u00a0are highly compromised and likely to prove as ineffective as other inter-imperialist deals have been\u00a0in the past. Trump and Farage would do away even with these.\u00a0Genuine global planning\u00a0is\u00a0required and this is\u00a0completely\u00a0inconsistent with the longer term\u00a0continuation of\u00a0national states and their\u00a0associated\u00a0cynical ‘international’ deals.<\/p>\n

The Communist Manifesto<\/em> had a\u00a0whole section\u00a0addressing those nostalgic socialists who were utterly repulsed by the new world order, which\u00a0the\u00a0rising industrial\u00a0capitalist class had developed. These\u00a0nostalgic socialists (Marx\u00a0called their thinking,\u00a0reactionary socialist)\u00a0wanted to turn the\u00a0clock back. Yet, Marx, in 1848, did not\u00a0mince\u00a0his words about the\u00a0nature of the\u00a0brutal new world\u00a0brought about\u00a0under the rule\u00a0of\u00a0industrial capital. However, he looked to the newly\u00a0created\u00a0proletariat, either living a\u00a0precarious\u00a0existence or still\u00a0part of the global reserve\u00a0army (of would be\u00a0economic migrants and\u00a0asylum seekers). They\u00a0represented\u00a0the\u00a0fighting core of a new future world order.<\/p>\n

And when clashes\u00a0arose between those\u00a0nostalgic workers\u00a0who backed the national exclusive orientation of their\u00a0masters in opposing the struggles of black chattel slaves or evicted migrant\u00a0Irish, Marx demanded that other workers,\u00a0including\u00a0their trade union leaders, should\u00a0champion their cause. He\u00a0saw the setting up of the First International\u00a0as the\u00a0practical means to\u00a0achieve this. We can\u00a0still learn much\u00a0from this today.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

6. JOHN TUMMON – 11.11.16<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well argued, Allan. I only took issue with the possible misinterpretation of your comments in order to clarify, but insofar as it produced this development, I’m glad I did. We are clearly on the same page!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\"th\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>7. BRIAN HIGGINS – 9.11.16<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hi Allan,<\/p>\n

President Trump! Sends a shiver down the spine and around the globe. America has gone completely mad and to the dogs\u00a0thanks to the FBI.\u00a0The world is about to follow! Along with some kind of\u00a0[very un]civil war in the land of the free!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>8.BRIAN HIGGINS – 10.11.16<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hi Allan,<\/p>\n

I’ll get back to you about exchange re Trump between you and Paul Stewart. In the meantime it was so encouraging, hopeful and inspiring\u00a0to see what looks like the birth of a social and\u00a0political\u00a0peoples’ street movement against President Trump taking place before our very eyes on tv\u00a0with masses of people demonstrating on the streets of 25! large American cities just the day after Trump ‘elected’. If this takes off, which it looks like it will, then gallop to the right will be\u00a0not be anything like as easy as they thought it would be and\u00a0Trump and Could be, if not swept away\u00a0then find it\u00a0difficult to implement plans and policies,\u00a0because of\u00a0this\u00a0movement and\u00a0Hillary and ilk\u00a0left, I use the word left\u00a0advisedly, in it’s wake!<\/p>\n

I wrote I thought there would be a civil war, and add huge social upheaval,\u00a0of some kind in response to Trumps election but I did\u00a0expect to see the manifestation of this so soon and so massively on the streets of so many American cities. Trump always boasts about [very right wing populist] movement he is forming. Now there is a people’s ‘revolutionary’\u00a0street movement\u00a0being formed to counter what he’s doing. All power to the\u00a0people…. and social media, These people are using it to advance and not severely curtail and remove democracy and hard won rights and freedoms. Ironic isn’t it Mr trump!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>9. ALLAN ARMSTRONG – 13.11.16<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hi Brian,<\/p>\n

Thanks for your thoughts on Trump’s election. Yes, it is good there has been a reaction on the streets, particularly by young people. However, that also happened in London straight after the Brexit vote. The problem is that because of the hidebound sectarianism of the Left over the decades, many young people go along with the idea of spontaneity and oppose the idea of forming a democratic party, which can develop longer-standing and deeper roots. Thus, we have had the Anti- {Corporate}\u00a0Globalisation movement, then Occupy, etc,, which quickly disappear without leaving much political trace; or a collapse into rebranded social democracy, fronted by Left populist leaders, e.g. Tsipras in Syriza and Iglesias in Podemos.<\/p>\n

In the USA, the problems are greater. Any extra-constitutional\u00a0opposition to Trump could soon find themselves up against not just the state forces (as those in\u00a0Black Lives Matter well know), but a mobilisation of the white militias – and\u00a0the Ku Klux Klan, with its horrific record. Yet this is an entirely legal organisation, and which will only need a nod and wink from the state to restart its terror.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, I think big chunks of the liberal establishment will come to a\u00a0new agreement with Trump and adopt more of his clothing. Just see how most of\u00a0Theresa May’s Remainers\u00a0have morphed into UKIP\u00a0mark 2. May is already making private EU\u00a0deals for bankers and selected global corporations – and Farage has said nothing about this.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>10. BRIAN HIGGINS – 15.11.16<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hi Allan<\/p>\n

Thanks for this. Good to see debates over Trump widening and your contributions over this and that your friend John is on the same page! So am I!<\/p>\n

Meanwhile back in the USA and Brexit Britain to an extent.\u00a0Big and very significant and important political\u00a0difference between Trump post election situation\u00a0in US and post Brexit\u00a0one in Britain is that Clinton won the popular vote which gives those still protesting on the streets in mini urban rebellion against Trump presidency\u00a0much\u00a0more political ‘legitimacy’, and energy than very short lived anti Brexit demos. This also helps to politically\u00a0sustain the spontaneous\u00a0street rebellion in America – which seems to be hardening and\u00a0getting more and better organised politically and socially – \u00a0and\u00a0to counter\u00a0attempts to call for national ‘unity’ [of the graveyard!] and acceptance of election result to ensure a peaceful transition of power which offers no threat whatsoever to the established order!\u00a0Communism is not the spectre which haunts\u00a0America but\u00a0action and organisation\u00a0independent of\u00a0all of the established order ‘left’, right and centre! The beginnings, the seeds, of socialism are being planted in the street’s, the urban, response to Trump’s [rigged] election. The ruling class and established order\u00a0must be very worried\u00a0this\u00a0spontaneous ‘independent\u00a0urban rebellion could quickly take\u00a0on a new political as well as social dimension that\u00a0could lead\u00a0to a new re evaluation and realignment of the ‘revolutionary’ left in America out of which a new\u00a0unified workers’ [pre party] united front\u00a0political organisation could\u00a0emerge.<\/p>\n

By the way Corbyn’s and\u00a0his LP’s obvious reluctance to back Remain, and the\u00a0right wing inspired civil war raging\u00a0in Labour,\u00a0were also a millstones round the necks of those who took to the streets, as well as not winning popular vote, and this combination led to very quick sinking of organised ‘street opposition’ to Brexit. Meaning parliamentary ‘democracy’, and\u00a0May’s\u00a0[199 strong Tory MPs vote] parliamentary dictatorship\u00a0very quickly took centre stage and that’s where it remains. Nae pun intended\u00a0but who\u00a0knows!<\/p>\n

Although high court judges of all people have issued a challenge to May’s dictatorship!<\/p>\n

I agree massively the ‘revolutionary’ left must not hark back to the past but instead learn from this and address the new world order and objective circumstances we are now globally\u00a0faced with and try to organise a new alterantive\u00a0workers’ world order\u00a0to this.\u00a0With a\u00a0new\u00a0emerging transnational proletariat,\u00a0really good\u00a0internationalist phrase,\u00a0at the heart of it, fighting and organising street by street, city by city,\u00a0nation by nation and continent by continent! Off with the old on with the new!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>11. ALLAN ARMSTRONG – 15.11.16<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hi Brian,<\/p>\n

You may well be right about the greater sustainability of the protests in the US over Trump,\u00a0compared with those in the UK after Brexit.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, unless they begin\u00a0to\u00a0take some organised political form, then they will either fizzle out or be recouped by the Democrat Party. I see a Million Women March is planned in Washington on January 21st. If Hillary Clinton is given a prominent role, then that would represent a real dead end. Any smart Democrat, though, would put Michelle\u00a0Obama at the head!<\/p>\n

Meanwhile in the UK, it is the Right and Far Right who are planning a mass demonstration on December 5th\u00a0to coincide with the beginning of the High Court deliberations over Article 50. This could look like the mass protest organised by the\u00a0Countryside Alliance – only with more khaki fatigues than Barbour jackets! UKIP, BNP and EDL are all giving their support. Will be interesting to see where\u00a0the Tory\u00a0government lies over this.<\/p>\n

Even more interesting to see whether the SWP and Socialist Party sign up too – since that is the logic of their Brexit (sorry Lexit!)\u00a0position! I wrote the following, back\u00a0in my original piece written straight after the Brexit vote:-<\/p>\n

(http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/04\/june-24th-black-friday-or-red-friday\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n

“However, Lexit dares not follow the logic of its misguided politics and call a demo for an \u00a0\u2018Immediate Break with the EU\u2019 \u00a0\u2013 frightened at who may turn up!”<\/p>\n

Well now they know!<\/p>\n

I am\u00a0devoting\u00a0quite a bit of time\u00a0developing\u00a0the Campaign for a European Republican Socialist Party. Below are\u00a0some of the relevant links:-<\/p>\n

REPORT OF MEETING TO SET UP THE CAMPAIGN FOR A EUROPEAN REPUBLICAN SOCIALIST PARTY<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n