Trump Begins Appointing Cabinet of Strikebreakers and Warmongers
With unusual speed, Trump is picking his cabinet. It will be made up of billionaires and warmongers whose interests are directly opposed to the working-class.
Samuel Karlin
November 16, 2024
LEFT VOICE
With unusual speed, Donald Trump is picking his cabinet. His first wave of appointments, including the world’s richest man, is signaling that his administration is ready to wage war on workers.
While some sectors of the working class voted for Trump, as president Trump’s role is to serve the big bourgeoisie. Sectors of capital that backed Trump expect him to go to war against the burgeoning power of the U.S. working class. This is part of the reason the stock market is so excited about another Trump presidency.
The 2024 election showcased a historic process of realignment. Some sectors of the working class (and not just white men) now see the Trump-ified Republican Party as a better representation of their interests than the Democrats. This attempt by the MAGA movement to be seen as pro-worker was aided by the union bureaucracy, most notably Teamsters President Sean O’Brien.
Trump’s ability to expand his base beyond the mostly white, petit-bourgeois sectors that delivered his victory in 2016 is impressive. But the coalition that now makes up the MAGA movement is not a stable one, representing classes with different interests ranging from Silicon Valley titans to working-class people including segments of Black and Latino communities. Trump has no plan to meaningfully address the deep political and economic crises which have led sectors of the working class to abandon the Democrats in favor of the Right which appealed to economic distress and isolationist sentiments.
The Influence of the World’s Biggest Billionaire
The biggest indication that Trump won’t govern in the interests of workers who voted for him is the role that Elon Musk, the wealthiest person on the planet, is playing in setting up the next administration. As journalist and Musk expert Kirsten Grind discusses on The Daily, Musk threw himself into politics after bristling at tepid regulations on his businesses during the height of the Covid pandemic. At a time when workers were literally dying en masse to keep the world running (and capitalists’ profits flowing), California issued stay-at-home orders which slightly impacted Musk’s constant stream of obscene wealth. Musk described this as “fascist.”
This, and other political spats with the Biden administration, led Musk to throw his support behind Trump, spending $200 million to help elect him and essentially turning Twitter into a megaphone for far-right ideology. For his efforts, Musk has been rewarded with an appointment as co-chair (alongside Vivek Ramaswamy) as head of a Department Of Government Efficiency. With this position, Musk will have an unprecedented ability to shape U.S. policy and slash programs that he sees as “wasteful.” No doubt he will use this power to gut the few social services that the United States provides to workers, while waging attacks on unions and labor protections.
Musk has not just been given power through his new cabinet position, however. CNN reports that Musk has been deeply involved in Trump’s entire cabinet selection. The billionaire has been camped out at Mar-a-Lago, the de facto location of Trump’s transition process, weighing in from minute to minute.
Pro-War, Anti-Science, Anti-Worker
Trump’s first cabinet picks have mostly concerned positions that will shape his likely hawkish foreign policy — anyone who bought into Trump’s shallow appeals to working-class frustration with endless U.S. interventions is likely to be disappointed. Key picks include Mike Waltz as National Security Advisor (a true believer in the U.S. war in Afghanistan and co-sponsor of a bill which advocated U.S. military intervention in Mexico), Marco Rubio as Secretary of State (China hawk, Iran hawk, and sanctions enthusiast if there ever was one), and Elise Stefanik as UN ambassador (one of the most vocal supporters of the war on Gaza who previously worked for neocon think tanks).
All these ghouls, among others that Trump has named, show that the Trump administration will not advance the interests of workers — even those who voted for Trump out of desperation to see their economic situation improve. The hawks that will head the U.S. imperialist machine under Trump are obsessed with developing a foreign policy of “peace through strength,” believing that the United States can just strong-arm its way back into global dominance — as if this doesn’t risk further escalating the very wars killing workers around the world. The endless billions for military spending could go towards quality education, healthcare, housing, green jobs, and any other programs that actually benefit workers.
Since announcing a list of hawks to lead his foreign policy, Trump has begun announcing his picks for departments that will shape his national agenda. Some of his choices are almost comical, such as vaccine-denier Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK) to be in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, fossil fuels-lover Lee Zeldin to be in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency, and alleged pedophile Matt Gaetz to serve as Attorney General.
To the extent that the United States has food and drug safety standards and research to understand and prevent pandemics (all measures that at their best literally keep working people from dying in large numbers), Trump wants a man with literal brain worms to be in charge of those policies. Expect similar science-denialism over climate policy. Zeldin is eager to gut climate protections. POLITICO reports that some of Zeldin’s biggest targets include “Biden era clean-air regulations as well as the funding from the Inflation reduction Act.”
Gaetz will have one of the most powerful positions in the cabinet, leading efforts through the courts to implement and defend some of Trump’s most aggressive attacks on immigrant communities, especially those from certain Muslim majority countries, and government employees. While chauvinist sentiments unfortunately mean that a sector of the U.S. working class may not be as opposed to these anti-immigrant moves, the fact is that any attack on these communities weakens our power as workers. If the Trump administration succeeds at revoking basic rights for immigrant rights activists and Muslim communities who make up much of the movement for Palestine, it will be far easier for him to go on the offensive against the labor movement and force non-unionized workers to work under the precarious conditions that are currently forced on immigrant workers. Meanwhile, the focus on federal employees will mean attacks on some of the strongest unions in the country.
Given the extreme nature of some of Trump’s picks, even sectors of bourgeoisie are likely to do what they can to push for a more traditional cabinet. But even if picks like RFK and Gaetz can’t make their way through the confirmation process, the fact that they’re Trump’s first choices shows that he is serious about taking extreme measures to attack labor protections and basic services that keep the climate crisis and health crises from killing people. And it shows that Trump has every intention of waging an aggressive imperialist policy alongside widespread attacks on the rights and livelihoods of workers in the United States.
Trump ran in part by posturing as a champion of working-class people, but his cabinet picks shows that he is about to be a strikebreaker and a warmonger. What this may mean for the stability of his coalition and his hold over the working class is to be seen. There is a real possibility that workers who hate the Democrats for their attacks on our class will also be outraged when Trump is the one breaking strikes, busting unions, and constantly fueling wars. The Left and all people interested in fighting the exploitation and oppression of our class must be prepared to take advantage of these ruptures in Trump’s base and the potential for class struggle.
Samuel Karlin is a socialist with a background in journalism. He mainly writes for Left Voice about U.S. imperialism and international class struggle.
LEFT VOICE
With unusual speed, Donald Trump is picking his cabinet. His first wave of appointments, including the world’s richest man, is signaling that his administration is ready to wage war on workers.
While some sectors of the working class voted for Trump, as president Trump’s role is to serve the big bourgeoisie. Sectors of capital that backed Trump expect him to go to war against the burgeoning power of the U.S. working class. This is part of the reason the stock market is so excited about another Trump presidency.
The 2024 election showcased a historic process of realignment. Some sectors of the working class (and not just white men) now see the Trump-ified Republican Party as a better representation of their interests than the Democrats. This attempt by the MAGA movement to be seen as pro-worker was aided by the union bureaucracy, most notably Teamsters President Sean O’Brien.
Trump’s ability to expand his base beyond the mostly white, petit-bourgeois sectors that delivered his victory in 2016 is impressive. But the coalition that now makes up the MAGA movement is not a stable one, representing classes with different interests ranging from Silicon Valley titans to working-class people including segments of Black and Latino communities. Trump has no plan to meaningfully address the deep political and economic crises which have led sectors of the working class to abandon the Democrats in favor of the Right which appealed to economic distress and isolationist sentiments.
The Influence of the World’s Biggest Billionaire
The biggest indication that Trump won’t govern in the interests of workers who voted for him is the role that Elon Musk, the wealthiest person on the planet, is playing in setting up the next administration. As journalist and Musk expert Kirsten Grind discusses on The Daily, Musk threw himself into politics after bristling at tepid regulations on his businesses during the height of the Covid pandemic. At a time when workers were literally dying en masse to keep the world running (and capitalists’ profits flowing), California issued stay-at-home orders which slightly impacted Musk’s constant stream of obscene wealth. Musk described this as “fascist.”
This, and other political spats with the Biden administration, led Musk to throw his support behind Trump, spending $200 million to help elect him and essentially turning Twitter into a megaphone for far-right ideology. For his efforts, Musk has been rewarded with an appointment as co-chair (alongside Vivek Ramaswamy) as head of a Department Of Government Efficiency. With this position, Musk will have an unprecedented ability to shape U.S. policy and slash programs that he sees as “wasteful.” No doubt he will use this power to gut the few social services that the United States provides to workers, while waging attacks on unions and labor protections.
Musk has not just been given power through his new cabinet position, however. CNN reports that Musk has been deeply involved in Trump’s entire cabinet selection. The billionaire has been camped out at Mar-a-Lago, the de facto location of Trump’s transition process, weighing in from minute to minute.
Pro-War, Anti-Science, Anti-Worker
Trump’s first cabinet picks have mostly concerned positions that will shape his likely hawkish foreign policy — anyone who bought into Trump’s shallow appeals to working-class frustration with endless U.S. interventions is likely to be disappointed. Key picks include Mike Waltz as National Security Advisor (a true believer in the U.S. war in Afghanistan and co-sponsor of a bill which advocated U.S. military intervention in Mexico), Marco Rubio as Secretary of State (China hawk, Iran hawk, and sanctions enthusiast if there ever was one), and Elise Stefanik as UN ambassador (one of the most vocal supporters of the war on Gaza who previously worked for neocon think tanks).
All these ghouls, among others that Trump has named, show that the Trump administration will not advance the interests of workers — even those who voted for Trump out of desperation to see their economic situation improve. The hawks that will head the U.S. imperialist machine under Trump are obsessed with developing a foreign policy of “peace through strength,” believing that the United States can just strong-arm its way back into global dominance — as if this doesn’t risk further escalating the very wars killing workers around the world. The endless billions for military spending could go towards quality education, healthcare, housing, green jobs, and any other programs that actually benefit workers.
Since announcing a list of hawks to lead his foreign policy, Trump has begun announcing his picks for departments that will shape his national agenda. Some of his choices are almost comical, such as vaccine-denier Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK) to be in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, fossil fuels-lover Lee Zeldin to be in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency, and alleged pedophile Matt Gaetz to serve as Attorney General.
To the extent that the United States has food and drug safety standards and research to understand and prevent pandemics (all measures that at their best literally keep working people from dying in large numbers), Trump wants a man with literal brain worms to be in charge of those policies. Expect similar science-denialism over climate policy. Zeldin is eager to gut climate protections. POLITICO reports that some of Zeldin’s biggest targets include “Biden era clean-air regulations as well as the funding from the Inflation reduction Act.”
Gaetz will have one of the most powerful positions in the cabinet, leading efforts through the courts to implement and defend some of Trump’s most aggressive attacks on immigrant communities, especially those from certain Muslim majority countries, and government employees. While chauvinist sentiments unfortunately mean that a sector of the U.S. working class may not be as opposed to these anti-immigrant moves, the fact is that any attack on these communities weakens our power as workers. If the Trump administration succeeds at revoking basic rights for immigrant rights activists and Muslim communities who make up much of the movement for Palestine, it will be far easier for him to go on the offensive against the labor movement and force non-unionized workers to work under the precarious conditions that are currently forced on immigrant workers. Meanwhile, the focus on federal employees will mean attacks on some of the strongest unions in the country.
Given the extreme nature of some of Trump’s picks, even sectors of bourgeoisie are likely to do what they can to push for a more traditional cabinet. But even if picks like RFK and Gaetz can’t make their way through the confirmation process, the fact that they’re Trump’s first choices shows that he is serious about taking extreme measures to attack labor protections and basic services that keep the climate crisis and health crises from killing people. And it shows that Trump has every intention of waging an aggressive imperialist policy alongside widespread attacks on the rights and livelihoods of workers in the United States.
Trump ran in part by posturing as a champion of working-class people, but his cabinet picks shows that he is about to be a strikebreaker and a warmonger. What this may mean for the stability of his coalition and his hold over the working class is to be seen. There is a real possibility that workers who hate the Democrats for their attacks on our class will also be outraged when Trump is the one breaking strikes, busting unions, and constantly fueling wars. The Left and all people interested in fighting the exploitation and oppression of our class must be prepared to take advantage of these ruptures in Trump’s base and the potential for class struggle.
Samuel Karlin is a socialist with a background in journalism. He mainly writes for Left Voice about U.S. imperialism and international class struggle.
Billionaires Take Center Stage After U.S. Elections
More present than ever in this year’s presidential campaigns, billionaires seem poised to play a more direct role in the U.S. government. Is this reminiscent of post-Soviet restructuring in the heart of imperialism?
Philippe Alcoy
More present than ever in this year’s presidential campaigns, billionaires seem poised to play a more direct role in the U.S. government. Is this reminiscent of post-Soviet restructuring in the heart of imperialism?
Philippe Alcoy
November 17, 2024
LEFT VOICE
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its capitalist restoration, the world witnessed a veritable festival of fraudulent privatizations and appropriations of collective property by a small group of former apparatchiks, state bureaucrats, and Mafia-like businessmen. This was the great new capitalist class needed in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc to make capitalist restoration “irreversible,” as Western economists and technocrats liked to say at the time. What followed was a large-scale theft on the part of imperialist banks and Western political leaders, a process which functioned in the interests of the international capitalist class as a whole.
Yet the state remained the main actor in forming a new capitalist class in the former bureaucratized socialist states. To ensure that the state guaranteed and legitimized the wealth of this new bourgeoisie, certain oligarchs began to exert direct political influence on society, and even to hold political office themselves. The new capitalists’ close ties with the state guaranteed them enormous gains. At the same time, their participation in national, regional, and local governing bodies enabled them to adopt precisely the measures that favored their businesses. This interweaving was made easier by the context in which it took place: a troubled period of “transition,” a profound transformation of society and political regimes whose legitimacy was weak but whose nature was Bonapartist and authoritarian.
Big capitalists have always played a central role in steering governments. The bourgeoisie has a thousand ways of directly or indirectly influencing political life through its economic and political levers, as well as through the media. In the most powerful states, however, this interference is generally indirect. Rarely do major capitalists themselves hold political office. This indirect way of influencing political life and determining the state’s general orientations is a way to guarantee the legitimacy of the capitalist class.
It is striking, then, that billionaires are now assuming direct involvement in the U.S. government. As a symbol, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, took an active part in the campaign for Donald Trump, who himself has an estimated fortune of $5.6 billion. He not only took part in rallies alongside Trump, but also used his social media platform, X, to influence opinion. To do so, he didn’t hesitate to spread fake news, relying on his millions of subscribers as well as a manipulated algorithm. The Financial Times has documented Musk’s activity on X in support of Trump, stating that
in the months leading up to the vote, Musk wielded his own megaphone — X — as its owner and the most popular account with more than 200mn followers. He flooded the platform with pro-Trump messaging, allegations about election fraud and warnings that Kamala Harris would destroy America should she win the White House. Over the course of 24 hours on Tuesday, he tweeted nearly 200 times, according to an analysis by the Financial Times, racking up about 955mn views, after averaging more than 100 posts a day in the month leading up to the vote.
Musk’s involvement, however, has gone beyond his frenetic activity on X and speaking at rallies. He was also the main financial contributor to Trump’s campaign, donating $132 million to his “friend.” He also “offered” a million dollars a day to Trump voters who signed a petition in favor of “free speech,” among other things. This “investment” quickly paid off: after Trump’s victory, Tesla shares gained 12 percent in value.
In exchange, Musk could be appointed head of the newly established Department of Government Efficiency, which would simply be responsible for laying off thousands of civil servants in the name of fighting “federal bureaucracy.” But Musk’s direct involvement in the Trump administration could also have consequences for the billionaire’s own companies. Musk’s fortune comes mainly from electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and space exploration company SpaceX. It is more than likely that Musk’s presence in the president’s inner circle could influence decisions that favor his interests, and even give him even easier access to international leaders. As the Wall Street Journal writes,
Trump isn’t the only world leader that Musk has become chummy with, blurring business and geopolitics. He has had secret conversations with Vladimir Putin, contacts with China over its role in the electric-vehicle market, and flirted with meeting Narendra Modi over potential new business in India. He relies on foreign investors, with Saudis and Qataris among the largest X backers. These relationships could influence or complicate Trump’s foreign-policy plans.
Last September, Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times was alarmed by Musk’s role in U.S. foreign policy, stating that “his unpredictable interventions — combined with immense technological and financial power — make him an unguided geopolitical missile, whose whims can reshape world affairs.”
Musk is far from the only billionaire to have been involved in the campaign. As mentioned above, Trump is a billionaire himself and has received the support of 52 billionaires, the main contributors to the $392 million raised for his campaign. Trump’s supporters include Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts, Miriam Adelson of Las Vegas Sands, and Ray Davis, co-owner and co-chair of the Texas Rangers.
But we shouldn’t conclude that the billionaires’ “participation” was solely in Trump’s favor. Quite the opposite, in fact. Many more billionaires supported Kamala Harris and the Democrats. Eighty-three billionaires donated to the Harris campaign, totaling $998 million. Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg were among the top donors to the Democrats, giving $50 million and $100 million, respectively. In other words, 135 billionaires largely influenced and to some extent dictated the themes of the presidential campaign.
These exorbitant sums were spent to support a hollow campaign that was markedly to the right, on both sides, against a backdrop of competing reactionary rhetoric. They seem like an obscene provocation in a context in which voters’ main concern has been inflation and the economic situation in general. Marxist economist Michael Roberts explains the centrality of this issue as follows:
First, the U.S. real GDP may be growing and financial asset prices booming, but it is a different story for the average American household, hardly any of whom own any financial assets to speculate with. Instead, while rich investors boost their wealth, under the Trump and Biden administrations Americans have experienced a horrendous pandemic followed by the biggest slump in living standards since the 1930s, driven by a very sharp rise in prices of consumer goods and services. … Officially prices are still some 20 percent plus higher than before the pandemic but with many other items not covered by the official inflation index (insurance, mortgage rates etc) rocketing. … Mortgage rates have reached their highest level in 20 years and home prices have risen to record levels. Motor and health insurance premiums have rocketed. … If a worker has to take on a second job to maintain his or her standard of living, he or she might not feel so bullish about the economy. Indeed, second jobs have increased significantly.
Trump was very demagogic on the economic issue, which enabled him to capture a large proportion of the popular vote. Harris, claiming the legacy of the Biden administration in every respect, could not offer an alternative. But Trump is just as responsible for the economic situation and will have to face up to the crisis of American capitalism. In the coordinates of the crisis of U.S. imperialism, the direct participation of billionaires in political life could increase and be accompanied by tendencies toward the Bonapartization of the regime. From this point of view, we can expect an increase in anti-worker measures and repressive policies, as well as a possible intensification of class struggle and resistance — all against a government heavily influenced by cynical billionaires like Elon Musk.
Originally published in French on November 11 in Révolution Permanente
Philippe Alcoy
Philippe is an editor of Révolution Permanente, our sister site in France.
LEFT VOICE
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its capitalist restoration, the world witnessed a veritable festival of fraudulent privatizations and appropriations of collective property by a small group of former apparatchiks, state bureaucrats, and Mafia-like businessmen. This was the great new capitalist class needed in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc to make capitalist restoration “irreversible,” as Western economists and technocrats liked to say at the time. What followed was a large-scale theft on the part of imperialist banks and Western political leaders, a process which functioned in the interests of the international capitalist class as a whole.
Yet the state remained the main actor in forming a new capitalist class in the former bureaucratized socialist states. To ensure that the state guaranteed and legitimized the wealth of this new bourgeoisie, certain oligarchs began to exert direct political influence on society, and even to hold political office themselves. The new capitalists’ close ties with the state guaranteed them enormous gains. At the same time, their participation in national, regional, and local governing bodies enabled them to adopt precisely the measures that favored their businesses. This interweaving was made easier by the context in which it took place: a troubled period of “transition,” a profound transformation of society and political regimes whose legitimacy was weak but whose nature was Bonapartist and authoritarian.
Big capitalists have always played a central role in steering governments. The bourgeoisie has a thousand ways of directly or indirectly influencing political life through its economic and political levers, as well as through the media. In the most powerful states, however, this interference is generally indirect. Rarely do major capitalists themselves hold political office. This indirect way of influencing political life and determining the state’s general orientations is a way to guarantee the legitimacy of the capitalist class.
It is striking, then, that billionaires are now assuming direct involvement in the U.S. government. As a symbol, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, took an active part in the campaign for Donald Trump, who himself has an estimated fortune of $5.6 billion. He not only took part in rallies alongside Trump, but also used his social media platform, X, to influence opinion. To do so, he didn’t hesitate to spread fake news, relying on his millions of subscribers as well as a manipulated algorithm. The Financial Times has documented Musk’s activity on X in support of Trump, stating that
in the months leading up to the vote, Musk wielded his own megaphone — X — as its owner and the most popular account with more than 200mn followers. He flooded the platform with pro-Trump messaging, allegations about election fraud and warnings that Kamala Harris would destroy America should she win the White House. Over the course of 24 hours on Tuesday, he tweeted nearly 200 times, according to an analysis by the Financial Times, racking up about 955mn views, after averaging more than 100 posts a day in the month leading up to the vote.
Musk’s involvement, however, has gone beyond his frenetic activity on X and speaking at rallies. He was also the main financial contributor to Trump’s campaign, donating $132 million to his “friend.” He also “offered” a million dollars a day to Trump voters who signed a petition in favor of “free speech,” among other things. This “investment” quickly paid off: after Trump’s victory, Tesla shares gained 12 percent in value.
In exchange, Musk could be appointed head of the newly established Department of Government Efficiency, which would simply be responsible for laying off thousands of civil servants in the name of fighting “federal bureaucracy.” But Musk’s direct involvement in the Trump administration could also have consequences for the billionaire’s own companies. Musk’s fortune comes mainly from electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and space exploration company SpaceX. It is more than likely that Musk’s presence in the president’s inner circle could influence decisions that favor his interests, and even give him even easier access to international leaders. As the Wall Street Journal writes,
Trump isn’t the only world leader that Musk has become chummy with, blurring business and geopolitics. He has had secret conversations with Vladimir Putin, contacts with China over its role in the electric-vehicle market, and flirted with meeting Narendra Modi over potential new business in India. He relies on foreign investors, with Saudis and Qataris among the largest X backers. These relationships could influence or complicate Trump’s foreign-policy plans.
Last September, Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times was alarmed by Musk’s role in U.S. foreign policy, stating that “his unpredictable interventions — combined with immense technological and financial power — make him an unguided geopolitical missile, whose whims can reshape world affairs.”
Musk is far from the only billionaire to have been involved in the campaign. As mentioned above, Trump is a billionaire himself and has received the support of 52 billionaires, the main contributors to the $392 million raised for his campaign. Trump’s supporters include Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts, Miriam Adelson of Las Vegas Sands, and Ray Davis, co-owner and co-chair of the Texas Rangers.
But we shouldn’t conclude that the billionaires’ “participation” was solely in Trump’s favor. Quite the opposite, in fact. Many more billionaires supported Kamala Harris and the Democrats. Eighty-three billionaires donated to the Harris campaign, totaling $998 million. Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg were among the top donors to the Democrats, giving $50 million and $100 million, respectively. In other words, 135 billionaires largely influenced and to some extent dictated the themes of the presidential campaign.
These exorbitant sums were spent to support a hollow campaign that was markedly to the right, on both sides, against a backdrop of competing reactionary rhetoric. They seem like an obscene provocation in a context in which voters’ main concern has been inflation and the economic situation in general. Marxist economist Michael Roberts explains the centrality of this issue as follows:
First, the U.S. real GDP may be growing and financial asset prices booming, but it is a different story for the average American household, hardly any of whom own any financial assets to speculate with. Instead, while rich investors boost their wealth, under the Trump and Biden administrations Americans have experienced a horrendous pandemic followed by the biggest slump in living standards since the 1930s, driven by a very sharp rise in prices of consumer goods and services. … Officially prices are still some 20 percent plus higher than before the pandemic but with many other items not covered by the official inflation index (insurance, mortgage rates etc) rocketing. … Mortgage rates have reached their highest level in 20 years and home prices have risen to record levels. Motor and health insurance premiums have rocketed. … If a worker has to take on a second job to maintain his or her standard of living, he or she might not feel so bullish about the economy. Indeed, second jobs have increased significantly.
Trump was very demagogic on the economic issue, which enabled him to capture a large proportion of the popular vote. Harris, claiming the legacy of the Biden administration in every respect, could not offer an alternative. But Trump is just as responsible for the economic situation and will have to face up to the crisis of American capitalism. In the coordinates of the crisis of U.S. imperialism, the direct participation of billionaires in political life could increase and be accompanied by tendencies toward the Bonapartization of the regime. From this point of view, we can expect an increase in anti-worker measures and repressive policies, as well as a possible intensification of class struggle and resistance — all against a government heavily influenced by cynical billionaires like Elon Musk.
Originally published in French on November 11 in Révolution Permanente
Philippe Alcoy
Philippe is an editor of Révolution Permanente, our sister site in France.
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