Sunday, July 21, 2024

 

The U.S. hurtles toward political crisis



FRIDAY 19 JULY 2024, BY ASHLEY SMITH

Ashley Smith analyzes the impact of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on the deepening political crisis in the U.S. and the ever growing weakness of the Joe Biden campaign.

The United States was already headed for one of the most acute political crises in recent memory. Then former president and convicted felon Donald Trump was nearly assassinated at a rally in Pennsylvania. Having survived, Trump has consolidated his base and cornered the Democrats by blaming them for the attack.

Trump will now position himself as a strong man and survivor over a debilitated Biden campaign. He has an inside track to victory in the election with a clear advantage despite being widely despised.

Even before the attempted assassination of Trump, President Joe Biden’s catastrophic debate performance had thrown his candidacy into doubt with the bourgeois press, the Democrat’s capitalist donors, and centrist politicians, all calling for him to pass the baton to another nominee.

GOP CAPITALIZES ON ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

The attempt against Trump has drowned out all other issues. The image of him bloodied, defiant with fist raised, and chanting “fight, fight, fight” has been plastered across the media and will no doubt end up on t-shirts at this week’s GOP Convention in Milwaukee.

At this point we don’t know much about the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, except that he was a twenty-year-old, white, registered Republican who donated to the Democrat’s PAC, Act Blue, after Biden’s election. His motives and politics remain unclear, although reports paint him as a loner with a history of being bullied in school.

But Trump and his minions have already blamed the Democrats for the assassination attempt. Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance exclaimed, “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

Cornered by these accusations, the Democrats immediately condemned the attempted assassination, and pulled their campaign advertisements across the country, something of course not reciprocated by the Republicans. The reeling Democrats are already muting their sharpest criticisms at least for now, while the Republicans have doubled down on their attacks on Biden and the Democrats.

Amid their spiraling conflict, both parties have united on one thing—blistering condemnation of “political violence.” Their hypocrisy on this point is plain for all to see. Both parties have jointly funded the Pentagon’s war machine to the tune of nearly $1 trillion a year, armed Israel to carry out genocide in Palestine, and unleashed their militarized police to enforce the racialized class inequalities of U.S. capitalism.

Amid their spiraling conflict, both parties have united on one thing—blistering condemnation of “political violence.” Their hypocrisy on this point is plain for all to see.
Contrary to the current bipartisan political theater, political violence is a systematic feature of U.S. society. It is as American as apple pie.

And it is getting worse. Capitalism’s long-term global slump is deepening inequality, fueling political polarization, opening space for the far right including fascist forces, and intensifying social and political violence.

Even Biden admitted this in his national address when he listed just a few recent examples like Trump’s January 6th “beer gut” putsch, the attack on then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, and the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Rhetorical pleas by Biden and especially Trump for national unity will not dampen down such violence, which is the product of a deep socioeconomic crisis and intractable political polarization.

The beneficiaries of the assassination attempt will be Trump’s campaign, the far right, the security state, the military, and the police. They, along with the, at best, qualified support of the Democrats, will whip up a moral panic about “extremism” to justify a law and order crackdown.

As a result, we are likely to see even further erosion of our already endangered democratic rights to organize, speak out, protest, and strike. Regardless of the identity, motive, and politics of the shooter, the target of this crackdown will be the Left, progressive movements, unions, and especially people of color. In particular, this will strengthen the attacks on the Palestine solidarity movement, which is already subject to a McCarthyite witch hunt.

The Times of Israel reports that Biden campaign officials stated, on condition of anonymity, that, “Rather than verbally attacking Trump in the coming days, the White House and the Biden campaign will draw on the president’s history of condemning all sorts of political violence including his sharp criticism of the ‘disorder’ created by campus protests against Israel over the war in Gaza with Hamas.”

CRISIS IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

While the Republicans capitalize on the assassination attempt, the Democrats are in a full blown political crisis. Their standard bearer, Biden, has confronted eroding support from young voters as a result of his unrelenting political, economic, and military support of Israel and its genocidal war on Palestine.

His position has put him to the right of most Democrats, and repulsed almost all Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims. Biden is widely and rightly called “Genocide Joe” by young activists.

On top of that, his policies have failed to alleviate the crisis in the lives of workers and the oppressed. His pandemic funding has ended, state and local governments are now turning to austerity to balance their budgets, and workers wage increases have failed to match inflation, particularly in housing costs particularly for renters.

For most oppressed people conditions have deteriorated over the last four years. Abortion has been massively curtailed, racist police brutality and murder have continued apace, and deportation of migrants has dramatically risen under Biden. Unsurprisingly, voters, even before the debate, had little enthusiasm for the Democrats.

In that faceoff, Biden had two tasks—prove that he was mentally competent to run and focus the electorate’s attention on Trump and the Republicans’ authoritarian and reactionary program. He failed on both counts. This caused panic among the Democrats who were confronted with a candidate who was simply unfit for office.

In [the debate], Biden had two tasks—prove that he was mentally competent to run and focus the electorate’s attention on Trump and the Republicans’ authoritarian and reactionary program. He failed on both counts.
The Republicans sensed blood in the water. One senior GOP strategist crowed, “Joe Biden is an anvil wrapped around the neck of every Democrat candidate and incumbent. Republicans should be praying nonstop he stays in the race.”

That led centrists in battleground districts as well as donors and the bourgeois media, which have clearly leaned toward the Democrats, to call for Biden to withdraw from the election and support either Kamala Harris or some process to select a competent nominee. Rather than listen to reason, however, Biden has dug in, touting his record, denying his obvious age-related clinical frailty, and pointing to national polls that show him in a dead heat with Trump.

But his record is for most people, despite this or that minor reform, a lead balloon. And his repeated flubs in almost every unscripted appearance only confirm his incapacity.

And national polls are irrelevant. We do not live in a democracy. U.S. elections do not turn on the popular vote, but on states and their apportioned delegates in the undemocratic electoral college. That actual race turns on seven battleground states in which Biden trails Trump.

In fact, most election analysts think that Biden’s opportunity to win has narrowed to just three states—Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Without those he will lose, and after the assassination attempt his odds, especially in Pennsylvania, look terrible.

Biden and the Democrats are to blame for this disaster. While Trump may be a malignant narcissist, Biden has proved himself to be, at best, an arrogant narcissist, more concerned with promoting himself than defeating Trump and the Republicans.

The entire party shares responsibility for promoting a candidate that is unfit for office, including its so-called progressive wing. Neither competent establishment candidates nor progressives challenged him in the primary, leaving Biden a clear path to lock up the nomination. And, now in the wake of the assassination, he and his handlers will defend his candidacy in the name of stability and try to block any attempt to dislodge him from the top of the ticket.

PROGRESSIVES FRONT FOR GENOCIDE JOE

The possibility, if not likelihood, of a Trump victory has precipitated panic and desperation throughout the liberal and social democratic Left. The Black political establishment, union bureaucracy, as well as Sanders and the so-called Squad with the notable exception of Rashida Tlaib have for the most part doubled down on support of Biden.

As Biden’s candidacy appeared to be in serious jeopardy, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rushed to his defense, declaring, “The matter is closed. He is in this race, and I support him.” Rep. Ilhan Omar, whose daughter was part of the encampment at Columbia University protesting the genocide, chimed in, “He’s been the best president of my lifetime, and we have his back.”

Even worse, Bernie Sanders who has repeatedly called Biden the “most progressive president since FDR” penned a column in The New York Times that plumbed the depths of the lesser-evil argument for supporting Biden. While admitting that he opposed Biden on many questions including his support of Israel’s war, Sanders claimed that Biden was “a good and decent Democratic president with a record of real accomplishment.”

The precondition of the Squad and Sanders making such claims is deprioritizing opposition to genocide. But that is nothing new. They have dressed Biden’s administration in sheep’s clothing since Sanders lost the contest for the Democratic Party nomination in 2020.

In reality, the Biden administration was always a wolf, one with a strategy of co-opting the Left with an imperialist Keynesian program of modest liberal reforms, shoring up U.S. hegemony, and confronting its great power and regional rivals, especially China and Russia. Biden’s support of Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine has ripped off the sheep’s clothing and exposed him as not just a supporter but an architect of genocide.

Instead of trumpeting our program and mobilizing forces to fight for it, Sanders and the Squad adopted Biden’s and became the best salespeople for it…Out the window went Card Check, Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, codifying Roe, immigrant rights, and countless other demands.
That, in turn, has generated the radicalization of the best of a whole generation, most dramatically expressed in the encampments on college campuses against Biden and the Democratic Party as a whole. As a result, in the eyes of these Palestine solidarity activists, Sanders and the Squad will be looked upon as accomplices, not opponents, of Biden’s regime and its genocidal war.

These politicians are prepared to risk alienating Palestine solidarity activists based on the fantasy that in supporting Biden, they have influenced him over the last four years and that by working for his victory in the election, they can save him from defeat and thereby secure even greater influence in his second term. In reality, the capitalist establishment backed Biden to defeat Sanders and his followers in the 2020 primary.

He then used them to corral DSA and the broader Left, social movements, and union officialdom, into supporting his program, not ours. As the recent book, The Internationalists details, Biden’s program was created by his own imperialist brain trust with no consultation with progressive Democrats let alone socialists.

Instead of trumpeting our program and mobilizing forces to fight for it, Sanders and the Squad adopted Biden’s program and became the best salespeople for it against centrist Democrats and Republicans. As a result, out the window went Card Check, Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, codifying Roe, immigrant rights, and countless other demands.

Moreover, even if Biden defies all the odds and wins, there is no reason to think that he would adopt anything like our program of reforms. In reality, if reelected, Biden will double down on his own program. Thus, Biden has blocked the Left in the Democratic Party, neutralizing and co-opting its elected officials as spokespersons for his regime at the moment of its greatest crisis and possible impending defeat in November.

THE SELF-DEFEATING LOGIC OF LESSER EVILISM

To justify their strategy, Sanders, the Squad, and many on the Left are yet again making all the classic lesser evil arguments, even if the last four years have definitively disproved their case. The most honest of them do not try to dress up Biden as anything but evil. They admit that readily. They actually argue that the only way for us to stop Trump and what they see as fascism is to campaign for a candidate carrying out genocide.

The basis of the argument is that Trump is the immediate danger, that he must be stopped, and that the only way to do that is to support Biden. They argue further that conditions under a second Biden administration will be more auspicious for the growth of the Left, social movements, and trade unions.

In reality, the last four years disprove their arguments. The Left’s broad support for Biden in 2020 and after has weakened organized socialists, dampened down class and social struggle, and failed to stop the rise of the right. It has tied us to a class enemy at home and its imperialist project abroad.

Before Sanders’ capitulation to Biden, DSA was an expanding organization with at least some part of it openly discussing how to build a mass socialist alternative to the Democratic Party establishment and the GOP. But instead, it followed Sanders, AOC, Jamaal Bowman, and others in rallying to support the Biden administration.

The talk of organizing a dirty break, building a surrogate party, or even realigning the Democratic Party and turning it into a social democratic party has evaporated. All that was replaced by trying to elect progressive Democrats and lobbying the establishment to adopt their demands. Of course, that yielded next to nothing.

The first crisis DSA suffered was unsurprisingly over U.S. imperialism and Palestine. When the Palestine Working Group protested DSA member Jamaal Bowman’s support for Israel, the working group was disciplined, not Bowman, leading to an exodus of Palestine solidarity activists from the organization.

Moreover, faced with the general impasse of the Left inside the Democratic Party, DSA has lost tens of thousands of members, its chapters have become largely inactive, and its remaining members are mostly inactive. Pointing to this or that electoral victory just covers up the obvious crisis the organization has suffered. It is no longer the dynamic, vibrant expression of radicalization it promised to be.

It is time to face the hard reality that lesser evilism has never worked to advance the Left, working class struggle, and the liberation of the oppressed. The last four years proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt.
The same result has been faced by most social movements under Biden. Popular struggle on most fronts from climate to migrant rights and even reproductive justice remain at a low ebb. But perhaps the worst setback suffered was to Black Lives Matter, which the Democratic Party and the Black political establishment convinced to retreat from the streets and instead to campaign for Biden in 2020.

While that tremendous uprising has left a profound political radicalization in its wake, it is no longer an organized political force across the country. Both parties are rolling back any reforms, funding not defunding cops, and re-instituting racist repressive measures across the country.

The one social movement that has scored significant ideological victories and a few institutional reforms—the Palestine solidarity movement—has done so in defiance of liberal university bureaucrats, Democratic Party elected officials, and the Biden administration. These are all opponents of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions and the entire struggle to free Palestine from Israel settler colonialism.

What gains the labor movement has won was not the result of Biden being elected or lobbying him in office. Few to no gains have been won that way. And there have been massive defeats at the hand of his administration like breaking the strike of railway workers. The only real victories have been won by organizing and staging strikes like the UAW’s standup strike against the Big Three automakers.

But most damning of all, support for Biden in the last election and over the last four years has failed to stop the electoral resurrection of Trump and the far right. In fact, while deeply unpopular and widely condemned for January 6th, they are more organized than four years ago.

Trump and his minions have taken over the GOP as well as traditional Republican think tanks, driven out so-called moderates from the party, developed a far more comprehensive program for authoritarian nationalist rule laid out in Project 2025, and built a united cabinet in waiting ready to try and implement it upon victory. Even worse, Steven Bannon with his War Room podcast along with others in this right wing ecosystem are organizing, in Bannon’s words, “an army of the awakened” prepared, according to Kevin Roberts, the leader of Project 2025, to carry out a “bloodless” revolution if possible, but implicitly a violent one if necessary.

It is time to face the hard reality that lesser evilism has never worked to advance the Left, working class struggle, and the liberation of the oppressed. The last four years proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Our forces are weaker, more disoriented, and unprepared to carry out the fight. The only exception is the Palestine solidarity movement that knows in its bones that Biden is our main enemy right now.

BUILDING RESISTANCE TO THE RIGHT AND ESTABLISHMENT

Whichever party wins in November, the U.S. seems headed for a constitutional crisis. If Biden and the Democrats somehow manage to win, the GOP will not recognize their victory and will attempt to implement their far right program in the states they control, establishing separate and unequal laws for the oppressed and exploited. The judiciary, both state and federal, and especially the Supreme Court, have proven themselves just as subject to this partisan manipulation and polarization, and incapable of mitigating the constitutional crisis.

If the GOP wins these elections, it will attempt to implement Project 2025 at the federal level. That will be opposed by the Democrats in the states they control, leading to open conflict between them and the Trump administration.

Such polarization and radicalization has led even mainstream news outlets like CNN to ask whether the U.S. is headed for another civil war. Neoconservative Robert Kagan in his book, Rebellion, fears that a far-right revolt–a counter-revolution against the existing constitutional order-is a real and imminent danger.

Faced with this looming crisis, it is time to bring an end to the cycle of illusions on the Left. All those who followed Sanders into the Democratic Party now have a choice to make: Either continue speeding down this dead end or begin the hard process of building an alternative to both the Democratic Party, which is now the main party of U.S. capital, and its far right opponent, the Trumpite GOP. It is time to chart a different course forward.

Regardless of what individuals do at the ballot box, the Left must not spend our time, money, and energy on campaigning for Biden and the Democratic Party. Instead, we must build our social and class struggles, especially the movement in solidarity with Palestine against Israel’s genocidal war. Our alternative must be primarily committed to building class and social struggle and only running candidates on an independent platform and with the aim of being tribunes and builders of independent mass movements for progressive demands.

There are no shortcuts, as the last few years have proved. But we must be honest about the challenges we face in this alternative strategy. First our infrastructure of resistance—our democratic organization of social and class struggle—remains very weak. We must overcome that in order to build the kinds of disruptive mass movements and strikes that will be necessary to win even our most modest demands for reform.

Second, we must face the fact that our forces face an emboldened and increasingly dangerous right. They will not be blocked by the capitalist establishment in the Democratic Party and, in fact, will only gain momentum if the Democrats are seen as the only political alternative. Our forces on the Left must be smart in this context: We must defend our democratic rights, lend maximum solidarity to each other’s struggles, continue to protest for our demands against both the establishment and far right, and use tactics designed to reach out to the widest ranks of the working class and oppressed.

In this moment, we should also remember that however temporarily emboldened the right may be, it will not be able to create a stable regime in the U.S. or anywhere else for that matter. They have no solutions to capitalism’s systemic crises that they are exploiting politically and no answers to the demands of the vast majority of our society. Neither does the capitalist establishment, whose regimes in the U.S. and globally are also unstable. The Left must begin to build an independent pole that can offer an actual alternative for humanity.

Tempest

P.S.

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Most 'serious' election since American Civil War: US election will determine 'future of US system'

Issued on: 16/07/2024 -


10:28 Video by:Genie GODULA

As division trumps unity in US election rhetoric, FRANCE 24's Genie Godula is joined by Scott Lucas, Political Analyst and Professor of International Politics at the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin. Donald Trump and Joe Biden have both stressed "unity" in the wake of the stunning assassination attempt on the Republican presidential contender, but any shift to a more civil political discourse is likely to be short-lived. For months, the two campaigns have shredded the other's candidate with a ferocity that exceeds the already bruising nature of US political races, and observers say there is little chance of that dynamic being altered in any significant way. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, both men struck a moderate tone and avoided language that could escalate the febrile political atmosphere. Biden called on Americans to "lower the temperature" in an address from the Oval Office, and Trump said it was "more important than ever that we stand united." The two men even spoke to each other on the phone -- after refusing so much as to shake hands at their televised debate last month.


Trump faithful see God's hand in assassination escape

Milwaukee (AFP) – Devotees of Donald Trump have long proclaimed he was chosen by God to save the United States -- but the messianic fervor has hit new heights after the Republican presidential candidate narrowly survived an assassination attempt.

Issued on: 17/07/2024 

Republicans have been quick to credit divine intervention with saving Trump's life in the assassination attempt © Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP

At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, the party faithful have been quick to credit divine intervention with saving their leader's life after he was wounded in a shooting at his Pennsylvania rally.

Images of the bloodied former president raising his fist defiantly in the air as the Stars and Stripes fluttered in the background have only served to bolster his image among his supporters.

"Evil came for the man we admire and love so much," said the right-wing firebrand Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. "I thank God that his hand was on President Trump."

House Speaker Mike Johnson told a news channel that Trump's escape, with only a slight ear wound, was "a miraculous thing," while Senator Marco Rubio of Florida wrote on X that "God protected Trump."

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, currently serving a prison sentence for contempt of Congress, said "Trump wears the Armor of God."

Never mind that one rally-goer was killed -- a volunteer firefighter who died shielding his family -- while two others were seriously wounded.

Nor that, until his foray into Republican politics, tycoon Trump displayed a distaste for religion, even mocking believers, according to a former aide.

He also boasted in one of his books about affairs with "beautiful, famous, successful, married" women, and has been found liable by a civil court for sexual abuse.
Personality cult
Republicans are gathered this week for their national nominating convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin © LEON NEAL / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

Trump, who has said he was raised Presbyterian but now considers himself a "non-denominational Christian," has encouraged the attention, writing on Truth Social that "God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening."

For Natasha Lindstaedt, a political scientist at the University of Essex, the episode underscores the cult of personality that Trump and his inner circle have meticulously cultivated and reinforced over several years.

Some "personalist" leaders are dictators, others are elected, but their goal is the same: "To get people to blindly obey them and to be mystified by their superhuman qualities," she told AFP.

Trump casting himself as America's sole savior is nothing new -- but escaping the assassination attempt has elevated the rhetoric to Biblical proportions, she added.

Consider for instance, the meme circulating across conservative social media depicting Jesus Christ himself placing his hands on the 78-year-old's shoulders.

Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who co-chairs the Republican National Committee, posted the image on her Instagram page with the caption "Fear not, for I am with you."

"I'm a Christian and a Catholic by faith," Jack Prendergast, a Republican delegate from New York at the convention, told AFP. Trump "had an angel sitting on his shoulder -- the hand of God in my opinion, moved his face aside."

Such hero worship benefits both the mythologized leader and followers, said Natalie Koch, a political geographer at Syracuse University.

"By building up that cult and joining that and being part of that, they get a sense of community," she told AFP.

'Imperfect vessel'


Trump casting himself as America's sole savior is nothing new -- but escaping the assassination attempt has elevated the rhetoric to Biblical proportions © Patrick T. Fallon / AFP

They also gain a vehicle to pursue their political interests, from evangelicals with a religious agenda to the ultra wealthy hoping for massive tax cuts, Koch added.

And for all the criticism from liberal quarters that Trump's faith is a facade, he proved to be the "imperfect vessel" evangelicals hoped he would become, fulfilling their decades-long agenda of tilting the Supreme Court heavily conservative and overturning the national right to abortion.

Even Trump's embattled Democratic opponent President Joe Biden has begun to adopt certain Trumpian flourishes of late, telling ABC News only "Lord Almighty" could convince him to end his re-election bid amid questions about his mental acuity.

"Personality cults are really bad for democracy," said Lindstaedt, "because it gets people to blindly obey things that they normally wouldn't, they refuse to question the authority figure."

Coupled with the Supreme Court's recent decision bolstering presidential immunity, "the guardrails of democracy are not really protecting the US from whatever Trump plans on doing once he gets elected, which I think will happen."

© 2024 AFP










Trump shooting conspiracy theories flourish on X, researchers say

Washington (AFP) – Conspiracy theories about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump received tens of millions of views on X, researchers said Tuesday, highlighting the potential for extreme falsehoods to go viral on the Elon Musk-owned platform.



Issued on: 16/07/2024 - 
Social media users voiced confusion as they scrambled for accurate information about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in a sea of misinformation. © Rebecca DROKE / AFP

The social media site, formerly named Twitter, was flooded with unsubstantiated claims soon after the shooting Saturday at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which left one spectator dead and a bloodied Trump injured in the ear.

Those included unfounded assertions that the assassination attempt had been "staged" or an "inside job," while fingers were pointed at imaginary culprits such as Jews and the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.

The conspiracy theories were viewed over 215 million times on X, the watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) said after analyzing a sample of 100 popular posts.

A majority of the posts did not carry a "Community Note," a crowd-sourced moderation tool that Musk has promoted as the way for users to add context to the tweets, CCDH added.

In the first 24 hours alone, unsubstantiated narratives around the incident amassed more than 100 million views on X, according to the nonprofit research group Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

X did not respond to a request for comment.

Internet hoaxers also falsely identified several people as the shooter -- including Italian sports journalist Marco Violi, anti-Trump protester Maxwell Yearick and comedian Sam Hyde, AFP's fact-checkers reported.

Federal investigators have identified the shooter, who was killed on the scene, as Thomas Matthew Crooks of Pennsylvania.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, several social media users voiced confusion as they scrambled to obtain accurate information in what appeared to be a sea of false or misleading posts, which rapidly gained traction.

The trend illustrates the ability of falsehoods to mutate into viral political discourse on tech platforms including X, which now offer fewer guardrails as they scale back content moderation.

Researchers say some clout-chasing accounts on the platform have a financial motive to post sensational falsehoods, as X's ad revenue-sharing program incentivizes extreme content designed to boost engagement.

"In the marketplace of disinformation -- which is effectively what a lot of social media platforms have now been reduced to, a marketplace for lies -- extreme content is your currency," said Imran Ahmed, chief executive and founder of CCDH.

"The algorithms take the most outlandish content and amplify it exponentially until the entire digital world is flooded with conspiracism, disinformation and hate."

Researchers have warned about a possible firehose of disinformation in the run up to the November election, which will take place in a deeply polarized political climate in the United States.

"Already, at an early stage in the US electoral cycle, we can see flashing warning signs that social media in the weeks and months ahead will be increasingly chaotic and rife with disinformation," Ahmed said.

© 2024 AFP

IRAN FAKE NEWS

Security boosted for Trump after reports of Iran assassination plot


The US received intelligence in recent weeks about a plot by Iran to try to assassinate former president Donald Trump, according to US news organisations. The threat had no apparent connection to the recent attempt on Trump’s life, said the reports. Iran on Wednesday rejected accusations of involvement in the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.


Issued on: 17/07/2024 - 
Donald Trump is shown with a bandage on his right ear at the Republican convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 15, 2024. © Brendan Smialowski, AFP


By:FRANCE 24Follow|FRANCE 24

The US Secret Service increased security for Donald Trump weeks ago after authorities learned of an Iranian plot to kill him, although it was not linked to the recent attempt on his life, US media reported Tuesday.

CNN reported that US authorities received intelligence from a "human source" on a plan by Tehran targeting the former president, causing protection to be boosted for Trump. Other US outlets also reported the plot.

But it was not connected to the shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at Trump, leaving the Republican wounded and killing a rally attendee, they said.

The US National Security Council said it had been "tracking Iranian threats against former Trump administration officials for years" as Tehran sought revenge for the 2020 killing of Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani.

Read moreTrump-ordered air strike kills Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani

"We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority," spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.

The investigation into the Trump shooting on Saturday "has not identified ties between the shooter and any accomplice or co-conspirator, foreign or domestic," she added.

Watson referred questions on "additional measures that have been implemented in recent weeks" to the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security.
Iran slams ‘malicious’ US reports

Tehran on Wednesday rejected what it called "malicious" accusations by US media implicating it in a plot to kill Trump.

Iran’s mission to the UN called the accusations "unsubstantiated and malicious".

“Iran is determined to prosecute Trump due to his direct role in the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said, using the abbreviation for the Revolutionary Guards.

“But it strongly rejects any interference in the recent armed attack against Trump or the claims about Iran’s intention for such an action and considers such claims to have biased political objectives and motives,” he added.
‘Constantly receiving’ new potential alerts

Top US Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi on Tuesday said they and other agencies were "constantly receiving new potential threat information and taking action to adjust resources as needed."

"We cannot comment on any specific threat stream other than to say that the Secret Service takes threats seriously and responds accordingly," Guglielmi added in a statement.

There was no immediate reaction from the Department of Homeland Security.

The report comes as the Secret Service faces intense scrutiny over the Butler shooting, with questions over how a gunman was able to open fire at Trump from an exposed rooftop some 150 meters (500 feet) away.


08:18

US President Joe Biden has ordered an independent review of the agency's handling of the incident.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)



Does US Secret Service have 'rational explanation' for security failure at 'shambolic' Trump rally?



Issued on: 16/07/2024 - 


05:54  Video by:Genie GODULA

In what's being described as “an absolute and abysmal failure” on the part of the Secret Service to protect Donald Trump, FRANCE 24's Genie Godula is being joined by Counter-Terrorism Expert and Security Specialist Will Geddes for in-depth analysis on the astounding security breach. Police had clues that something was amiss before the shooting. Officials are demanding to know how an armed man was able to get to the top of a building and shoot former President Donald Trump. A report of a suspicious man had reached police and witnesses pointed and shouted at an armed man on a roof nearby where Trump was speaking. The attempted assassination left Trump and two other men wounded. A former fire chief, 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, was killed while protecting his family. Investigations will be launched in Congress — in addition to a review ordered by President Joe Biden. Stan Kephart, a former police chief who worked event security for two former presidents, said the shooting followed an “an absolute and abysmal failure” on the part of the Secret Service to protect Trump.



Musk leads Silicon Valley rally behind Trump

Washington (AFP) – Elon Musk's decision to throw his vast fortune behind Donald Trump's presidential candidacy confirms the rise of a growing right-wing bloc in the traditionally liberal Silicon Valley.


Issued on: 16/07/2024 -

US media reports indicate that Musk and a group of tech investors are contributing to a Super PAC -- a specially designed fund that can spend unlimited amounts on political candidates and causes.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk plans to donate $45 million monthly to 'America PAC,' a fund focused on electing Trump, starting in July.

Although Musk stated just months ago that he would not donate to either Trump or President Joe Biden, the right-wing bent of his X platform and his steady flow of incendiary tweets have made his political allegiance clear.

Moments after the assassination attempt on Trump last weekend, Musk said he fully endorsed Trump.

Joining Musk in funding Trump are other, less well-known tech figures motivated by various interests.

These include boosting cryptocurrencies and opposing Biden-appointed regulators who are keeping a closer watch on the tech sector.

Predominantly male and white, Trump's Silicon Valley backers are most united in their loathing of so-called woke ideology, which they claim promotes diversity and equality at the expense of efficiency and excellence.

Many of these Silicon Valley mavens rolled out the red carpet for Trump at a fundraiser last month.

This was hosted by David Sacks, one of the members of the so-called PayPal mafia -- a group that includes -- Musk, who worked at that late 1990s startup and since became the representatives of Silicon Valley's growing right-leaning faction.

Sacks's support earned him a speaking spot at the Republican National Convention, which officially named Trump as the party's candidate.

"In my hometown of San Francisco, Democrat rule has turned the streets of our beautiful city into a cesspool of crime, homeless encampments and open drug use," the South African-born Sacks told the delegates, referring to the Democratic ticket for president.

Another member of the PayPal mafia is Peter Thiel, a German-born arch conservative who closely associated himself with Trump when he entered the White House.

After the assault of the US Capitol in 2021, Thiel said he would stay out of politics and has since become a sort of philosopher king of Silicon Valley's right-wing.

But Thiel contributed heavily to the Senatorial campaign of J.D. Vance, the hard right 39-year-old who was picked by Trump as his vice presidential candidate.

Also planning the Trump fundraiser was Chamath Palihapitiya, a former Facebook executive who, along with Sacks, co-hosts the All-In podcast that has become a must listen for the conservative tech-minded.

Palihapitiya was once a cheerleader of special purpose acquisition companies, or SPAC's, a controversial avenue for companies to go public, under the radar of regulators, by using shell entities.

The practice fizzled after the US Federal Reserve hiked interest rates, throttling the venture capital business and embittering many in Silicon Valley to Biden’s economic policies.

'War on crypto'


Donald Trump, with a bandage on his ear after being wounded in an assassination attempt, raises a fist as he arrives during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 15, 2024 © Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP

On Tuesday, The Information reported that Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who run one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capital firms, were also backing Trump.

The pair's company is heavily invested in cryptocurrencies and last year created a political war chest to make trouble for lawmakers who want the nascent industry more heavily controlled.

Crypto billionaires Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss are also Trump donors, and attended the fundraiser for the former president in June.

Trump's embrace of crypto has changed from a more hostile stance previously and hopes are that he can help revive the industry in the wake of major scandals and bankruptcies.

The former president "will put an end to the Biden Administration’s war on crypto," Cameron Winklevoss said in June.

Closing out Trump's fellow travelers in Silicon Valley are top executives from Palantir, a data analytics firm co-founded by Thiel that specializes in national security work.

Palantir's co-founder Joe Lonsdale is contributing to the pro-Trump Super PAC, and rails against what he calls Biden's left-wing priorities like affirmative action and regulation.

"Our country is stalled because you have these crazy people in charge," Lonsdale told CNBC this month, speaking of the Democrats.

© 2024 AFP



 AUSTRALIA

Stop the attack on the CFMEU: Solidarity with construction workers!

July 18, 2024
GREENLEFT WEEKLY
Issue 
Print
Construction union members at this year's May Day rally in Gadigal Country/Sydney. Photo: Peter Boyle

The Socialist Alliance stands in solidarity with the Construction Division of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) which is facing the biggest attack since it formed in 1992.

All CFMEU construction branches on the east coast, including South Australia and Tasmania, will be run by an external, supposedly independent, administrator due to allegations of corruption.

Targeted reviews of enterprise agreements (EAs) will be done to expose alleged coercion.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has suspended the construction division from the peak body until it demonstrates it is “clean” and “free of any criminal elements”.

The Victorian and NSW branches of the Labor party have suspended the CFMEU’s affiliation.

This all happened in less than five working days after a number of unproven allegations were made by Channel 9’s 60 Minutes regarding corruption in the CFMEU.

The attacks are designed to leave the union rudderless, isolated and confused after years of being the pacesetter for wage increases and improvements in conditions.

The government-media attacks have nothing to do with improving the lives of tens of thousands of construction workers.

The idea that more than 30,000 CFMEU members in Victoria alone are kept in check by gangsters and stand-over merchants is ridiculous and an insult to union members.

The CFMEU has grown in recent years, winning great loyalty from members because it fights for their rights in a dangerous, rapacious industry which is making multibillion dollar profits.

The double standards involved in the recent allegations of corruption are breathtaking. There is no mention of bosses who allegedly pay extortion money to purported underworld negotiators.

Nor has there been mention of the alleged incident in June 2020, at a Victorian site, run by a developer who illegally demolished the heritage-listed Corkman Pub.

In that incident two CFMEU organisers were allegedly attacked by seven people during a safety inspection. One official, who was knocked unconscious, has not been able to work for four years.

As CFMEU Qld/NT secretary Michael Ravbar said on July 17: “The CFMEU has repeatedly stated it will co-operate with any criminal investigation, as we know the real crooks in this industry are the civil contractors and their cronies.

“The sad reality is that it’s the major civil companies that have brought the unsavory elements on government-funded projects.”

Successive governments have sought to blame construction unions for industry losses during economic downturns. They have reviled the union for setting an example of militant fightback to other unions.

There have been bitter deregistrations, innumerable royal commissions and an industry watchdog set up with special cop powers for the building industry — the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

But each of these attacks has led to regroupment and eventually increased unity among construction workers.

This has meant that the union remains an inspiration for all workers and explains why the ruling class wants to break its power. They cannot increase profits at the expense of wages while the CFMEU sets the pace.

The bosses’ threat to overturn CFMEU EAs is an attack on all workers. It shows that the real reason for their attack is about driving down workers’ wages and conditions, not corruption in the industry as the latter would involve an investigation into bosses who employ criminals.

The claims that high wages in the construction industry push up construction prices everywhere conveniently ignores the fact that so many infrastructure projects, at least in Victoria, allow companies supplying cement, steel and other construction materials to get away with massively jacking up their prices.

This assault from the Labor Party, with Coalition support, on the CFMEU using salacious corporate media “investigations”, should worry anyone concerned about workers’ rights and justice.

The ACTU leadership has made a serious mistake in falling in behind this attack on the whole CFMEU leadership, who are being painted as corrupt, vicious, vengeful and macho in the extreme.

Unless there is serious resistance, there is a danger that workers will lose confidence in their union and various legal manoeuvres will be used to deregister the Construction Division.

Socialist Alliance opposes corruption in our unions, as we know it undermines unity and opens them up to attack. If there is wrongdoing in unions, union members need to sort it out themselves.

The only thing to come from state intervention, at the insistence of bosses and the corporate media, is the erosion of workers’ wages and conditions and more workplace deaths.

Remember this is an industry where one worker is killed every 10 to 14 days already.

What will happen now if there is no strong worker’s representative fighting to defend workers against cost cutting that leads to illegal and dangerous work practices? Workers will tell you it’s only their union — the CFMEU — that makes the difference.

Socialist Alliance opposes deregistration and government intervention into the CFMEU.

 

Green class struggle: Workers and the Just Transition

Published 
LINKS.ORG.AU
Construction workers in Marbella, Spain. Photo by Chris Gold. Used under CC license 2.0.

First published at Green European Journal.

In 2023, when Europe was blasted by a record-breaking heatwave named after Cerberus (the three-headed hound of Hades), workers organised to demand protection from the extreme heat. In Athens, employees at the Acropolis and other historical sites went on strike for four hours each day. In Rome, refuse collectors threatened to strike if they were forced to work during periods of peak heat. Elsewhere in Italy, public transport workers demanded air-conditioned vehicles, and workers at a battery plant in Abruzzo issued a strike threat in protest at the imposition of working in “asphyxiating heat”.

One could almost say that the Ancient Greeks foretold today’s climate crisis when they euphemistically referred to Hades, god of the dead, as “Plouton” (giver of wealth). The reference is to the materials – in their day, silver, in ours, fossil fuels and critical minerals – that, after extraction from the Underworld, line the pockets of plutocrats. Modern society’s plutocratic structure explains the astonishingly sluggish response to climate breakdown. The much-touted green transition is barely taking place, at least if the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases is taken as a yardstick. These continue to rise, even accelerate, and likewise the rate of global heating. The transition remains in the grip of powerful and wealthy institutions that – even if we leave aside motivations of avarice or greed for status – are systemically constrained to put the accumulation of capital above the habitability of the planet.

Against this backdrop, the politics of transition is class struggle beyond that of workers defending themselves and their communities against weather emergencies. That is part of the picture, of course. But class struggle is, above all, evident in the liberal establishment seeking to displace transition costs onto the masses, even as it presides over ever crasser wealth polarisation. From this, resistance inevitably flows. The question is, what form will it take?

Some takes the form of an anti-environmental backlash, instigated or colonised by conservative and far-right forces. While posing as allies of “working families”, they denigrate the most fundamental of workers’ needs: for a habitable planet. Some takes a progressive form, the classic case being the gilets jaunes in France. When Emmanuel Macron’s government hiked “green taxes” on fossil fuels as a signal for consumers to buy more fuel-efficient cars, the rural working poor and lower-middle classes, unable to afford the switch, donned yellow safety vests and rose in revolt. Although France’s labour-movement radicals joined the cause, they were unable to cohere into a political force capable of offering alternative solutions to the social and environmental crises.

Surveying forms of climate-class struggle, movements, and events provides a glimpse into how the green transition might be redirected along social, worker-led lines. “Class struggle” is used in broad terms here to include questions of ecology alongside social reproduction, sexuality, identity, racism, and the like – all of which concern quality of life and are of as much interest to “labour” as are pay and conditions. Only from the vantage point of capital, or on a narrowly-drawn negotiating table, do workers’ needs appear reducible to ledgers of hours and pennies. Tony Mazzocchi, the US labour leader who coined the term “just transition”, provides a valuable counterpoint. As an activist, Mazzocchi was critical of the post-war social contract whereby union leaders surrendered input into decisions on the production process in exchange for improved wages. His red-green radicalism grew from the insistence that the health and wellbeing of workers requires transformation across the full spectrum of workplace and social life.

Workers’ resistance

Climate breakdown is increasingly making its mark on all forms of class struggle. Across the world, climate hazards become embedded within labour struggles, forming a new basis of mobilisation, and on union safety committee agendas, emergency preparedness has been climbing the priority ladder. Freya Newman and Elizabeth Humphrys’ research on construction workers in Sydney explores how workers understand heat stress as a class issue. “Our bosses never come out of their air-conditioned offices on stinking hot days,” grumbled one interviewee, even as they “make us work in horrible places with crazy high temperatures.” In regions where class consciousness is greater and unions had retained relative strength despite a general weakening trend during the neoliberal era, the researchers found that pressure from workers had secured the greatest improvements in climate-related health and safety conditions.

Protests demanding better protection against weather hazards, such as those in Athens, Rome, and Abruzzo, represent the close association of labour struggles with climate breakdown and ecological collapse. Another response is resistance against “indirect” effects. The scope here is vast and includes the 2010- 12 revolutionary risings across the Middle East and North Africa, where meteorological volatility caused soaring food prices, and, more recently, the farmers’ protests in India. It includes, too, industrial action in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic (if, as appears likely, SARS-CoV-2 entered human society as a result of environmental degradation).

Climate-related class struggle is not restricted to organising against the immediate effects of climate breakdown. As New York socialist Alyssa Battistoni states, it is present “in the rhythms of daily life”, in “nursing homes and schools, on the bus, and in the street”, affecting those in “pink-collar” jobs: teachers, care workers, and other service workers. For society to rapidly dial down emissions whilst adapting to the effects of climate chaos, social solidarity and egalitarianism will be indispensable, pivoting on the self-organisation of workers across the range of “collars”: not just pink but also blue and white, as well as black and green.

Decarbonising jobs

When we look for signs of a transition, the spotlight shines on sectors shifting work from blackto green-collar jobs: notably the automotive industry. For the transition to be experienced as even minimally just, jobs must be secure and satisfying. Yet corporations at the forefront of the decarbonisation programme – most notably Tesla – show scant regard for workers’ rights. In 2023, industrial action at the Tesla plant in Gränna, Sweden, accompanied by solidarity action across Scandinavia, pushed back against the Musk company’s anti-union stance and associated low pay and workplace injuries.

The transition, such as it is, is being driven by state policies. And, wherever green jobs are at stake, political demands will follow. Recall, for example, the protest at the Vestas wind  turbine factory on the Isle of Wight in 2009. In response to its advertised closure, workers occupied the facility’s administrative buildings. Their action was primarily a challenge to planned redundancies, but this took on wider meaning within the context of wind power’s role in the energy transition. The occupiers pointed out that a closure of the plant would contravene the British government’s decarbonisation commitments. Saving jobs, they argued, was synonymous with saving the planet.

Many recent examples carry the same lesson. The alliance in Germany between ver.di, one of Europe’s largest trade unions in the public transport sector, and the climate protest movement Fridays for Future (FFF) is one such instance. Under the slogan #WirFahrenZusammen (we’re travelling together), ver.di took industrial action to demand better working conditions and FFF organised demonstrations in over 100 cities, collectively pressing the political case that any successful transition will need a colossal investment in public transport.

“Red” redundancies going “green”

Given that electric vehicles (EVs), renewables, and public transport are indeed critical to the green transition, where does that leave workers in the most polluting sectors? Some of the most inspirational transition stories come from the automobile and arms sectors. In the early 1970s, working-class militants and unions around the world were taking up environmental concerns: the “red” and the “green” were finding a common tongue. In the USA, for example, the United Automobile Workers union leader Walter Reuther, who was not a radical by any means, declared that “the environmental crisis has reached such catastrophic proportions that the labour movement is now obligated to raise this question at the bargaining table in any industry that is in a measurable way contributing to man’s deteriorating living environment.”

In Britain, the workers at Lucas Aerospace, a British arms manufacturer, did precisely that. Citing automation and falling government orders, the company’s management was laying off staff. In response, workers set up an unofficial union body, known as the Combine, representing employees from across the company’s 17 factories. Their central objective was to staunch job haemorrhaging by pushing the Labour government to invest in equipment for life rather than death. In 1974 they drew up a 1200-page document that detailed ideas for redeploying their skills and equipment towards socially-useful production, including kidney dialysis machines but also wind turbines, solar panels, hybrid vehicle engines, and lightweight trains – decarbonisation technologies that were virtually unknown at the time. The plan was beaten away by the Labour government of the day and the company’s management, who dismissed its authors as the “brown bread and sandals brigade”. However, the Combine story remains influential.

More recent threats of fossil-fuel-sector redundancies have also prompted action. A group of workers from Maflow made headlines in 2018, for example, when they occupied the premises of the company’s automotive components plant in Milan, Italy, and set up a cooperative, which they called RiMaflow, after owners began to relocate equipment to Poland. The workers developed a variety of “circular economy” projects, including the repair of electronic equipment and bicycles, as well as recycling wallpaper – all the while defending the occupied space against intrusion from police and courts.

In 2021-22, a flurry of such occupations occurred against the backdrop of a turn to state intervention in pandemic-afflicted economies. In Munich, at a Bosch engine components plant, workers were confronted with the threat of layoffs. Management blamed the decision on the shift to EVs, although in fact production was to be transferred to countries with lower wages. FFF activists teamed up with the union IG Metall (IGM) to resist the redundancies. Together, IGM and FFF pressed for a plant-level green transition, backed by state investment. The demand, published as a petition, was signed by a large majority of the workforce.

Following its purchase by Melrose Industries, a multinational asset-stripper, in 2021, GKN, another key player in the automotive industry, announced the closure of plants manufacturing components for automobile drivelines in Florence and Birmingham. Over 500 workers from the British factory responded with a vote for strike action. They demanded that the plant switch to producing components for EVs. In the words of the Unite union convenor Frank Duffy: “We realised that if we want to see a green future for the UK car industry and save our skilled jobs, we couldn’t leave it to our bosses and had to take matters into our own hands.” In conscious echo of the Lucas Plan, he added, “we put together a 90-page alternative plan detailing how we could reorganise production” to secure jobs and expedite the transition to electromotive transport.

At the sister plant at Campi Bisenzio in Italy, transition-from-below went further. Having previously organised themselves into a democratic factory council (collettivo di fabbrica), workers were already in a strong position. They occupied the factory, and security guards, who had been ordered in, were sent packing. Together with climate justice activists and academics, the workers drew up a conversion plan for sustainable public transport and pressed for its adoption.

In a sustained series of mobilisations, tens of thousands repeatedly went out onto the streets with the backing of trade unions and local communities, as well as environmental groups such as Extinction Rebellion (XR) and FFF. Now in its third year, the Campi Bisenzio occupation is Italy’s longest ever. Having failed to force Melrose to reverse the plant closure, the workers shifted tack to form a cooperative that now produces cargo bikes, maintaining a segment of the original workforce in secure employment, providing a glimpse of how worker-led decarbonisation programmes might begin.

Aeronautic transitioning

In these automotive industry examples, the path of transition appears straightforward, at least in material terms. A plant producing, say, components for cars with internal combustion engines (ICE) can be converted to one producing EVs, public transport, or bicycles. What, though, of such industries as aviation, for which no viable alternative technologies exist? As the scale of the environmental crisis grows more daunting, even moderate voices, such as the Cambridge “FIRES” group of engineers, recognise that aviation will have to be cut to virtually zero over the next two to three decades. How should workers in these industries respond?

In Britain, at the height of the Covid-19 crisis, some small but brave proposals emerged. The Green New Deal for Leeds, for example, presented an alternative to the expansion plans for Leeds Bradford Airport. And workers at London Gatwick, Britain’s second-busiest airport, developed an important Green New Deal for Gatwick (GND). The initiative, convened by eco-socialists and union officials from the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), took shape early in the pandemic when aviation workers were threatened with redundancies. I asked Robert Magowan, one of the proposal’s instigators, what lay behind the deal: “We know that aviation must degrow,” he replied, “and it was degrowing during the pandemic, but this must not come at the cost of workers. The pandemic response showed what governments can do when pressure is on – especially when the Broughton manufacturing site of Airbus was retooled to produce ventilators. That gave us inspiration, much as Lucas Aerospace had done decades before.”

Magowan and the GND team mapped out the many ways in which the various categories of Gatwick workers’ skills sets could be adapted to jobs elsewhere in decarbonising industries. With PCS backing, they found support among the workforce, including a pilot whose words eloquently sum up what is at stake:

It has been my lifelong dream to fly. To face up to losing this massive part of our lives is incredibly scary; to lose our job is like losing a part of ourselves. But as pilots, we use our skills to identify this existential threat to the natural world and our lives. If this was an emergency in flight, we would have diverted to a safe destination long ago. We can’t just fly blindly to the planned destination as the flight deck fills with smoke. Our industry’s impact on global emissions is irrefutable. The so-called solutions to ‘green’ the industry at its current scale are decades away and are not globally or ecologically just. With environmental consciousness rising, the aviation sector will either shrink by design, through a ‘Just Transition’ for workers, or by disaster. We must find a way to put workers at the forefront of the green revolution, to ensure we have the option to be retrained into the green jobs of the future.

In its first incarnation, the green revolution at Gatwick failed to take off. Yet it provided a sense of possibility. During the “emergency” phase of the pandemic, when government intervention was the order of the day, the Gatwick GND connected to other workers’ initiatives such as the call by ver.di to replace short-haul aviation with ground-transport alternatives, opening up the horizons of a radical worker-led transition and reminding us of what is at stake.

Class-struggle environmentalism

The class struggles that unfold this century will define Earth’s habitability for millennia to come. We can find inspiration in struggles that unite climate activists and labour unions. We find it, too, in school strikes over climate change, which have introduced a new generation to the concept of strike action.

Yet we should also heed the fact that standout examples of red-green militancy happened half a century ago. This is no accident. The 1960s and early 1970s witnessed a worldwide revolutionary conjuncture, with surging labour militancy and social movements challenging oppression, injustice, and war. This was the soil in which the alliance of environmentalism and labour radicalism could grow, exemplified in the Lucas plan and Mazzocchi’s ecosocialist activism, as well as other pathbreaking initiatives such as green bans, where environmental goals were fought for through strike action.

In any renewed wave of class struggle, we can expect questions of climate breakdown and just transition to move centre stage in multiple forms. These will include reactionary backlashes but also progressive movements, as groups of workers move beyond seeing climate politics as the playground of distant elites to a field in which their collective action can be decisive.