Unite workers and oppressed, fight MAGA and war

Workers World’s editorial the day after the election called on all those who fight imperialist war and on all those who hate and aim to combat the MAGA program to “answer with all forms of protest any attack that comes our way.” 

The initial response from the anti-imperialist opposition has been encouraging: no hesitation from those combating genocide in Gaza and Lebanon to stay in the streets. 

These actions have been the cutting edge of the anti-imperialist movement for the past year. Judging by the number of actions scheduled for the New York City region throughout November, the anti-genocide movement refuses to concede to U.S. imperialism, no matter which party directs Washington. The activists deserve the full support of all who consider themselves anti-imperialists and fighters for socialism.

Democrats and Republicans have virtually the same foreign policy. Their main disagreement involves blaming each other for the many setbacks for U.S. imperialist hegemony in the last period — the pullout from Afghanistan, the impending collapse of the proxy war in Ukraine, the economic gains of China. 

Both parties arm Israel and have for 75 years. They both fund the Pentagon’s bases surrounding China and North Korea. They both threaten Iran. They both wage economic war with sanctions and provoke emigration — and then blame the migrants for everything. They both arm the Ukrainian reactionaries and NATO’s war against Russia. Trump demands bigger European funding. Big deal.

Remember that whether Trump or Joe Biden was the Commander in Chief, the Pentagon had to get out of Afghanistan and Iraq and retreat from plans for the conquest of Syria. Anti-imperialists will have new opportunities to obstruct the U.S. drive to militarism and war, from West Asia to Eastern Europe to East Asia, and to fight to stop the U.S. from arming Israel, whether Democrats or Republicans are in the White House. 

On another front, many people consider the electoral victory for Trump’s Republican Party a particular threat on vital issues. They have good reasons to prepare for self-defense. Trump has openly attacked reproductive rights, women, unionization, racial equality, government programs subsidizing health care, retirement pay, affirmative action and public education. His campaign targeted our working-class siblings who have migrated to the United States and who are essential workers here. He and his cronies spew bigotry, especially against trans people, racism, misogyny and xenophobia throughout the media.

It is encouraging then that organizations and coalitions have also called protests to show opposition to the new regime on those issues and on any steps the MAGA regime takes to attack oppressed sectors of the working class inside U.S. borders. Solidarity must be the first point on our agenda.

There have already been protests by some unions. Ad hoc coalitions have called for protests of the new administration on Jan. 18 and on Inauguration Day. Anti-imperialist and revolutionary organizations must also intervene in these kinds of actions. They must join with sectors of the working class that are in motion against the new MAGA regime and help weld these various sectors into a united fighting force. Only in this way can they both win battles and influence the direction of the struggle.

As during the first Trump administration, many of those protesting the MAGA crowd may have the illusion that pushing the government back toward the Democratic Party will protect them and resolve their problems. No, it won’t. We need a popular self-defense of all sectors of our class — the working class — under attack. And we need an organization independent of capitalist electoral politics, or the working class will again be trapped choosing between two parties that are both its enemies, as the 2024 election showed. 

Only by finding ways to participate in the actions while maintaining our independent, revolutionary, anti-imperialist position will we be able to influence broader sectors of our class and expose the impossibility of either Republican or Democratic Party to lead to anything but disaster. Defeating the militarist MAGA bigots while breaking with the militarist Democrats is the way forward.