The broad array of trade unions, community and immigrant rights groups supporting the day of action is breathtaking and points to how deep the hatred of ICE and the Border patrol runs in Minnesota, right now.
The broad array of trade unions, community and immigrant rights groups supporting the day of action is breathtaking and points to how deep the hatred of ICE and the Border patrol runs in Minnesota, right now.
Despite the defensive nature of Trump’s plans for the Americas, the current campaign of murder on the high seas and saber-rattling against long-time U.S. ally Denmark to pressure it will give up Greenland, should be warnings that the U.S. will do a lot of damage along the way.
Rising inflation is one thing. But it is being accompanied by a weakening jobs market as employment growth slows to a trickle and wage rises, especially for the lower paid, have slowed. Unemployment among Hispanic workers — who swung significantly towards Trump last November — rose to a year-high of 5.5 per cent in September, compared with 4.4 per cent overall.
What do socialists have to say about the administration’s threats against Venezuela? Our starting point is opposition to U.S. intervention in whatever form—from sanctions to war. The U.S. has no right to determine the Venezuelan people’s future. Only Venezuelans can do that.
It’s very difficult to predict where the resistance will expand in the future–because it has been a very, very long time since US workers have actually been combative. And during that long time, not only unions but traditions of struggle have been crushed and need to be rebuilt.
In line with other authoritarian politicians, Trump has leveraged his position to turn the state into a cash machine for him and his cronies, using his position of power to extract wealth through various means, including extortion based on legal threats, sales of Trump-themed trinkets, lavish gifts, and crypto-currency trading.
In virtually every election held in every district and every state, Democrats improved on their performance in the November 2024 presidential election. And in many places, they exceeded their most optimistic predictions.
It is true that the big tech companies have mostly financed their AI investments out of free cash flow. But the huge cash reserves of the Magnificent Seven are being drained and AI companies are increasingly turning to equity and debt issuance.
The people who filled streets across the country on October 18 were those described above—many new to activism, urgently motivated by the authoritarianism rapidly descending on U.S. society.
Beyond a handful of commitments, mostly revolving around ways to boost his own power and to line his pockets, Trump is completely mercurial. Perhaps this is part of his projection of a “strongman” image, but it can also produce a situation where, among his minions, “the knives are out for everyone,” as Trump biographer Michael Wolff said.
Developments since Kirk’s death should clarify some points amid the noise and social media vitriol. They have exposed the lie that conservatives and the far right are somehow champions of “free speech” against a censorious left “cancel culture.” When billionaires like X’s Elon Musk and Fox’s Rupert Murdoch own massive communications platforms from which they spread conservative and far-right ideology into the body politic, it’s hard to take the claim seriously. With few exceptions, the right’s pretensions to “free speech” were always phony and mostly raised when others used their free speech to criticize the right’s bigotry.
The basic problem is that a lack of demand is not the constraining factor in American manufacturing; it’s the workforce. The number of workers who are able and willing to work on a factory floor is shrinking. Almost 400,000 manufacturing jobs are currently unfilled, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Trump has been ideologically committed to tariffs and an autarchic or nationalist view of the U.S.’s role in the world economy for decades. In recent decades, economic nationalism has been rising across the entire U.S. ruling class, as administrations of both major capitalist parties seek to compete with China and to prod the European Union to increase its military spending.
It’s clear that the left and the labor and social movements are in a very precarious state today, and debates about how to fight back against Trumpian authoritarianism will be crucial. But elections and the courts won’t save us…
It is not just the number of immigration detentions and deportations that is alarming migrant communities across the country; it is also the gestapo tactics used by the badge-less thugs who refuse to identify themselves as they beat and kidnap their targets.