USA: Quick Notes on the Trump Putsch
By: Ashley Smith, militant and socialist writer, member of the DSA and the Tempest Collective.
1. What happened. Trump incited a mob of far-right and fascist thugs to loot the capitol building in DC. This was planned for several weeks. The protest attracted several thousand, if not more than ten thousand, and was coordinated with actions in various state capitals throughout the country, in which participants ranged from a few dozen to hundreds. This marks the emergence of a new fascist right in the country.
2. This is not a hit, but a pathetic and failed "putsch" organized by the far right that was put down relatively quickly. Trump and his inner circle gave him the green light. But it was uniformly condemned by the capitalist class (National Association of Manufacturers, Chamber of Commerce, CEOs of all major corporations, as well as Twitter and Facebook, who closed Trump's accounts), both political parties, the leadership of the army and police, and the bourgeois media. The capitalist class, its various representatives and repressive apparatuses united against this action and stopped it. Shortly after, Congress reconvened to confirm Biden. As expected, Stock markets around the world rebounded with relief that a new administration will restore "business as usual" (at least they hope).
3. The looting of the capitol could only occur with the collusion of the administration and the police. Compare the police response to this overt threat of far-right violence with their response to the Black Lives Matter protests across the country.. Facing right, cops took selfies and shook hands with fascists. When BLM marched in DC and elsewhere, met with repression from the police state. Imagine if BLM had marched into the capitol building. People would have been shot to death en masse. The extent of the complicity remains unclear. Clearly, the administration's leadership did not lift a finger to mobilize the security of the capitol building and Trump encouraged the assault. Regardless of whether there was coordination, It should come as no surprise that the police wore silk gloves with the fascists. The largest concentration of pro-Trump sentiment is found between the police and ICE and, Thus, are predisposed to rooting for the Nazis.
4. The state mobilized its forces to quell the protest once it became clear that it was a threat to the political establishment. Both political parties, the mayor of DC and the business establishment made sure of that. The National Guard was mobilized from Maryland and Virginia and the police from DC. They carried out dozens of arrests and dispersed protests. Order was restored and Biden's election confirmed, even the fanatic Trumpista, Lindsay Graham, stood behind the support for the validation of the results.
5. These events will have the following political results. It will backfire on Trump for the foreseeable future. The capitalist class, the political establishment and the security / military / police apparatus will back Biden's confirmation to restore business as usual at home and imperial credibility abroad (the events were a huge blow to the soft power of the United States). Consider invoking the Amendment 25, the impeachment and legal impeachment of Trump before his term ends and further actions after he leaves office. They must underline that the state remains invincible.
6. The bourgeoisie and its political representatives will ask for greater powers for their military and police to monitor, arrest and detain "extremists". They will do it nominally to arrest and prosecute the fascists. But the main target of the repression will be the Black people, the immigrants, the Muslims, the left and the unions.
7. None of these actions will stop the growth of Trumpism and its fascist current. Emerge from yesterday's actions emboldened and confident, even though some will be arrested, prosecuted and incarcerated. They believe they are protecting their rights against a Biden government that is illegitimate. They have the foundations for even greater growth. The right has a media infrastructure (QAnon, etc.), organizations such as the Proud Boys and networks across the country capable of convening coordinated actions. Having said that, they are still small and vastly outnumbered by our side if mobilized. Remember, 26 million people marched this summer in BLM protests. Yesterday, only a few 15.000 they marched across the country. But, if there is no opposition, their ranks will increase. The conditions that generated their rise - a crisis in the life of the petty bourgeoisie caused by the failures of neoliberalism, the closures of their small businesses due to the pandemic and the failure of those businesses in the middle of the recession - they will only get worse in the coming months and years. Thus, the right will become a clear threat, present and dangerous for workers and oppressed.
8. Trump, along with his inner circle and Republican minions, yesterday joined their luck to the extreme right and the fascists. Trump had had the option of choosing to capitalize on his presidency to make money or to become the Führer of a new fascist movement. Now, completely isolated in the ruling class and political establishment, you have no choice but to choose the latter. Some in the Republican Party will follow, most don't. But Trump is still popular around the 40 percent of the population, regardless of what happened yesterday, and has the basis to build an alternative to the Republican Party that now repudiates it. Will the Republican Party split? Will a new far-right party form around Trump? Both are now possibilities, even though they were unthinkable before. Trump, ironically, could be the unintended vehicle for a very dirty GOP breakup.
9. Biden will move to the right to embrace the Republican Party that bowed to his confirmation and carry out a bipartisan government to "unite the country and restore order.". That was always his plan and he will do it even more now. Will try to overcome the pandemic,
will try to restore capitalist functioning and rehabilitate US imperialism to compete with China. It will be difficult for him to succeed on that front and he will have the militant opposition of Trump and the extreme right who will consider his government as illegitimate.
10. Liberals will rally behind bipartisan capitalist unity and state repression to confront the fascist threat. Yesterday there was an absolute consensus around the law and order articulated by both parties, the police authorities (especially the former Black DC police chief, Ramsey) And the media, especially CNN, who supported the police deployment to repress the right. The liberal forces will not resist this turn towards law and order because they see the state, no to massive antifascist action, as the key to dealing with the right. Thus, they will be even less critical of Biden than before.
11. We socialists must chart a different course. We must not support the bourgeois establishment, the new Biden administration and its state repression at home and imperial reassertion abroad. Instead, we must join forces to build unique antifascist fronts everywhere to confront the right in large numbers and drive it off the streets. Y, as important, we must redouble our efforts to build a militant socialist alternative that fights independently of the Democrats for demands that address the multiple crises of the capitalist system: un Green New Deal; Medicare for everyone; $15 the hour of Minimum Wage and Unions; Defund the police; Abolir ICE; and massive cuts to the war budget.
12. We must argue vehemently for the reorientation of the socialist left, especially from DSA, from its overwhelmingly electoral approach to organizing the struggle from below, especially BLM and struggles in the workplace. We are in the midst of the deepest crises (yes, plural) of the capitalist system since the decade of 1930. These will continue to fuel deep polarization within countries., waves of social and class struggles and increased conflict between capitalist states in the hierarchy of global imperialism. From there a new socialist left will be born that will take organizational form. We must do everything in our power to arm it with ideas, revolutionary socialist strategies and tactics.
