On Sunday, November 10, at 3 p.m. EST, the Socialist Equality Party is hosting an online event, “The Election Debacle and the Fight Against Dictatorship.” Register and join the event at: wsws.org/FightTrump
The election of Donald Trump is a critical event whose political repercussions will be felt throughout the world. This fascist demagogue has won the 2024 election with both an electoral and popular vote majority. He will be re-installed in the White House in 73 days.
Countless millions in the United States and throughout the world are stunned by the outcome of the election, which was made possible by the policies of the Democratic Party. But the shock is turning into disgust as they witness the Democrats’ craven surrender to Trump.
Forgetting not only Trump’s attempted violent overthrow of the Constitution on January 6, 2021, but even the open threats he made during the election campaign to rule as a dictator from day one, President Biden and Vice President Harris are promising to assist Trump’s “transition team” between now and Inauguration Day on January 20, 2025. It is not enough that they cleared the way for his return to the White House. They are now promising to polish the seat of Trump’s chair in the Oval Office.
Little more than a week ago, Kamala Harris was warning that Trump was a fascist. Now she tells her supporters that there is nothing to worry about, and that everything will be all right. Biden promises proudly that there will be a “peaceful transition” of power on Inauguration Day, as if his spineless transfer of power to a fascist president deserves to be celebrated as a triumph of democracy.
The Democrats are attempting to chloroform the public.
Trump has proclaimed that this is the last election, and that his supporters will not have to vote again. The political reality is that the election of Trump sets the stage for an unprecedented repudiation of democratic rights, a wave of mass repression, and violent social counterrevolution. While Biden extends an olive branch, Trump’s advisers are threatening vengeance against their political opponents. Steve Bannon, a key Trump adviser who was recently released from prison, has threatened them with “rough Roman justice,” that is, with murder.
Plans are being drawn up for mass deportations. And on the economic front, Elon Musk has stated that the policies of the new administration will result in pain, by which he means the slashing of funding for essential social programs, especially those related to healthcare, education and retirement benefits. The corporations will be given a free hand to implement massive layoffs.
Moreover, despite his claims to oppose war, the Trump administration will pursue a foreign policy no less aggressively militaristic than Biden’s.
The defense of democratic rights and the social interests of the working class cannot be entrusted to those who are responsible for Trump’s victory.
The critical task is the development of an independent political movement of the working class, based on a socialist program. The Democratic Party has surrendered to Trump. But the resistance of the working class to the plans for a police state will grow. The Democrats won’t fight Trump, but the working class will.
In fact, the past year has seen an explosive growth of political and social opposition, from the mass protests against the genocide in Gaza to a steady growth of strike action by workers. Immense social struggles are on the horizon.
These struggles must be politically independent of and opposed to the Democratic Party, guided by an understanding that fascism can only be stopped by a movement of the working class against the source of political reaction and oligarchy: the capitalist system. There must be “a new birth” of genuinely socialist politics, based on the working class and animated by an international strategy.
Toward this end, the Socialist Equality Party will be holding an emergency online event on Sunday, titled “The Election Debacle and the Fight Against Dictatorship.” Its purpose will be to provide an analysis of the present political situation and to discuss the strategy and program necessary for the social, industrial, workplace and political struggles that lie ahead. The panelists participating in this online discussion will include SEP presidential candidate Joseph Kishore, vice presidential candidate Jerry White, immigrant and civil rights legal expert Eric London and myself.
Don’t mourn. Organize and strategize! Attend the online event this Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Register and join the event at: wsws.org/FightTrump