Trump

Trump & the myth of the progressive but misled 'white working class' voters

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Once it became clear that Trump was going to become the president of the USA, my Facebook feed became cluttered with attempts to understand how that could possibly happen.  How could a white supremacist, misogynist and utterly transparent snake oil salesman accumulate so many votes?  Those on the left both inside and outside the borders of the USA struggled to understand what had happened.

[Listen to the audio of this entire article]

A common conclusion in too many of these pieces is that the left needs to reach out, and listen to the concerns of, those who voted for him as a priority.  In a similar fashion to how sections of the left evaluated Brexit, they see a working class anti-establishment rebellion in the Trump vote from what they term the ‘white working class’. They believe that component was won by Trump because it has been neglected by the left - often, they will assert, because the rest of the left was distracted by what they call identity politics.

Audio - Anti-fascism in the age of Trump: A panel of US anarchists speak in Dublin

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Nazis, white-supremacists, “Identitarians”, and other fascists are organising, becoming more emboldened to attack members of our communities and spread hate speech online, in the media and on our streets. In the US, the election of Donald Trump has been heralded as a victory by right-wing reactionaries and racists around the world. [Audio]

Democracy - The Art of Re-making Society

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David Graeber’s excellent insider account of the occupation of Wall Street [1] offers us an insight into what form the politics of resistance needs to take. It will be dual purpose, having to both build resistance and also build anew. It will be about renewal, hope and learning. Crucially, how you build resistance will inform and shape what is to follow. It will entail democracy being built from ground zero.
 
During Occupy wall street there was a electric hum that came from that community. People were actively engaged on a social level, face to face discussions everywhere attempting to make it an active space for direct democracy. In that electricity of building community, ideas flourished, principles were applied, democracy was direct and actions flowed from the place where decisions were reached, collectively. In short, politics has to became about the remaking of society.[2] What is society if it is not about people? It can only be rebuilt by people; people meeting, planning, discussing, deciding and acting together.

Anti-fascist Heather Heyer murdered by alt-right in ISIS style car attack

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The alt-right have just carried out an ISIS style attack on anti-fascist protesters in Virgina killing at least one person and wounding 19.  In the video you will see the car accelerating at speed down an empty street into protesters that are 50m away at an intersection, it ploughs into them without slowing down.  Towards the end of the video the car can be seen reversing back up the street at speed with its front bumper hanging off.  At that point it has hit people and other static cars, pushing them forward into yet more people 

A critical look at the Women’s March on Washington and coverage from Dublin solidarity protest

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Saturday 21st January saw 1000s take part in a Women's March against Trump in Dublin, a local solidarity march with the Women's March on Washington. It's estimated that 1% of the US population took to the streets to protest the Trump presidency that day with solidarity protests in dozens of cities around the world including Belfast.

Trump hates whistle blowers and attacks Chelsea

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Meanwhile on Twitter Trump is losing it again. It's really not surprising he'd hate whistle blowers, is it?

11 initial reactions to the election of Trump

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Our inital reaction once it became clear that Trump was going to carry the electoral college vote.  These 11 points were sent out via the WSM Twitter.

1. Reacting to Trump - part of pattern with Brexit - revolt against established neoliberal order led by reactionary super wealthy

2. Need to organise for massive transformation. Massive in numbers, massive in geographical spread, massive in scope.

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