“The American people do not support Trump’s imperialist war”

Coral Wheeler, American trade union activist and member of Socialist Organizer, the US section of the Fourth International

^{She will be speaking at the Paris international rally on 8 November}

“Most of the workers in the US don’t view the Iranian people as enemies. Regardless of how one might feel about the Iranian regime, the American people do not support the imperialist war of Trump. We are against the war not only because it is bad for the people of Iran but also because money that should be going to our people is going to that war. We have inflation, grocery prices are incredibly high, social programs are being cut. Trump says he doesn’t care about the affordability or the day-to-day struggle of the US worker. Meanwhile both parties are voting to increase war spending and the military budget keeps growing. Even people who voted for Trump are protesting the war because he lied to them and said he would end military interventions.

“The Democrats just passed a vote in the House and the Senate against the war. But it’s non-binding which shows that the best that the Democrats can do is to get a few Republicans with them to make a statement… So it is up to us to fight against the war and to improve the lives of the working class here in the US. It is the class war: the ruling class is attacking the working class. In whatever way possible, they take the money that is generated by the working class and send it to the war and the military budget.

“During all of Biden’s presidency, there were many strikes and many large union actions. And then when Trump got elected, the Democrats sort of didn’t really do anything or mount any fight. The workers did not wait for them to continue mobilizing. There was a great sense at that time that the Democrats weren’t going to save us, and that we needed for people to rise up independently. As the midterms are approaching, it is still happening. There have been many protests since Trump’s return to the White house, especially against his use of ICE, the immigration police. He turned it into his own private police force. And he’s sent them around the country from city to city, deporting and detaining people. But protests emerged throughout the country, and that’s where we’ve seen the biggest protests and the biggest fighting back. Even in the places where ICE was forced to leave, well they never leave entirely. But smaller actions and smaller protests that aren’t on the news have been continuing. People are still fighting back.

When we talk about the mobilization against Trump, we need to mention the ongoing strikes, the demonstrations against the war, the mobilization against the removal of voting rights of Black workers in Southern States… and initiatives to defend democracy, as Trump wants to give himself more power, destroying the courts, using executive orders to bypass Congress…. The Democrats are trying to, as they do, move direct that movement into a vote for them in the next elections in November. There’s also a general sense of uncertainty as to how free and fair these elections will be and to what extent Trump and the Republicans are willing to make sure the elections go their way. Most people that I’ve talked to agree that, even if they are elected, the Democrats aren’t gonna change a lot of what Trump has done anyway. But at this point, some people feel desperate and still have illusions on what elections can do. But more people are realizing that it’s gonna take more than that to undo all the damage.

“People are definitely looking for a way out of this. To some people DSA presents that option. They have gotten some people elected, like Mamdani in New York. He made some changes, but he has not done much of what he promised because he wants to maintain the status quo with the Democratic apparatus. I do believe that some members of DSA are socialists, maybe even communists, but they’re the minority. The majority of DSA, those at the top who are making the decisions, are not in favor of breaking with the capitalist system. They support people running in the Democratic Party and then are silent about the Democratic Party’s complicity in genocide and war, they certainly don’t call for a break with capitalism or even the two major parties of capitalism. Mandani and the candidates that he supports are more into improving social programs. These are the things I would like to develop during the international meeting against war and exploitation. And I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the vision put forward by activists in the U.S. who are fighting for socialism and a radical break with the status quo, and thus for genuine political representation of workers and Black Americans, completely independent of the two parties of the bourgeoisie.”

Interview conducted on 29 June