Trump’s election shows we need anti-capitalist politics

Socialist Alliance national co-convenor Sam Wainwright believes the antidote to the election of far-right Republican Donald Trump, in the United States, is to build an anti-capitalist political alternative that has an orientation to building mass protest movements.

“It is fair for people to be despondent,” Wainwright told Green Left. “You’re kidding yourself if you think that the US election result made absolutely no difference.

“Trump has clearly signaled he wants to go on the offensive,” Wainwright said, “in the case of Palestine, he supports Israel ‘finishing the job’”.

Trump’s election is bad for working people in the US and around the world. However, the Democrats “were not offering working people anything either”. “The best you could say of the Democratic Party is that they were a lesser evil — but the lesser evil is still an evil.”

Wainwright believes that the Democrat’s “embrace of neoliberal economics and politics is the breeding ground for the politics of Trump and other popular far-right figures”.

A similar dynamic is at play in other countries, including Australia. Trump’s election means that the fundamental job of anyone “who believes in peace and justice and a sustainable future is to build mass movements for change. That was going to be true, regardless of who won.”

Wainwright said he understands many people are frustrated with the result. But he cautioned against blaming ordinary US voters and those who stayed home. He said a better framework is to understand how the system lets working people down.

“A majority of working people are going to have to be convinced of a progressive vision for change. The starting point cannot be to blame them for being racist, sexist or whatever.”

There is also no basis to blame the left, Wainwright said — a reference to those Democrats and others saying the US Green Party was a “spoiler”. Jill Stein’s votes would not have changed the overall outcome. “The best statistics do not bear that out, and it’s not a valid argument in a strategic sense.

“In the US, just like in this country, we need a political force that is pro-worker and pro-environment, centred in grassroots struggles for change. Fundamentally, that means it has to be anti-capitalist.”

Ecosocialist Jason Hickel said on X that the Democrats have proven “over and over again that they cannot accept even basic steps like public healthcare, affordable housing, and a public job guarantee”.

These are all things that would “dramatically improve the material, social and political conditions of the working classes”.

The Democrats reject them, he said, because they “run against the objectives of capital accumulation” and they will “do whatever it takes to ensure elite accumulation”. “It is their only consistent commitment.”

Wainwright pointed out that Australia’s capitalist politicians behave in the same way. He said neoliberal policies in Western countries, over the past few decades, have “given rise to Trump-like far-right politics”. Western European countries show more examples of this.

“You can’t fight Coke with Diet Coke, as they are different versions of the same thing,” he said, adding, “a qualitatively different kind of politics is needed”.

Democratic politicians, such as Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton, who are “identified — politically, economically and culturally — with the ruling class establishment, is grist to the mill for Trump”.

“You can say Harris is a lesser evil to Trump in an immediate sense, but they are still the cause of the problem. Strategically, you have to break from [that kind of politics], and the same goes for this country.”

The other issue is that “the candidate that wins is the one that mobilises their base”.

The long-term and worrying trend across all Western countries is the “real disconnection, disenfranchisement and alienation from mainstream politics.” More and more working people “don’t think politics has any relevance to their lives, and cannot be bothered voting. They cannot see the purpose. It’s hardly surprising that they were not motivated to vote for Harris.”

He said Harris’ support for Israel, just like Trump’s, would have turned many pro-Palestine young people off voting at all.

Added to that, the Democrats were not even prepared to offer even minor welfare state reform, of the sort introduced in the late 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s.

“They’ve got nothing to offer people, other than ‘We’re not bat-shit crazy like Trump’.

“For people who are disconnected and demoralised and disillusioned with politics and think it’s all bullshit … that’s not enough.

“You have to give people a reason to vote.”

Wainwright is scathing about how quickly Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and foreign minister Penny Wong — who were once horrified by Trump’s politics — have rushed to congratulate Trump.

“It provides us, here, with an opportunity. The whole AUKUS deal was bad enough. But Trump’s election illustrates how crazy it is for Australia to be shackled to US foreign policy, while someone like Trump in the chair.

“We need to use this moment to call for a complete break with AUKUS,” Wainwright concluded.

[Listen to Sam Wainwright’s interview on the Green Left YouTube channel/website and join Socialist Alliance here.]