Theo Sharieff, national chair, Socialist Students
The White House has announced bigoted US president Donald Trump plans a ‘working visit’ to Britain on Friday 13 July, to hold talks with beleaguered Tory prime minister Theresa May.
This isn’t the first time Trump has attempted a visit. Days after he shared racist tweets by the deputy leader of far-right group Britain First, he announced his ‘working visit’ would take place in February of this year to attend the opening of the new US embassy.
But because young people and workers got organised to make Trump’s visit as unwelcoming as possible, with threats of mass mobilisations, that visit never materialised.
This was after May had originally invited Trump for a full ‘state visit’. She had been forced to downgrade her invitation in the face of widespread outrage, condemnation – and the threat of big protests.
The threat alone of mass mobilisation was enough to scare Trump away. Resistance to his visit is a big threat to May as well. The Tories stand to make losses in the local elections on top of their ongoing splits over the Brexit negotiations.
By preparing now for unprecedented resistance, we can stop Trump setting foot in Britain – or land a big blow against both him and May if he does.
Socialist Students is calling for mass student protests on Friday 13 July. We’re calling for school and college students everywhere to walk out of their classes and join mass protests against the racist, sexist billionaire president, and the Tory prime minister who wants to bring him here.
We want to send a clear message to Trump and May that racist, sexist, pro-big business politics, designed to stoke division within the working class and shore up the profits of the super-rich, will not go unanswered.
This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 27 April 2018 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.