The Socialist 11 January 2017

NHS in meltdown

NHS in meltdown

NHS in meltdown from spending cuts - demonstrate on 4 March!

Sustainability and Transformation plans - a repackaging of cuts

Worcestershire hospital deaths expose NHS crisis

Football abuse scandal: Reclaim the game for justice and accountability

Book review: Spy drama gives insight into capitalist coup plot

Strikes show workers' power

'Cash for ash' scandal set to bring down Northern Ireland government

May slams 'economic inequalities' Tory policies created

Blair's multimillion plans to fight 'populism'

Bosses earn average salary in under three days

What we saw

Them & Us: £500k house party... 50p for rent

Haringey: pressure grows as Labour council cuts

Sick of sham consultations - give us a real fightback

Khan should attack bosses, not workers

Tube strike solid in fight for jobs and safety

Support BA cabin crews' strike for fair pay

Sham Royal Mail pensions consultation - action needed

Unison legal battle looks into allegations 'Team Dave' broke rules during general secretary election

Workplace news in brief

Build the resistance against Trump

Socialist Party national women's meeting

2016: A record-breaking fighting fund year!

Closing of the children's centres could cost lives

Palestine/Israel: Everyday life under occupation

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Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/931/24213

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Build the resistance against Trump

Join international day of protest on 20 January

Hated Republican president-elect Donald Trump, photo Gage Skidmore (Creative Commons) (Click to enlarge)

Helen Pattison, London Socialist Party

As Donald Trump is sworn in as US President, Socialist Alternative, our US co-thinkers, have put out a call for people to take to the streets in protest against his racist and sexist ideas. When a similar call was made on the day of the election, 40,000 people protested in a matter of hours.

This time there will also be solidarity protests around the world organised by socialists fighting for an alternative to the reactionary ideas of Trump and the misery ordinary people have faced over the last eight years of capitalist crisis. Eight years marked by the destruction of decent, skilled jobs and their replacement with minimum wage, precarious work.

Trump's election took place against the backdrop of a broken capitalist system, unable to provide a decent standard of living for ordinary working class people.

But rather than a stunning endorsement of Trump and his ideas (Trump lost the popular vote), in reality the presidential election was a failure of the two-party system and the Democratic Party establishment.

The primaries were dominated by a massive mobilisation of working class people around Bernie Sanders' campaign calling for a 'political revolution'. Even in London classrooms, student members of the Socialist Party report that while people despise Trump, no one liked Clinton either.

Bernie Sanders' campaign showed that many workers and young people not only reject the reactionary ideas of Trump, but also believe in the need for an alternative to the rule of Wall Street and big business. His popularity showed the scope for a new party of working class people which could put out a call for jobs, homes and services for all. A party with these demands could start to undo the divisive impact of Trump's ideas.

The protests against Trump's inauguration must just be the beginning. A serious fight is needed against war, racism and austerity. We must build mass movements in the interest of the 99% and for a socialist alternative to the misery of capitalism.