The return of the Trump regime is a historic turn in the history of the US capitalist state. The US now has a fascist government that has a program to institute a fascist program in the US and internationally. Its plan is to use control of the state to crush all opposition and to impose fascist rule. Like the Hitler government, Trump has put the capitalist class directly in charge of the state in government positions. This includes the techno fascists who control the largest AI and tech companies in the world. Elon Musk, Peter Theil, David Sacks, Larry Ellison, some of the richest capitalists in the world have either been put in charge of government operations or are using executive orders to implement Project 2025 a fascist program to privatize all public education, public healthcare and all public services.
The working class is increasingly angry and there is growing class hatred against the capitalist class. The real conditions of the working class have declined over the last 50 years through deregulation, outsourcing of the industrial base of the United States and massive privatization of public resources. The successful anti-communist purges in the 40’s and 50’s with formation of the pro-capitalist and pro-imperialist AFL-CIO is a major obstacle to the advance of the US working class. This union bureaucracy not only openly supports the capitalist system and simply wants a “seat at the table” but is embedded in US imperialist interventions around the world through the US funded AFL-CIO “Solidarity Center” which was receiving $70 million a year and over $1 billion for international operations. They have supported coups and fascist governments around the world including Israel and its corporate trade union the Zionist Histadrut. They have been directly involved in overthrowing governments in Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Guatemala and many other countries around the world.
The US trade union bureaucracy pushes business unionism and does not want to unite all workers unionized and unorganized for power. It separates the economic demands from demands such as public healthcare and defense of all public services, education and public housing. The AFL-CIO and other pro-capitalist unions do not want to connect the struggle for their economic demands with the fight against military spending and genocide which the US is directly involved in supporting from Palestine, Ukraine and Venezuela. The union bureaucracy prevents workers from different unions from joining together in any mass political struggle or general strikes to take on the capitalist class. This trade union bureaucracy is terrified of a mass working class movement developing that can break the bounds of their bureaucratic control of the organized working class.
Despite the massive frontal attacks on unions and the working class, these unions have refused to call any mass protests or even days of action against the direct attacks on Federal workers, healthcare and the destruction of public services and healthcare for millions of workers. Even though the head of the Airline Flight Attendants Union Sara Nelson and even the mayor of Chicago Brandon Johnson have called for a general strike against the union busting attack on Federal workers and against the fascist ICE raids in Chicago and other cities, no other national union leadership have supported these calls. They fear losing control of the rank and file of the membership if there is a mass working class movement and general strike movement.
The destruction of the state apparatus for labor relations that was set up after the mass strike wave and working class movement in the 1930’s is now forcing workers to take direct action since they can no longer rely on the state apparatus to allow any unionization and capitalist arbitration. This is also undermining the present union bureaucracy which has based itself on negotiating deals with the capitalist class. Business unionism cannot defend workers and although workers want unions they see that the present capitalist union structure is incapable of defending their jobs, wages or conditions.
The rise of fascism in the US is a direct result of the decline of the US imperialist empire and its inability to compete with other capitalist countries and most importantly China which is the largest exporter of capital in the world and has the most modern industrial structure in the world. The turn toward economic and political nationalism, the tariffs and trade war are a result of US capitalism in decline. It is also actively seeking to support fascist forces globally included in Germany with the AfD, Milei in Argentina and Meloni along with many other countries.
The fascist regime is actively working to destroy bourgeois democracy and establish not only a fascist state but a fascist society.
There is growing class hatred and anger against the oligarchy and fascists including Elon Musk and other billionaires, and the working class and unions should be in the forefront of the fight against the oligarchy and fascist government. Nearly all unions do not want their members to be educated about fascism although the ILWU which was a union with a socialist and communist leadership that came out of a general strike in 1934 has recently put out a statement about the need to fight fascism. (ILWU Statement Of Policy: The ILWU Versus Fascism https://www.ilwu.org/the-ilwu-versus-fascism/)
Along with the struggle in the unions for general strikes against the attacks on the working class, there is no mass working class political alternative with a working class program to deal with this crisis. The fight for a mass democratic workers party in the US is a critical task and this means a fight against the US union bureaucracy who are not only the backbone of the Democratic party but are embedded in the Democratic Party.
Top union officials are also part of the leadership of the Democratic party. At the same time there is a growing fascist development among some trade union bureaucrats like Teamster president Sean O’Brien who is a supporter of the Trump government and his tariff and trade war policies. He is supported by UAW president Sean Fein whose union represents the auto industry and has supported trade war as a solution to the failure of US capitalists to compete with China and other countries. The trade war is destroying the economy of the United States and actually weakening US capitalism. These unions have also refused to use their power and apparatus to defend immigrant workers and organize mass actions against the fascist attacks by ICE and the targeting of LBGTQ, Muslims, women, Blacks and Brown workers as well as supporters of Palestine and political activists.
The growth of thousands of activists particularly in trade unions throughout the country is historic. Even during the 1960’s, there was no massive organizing in the unions against the Vietnam war. The use of social media and communication software has been a critical tool in bringing tens of thousands of trade unionists together in their unions to fight the pro-Zionist bureaucracy that has existed even before the establishment of the Zionist state. The internet has also been a critical tool in getting out the history of class struggle, the hidden history of the US working class and also the role of the trade union bureaucracy.
Another major existential crisis for the working class is the development and introduction of AI in the working class and society. The development of AI will lead to the loss of 350 million workers worldwide according to Goldman Sachs. Unions such as the SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild are facing massive job loss and theft of intellectual property. Their strike in 2023 has not stopped the frontal attack on the working-class using AI. Autonomous cars and trucks will threaten millions of jobs of delivery drivers and truckers and the use of AI in education and healthcare is aimed at eliminating workers in providing these services.
The union bureaucracy is incapable of confronting what is a systemic threat to the working class globally since it is based on negotiating with individual capitalists or industries and not the system as a whole. Even before the Trump government, the union bureaucracy were unable to stop the introduction of commodification of education with testing and computers and software in the classrooms. The revolutionary implications of AI and generative AI will force workers as a class to break from business unionism and challenge capitalist rule in order to defend their conditions, lives and future. The capitalists and techno fascism are driven toward fascism in response to the need to drive their profits higher using this technology and like the industrial revolution and the development of the Luddites a similar rebellion is growing but this is of global proportions with workers throughout the world forced to take over the organization and running of the global economy.
The drive towards world war is connected to the break-up of Bretton Woods and the WTO. The stability of the global economy in the post war period was a result of the US having an untouched industrial capacity and all the gold in the world that could allow it to dictate the world economy. The US today is unable to compete globally and manipulate the world economy, and its only solution is the drive to military seizure of the wealth of countries like Venezuela, Greenland, Argentina and other countries throughout the world. The resuscitated Monroe doctrine in the US and “Gun Boat” diplomacy and the openly imperialist role of US capitalism is a sign of desperation and will actually escalate the decline of US imperialism.
US workers are more and more opposed to US interventions including in Venezuela, and the new $901 billion US war budget has growing opposition. It has even split the right-wing MAGA movement backing Trump. Many of these nationalist forces are against military interventions abroad.
The US war in Venezuela will increase the divisions in the US military with a possible split. During the first Trump regime, Trump tried to use the military to shoot the knees of Black Lives demonstrators. At the time, Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff refused to give the orders. He realized that this could have led to a split in the military with some military forces who are Brown and Black refusing to take the orders and even rebelling. During the Vietnam war, there were fragging of officers because of a growing rebellion of the troops. The Trump escalation of imperialist wars including against Venezuela and Colombia will also lead to a growing anti-imperialist movement in the working class.
The open racist attacks on Black, Brown and Asian workers will lead to their politicalization and radicalization. The Trump government wants to go back to the “good old days” of the Confederacy and segregation. They are eliminating any protections against racial, national, religious and sexual discrimination and destroying the governmental agencies that do oversight of these protections.
The Black working class which is the most militant and class conscious in the US has been held by the Black Democrats but also the trade union leadership which does not want to organize a fight against racism, hanging nooses and other attacks on the jobs as well as blatant discrimination. These attacks will lead to the growing of a mass Black working class movement that is beyond the developments of the 1960’s and 1970’s.
The other problem that the fascists and capitalist class has is that the Black and Brown working class in the urban centers has tremendous social and economic power that can shut down the country. The massive Black Lives movement shows that this mobilization can involve millions. The organized opposition to the ICE raids throughout the country is a sign that the working class and other sectors are hostile to these fascist tactics and the mass protests throughout the country against the fascist Elon Musk at his dealership throughout the country was an anti-fascist and anti-oligarchy movement that shows a growing class hatred of the capitalist system. The same took place when the United Healthcare CIO Brian Thomson was killed by Luigi Mangione and led to the public support by millions of his action. This shocked the capitalist class and showed the deepening fundamental class divisions ready to explode.
This will also seriously exacerbate the internal contradictions of US imperialism. The bourgeoisie is not united for new wars and in the face of potentially massive working-class opposition this will exacerbate and make it even more difficult for US imperialism. The internecine warfare in the capitalist class in fact will intensify and make it even more difficult for the fascists to carry out their agenda.
The de-industrialization of the US economy for more profits cannot be overcome since it can no longer be competitive internationally. The massive speculative drive for AI to be more competitive will not solve the ability of the US to revive the US economy. Any new capital investment in the US will be in highly automated robotic plants that do not require a large number of workers.
US capitalism has also driven toward massive financial deregulation and the speculative frenzy in crypto currency and other financial instruments that are not actually based on production of commodities. This will absolutely lead to a massive financial crisis greater than 2008 and the economic collapse of the entire world economy which will require the working class to organize for power.
The growth of social democracy in the US is significant. There is hatred not only against Trump and the fascist government but the Democratic Party. Their latest polling is 26%. The working class does not see them as a political alternative. The growth of the Democratic Socialists of America is a sign of a move toward social democracy. The victory of Zohran Mamdani in New York City shows that the working class are willing to vote for candidates who say that they are socialists and want to reform capitalism despite a massive multi-million-dollar witch hunt by the billionaires who run New York. In a number of polls, over 60% of young people who are under 30 have a favorable view of socialism. This is unheard of in US history, but it shows that the youth and more and more workers see the need for a change of the system. Young people see no future under capitalism and that has revolutionary implications for the building of a mass working class party and rejection of the trade union bureaucracies continued support for the Democratic party. The Los Angeles UTLA teacher’s union with 30,000 members just passed a resolution that it will no longer fund candidates who vote for money to the Zionist regime and this anti-Zionist movement in labor is beginning to seriously challenge the Democrats. At the same time, the DSA leadership sees an electoral road to socialism. Mamdani’s program is not for workers taking over the means of production and running society. He wants to reform capitalism, so the working class has childcare, more working-class housing and better conditions. Without directly confronting the capitalist class by the mobilization of the working class into action through mass protests and general strike action there will be no reforms. Additionally while Mamdani says that Trump is a fascist, he has not supported the calls for a general strike by Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson and AFA CWA president Sara Nelson.
The continued ICE raids and the $170 billion passed by Trump for the formation of a large fascist gestapo force is presently being organized to not only terrorize immigrants, Blacks and Browns but to use as a fascist force to bring in martial law. Mamdani and the Democrats are counting on mid-term elections in 2026. The reality is that Trump will not leave peacefully from his control of the state and the preparation for a massive mobilization of the working class to stop the implementation of martial law is a necessary demand and campaign.
These conditions provide the basis for revolutionary developments in the United States. The working class has not been defeated and in fact unionization is growing. The fear by the capitalist class of a massive explosion is well justified and the actions of Italian workers in a general strike in November against militarization, austerity and the Israeli regime are an opportunity to push for similar actions in the United States. The struggle for power by the working class is now strengthened by the split in the capitalist class, the growing mass opposition to fascism and a view that capitalism cannot solve the fundamental problems of the working class or society.
12/19/25
