Trump’s second presidential inauguration marked a chilling day for workers and oppressed people around the world. This moment symbolises much about the dangerous and volatile historical era in which we live. It is an era in which poisonous reactionary forces are in the ascent. They are increasingly confident and bullish. They believe that their time has come. And they will push to implement their agenda in the fullest possible way. Right now, the resistance to the right is still scattered and incoherent, but this can and must change.
Editorial from Issue 52 of Socialist Alternative’s monthly newspaper. Click here to order your copy.
Internationally, the failure of the capitalist system, and of its traditional representatives in the form of ‘centrist’ politicians, is laying the foundations for the rise of the populist and far right. Trump and his right-hand man Elon Musk are now the most powerful men on earth. This is a position they are already using to promote their toxic ideas around the world.
Musk’s dramatic intervention into British politics via his own social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is a taster of what is to come. For the first weeks of 2025, the agenda of British politics was being almost entirely set by this man. He attacked Starmer’s record on ‘grooming gangs’, but not out of any genuine concern about the widespread and closely-linked scourges of violence against women and children. Indeed, Trump just weeks ago attempted to appoint Matt Gaetz as Attorney General, despite multiple allegations of him sexually assaulting a minor. Meanwhile, the president’s nominee for Education Secretary is facing a lawsuit alleging a company she led facilitated the sexual abuse of young boys.
Fake outrage from right
Musk and his far-right counterparts in the UK, from ex-EDL leader Tommy Robinson to the more ‘mainstream’ reactionaries in Reform and the Tory party, take up the question of sexual exploitation and abuse only when it is possible to do so through an anti-migrant lens. From their perspective, ‘grooming’ is a problem with Muslims or Pakistanis.
The fact that the majority of those convicted in the UK for these crimes are White British is of no importance in their view. This is illustrated clearly in Trump’s new cabinet, packed with convicted sex offenders. Nigel Farage, while attending Trump’s victory rally in Washington, appeared in a photo shaking hands with Conor McGregor – a convicted rapist – even as he spouts empty words about protecting women and girls.
The truth is that these heinous crimes – whatever the ethnicity of those who perpetrate them – are rooted in a culture of misogynistic violence, a systematic disregard for the voices of working-class women and girls, circumstances of poverty, lack of opportunity, underfunded or non-existent youth and social services, and a justice system which fails the victims of sexual violence in the overwhelming majority of cases.
All capitalist politicians ultimately share some responsibility for creating and maintaining these conditions. Indeed, the Tories, who have attempted to jump on this issue, had totally failed to implement most of the recommendations in the 2022 report on ‘grooming gangs’. Labour, too, have failed on this issue both at a local and a national level. But the right’s weaponisation of it will do nothing to make vulnerable children safer.
In fact, their attempts to turn back the clock on women’s rights, and their promotion of racist hate, will make many thousands of children even more vulnerable to this kind of horrific exploitation.
None of this will stop the right from continuing to cynically use this question. They are able to do so, in large part, because their lies cannot be effectively challenged by Labour politicians who have supported the kinds of policies which have made so many young people vulnerable to sexual exploitation, and who continue to mimic a (sometimes toned down) version of the xenophobic rhetoric the right employs when it comes to immigrant communities. As things stand, Reform’s rise continues apace — helped along by the disastrous mess that Starmer’s government has landed itself in.
Government in crisis
Just months on from assuming power, Labour is already heading towards crisis on a number of fronts. Polls show Nigel Farage is now in the lead on the question of “who would make the best prime minister?” A whopping 56% consider the Labour government to have been “unsuccessful” so far, compared to just 12% who think the opposite. Anti-working class policies like scrapping the winter fuel allowance, abandoning the pledge to compensate the WASPI women who have fought for state pension equality, and failing to end the cruel two-child benefit cap have been felt by millions. Working-class people understand that this government is not on their side.
Meanwhile, Labour’s economic plan is failing dramatically. The yield on British 30-year debt has reached its highest level in 27 years, outstripping even the peak that followed Liz Truss’s disastrous experiment with libertarian fundamentalism. Growth completely flatlined in the second half of 2024. Having boxed herself in with supposedly ‘iron-clad’ fiscal rules, Rachel Reeves now faces a choice of either rewriting them or balancing the books some other way. Assuming she opts for the latter, it would likely mean a spring statement laden with fresh austerity measures.
The prospect of a new round of punishing austerity, coupled with the rising threat of the right, underline how crucial it is that the workers’ movement re-enters the political scene in a major way. One encouraging sign of this is the announcement that the National Education Union will be consulting its members on whether to go on strike following a derisory, unfunded pay offer. It’s crucial that the NEU’s leadership puts everything it can into winning support for strike action and ensuring that the draconian ballot thresholds can be smashed.
Fightback
The deal won by junior doctors, which included a 22% pay uplift across the two years of their dispute, shows that this government fears a potential showdown with workers – especially those in key public services. The NEU dispute will be a crucial test. A strong victory for teachers could help set the tone for the whole of the public sector. Its success is a top priority for the movement as a whole.
Equally important is the battle to put the workers’ movement’s stamp on the political plane. We urgently need a new left party. The more Labour apes the far right, the faster the far right will grow. It is crucial now that a party is built which can challenge the divisive narratives which ultimately only serve those at the top. We need a party that stands with workers in struggle, for an end to the cost of living crisis, against imperialist wars, and in opposition to racism and bigotry.
As the shaky ceasefire in Gaza finally came into force after almost a year and a half of murderous slaughter, the British state is cracking down on those peacefully protesting in solidarity with the Palestinians. The London Gaza demonstration that took place on 18 January was first banned, and was later allowed to take place only if it remained ‘static’. Despite the organisers moving the demonstration’s starting point, the protest’s Chief Steward and a number of other protesters were still arrested.
Significantly, both Jeremy Corbyn and former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell have faced interviews under police caution for participation in the Palestine demo. This is chillingly authoritarian. But it also threatens to make a return to the Labour benches impossible for John McDonnell following his suspension for backing the removal of the two-child benefit cap.
McDonnell and his fellow six suspended Labour MPs should not continue to wait for readmittance to the government benches, at the mercy of Starmer’s whims. Now is the moment to make a clean break with this increasingly unpopular government. Jeremy Corbyn continues to command enormous authority. He remains a clear and consistent anti-war and pro-working class voice.
Meanwhile, there is a developing crisis facing Labour in local government. Broxtowe Borough Council in Nottinghamshire was the most recent to see a mass resignation of councillors from Labour, causing the party to lose its overall control in that area. Kirklees in West Yorkshire has also seen the victory of a number of independent councillors, and the establishment of a local Alliance of Resistance, of which Socialist Alternative is an important part.
New left party needed
Now is the moment for boldness on the question of a new party. Corbyn and other left and labour movement leaders should use their authority to call a conference, bringing together activists, trade unionists and campaigners from across the country to launch one. This should be a party for organising – not just for elections. It should seek to root itself, in the most organic way possible, in the real struggles of workers and communities. What’s more, it should unapologetically stand for socialist policies – for a society run for the millions, not the millionaires.
Trump coming to power symbolises the rottenness of the capitalist system he represents. Fighting Trumpism and fighting capitalism are ultimately the same task. We need to fight for the socialist alternative, based on public ownership of the big monopolies and democratic planning in the interests of people and the planet. If you agree, join us.
