The main wing of the U.S. ruling class has escalated its campaign to check Donald Trump and bring him into line with the bosses’ primary objective: to win mass support among U.S. workers for the next big inter-imperialist war and the fascism the bosses need to wage it.
In the wake of the firing of FBI Director James Comey, the capitalist media scandal around Trump’s possible collusion with Russia is growing by the day. Former FBI chief Robert Mueller was chosen as special counsel to prosecute “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and...any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation” (cbsnews.com, 5/17). The bosses are playing hardball. Their intensified effort to discipline their own ranks is a hallmark of rising fascism.
Whether or not Trump and his flunkies actually colluded with Vladimir Putin to help Trump get elected president last fall, the bosses’ open infighting is dangerous for the working class. It distracts from intensifying racist attacks in the U.S. and around the world, such as the U.S.-led airstrikes that have killed thousands of civilians in Iraq and Syria in three years of fighting with the junior capitalists of ISIS (New York Times, 5/25). And it uses Trump’s bizarre and reckless style to build working-class support for the state terrorists who compose the liberal main wing of the ruling class—not to mention the racist, murderous FBI (see box).
Trump, Precarious Servant for U.S. Empire
Trump’s short reign has been a horror for the international working class. He’s launched two raids in Yemen that killed at least 30 civilians (The Guardian, 5/24). He reinstated the racist “global gag rule” that denies family planning funding to organizations that discuss abortion as an option for women. Domestically, Trump has expanded Obama’s racist anti-immigrant policy, creating a climate of fear among all workers, undocumented, documented, and citizen alike. He has appointed overt racists like Betsy DeVos as education secretary and Jeff Sessions as attorney general. He has submitted a draconian, racist budget that slashes billions from what few social welfare programs are left. And his proposed healthcare reform threatens to leave an additional 23 million people without coverage (Congressional Budget Office, 5/24).
The rulers’ master plan is to force U.S. workers to accept fascist conditions in preparation for war with another world power, likely China or Russia. The bosses’ problem is that Trump is too volatile and unreliable to serve as an effective CEO for a U.S. empire in decline.
Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton before him, backed policies similar to Trump’s assaults on workers. But unlike Trump, they were able to hold on to the support of a large section of the working class, including most Black and Latin workers. They were helped by identity politics, which excuse racism and sexism when pushed by Black people. In 2014, for example, Obama signed off on an $8.7 billion cut to food stamps (MSNBC, 2/14). His signature education policy, Race to the Top, was no less destructive and racist than George W. Bush’s much-maligned No Child Left Behind. Obama deported a record 3.2 million immigrants, of whom more than 80 percent had no history of violent crime (Intercept, 5/15). All of this happened with relative quiet from the liberal bosses’ media.
FBI Comey, Not so Disciplined Himself
Unlike Obama or Clinton, however, Trump is unable or unwilling to veil his administration’s flagrant racism and sexism—and he refuses to be reined in, at least up to now. That’s a big problem for the ruling class. Trump’s most brazen act was the unceremonious firing of Comey after the FBI director had launched the Russia collusion investigation.
Comey is somewhat undisciplined himself. Last October, just eleven days before the presidential election, he announced that he had revived the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails of classified information. Though the investigation came to nothing, Comey’s bombshell may have helped torpedo Clinton, the main wing’s candidate of choice. It drew howls of outrage from Democratic Party main-wingers like Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer. Now, however, these same politicians are hailing Comey as a martyr and calling his firing a “Nixonian” coverup (Intercept 5/9). Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, joined a Washington protest to demand appointment of a special counsel (Mother Jones 5/10). Some Democrats and media outlets are even calling for Trump’s impeachment.
This is a message to Trump and the entire political class that their service is always conditional. They can be replaced if they do not serve their ruling-class masters appropriately.
Mueller, the Hammer to Bring Trump into Line
When it came time for the Justice Department to name a special counsel, Robert Mueller was the perfect choice to bridge the partisan divide and help unify the main-wing bosses. Mueller was appointed FBI director days before the September 11 attacks in 2001. He served under both Democrat Obama and Republican George W. Bush, and served them well:
Mueller is as straight an arrow as they come. He is the longest serving FBI director since J. Edgar Hoover himself and certainly the most influential. He took the FBI from a agency primarily focused on law enforcement and after-the-fact prosecutions and investigations into, really, what is a global intelligence agency deeply focused on counterespionage and counterterrorism cases…(Biographer Garret Graff on NPR, 5/17).
No friend of workers, Mueller can be a credible mediator for disagreements within the ruling class. For as long as they can, the bosses will use the legal system to solve their growing problems. Until they can’t.
Towing the Line of the Grand Chessboard
The first two stops of Trump’s inaugural overseas trip were Saudi Arabia and Israel, both staunch U.S. allies that reflect the deteriorating position of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East and the world. The U.S. State Department has known for years that Saudi Arabia has provided “clandestine financial and logistic support to Isis and other radical groups in the region” (Independent, 10/14/16). Israel, meanwhile, is widely hated for its ever-expanding West Bank occupation and apartheid treatment of Palestinians. During the Obama years, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, talked openly of defying U.S. wishes in the region. While Netanyahu has softened his stance since Trump’s victory, Israel remains a questionable ally in a period of intensifying pressure on U.S. imperialist aims.
Different Sides, All Capitalist
Regardless of who comes out on top in this struggle among bosses, workers will lose. While Trump’s open fascism is a threat to the international working class, the gravest mistake we can make is to choose sides in this battle. We cannot support Democratic politicians in their move against Trump, whether they’re mainstream leaders like Schumer and Pelosi or liberal fake “outsiders” like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The Democrats also represent the forces of war and fascism. If anything, they are even more dangerous than Trump and his ilk, because they are better able to deceive and mislead honest, anti-racist workers.
The only path away from these imperialist misleaders is the path to Progressive Labor Party and communist revolution. Our Party and our paper, CHALLENGE, have consistently attacked politicians and media of all strains for what they are: agents of capitalism. A PLP of millions—leading a working class of billions—will sweep them all away.
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FBI: Myth & Reality
The glorification of James Comey and Robert Mueller is a naked attempt to win the working class to support the FBI, a ruling-class institution, as a lesser capitalist evil. But the FBI’s racist history makes it clear that this is a deadly proposition:
Contrary to Hollywood’s image of the heroic FBI rooting out the Ku Klux Klan in the South (as portrayed in the movie, Mississippi Burning), nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, the FBI focused on smashing local militant anti-racist groups (such as Deacons for Defense) as well as national organizations, from SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) to the Black Panthers.
The FBI established COINTELPRO, a counter-intelligence program, in an effort to crush both the Communist Party USA and the growing civil rights movement. After the 1963 March on Washington, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover singled out Martin Luther King, Jr. as a primary target. COINTELPRO also targeted Malcom X (Manning Marable, A Life of Reinvention). It has been well documented that the FBI conspired to destroy the Black Panther Party (In These Times, 12/4/13).
The FBI played a crucial role in aiding HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) during the anti-communist crusades of the 1950s. From 1946 to 1952, the FBI doubled its number of agents. In 1951, it launched a secret “Responsibilities Program” that spied on teachers and lawyers, among others. Its most vicious attacks were reserved for Black communists like Paul Robeson.
In short, let us expose the FBI for what it is: a ruthless agent of capitalist dictatorship.