Trump, Trumpism and the Resistance

[This article was written for publication in an upcoming issue of Gnist (which means Spark), a Norwegian magazine affiliated with Rødt, the Red Party there. It is published here at Fire On The Mountain with the kind permission of the editorial staff (redaksjon is the delightful Norwegian word--red action!) of Gnist, which should be credited by anyone wanting to spread this around.
Dennis O'Neil]

Greetings again from the Belly of the Beast. I wrote a couple of articles last year for Gnist’s predecessor publication Rødt, on the US elections. Now I am requested to report on the first four months of the Trump regime and Trumpism.

The biggest question I hear from European friends is “Just what the hell is going on over there? Please explain Donald Trump to us.”

We in the US feel precisely the same way, only worse. In the last three months we have experienced a daily barrage of blatant lies, reports of incompetence and stupidity, constant leaks from infighting insiders, massive graft, 180 degree policy shifts, Trump Twitter storms, threats of war, trashing of governmental norms, vicious gossip from insiders. Not only is it extremely stressful to live through, but it’s so intense that following any particular trend or development becomes nearly impossible, even for well-resourced newspapers and websites, let alone for individuals.

Is Trump simply doing the thing he was placed in office to do: Head up what Marx called “the general staff of the bourgeoisie,” the state? Not in any discernible way so far. Individual capitals or sectors of capital may approve particular policies—especially cutting down on regulations that constrict profits and more generally the promise of lightening taxes on corporations and the ultra-rich. Overall though, the ruling class needs a stable economic and political environment in which to maximize profits and they haven’t got that. 80% of the top positions in the federal government have still not been filled! Increasingly, the bourgeois media is calling for Trumps’s ouster, through impeachment or other, unnamed mechanisms.

There is of course the related issue of whether Trump is a puppet of the government of the Russian Federation—out of admiration for Putin, as payback for help in winning the US election, in response to blackmail. There is more evidence for heavy Russian influence than there is against it. As I write this article, the desperate attempts of the Trump regime to derail or crush any investigation of his campaign’s channels to Russia and his administration’s contacts with them since are causing a crisis of governance in the US.

Which brings us to the broadest question: is Trump a fascist? I still answer

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Tactics: Chumping Nazis With Tee-Shirts

I'm a sucker for innovative tactics, always have been. It's worthwhile to go beyond "Hey now, that's cool...", though, and try and figure out what makes some tactics seem to deserve our appreciation.

I ran across one the other day. Seems that the lucky kids at a fascist skinhead music festival in Thuringia in what was East Germany got a free t-shirt, with a snazzy white on black skull and crossbones and, below it, the proud proclamation "Hardcore Rebels."

The only thing is, when they launder their new acquisition (or their mommies do), that stuff will all wash out, revealing a new message from the donors. This is an outfit called Exit Deutschland, whose aim is to help "young people transition out of militant right-wing lifestyles." The new message: "What happened to your shirt can happen to you. We can help you break with right-wing extremism."


Okay, let's contemplate this tactic--as a tactic. Me, I'm an ocean, a culture and two generations away from having much right to speak in the debate over whether trying to convert li'l Nazis-with-training-wheels into "normal" German kids is the best approach to fascist currents there.

The tactic, however, is elegant. Its strengths reveal themselves on minimal reflection. The kids take the tees because, duh, they're free.

Sooner or late, depending on individual hygiene standards, they learn that they have been chumped. That humiliation, and the larger-scale display of their movement's vulnerability, may be more even important than the penetration of the message that there is a specific alternative for those uncertain about their course, especially newbies.

Then there's the megaphone effect--the German media picked up the story, at least in passing, and spread the word that attendees at the show had been made fools of. This also raised the profile of Exit Deutschland and thus its potential reach and effectiveness.

As with any tactic, it's also important to look at the limitations. The scale of the tactic was necessarily limited. The concert, run by the ultra-right National Democratic Party, had only 600 of the fash in attendance. I have no idea what the group's finances are like, but for a real grassroots outfit, handing out 250 specially-printed shirts would be a significant expenditure.

Whoever did the actual infiltration and distribution may well have been captured on video and likely marked for retaliation by those who were played. And of course, it can't be expected to work twice in the same milieu.

No surprise. Tactics are by their very nature limited and can be countered by an enemy who understands them. But when a tactic is rolled out like this one was, it's a people's victory and worthy of contemplation as an aesthetic object in its own right.

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Generalissimo Suharto is still dying

As discussed earlier, former Indonesian President Suharto's health seems to come and go. Just a few days ago, we were told of a miraculous recovery from multiple organ failure that had people talking (by turns) either his Chuck Norris-like manliness or his prowess as a witch doctor. Today? He's just another strongman becoming weak with infection.

Kudos are in store for the Indonesian student movement (pictured above, in Yogyakarta) for keeping up calls for justice as the national bourgeoisie crumbles craven to power once again. As time goes on, Suharto -- once a terror of a Southeast Asian tiger -- becomes a mere bean-curd tiger.

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Is Fascism On The Way?

There's a reasonably good chance you have already come across the article that triggered this diary, "Fascist America, in 10 easy steps" by Naomi Wolf. The sucker is all over the left and liberal Internet. In the three days since it was published in the British paper, The Guardian, its Google hits have pyramided to well over 200,000. I found it in my inbox from 3 or 4 different sources by Wednesday, the second day it was out.

The original can be read here. A shorter Wolf is simple enough to produce. She demonstrates how the Bush administration is following what she identifies as a time-tested, 10 step plan to install fascism. The steps are:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law

According to Wolf, the steps have been taken and the danger is imminent, and it is recognized only by a handful of civil libertarians.

For aging movement veterans like me, who have since the '60s seen the revolutionary left identify the onset of fascism at least as often as the start of the next Great Depression, the tendency may be to say ho-hum. For serious feminists, Wolf's credentials as a thinker may appear questionable. For younger radicals subjected to some groups' vociferous alarums about "Christian fascism," this may seem another diversion from the tasks at hand.

But it is a dangerous error to assume that because things have been going a certain way for a long time, that they will continue in the same direction. It is the interest with which this article has been greeted as much as its content that makes it worth thinking about.

So, dear reader, howzabout a couple quick answers if you've the time.
Is Wolf's piece (or other warnings of imminent fascism) getting play among people you work or hang with, and why?
If you had to respond in a couple of sentences, what would you say?
What questions does her argument raise for you?

[This was posted yesterday on an old school (technically speaking) email list, and so many interesting comments came in that it seemed a worthwhile experiment to open it up in the easier to discuss and debate format of a blog. With the permission of the writers, I will be posting each of the responses as a separate comment below.]

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