Reactionary thugs and the liberal holy temple

The day after the so-called Washington insurrection, the Wall Street stock exchange has gone up. US financial capital was not impressed by the carnival of the reactionary thugs walking through the halls of Congress; it preferred to celebrate what interests it the most: the return of the Democrats to government, and what is more, with their new majority in Senate, which seems to offer more stability to the top of US imperialism, along with the anti-Covid fiscal stimulus promised by Biden to the corporations' shareholders.

In the eyes of Wall Street, Donald Trump has represented an unexpected outsider. Of course, big capital sits at the banquet of any administration, and Trump has offered the American bourgeoisie clear economic advantages. But the line of destabilization of the relations and structures of multilateralism – from the UN to the Climate Conferences, up to the agreements on armaments – must not have pleased the US big bourgeoisie and the ganglia of its diplomacy and its military leaders. Neither was his pyrotechnic, personalistic and familist management, which was entrusted to Trump's few selected individual trustees. Let alone his grotesque claim to invalidate the presidential elections by taking the bourgeois institutions as hostage, and calling up for support from the colorful crowd of his popular base, which include uncontrollable extreme right militias.

The coming back of the Democratic Party to government offers Wall Street a more reliable, tried out and balanced reference. The fact that Trump came out pretty bad in the incidents of January 6th, along with the support not really a few of his same staff, may have given many a sigh of relief. Wall Street celebrated the event in its usual way.

Thus does this mean that nothing important occurred in Washington on January 6th? The answer is no.
Certainly very little of what world wide liberal bourgeoisie and its leashed leftist reformists commented. "Coup in America", "insurrection in Washington", "the oldest democracy on earth desecrated"... and so forth. To be true nothing of the kind occurred in the real meaning of the terms. A couple of thousand of fascist activists, suprematists, homophobes, more or less equipped, invaded the US Congress halls, facilitated by the absence if not connivance of many local policemen and guards. Nothing could be worse than this reactionary mass of hooligans, coaxed and courted by that same Trump, which cannot guarantee their control.

Fascism is not menacing the USA. In any case what these hooligans have carried out must not induce to think that the US Congress has gone through a "desecration of democracy".
The much-celebrated American "democracy" is only the image of capitalistic dictatorship, in a country thriving on the exploitation of its workers, on the thousands of forms of oppression and discrimination of blacks and latinos, on the unpunished will of police violence, on the historic looting of other peoples and countries, on a military aggression policy, on the blackmailing and intimidation towards any population rebelling against its dominion. The fascist hooliganism of January 6th, in the end, feeds itself on the worst discards of the American bourgeois democracy.

In any case, besides the suggestive representation of the January 6th facts, they are far from being irrelevant. Just a few years ago they would have been unthinkable. However, they assume a tough extreme meaning, if seen through the polarization of political and social aspects in the American (and not only American) society, in the background of the great capitalist crisis. The lowering of salaries, the derating of wide sectors of the middle class, great social inequality in richness give way to deeper ethnic and territorial differences, between cities and rural areas.
The long economic US growth, formally the longest after WW2, has not only reduced this aspect, but has deepened it further more. The Obama administration's crisis, the clamorous defeat of Hillary Clinton and the Trump victory in 2016 are direct consequences.

Trumpism has built a large social block around itself, mainly concentrated in the deep American small town. Besides his electoral defeat, Trump's electors are still standing. We might say that he lost the elections and presidency but not his people, having won 74 million votes, which are more than those gained in 2016. His success between white electors in the suburban areas is remarkable. A part of that sector took part in the January 6th facts, in which was evident their religious belief, their mistrust in modernity and urban habits along with a certain faith in any kind of conspiracy fairytales. The pandemic was surely of no help against this strange common sense, and Trump was surely very good to resemble their nation's president, against "those in Washington".

The armed militias belonging to the Proud Boys, the Boogaloo Boys and QAnon move freely in this milieu, and stand for Trump's body guards, with a wink to (and from) the police. They are the extreme result of a patriarchal society based on "law and order", misogyny, racism and hate for Black Lives Matter and left wing members. Trump uses them, but this has not helped him after January 6th, giving a greater advantage to democrats. Cannot this be seen?

It is not yet clear how Trump will use this new social block surrounding him. As president, he could be inclined to dominate the Republican Party, but now, in a new situation, with the Democrats as a majority, it will be very difficult. He might attempt splitting the Grand Old Party, giving way to a new one, but the American institutional system does not favour this way. Surely the new situation undermines the very solidity of the Republican Party.

However, the Biden administration is going through to a new challenge: reshape foreign policy of American imperialism, in consideration of the building of the new Chinese imperialism, and a revisioning of relations with European imperialisms. France aims to realize a sort of autonomous European strategy, under French control, and German imperialism is looking at Biden in an attempt to mitigate French ambitions. Above all, Biden will have to find a point of balance in his own country. It will not be easy.

Political polarization in the USA has not only occurred on the right-wing, but also on the left-wing of American society. The extraordinary 2020 movements have surely helped gain votes to Biden, especially in urban areas. Fortunately, Democratic Party policy is seen with a certain mistrust by many, and this can be read considering the 13 million votes obtained by Sanders in the primary elections. The frustration induced by Biden in the formation of a team, largely approved by Wall Street, reflects this mistrust.

The need for the foundation and construction of an independant working class party in the US, out of the old two-party scheme, remains a basic necessity. In the last years, during which millions of young people and workers have had the chance of experience the effects of capitalism, a confused idea of "socialism" emerged, in a country in which this word is banned. The movement around the Democratic Socialists of America's (DSA) is a consequence. Reformist leaders use the movement as a toole for pressure on the Democratic Party, but without any real result. Biden will continue to prefer the capitalists rather than the working class. American revolutionary marxists, enemies to Trump, but not because of this Biden's supporters, will continue to pursue the goal of creating a workers' government through an authentic American revolution. The only American revolution to come.





Read the Italian version here.