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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

Trump goes, ‘normalcy’ returns

AT THE TIME of writing, it is clear that President Donald Trump is on the way out at long last; it is, however, unclear of the precise manner of his departure from the White House. He is facing the second impeachment trial of his presidency now that some members of his own Republican Party have voted for him to face trial in the Senate on the charge of “Incitement of Insurrection”. This might be a purely theoretical matter because the Senate will not be sitting until the dynamic figure of Joe Biden takes over.

This is part of the return to bipartisan ‘normalcy’ in US politics that, despite the departure to his golf course of such a figure as Donald Trump, is not necessarily a good sign. Bipartisanship simply means that basically both the Democrat and Republican parties agree, with only minor disagreements about how hard to squeeze the working class and which particular country they should bombard, and for senators politely to debate in whose state the weapons that rain death and destruction are made. Bernie Saunders, hero to many on the American left, is also one of those who is an enthusiast for boosting the military budget just so long as a decent slice of it heads to his home state.

The destructive boycott of Cuba was put in place by the liberal, or rather libertine, JF Kennedy (whose father bought him the election) and enforced by all his successors. The only relaxation came from Obama, who had the sense to realise it had failed, but he was only seeking a slightly different way to destroy the Cuban revolution, one that made it attractive to the trendy sections of what passes for the left in America.

There is one matter that those on the left should not rejoice about as an indignity suffered by poor old Trump. That is his ban from Twitter and Facebook by the multinational companies that made squillions from their users because of his remarks about the Capitol Hill protestors. This was applauded by the type of people who think that the New York Times and the Guardian should be treated like holy writ, and that anyone who queries their belief that Trump is a Russian agent should be damned to whatever Hell the Guardian believes in. It is not only Trump and his more devoted followers that will be hit. It is worth recalling that Trump was not banned for his attacks on Venezuela, his smears on People’s China or for supporting any of the other crimes of US imperialism that continued during his period in office.

The Public Order Act was passed in 1936, under the reign of Tory Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. One of its provisions was to ban the wearing of political uniforms, which won support from the left because this would hit the British Union of Fascists who strutted about in natty black shirts. More often than not, however, it was applied to anyone wearing a red tie or scarf. Soon afterwards the left had to establish the National Council of Civil Liberties (NCCL) to counter the workings of the Act.

Campaigners in Britain opposing the Ukrainian fascist regime and supporters of People’s Korea, amongst others, have already experienced strange thing happening to their social media accounts, with some postings getting deleted because they dare to contradict the opinion of The Times or Guardian. The manner in which the latter paper threw Julian Assange under the bus after they benefited from his scoops clearly demonstrates the folly of relying on the liberal establishment for anything.

The left needs to break its dependence on the social media giants and develop its own networks that cannot be switched off by a billionaire. There is a still a great deal to be said for the old method of announcing messages by chalking the pavement.