Black Lives Matter Activist Darletta Scruggs On Building Resistance Against Trump

Donald Trump’s election is a massive setback for working-class people the whole world over, but at the same time his election reflects the growing anger of the 99% at the 1% who make up the ruling class.

U.S. Socialist Alternative’s Darletta Scruggs spoke at the Socialist Party’s annual conference in London over the weekend, and is currently busy working with activist groups across the country in promoting the fight for socialism. Today she was interviewed on RT News, where she gave an inspiring call-to-arms for people who might feel demoralised by the electoral victory of the most hated candidate in the history of US presidential elections. Darletta said:

I think a Trump victory is very frightening for the Left and for everyday working people… But I think what the victory of Trump symbolised was the crisis within both parties, the Democratic party obviously, but also the Republican party, because the candidate that got chosen is a candidate that cannot really be controlled, as he’s unpredictable: he’s blatantly racist, sexist and misogynist. You see the ruling-class in the US, well they’re OK with racism and sexism, but they do not want it to be obvious and blatant because they know it’s going to result in revolt and mass protests in anger. So we can see that with both parties it’s going to be difficult times ahead.

On the divisive nature of Trump in relation to the question of racism she added:

Racism is used in US society to divide and conquer. If we’re stuck fighting amongst each other and how we’re different, we’re not really paying attention to the fact that it is the 1%, it is the billionaire-class, it is the bosses that are exploiting both of us, obviously differently. We know the history of race and slavery in the US but there are a lot of similarities: if you look at the areas in which Trump gained overwhelming support, those were areas that in 2012 were areas in which Obama gained overwhelming support, like Florida. Trump was able to win in areas where it’s been heavily deindustrialised because of terrible trade deals like NAFTA, places in the mid-west like Ohio and Wisconsin, and that just shows that capitalism in many ways has really affected white working class people and black working class people in a negative manner – it has removed jobs, it has removed any type of social services, access to crucial benefits like housing, healthcare, education, and many people are upset and angry at the system. But because there was no outlet, other than the two parties – because we’ve been told you only choose between a D and a R – that anger and frustration got funnelled into the direction of Trump.

It is clear that times are changing. Jeremy Corbyn’s successes in the UK illusstrate this in a different way. Just as the majority of the public could not stomach voting for the establishment Democrat Hilary Clinton, the same has proven true for the British publics’ rejection of New Labour at the last general election. The Blairites have had their day in the sun, and they failed to meet the needs of ordinary people.  Now Corbyn, and “those around him need to boldly come out for a programme to transform Labour and to transform the lives of working and middle class people.”

That means opening up the Labour Party to all anti-austerity forces, allowing them to affiliate on a democratic, federal basis. It means inviting back into Labour all those socialists who have been expelled or excluded from membership by the Blairite party machine. It also has to involve being clear and open about what alternative is necessary. In his statement Corbyn refers to “the need for a real alternative to a failed economic and political system”. The failed system is capitalism and the alternative is socialism. Bernie Sanders won huge support for declaring himself a ‘democratic socialist’ and calling for a ‘political revolution against the billionaire class’. We need this kind of fighting talk from Corbyn – and for it to be turned into action.

A socialist programme, including nationalising the biggest companies and banks under democratic working class control and management, is a real alternative to the chaos of the system which is leaving behind a forgotten, alienated and furious majority. Such a programme would allow the policies that have made Corbyn popular – like a £10 an hour minimum wage, building council housing and investing in, rather than cutting, public services – to become a lasting reality. Such a programme can offer an alternative vision to those who, in desperation, turn to the false promises of the right in anguish at their conditions. It can mobilise them instead to fight with Corbyn and the left.

The election of Trump should not demoralise us. It should reinvigorate our struggle for mass, socialist parties of and for working class people.