The Communist Party of Canada had warned that the worst outcome on Nov. 5 would be a victory for a Republican party bankrolled by the super-wealthy and large corporations, who have taken advantage of the base of far-right, white supremacist, and even fascist forces, including influential Christian nationalists who seek to eliminate all reproductive rights. Republicans loyal to Trump will soon control the White House, both houses of Congress, the majority of state governors and legislatures, the Supreme Court and most lower courts, the FBI and CIA, surveillance bodies such as the NSA – all the key elements of the US capitalist state.
In the wake of the November 5 election, millions of people around the world are feeling a high level of concern, given the vitriolic, racist, misogynistic, scapegoating proclamations made by Trump during the campaign. It is important to identify the main lessons to be drawn from the results, to help overcome the despondency that could easily overwhelm the people and movements which fear the worst from a new Trump administration.
However, it would be wrong to simplistically conclude that this outcome results from a mass shift to the far right by working people. In fact, the 2024 vote totals for Trump were slightly lower than in 2020. But more significant, the Democrats’ total fell by a stunning 11 million, those who largely stayed home, giving Trump an increase in his overall percentage.
As Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said the day after the election, “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right.”
Simply put, the Democratic party and Kamala Harris failed to present an economic platform which could unite working people seeking progressive change. When Harris was asked what she would have done differently than Joe Biden over the past four years, her response “nothing”, a sound bite that seriously damaged her campaign.
In contrast, many Trump supporters believe (wrongly) that he understands their suffering from high inflation and the ongoing economic crisis, and that he intends to improve their lives. He does not, and he will not.
These people are victims of a capitalist system that has taken away an estimated 30 million jobs from the US economy. They are the working poor and the unemployed, or under-employed, or even overemployed requiring 2 or more jobs to make ends meet. Their communities have been hollowed out, services and shops have departed. They have little or no health care. Education, housing and food are unaffordable. They have seen friends and relatives succumb to despair, to opioids and alcohol, as a bleak future stretches before them and their children. This is the reality for the US working class, three decades after the austerity policies imposed by Bill Clinton’s Democrats in the 1990s. This is the underlying source of their anger, and their willingness to listen to demagogues who provide scapegoats for their frustration.
The crucial financial supporters of Trump, the super wealthy and large corporations, reassured by his promise of large tax breaks, have no intention of watching the victims of capitalism turn the tables on the inequality that exceeds all imagining.
The move towards the far-right, which is happening in many other countries, is part of the global crisis of the capitalist system. As it seeks to protect and expand its power, the ruling class in the US and elsewhere – including Canada – is putting some of its eggs into the far-right political basket. This does not unfold the same way in each country, but it’s a sign of capital’s willingness to constrain democratic rights in its effort to increase the rate of profit by squeezing the working class.
Donald Trump will do nothing to improve the lives of the working poor. The victims of the capitalist system will continue to experience poverty and marginalization, and the dire prospects of attacks on social security and the Affordable Care Act.
Meanwhile, Trump will never blame the billionaires who wallow in wealth, the beneficiaries of the corporate system and those who dance attendance upon them. Project 2025, the blueprint for a second Trump administration, proposes a variety of measures to weaken unions in the private sector, and the objective to eliminate them completely in the public sector. It also seeks to weaken or eliminate virtually every law that protects workers, from OSHA to the minimum wage to laws against child labour.
Under Trump 2, the scapegoats for working class problems will be those with far less power and status. The immigrants, the racialized, women, gays, trans people, will be blamed for the loss of a future, the end of the promise of ever-expanding standards of living that seemed to be on offer after World War II.
This is the lesson we must learn from this election. In Canada, Poilievre and the Conservatives aim to exploit the same well-founded howls of rage and frustration. Despite their party’s history as political tools for corporate interests, the Conservatives now claim to represent the needs and interests of workers, while the Liberals and “the left” are said to represent Bay Street elites, supported by the bureaucrats, including labour ‘bosses’ and intellectuals who maintain the status quo.
Those who genuinely want to avoid Canadian society plunging into racist, sexist, ultra-right violence must address the causes of the crisis, not attack its victims. If the NDP and the Liberal Party were sincere in their goal to block the far right, they would need to focus their political efforts on the need to address the lack of good jobs and affordable housing, the high cost of food and fuel, the decline of social services, the poverty-line minimum wage levels. But we can’t wait for any of the parties in Parliament to act. Working people can and must unite to roll back the political power of Bay Street. The struggle in workplaces and the streets is decisive at this moment to prevent the further consolidation of a growing reactionary agenda. A People’s Coalition comprised of the labour and democratic movements, the Communist Party, and others who agree with these policies, can mobilize working people across Canada to secure big gains. Should we fail to do so, those who have no future may become more willing to forego democracy and fairness in exchange for the chimera of a better economic future.
Finally, we point to another feature of the US election outcome. The shameful refusal of the Democratic Party leadership to speak out against the genocide by Israel in Gaza and Palestine was a significant factor in their loss of votes. For example, surveys indicate 77% of Democrats and 62% of independents support an arms embargo against Israel. In Michigan, home of the second largest Arab population in the US, Kamala Harris received about 90,000 less votes than Joe Biden took in 2020, more than Trump’s margin of victory on Nov. 5. Green Party candidate Jill Stein, a powerful critic of Israeli genocide, won over 44,000 votes in Michigan.
By their flag-waving support for US militarism on a global scale, the Democrats allowed Donald Trump to dishonestly present himself as the alleged “peace candidate”. Those (including some on the left) who have illusions that Trump’s second term will see a shift in US foreign policy away from wars and militarism are in for disappointment. At the heart of the so-called “isolationism” of the Republicans is the strategic demand that NATO partners and other capitalist allies ramp up military spending under the control of the Pentagon. Trump’s re-election escalates the threat to countries he considers key targets of US imperialism, especially the People’s Republic of China, Iran, and socialist Cuba. He is also an enthusiastic supporter of Netanyahu’s genocide against Palestine. In short, the world will become even more dangerous under a megalomaniac president who attempts to tell others to do what he demands “or else”. Certainly, this emphasizes the importance of demands for Canada’s withdrawal from NATO and NORAD.
At this difficult moment, UE President Carl Rosen, one of the most important voices of the US labour movement, made a statement which is relevant for working people in Canada. In Rosen’s words, “This election has demonstrated, once again, that the current two-party system is incapable of uniting working people around a vision for progress…. Working people need an independent political organization to fight for our interests… and we call upon our locals and members, the rest of the labor movement, and our allies in other social movements to get serious about building a true political alternative.” Rosen calls for engaging in militant struggles, including strikes, to defend working class rights and trade unions, and to lead a fight for a future that puts people over profits.
As the threat looms of a possible Conservative victory in the next federal election, this kind of fight is also needed here. The drive to the far right is not inevitable, if we can mobilize and unite for the true interests of the working class.
Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada