Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials - 5 June 2019

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Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials
5 June 2019

So Trump got the red carpet treatment this week.  Predictably, he was impressed, tweeting that "the Queen and the entire Royal family have been fantastic".  Yes indeed, the royals’ "job" for life, all expenses paid, with no threat of impeachment hanging over their heads, is an inspiring dream-job for a wannabe life-long parasite like Trump!
    Instead the poor racist and misogynist sod, who knows that the countdown to his downfall has already started, is desperately trying to prove that he exists, by acting as if his tweets could shape the world.
    With Brexit a topic which is close to Trump's heart, it was bound to play a big role in his visit.  This time, though, he stopped short of telling May off, for being too soft on the EU.  What for, since she's on her way out?  Especially given the long queue of Tory hopefuls, from Bo-yob Johnson to Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javid, who were wagging their tails for his attention and hoping to get him to endorse the no-deal Brexit they all claim to be aiming for, on 31st October!

Trump's hidden agenda

However, beyond his megalomania and  constant provocations, Trump's bombastic posturing does have a purpose.  Of course this has nothing to do with protecting US workers' jobs and standards of living, as he claims, and everything to do with protecting the interests and profits of US multinationals.
    The current row initiated by Trump against China's telecom giant Huawei, is a case in point.  China remains a poor country for the overwhelming majority of its huge population.  But due to the size of this population, the Chinese state has been able to rely on colossal resources, which have allowed the emergence of a company like Huawei.  Not only is it a giant, comparable in terms of sales to Apple.  But more importantly, it is ahead of its main US rival (Cisco) in the technological race to supply the heavy duty equipment for tomorrow's 5G mobile networks.  And this is really what's bugging Cisco and, therefore, Trump himself.
    Likewise, it is no coincidence if Trump is slapping unilateral economic sanctions on Iran and, to a lesser extent, on Turkey: these are the only two Middle-Eastern countries which are in a position to put up some resistance to the diktats of US multinationals, due to their having sizeable industries and relatively large populations.
    And likewise too, Trump's enthusiasm for Brexit in general - but even more for a no-deal, hard Brexit.  This is obviously dictated by the advantages that US corporations would be able to gain by twisting the arm of an isolated British economy, which would no longer have the means to resist the diktats of US companies, let alone the threat of sanctions from Trump or his successor.

Taking on our own Trumps

In fact, when Trump talks about a "free trade deal" with Britain after Brexit, he just looks like a cat salivating while waiting for a mouse to come out of its hole...  And that's exactly what he is.
    The joke is that Britain's very own homegrown Trumps - Tory hard-Brexiteer contenders to May's mantle, like Johnson, Hunt, Javid, Raab, McVey, Leadsom, etc., all have the same Trumpish approach.  They all claim that the next step after Brexit will be to copy Trump (tax cuts for companies and the wealthy and social expenditure cuts for the working class) and to negotiate "free trade deals" with the rest of the world.
    Except that an isolated, crippled British economy, hasn't got the might of the US economy.  And this means that our homegrown Trumps will try to get us, the working class majority, to compensate British companies for their inevitable losses.
    There are people - like Corbyn, McDonnell and some union leaders - who warn us against Trump's "free trade deal with Britain" and the fact that it will target the NHS.
    This is certainly true.  But is this new?  What about the services already bought by the NHS from big US companies like HCA Healthcare and the Centene Corporation?  And these are just two US players in an ocean of private British companies which were milking the NHS budget long before Trump!
    So, what about doing something to reverse the privatisation by stealth of the NHS carried out under Blair and under the Tories before and after him?  And what about warning against the impact of Brexit on the NHS, because there again, savings will have to be made on the backs of workers and patients, and new sources of profits will have to be created for shareholders!
    So, yes, there are battles to be waged ahead.  But first of all, against our homegrown Trumps - those who undermined public services in the past, as well as those who plan to do more of the same in the future, as part of Brexit!