EBRAHIM HARVEY | Public protests against Trump, like his actions and their ripple effects, are unprecedented

A very large women’s march took place on January 21 2017 in Washington  in response to the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump during his first term. The public protests on that day were the biggest in US history, estimated to have numbered between 3.2-million and 5.2-million people.

But the huge and co-ordinated public protests that took place this month were even more energetic and fierce. So much so, that something very serious and significant is occurring in the US, and there is a palpable public shift to the Left in the political consciousness, and the placards carried by the protesters reflected this.

One protester accurately captured this moment when she said what stood out for her was Trump's ‘executive overreach’ since taking office in January. His anti-immigrant stance from the very outset, and the executive actions he took in this regard, drew widespread condemnation from the protesters.  

Some major issues and themes appeared on those placards, which capture the depth and gravity of the political crisis in the US, including a critique of capitalism and Wall Street.

There must be no doubt that these draconian executive tariff orders are going to ultimately deepen the systemic crisis in the global capitalist system.

But one thing is clear: we are seeing the biggest, strongest and most popular public protests against an American president.

Many placards made it clear that American democracy was under sustained attack by the Trump administration like never before, not even during his first term. Several major developments stand out in this regard.

First, Trump’s actions against immigrants were unprecedented in their ferocity, which included dispensing with due legal process. A huge number of immigrants were speedily, unceremoniously and abruptly deported . So brutal was this process that it played a big part in the public protests over the past weekend.

Second, at a time when the traditional middle class has already, globally, been decimated, if not destroyed, Trump has attacked medical care, social security, academic independence of universities and much more.   

Third, and perhaps even more significant for the American and global capitalist economy, Trump does not appear to understand that his imposition of arbitrary, bizarre and draconian tariffs by his swift executive orders in January have dealt serious blows.

Neither does he appear to understand that those major trade blows come at a time when the global capitalist system is experiencing a convulsive crisis, characterised by the worst poverty, unemployment and social inequalities in living memory. This socioeconomic crisis is not only in the Third World, but right in the heart of global capitalism, in America and Europe. For example, there is a huge cost of living and housing crisis in Britain affecting both the working and middle classes. More and more people cannot afford to pay rent and are being thrown out of their homes.

There must be no doubt that these draconian executive tariff orders are going to ultimately deepen the systemic crisis in the global capitalist system. This perspective is based on the indisputable fact that trade relations between countries are pivotal in that system, without which the crisis will worsen.

Already we have seen major US conglomerates, Wall Street and the Treasury expressing serious concern with the cataclysmic impact Trump’s executive tariff orders are having on consumers in both America and in countries it trades with. This has in turn unleashed unprecedented trade wars, especially between America and China.

But few political analysts probe the indisputable fact that American global hegemony has been on a marked decline for over two decades. The harsh tariff regime imposed by Trump is aimed at reversing that decline and enabling the US to secure resources for a major economic and financial revival.

However, if we follow the countless debates about the purpose and impacts of the tariff wars by economists inside and outside the US, there can be little doubt that they think the measures will deepen the current global economic crisis and lead to a global recession, characterised by stagflation, which most countries are already experiencing.

This scenario is deeply ironic because it will most probably deepen the economic and financial crises in both America and the global economy. Bear in mind too that Trump is the only American president who was not only already a multibillionaire when he first became president in 2016, but the richest candidate for the presidency to ever run for office.

Yet, so bizarrely obsessed has he been with using tariffs as a tool to reconfigure global economic power relations, especially in relation to China, which is already producing about 45% of global manufacturing output, that it has already counterproductively deepened tensions and triggered the biggest trade wars in decades.

At home, his trade, immigration and other social policies have already created arguably the largest, most fierce and damaging public protests.

Though we know that Trump is not a big reader and hardly an intellectual of any significance, he should read Fair Trade for All: How Trade Can Promote Development, by Joseph Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton. Stiglitz condemned Trump’s imposition of trade tariff increases, saying they would be counterproductive to both the American and global economy.   

• Ebrahim Harvey is a political writer, analyst, commentator and author of the 2021 Great Pretenders: Race and Class under ANC Rule, which won the 2022 South African Literary Awards for Non-Fiction.      

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