Editorial
This month, the commander-in-chief of US imperialism ended the temporary pause on tariffs against Canada and Mexico, and increased the ones already leveled against China, only to promptly postpone their implementation in Canada and Mexico in an effort to cow the largest trading partners with the US.
Tariffs already existed and what have been imposed by the far-right reactionary Trump administration is more accurately called sanctions, as they are acts of political retaliation stemming from the inter-imperialist contradiction between US imperialism, Canadian imperialism, and Chinese social-imperialism. The inter-imperialist contradiction exists on the basis of another—the fundamental one in the world between imperialism and nations oppressed by it such as Mexico, the other recipient of retaliatory sanctions.
Trump’s unstable sanctions indicate a contradiction within the US imperialist ruling class itself. The stock market took a hit immediately, prompting outrage among some monopolies, followed quickly by postponement of the tariffs.
Canada and China responded with sanctions of their own. About 75% of Canadian exports go to the US. These include timber, oil, and polyethylene which is used to make plastic, all of which will have price increases passed to the consumer. Roughly half of the vehicles sold in the US come from either Canada or Mexico and auto parts cross both borders back and forth in a manufacturing chain set up with NAFTA, while almost all smartphones come from China. This forecasts price hikes amid the crushing “inflation” which has been battering the US household for the past 5 years; everything from gas to groceries and even electricity is due to increase as the result of Trump’s political bullying.
The back and forth on “tariffs” is not simply an act of bluffing; it reflects a complex web of inter-imperialist contradictions which have only intensified since Trump’s first term. It was made clear that Trump prefers a trade war with Chinese social-imperialism and seeks to break up the European Union headed by German imperialism, first by seeking bi-lateral relations with its members separately, second by undermining the puppet Zelensky, and third by the sanctions against Canada and Mexico which affect all the European countries which utilize them as export platforms. Reckless exacerbation of the contradictions between the imperialist powers indicates the trend toward world imperialist war.
Trump’s logic is one of economic protectionism, which he uses to swindle US workers and most especially the aristocrats of labor. He argues that such sanctions will bolster the US economy in the long run, by incentivizing a shift to domestic industry and a decrease in the reliance on imports, exhibiting an open willingness to inflict maximum suffering and austerity on the people, even those who took part as his support base in the electoral farce in the short term. The reactionary is dreaming, however, and scamming is his nature—in reality the US monopolists have already developed a global hegemony; they have of course accomplished comprehensive infrastructure abroad and the investment to pivot to domestic production will exceed paying the import tax, which will already be passed to the consumer at the retail level for the next four years—if Trump’s sanctions can last that long.
Stocks fell as the sanctions went into effect and what even the right-wing monopolies like Wall Street Journal are forced to admit is that these sanctions, at least at this time, will not improve but worsen the economy. The economy, and the Democrats denying for four years how bad it has been, provided a windfall for Trump’s second bid for control over the bureaucratic apparatus and is now set to hammer his historically low approval ratings.
China is the single biggest supplier of goods to the US and is the largest importer of US agriculture which it has already imposed retaliatory sanctions on, both factors guaranteeing that the working people in the US who are already stretched thin at the checkout will enter scarcity. At the same time, the working class is experiencing mass layoffs, lower wages, and a fall in real wages due to the already existing price increases. Combine all this with the hacking away of all governmental assistance and one quickly sees how the currently slumbering masses are being pushed to a point of explosiveness. The current Democratic hegemony over the burgeoning protest movement will live only as long as the hardcore of the proletariat remain inactive—once they enter the protest movement, the rebellion of the people will find expression.
Politically, Trump has bypassed Congress to level the sanctions, as he said he would, indicating the ongoing trend of reactionization by way of presidential absolutism. The sanctions themselves have a global economic effect, hitting not only the targeted countries but others who trade with them, ultimately manifesting in a banking crisis. Trump’s protectionist scam, which is argued to allow domestic manufacturers to compete with foreign ones (often financed by US imperialists) does nothing for the workers’ purchasing power going further, as even those not affected by the trade war will in turn raise their prices to a premium because their competitors are already doing so.
The mass federal layoffs are only a drop in the pond of the workforce but, nonetheless, they indicate the trend which we expect to continue in increased competition for jobs amid rising unemployment where sections of the masses are thrust out of production without assistance. In housing, mortgages are increasing along with rent, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development predicts that rent could increase at an average of 4.9 percent, with an even higher rate for studio apartments—in other words, the accumulation of poverty on a massive scale.
Whether or not Trump and his specific mafia are able to fully implement their sanction-based protectionist fantasies, one thing is certain: the increase in austerity, want, and repression of the people’s democratic rights will sooner or later explode. Revolutionaries, and genuine defenders of democratic rights must now prepare among the masses, and, when the day comes, be prepared to break with and supersede all those who wish to constrain the glorious rebellion of the makers of history. The most important thing in the coming days and months is that the proletarian elements seize leadership in the mass movement, and in this generate their own organisms capable of existing beyond the wave of protest and developing their combat and resistance further.
Image: GM plant in Oshawa, Canada. Robert T Bell 2011, Wikimedia.
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