A discussion and reading of a recent editorial in Challenge.

In a lose-lose election for workers, Donald Trump’s victory marks the toxic divisions within the U.S. working class and a massive defeat for finance capital, the main wing of the U.S. capitalist ruling class. Trump’s “America First” platform to pull back from NATO and the war in Ukraine will undermine the Big Fascists of finance capital as they lurch toward war with their imperialist rivals in China and Russia. For workers, the dark night of capitalism in decay—with no mass communist movement to fight back--

The next four years will expose the limits of liberal democracy, where the brutal reality of capitalist dictatorship is veiled by mythical “rights” and “the rule of law.” Regardless of who’d won the election, the worldwide crisis of capitalism would force the U.S. bosses to move faster toward full-blown fascism. A President Kamala Harris would have spelled disaster for the international working class, from Gaza to the U.S.-Mexico border. What Trump’s victory reveals is the bosses’ ability to win tens of millions of workers to open racism and sexism and to scapegoat immigrants, the most vulnerable sections of our class. It shows just how much struggle lies before us.

In this period of extreme instability, the role of Progressive Labor Party becomes even more crucial. The history of Nazi Germany and fascist Japan tells us that communism is the only way to smash fascism. We can’t rely on the bosses’ politicians or media or courts to protect us. Only communist revolution can secure an antiracist, anti-sexist society that serves workers’ needs.