Lindsey German on Trump’s war at home, the Davos spectacle and Labour’s latest melee

Two protesters shot dead in cold blood within a month. Both accused by the ICE border enforcement troops of threatening their officers. Video evidence of both state murders contradicts these lies. In both cases, Trump and the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, have repeated and elaborated the lies. In both cases, local law enforcement has been refused access to the investigation.

The killing of intensive care nurse Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, following that of Renee Good on 7 January, marks the latest outrage in the war against workers in the US. It also marks the great danger for any kind of democratic system in the US. But the response shows too the courage and resilience of those opposing the reign of terror conducted by ICE, and the levels of solidarity with those migrants facing forced imprisonment and deportation by these racist thugs.

Trump has declared war not just on migrants, but on the left, on trade unions, the Democratic Party, and anyone who stands up for equality, justice or democratic accountability. He has used ICE as a means of trying to subdue and terrorise large cities, including Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, and Minneapolis. There has been a big increase in the number of people in immigration detention. Many thousands of migrants live in fear of house raids, being snatched in the street, afraid to send their children to school. Last week, a Minneapolis man and his two-year-old daughter were seized outside his house and transported to Texas, only to be brought back on a judge’s orders.

The agency has become a career choice for some of the most violent far-right and fascist organisers. Its recruitment ads channel far right memes. One, ‘We’ll have our home again’, echoes the title of a white supremacist anthem. According to CBC, ‘A Proud Boys [fascist] chapter reposted the “We’ll have our home again” ad next to a picture of a literal dog whistle, adding the line “message received.”’

The reign of terror is giving state legitimacy to fascist and far-right repression. Local mayors and other politicians, local police forces, as well as trade unions and migrant support organisations, have all objected to the tactics and presence of this force, and to its harassment and killing of its victims. While I have always hesitated to describe Trump and his regime as fascist, and we are still some way from that, the actions of ICE point in that direction. It is also an armed state body in conflict with other armed state bodies, such as the local police. This is a very dangerous situation where it feels quite a lot like civil war in parts of the US.

It has echoes of Germany in the years before Hitler came to power in 1933, where there were divisions within the police and military apparatus, and where the fascists built their own paramilitary bodies to attack the left. It has implications for us all, given the power of the US, and the dangerous way Trump is promoting his hateful ideas across the world.

The resistance to ICE and Trump has been inspiring to those of us watching from afar. In every city huge numbers have turned out to defend those directly threatened. On Friday, Minneapolis had a general strike which involved workers, students, shops and museums closed, the airport closed, people refusing to shop, and a huge protest of around 50-100,000 on the streets in sub-zero temperatures. The demands were for ICE to leave the state of Minnesota.

Trade unions and faith leaders blocked the airport road, with one report saying:

It is too early to assess how many workers withheld their labor as part of the day of action, which organizers refer to as a ​“Day of Truth and Freedom.” But workers and unions were central to the day’s events. A commercial electrician and member of IBEW Local 292 who was holding a sign reading ​“General Strike is a Path to Justice,” told me during the march that he was ​“out here to support immigrant rights, support every American”.

They want to put pressure on major airlines – Minneapolis St Paul airport is a hub for Delta and Signature Aviation provides logistical support for ICE. It’s estimated that 2,000 have been deported from the airport since the raids began, including airport workers and those travelling to and from it. The 100 clergy who staged the protest were arrested.

Since Alex Pretti’s murder there have been big demos across the US. The anger can only grow and hopefully can link up with other issues, not least the cost of living crisis, which is affecting millions of US workers and fuelling Trump’s growing unpopularity. This is a class issue: Trump is attacking the whole working class. He focuses on migrants as ‘illegals’, ‘criminals’ and so on in order to divide working-class people from each other. The people of Minneapolis have shown that they will not be divided, and they are all under attack.

It’s nearly 100 years since the workers of this city wrote their names in one of the most significant chapters of US working-class history, the Teamster Rebellion of 1934. It’s heartening that their descendants today have the same spirit and organisation. They deserve our solidarity.

Trump, Davos and the European leaders

What a week again for the row over Greenland. Trump insists it is his, attacks Britain for selling the Chagos islands to Mauritius, tells Europeans they would be speaking German or Japanese without the US, and insults the military of several countries by saying they did not serve on the frontline in Afghanistan. He also sets up a Board of Peace to colonise Gaza made up of billionaires and dubious political and business figures from around the world.

The response of the European leaders has been a mixture of fury and fear. They rushed to praise the Davos speech of Canadian prime minister (and former governor of the Bank of England) Mark Carney who affirmed that the ‘rules-based international order’ was over, that the organisations set up after the Second World War were sidelined, and that each country was going to have to protect itself. This is not news to most of us on the Marxist left who have been spelling this out about the nature of imperialism, or looking at the brutal genocide in Gaza, or the charnel house that is the Ukraine war.

Nor is it news that those other imperialist powers who fear Trump also want to be more like Trump. They are all pursuing the goal of increasing militarism and defence spending, all attacking their own population’s living standards, and all promoting forms of nationalism that is fuelling racism. Keir Starmer worked himself up into a lather to openly criticise Trump dissing British troops in Afghanistan. Apparently, King Charles sent a note to Trump doing the same.

There is no ‘special relationship’ with Britain, despite the hubris. The greatest threat to world peace as affirmed in recent weeks is Trump himself. Time to remove US bases and military personnel from Britain and elsewhere in Europe, and time to pursue a policy of peace not war. And time for the people of Greenland and the Chagos Islands to decide their own futures – not Trump or the European powers.

No win for Starmer

The decision to disallow Manchester mayor Andy Burnham from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election has predictably caused uproar within Labour. Left MP John McDonnell described those around Starmer as ‘political cretins’. Presumably in private he has the same view of his leader. The right calculated this was the lesser evil: either Burnham was refused, leading to open war between Labour’s right and soft left, and probably certain loss of the seat, or he got the go ahead and entered parliament where he would mount a successful challenge to Starmer. So his allies barred Burnham from standing.

The rage within Labour’s left over this is palpable. Burnham is very limited politically and a mainstream centre-left politician, but his challenge would have helped focus and revitalise Labour’s left, which it hoped would win back support from the Greens or Your Party. But it had probably gone too far for that already, even before this latest sign that Starmer and co have a death wish for the Labour Party. So we can expect another bout of political turbulence, a possible win for Reform in Gorton and Denton, and a desperate need to build the alternative to Labour.

This week: On Saturday, I will be at the national Palestine demo, then afterwards speaking at the Declassified conference, conveniently in my home borough of Hackney. I’m working to get more endorsements for my comrade Michael Lavalette who is standing for Your Party CEC elections. Please if you are a member endorse him and vote for him if you can.