12 July 2018
Stop Trump
Reasons to Demonstrate.
By Ann Isobel
Last week’s Diary of a Corbynista stated:
“You can stop Trump but the bigotry will continue unabated. He is a symptom of the sickness not it’s cause.”
Of course Trump is just a part of a wider trend – I certainly don’t think he is sitting somewhere pulling all the strings. However, he is not a symptom. He is at the root of the spreading of the disease. He is a key enabler and this is why:
- He spreads his messages to the masses that support him by continually peddling messages of fear. He spreads fear in the same way that pathetic fascist groups do in our country. Fortunately most people in our country still see these groups as fringe and most want nothing to do with them. But in America the same people are jumping on the fascist band wagon because they are supporting their celebrity in chief. And this gives increasing legitimacy to the groups around the world – heck, he re-tweeted Britain First – the group that killed Jo Cox. Standing against Trump’s visit is standing against fascism. I know that there are worse human rights abusers but these are from countries that do not influence our culture. No one in Barnsley is going to be reading the tweets of Erdogan or the Saudis and gradually being normalised to their version of fascism and brutality but they are being desensitised by watching Trump. He is not the root cause of the disease but at the moment he is enabler in chief.
- The 1% might love the distraction. Yes, the 1% keep the global system stacked to their advantage but the Trump protest is not the socialist revolution. It isn’t about wealth. It isn’t about inequality. It’s about the real danger that rising fascism presents in Europe and the USA. The dictators were meeting with the Queen and doing arms deals 20 years ago but we generally felt that liberal values were spreading; progress it seemed was being made. Human Rights seemed like something that the West was fully behind and though not consistently applied it was a framework that we at least all paid lip service to. Each year seemed to further embed the language of rights and we could see that much more work needed to be done to create a fairer society with full social and economic rights, but the political rights and civil liberties seemed to be being used more and more to create stronger democracies further away from the extreme right. Progress – 2 steps forward one step back was at least progress- not radical and not yet for all sections of society but it was moving in a positive direction. But now, post global recession and Brexit signalling a retreat away from globalism, the movement to create a better world is halted and wobbling. In America it is fully in retreat, in Poland, in Russia, in Austria and now in Italy. In Germany, UK and France we are teetering, being pulled in the same backwards trajectory through our close cultural links to the USA and without strong enough leadership (distracted by Brexit) we are vulnerable. The Trump march is a chance for the liberal in society to join together and say we will fight. We will fight against this retrenchment of rights and if you dare try to do a Trump on us, Theresa, we will be on the streets in a heartbeat.
- We live in a globalised world. I have not felt British for a long time. I rarely support us in any sport and have very little sense of nationality, pride or patriotism. I identify as European because the European vision gave me more to aspire to and to believe in. Yes, the EU is flawed. Yes, it needs overhaul. But I believe in strength in numbers and in shared values. Scandinavia, France, Germany, Portugal all have social policies that I respect and wish we had in our country. Not everything, but there lies inspiration. I know I can only vote to affect political decisions in the UK but I am a global citizen. I know and care to know as much about what happens in America as I do the UK. I have friends there – very good friends – immigrant friends. I love aspects of America and their culture. My people are under attack and I want to stand with them in solidarity.
- My people are women. Women the world over. I am a feminist and as such I am appalled that our political leaders are willing to entertain someone who is so openly misogynistic. Yes, they meet with the Saudis and yes, they meet with other horrific men and I don’t like that either but with them the hope is that by meeting and engaging with them we can hope that our values of tolerance and equality and respect for women as business leaders and political leaders will gradually influence their beliefs. With Trump there is no such hope. The USA allows women the vote, they can drive, they have equal rights in most respects. This is a retrenchment of women’s rights and it is this that concerns me – it’s again about direction of progress. The potential overturning of Roe v Wade is extremely serious as it gives hope to pro-life groups in our country as well. We already have a Prime Minister who does not have the guts to stand up the DUP on women’s rights and I am fearful that we are heading towards the Atwood version of the future. I ain’t no handmaid!
I could probably go on. Internment cages, walls, admiration of Kim Jong-un and Duterte, travel bans, environmental degradation and disrespect – it’s all sickening. Will he listen? No. But he won’t like it. He won’t like being unpopular. I think he needs to hear how unpopular he is as much as possible as he is fickle enough to U-turn on things if he thinks people will like him.
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