In recent years people on the left have used the terms fascism or authoritarianism (with some adjectives – racist, white nationalist, plutocratic , right wing, anti-democratic, etc. – affixed to the latter) to describe and analyze the rise of Trump and the Trumpist movement. I have no problem with either designation, although I prefer for the moment anyway, “authoritarianism.”

In any case, I don’t see the value of getting into a pissing contest over which term captures today’s realities best. Both have their merits, including that they are class based, aware of the imperative of anti-racist unity, and mindful that so much hangs on the outcome of the next two elections cycles. Of far more importance would be a concrete (not abstract) discussion on what is the class and social composition of the coalition fighting Trump and the Trumpist movement.  Where does the Biden administration and its agenda fit into this coalition? The Democratic Party? What is the specific role of progressives, the left, social justice activists within this coalition? What are the main and common tasks of this coalition at this moment?

The Virginia elections – Virginia in recent election cycles had been reliably blue – will provide a good barometer of where the country is politically. The outcome in Virginia and the governor’s race in particular, plus exit polls, will give us a snapshot – not conclusive, but likely significant – of where the Biden administration, the Democratic Party, and the larger democratic movement stand at this moment and going into the midterm elections next year.

In the concluding paragraph of the article below, the authors write, “In reality, white workers have no stake in the system of exploitation that black oppression is designed to uphold.” I’ve made the same argument myself in the past, but is that really the case? If it is then it is hard to explain the persistence of racism over centuries and the sustained resistance of white workers to anti-racist politics.

A better approach is, in my view, to acknowledge a tension (or contradiction if you will) within the working class movement. In other words, white workers have and don’t have a stake – economic, political, cultural, psychological – in racist exploitation and oppression. What is more, without accounting for this contradiction and how it expresses itself, it seems to me, the struggle against racist exploitation and oppression becomes a steep – maybe insurmountable – hill to climb.