What a week it was again for the row over Greenland. Trump still insists it is his, attacked Britain for selling the Chagos islands to Mauritius, told Europeans they would be speaking German or Japanese without the US, and insulted the military of several countries by saying they did not serve on the frontline in Afghanistan. He also set 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 those of us 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.
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 these past weeks point in that direction. Their 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.
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 their opponents. 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.
Source: Counterfire