Resisting Trump
11 February 2017 - SACC
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SACC Statement, 11 February 2017
SACC supports efforts in the US and around the world to oppose and resist the racist, reactionary and authoritarian policies taking shape under the Trump administration.
We call on the UK and Scottish governments to refuse to give support to these policies or to collaborate in them. And we call on people everywhere to stand in solidarity with those adversely affected by Trump’s policies and to take the offensive against racism and Islamophobia.
Trump’s attempt to ban immigration from a number of Muslim-majority countries, his linking of Muslims to terrorism not in the underhand way that the UK government does but shamelessly like the thugs of the English and Scottish Defence Leagues, and his completely reckless lies, all add up to a giant step increase in racism. While this is going on, it cannot be business as usual with the USA.
Trump’s leap into fascistic government was made possible by the policies that went before him under the Bush and Obama administrations, and especially by the policies of the so-called “war on terror”, in fact a war for resources and global real-estate.
The same sort of policies have been taking root in Britain in the form of Islamophobic “anti-terrorism” laws, the Prevent strategy, and policing and government policies that too often treat Muslims as suspects or as people in need of re-education. These policies operate in Scotland as they do in the rest of the UK.
Opposition to these policies is SACC’s core aim. It’s now clearer than ever that policies that promote public suspicion of Muslims and deter Muslims from political involvement have been central to the rise of racism and Islamophobia. And Islamophobia is the fuel that far-right and fascist organisations are using to propel themselves towards power in Europe and the US.
Opposition to repressive government policies that target Muslims and target dissent more generally must be stepped up or the struggle against racism and the far-right will not be won.
The Trump administration appears to be preparing to step up its so-called “war on terror” in the Middle East, in the expectation that this will be popular with Islamophobes at home. At the same time, the administration is at odds with large sections of the US foreign policy and security/defence establishment over its apparently cordial relations with Putin’s Russia.
Continued US military intervention in the Middle East will cost lives and undermine world peace under Trump, just as it did under Bush and Obama. And despite Trump’s reputation as a friend of Putin, it will inevitably create tensions with Russia and increase the risk of global war. This is already apparent from Trump’s belligerent remarks towards Russia’s ally, Iran.
The interests of the people of the Middle East will be served neither by Putin and Trump cooperating in their pillage, nor by becoming pawns in a global conflict.
SACC stands in solidarity with all those who oppose racism and unjust war, and especially with those who resist repressive and institutionally racist policies that serve as the domestic arm of imperialism, colonialism and militarism.
