Tom Hall's "The Nation, pseudo-left back UAW president Fain’s embrace of Trump tariffs" went up at WSWS last night:
In recent weeks, pseudo-left and “progressive” outlets have circled the wagons around United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain. They are defending him from growing working class outrage over his embrace of Trump’s tariffs and “America First” policies.
This is part of a broader support by the union bureaucracy for tariffs. Broad sections of the apparatus, including both the ILWU and ILA dockworker unions and the Teamsters, have lined up in support of trade war.
In backing tariffs, the union bureaucracy is supporting a fascistic administration which is using tariffs to prepare supply chains for world war, especially against China. They are promoting a policy which recalls the darkest period of the 20th century under the Nazis, where trade war preceded the outbreak of World War II in September 1939.
This has rightly evoked disgust by workers and the millions who have taken to the streets against Trump. In damage-control mode, Jacobin, the de-facto house organ of the Democratic Socialists of America, has opened up its pages to Fain for him to justify collaboration with the would-be dictator.
The Nation, whose president is former Jacobin editor Bhaskar Sunkara, published a statement last week titled: “Shawn Fain for President!” The editors at the “progressive” magazine, which Leon Trotsky once described as a “reptile breed” for their lies in support of the Moscow Trials under Stalin, are now employing lies in defense of the union apparatus’ support for fascism.
Author Jeet Heer claims that “centrist Democrats hate the union leader because he puts the working class first.” He goes on: “Fain’s harshest critics have come from the ranks of pundits from publications such as Vox and allied think tanks…”
This is totally false. Opposition to Fain is not centered in the Democratic Party, but from workers, young people, and all those opposed to the growing threat of fascism in the US. Workers know that trade war will bring layoffs and plant closures and want unity with their co-workers in other countries.
Use link to read full article. If Will Lehman puts out any statement on it, we'll note his statement. We followed his 2022 campaign here while the bulk of the left refused to even acknowledge Will (Will was the Socialist candidate for UAW president).
