maybe this is a relatively good time to backtrack a little and talk about trade and how we got here, and what a really, truly left critique of the existing trade regime really looks like, as the spectrum is currently split between two different kinds of fascism, both of which benefit the ruling class.

the key thing is understanding that the system they've designed is intended to set the working class against itself. the media doesn't want to talk about class, it wants to replace it with anything else you can conjure up - race, religion, gender, anything at all, really. but, it's instructive to look at the central place that class actually holds in their policies before you take too far a step back from it. if the bankers base their policies on class, it can't be too unimportant, can it?

so, let's remember how we got to the point we're at, which was partly through a labour movement. labour politics tends to take more credit than it ought to for a number of things, which came more out of fordism than a labour movement, but the labour movement was nonetheless instrumental in ensuring that we didn't have those things taken away when fordism went out of style, at least. and, let us not trivialize the central place that the dismantling of the labour movement had in the onset of neo-liberalism in the 1970s, which was largely designed to increase the amount of stolen surplus value appropriated by capital, and leave less for the workers, themselves.

and, they did that by setting us against each other, by getting us to compete against each other by working up concepts of nationalism.

so, a politician like donald trump does not exist in opposition to "globalization", but is rather necessary to implement it, as the bankers could never get what they want if we saw ourselves beyond the identities they push down on us. the division and violence and hate is not a threat to the existing order, but a function of it, and something the system requires in order to function at all. and, really, if you look at what trump says about migrant workers, and the policies he's pushed forward, they're not a break with the past but a continuation from obama, who himself continued from bush, who continued from clinton. i could write down a series of quotes on shredded pieces of paper and mix them in a hat and baffle you with their authorship. going from for profit prisons to compassionate conservatism to the deporter-in-chief to building the wall is linear, it's progress - and the opponents in the election rarely deviated much, either.

and, do the fake nationalist demagogues ever do anything that actually helps workers on the ground? no. they just continue to drive competition between workers, which props up the existing system and keeps it in place.

but, the flip side of that is that the democrats treat mexican workers essentially the same way, and it is actually for this reason that you're not likely to see any serious movement on behalf of the democrats to try to heal some of these divisions between white workers and mexican workers, which is so required to actually address the labour disparities in front of us. rather, they're increasingly just becoming the mirror reflection, in their own pro-latino racist jingoism, designed to make white workers seem "uncompetitive" and "left behind". but, this is just the same language, used by different sides of the same divide and conquer strategy...

racist democrats talk about white people being "left behind"; racist republicans talk about mexicans being rapists. it's two sides of the same coin, two articulations of the same strategy to set workers against each other and distract them from uniting against a common enemy.

it follows that when you see fake left news organizations get weird about covering labour issues in the midwest because it's "racist", you should interpret that as a red flag that they're essentially working for the banks. anybody that actually understands this is not going to take a side on the issue, as that's exactly what the fuckers want you to do.

what they want is for workers in one category to take one side, and workers in another to take another, and for them to hate each other to the point that they'd rather  fight than work together. they do this by pushing competition, by pushing racial separation, by pushing identity politics and by pushing religion and other things that tear people apart from each other.

so, understand that - the democrats and republicans are working together on this, within a system designed to keep workers apart, and buying into it just perpetuates it.

the way to break the system up and advance meaningful workers rights is to attack the propaganda from both parties and foster cooperation instead of competition.

so, don't call me a nationalist - i'm not one. i believe in international solidarity within the working class, but i'm cognizant enough of the reality to realize that the party system breaks that down from both directions, and that by picking a side in the working class you're just playing into the hands of the banks.

the fake left press is often the worst on this point, because they legitimately don't understand it. they're often tricked very badly into thinking they're standing up for an oppressed group, and very rarely have a good grasp of what the actual statistics regarding poverty levels, and who is really being oppressed, actually are. and, it's not an accident - it's by design.

just like trump is by design.

this is complicated and difficult, but i hope i got a point across.