This week, Professor Jodi Dean was dismissed from Hobart and William Smith Colleges over her article in support of Palestinian armed resistance. This is just the latest in a series of attacks on student and academic supporters of Palestine in the US as the ruling class defends the genocidal status quo.

The fascist far right is on the rise in the US, and opposing it is one of the most important tasks of the revolutionary left. However we must stick to a Marxist analysis of what fascism actually is. For starters this means making it clear that Donald Trump does not represent an immediate threat to US democracy — while organizing against the real fascists who are encouraged by him.

Most on the broad left view electoral activity as all-important to progressive reform and even the advance of socialism. They focus almost exclusively on elections, inevitably to the benefit of parties of the liberal bourgeoisie, like the Democrats. By contrast, revolutionary socialists recognize the electoral system as a weapon in the hands of the ruling class that can never be used to transform the system in any lasting way.