The second Trump administration’s horrific attacks on immigrants, the oppressed, workers, and the public sector have been met with an encouraging wave of protest by the broad left. However the anti-Trump movement has also been mired in liberal patriotism and misplaced hope in the courts. By contrast, a truly effective resistance will pose a real threat to the ruling class.

Part of our perspectives series on major issues, this piece addresses mounting economic instability in the US, how it impacts workers, and what it means for revolutionaries. The financial shocks of the COVID pandemic, the concentration of wealth in the tech sector, and social reproduction in crisis are all contributing to long-term decline — and increased worker militancy.

On New Year’s Day, a US military veteran who identified as a member of the Islamic State rammed and killed 14 late-night revelers with a truck in New Orleans. A Firebrand member and New Orleans resident offers a political perspective on the attack, placing it in context of the US’s bloody wars in the Middle East.