When the issue of tariffs is widely emphasized, the dominant culture believes that China will be the one to defeat Donald Trump’s United States, since it would be in a better economic, social, political and technological position to supplant its hegemony and give way to a multipolar world. All the analysis remains focused on Trump’s personal characteristics, and on what China is doing to counter him. The peoples, the real protagonists, are left in the shadows.
As a response to increasing collective action, the militarization of societies like the U.S. is forcing the entire political spectrum to become increasingly far-right and make repression their primary rationale. It is clear to those at the top, because it is a constant in history, that empires fall from within, through the active or passive resistance of the people.
A recent article in The Guardian, entitled “EU intensifies repression against peaceful protests under Trump’s rule,” last April 9, addresses the issue with rigor. It is striking that it was written by Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief of the newspaper, something that is unusual and denotes the importance given to the subject.
She begins by saying that in the first four months of this year, 41 anti-protest bills have been filed in 22 states, compared to a total of 52 in 2024 and 26 in 2023, according to the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law tracker. According to the author, these are criminal punishments against constitutionally protected peaceful protests, targeting “college students, anti-war protesters and climate activists with harsh prison sentences and heavy fines, a crackdown that experts warn threatens to erode First Amendment rights to free speech, assembly and petition” (https://goo.su/QPKb9).
He further highlights the American Safe and Secure Energy Transportation Act, which creates a new crime applicable to protests that disrupt planned or operational gas pipelines, “which would be punishable by up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for individuals or $500,000 for organizations.” This repressive legislation took a major leap since the protests against the pipeline in the Standing Rock Indian Territory in North Dakota, led by native peoples in 2016.
The Guardian editor argues that the new provisions seek to “deter people from speaking out, as well as being incredibly repressive.” Lawmakers typically respond with more and more repressive bills every time a movement wins the streets. “In 2021, 92 bills were introduced in 35 states in response to the social uprising sparked by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota.”
Jenna Leventoff of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argues that the series of anti-protest laws “are aimed at scaring people and deterring them from protesting or, worse, criminalizing the exercise of constitutional rights.” Quoted by Viner, David Armiak, research director of the Center for Media and Democracy, argues, “The sheer number and variety of anti-protest bills introduced in just three months, combined with the revocation of student visas and the disappearance of student protesters by the administration of the self-proclaimed ‘law and order president,’ indicates a move toward fascism.”
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor last Sunday in the same medium, argue that “we must recognize that we are not facing adversaries we already know. We are facing end-times fascism.” In the article “The Rise of End Times Fascism” (https://goo.su/2AN7T), they argue that these far-right movements “lack a credible vision for a hopeful future,” unlike classic fascism.
For those at the top, the collapse is a sort of “regulation” of humanity. Trumpist Steve Bannon, assures that the world is going to hell, because “the infidels are breaking down the retaining walls.” That is why they barricade themselves in bunkers and even dream of fleeing to Mars, like Elon Musk himself. That’s where they are, militarizing, repressing and building their worlds without poor people or people of the color of the earth.
If anyone can defeat the far right worldwide, it will not be China. Just as we must understand that the far right sweeping the world is a reaction to the peoples’ journey and the impending collapse, we must also accept that only the peoples and organized collectives can stop them. Knowing that what they are doing is because they fear us should give us courage in such hard times. We should not be distracted by watching the warlords.
Original text by Raúl Zibechi published in La Jornada on April 18th, 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.