Challenges For Peace In Trump Times

Extreme militarization is being normalized in the U.S. government and culture, with funding being moved further still from human needs to an even greater record-level of military spending.

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War

Allies in Europe asked me for a few words from the United States on challenges for peace in these trumpy times. Here they are.

The challenges in working for peace in the United States and the world, during Trump times, are mostly what they already were: overcoming a corrupt communications and education system to inform people of the necessity and possibility of peace, and overcoming corrupt governments to shut down the war machine. But the war machine is growing rapidly, and with it the risk of nuclear war, the certainty of environmental collapse, and the threats of disease, poverty, and displacement.

Extreme militarization is being normalized in the U.S. government and culture, with funding being moved further still from human needs to an even greater record-level of military spending, with resulting poverty and suffering, and with European governments obediently following the U.S. down the same path.

The silver linings, thus far, seem to include a very temporary reprieve in Gaza, leading into escalated genocide across Palestine, and the possibility of negotiating some kind of peace in Ukraine — unlikely to be just and lasting without a great deal of effort from wiser sources, but at least possible now that the U.S. and Russia speak with each other.

The most positive developments from Trump are — as far as we know, and this should surprise nobody, as we went through four years of Trump before — rhetorical and at odds with actual behavior. Trump speaks of cutting military spending in half and getting rid of nuclear weapons, even while building and deploying more nuclear weapons and dramatically increasing military spending. The challenge of the peace movement is to press in the direction of the good things that have been spoken without failing to confront the reality of what is actually being done.

There is also an increased challenge swirly around people’s questions of how to identify themselves and whom to associate with. While one cannot simply support or oppose Trump, since he holds multiple and opposing opinions on most topics, many will try. Even as Trump boosts military spending or NATO, others will boost military spending and NATO in opposition to things Trump has said. Not only is U.S. politics relentlessly divided into two camps and two positions, but even where slightly more complex thinking arises it is inevitably suspect. Do you support peace in Ukraine because Putin pays you? Do you want more war in Ukraine because the Democratic Party told you to? Et cetera. And, more to the point, should peace activists stand beside people who want peace in Ukraine in order to focus all hostility on China, or people who want peace in Ukraine for the same reason they want to shut down all public schools, namely because both war and schools cost money? What is gained and what is lost in partnering with racist bigots who oppose a particular war?

Property destruction is on the rise in the world of activism, presenting another challenge. People are burning Teslas and police cars, sabotaging oil pipelines, smashing windows, etc. The ever-growing awareness that there is no real political opposition in Washington, combined with the lack of deep understanding of activist strategy, plus the overworked lives and the absence of so many who are in prison, not to mention the drugging of young people who show talents for rebelliousness, never mind the difficulty of traveling thousands of miles to protest your government, all compound the desperation to create tactics that may open some eyes while likely persuading many more not to get involved.

How do we build a mass movement in an era where the rallies are very unlike what they were 10 years ago? People hold public rallies for peace and don’t try to get media coverage, in fact want the media kept away. They also don’t want to make their own media. They also don’t want their faces photographed, and wear masks. Those a bit more frightened simply stay home. Can we dress as criminals and hide our activities while simultaneously building a mass action for peace?

Maybe we can. Far stranger things have happened. New activists are appearing hourly. People who have spent their lives saying “I’m not political” and “I don’t do activism” are announcing their intention to get involved in opposing fascism — which is what half the United States understands the Trump regime to entail. People who sat through the destruction of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, etc., are not going to sit through the destruction of their own schools and hospitals and homeless shelters, the stripping away of nonprofit status from charitable organizations, the assaults on university students, or the normalization of hateful and bigoted speech. And with everyone — not just peace activists — being called traitors and enemies, the usual barrier to adding peace into the multi-issue agenda may be lowered.

The familiar challenge for the peace activist to point out to the civil libertarian that war is the root of the problem, and to the opponent of poverty that trillions of dollars have gone into war, and to the environmentalist what militaries are doing to the Earth, et cetera, may be less of a challenge as certain things worsen. Let us hope it is in time. Let us hope for some victories to celebrate together and build on.