The presidential elections in the United States are to be held on November 3. They will take place in the context of an economic, health, ecological and political crisis of the world's leading imperialist power.
In the United States, the unemployment rate jumped to 8.4%, 16.1% among young people.
* Major US airlines have started laying off 32,000 airline agents, Cineworld, the world's second-largest cinema chain, is laying off 45,000 workers, Disney will lay off 28,000 of its 100,000 employees in its US parks. JCPenney department store chain will close 149 stores and cut 15,000 jobs. In education 280,000 workers lost their jobs. Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly said all employees are expected to take a 10 percent pay cut by January 1, 2021… All of these companies have benefited from billions of dollars in CARES (1) law funds and tax cuts.
* 695,000 workers have left the workforce. The number of long-term unemployed, unemployed for 27 weeks or more rose by 781,000 to 2.4 million. These workers have exhausted the 26-week limit on state unemployment benefits, and five million more laid-off workers will reach that limit over the next two months. The issue of extending unemployment benefits was not mentioned once by candidates during the electoral debates.
* 28 million Americans are at risk of being evicted from their homes.
* Hunger is spreading. A recent survey by the US Census Bureau in August found that 10.5 percent of adults, or 22.3 million people, say they cannot afford to feed their families properly. In August, Feeding America Network food banks distributed approximately 593 million meals, an increase of 64%. The total need for charity food over the next year is estimated at 7,700 tonnes, more than three times the distribution of last year.
* health crisis: the United States has the largest number of deaths: 230,000 since the start of the pandemic. There is still no strategy against the epidemic. At Amazon, 20,000 U.S. employees have tested positive for coronavirus. Its CEO Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, increased his profit, like all capitalists, by 30.6% during the Covid-19 pandemic, now reaching $ 147.6 billion, to the detriment of the health and lives of overworked workers.
* Global warming, after the wildfires in California, is the least of Donald Trump's concerns. He even dared to declare: "it will get cold in the end, you will see".
Democrats and Republicans spend considerable fortunes on their electoral campaign, each camp is financially supported by multinationals. The two major contending parties represent exclusively the ruling class: capital. The election will not express the real aspirations of the American people. Democratic candidate Joe Biden does not embody the desire for policy change that is expressed in this country. Polls have shown that nearly 70% of young people say they are ready to vote for a "socialist candidate". But no candidate will carry the radical change aspirations of millions of American youth and workers nationally. The leaders of the American reformist left like Sanders are repeating the calls to vote for Joe Biden in the name of the alleged “lesser evil”. No, Joe Biden is not the lesser evil, he is a Wall Street candidate.
The anti-social and imperialist policies of the various democratic governments, paved the way for Donald Trump in 2016. The majority of the poorest Americans have no confidence in Joe Biden; he is the representative of capital. Nancy Pelosi, his running mate said, that they will preserve the "continuity of government".
As in all capitalist countries, the mobilization of young people and workers is the only way to overcome the reactionary policies of Trump or Biden to defend their own interests! They fight back: there are demonstrations by health personnel, protests by teachers,…
World Bank Group President David Malpass, who fears struggles will develop, cautioned against a "pandemic of inequality", he warned: "In an interconnected world, where people are more informed than ever... with increasing poverty and declining median incomes, this pandemic of inequality will increasingly threaten the maintenance of social order and political stability". The ruling class knows that it is facing mass social anger that may become explosive and may assert its character as an anti-capitalist class struggle. Trump sees "red" in every protest and demonstration, he sees the danger of the "radical left" and "socialism".
The growing opposition of workers and youth to social inequalities, to police assassinations has erupted all the anger that is boiling in American society. All these struggles need to converge because whether with Trump or Biden the fundamental class questions remain. It is fundamental for workers and young people to engage in a political struggle against the capitalist system and the two parties that defend it. American capitalism and its servants produce social misery, they have to get rid of it. It’s up to the people to take over the reins of power, to expropriate the billionaire capitalists. In this political struggle, the question of controlling the means of production is central to developing a major economic and social policy in the service of the American people and their youth.
(1) CARES: March 27, 2020. American government’s relief plan providing 2,200 billion dollars, in aid to companies.