In many ways, Donald Trump owes his political career to deindustrialization, the late-twentieth-century process in which multinational corporations eliminated millions of unionized manufacturing jobs in the United States by callously abandoning working-class communities in pursuit of quick and easy profits.
Trump has won two presidential elections in part by presenting himself to voters as the solution to the still-unresolved social and economic dislocations caused by deindustrialization. His main remedy is to relentlessly scapegoat and marginalize foreign nations.
One of the president’s favorite international punching bags is South Africa. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has expelled the South African ambassador, suspended most US humanitarian aid to the country, and has claimed that its minority white population of Afrikaners — who once ruled South Africa under the racist and oppressive apartheid system — are now themselves the victims of racial discrimination and even genocide at the hands of the black-led government.
Recently, he granted refugee status to Afrikaners wishing to immigrate to the United States, even as he systematically shuts out, kidnaps, and deports immigrants of color. This is not especially surprising considering Trump’s biggest campaign donor is white South African billionaire Elon Musk, whose extreme right-wing views betray an ongoing resentment over the dismantling of apartheid thirty years ago.
The president’s supposed attempt to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States through high tariffs — including a 30 percent tariff on South Africa that threatens tens of thousands of jobs there — is challenging many US trade unionists to ponder whether economic nationalism trumps…
Auteur: Jeff Schuhrke
