Trump's tariff war, France bans Le Pen and the PKK lays down arms

Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcements have set the cat amongst the pigeons in the world market. In France, the hypocritical establishment is celebrating the sentencing of right-wing demagogue Marine Le Pen in court on flimsy charges. Meanwhile in the Middle East, the leader of the PKK has called on its Kurdish guerilla fighters to lay down their arms.

Globalisation is now rapidly unravelling, with tariffs threatening to dramatically tear up supply chains internationally. But any attempt by the US or other powers to export the burden of their crisis-ridden economies through protectionism will do nothing to solve the fundamental bankruptcy of the capitalist system.

Meanwhile, although the liberal establishment wax lyrical about the virtues of ‘democracy’, they have shown themselves time and again to be perfectly willing to give up on these treasured principles if it suits them. In the US, Romania and now also in France, maverick candidates outside of the traditional political elite have been targeted by legal campaigns and accusations of corruption. While we do not agree with Le Pen, communists have a duty to call out the rank hypocrisy of the liberals that accuse her and similar figures of threatening democracy.

For some time, the struggle for Kurdish self-determination has inspired many on the left internationally. The PKK, the main military and political force among Kurds, however, has now been called upon by its leadership to lay down their arms. This is an utter capitulation on the part of the PKK leaders and represents a policy of capitulation to capitalism and imperialism, rather than the struggle against them.

The greatest tools in a communist’s arsenal are our ideas. Without these it is too easy to get caught up in the constant whirlwind of events facing us in the world today. To untangle some of this week’s biggest news stories, and get to the essence of these events, Fred Weston and Hamid Alizadeh from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International met for another episode of Against the Stream, the weekly current affairs podcast of the RCI.

This episode premiered on YouTube. Tune in every Thursday at 6pm GMT, or catch up on Spotify or Apple Music.