Hi John,
Last night, Trump set light to the global economy. He has unleashed a world of pain, not least for a group of global south countries that will suffer tremendous impoverishment as a result of his punitive tariffs.
We need to show solidarity with those affected, and stand against Trump’s blackmail. To do that we need your support. Our work relies on grassroots supporters like you, because we refuse funding from anyone who might force us to water down our campaigns. Will you join us as a member?
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Trump’s tariff announcement might be the biggest economic event of my life. A brutal reorganisation of the world economy, which Trump hopes will boost American power and the wealth of the oligarchs who stand behind him.
Although these eye-watering tariffs are incoherent and at times contradictory, there is a logic to what Trump is trying to do.
First, Trump hates income tax. He hopes these tariffs will raise funds to extend the biggest tax giveaway to the super-rich in America’s history.
Second, Trump wants to spin a story that this is about bringing jobs back to the USA, playing on the notion that American workers have lost out as a result of neoliberal economics. There’s certainly truth to this, and tariffs, done properly, can indeed play a role in protecting industry. But that’s not Trump’s primary concern, and neither will these tariffs make life better for most ordinary Americans. Rather they will turbo-charge inequality in the US and globally.
Third, Trump wants to bully foreign countries into submission – forcing them to accept a range of demands from corporate America which will strengthen the US elite in the world.
This will cause pain everywhere, but it will decimate the economies of a range of global south countries from Cambodia to Madagascar to Bangladesh, which have been hit with extremely high tariffs. In many cases, these countries geared their economies to export-led growth on the orders of the US and US-dominated international institutions like the International Monetary Fund. Now they are being punished by that same country.
The British government seems to think it can get a better deal by appeasing Trump – and signing a trade deal which gives in to what he wants. But for all its bowing and scraping, the UK got no special treatment today. We have to make sure our government learns this lesson: they need to stop giving away our rights and protections in a futile effort to appease Donald Trump.
The answer, instead, is to stand up to this bullying, showing solidarity with all those affected. And the good news is that this would allow us to start building a very different economy – one not based on the demands of the richest which has created the problems we see in our world, but on protecting people and our environment.
Global Justice Now exists to promote such an economy. But we are only as strong as our members. If you want to fight Trump’s blackmail, join us today. In the coming weeks we will fight against the UK’s trade deal with Trump. And we will work for a strong, international response to these tariffs.
This is a frightening moment. But only from such moments of instability can truly transformative changes ever arise. And we have never needed this change more than now. Join us, and build that change.
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Thank you,
Nick Dearden
Director at Global Justice Now
PS. We’ve organised an emergency webinar on Trump’s trade war and the global justice response. It’s taking place next Wednesday and you can register here.
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