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Donald Trump is a lot of things, but a communist is not one of them. Yet signs sporting the communist symbol of the hammer and sickle have been spotted in protests against Trump across the country. These signs could be seen at the Women's March in Washington D.C. the day after the inauguration as well as the most recent "Not my President" rallies in a number of US cities. White liberals have been the primary messengers of the false connection between Trump and communism. Behind them is the Democratic Party, whose loss in the Presidential elections has only intensified their anti-Russia narrative.

Many left groups and activists have become energized by the election of Donald Trump. Anarchist and socialist formations have taken to the streets in opposition to the Trump Administration. Trump's proposals to build a wall on the US-Mexico border and create an even more Wall Street-friendly regulatory apparatus are indeed affronts to anarchist and socialist principles. But so too should the Democratic Party's claim that Russia meddled in the elections in favor of Donald Trump. The Democratic Party and its loyal white liberal base have failed to provide convincing evidence that links Trump to Russia. Instead, these forces have spearheaded a dangerous Neo-McCarthyist campaign that pits anyone who doesn't align with the Democratic Party line a dupe of the Russian government.

The neo-McCarthyism of white liberals and their friends in the Democratic Party is completely detached from reality, as most lies are. Those who link Russia to communism ignore the fact that Russia has not been under a socialist, Marxist-oriented planned economy since 1991. It was in the Western-backed destruction of the Soviet Union where the US was caught meddling in the so-called "democratic" elections held in 1996 in favor of Boris Yeltsin. Under Yeltsin's reign, poverty exploded and life expectancy for men decreased five years all in the name of "shock therapy."

The US and Western-backed destabilization of the Soviet Union allowed global capitalism to spread its misery unfettered from pesky socialism. Russia came under the control of oligarchs concerned only for their own enrichment and that of its billionaire partners in the West. The transition of power to Vladimir Putin in the 21st century led to a number of reforms that curbed the disastrous looting of the nation by the oligarchic bandits. Putin and his allies vowed to build an independent, capitalist Russia that was capable of determining its own affairs free from US and Western domination. Such an orientation placed Putin in direct confrontation with US imperialism's plans for unipolar global hegemony.

It is this context that white liberals and the Democrats work hard to ignore. The Democratic Party's loss to Donald Trump has laid bare US imperialism's existential crisis. Anti-communist, anti-Russia narratives provide a useful distraction from the symptoms of the crisis. These symptoms include a stagnate capitalist infrastructure with nothing to offer but joblessness and poverty, an increasingly repressive state apparatus built on the racial oppression of Black Americans and the surveillance of all Americans, and endless warfare that produces nothing but chaos. Trump took advantage of the vacuum left by these unpopular policies; but to acknowledge this means to acknowledge the bankruptcy of the system.

Furthermore, Trump as an individual is the antithesis of communism. Communism is defined as the final stage of economic development. The basis of communism is a classless global society made possible by economic conditions of abundance made possible by a worker-controlled socialist state. Under communism, the state has "withered away"- or in other words become gradually irrelevant to the needs of humanity. The state is rooted in the formation of class society where a separate body mediating the conflict between classes is necessary to maintain the power of the oppressing class. Without classes, there is no need for such a formation to exist.

Donald Trump is a member of the capitalist ruling class. Communists worldwide have struggled to overthrow this class for well over a century. Trump accumulated his fortune from the exploitation of labor's surplus value, which is true of any billionaire. His class position alone makes him an enemy of communists. By this logic, Trump should be a friend of the ruling class. However, Trump has come under fire and not just from Democrats. Leading Republicans such as John McCain and Lindsay Graham and billionaires like the Koch Brothers have all voiced their opposition to Trump.

Ruling class antipathy towards Trump is rooted both in the anti-communism of the past and the crisis of the present. John McCain and Lindsay Graham insist, without proof, that Trump is an agent of Russia. A section of the billionaire capitalist class has other concerns, such as the viability of an Administration that openly targets the extremely profitable undocumented labor force. The capitalists aligned with the Democratic and Republican Party establishments view Trump as a blemish and a stain on the political legitimacy of the system. Trump’s very presence in the White House is a reflection of a broader economic crisis of the system.

Trump and his administration must be opposed by the left on every front when it comes to its attacks on working people both here and abroad. The fact is, even if such opposition must intensify, the corporate assault on working people was a staple of prior administrations. Trump's bigotry may not be coded like prior administrations, but it certainly isn't new. What is new is the revival of McCarthyism and anti-communism brought to us by the so-called "progressive" wing of the US capitalist state.

The arbiters of neo-McCarthyism have significant institutional power. Ask Michael Flynn, Trump's former National Security Advisor. Flynn was dismissed not too long after US intelligence caught him having a mere discussion with Russia's Ambassador to the US. While Flynn was dangerous in his own right for his position on Iran, his ouster provides no cause for celebration. Flynn's forced removal reveals that in many cases the Neo-McCarthyist faction of the establishment can determine policy without the aid of the executive branch.

The Neo-McCarthyist agenda of the ruling class cannot be defeated merely by forcing Trump into an early exit from the oval office. Only the independent organization expressed by the oppressed and working class masses can push back against the forces peddling the false connection between Trump, Russia, and communism. The popular struggle against this false connection will reveal the decrepit state of imperialism and the true character of communism.Communism was embraced by Black revolutionaries such as Assata Shakur, W.E.B. DuBois, and Harry Haywood. In order to follow their example in a manner applicable to the current period, we must refuse to align with the ruling class forces seeking to bury Trump with anti-communist and anti-Russia lies.

*(Donald Trump in Reno, Nevada; January 10th, 2016. Credit: Darron Birgenheier/ flickr).