Gresser for AlterNet: 'A Communism of Pelf': How Trump betrayed American workers

Gresser for AlterNet: ‘A Communism of Pelf’: How Trump betrayed American workers

President Donald Trump’s trade wars with Canada and Europe — who have traditionally been American allies — are more than merely “weird’ (to quote economist Dr. Ed Gresser), although they are most certainly that. They have simultaneously done three things, all of them profoundly negative for both Americans and the rest of the world: First, they have raised prices for American workers while making their jobs less secure; second, they have hurt the United States’ standing in the global community; and third, they have created a political culture rife with corruption.

Or, to quote President Grover Cleveland: Instead of creating a communism of the proletariat, they have instead established a “communism of pelf.”

These ideas are not always easy to communicate to the general public, which is why AlterNet was grateful to speak with Dr. Elizabeth McKillen, professor emerita of history at the University of Maine. McKillen specializes in US history, labor history and foreign policy history, and has written two well-received monographs, “Making the World Safe for Workers: Labor, the Left, and Wilsonian Internationalism” and “Chicago Labor and the Quest for a Democratic Diplomacy: 1914-1924.” In the subsequent conversation, McKillen illuminates how Trump’s trade policies are fundamentally changing the world as we have known it for generations.