On Friday, January 23, around 100,000 people in Minneapolis turned out to protest against the Trump administration’s mobilization of ICE against the city’s population. The following day, Saturday, federal agents carried out a second cold-blooded execution, killing Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse. This followed shortly after the murder of US citizen Renée Nicole Good only a few miles away.

Since the beginning of the year, the Trump administration has invaded Venezuela, kidnapped its government and then threatened Iran and Greenland with military force, while placing several major cities in the US under a state of siege and having thousands of immigrants abducted, detained and deported.

The one-day turnout for a general strike in Minneapolis expressed the growing resistance in the American working class to the drive to dictatorship. It was organised neither by the Democratic Party nor by the major trade union federations, but through the initiatives of working people. It coincided with strikes by 15,000 nurses in New York City and by 31,000 healthcare workers in California and Hawaii.

Since then, Democratic politicians have been desperately trying to put a stop to this growing movement and to downplay the drive to dictatorship demonstrated so sharply in Minneapolis. Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, described his recent phone call with Donald Trump as “productive” and said he and the president were “on the same wavelength.” There are no calls coming from this party of big-business for the impeachment of the fascistic president or for charges to be brought against the federal agents gunning down citizens in the street.

Anger at the dictatorial regime continues to spread, even beyond the borders of the United States. Millions of workers worldwide are following the fortunes of their brothers and sisters in the US with intense sympathy for their struggle. In Germany in particular, Trump’s actions vividly bring to mind Hitler, the Second World War and the Holocaust. More and more people are becoming aware that a third world war can only be stopped if we succeed not only in overthrowing the Trump dictatorship, but in eliminating the entire oligarchy for which he speaks and the dictatorship of capitalism as a whole.

This can also be seen in the messages from workers, students and members of the IYSSE that have reached the German editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site. Their messages express the solidarity of the authors with the striking workers in the US and the call for the building of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC).

Semyon, a Ukrainian student, writes:

I am a Ukrainian refugee living and studying in Germany. The general strike in Minneapolis is an appropriate response to Trump’s terrible oppression. I would like to emphasise that Trump’s fascist tyranny affects workers all over America—furthermore, the same authoritarian measures and the militarisation of society are also being introduced by states all over the world. Therefore, workers must fight for the general strike in Minneapolis to become a general strike of workers all over America and for a unification with their international class brothers. In the fight for the perspective of international workers’ solidarity, the IWA-RFC plays a key role—the Action Committees unite workers in America and all over the world. Fight for a general strike of all workers in America and join the IWA-RFC!

Sophia from Bavaria addresses the strikers in the Minnesota general strike directly:

Dear people in Minnesota,

My name is Sophia, I am a mother, student and artist. The developments in the United States and the increasing attacks by the Trump administration on the population fill me with great concern. People who stand up for their rights, their safety and their future deserve respect—not intimidation. Your collective action shows how strong a united community is. When you stand together, you are a force that cannot be ignored. Trust each other, support each other, remain steadfast. As a united working class, you can stop this madness. You have my full support for your general strike. We from the IYSSE stand behind you in full solidarity. I send you courage, strength and hope from afar.

Further messages express solidarity, in particular with the striking nursing staff in New York, whose problems many know from their own experience. Thus Andreas, an employee in a company in the health and social sector in North Rhine-Westphalia, writes:

I send solidarity greetings today to all striking nursing staff in New York! Reasonable working conditions and good pay are the cornerstone of good healthcare. In this country too, working conditions in nursing are poor, which is taking its toll through growing staff shortages. To subject healthcare to the logic of capitalism, to want to generate profit with the misery of people, is perverse. It is one’s own moral standards that prevent industrial disputes in the health sector from being waged hard. One must show the managers that they too can quite possibly become victims of the circumstances they have created themselves!

The unions are a hindrance to the defence of healthcare, not useful. They take the power out of industrial disputes, ultimately standing in opposition to the workers.

Maximilian, a nurse in Bavaria and member of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP), writes:

I am following the struggles of the workers in New York with enthusiasm and send my greetings to all strikers. You have the fullest solidarity from us workers here in Germany and around the world, because what you are doing is of international importance.

The fascist Trump regime is only the tip of the iceberg of a global catastrophe. Germany, too, is to become “war-ready” again! Billions are flowing into rearmament and into so-called “defence,” which is only a cloak for neo-colonial warmongering. That must be mentioned when one looks at the dilapidated health system, because there would be no money left for it.

Underpayment, overtime and existential fears are making us nursing staff sick. In cases of illness, pressure is exerted, and we are played off against each other. Strikes are driven into the wall, not least because they are undermined by Verdi [service sector union]. Verdi never negotiates in the interests of the employees but merely serves as an instrument to keep us in check and prevent effective strikes.

Therefore, we as employees have to arrange cover for our own “absence”: calling colleagues who would step in for us on the day we are missing. Appeals are made to our sense of responsibility. They say we have human lives in our hands. That is true! But that is not reflected in our pay. If management and Verdi are aware of what we achieve daily and fob us off with marginal increases that factually amount to real wage cuts, that is not only mocking us, but a reason to break away from the unions and build independent Action Committees.

Jim, a young apprentice cook in Bavaria who has joined the IYSSE, expresses his solidarity with the strikers in New York, Minneapolis and the whole of the US:

I stand in solidarity with all 15,000 employees in the healthcare sector in New York who are suffering under unbearable working conditions and are fighting against the conditions caused by the privatisation of the healthcare system. I also stand in solidarity with the growing mood for a city-wide general strike in Minneapolis against the occupation of working class neighbourhoods by the federal government. And with all people from the working class who are confronted with raids by the immigration authority ICE, worsening working conditions, racist institutions, deportations, debt, insufficient income for a living, the invasion of their cities by the US army, war or the interests of the USA and its capitalist oppression. Never lose faith in the working class of the world! We keep this earth running. We can bring it to a standstill—together! You are not alone.