The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has accelerated the polarisation of American society, as the Republican presidential candidate dodged death by the narrowest of margins. But it wasn’t just Trump who dodged a bullet. The entire country went right up to the edge of a precipice, before taking half a step back. As the title of a Financial Times article put it: “America is staring into the abyss”.

The attempt by a 20-year-old gunman to assassinate Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday has plunged American bourgeois democracy even deeper into crisis.

“Can a man take fire to his bosom, And his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals, And his feet not be seared?”(Proverbs 6:27-29)

Following the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, one question is on the minds of millions of ordinary Americans and the US ruling class: “How the hell are these our only options?”

In the early hours of this morning, it was announced that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will finally become a free man. This news will of course be celebrated by all those who campaigned for his release. Yet in a final injustice, Assange is currently on a plane bound for Saipan, in the American-controlled Mariana Islands, to plead guilty to an espionage charge. Thus US imperialism, which has never forgiven Assange for exposing its crimes, exacts a final measure of vengeance.

On June 10, RCA comrade Milos Minos will appear in court for an unusual crime: discussing wages and working conditions with their own coworkers at the Minneapolis International Airport.

On Thursday, May 30, Donald Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to influence the 2016 election. Outside the Manhattan courthouse, the Republican denounced the trial, saying, “This was a rigged trial, a disgrace.” Contrary to the jury’s verdict, Trump declared himself not only innocent, but “very innocent.” Despite these protestations, he has made history once again—this time by becoming the first American president to be a convicted felon.

Comrades, we write to you in solidarity as we are confident we share the goal of overthrowing US capitalism and imperialism.

On Tuesday night, police stood by as a mob of Zionist extremists were allowed to violently assault the Palestine solidarity encampment at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The peaceful pro-Palestine protests breaking out across the USA have been smeared as violent, racist and antisemitic by the media a politicians of all stripes. But there has been a conspiracy of silence around the real overt racism and extreme violence of the Zionists attacking campuses these past few days.

Last week, workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted to join the United Auto Workers (UAW). The overwhelming result—2,628 to 985—is the UAW’s first success at a foreign-owned automaker in the South. UAW President Shawn Fain called it “the first domino to fall” in the union’s campaign to organize 13 companies including Tesla, BMW, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and Hyundai. The next target is a Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama where 5,200 workers will vote May 13–17.

Student activists have escalated the Palestine solidarity movement significantly over the past week, establishing encampments at campuses across the country. The goal of the students is to divest—that is, cut all financial ties—from companies that are aiding Israel’s war.

Across the United States over 60 universities and colleges have seen students and faculty organising encampments in a growing movement against the massacre in Gaza. A whole generation is being politicised and drawing conclusions about the nature of imperialism, the role of the police and the state and the need for collective action.

Protests against Israel’s American-backed genocidal onslaught in Gaza are escalating on campuses across the country. On April 17, students at Columbia University in New York City set up the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” demanding the university divest from Israel and companies that profit off the slaughter. The protest coincided with Columbia President Minouche Shafik’s appearance at a Congressional hearing aimed at slandering the Palestine solidarity movement as

The term “to shed crocodile tears” derives from the fact that crocodiles have been noted to shed tears as they consume their victims. According to the Collins Dictionary, the meaning of the saying is “to pretend to be sad or to sympathise with someone without really caring about them.” Crocodiles do indeed produce tears, but they serve to keep the eyes clean and lubricated and are in no way connected to emotions. Today, we have many crocodiles in human form – they are called Presidents, Prime Ministers, Foreign Secretaries, newspaper editors, and so on. But Biden stands out clearly as the Chief Crocodile.

Last Sunday, our US comrades announced the launch of a brand new organisation: the Revolutionary Communists of America (RCA). In just a week, it has caused something of a sensation. Social, mainstream, and state media outlets quickly picked up on the news. In total, millions in the US, and hundreds of millions around the world have seen the launch videos after being picked up by state media in a number of countries. The announcement has become a beacon for communists and class fighters across the continent and beyond, with our US comrades being flooded with hundreds of write-ins in just one week.