In the United States, resistance is growing against Donald Trump’s attempt to establish a the military dictatorship. In Los Angeles, the National Guard and the Marines have been deployed since working people began resisting ICE raids and deportation operations. On June 14, over 10 million people took to the streets across America under the slogan “No Kings!”

In a webinar titled “Trump’s coup and how to stop it ,” the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) and the Socialist Equality Party (SEP), the US sister party of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party in Germany), issued a call to unite the working class on the basis of an international socialist program to defeat Trump.

Workers in Germany are following this struggle with deep concern. The lessons of fascism and war are coming back to life here. Supporters and readers we spoke to have written to us or sent WhatsApp statements expressing their solidarity with their fellow workers in the United States. The WSWS will continue to publish such messages.

P. Nihat, a bus driver from Berlin, fully supports the fight against the Trump regime. He stated:

“We must fight against this in every respect. Immigrants are being treated like garbage. This is the case in every country—whether in Germany, America or elsewhere. In reality, immigrants are the backbone of society. Without them, the entire system would collapse. In this respect, Friedrich Merz is not much different from Trump.

“Now more than ever, the entire working class must rise up. We have to protect ourselves—both from these warmongering governments and from being treated like slaves. We are the slaves of the modern age, and you can see that clearly in the US.

“The Americans themselves are immigrants. The original possessors of America are the indigenous people; everyone else immigrated. I believe workers should have equal rights everywhere—whether they’re American, Mexican, Native American or Portuguese. Workers should be free to seek happiness wherever they want, here or there. The global wars currently taking place force people to migrate again and again, only to be enslaved again and again.

“We also have to resist the shutdown of universities and the barring of international students. That only serves to consolidate power by hoarding knowledge and preventing its global spread. It means halting the development of knowledge.”

Nihat has witnessed the struggles of the Transport Workers’ Action Committee in Berlin. On that, he said:

“What you’re doing—standing up to the unions, which support wars and organize social cutbacks—is truly special. These major unions, which claim to speak for us, are completely integrated into the state apparatus. They’re complicit in driving people into slavery.

“If we don’t all stand up together now and show that we’re willing to fight for our rights and against war, then we leave it to these big unions who support war. They will allow the governments and state apparatuses to oppress us in every way, to the point where we have no chance at all.”

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O., also a bus driver in Germany, spoke out as Israel launched its attack on Iran and following the recent protests against Trump in the US:

“You can see the world gradually waking up and pushing back. There are protests everywhere, marches and demonstrations. And still, the governments squirm, lash out, and ignite new fires—whether in Iran, Libya or Syria: that means a hundred thousand dead here, a few thousand more there, more killed elsewhere … The war against Iran is also a distraction from the fact that hundreds of people are still being killed every day in Palestine.

“And no one is saying stop! It feels like we’re all in a chokehold by terrorists. I never thought I would live to see the day when we are on the brink of World War III. It’s madness, and we must stop it.

It’s more than obvious that Trump idolizes Hitler. He admires what Hitler did. You can hear it in how he speaks: that this or that person must be ‘eliminated,’ that ‘the vermin must be exterminated.’ That’s exactly the same approach as back then—just with a different target group. When I think of the US government or of Israel, I think of Nazi Germany.”

Addressing American workers fighting against Trump, O. said:

“Your completely out-of-control, megalomaniacal, deranged president seems determined to set the world on fire, to terrorize the planet, and make life hell for everyone. That’s why you’re now on the front lines. You are there, and it’s your duty to stop your president—not just for yourselves, but for the rest of humanity.

“Take to the streets. Go everywhere. Block everything. Shut it all down. Don’t stop. Grind everything to a halt—until nothing works anymore, until that lunatic, that megalomaniacal freak, is gone.

“The eyes of all humanity are on you, because you currently stand at the centre of the terror. Your president, your government is supporting the other terrorists in the Middle East—namely Israel—which in turn is spreading death and destruction there. But our government supports this policy too. We must clear out our government as well.”

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Kim, a metalworker, writes from Norway:

“I am a migrant worker in Scandinavia, and I support my class brothers and sisters in the United States. Conditions may still be relatively good here, but like everywhere else, the cost of living is becoming unaffordable while the government prepares for war, devouring massive resources.

“I consider the struggle that Trump’s attempted dictatorship is imposing on you as my struggle too. It is a global revolutionary fight for the future of humanity—for socialism.

• “Against national capitalist vampirism, dictatorship, racist division, and world war!
• “Long live the Fourth International!
• “Long live the International Workers’ Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees!”

Max, a psychiatric nurse from Bavaria, recorded a video in support of his colleagues in the United States.

In the video, Max said:

“My name is Maximilian. I’m 27 years old and work as a nurse in a psychiatric ward.

“What I experience daily in my job is not just a personal burden—it’s a sign of political and social failure. The care crisis in Germany is not a law of nature, but the result of decades of austerity, privatization and the subordination of healthcare to profit.

“Our shifts are severely understaffed, and our pay is just as miserable. We’re pushed to the limit physically and mentally. The system relies on us submitting and sacrificing ourselves. When we speak out about grievances, we’re met with silence, platitudes or even repression. Firings and layoffs are tragically routine.

“The problems we face here are the same problems workers face worldwide. When I heard about the protests and uprising in Los Angeles, I knew immediately: this isn’t a ‘local problem’ or a ‘sudden escalation.’ It’s the expression of a global system that offers workers nothing but misery, insecurity, and oppression.

“I’m convinced that the only way out lies is uniting the international working class and fighting for socialism.

“The recent events in Los Angeles are an unmistakable expression of the deep social and political crisis of American capitalism. Amid rising poverty, unaffordable living costs, brutal police violence, and a government that systematically defends the interests of the billionaires, thousands of workers and youth have taken to the streets.

“The fascist Trump regime is reacting with panic and repression. The police apparatus has been militarized, the right to protest and democratic rights have been effectively abolished and trampled under foot. At the same time, both Democrats and Republicans are vilifying so-called ‘troublemakers’ and trying to obscure the social causes of the uprising and blur the class lines.

“The causes of the events in Los Angeles are class-based. People living in poverty, working under precarious conditions, lacking healthcare and fighting daily for survival are up against a tiny elite of super-rich. Social inequality in the US—the heart of world capitalism—has reached historic levels.

“This again makes clear that so-called ‘democracy’ in the US serves only the interests of Wall Street, the Pentagon and corporations. For workers, it means repression, surveillance and destitution. Identity politics, which seeks to divide the working class along ethnic, cultural or sexual lines, proves in times of crisis to be a political dead end. Only a united movement of the international working class, independent of all bourgeois parties, can offer a real alternative.

“Conditions in Germany are also rapidly deteriorating. The arms industry is booming. Friedrich Merz has only just taken office and is already causing chaos and destruction by supplying weapons to countries pursuing imperialist aims. He is also courting Trump.

“Politicians in the German Bundestag not only support genocide, the fascist Trump regime and the NATO proxy war—they are actively endorsing a policy of contempt for human rights.

“Workers, students, youth and the unemployed in Germany and internationally—I call on you to link these struggles to a socialist program. What is happening today in Los Angeles will unfold tomorrow in Berlin, Paris, London or Tokyo. The alternative is not reform or repression—but socialism or barbarism.

“My demands:

• “Immediate release of all arrested demonstrators!
• “Freedom and repatriation for all workers deported by ICE!
• “Disband ICE and the militarized police units!
• “Redistribute social wealth! Expropriate the corporations and banks under democratic control of the working class!
• “Build rank-and-file committees in workplaces, neighborhoods and schools—independent of the unions and bourgeois parties!”