Members and supporters of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) are currently promoting the event, “Where is America Going: Socialism or Barbarism?” with David North, on November 18, 2025 at Humboldt University in Berlin.

We are publishing here the speech delivered by Johannes Stern, editor-in-chief of the German edition of the World Socialist Web Site, at an SGP rally on November 8, at Hermannplatz in Neukölln to promote the November 18 event. SGP members distributed around 2,000 promotional flyers and held many intensive discussions with workers, young people and other interested passers-by. Both the event itself and the socialist perspective of the SGP against fascism and war met with great interest and support. We publish Stern’s remarks below.

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“To say what is, remains the most revolutionary act,” the great Marxist and revolutionary socialist Rosa Luxemburg once said.

And that is exactly what the American Marxist and Trotskyist David North will do on November 18 here in Berlin at Humboldt University.

At the event “Where is America Going? Socialism or Barbarism,” North will provide an unsparing analysis and speak clearly about what is currently happening in the United States.

Fascist US President Donald Trump is attempting to establish a dictatorship and is mobilising the military in the cities and the fascist henchmen of the ICE Gestapo, who are literally hunting down immigrants.

North will explain that this dangerous development is not simply an expression of Trump’s personal criminality. The gangster in the White House did not just intrude like the proverbial embodiment of evil into the paradise garden of the United States. He is the personification of a degenerated and brutalised financial oligarchy and ruling class, symptomatic of the historic crisis of the capitalist system.

In fact, Trump’s policies are less a break with than a continuation of those of his Republican and Democratic predecessors. The ruling class as a whole is moving toward fascism and dictatorship. This is already clear from the fact that neither the Democratic Party nor the trade unions are organising any serious resistance. They fear a movement from below more than they fear Trump, because they themselves represent the same oligarchy.

But opposition to this is developing. On October 18, an estimated 7 million people took to the streets as part of the “No Kings” demonstrations against Trump’s conspiracy of dictatorship. They were the largest mass protests in American history. But this opposition needs a clear political perspective, and David North will speak about that as well.

Resistance to Trump’s dictatorship can only succeed if it is based on the strongest social force—the working class—and if it develops on the basis of an internationalist and socialist strategy.

“To say what is”: The defence of democracy is impossible without building a socialist movement that overthrows capitalism and places society’s wealth under the democratic control of the workers.

Workers and young people here are confronted with the same political questions and tasks. The developments in the United States are the sharpest expression of a global crisis. Here in Germany, too, the government is resorting to authoritarian measures against left-wing opposition, cutting education and social spending, whipping up agitation against refugees, and carrying out the largest military rearmament since Hitler.

So, the same applies here: to stop the development toward fascism, dictatorship and world war, workers, students and young people must build a socialist party that fights for the expropriation of the oligarchy and for a revolutionary programme. We stand before the alternative: Socialism or barbarism!

Therefore, on November 18, come to the event with the American Trotskyist and chairman of the Socialist Equality Party in the US, David North, and discuss these questions with us.

North will also be speaking in Britain on November 22 in London. Click here for information.