Fight against Trump’s dangerous ideology is ‘not over,’ unions, campaigners and socialists warn
CAMPAIGNERS, trade unionists and politicians have welcomed the US election result — but warned that the threat of Donald Trump’s dangerous ideology is “not over”.
Democrat candidate Joe Biden clenched victory after winning the key battleground of Pennsylvania on Saturday, four days after the polls closed, pushing him over the 270 electoral college votes threshold.
Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris becomes the first woman in the role – and the first person of African and Asian heritage to hold it.
Mr Trump is refusing to concede to the results, having begun legal action alleging fraud, and was playing golf when Biden’s win was announced.
A White House official said Mr Trump will “accept the results of a free and fair election.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson congratulated Mr Biden and Ms Harris on their win and said: “The US is our most important ally and I look forward to working together on our shared priorities from climate change to trade and security.”
Mr Johnson said he would get in touch with Mr Biden “shortly” to discuss an alliance with the new administration.
But the president-elect is anti-Brexit and has previously described Mr Johnson as a “physical and emotional clone” of Mr Trump.
Following Mr Johnson’s congratulatory tweet, an aide of former president Barack Obama labelled the PM a “shapeshifting creep.”
Referencing Mr Johnson previously suggesting Mr Obama’s “part-Kenyan heritage” was behind his “ancestral dislike of the British empire,” Tommy Vietor said: “We will never forget your racist comments about Obama and slavish devotion to Trump.”
Labour MP Ian Lavery tweeted a photo of Mr Johnson and Mr Trump and said: “The blond duo. They share the same right-wing populism. Can one survive without the other?”
Stand Up To Racism said Mr Trump’s loss is “a blow to the racist right across the world.
“But Biden is not the answer to tackling racism in the US,” the group tweeted. “Solidarity to Black Lives Matter and the movement that defeated Trump.”
Unite Against Fascism wrote that it was “great to see the back of” Mr Trump as far-right figures such as France’s Marine Le Pen, Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban and Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro had backed him,
They added: “‘Tommy Robinson’ even begged Trump for asylum.
“All solidarity to US anti-fascists who will face reaction from embittered bigots.”
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said it was “great news for progressives around the world that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had defeated Trump.
“Let’s work together internationally to build a better, fairer, greener, peaceful and more equal world.”
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “Congratulations to our sister trade unions for supporting Joe Biden.
“It’s so good to see the back of such a divisive figure as Trump. I hope Biden now repays the unions and doesn’t let them down. He owes the left coalition a lot.”
Britain’s Communist Party leader Robert Griffiths hailed “a setback for the far-right mobs, proto-fascists and dangerous conspiracy-mongers who have gathered around Trump” but warned that “when it comes to foreign and military policy, president-elect Biden is every bit as committed to the pro-Nato, anti-China and anti-liberation agenda in Latin America and the Middle East as Trump.”
Mr Biden said: “The people of this nation have spoken. They’ve delivered us a clear victory, a convincing victory, a victory for you the people.”
But the Democrats lost ground in congressional elections and the Republicans still control the Senate, giving them a veto on most legislation.
Ms Harris, who took the stage before Mr Biden, said she was thinking of her mother and “the generations of women, black women, Asian, white, Latina, Native American women who throughout our nation’s history have paved the way for this moment tonight.
“While I may be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last,” she added.
Mr Trump’s supporters have followed his claims of election fraud by taking to the streets, some of them armed with rifles and handguns.
Hundreds of people rallied in Phoenix on Saturday, charging the media with conspiring to steal the election and calling the results a coup.
A self-proclaimed Proud Boys chairman stated on his social media page that Mr Trump’s previous “standby order” was no longer in effect, and the violent hate group was “rolling out.”
His supporters have also clashed with counterprotesters.
Huge crowds gathered across cities to celebrate Mr Biden’s win. A street party erupted in front of the White House with people cramped together, despite Covid warnings.
Meanwhile, Democrat Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned the Biden administration that if leftwingers were not put in top positions, the party would lose big in the 2022 mid-term elections.
She told the New York Times that the internal truce in place while the Democrats worked to defeat Mr Trump was over.
The New York representative rejected notions by some party members that left messaging during the Black Lives Matter movement and the Green New Deal led to a loss of congressional seats in the election.
In Israel, several thousand people attended the weekly demonstration against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with some holding banners reading: “Trump Down, BiBi to go” and “Nethanyahu, You’re Next.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on Mr Biden to “compensate for past mistakes” and return the US to Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
And in India, groups gathered at street corners in the small village of Thulasendrapuram, where Ms Harris’s grandfather was from, setting off firecrackers in celebration of her election.
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