As the US redefines its global role and its approach to international relations with Trump at the helm, the world is going to become a far more unstable and threatening place than it already is. In this enormously challenging context, the pivotal but still uncertain question will be the scale and strength of working class resistance and the popular struggles that are taken up.

As we see in the case of ongoing efforts to criminalize disruptive forms of climate protests, establishment thinking is embracing the idea that stricter limits must be set on the freedoms that have been conceded by liberal democracies. You can object to the destructive conduct of fossil fuel companies, but if you challenge their operations you will be treated as a terrorist.

The decline of the Liberals is part of an international trend where the political centre finds it harder and harder to hold off challenges from the populist right. The inability of the Biden-Harris administration to forge an effective alternative to Trump is an obvious case in point. The Conservatives in Canada are poised to benefit from Trump’s victory.

The Canadian establishment doggedly enables Israel and finds it advantageous for supporters of the Palestinian struggle to be contained. However, the lobby’s role in equating Jewish identity with Zionism and labelling opposition to this colonialist ideology as antisemitic is a potent factor that we should not underestimate.

The musings of billionaires, the pronouncements of leading politicians and the version of events that we get from the corporate media all reveal how the rich and powerful view the world and their own place in it. We need to be alert to the common ways in which they misrepresent and distort reality for their own advantage, writes John Clarke.

The mass killing operations of Israel are there for all to see but the military objectives of the Zionist onslaught have not been met. Even in the confined quarters of the Gaza enclave, a year of unrestrained criminality hasn’t subdued the armed resistance. Even if all out regional conflict takes place with direct US involvement, imperialism will reap what it sows.

We live in a world in which wealthy imperialist countries dominate and exploit the nations that are poor and oppressed. It is not surprising that this great international injustice involves the devaluing of human life. The conduct of political leaders in the West attests to this but it is also in evidence if you examine the track record of the corporate media.

Whether the hard right or the liberal centre holds power, working class communities are facing an implacable enemy. We can’t build the united movement the situation demands if we periodically put our struggles on hold to campaign for the more moderate representatives of the very agenda we need to defeat. We must remain sharply focused on building a socialist alternative for the years ahead.

Different approaches are needed to counter today’s containment strategies. Governments are less likely to be moved by displays of our potential power. Huge rallies and days of action are an essential part of building movements and campaigns, but this is a period when ongoing social action and indefinite strikes will be needed to turn back attacks and win our demands.

Peter Rosenthal was a brilliant movement lawyer who put his considerable skills at the service of people on the receiving end of the injustices this society dishes out. He defended those who resisted exploitation and oppression. His political opinions and his moral values put him on their side and he deployed his formidable talents to their advantage in case after case.