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Regional secretary with the National Education Union
The Musk-Trump demolition derby begins
Musk’s ‘Doge’ is already dismantling institutions and destroying lives with shocking rapidity, while legal challenges and protest movements finally begin to mount against the chaos and cruelty, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
Anti-cuts protesters rally on Capitol Hill in support of federal workers, Washington, February 17 2025

“ALL that is solid melts into air,” wrote Karl Marx. In the US today, all that was once solid is being smashed into pieces.

We are staring at the shattered remains of what was an already deeply imperfect democracy. Institutions are being dismantled, lives and livelihoods destroyed. The illusion once known as the American dream has melted into air along with the financial and psychological wellbeing of millions of working people.

The man wielding the axe is Elon Musk, the de facto US president. If there were any remaining doubts about that, they were dispelled at the first gathering of Trump’s full cabinet this week when he deferred to his billionaire puppet-master to open the meeting.

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