Template motion on Stop Trump Coalition

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Below both a 133-word version and a 435-word version to adapt for your union branch or CLP.

Abridged version

We note:

Trump’s far-right authoritarian drive in the USA and international

Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer has initiated a state visit for Donald Trump.

He has also announced a plan to cut international aid to boost military spending

We believe:

Starmer should cancel the state visit.

It is wrong to increase military spending. Aid to Ukraine is no justification. So far that has totalled £7.8 bn over three years, which is 0.09% of UK economic output, and only 4.7% of military spending in those years.

The workers’ movement are the key to defeating the right.

We will:

Support/ invite a speaker from the Stop-Trump Coalition

Campaign against the state visit.

Mobilise our members against far-right mobilisations.

Continue to fight for rights for women, LGBT+, Black people, and migrants at work and in our communities.

Full version

We note:

Since Trump’s inauguration, he has reinstated off-shore drilling, attempted to end birthright citizenship, sacked many thousands of federal employees, ended the US ’s overseas aid programmes, sided with Putin over Ukraine, backed ethnic cleansing in Gaza, and pardoned the 6 January rioters.

Senior officials of the most powerful government on Earth now give Nazi salutes from the stage of political rallies. For millions of working-class Americans, especially women, girls, LGBT+ people and people of colour, his government poses an existential threat. It also threatens the working class internationally as we have seen from US policy on Gaza, Ukraine, threats to annex Greenland and Panama, and aid (oxygen tanks, HIV and malaria medications, and other medical supplies amounting to at least $240 million remain stuck at ports or storage facilities around the world.)

Globally the far right is growing. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and Trump’s (far) right hand man intervened to support the racist AfD in Germany. He is proposing to fund Reform in the UK and is lobbying for fascist leader Tommy Robinson to be released from prison.

We further note:

Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer has initiated a state visit for Donald Trump.

He has also announced a plan to cut international aid to boost military spending

We believe:

Starmer should cancel the state visit.

It is wrong to increase military spending. Large standing armed forces are by their very nature hierarchical, conservative, democracy-threatening forces. The British armed forces are no longer apt to seize colonies across the world for a British Empire. But their recent big operations have been to help the destructive US invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Aid to Ukraine is no justification for increased military spending. So far that has totalled £7.8 bn over three years, which is 0.09% of UK economic output, and only 4.7% of military spending in those years.

The workers movement are the key to defeating the right. Every piece of progress that workers can win– from tackling sexual harassment at work to higher pay for disabled workers — forms a bulwark against the far right. Unions could play a role in educating people against the far right, mobilising to defend migrants and other vulnerable communities, and restoring the idea that politics is not about division and hate, nor is it about worshipping at the feet of billionaires, but building a society of equality and justice.

We will:

Support/ invite a speaker from the Stop-Trump Coalition

Campaign against the state visit.

Mobilise our members against far right mobilisations.

Continue to fight for rights for women, LGBT+, Black people, and migrants at work and in our communities.

Sack Mandelson as UK ambassador to USA

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This CLP notes that:
• UK Ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson, interviewed on ABC News on 2 March, called for “Zelenskyy (to) give his unequivocal backing to the initiative that President Trump is taking” and said that “Ukraine should be the first to commit to a ceasefire and defy the Russians to follow”.
• The Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard replied that Mandelson’s demands are “not government policy” and that the war would stop if “President Putin stopped his illegal and unprovoked aggression”.
• Russia’s invasions and war aim for the subjugation of Ukraine, which they regard as an illegitimate nation with no right to self-determination.
This CLP resolves to:
Condemn Peter Mandelson’s statement.
Call on the UK Government to replace Peter Mandelson as the UK ambassador to the US.