European Labor Leaders to America: Please Stop Donald Trump

[pampango]

They've seen a right-wing surge in Europe, but they're particularly worried about Trump.

The AFL-CIO convened a conference this week titled "Labor, Politics, and the Threat from the Right: A Trans-Atlantic Discussion." Predictably, one element of that threat was the unexpected rise of Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee.

"Guys, you've got to beat this guy, you've got to beat this guy," Antonia Bance, head of campaigns and communications at the United Kingdom's Trades Union Congress, pleaded. Bance noted that Trump was already feuding with London's newly elected mayor, Sadiq Khan, who is Muslim, and worried that an American president who has vowed to block Muslim immigrants would hurt relations between the countries.

Some of the European visitors were not as shocked as Bance. "We in Europe are really used to the right," said Luca Visentini, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, during one panel. "It's not something new for us."

I asked Visentini after the panel how closely his compatriots in Europe had been tracking the election. "Sometimes in Europe we are quite cynical. We see a lot of Mr. Trumps around in different countries, so we're not astonished nor neither shocked," he said. "But we are really very worried."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/05/afl-cio-right-wing-populism-donald-trump-europe

The labor left in Europe have been dealing with the populist right for quite a few years. Having one this close to the presidency in the US obviously worries them.

[Rex]

1. Do not fear, the GOP will not see another POTUS in the WH in my lifetime.

How can I be so sure? Bush-Cheney happened. Twice.