Published in the Guardian

Tuesday 31 January 2017

To temper Trump and to reverse the rise of the extreme right in Europe will not just require the “popular resistance” demanded by Owen Jones (Opinion, 31 January), but also a popular economic alternative. Donald Trump and the likes of Marine Le Pen know exactly what they and the majority want: less immigration and more protection of domestic jobs. Indeed, Trump is correct in his view that “Free trade’s no good” for the US. What most leaders fail to yet understand is that the same is true for all countries.
Trump is therefore right to have an “America first” approach to trade, but wrong to be a one-sided protectionist who still wants to export but not to import if it displaces US jobs. To avoid this rerun of the 30s when countries protected their own borders while trying to export to others will requires a new kind of “progressive protectionism” for all countries, one that reduces global trade and shifts the emphasis to protecting and rebuilding national economies and having managed rather than large scale migration.

Since Trump came to power there have been a lot of loose parallels made with Hitler, but the one thing they do have in common is they offered to their electorates what was seen as a solution to the all pervasive insecurity felt by their voters. Progressives need to concentrate not just on demonstrations which quickly lose momentum, but instead work out how to provide a sense of economic security for the majority before history repeats itself.
Colin Hines
(Author, Progressive Protectionism) 
East Twickenham, Middlesex