IF THERE is no such thing as bad publicity then disgraced former president Donald Trump has already won November’s election.
 
I don’t normally watch television when I am on my travels, but in a moment of weakness, I switched my New York City Midtown hotel screen on to watch some news.
 
It is no exaggeration that on just about every news channel I switched to there was coverage of the trial involving Trump and porn star Stormy Daniels.
 
I have no intention of going into any details of this case — if you want to know more, turn on the corporate news. It was just really noticeable to me how much coverage there was.
 
I also saw poll ratings that showed Trump was still outperforming the incumbent, President “genocide Joe” Biden.
 
There is no doubt that dissatisfaction with the way Biden has handled the slaughter in Gaza is having an impact on his poll ratings, but I do not believe that his ratings were not all that hot before October 7.
 
Those of us who follow international affairs can easily fall into the trap of thinking that everyone is thinking about the genocide being committed (or, as some believe, not being committed) by the Israelis.
 
There are clearly large swathes of the US who have this at the top of their agenda. But, and I am willing to take the hit if I am wrong, most people in the US are more concerned about how they are going to survive what is, for most, a very harsh country. They mainly want to know what the next president is going to do to put some brass in their pockets.
 
By this calculation, there is no way any working-class person in the US should remotely consider giving their vote to Trump who prioritised giving tax breaks to the super-rich, of which he claims — somewhat unconvincingly as various trials indicate — to be a part.
 
That’s why the work of places like the People’s Forum (PF) in New York is so important. It acts as a hub to bring together the truth tellers — people who are bold enough to go against the stream of manufactured “popular” opinion in the US and expose what the ruling class are doing to boost their profits and protect each other.
 
The PF describes itself as a “movement incubator for working-class and marginalised communities to build unity across historic lines of division at home and abroad.”
 
The building just off 8th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, provides space for organising, workshops and conferences who, as they say, believe “a new world is possible.”
 
I was fortunate enough to get to spend some time with two of my favourite people Zoe Alexandra and Eugene Puryear.
 
I was too shy (yes, me) to tell both of them that they happen to be two of my favourite journalists.
 
Alexandra writes mainly about Latin America and the Caribbean and is the co-editor of People’s Dispatch. Puryear is the co-host of Breakthrough News alongside the excellent Lebanese journalist Rania Khalek.
 
They are among my favourite journalists because they know how to be radical and meticulous journalists in a profession that continues to peddle the myth of impartiality.
 
They are both socialists who, like me, did not set out to be journalists as a career choice. Both were activists and added journalism to their activism.
 
Alexandra and Puryear gave me a tour of this outstanding institution. They showed me the bookstore at the entrance selling books by radical publisher 1804 Books, named for the year of the victory of the Haitian Revolution.
 
The bookshop sits next to the People’s Cafe where you can enjoy snacks and coffee at a price that doesn’t break the bank — unlike the rest of Midtown.
 
They showed me the very ample meeting spaces and the basement media studio named after the legendary Paul and Eslanda Robeson.
 
I couldn’t help thinking that a venue such as this, which attracts around 3,000 people through its doors each week, might be rife with sectarianism in Britain.
 
Alexandra and Puryear told me that this wasn’t the case there. There seemed to be a respect for the importance of this rare space and political differences were generally handled amicably.
 
The main attacks appear to come from people who don’t differentiate between sections of the left but oppose anything remotely associated with that devil (to them) called socialism.
 
The building has experienced a number of physical attacks — particularly in recent times as the PF has acted as a hub for New York activity in support of the Palestinians.
 
A venue such as the PF is simply gold dust in the belly of the beast. We could only wish for something remotely similar in Britain. If you have reason to be in New York City I strongly recommend giving the place a visit.
 
The PF is no vanity project and this article is no travelogue.
 
The point I was inspired to make by my visit to the PF is that we need to step up both the level and the professionalism of our organising work if we are ever to defeat the captains of capital and all the resources they have at their disposal.
 
If we are to defeat Trump in the US and the likes of Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer in Britain we can produce media communications that don’t just talk in a language that only the left understands.
 
Breakthrough News, which you should subscribe to on YouTube is a high-quality weekly production. There is no reason whatsoever why there could not be a similar production in Britain and we should look to do it.
 
The PF isn’t some scruffy little falling-down building. It is a high-quality professional facility that doesn’t put you off as soon as you come in the door.
 
The high diversity of people in the building while I was there was also really noticeable to me. Many of the staff also seemed really young to me — but then again many people do these days!
 
Resources to do something similar in Britain or, for that matter, in other parts of the US, is always going to be an issue. But I think it’s a conversation worth having on the left in Britain about how we might be able to do something similar to the PF.
 
We are entering a period where the right and the far right are likely to be voted into controlling positions in a number of elections across Europe as well as Trump possibly being re-elected in the US.
 
We can go on fighting the battle against these people in the same way that we always do and, with isolated exceptions, get the same result. Alternatively, we can try upping our game and seeing what difference that makes to boosting our activist numbers and towards making a difference in the overall scheme of things.
 
After all — what do we have to lose? What we know for sure is that we have a world to win. So we may as well do it with a bit of style!