Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
As Minneapolis burns, what can the Thatcher years teach us about combating Trump and Johnson?
With the US president fanning the flames of violence in Minneapolis, DIANE ABBOTT MP looks at the history of scapegoating and finger-pointing at ‘the enemy within’

MINNEAPOLIS and other US cities are in flames after the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed and immobilised black man in police custody.  

He is alleged to have committed fraud. Campaigners have contrasted his treatment with a number of US serial killers who all made it safely from apprehension to arrest to the court room without injury, who were all white.

Donald Trump has intervened in the process, effectively encouraging a shoot-to-kill on unarmed civilians.  

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Traji Adwan (centre) mourns during the funeral of her 11-year-old grandchild Qais, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza that has been used as a shelter, at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, July 25, 2025
Features / 26 July 2025
26 July 2025

Our Foreign Secretary now condemns Israel in the Commons, yet Britain still supplies weapons and intelligence for its bombing campaigns — as the horror reaches perhaps the final stage, action must finally replace words, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP

cuts and war
Features / 12 July 2025
12 July 2025

The BBC and OBR claim that failing to cut disability benefits could ‘destabilise the economy’ while ignoring the spendthrift approach to tens of billions on military spending that really spirals out of control, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP

President Donald Trump gestures during a press conference after the plenary session at the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, June 25, 2025
Features / 28 June 2025
28 June 2025

Europe is acquiescing in Trump’s manoeuvrings — where Europe takes over the US forever war in Ukraine while Washington gets ready for a future fight with China. And it’s working people who will be left paying the price, says DIANE ABBOTT MP

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaking during a press conference on the Immigration White Paper, May 12, 2025
Politics / 31 May 2025
31 May 2025

DIANE ABBOTT MP argues that Labour’s proposals contained in the recent white paper won’t actually bring down immigration numbers or win support from Reform voters — but they will succeed in making politics more nasty and poisonous 
 

Similar stories
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaking during a press conference on the Immigration White Paper, May 12, 2025
Politics / 31 May 2025
31 May 2025

DIANE ABBOTT MP argues that Labour’s proposals contained in the recent white paper won’t actually bring down immigration numbers or win support from Reform voters — but they will succeed in making politics more nasty and poisonous 
 

Features / 19 April 2025
19 April 2025
British Steel has vindicated what the left has said all along — nationalisation of our key industries is common sense, and it’s the neoliberals who are now clearly the ideologically driven zealots, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP
(L to R) Rachel Reeves with the ministerial red box; Songi c
Features / 2 November 2024
2 November 2024
Comparing Budget measures to fictional Tory plans rather than actual spending levels conceals continued austerity, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP, as workers face stealth tax increases to bear the cost of economic stagnation
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves speaks during the
Features / 5 October 2024
5 October 2024
In light of its retreat on green investment, DIANE ABBOTT MP dissects Labour’s economic priorities, questioning whether the promised ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ will materialise amid signs of continued cuts and massive spending on war