Tariffs have long been promoted as a lifeline for workers—a means to safeguard domestic industries and preserve jobs from the threat of cheaper imports. Yet beneath this seemingly benevolent narrative lies a calculated strategy designed to protect capital at the expense of labour. Protectionist measures have consistently failed to rescue the working class; instead, they reinforce the grip of the dominant class, driving up prices, deepening economic crises, and sowing division among workers. Karl Marx argued that tariffs were tools to foster capitalist development while transferring the costs onto the workers. Friedrich Engels observed that in Germany, protectionist policies merely enriched industrialists while making essential goods more expensive for the proletariat. Lenin later maintained that tariffs were not truly about defending jobs but were instead instruments for monopolists to secure control over markets and partition global trade. History shows time and again that when nations turn to tariffs, the working class invariably bears the burden.
“Protectionist measures have consistently failed to rescue the working class; instead, they reinforce the grip of the dominant class, driving up prices, deepening economic crises, and sowing division among workers.”
Contemporary policies reflect this historical pattern. With Trump back in the White House, the familiar cycle appears to be restarting. The recent imposition of a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada, coupled with a 20% duty on Chinese goods, is touted as a measure to spur investment and protect American jobs. Yet the experience of 2018, when tariffs on steel and aluminium led not to a manufacturing revival but to job losses, retaliatory measures, and spiralling costs for ordinary people, serves as a stark reminder. In each instance, the benefits have flowed to corporate coffers, while working people have been left to shoulder the economic fallout.
Tariffs are not merely economic policy tools; they are also instruments of imperialism. By imposing steep duties on imports, dominant nations can dictate the terms of global trade, forcing smaller economies to play by their rules. This economic coercion mirrors historical patterns of colonial control, where powerful countries extracted concessions and resources from less dominant regions. In doing so, tariffs help to reinforce global hierarchies, ensuring that wealth and influence remain concentrated at the top while smaller nations struggle to compete on an uneven playing field. These trade barriers extend the reach of capitalist imperialism beyond national borders. They allow powerful states to project economic dominance and secure favourable terms in international markets, effectively controlling critical supply chains. Such measures undermine the sovereignty of targeted nations and deepen economic dependency, as those on the receiving end are forced to adapt their policies and industries simply to survive. In this light, tariffs transform economic policy into a tool of geopolitical strategy, a modern manifestation of imperial power where control, rather than mutual benefit, drives global commerce.
The warning from history remains as urgent as ever. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930, designed to protect American jobs by raising duties on thousands of imports, instead sparked a global trade war. U.S. exports collapsed, global trade contracted dramatically, and the Great Depression intensified, resulting in mass unemployment and widespread hardship. Today, as the world economy continues to struggle with disrupted supply chains, rampant inflation, and escalating geopolitical tensions, further tariffs risk igniting new trade wars, slowing global growth, and triggering renewed financial instability. Britain, already reeling from the aftershocks of Brexit, could find its manufacturers besieged by spiralling costs and shrinking markets if caught between conflicting economic blocs.
Trump’s tariffs, then, are a ticking time bomb for nations like Britain (still battered by Brexit). They are poised to drive up prices, weaken industries, and further destabilise working-class communities. It is vital to reject narratives that pit workers against each other, such as a “Buy British” nationalism that purports to be a solution. Instead, we must recognise that these policies are weapons of economic warfare, designed to shield capitalist interests while exacting a heavy toll on ordinary people. Our response must be one of international solidarity: linking steelworkers in Port Talbot with their counterparts in Pittsburgh, and uniting dockworkers in Felixstowe with those in Rotterdam. The only effective counter to these measures is a global working-class movement that challenges capital wherever it operates. Failure to forge these alliances means continuing to pay the price long after such policies are implemented.
“we must recognise that these policies are weapons of economic warfare, designed to shield capitalist interests while exacting a heavy toll on ordinary people.”
By exposing tariffs as not only tools of protectionism but as instruments of capitalist imperialism, we lay bare a system that privileges profit over human well-being. History and contemporary experience both compel us to reject the false promise that tariffs defend the working class. Instead, they serve as mechanisms for the powerful to maintain control over global markets at our expense.
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