TBH I think that’s the wrong takeaway. That polling result showed something like 25% of those polled would want to work in a factory if they could. If that result were valid for the entire US, that would be something like 50 million (out of ~210 million working age). For reference, peak manufacturing employment in the US was in the late 1970s with around 20 million people working in manufacturing out of ~110 million working age.
I think the first question the wrong question to ask. Starting from a perspective of “who should I support” is a type of liberalism in my opinion because “support” really doesn’t mean anything to anyone except you.
Who benefits is more relevant, but before we even get to that question, there’s coming to an understanding of how we got here in the first place. Now, I don’t know if this was a false flag or if this was purposely allowed to happen. The timing is quite convenient, however. With the global trade war underway and America in an increasingly weak position, India has the leverage to back America on the trade war front in exchange for concessions on Pakistan and Kashmir. I don’t expect a hot war since both are nuclear armed but since America exerts significant influence over Pakistan, I expect that there are options it can pursue to force Pakistan into agreeing to concessions. If they manage to pull this off, it’ll be a win for India and the US and a loss for Pakistan.
If this analysis is correct, the proximate solution for American leftists in my view is to accelerate American capitulation in the current trade war, by organizing around increasing costs, bringing in the petit bourgeoisie if necessary. A weakened American position would make the costs of backing them in the trade war too costly for a country like India that’s otherwise highly reliant on Central Asian and East Asian trade networks. Encouraging closer economic ties between India and China would also help resolve the situation but I doubt anyone on this forum is in a position to help make that happen.
that’s not really at stake, growth is irrelevant as life itself has an energetic maintenance cost. even if biomass stops increasing after today, resources and energy is being used up, all of which is finite. the sun itself, which is the ultimate source of life energy on this planet, is finite. Growth can effectively be pursued until the heat death of universe, thermodynamics is the limiting factor, not “finite resources”
Development of productive forces is what pushes history itself forward. It’s a good thing. Not unique to capitalism.