US History
Fifty years since the Delano to Sacramento march: The myth of Cesar Chavez and the collapse of the United Farm Workers
Part Two
By Eric London, 12 April 2016
The union founded by Chavez has become nothing more than a business operated by family members
Fifty years since the Delano to Sacramento march: The myth of Cesar Chavez and the collapse of the United Farm Workers
Part one
By Eric London, 11 April 2016
The union founded by Chavez has become nothing more than a business operated by family members.
The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The US Standard of Living Since the Civil War
By Eric London, 23 February 2016
According to a recent book by Northwestern University economist Robert Gordon, there is no objective foundation for an end to economic stagnation in the United States.
Walter Reuther and the rise and fall of the UAW
By Tom Mackaman, 23 December 2015
Walter Reuther’s biography has much to teach workers about the transformation of the trade unions into reactionary adjuncts of the corporations and the government.
Woodrow Wilson and Black Lives Matter
The political consequences of the racial evaluation of history
By Eric London, 4 December 2015
The demonstrations on racism in the US are of a typically middle class character and represent a very familiar and toxic element of bourgeois politics: the fight amongst different factions within the wealthiest ten percent.
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution: No lessons learned
By Clare Hurley and Fred Mazelis, 9 October 2015
Riveting video footage along with complacent commentary adds up to a misleading account.
Republican candidates attack the Fourteenth Amendment
By Patrick Martin, 24 August 2015
The demand for repeal of birthright citizenship, initiated by billionaire Donald Trump, marks a further shift to the right by the US ruling elite.
Julian Bond, veteran of early civil rights struggle and pillar of establishment, dies at 75
By Fred Mazelis, 19 August 2015
The outpouring of official tributes illustrates the political trajectory of the leaders of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
Book review
The Devil is Here in These Hills: West Virginia’s Coal Miners and their Battle for Freedom, by James Green
By Tom Mackaman, 18 August 2015
The book’s most important—and timely—contribution is its revelation of the startling level of violence that characterized class relations in an earlier period.
The covert “selling” of anticommunism
The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America
By Nancy Hanover, 17 August 2015
The Mighty Wurlitzer is an examination of the CIA’s 1947-67 campaigns against anti-capitalist and socialist thought.
Democratic Party moves to drop “Jefferson-Jackson” name from fundraisers
By Tom Mackaman, 13 August 2015
The move to disassociate the Democratic Party from the two figures it has long claimed as its founders, allegedly because they were slave-owners, marks a new milestone in the party’s embrace of identity politics.
The covert “selling” of anticommunism
The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America
Part 2
By Nancy Hanover, 12 August 2015
The Mighty Wurlitzer is an examination of the CIA’s 1947-67 campaigns against anti-capitalist and socialist thought.
Protesters denounce military legislation as Japan marks anniversary of nuclear bombings
By Ben McGrath, 11 August 2015
A Nagasaki survivor recounted the horrors of the blast and denounced Prime Minister Abe’s moves to amend Japan’s post-World War II constitution.
The covert “selling” of anticommunism
The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America
Part 1
By Nancy Hanover, 11 August 2015
The Mighty Wurlitzer is an examination of the CIA’s 1947-67 campaigns against militant, anti-capitalist and particularly socialist thought.
The 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima
By Peter Symonds, 6 August 2015
Washington’s use of the atomic weapons was aimed at terrorising not just the Japanese regime, but above all the Soviet Union, and ensuring post-war American global dominance.
Release of grand jury transcript points again to frameup of the Rosenbergs
By Fred Mazelis, 18 July 2015
The new revelations undermine the post-Soviet effort to reaffirm the supposed guilt of the Rosenbergs.
Trotskyism and the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934
Revolutionary Teamsters: The Minneapolis Truckers’ Strike of 1934, by Bryan Palmer
By Tom Mackaman and Jerry White, 24 June 2015
A recent book by historian Bryan Palmer chronicles the role of American Trotskyists in leading one of the most important strikes in US history.
Twenty years since the Oklahoma City bombing
20 April 2015
April 19 marked the twentieth anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, the bloodiest act of terrorism on US soil up to that point.
“The world only discovered him a hero after he had fallen a martyr”
150 years since the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
By Tom Mackaman, 14 April 2015
In office, Lincoln guided the Civil War and transformed it from a struggle for the preservation of the Union into a revolutionary war for the abolition of slavery.
Fifty years since the death of Viola Liuzzo
By Helen Hayes, 10 April 2015
The fight against Jim Crow segregation drew in white workers and youth as well as African-Americans from the North and the South. Liuzzo’s determination to participate in the civil rights struggle reflected great changes taking place in the US in the 1960s.
250 years since the Stamp Act
The Coming of the American Revolution
By Tom Mackaman, 24 March 2015
The Stamp Act set into motion a series of events that led, in one decade, to the American Revolution.
Exhibition at New York’s Morgan Library
Lincoln Speaks: Words That Transformed a Nation
By Fred Mazelis, 13 March 2015
An exhibition of letters and speeches makes the US Civil War and the role of Abraham Lincoln come alive.
Interview with Gordon Wood on the American Revolution: Part two
“History has to engage the whole public”
By Tom Mackaman, 4 March 2015
This is the second part of a two-part interview with Gordon Wood, a leading historian of the American Revolution. Part one was posted March 3.
Interview with Gordon Wood on the American Revolution: Part one
“Labor celebrated as the highest value”
By Tom Mackaman, 3 March 2015
Gordon Wood, a leading historian of the American Revolution, recently spoke with the World Socialist Web Site.
A warning to US oil workers: The United Steelworkers’ record of betrayal
By Shannon Jones, 18 February 2015
Over the past three decades, the USW has overseen the betrayal of scores of strikes and the decimation of workers’ jobs, health care and pensions.
Nearly 4,000 blacks were lynched in Jim Crow South, report finds
By Tom Mackaman, 17 February 2015
A new study compiles extra-judicial murders of African Americans that took place between 1870 and 1940.
Thirty-five years since the nationwide US refinery strike
By David Brown and Charles Abelard, 14 February 2015
Thirty-five years ago, US oil refinery workers carried out a nationwide strike, breaking through wage guidelines set by the Carter administration.
Albuquerque moves to escalate evictions of homeless campers
By D. Lencho, 9 February 2015
Removal of the homeless has begun at a “tent city” near downtown, while new encampments have sprung up in other parts of the city.
Mario Cuomo and the decay of American liberalism
By Fred Mazelis, 5 January 2015
The former Democratic governor of New York established a record while in office that had nothing in common with his high-flown speeches about compassion and reform.
How the British workers’ movement helped end slavery in America: Part one
By Joe Mount, 5 January 2015
This is the first part of a two-part article on the role of the British working class in the victory of the Northern Union forces in the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery in the United States.
Judge reverses guilty verdict in 1944 execution of 14-year-old
By Tom Mackaman, 20 December 2014
George Stinney, Jr., who was African American, was arrested, tried, convicted, and electrocuted for the murder of two white girls in the small mill town of Alcolu, South Carolina.
150 years since Sherman’s March to the Sea
By Tom Mackaman, 27 November 2014
In November and December, 1864, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman led a Union army deep through Confederate territory, resulting in the capture of Savannah and the liberation of thousands of slaves.
New book sheds further light on US government protection of ex-Nazis
By Thomas Gaist, 29 October 2014
US imperialism recruited thousands of Nazis after World War II, as detailed in a new book by New York Times journalist Eric Lichtblau.
The day the US shot down Iran Airlines Flight 655
By Niles Williamson, 19 July 2014
Who shot down the Malaysian jetliner over eastern Ukraine? Anyone who thinks that the US government is incapable of carrying out or sanctioning such a horrendous action against innocent civilians should consider the infamous case of the downing of Iran Air Flight 655.
Fifty years since the Civil Rights Act
By Tom Mackaman, 2 July 2014
The Civil Rights Act came in response to the mass protests known as the Civil Rights movement that swept the American South beginning in the 1950s.
Fifty years since the murder of the Mississippi civil rights workers
By Fred Mazelis, 23 June 2014
James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner sacrificed their lives in the struggle for democratic rights and social equality.
The Civil War in 1864
By Tom Mackaman, 23 May 2014
The American Civil War entered its decisive phase 150 years ago, in the summer and fall of 1864.
100 years since Ford’s five dollar day
By Tom Mackaman, 5 March 2014
Ford’s profit-sharing scheme was billed as the key to social harmony. Yet socialism and the Russian Revolution, coming just four years later, breathed a new spirit into the American class struggle.
100 years since founding of the Los Angeles Public Defender’s Office
By Alan Gilman, 20 February 2014
In 2014, the Los Angeles Public Defender’s Office marks a century since its founding, amid unprecedented attacks on the right to counsel.
PBS’s Red Metal: The Copper Country Strike of 1913 commemorates Michigan’s bitter labor past
By Debra Watson, 8 January 2014
A new PBS documentary looks at a miners’ strike a century ago in northern Michigan in which 73 workers and their children were victims of a company provocation.
Fifty years since Johnson’s declaration of the “War on Poverty”
By Tom Mackaman, 8 January 2014
President Lyndon Johnson's “War on Poverty,” declared 50 years ago Wednesday, proved to be liberal reformism's last gasp.
A half-century since the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
By David North, 22 November 2013
It may be the case that the American people will never know who killed Kennedy. But the deeper causes of his death can be explained.
150 years since Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
By Tom Mackaman, 19 November 2013
President Obama has spurned invitations to the gathering commemorating America’s most famous political speech.
The working class and the Detroit Industry murals at the DIA
Diego Rivera’s “Battle of Detroit”
By Tom Mackaman and Jerry White, 3 October 2013
The production of Rivera’s murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts, begun just months after the massacre of protesting workers near Ford’s River Rouge industrial complex, was a major political event.
Fifty years since the March on Washington
By Fred Mazelis, 24 August 2013
The 50-year commemoration of the March on Washington is a mockery of the struggles and sacrifices embodied in the mass civil rights movement.
Falsifying the American Civil War: Doris Kearns Goodwin at Gettysburg
By Eric London and Jerry White, 8 July 2013
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin attempted to strip the American Civil War of its revolutionary significance in her keynote speech at celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Obama glorifies militarism on the Fourth of July
By Patrick Martin, 6 July 2013
Obama gave his brief address in the midst of a campaign of persecution against a genuine defender of freedom and democracy, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Video: Gettysburg park workers, guests speak on the Civil War and the state of American democracy
By Andre Damon, 6 July 2013
In this video, workers, guests and volunteers at the Gettysburg National Military Park speak about the lasting significance of the Civil War and the ongoing attacks on American democracy.
“The entire future of democracy was hanging in the balance”
Historian Allen Guelzo speaks on the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg
By Andre Damon, 4 July 2013
In an interview with the WSWS, Civil War historian Allen Guelzo explains the world historical significance of the Battle of Gettysburg and Lincoln’s subsequent Gettysburg Address.
Third day of Gettysburg anniversary: Discussions on Snowden and the decay of democracy
By Jerry White in Gettysburg, 4 July 2013
Workers and young people visiting the Gettysburg battlefields contrasted the powerful democratic ideals of Lincoln and the Union forces with government spying, war and inequality in contemporary America.
Day two of the Gettysburg Anniversary: Visitors speak on the Civil War and contemporary matters
By Eric London in Gettysburg, 3 July 2013
Conversations about the historical significance of the war and of the Battle of Gettysburg abound, and discussions quickly turn to broader topics.
“There is going to be another civil war”
Workers, young people discuss the enduring relevance of the Battle of Gettysburg
By Jerry White in Gettysburg, 2 July 2013
In conversations about the Civil War, several people who spoke to the WSWS contrasted the ideals fought for by Lincoln with the inequality and destruction of democratic rights in contemporary America.
Two milestones in world history
The contemporary significance of the Declaration of Independence and the Battle of Gettysburg
By Joseph Kishore, 1 July 2013
The American Revolution and the Civil War were two of the great events in world history, advancing democratic principles that are everywhere under assault today.
150 years since the Battle of Gettysburg
By Tom Mackaman, 1 July 2013
On July 1, 2 and 3, 1863, the bloodiest battle in the history of North America took place at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in the midst of the Civil War.
One hundred fifty years since West Virginia statehood
By Clement Daly, 19 June 2013
West Virginia gained statehood 150 years ago in the revolutionary struggle to eradicate slavery in the United States during the Civil War.
From the archive of the WSWS
Fifty years since the execution of the Rosenbergs
By Peter Daniels and Bill Van Auken, 15 June 2013
The WSWS is reposting today an article from June 2003 on the half-century anniversary of the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on espionage charges, carried out at the height of the anticommunist witch-hunt in the US.
The WSWS speaks to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg’s son
An interview with Robert Meeropol
By Fred Mazelis, 15 June 2013
Robert Meeropol is the younger son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the couple executed by the US government in June 1953 on trumped-up charges of atomic espionage.
America’s revolutionary founding document
For Liberty and Equality: The Life and Times of the Declaration of Independence
By Tom Mackaman, 4 May 2013
A book that seriously considers the impact the Declaration of Independence is most welcome reading in 2013, a year which has seen an intensifying assault on the most basic principles of America’s founding document.
Understanding Lincoln: An interview with historian Allen Guelzo
3 April 2013
Leading Abraham Lincoln scholar Allen Guelzo recently spoke with Tom Mackaman of the World Socialist Web Site.
The British working class and the American Civil War: 150 years since London’s St. James’ Hall meeting
By Tom Mackaman, 26 March 2013
March 26 marks the 150th anniversary of the “monster” antislavery, pro-Union meeting of British workers at St. James’ Hall in London.
American Federation of Teachers’ journal slanders historian Howard Zinn
By Charles Bogle and Fred Mazelis, 18 February 2013
A review article on A People’s History of the US in the current issue of American Educator lays bare the union leadership’s slavish support for American capitalism.
PBS’s The Abolitionists: Remembering the political struggle against slavery
By Tom Mackaman, 31 January 2013
The Public Broadcasting System’s The Abolitionists is a reminder that the fight against slavery in the US was a hard-fought political struggle.
Forty years after Roe v. Wade: Abortion rights under sustained attack
By Matthew MacEgan, 28 January 2013
Four decades later, women’s reproductive rights are under severe attack, particularly regarding the affordability and accessibility of services for working class women.
150 years since the Emancipation Proclamation
By Tom Mackaman, 3 January 2013
We repost here a perspective initially posted on September 22 celebrating the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s order that legally freed 4 million slaves and altered the course of the American Civil War.
Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln and the historical drama of the Civil War
By Tom Mackaman, 12 November 2012
Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln is a powerful cinematic treatment of the Lincoln administration’s struggle to pass a Constitutional amendment abolishing slavery in 1865, the final year of the American Civil War.
An exchange of letters on the Emancipation Proclamation
29 September 2012
The WSWS posts a letter from a reader on “150 years since the Emancipation Proclamation” and a reply by the author, Tom Mackaman.
150 years since the Emancipation Proclamation
By Tom Mackaman, 22 September 2012
On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln made public the Emancipation Proclamation, which transformed the Civil War into a social revolution.
Prelude to the Emancipation Proclamation
150 years since the Battle of Antietam
By Tom Mackaman, 17 September 2012
The Battle of Antietam, fought 150 years ago in the second year of the American Civil War, set the stage for Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.
Thirty years since the murder of Vincent Chin
By Shannon Jones, 23 June 2012
Thirty years ago this week, on June 19, 1982, Vincent Chin, an Asian-American draftsman, was beaten to death by a Chrysler foreman and his son in a racially motivated killing.
Remembering the Ludlow Massacre
Part 4: The Ludlow memorial
By Jack Hood, 1 June 2012
The World Socialist Web Site publishes the concluding installment in a series on the Colorado miners’ strike of 1913-1914.
Remembering the Ludlow Massacre
Part 3: The Massacre and the Ten Days War
By Jack Hood, 31 May 2012
The World Socialist Web Site publishes the third installment in a four-part series on the Colorado miners’ strike of 1913-1914.
Remembering the Ludlow Massacre
Part 2: The strike of 1913-14
By Jack Hood, 30 May 2012
The World Socialist Web Site publishes the second installment in a four-part series on the Colorado miners’ strike of 1913-1914.
Seventy-five years since the Memorial Day Massacre
By Tom Eley, 29 May 2012
Wednesday marks the 75th anniversary of the Memorial Day Massacre, when Chicago police opened fire on unarmed striking steelworkers, killing 10 and wounding 30.
Remembering the Ludlow Massacre
Part 1: Background to the Colorado miners’ strike of 1913-1914
By Jack Hood, 29 May 2012
The World Socialist Web Site publishes the first installment in a five-part series on the Colorado miners’ strike of 1913-1914, which culminated in the Ludlow Massacre and the Ten Days war.
Chicago’s Hull House closes after 120 years of service
By Shane Feratu and Scott Martin, 8 February 2012
The Jane Addams Hull House Association, one of the largest non-profit social service organizations in Chicago, abruptly shut down on Friday, January 27, after 120 years.
Forty years since the Attica uprising
Nixon-Rockefeller tapes praise bloodbath—“A beautiful operation”
By Nancy Hanover, 26 September 2011
This month marks the 40th anniversary of the 1971 uprising by prisoners at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York and its bloody suppression by state police called in by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller.
Thirty years since the PATCO strike
Part one
By Tom Mackaman, 3 August 2011
This is the first installment of a series of articles marking the 30th anniversary of the PATCO air traffic controllers’ strike in the US.
The Conspirator: Film on Lincoln assassination trial misses the mark
By Shannon Jones, 2 May 2011
The Conspirator, directed by Robert Redford, examines the trial by military commission of Mary Surratt.
One hundred and fifty years since the US Civil War
By Tom Eley and David North, 13 April 2011
This week marks the 150th anniversary of the Confederate attack on federal soldiers at Fort Sumter, in South Carolina, which began the Civil War between the Union and the Confederacy—an epochal event in American and world history.
100 years since the historic workplace tragedy in New York City
HBO’s Triangle: Remember the Fire
By Charles Bogle, 25 March 2011
The excellent production values of Triangle: Remember the Fire leave an indelible visual memory of one of the greatest tragedies in American workplace. Sadly, the documentary’s limited perspective dishonors the legacy of the tragedy.
150 years ago: The election of Abraham Lincoln touches off secession crisis
By Shannon Jones, 24 December 2010
On December 20, 1860, six weeks after voters of the United States elected Abraham Lincoln as the 16th president, South Carolina seceded from the union. Other Southern states soon followed, leading within little over five months to the outbreak of the American Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in US history, and ultimately to the freeing of 4 million slaves.
Leon Trotsky’s Analysis of the Emerging Global Role of US Capitalism
By Nick Beams, 24 November 2010
The WSWS organized a panel on “The Cultural, Economic and Geo-strategic Thought of Leon Trotsky: A Retrospective Analysis 70 years after His Assassination,” at the 42nd annual convention of the Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies (formerly the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies), held November 18-21 in Los Angeles. About 1,400 historians, political scientists, economists, and literary scholars presented papers on a wide array of topics.
The Story of Us on History channel—an attempt to revive the myths of American capitalism
By William Moore and Fred Mazelis, 28 June 2010
History (the cable television channel) recently presented a 12-hour series entitled “America: The Story of Us.” The ambitious project spanned the history of the United States from the first European settlements of North America until the present day.
US: Forty years since the national postal strike
By Hector Cordon, 24 April 2010
Forty years ago postal workers defied their unions, anti-strike laws, and the Nixon administration’s deployment of the military in New York City to carry out the first national strike against the US government in history.
Howard Zinn, 1922-2010
An assessment of A People’s History of the United States
By Tom Eley, 15 February 2010
Howard Zinn died on January 28 at the age of 87. Any serious evaluation of Zinn requires consideration be given his book, A People’s History of the United States.
150 years since the execution of John Brown
By Fred Mazelis, 4 December 2009
One hundred and fifty years after his execution for the failed raid he led on the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, the legacy of John Brown continues to generate controversy and disquiet.
75 years since the San Francisco general strike
By Marge Holland and Robert Louis, 18 September 2009
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the San Francisco general strike, which began as a strike of longshoremen.
Revolutionary leadership and the struggle of 1934
75th anniversary of the Minneapolis truck drivers’ strike
By Ron Jorgenson, 31 August 2009
We are posting here an article on the 1934 Minneapolis general truck drivers’ strike, originally published in four parts. It is also available in PDF.
Revolutionary leadership and the struggle of 1934
75th anniversary of the Minneapolis truck drivers’ strike—Part four
By Ron Jorgenson, 29 August 2009
The final part of a four-part series on the 1934 Minneapolis general truck drivers’ strike.
Revolutionary leadership and the struggle of 1934
75th anniversary of the Minneapolis truck drivers’ strike—Part three
By Ron Jorgenson, 28 August 2009
The third part of a four-part series on the 1934 Minneapolis general truck drivers’ strike.
Revolutionary leadership and the struggle of 1934
75th anniversary of the Minneapolis truck drivers’ strike–Part one
By Ron Jorgenson, 26 August 2009
The first part of a four-part series on the 1934 Minneapolis general truck drivers’ strike.
Writer Budd Schulberg, unrepentant informer, dead at 95
By David Walsh, 7 August 2009
Schulberg was a member of the Communist Party in the late 1930s and subsequently “named names” before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in May 1951. To the end of his life he defended his informing, and that experience largely defines his legacy.
Citizen of the world: a brief survey of the life and times of Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
By Ann Talbot, 8 June 2009
June 8 marks the 200th anniversary of the death of 18th century revolutionary Thomas Paine.
75th anniversary of the Toledo Auto-Lite strike
Historic 1934 struggle
By Charles Bogle, 27 May 2009
In 1934 workers in Toledo, Ohio, carried to victory one of the most important strikes in US history. Led by socialists, the Auto-Lite strike won broad support from the unemployed.
Book review: Death in the Haymarket
The eight-hour-day movement and the birth of American labor
By James Brewer, 19 May 2009
Death in the Haymarket by James Green is an important contribution to the early history of the American labor movement.
The Haymarket frame-up and the origins of May Day
Part three
By Walter Gilberti, 13 May 2009
We are republishing a series of articles that originally appeared in April 1986 under the title “One hundred years since the Haymarket frame-up.” The articles were published in the Bulletin, the newspaper of the Workers League, forerunner of the Socialist Equality Party in the US.
The Haymarket frame-up and the origins of May Day
Part two
By Walter Gilberti, 12 May 2009
We are republishing a series of articles that originally appeared in April 1986 under the title “One hundred years since the Haymarket frame-up.” The articles were published in the Bulletin, the newspaper of the Workers League, forerunner of the Socialist Equality Party in the US.
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