Perspectives
Rio 2016: The “Olympic ideal” and the reality of capitalism
By Bill Van Auken, 8 August 2016
The Olympics are being held under conditions of military occupation in Brazil, one of the world’s must unequal countries, wracked by economic, social and political crises.
Why the CIA is for Hillary Clinton
By Patrick Martin, 6 August 2016
The Clinton campaign is seeking to direct all anti-Trump sentiment in a right-wing, pro-war direction.
“Thinking Through the Unthinkable”
RAND Corporation lays out scenarios for US war with China
By Peter Symonds, 5 August 2016
The RAND Corporation study provides further evidence that a US war against China is being planned and prepared in the upper echelons of the American military-intelligence apparatus.
Kerry backs Duterte’s murderous anti-drug campaign: “Placing a cheapness on the lives of Orientals”
By Joseph Santolan, 4 August 2016
US Secretary of State Kerry pledged $32 million to fund Philippine President Duterte’s anti-drug campaign, involving death squads, police murders and concentration camps, in order to secure support for Washington’s war drive against China.
After the conventions, Democrats attack Trump from the right
By Patrick Martin, 3 August 2016
The Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party are seeking to use their Republican opponent Donald Trump as a foil for legitimizing their deeply unpopular program of militarism and war.
After Democrats’ celebration of militarism, US warplanes bomb Libya
By Bill Van Auken, 2 August 2016
The bombing of the Libyan coastal city of Sirte was ordered amid an explosive escalation of American militarism.
Democratic Party’s anti-Putin rhetoric prepares escalation of Syrian War
By Andre Damon, 1 August 2016
A campaign to accuse the Putin government of hacking into Democratic Party servers is aimed at creating the conditions for military escalation in Syria and against Russia itself.
After the Democratic and Republican conventions
For a socialist alternative to the parties of austerity and war!
By Socialist Equality Party, 30 July 2016
In the face of an immense economic, social and political crisis, neither Clinton nor Trump has anything to offer but austerity, war and the continued assault on democratic rights.
Obama’s legacy: Identity politics in the service of war
By Bill Van Auken, 29 July 2016
The Obama administration has marked the return of the Democrats to their roots as the premier party of US imperialism.
The end of the Sanders campaign: The political lessons
By Tom Hall, 28 July 2016
The full support of Bernie Sanders for the nomination of Hillary Clinton confirms the analysis made by the World Socialist Web Site from the inception of his campaign.
War and the Democratic National Convention
By Andre Damon, 27 July 2016
The great unmentionable in the 2016 election is the far-advanced US preparation for military conflict against Russia and China.
“Socialist Convergence”: A gathering of political bankrupts in Philadelphia
By Joseph Kishore, 26 July 2016
In the wake of Bernie Sanders’ endorsement of Hillary Clinton, an array of organizations in the orbit of the Democratic Party are meeting this week to discuss a new political trap for the working class.
Democratic convention opens: An agenda of militarism and war
By Barry Grey, 25 July 2016
The program of global militarism at the heart of the Clinton campaign is combined with the ferocious promotion of racial and gender politics.
Paul Krugman attacks Trump from the right on Russia
By Bill Van Auken, 23 July 2016
Trump’s questioning whether the US should go to war over the Baltic states prompted denunciations from both “liberal” Democrats like Krugman and right-wing Republicans.
The Turkish coup, US militarism and the collapse of democracy
By Bill Van Auken, 22 July 2016
The tumultuous events in Turkey have exposed the interconnection between the worldwide eruption of US militarism and the global breakdown of democratic forms of rule.
France’s permanent state of emergency
By Alex Lantier, 21 July 2016
Amid a deep crisis of bourgeois democracy and seething social tensions across Europe, the ruling elite aims to transition from democratic to dictatorial forms of rule.
The Republicans plumb the depths
By Joseph Kishore and David North, 20 July 2016
In the long and protracted decay of American democracy and the political culture of the United States, a fundamental boundary is being crossed.
Republican convention opens: An obscene spectacle in Cleveland
By Patrick Martin, 19 July 2016
A celebrity con man and speculator with racist and authoritarian views, Trump personifies the political decay of the American ruling elite.
The Turkish coup: A warning to the international working class
By Bill Van Auken, 18 July 2016
The attempted seizure of power by the military in Turkey, a key NATO member and sixth largest economy in Europe, is indicative of far broader dangers across the globe.
US releases Saudi documents: 9/11 coverup exposed
By Bill Van Auken, 16 July 2016
The declassification of the section of the 9/11 commission report on Saudi ties to 9/11 point to a deliberate distortion and exploitation of the attacks as a pretext for war.
One year since Syriza’s betrayal in Greece
By Bill Van Auken, 15 July 2016
Syriza’s ceaseless collaboration in the implementation of brutal austerity measures has vindicated the warnings made by the WSWS even before the pseudo-left party came to power.
The Hague ruling: A dangerous step toward war
By Peter Symonds, 14 July 2016
The court decision on the South China Sea will heighten tensions and the risk that a minor incident spirals out of control and triggers a conflict between the US and China.
The predictable and pathetic end of Sanders’ “political revolution”
By Patrick Martin, 13 July 2016
The Sanders campaign has provided a major political lesson to millions of young people and workers attracted to his call for a “political revolution” against the “billionaire class.”
A dangerous turn to economic nationalism
By Nick Beams, 12 July 2016
With all efforts to return global economic growth to pre-2008 levels having failed, the ruling class’s economic theorists have turned to the promotion of protectionism and nationalism.
Race, class and police murder in America
By The World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board, 11 July 2016
The campaign to portray the United States as riven by racial hatred serves definite and reactionary social and political aims.
NATO’s war summit in Warsaw
By Alex Lantier, 9 July 2016
NATO policy in Eastern Europe aims to permanently threaten Russia with all-out war while seeking to contain the alliance’s own escalating internal divisions.
The police killings in Louisiana and Minnesota: The class issues
By Andre Damon, 8 July 2016
Millions of people around the world have reacted with shock, outrage and revulsion at the latest videos and images of police murder in the United States.
The Chilcot verdict on Iraq: A war crime by British and US imperialism
By Julie Hyland, 7 July 2016
The Chilcot report provides conclusive proof that those responsible for the war have the blood of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, on their hands.
The political issues posed by the Australian election crisis
By Socialist Equality Party (Australia), 6 July 2016
The ruling elites, whether in Australia or around the world, cannot return to the stable and predictable parliamentary forms through which they governed in the past.
Brexit and the return of European militarism
By Johannes Stern, 5 July 2016
The European Union has reacted to the outcome of the referendum on UK membership of the European Union by calling for the militarization of the continent.
Two hundred forty years since the Declaration of Independence
By Andre Damon, 4 July 2016
The American Revolution provided the ideological and political impetus for the French Revolution and all subsequent democratic, egalitarian and socialist movements.
Obama’s drone order: Institutionalizing a state murder operation
By Bill Van Auken, 2 July 2016
The figures released by the White House on civilian victims of illegal US drone strikes are a fraction of the numbers documented by independent investigations.
The Istanbul airport bombing: Blowback from the war in Syria
By Bill Van Auken, 1 July 2016
The identification of all three suicide bombers as having come from Russia and former Soviet republics points to broader geo-strategic forces underlying the terrorist attack.
Sanders’ “political revolution” revealed: Nationalist reaction and support for Clinton
By Barry Grey, 30 June 2016
The sorry and reactionary outcome of Sanders’ “political revolution” is not only his own total integration into the Democratic Party, but his emergence as spokesman for its most nationalist wing.
The West Virginia floods and America's class divide
By Jerry White, 29 June 2016
While the immediate trigger for the floods was record-setting rainfall, like all natural disasters, the extent of the damage and its human impact were determined by conditions that are man-made.
Oppose the coup plot against Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn
By Statement of the Socialist Equality Party (Britain), 28 June 2016
With the ruling elite facing its deepest political crisis since World War 2, the highest echelons of the British state have concluded that no oppositional sentiment to austerity, militarism and war can be tolerated.
The way forward after the Brexit referendum
By Statement by the Socialist Equality Party (UK), 27 June 2016
The only certainty in the aftermath of the Leave vote is that the assault on the working class will be intensified, as the ruling elite demand greater sacrifices in the “national interest.”
The Oaxaca massacre and the eruption of class struggle in Mexico
By Neil Hardt, 25 June 2016
The resurgence of class struggle expressed in the protests of Mexican teachers is part of a growing radicalization of workers internationally.
State Department Syria memo: Setting the stage for war with Russia
By Bill Van Auken, 24 June 2016
The frustration expressed by the 51 State Department signatories is with the failure not just of Obama’s Syria policy, but of US imperialism’s entire Middle East strategy.
The Brexit referendum: A turning point in European politics
By Chris Marsden, 23 June 2016
To conceal both camps’ policies of class war, trade war and military war, and to sow divisions within the working class, the referendum has increasingly focused on whipping up nationalism and xenophobia.
Seventy-five years since the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union
By Barry Grey, 22 June 2016
The war against the Soviet Union expressed the essence of the Nazi regime, which had been brought to power by the German bourgeoisie to destroy the workers movement and end the threat of socialist revolution.
Washington’s “second nuclear age”
By Andre Damon, 21 June 2016
The Obama administration’s $1 trillion nuclear modernization program is clearing the way for nuclear weapons to be used in combat.
Political lessons of the Sanders campaign
By Joseph Kishore, 20 June 2016
The closer Sanders comes to a formal endorsement of Clinton, the more he is forced to make clear that his “political revolution” is nothing more than an effort to channel social discontent behind the Democratic Party.
The EU referendum and the murder of British MP Jo Cox
By Julie Hyland, 18 June 2016
The murder of Cox has starkly revealed the fascistic character of the forces being whipped up around this week’s referendum on British membership in the EU, particularly by the Leave campaign.
The return of “secular stagnation”
By Nick Beams, 17 June 2016
Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen’s comments on Wednesday pointed to the emergence of “secular stagnation” in the global economy, a term first developed in the 1930s.
The Venezuelan working class at a crossroads
By Neil Hardt, 16 June 2016
The pro-capitalist, bourgeois nationalist policies of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela have produced a social catastrophe for Venezuelan workers.
The social roots of the mass shooting in Orlando
By Barry Grey, 15 June 2016
The question that is imperiously raised by events such as the Orlando massacre is: What is it about American society that so frequently leads mentally unstable individuals to resort to mass murder?
The Orlando massacre and the 2016 US election
By Bill Van Auken, 14 June 2016
Both major parties’ presumptive presidential nominees have rushed to exploit the tragedy in Orlando to promote war and reaction.
Race, gender and the US presidential campaign
By Patrick Martin, 13 June 2016
There is a concerted effort to shift the political axis of the campaign to issues of race and gender rather than the questions of economic inequality raised by Bernie Sanders.
The return of German militarism to Eastern Europe
By Johannes Stern, 11 June 2016
Germany’s Armed Forces are playing an increasingly prominent role in the NATO deployment in Eastern Europe, which serves to openly prepare a war against Russia.
Hurtling toward the precipice of war, Modi cements Indo-US alliance
By Keith Jones, 10 June 2016
The alliance between the Indian bourgeoisie and US imperialism represents a sea change in world geopolitics, with explosive implications for inter-state relations across Asia and the world.
Hillary Clinton’s Democratic primary victory
By Joseph Kishore, 9 June 2016
In a year marked by deep and growing social discontent, the American political system has produced a choice between two brands of political reaction in the persons of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Fallujah: A symbol of US war crimes
By James Cogan, 8 June 2016
The humanitarian disaster that is unfolding in Fallujah is the product of the US-led invasion in 2003 and Washington’s deliberate stoking of sectarian conflict in the face of determined Iraqi resistance.
The case for an active boycott of the Brexit referendum
By Chris Marsden, 7 June 2016
The struggle for a socialist Britain within a United Socialist States of Europe is a burning necessity for workers who, in every country, face the same class enemy and the same problems of austerity and war.
Who will follow the example of Muhammad Ali’s principled stand in our day?
By David Walsh, 6 June 2016
The former heavyweight boxing champion, who died June 3, made his chief mark on history and popular consciousness by his courageous opposition to the Vietnam War.
Economic nationalism and the growing danger of war
By Nick Beams, 4 June 2016
The global economy is increasingly marked by the return of the types of economic nationalism that had such devastating consequences in the 1930s.
The US elections and the criminalization of American politics
By Patrick Martin, 3 June 2016
The leading contenders for the Republican and Democratic Parties, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, may both face criminal indictments before the elections.
Lessons of the Verizon strike
By Jerry White, 2 June 2016
The CWA and IBEW conspired with the Obama administration to prevent a unified struggle of workers against declining real wages and the explosion of social inequality.
The return of the “grand narrative”
By Andre Damon, 1 June 2016
The resurgence of the class struggle is undermining the intellectual charlatanry that underpinned the ideological dominance of various forms of anti-Marxism over the past half-century.
Who is responsible for the massacre in the Mediterranean?
By Bill Van Auken, 31 May 2016
With estimates of up to 900 refugees drowning, the past week has been the deadliest so far this year.
The danger of nuclear war between the US and China
By Peter Symonds, 30 May 2016
A conspiracy of silence reigns over the preparations for war, aimed at deadening the consciousness of the population to the rising risks of nuclear conflict.
Obama in Hiroshima
By Bill Van Auken, 28 May 2016
The visit to Hiroshima displayed in full the hypocrisy for which the Nobel Prize-winning president is so well known, but in this case magnified through the lens of one of history’s greatest war crimes.
Deepening national antagonisms dominate G7 summit
By Nick Beams, 27 May 2016
The G7 nations are seeking to ramp up military pressure against China, amid a deepening economic slump and divisions within their own ranks.
Mobilize European workers to defend French strikers!
By Alex Lantier, 26 May 2016
The most powerful ally of workers struggling against pro-austerity governments in France, Belgium and Greece is the European and international working class.
International finance capital and the strikes in France
By Nick Beams, 25 May 2016
The aim of the “structural reforms” demanded by the IMF and the financial elites is the destruction of all the social gains of the European working class won in the past seven decades.
US military returns to Vietnam
By Bill Van Auken, 24 May 2016
Obama’s lifting of the four-decade-old arms embargo is aimed at preparing new and even more bloody wars in Asia.
The capitalist crisis and the defense of democratic rights
By Andre Damon and Alex Lantier, 23 May 2016
Underlying the global breakdown of democratic institutions is the world economic crisis, the growth of militarism and war, and, above all, the intensification of the class struggle.
A resurgence of class struggle
By Barry Grey, 21 May 2016
The revival of the class struggle is finding political expression in the turn by workers against all of the parties of the official “left” that are backed by the trade unions.
A pittance for Zika, $600 billion for the Pentagon
By Kate Randall, 20 May 2016
The priority of the ruling class and its political representatives is not the protection and wellbeing of the vast majority of Americans, but funding the gigantic US military apparatus.
Democratic Party establishment witch-hunts Sanders’ supporters
By Patrick Martin, 19 May 2016
The political and media uproar over the Nevada state Democratic Party convention is an entirely manufactured provocation.
The controversy in the US over transgender access to public bathrooms
By Tom Carter, 18 May 2016
The actions of the Democrats with respect to the North Carolina “bathroom bill” reflect their strategy of using identity politics to provide a cover for their right-wing and anti-democratic policies.
The political struggle facing Verizon workers
By Jerry White—SEP candidate for US president, 17 May 2016
The month-long strike by 40,000 workers at Verizon Communications in the eastern United States is at a critical juncture.
Barack Obama and a quarter-century of US wars
By David North, 16 May 2016
The Obama administration embodies the institutionalization of war as the foundation of US foreign policy.
Brazil’s impeachment and the fall of the Workers Party
By Bill Van Auken, 14 May 2016
The sharp turn to the right in Brazil and the immense dangers confronting the working class were prepared for over a decade by the politics of the Workers Party.
Obama and the bombing of Hiroshima
By Andre Damon, 13 May 2016
The American president will travel to Hiroshima not to apologize for past crimes, but to prepare new ones.
Why Sanders won in West Virginia
By Joseph Kishore, 12 May 2016
The Democratic Party establishment is promoting a false racial narrative to obscure the real reasons for Sanders’ landslide victory in West Virginia.
The rise of Duterte in the Philippines: A warning to the international working class
By Joseph Santolan, 11 May 2016
The election of the fascistic Duterte is the product of mounting social tensions bound up with the US-led transformation of East Asia into an armed camp directed against China.
A further eruption of US militarism in the Middle East
By Bill Van Auken, 10 May 2016
A century after the Sykes-Picot agreement dividing the Middle East between imperialist powers, the volcanic eruption of US militarism has shattered the nation-state system created by that accord.
Greek workers strike against Syriza’s austerity policies
By Christoph Vandreier, 9 May 2016
The renewal of struggle by the Greek working class must take as its point of departure the political lessons of the bitter experiences with the Syriza government in 2015.
What accounts for Trump’s support among West Virginia miners?
By Jerry White—SEP candidate for US president, 7 May 2016
Trump is able to win support among sections of workers because of the treachery of the unions and their subordination of the working class to the Democratic Party.
Obama in Flint: Let them drink lead
By Andre Damon, 6 May 2016
President Obama’s callous declaration that poisoned children in Flint, Michigan “will be fine” expresses the contempt felt by America’s financial oligarchy for the great mass of society.
Trump’s victory: A dangerous turning point in American politics
By Patrick Martin, 5 May 2016
The selection of a fascistic demagogue as the candidate of one of the two major capitalist parties is indisputable proof of the advanced stage of the putrefaction of American democracy.
May Day 2016 and the future of socialism
By Joseph Kishore, 4 May 2016
The global response to the International May Day Online Rally reflects the growing political influence of the ICFI and anticipates a much broader turn of workers throughout the world to genuine socialist politics.
The 9/11 cover-up continues
By Andre Damon, 3 May 2016
Over the weekend, CIA Director John Brennan denied allegations of Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the September 11 terror attacks and demanded that documents pointing to its complicity remain hidden from the American people.
Oppose the witch-hunt of Ken Livingstone!
By Robert Stevens and Chris Marsden, 2 May 2016
Ken Livingstone, accused of anti-Semitism, is the target of a smear campaign aimed at discrediting all criticism of Israel and shifting the Labour Party still further to the right.
The demise of Sanders’ “political revolution”
By Patrick Martin, 30 April 2016
Sanders’ entire campaign has been dedicated to preventing the rising tide of popular opposition in the United States from breaking out of the straitjacket of the Democratic Party.
Obama touts an economic "legacy" of inequality and poverty
By Andre Damon, 29 April 2016
In summing up the domestic policies pursued under his administration, Obama declared that his greatest failure was not convincing the American people that the economy is in excellent shape.
Trump’s “America First” speech and the US war election
By Patrick Martin, 28 April 2016
The leading contenders in both parties, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, are committed to a vast military escalation following the November election.
Far-right victory in Austrian presidential elections: A warning
By Peter Schwarz, 27 April 2016
The responsibility for the rise of the far-right lies with the main establishment parties, as well as the trade unions and pseudo-left groups who cover their backs.
Obama’s war summit in Europe
By Bill Van Auken, 26 April 2016
Nearly eight years after he addressed 200,000 in Berlin, promising “hope” and “change,” Obama presided over a summit with the European powers on the expansion of war in the Middle East and new provocations against Russia.
Oppose imperialist war! Join the International May Day Online Rally!
By Joe Kishore and David North, 25 April 2016
This coming Sunday, May 1, at 1:00 pm US Eastern Daylight Time, the International Committee of the Fourth International will celebrate May Day with an online rally.
War, the Democratic Party and the 2016 elections
By Joseph Kishore, 23 April 2016
A sympathetic article appearing in the New York Times on Democratic Party front-runner Hillary Clinton’s war record underscores the danger of a very rapid military escalation following the 2016 US presidential election.
Socialist Equality Party announces presidential campaign
Support White, Niemuth in 2016!
By Statement of the Socialist Equality Party, 22 April 2016
SEP candidates Jerry White for president and Niles Niemuth for vice president will advance a socialist program that addresses the needs of millions of workers and youth in the United States and around the world.
Life expectancy declines for white Americans
By Patrick Martin, 21 April 2016
New figures released by the Centers for Disease Control on declining life expectancy reflect the profound social crisis that is fueling the political convulsions in the US elections.
Refugee deaths in the Mediterranean: An imperialist crime
By Peter Schwarz, 20 April 2016
Thousands of deaths by drowning are accepted, if not welcomed, as collateral damage required by the campaign to keep desperate refugees out of Europe.
Brazil’s impeachment crisis and the debacle of the Workers Party
By Bill Van Auken, 19 April 2016
The vote to proceed with the impeachment of Rousseff marks the end of a political era and the opening up of a new period of intense class struggle in Latin America’s largest country.
The political significance of the campaign for an active boycott of the Brexit referendum
By Chris Marsden, 18 April 2016
The SEP urges a rejection of both the defenders of the European Union and the advocates of a British exit from the EU in the official Remain and Leave campaigns.
Where’s the socialism in the Sanders campaign?
By Patrick Martin, 16 April 2016
In Thursday’s debate in Brooklyn, as throughout his campaign, Sanders offered nothing more than minor reforms of the capitalist system.
Zika, social inequality and capitalism
By Bill Van Auken, 15 April 2016
The criminal indifference of the US Congress to the spread of the Zika virus stands as an indictment of a social system that subordinates the vital needs of humanity to the accumulation of wealth by a tiny oligarchy.
The political issues in the Verizon strike
By Barry Grey, 14 April 2016
The strike by 39,000 Verizon workers against the corporate behemoth is an expression of the growing class consciousness and militancy that underlies the deepening political turmoil in the United States.
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