Perspectives
One month to the US presidential election—what lies ahead
By Patrick Martin, 8 October 2016
The next president will oversee a deepening global crisis of capitalism, mounting attacks on jobs, living standards and social services at home, and the escalation of military conflicts in the Middle East and against Russia and China.
Fifteen years of the war in Afghanistan
By James Cogan, 7 October 2016
The US has been the central instigator of the Afghan tragedy for a period that now spans 38 years, with a toll in dead and wounded that numbers well over a million people.
Beating the drums for war with Russia
By Bill Van Auken, 6 October 2016
The New York Times and other major media are weighing in on the side of escalating the US intervention in Syria and militarily confronting Russia.
Sanders’ campaign for Clinton: A “political revolution” in defense of the status quo
By Joseph Kishore, 5 October 2016
Sanders’ bid to drum up support for Clinton in a series of campaign appearances this week is based on sophistries and lies.
Trump’s taxes: Capitalist corruption and class privilege
By Patrick Martin, 4 October 2016
The tax dodges that Trump employed provide a glimpse of the real nature of the “free market” system, in which working people are systematically exploited to boost the wealth of the super-rich.
The “major and deadly” wars to come
By Andre Damon, 3 October 2016
A report by a leading geopolitical strategy think tank makes clear that the US military is engaged in intensive planning for wars involving massive casualties.
Deutsche Bank and the global financial crisis
By Nick Beams, 1 October 2016
The contradiction between booming financial markets and intractable slump in the underlying economy is assuming an ever more explosive form.
New York Times brands Russia an “outlaw state”
By Bill Van Auken, 30 September 2016
The Times’ hysterical rhetoric reflects a debate within ruling circles over whether to launch a major escalation of war before or after the US election.
Corbyn’s capitulation to the right wing and the lessons of the UK Labour leadership contest
By Chris Marsden, 29 September 2016
Corbyn’s defence of the Labour Party’s grip on the working class and his continued opposition to any struggle against the right wing is a vindication of the political stand taken by the Socialist Equality Party.
The US presidential debate and the war plans of the ruling class
By Patrick Martin, 28 September 2016
Clinton used the debate to continue the war-mongering diatribes against Russia that have dominated her campaign, along with her attacks on Trump as a stooge of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Syria and the pro-imperialist pseudo-left
By Alex Lantier, 27 September 2016
The response of leading spokesmen of state capitalist and Pabloite tendencies reflect the increasingly open pro-war policies of substantial sections of the international pseudo-left.
On the eve of the US election debate: The politics of the grotesque
By Patrick Martin, 26 September 2016
The first debate of the presidential election campaign takes place under conditions of growing crisis, both at home and abroad.
Police violence and the social crisis in America
By Joseph Kishore, 24 September 2016
Both the killing of Keith Scott and the protests that have erupted in Charlotte, North Carolina starkly expose the deep social tensions and class divisions in America.
The New York bombings: Feeding the “war on terror”
By Bill Van Auken, 23 September 2016
As with virtually every other terrorist act on American soil since 9/11, the latest bombings were carried out by someone known to US intelligence agencies.
The police murder in Charlotte, North Carolina
By Patrick Martin, 22 September 2016
The police killing and eruption of protests in Charlotte, North Carolina are expressions of seething social tensions and the class divide in America.
UN General Assembly convenes amid global military escalation
By Andre Damon, 21 September 2016
US President Barack Obama delivered remarks at the UN assembly on Tuesday against the backdrop of escalating conflicts in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Asia.
New York Times peddles alibi for US bombing in Syria
By Bill Van Auken, 20 September 2016
Acting as a propaganda outlet of the US government, the Times parrots Washington’s claims that the air strikes that killed scores of Syrian troops were merely an unfortunate accident.
The threat of world war: The great unmentionable in the 2016 campaign
By Patrick Martin, 19 September 2016
Neither Clinton nor Trump is discussing the increasing likelihood of a US war with Russia or China, although the Pentagon is making active preparations.
The international significance of the Berlin election
By Peter Schwarz, 17 September 2016
Amid the widespread discrediting of the established political parties, the German ruling class is contemplating the formation of a “Red-Red-Green” government to suppress opposition to militarism and austerity.
Clinton’s fall in the polls and the crisis of the Democratic Party
By Patrick Martin, 16 September 2016
Clinton holds only a narrowing lead over Trump because the Democratic Party is incapable of making a genuine appeal to working people and youth facing unemployment, poverty and low wages.
Socialism vs. Capitalism and War
The SEP and IYSSE schedule November 5 antiwar conference in Detroit
By The Socialist Equality Party, 15 September 2016
The purpose of the conference in Detroit is to politically mobilize workers and young people against the war policies of US and world imperialism, which threaten to escalate into a nuclear Third World War.
The witch-hunt against Chinese influence in Australia
By Peter Symonds, 14 September 2016
The campaign against politicians, commentators and businessmen not fully supportive of the US “pivot” against China is a warning of the advanced character of war preparations in Asia.
Hunger and the social catastrophe facing America’s youth
By Kate Randall, 13 September 2016
As two new reports document the shocking consequences of food insecurity, the social disaster in America is being ignored in the elections and the contest between Clinton and Trump.
Fifteen years since the 9/11 attacks
By The WSWS editorial board, 12 September 2016
The attacks of September 11, 2001 provided a pretext for a vast escalation of global military operations that threaten a Third World War.
Media misinformation and the US election’s war agenda
By Bill Van Auken, 10 September 2016
The arrest of two young men in North Carolina for hacking into the accounts of top officials and government agencies casts a stark light on the media’s anti-Russia campaign.
Two months until the US elections: The political issues facing the working class
By Joseph Kishore, 9 September 2016
Whether it is Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump who occupies the White House, the next administration will be one of war, austerity, repression and violence.
Clinton and Trump bow to the military
By Patrick Martin, 8 September 2016
The unstated premise of Wednesday night’s forum before a veteran’s group in New York City was that the military should have veto power in the selection of the next US “commander-in-chief.”
White House to maintain nuclear “first strike” policy
By Andre Damon, 7 September 2016
The US is reportedly keeping its “first strike” policy amid relentless threats against Russia and China and an election campaign aimed at preparing for war.
Obama and the US secret war in Laos
By Peter Symonds, 6 September 2016
Obama is the first US president since the Vietnam War to visit Laos, the scene of one of US imperialism’s bloodiest crimes, even as his administration is preparing new wars on a far greater scale.
The most unpopular candidates in American history
By Patrick Martin, 5 September 2016
The contest between the militaristic Clinton and the fascistic Trump has alienated tens of millions from the corporate-controlled two-party system.
The ouster of Brazil’s Workers Party government
By Bill Van Auken, 3 September 2016
The downfall of the PT marks the end of a political era, posing sharply the need for a new revolutionary leadership in the Brazilian working class.
Clinton’s “American exceptionalism” speech: A bipartisan policy of militarism and war
By Patrick Martin, 2 September 2016
The Democratic presidential candidate’s speech to the American Legion was an attack on Trump from the right, pledging to be more ambitious and decisive in the use of American military power.
Eighty years since the first Moscow Trial
By Fred Williams, 1 September 2016
In carrying out these trials, Joseph Stalin was launching an assault on the legacy and the leaders of the first successful socialist revolution.
EpiPen price gouging: Capitalism and the US health care crisis
By Kate Randall, 31 August 2016
The EpiPen scandal has become a focal point of anger over the subordination of health care to huge corporations driven by an insatiable quest for profit.
The socioeconomic basis of identity politics: Inequality and the rise of an African American elite
By David Walsh, 30 August 2016
A sharp polarization has emerged among African Americans over the past four decades. The privileged layer that has been produced forms an important basis for racialist politics.
Nothing revolutionary about Sanders’ “Our Revolution”
By Patrick Martin, 29 August 2016
The rollout of the new organization founded by Sanders and his campaign makes crystal clear that its purpose is to direct young people and workers into the blind alley of the Democratic Party.
“Godfather” Biden visits Turkey
By Andre Damon, 27 August 2016
One month after the failed coup, the vice president met with Erdogan.
Air of crisis overhangs central bankers’ meeting
By Nick Beams, 26 August 2016
The central bankers and financial authorities gathered at Jackson Hole have no economic answer to the crisis of the profit system over which they preside.
Stop the German government’s preparations for war!
By Socialist Equality Party of Germany, 25 August 2016
The “Civil Defence Concept” presented by German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière on Wednesday proposes a range of measures to prepare the population for war.
Biden’s blank check to the Baltic states: US will wage war on Russia in your defense
By Andre Damon, 24 August 2016
Vice President Biden said Washington’s commitment to militarily defend the tiny states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia was a matter of America’s “sacred honor.”
Twenty years since Clinton’s welfare “reform”
By Jerry White, 23 August 2016
The Clintons’ welfare bill marked the complete abandonment by the Democratic Party of the policy of liberal reform associated with Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s and Johnson’s War on Poverty in the mid-1960s.
Media, Democrats cover up Trump’s fascistic politics
By Patrick Martin, 22 August 2016
Last week’s reshuffle has put the Trump campaign under the leadership of an ultra-right publisher linked to “white nationalist” and other fascistic tendencies.
The ruling class and the spectre of Leon Trotsky
By Chris Marsden, 20 August 2016
Seventy-six years after his assassination at the hands of a Stalinist agent, Trotsky remains not only a towering historical personality, but also a figure of acute contemporary political relevance.
“Human rights” propaganda campaign paves way for military escalation in Syria
By Bill Van Auken, 19 August 2016
The saturation of the airwaves and the press with images of a five-year-old child in Aleppo should be taken as a warning that Washington is preparing public opinion for a major military escalation.
The 2016 elections and the crisis of American democracy
By Joseph Kishore, 18 August 2016
In the 2016 elections, the consequences of record inequality, unending war and the protracted crisis of American capitalism are coming to a head.
The Louisiana flooding—a failure of American capitalism
By Patrick Martin, 17 August 2016
Eleven years after Hurricane Katrina, the social infrastructure and the US political system are no more prepared for a natural disaster.
The social roots of unrest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
By Niles Niemuth, 16 August 2016
The growth of poverty and inequality, the eruption of social anger and the build-up of the police forces are interrelated components of the same class dynamic.
The real issues in the 2016 US elections
By Patrick Martin, 15 August 2016
Regardless of who wins in November, the ruling class is preparing a vast expansion of militarist violence and an intensification of the assault on the social and political rights of the working class.
The provocation in Crimea and the threat of world war
By Bill Van Auken, 13 August 2016
The terrorist attack in Crimea and ratcheting up of the war threat in Eastern Europe have exposed the real purpose of the anti-Putin hysteria in both the US election campaign and the Rio Olympics.
The Justice Department’s whitewash of police violence in Baltimore, Maryland
By Niles Niemuth, 12 August 2016
The DOJ report on Baltimore is another in a series of investigations that will do nothing to stop the violence meted out by police on a daily basis.
The slump in US productivity: Another symptom of capitalist crisis
By Andre Damon, 11 August 2016
Behind the continuing slump in productivity and business investment is an immense growth of financial speculation.
The battle for Aleppo and the hypocrisy of US war propaganda
By Bill Van Auken, 10 August 2016
Fifteen years after launching a “global war on terror” in the name of wiping out Al Qaeda, Washington is arming and funding its associates in Syria to counter Russia.
The national security state and the US elections
By Patrick Martin, 9 August 2016
A letter against Trump from 50 former top military-intelligence officials of Republican administrations is an unprecedented intervention into a presidential campaign.
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.
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