Labor & Social Issues

The bankruptcy of Detroit - the largest municipal bankruptcy case in US history - was a political conspiracy and a social crime, designed to set a national precedent in the looting of employee pensions and public assets. The Workers Inquiry into the Bankruptcy of Detroit and the Attack on the DIA and Pensions, held February 15, 2014 at Wayne State University, exposed the political, social and economic forces behind the bankruptcy. The booklet contains reports on the social and historical context, the record of political conspiracy involving state and local authorities and the Obama administration, the legal aspects, the rape of the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the economic parasitism behind the decline of the once-powerful industrial city.

This pamphlet contains a World Socialist Web Site investigative report on the history and predatory policies of the student loan industry. This specialized wing of the finance industry is bankrupting a generation, by unabashedly profiteering from the determination of young people to learn, be productive and secure a college degree.

International Students for Social Equality Print Series.

Since April 2011 when the musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra reluctantly returned to work after a bitter six-month strike, orchestras in more than a dozen American cities have faced lockouts and threats of bankruptcy.

Calling for the re-emergence of the “socially engaged artist,” Arts Editor of the World Socialist Web Site, David Walsh, places the Detroit Symphony musicians’ strike in its historical and cultural context. (PDF)

This pamphlet draws the connection between the growth of police violence in the United States and the erection of a police military intelligence apparatus that operates without any legal or constitutional constraints. There is a parallel between intensifying police violence at home and the pursuit of war overseas.

The growth of social inequality is at the heart of the destruction of democratic rights, and as such is directed at the entire working class - black, white, Hispanic and immigrant alike. Obama, the president of "Hope and Change", bolsters the American elite's War on Terror, imposing ever greater restrictions on fundamental rights; on the other hand, the administration relies on proponents of identity politics, such as Democratic Party operative Al Sharpton, to confuse and divide the working class.

This pamphlet draws the connection between the growth of police violence in the United States and the erection of a police military intelligence apparatus that operates without any legal or constitutional constraints.

The pamphlet also examines the relation between the destruction of democratic rights and the growth of social inequality and between police violence at home and war overseas. It looks at the role of the Obama administration in bolstering the War on Terror by the American elites and the function of proponents of identity politics such as Democratic Party operative Al Sharpton.

PDF version Learn More