The ruling class is censoring the Internet: Help us fight back!

Dear WSWS readers,

Under the guise of confronting “fake news,” “Russian aggression,” and “extremist speech,” the world’s most profitable corporations and governments are carrying out an historically unprecedented attack on the Internet and free speech.

What began with Google censorship, exposed by the WSWS in July, has continued with moves by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media outlets to control the spread of information.

At the root of the world censorship campaign is the fear of growing opposition in the working class to social inequality and imperialist war. The most concerned sections of the ruling class recognize the Internet and social media’s revolutionary potential.

The WSWS is leading the fight back, and we need your support.

We need financial support to break the censorship and reach workers around the world. The propagandists of the ruling class are counting on our lack of access to the banks and corporations to block us from delivering our revolutionary message to the working class. Donate today!

Some of the major initiatives led by the WSWS this past year include:

The fight against war

The bellicose threat of US President Donald Trump to unleash “fire and fury like the world has never seen” on North Korea has been followed by congressional hearings on the president’s authority over launching nuclear war. As the year comes to an end, major newspapers are discussing what a nuclear war would look like. From the South China Sea to Yemen to Jerusalem to Russia, the flashpoints for war span the globe. The ICFI has made the fight against war the center of its political work, uniting working people and youth in a global struggle against capitalism and imperialism.

Exposing and fighting Google and internet censorship

Under the fraudulent pretext of countering “fake news,” Google, in coordination with the US military, intelligence agencies and other social media companies, is engaged in political censorship. Thousands have signed on to the WSWS petition against Google censorship. We have taken the lead in the defense of a free and open internet, freedom of press and freedom of speech, including organizing meetings all around the world to alert workers and youth as to what is taking place.

Mobilizing the working class against the Trump administration

Throughout the year the WSWS provided the most careful and detailed political analysis of the Trump administration and its implications for workers in the United States and internationally. The WSWS has opposed the Trump administration and the reemergence of far-right movements internationally by organizing the working class against the entire political establishment, Democratic and Republican.

The WSWS has launched new initiatives such as the Amazon Workers Newsletter. It has fought to bring a socialist perspective to autoworkers, teachers and all sections of the working class, linking the fight for decent wages, healthcare, pensions and all social rights to the political struggle against capitalism.

Advancing the fight against the rise of militarism in Germany

Seventy-two years after the end of the Hitler dictatorship, Nazis, right-wing extremists, demagogues, racists and xenophobes are once again sitting in the German parliament. The WSWS and Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party) SGP have been at the forefront of the opposition, standing in the September German elections to provide an alternative to the bourgeois parties including the Left Party and the fascist Alternative for Germany, and now calling for new elections to provide the working class a means to combat the far right’s offensive.

The SGP has led the fight for historical truth in Germany, opposing the efforts of historians like Jörg Baberowski to whitewash the crimes of the Nazis to prepare for a new eruption of German imperialism.

Conducting an international campaign for the freedom of framed-up Maruti Suzuki workers in India

Thirteen autoworkers, who led a militant series of struggles against brutal working conditions at the auto factory near Delhi, have been sentenced to life in prison. Eighteen others have been framed on lesser charges, as the Indian state and employers seek to “reassure” millionaire investors. The WSWS has launched an international defense campaign, connecting the frame-up of these workers to the exploitation of workers all over the world.

Defending immigrants worldwide

Imperialist wars across the Middle East and Africa have produced the greatest refugee crisis since World War II, with over 60 million people displaced. Thousands of innocent refugees continue to drown in the Mediterranean, as meager detention camps hold the “lucky” survivors throughout Europe. Similarly, the Trump White House has declared war on immigrants. Against the militarization of borders and the persecution of immigrants, the WSWS fights for open borders: the right of all workers to live in the country they choose, with full citizenship rights, including the right to work and travel without fear of deportation or repression.

Providing on the spot coverage from the scenes of Hurricanes Irma, Harvey and Maria, the South Asian floods and the California fires

These “natural disasters” are caused by human-induced climate change and years of neglected and inadequate infrastructure. An estimated 45 million people were affected by the massive flooding in South Asia, with 1,300 killed. The social indifference of the ruling elite, epitomized by Donald Trump throwing paper towels to Puerto Ricans, expresses the depth of social inequality and urgent need to abolish capitalism.

WSWS articles on these catastrophes have been read by hundreds of thousands of workers and young people.

Exposing the social costs and implications of the Grenfell Fire in west London

The WSWS has been at the forefront in exposing those responsible for the deaths of 71 people in the horrific Grenfell tower block fire of June 14. We have established a working group, the Grenfell Fire Forum, as a democratic forum for survivors and local residents to uncover the truth. The WSWS has consistently reported throughout the year, exposing the role of the Prime Minister Theresa May and the government inquiry set up to provide political cover for corporate and government actors, and linking the fight for safe housing to the struggles around the world, including that of workers in Flint, Michigan who have been poisoned by lead-tainted water.

This is only a small part of what the WSWS has done this year. We have immense tasks in the New Year. The WSWS has no corporate sponsors or wealthy backers. We depend on the support of readers like you. Please donate today!