31 August 2018

As classes begin, Detroit schools shut off drinking water due to high levels of lead and copper

By Eula Holmes and Patrick Martin, 31 August 2018

The pollution of the water supply is particularly devastating for children, whose brains and bodies are especially at risk from toxins.

Turbulence hits emerging markets as Argentina’s central bank hikes interest rates to 60 percent

By Nick Beams, 31 August 2018

The Argentine currency has lost half of its value this year and fallen to a record low against the US dollar.

Widespread opposition to Australian government ban on Chelsea Manning

By Oscar Grenfell and James Cogan, 31 August 2018

The attempt to prevent Manning visiting Australia followed a high-level meeting of the Five Eyes spying network, which called for a campaign against those who “sow discord.”

Oppose the ban on Chelsea Manning speaking in Australia!

National Party seeks to prevent Chelsea Manning from entering New Zealand

Conflicts inside Liberal Party shed light on lurch to right in Australian government

By Mike Head, 31 August 2018

In a clear overture to the right faction, Morrison has appointed Tony Abbott to a newly-created position of “special envoy on indigenous affairs.”

French, British boats clash over English Channel scallops amid Brexit crisis

By Alex Lantier, 31 August 2018

The clash highlighted how unexpected conflicts could erupt over Britain’s exit from the EU amid the relentless stoking of nationalism on both sides of the Channel.

Immigrant mother sues for $40 million after child dies following ICE detainment

By Kevin Martinez, 31 August 2018

The death of Mariee Juarez is one more casualty in the Trump administration’s brutal war on immigrants.

“We are watching and we are coming”
ICE raids North Texas factory, arrests 160 immigrant workers

More on North American immigrants »

Steelmakers in US demand historic concessions as contracts for 31,000 workers set to expire

By Samuel Davidson, 31 August 2018

With US Steel and Arcelor demanding deep givebacks, the United Steelworkers union has made it clear it is opposed to any strike.

“We have to stand up and show we are not going to take this anymore”
US Steel workers rally in Pittsburgh area

By our reporting team, 31 August 2018

Seattle teachers vote to authorize strike

For a statewide strike in Washington to defend public education!
Build rank-and-file committees to unify educators, parents and students

“Everything started failing for us”
An interview with a relative of Chicago house fire victim

By George Gallanis, 31 August 2018

WSWS reporters spoke to the great-aunt of 16-year-old Victor Mendoza, one of 10 children killed in Sunday’s deadly blaze in Little Village.

“The politicians want to sweep this under the rug”
Hundreds gather to commemorate ten children killed in Chicago house fire

A tragedy born of inequality: Ten children die in Chicago house fire

Foxconn dramatically alters plans for Wisconsin facility

By Jacob Crosse, 31 August 2018

A smaller, robotic-based factory will be built, swindling the working class of Wisconsin for billions of dollars.

Two construction workers killed in scaffolding collapse near Disney World

By Jessica Goldstein, 31 August 2018

What the official investigations will not expose is that the deaths of Bell and Zavala have a deeper cause: the profit interests of JW Marriott, DCS, and PCL.

IMF pushes for more social cuts in Ukraine

By Jason Melanovski, 31 August 2018

Amid growing strikes of miners and other workers, the IMF is using the corruption of the Ukrainian oligarchy to push for social cuts.

Alex Salmond resigns from Scottish National Party

By Julie Hyland, 31 August 2018

Salmond led the SNP for more than 20 years and is identified as the key figure in the push for Scotland’s independence from the UK.

New in Turkish

Washington, Suriye’ye büyük bir saldırının eşiğinde mi?

Bill Van Auken, 31 Ağustos 2018

Haberlere göre, ABD ve müttefikleri, Suriye’ye karşı yeni bir büyük saldırı eylemini gerekçelendirip gerçekleştirmek için gerekli tüm unsurları sistematik olarak devreye sokuyor.

Sol Muhalefet’in 1930’ların başlarındaki el yazmaları bulundu

Vladimir Volkov ve Clara Weiss, 31 Ağustos 2018

Belgelerin ortaya çıkartılması, karşıdevrimci Stalinizme karşı 1938’de Dördüncü Enternasyonal’i kurmuş olan Troçkist hareketin onlarca yıllık mücadelesinin güçlü bir doğrulanmasıdır.

New in French

Le ministre de l'Intérieur d'extrême droite italien accusé d'enlèvement

Marianne Arens, 31 août 2018

Le procureur d’Agrigento mène une enquête sur le ministre de l’Intérieur italien et président de la Lega, Matteo Salvini, pour privation de la liberté, séquestration et abus de pouvoir.

Qui est responsable du déchaînement néonazi à Chemnitz en Allemagne?

Johannes Stern, 31 août 2018

Plus de 7000 néonazis ont défilé dans les rues de Chemnitz, attaquant des personnes qu'ils traitaient d'étrangers, scandant des slogans fascistes et brandissant des saluts nazis.

Non à l'interdiction de Chelsea Manning en Australie !

Socialist Equality Party (Australie), 31 août 2018

Le SEP exige l’octroi d’un visa à Manning et la liberté inconditionnelle pour le rédacteur en chef de WikiLeaks, Julian Assange.

Le Parti national cherche à empêcher Chelsea Manning d'entrer en Nouvelle-Zélande

Socialist Equality Group (Nouvelle-Zélande), 31 août 2018

La tentative du Parti national d’interdire Manning, qui a révélé les crimes de guerre commis par les États-Unis, fait partie d’une attaque mondiale contre la liberté d’expression et d’autres droits démocratiques.

Des troupes canadiennes sont déployées au Mali pour soutenir le gouvernement fantoche pro-occidental.

Félix Gauthier, 31 août 2018

Présentée comme un acte de charité humanitaire, l'intervention du Canada au Mali vise à revendiquer sa part des richesses minérales de l'Afrique.

New in Spanish

¿Quién tiene la culpa del ataque neonazi en Chemnitz, Alemania?

Por Johannes Stern, 31 agosto 2018

Más de 7.000 neonazis marcharon por las calles de Chemnitz, atacando a personas que acusaban de ser extranjeras, cantando consignas fascistas y realizando saludos nazis.

La France Insoumise de Mélenchon inicia escuela de verano con acercamientos a partidos de derecha

Por Francis Dubois, 31 de agosto 2018

La invitación de los partidos derechistas a su escuela de verano marca otro hito en la trayectoria derechista de la pseudoizquierda de clase media.

”Estamos vigilando y vamos en camino":
ICE invade una fábrica al norte de Texas y arresta a 160 trabajadores inmigrantes

Por Meenakshi Jagadeesan, 31 agosto 2018

En una de los allanamientos más grandes en un centro de trabajo en la última década, ICE arrestó a 160 trabajadores migrantes en una fábrica al norte de Dallas.

New in German

Große Koalition plant Altersarmut für Millionen

Marianne Arens, 31. August 2018

Die Bundesregierung ist entschlossen, die staatliche Rente – wie schon im Koalitionsvertrag vorgesehen – ab dem Jahr 2025 abzusenken.

Eine der tödlichsten Katastrophen der amerikanischen Geschichte:
Puerto Rico erhöht Zahl der Todesopfer durch Hurrikan Maria von 64 auf 2975

Bill Van Auken, 31. August 2018

Dass der Sturm schätzungsweise fast 3.000 Todesopfer gefordert hat, ist eine scharfe Anklage gegen die kriminelle Fahrlässigkeit des herrschenden Establishments der USA und der Behörden von Puerto Rico.

Mélenchons Bewegung beginnt Sommerschulung mit Avancen an rechte Parteien

Francis Dubois, 31. August 2018

Mélenchons Einladung rechter Parteien zu seiner Sommerschule ist ein weiterer Meilenstein auf dem Weg der kleinbürgerlichen Pseudolinken nach rechts.

Other Languages

Perspective

Reject the anti-Semitism slurs against Jeremy Corbyn! Drive out the Labour Party right wing!

31 August 2018

The lying campaign to paint Corbyn as an anti-Semite aims to discredit socialism in the hope of preventing any challenge by the working class to austerity and war.

Earlier Perspectives »

History

Fifty years since the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia: Part four
The split with the OCI and the degeneration of the WRP

By Clara Weiss, 31 August 2018

The intervention by the Pabloite International Secretariat in Eastern Europe in 1968-1985 was facilitated by the degeneration of the British Workers Revolutionary Party.

Part one | Part two | Part three | Part four

Obituary

Arsène Tchakarian (1916-2018): the Manouchian Group’s resistance struggle
Part 2: Who betrayed the Manouchian Group?

By Francis Dubois and Alex Lantier, 31 August 2018

There is no doubt that the Stalinists’ decision to sacrifice the Manouchian Group was bound up with their genocidal onslaught against Trotskyism and the Left Opposition.

Arsène Tchakarian (1916–2018): The Manouchian Group’s resistance struggle
Part 1: The political origins and military record of the resistance fighters

SEP 2018 Election Campaign

Abolish student debt! Public education is a social right!

By Niles Niemuth, 31 August 2018

Everyone should be able to attain a college education without being required to enter the modern equivalent of indentured servitude.

Notes from the campaign trail
SEP candidate speaks with incoming students at Wayne State University in Detroit

By Niles Niemuth, 29 August 2018

Socialist Equality Party candidate Niles Niemuth speaks at election meeting in Brownstown, Michigan

By Tom Hall, 25 August 2018

Socialist Equality Party campaign for Michigan’s 12th congressional district launches website

16 August 2018

Visit our new website to find out how you can get involved in Niles Niemuth’s campaign against war, inequality and dictatorship, and for the socialist transformation of society.

Socialist Equality Party to run Niles Niemuth for Michigan’s 12th Congressional district

IYSSE

Join the International Youth and Students for Social Equality and take up the fight for socialism!

By the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (US), 31 August 2018

Join the IYSSE, the only organization fighting against war, authoritarianism and dictatorship, and for the socialist transformation of society.

Book Review

Growing poverty in cities and growing wealth at the top
A review of The Divided City by Alan Mallach

By Debra Watson, 31 August 2018

The research presented in The Divided City discredits the claim that promotion of upscale urban downtowns will bring improvement to the lives of workers in post-industrial urban America.

Arts Review

100 years since the birth of American filmmaker Robert Aldrich
Including an interview with film historian Tony Williams

By David Walsh, 31 August 2018

Robert Aldrich, an important postwar American film director, was born a century ago on August 9, 1918 in Cranston, Rhode Island. He died in December 1983.

Hostiles: A US soldier accompanies a Native American chief home in 1892 …
… and homelessness in Seattle in The Road to Nickelsville

By Joanne Laurier, 30 August 2018

One of the greatest musical figures of the 20th century
The centenary of Leonard Bernstein—Part 2

By Fred Mazelis, 25 August 2018

One of the greatest musical figures of the 20th century
The centenary of Leonard Bernstein—Part 1

How well-deserved is the great success of Crazy Rich Asians?

By Nick Barrickman, 29 August 2018

Disney stands by firing of James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy

By Tim Avery, 29 August 2018

Workers Struggles

Rail stoppages continue in Britain, as Croatian shipbuilders strike
Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa

31 August 2018

The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.

Peruvian municipal workers strike in Lima’s most affluent district

By Cesar Uco, 29 August 2018

“The Teamsters is not a voice for us”
UPS workers respond to Teamsters campaign of blackmail

By our reporters, 25 August 2018

Break the UPS-Teamsters conspiracy! Mobilize opposition to the sellout contract!

More on the struggle at UPS »

Socialist Equality Group (New Zealand) to hold online forum: Lessons of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation’s sellout

20 August 2018

Commentary

Who is to blame for the neo-Nazi rampage in Chemnitz, Germany?

By Johannes Stern, 30 August 2018

One of America's deadliest disasters
Puerto Rico raises Hurricane Maria death toll from 64 to 2,975

By Bill Van Auken, 30 August 2018

Mélenchon’s Unsubmissive France opens summer school with overtures to right-wing parties

By Francis Dubois, 30 August 2018

Who is Unsubmissive France’s “Comrade Policeman” Alexandre Langlois?

By Anthony Torres, 30 August 2018

UN panel cites massive war crimes in US-backed war on Yemen

By Bill Van Auken, 29 August 2018

Accused by Trump of rigging search results, Google denies political bias

By Andre Damon, 29 August 2018

Behind the coordinated social media censorship by Facebook, Twitter and Google
What is FireEye?

More on Internet censorship »

German Foreign Minister Maas sees Europe setting “red lines” for US conduct

By Ulrich Rippert and Peter Schwarz, 29 August 2018

US-Mexico trade pact takes aim at Washington’s rivals and the working class

By Keith Jones, 29 August 2018

Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders praise McCain: An object lesson in the politics of the pseudo-left

By Joseph Kishore, 28 August 2018

Why the US ruling class mourns John McCain

German government places Socialist Equality Party on subversive watch list

By the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei, 17 August 2018

Defend the Student Council! Stop the right-wing conspiracy at Berlin’s Humboldt University

How the secret service and the far-right AfD control German politics

More on the growth of the extreme right in Europe »

International Committee of the Fourth International

Historic discovery of Left Opposition manuscripts from the early 1930s

By Vladimir Volkov and Clara Weiss, 27 August 2018

The discovery of hitherto unknown manuscripts of the Soviet Left Opposition is a blow to all attempts to falsify, belittle and slander the struggle of the Trotskyist movement against Stalinism.

Resolution of the SEP (US) Fifth National Congress
The Resurgence of Class Struggle and the Tasks of the Socialist Equality Party

8 August 2018

This resolution was unanimously adopted by the Socialist Equality Party Congress, held from July 22–27, 2018.

Opening report to the Fifth National Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (US)

By David North, 4 August 2018

Security and the Fourth International

An “Exemplary Comrade”: The Socialist Workers Party’s 40-year-long cover-up of Stalinist spy Sylvia Callen: Part one

By Eric London, 14 August 2018

This is the first part in a four-part series examining the cover-up by the Socialist Workers Party beginning in 1947 of information exposing the role of Sylvia Callen, the personal secretary of long-time party leader James P. Cannon, as a Stalinist agent.

Part two | Part three | Part four

Seventy-eight years since the assassination of Leon Trotsky

By Eric London and David North, 21 August 2018

On August 21, 1940, Leon Trotsky, the founder of the Fourth International and the co-leader of the Russian Revolution, died from wounds inflicted the day before by an assassin, the Stalinist GPU agent Ramon Mercader.

This week in history: August 27-September 2

25 years ago: Israeli cabinet approves Oslo Accord

On August 30, 1993, the Israeli cabinet gave its approval to a tentative agreement reached between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in secret negotiations held in Oslo, Norway.

More »

50 years ago: Half a million join student protest in Mexico City

On August 27, 1968, an estimated 500,000 students and supporters gathered in Mexico City to protest the administration of President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz.

More »

75 years ago: Italian workers form factory committees

The revolutionary tide in Italy continued to rise, this week in 1943, as the government of Marshal Badoglio was forced to grant workers the right to elect factory committees by secret ballot.

More »

 

100 years ago: Anti-Soviet assassins kill Uritsky, wound Lenin

On the morning of August 30, 1918, outside the offices of the Cheka in Petrograd, Leonid Kannegisser shot and killed Moisei Solomonovich Uritsky, a leading member of the Cheka and member of the Bolshevik Central Committee.

More »

International Amazon Workers Voice

Amazon unleashes army of Twitter trolls to improve its image

By Erik Schreiber, 27 August 2018

Amazon Prime Day produces 209 percent increase in UK health and safety complaints

By Steve James, 24 August 2018

“I had to sell my cell phone to pay for food”
Spanish Amazon worker, fired for injury, faces prospect of homelessness

“I would not wish working for Amazon on my worst enemy”
Southern California Amazon worker reports company forcing employees to work despite fire evacuation orders

Following IAWV exposure at Texas warehouse
More Amazon workers speak out against atrocious working conditions

More on Amazon »

New in Arabic

Arabic translation of preface to the thirtieth anniversary edition of The Heritage We Defend

We are publishing here the Arabic translation of the new preface written by David North for the thirtieth anniversary edition of The Heritage We Defend: A Contribution to the History of the Fourth International.

Autoworkers Issues

Late Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne lied to federal investigators about gift to UAW official

By Marcus Day, 17 August 2018

UAW bribery predated 2009, lawyer for former Fiat Chrysler executive tells court

More on autoworkers issues »

Mehring Books

Two new pamphlets from Mehring Books

15 August 2018

Mehring Books is pleased to announce that two new pamphlets—The World Socialist Web Site and the Defense of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and The 2018 Teacher Rebellion—are available for online purchase.

Defend Julian Assange!

London: Ecuador embassy vigil marks six years since Julian Assange granted asylum

By Paul Mitchell, 18 August 2018

Christine Assange, mother of WikiLeaks editor: “I’ve not been able to speak to my son for four months”

By Richard Phillips, 24 July 2018

Mueller investigation seeks to implicate WikiLeaks and Julian Assange in “Russian interference”

Protest in London against Ecuadorian President Moreno’s persecution of Julian Assange

By our reporters, 25 July 2018

The Turnbull government must act to repatriate Australian citizen Julian Assange to Australia

By James Cogan, 19 June 2018

Bringing Julian Assange Home

By John Pilger, 19 June 2018

More on the campaign to free Julian Assange »

Featured Video

Coby Day: Hundreds memorialize fallen Detroit autoworker Jacoby Hennings

Friends and family of Jacoby Hennings (1995 - 2017) want answers about the circumstances surrounding the young autoworker's death at Ford's Woodhaven stamping plant.

International Committee of the Fourth International

Preface to the thirtieth anniversary edition of The Heritage We Defend

By David North, 21 June 2018

We are posting the new preface written by David North for the soon to be released thirtieth anniversary edition of The Heritage We Defend: A Contribution to the History of the Fourth International.

Support the Socialist Equality group in Turkey!
Statement of the SE group, in sympathy with the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), on the snap elections in Turkey

WSWS 20th Anniversary

Twenty years of the World Socialist Web Site: 1998–2018

By David North and Joseph Kishore, 14 February 2018

As the WSWS marks its 20th anniversary of daily posting, it is taking the lead in exposing the conspiracy by governments and corporations to censor the Internet as the ruling class prepares for war and domestic repression.

Lenin, Trotsky and the Marxism of the October Revolution

By David North, 19 March 2018

David North, chairperson of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site and of the Socialist Equality Party (US), delivered this lecture at the University of Leipzig on March 16.