Perspectives
Free Chelsea Manning!
By Andre Damon, 11 March 2019
Chelsea Manning and WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange are class-war prisoners, whose freedom depends on the mobilization of the working class.
Some economic and political conclusions
The ten-year stock market bull run
By Nick Beams, 9 March 2019
Over the past decade, as a result of policies carried out by the US government, financial authorities and the US Federal Reserve, trillions of dollars have been pumped into financial markets, lifting the Dow and the S&P 500 by more than 300 percent.
Netflix’s Trotsky: A toxic combination of historical fabrication and blatant anti-Semitism
By David North and Clara Weiss, 8 March 2019
Netflix is currently presenting to its worldwide audience the virulently anti-Semitic television series, Trotsky, which was originally produced by the Russian state in 2017.
The shutdown of GM’s Lordstown plant
By Jerry White, 7 March 2019
The closing of the iconic factory, the site of a series of wildcat strikes and other militant struggles in the early 1970s, is the tragic outcome of a half century of betrayals by the United Auto Workers union.
The assault on Jeremy Corbyn is a warning that must be heeded
By Chris Marsden, 6 March 2019
The March 3 attack on the Labour Party leader is the latest in a series of far-right provocations in Britain, pointing to the clear and present danger posed by the growth of far-right and fascist parties throughout Europe.
The political lessons of the March 3 Free Assange rally
By the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) Political Committee, 5 March 2019
The demonstration in Sydney won broad support on the basis of mobilising the working class to defend democratic rights and class war prisoners such as Julian Assange.
Sanders launches his campaign with a blast of demagogy
By Patrick Martin, 4 March 2019
Bernie Sanders’ speech in Brooklyn was an exercise in demagogy, because there exists no relationship between the reforms he envisages and any realistic strategy for their implementation.
India and Pakistan tobogganing toward a catastrophic war
By Keith Jones, 2 March 2019
India and Pakistan are teetering on the brink of what would be the first-ever war between nuclear-armed states.
The Trump presidency: From the Manhattan underworld to the White House
By Patrick Martin, 1 March 2019
The day-long testimony by former Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen gave a glimpse of the gangsterism out of which the Trump presidency has emerged.
Reports document sexual abuse of immigrant children detained in US
By Eric London, 28 February 2019
The Trump administration’s assault on immigrants underscores the urgent need to oppose all attacks on democratic rights and due process.
Socialism and the case for expropriation
By Andre Damon, 27 February 2019
A growing movement of the working class confronts the entrenched power of a financial oligarchy intent on expanding its wealth and domination over society.
The global struggle of teachers
By Jerry White, 26 February 2019
Throughout the world, teachers have come to the forefront of the struggle against decades of austerity and levels of social inequality not seen since the 1920s.
US imperialism stages provocation on Venezuela’s borders
By Eric London, 25 February 2019
The threat of a disaster of world historic proportions looms as the US moves toward war in Venezuela.
The working class and the fight to free Julian Assange
By James Cogan, 23 February 2019
The persecution of Assange is the spearhead of a global offensive against freedom of speech and for censorship of oppositional voices on the internet.
Egypt hangs nine prisoners
State murder backed by imperialism
By Patrick Martin, 22 February 2019
The bloodstained dictatorship of General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has the support of both Washington and the European powers.
US missile treaty withdrawal sparks global nuclear arms race
By Andre Damon, 21 February 2019
A half-century after the Cuban Missile crisis brought humanity to within a hair’s breadth of destruction, Washington is fueling an even more dangerous global nuclear standoff.
Bernie Sanders announces 2020 presidential campaign
By Niles Niemuth, 20 February 2019
The senator from Vermont is reprising his role as a lightning rod to contain and defuse social opposition amid an upsurge of the international class struggle and growing interest in socialism.
The desecration of Marx’s grave: A warning
By Chris Marsden, 19 February 2019
The attack on Karl Marx’s grave is a significant warning of the growing danger to the working class across Europe and internationally from far-right forces that have been deliberately cultivated by the bourgeoisie and given succour by the mass media.
Imperialist conflicts dominate Munich Security Conference
By Peter Schwarz, 18 February 2019
The Munich Security Conference, which ended yesterday, laid bare a capitalist world order rapidly breaking apart and heading for disaster.
Trump’s state of emergency
A step towards presidential dictatorship
By Patrick Martin, 16 February 2019
No American president has so flagrantly usurped the constitutional prerogative of Congress to decide how public funds are to be spent.
War summit in Warsaw
By Bill Van Auken, 15 February 2019
While Netanyahu’s statement that this week’s conference in Warsaw was called to discuss “war with Iran” was treated by the media as a gaffe, it was nothing of the kind.
The show trial of the Catalan nationalists and the far-right danger in Spain
By Alex Lantier, 14 February 2019
In line with official politics across Europe, the ruling class in Spain is moving to build a police state and defending the legacy of 20th century fascism.
The Iranian Revolution—Forty Years On
By Keith Jones, 13 February 2019
It is the Stalinist Tudeh Party and the politics of Stalinism that were principally responsible for the tragic derailing of the Iranian Revolution.
The international upsurge of working class struggle in 2019
By Niles Niemuth, 12 February 2019
This year is witnessing a resurgence of class struggle that expresses the objective unity of workers in every part of the world.
Oppose the Democrats’ #MeToo witch-hunt against Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax
By Barry Grey, 11 February 2019
Once again, unsubstantiated and dubious sexual allegations are being used in a #MeToo operation driven by a right-wing political agenda.
The working class and socialism
By Andre Damon, 9 February 2019
Trump’s denunciation of socialism in his State of the Union speech reflects the ruling class’s fear over the growth of the class struggle within the United States.
France recalls its ambassador to Italy
By Alex Lantier, 8 February 2019
The decision to recall the French ambassador to Italy points to an accelerating collapse of relations between the major imperialist powers of Europe.
The reality of capitalism: GM makes $11.8 billion in profits while closing plants, eliminating 14,000 jobs
By Jerry White, 7 February 2019
The huge profits, side-by-side with the destruction of entire communities, expose the real character of the capitalist system and why the working class must abolish it.
State of Fear: Trump unleashes tirade against socialism
By Patrick Martin, 6 February 2019
The president’s claims of an economic “miracle” were belied by his denunciations of rising public support for socialism within the United States.
Hands off Venezuela!
By Bill Van Auken, 5 February 2019
With the aid of European and Canadian imperialism and the right-wing governments of Latin America, Washington is preparing to either invade Venezuela or plunge it into civil war.
The Governor Ralph Northam affair
By Patrick Martin, 4 February 2019
The Virginia governor is under mounting pressure to resign after a 35-year-old incident of his wearing blackface was made public.
The US scraps the INF treaty: Another step toward nuclear war
By Andre Damon, 2 February 2019
The US withdrawal from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty marks a major escalation of US efforts to prop up its hegemony through military means.
February 9 demonstration against auto plant closures in Detroit
The program and strategy to defend jobs
By Joseph Kishore, 1 February 2019
The demonstration, called by the WSWS and the Steering Committee of the Coalition of Rank-and-File Committees, is the first organized expression of rank-and-file opposition to GM’s jobs massacre.
Fascists march in Auschwitz
By Clara Weiss, 31 January 2019
The sight of a rabble of Nazi trash desecrating the memory of those who perished in Auschwitz is sickening and must be answered. But the response must be informed by an understanding of the inextricable link between capitalism, the crisis of bourgeois democracy and fascist reaction.
French President Macron visits the hangman of Cairo
By Will Morrow and Alex Lantier, 30 January 2019
Macron’s visit to Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is a warning that his government intends to drastically step up repression of the “yellow vests” and broader popular opposition.
Afghanistan peace talks and the debacle of the war on terror
By Bill Van Auken, 29 January 2019
Whether Washington withdraws US troops remains to be seen; what is certain is that Afghanistan is viewed through the prism of preparations for far wider wars.
Strikes by Hungarian Audi workers, Mexican auto parts workers
The global struggle of autoworkers
By Jerry White, 28 January 2019
Autoworkers are striving to unite their struggles against the attack on jobs and living standards by GM, Ford, VW and other global corporations.
Fascist deputies disrupt Holocaust memorial in Germany
By Peter Schwarz and Andre Damon, 26 January 2019
On Wednesday, deputies from the neo-fascist Alternative for Germany walked out of a Holocaust remembrance ceremony in the state parliament of Bavaria.
Canada’s "diversity" imperialism
By Keith Jones, 25 January 2019
Justin Trudeau, presiding over what has been hailed as the most diverse cabinet in Canadian history, has signed on to Washington’s coup plot against Venezuela.
Washington engineers right-wing coup in Venezuela
By Bill Van Auken, 24 January 2019
The backing by governments in Latin America and internationally for the US-orchestrated coup attempt are part of a global drive toward the right and dictatorship.
The way forward for US government workers in the fight against the shutdown
By Niles Niemuth, 23 January 2019
The anger of US government workers locked out or forced to work without pay is growing, but neither the AFL-CIO nor the government employee unions has called for independent action by workers to fight the shutdown.
As global elites gather at Davos
Oxfam: 26 billionaires control as much wealth as poorest half of humanity
By Nick Beams, 22 January 2019
The UK-based charity Oxfam International has reported that the wealth of the world’s billionaires grew by $900 billion last year, a rise of 12 percent, while 3.8 billion people—half the world’s population—saw their wealth decline by 11 percent.
Matamoros strike threatens to shut down North American auto industry
By Eric London, 21 January 2019
The corporate media are blacking out coverage of the largest strike in North America in the last two decades.
Science and social crisis in 2019
By Bryan Dyne, 19 January 2019
A series of major scientific breakthroughs demonstrate the potential for the progressive development of humanity, even as capitalism drags mankind into war and barbarism.
The US political crisis reaches fever pitch
By Patrick Martin, 18 January 2019
Both feuding factions of the US ruling elite are right-wing, anti-democratic and militaristic.
Mexican strikers show working class answer to capitalist reaction at US-Mexico border
By Eric London, 17 January 2019
At the US-Mexico border, the two chief social classes under capitalism—the capitalist class and the working class—are demonstrating the two alternatives for the future of mankind.
The global class struggle in 2019
By Joseph Kishore, 16 January 2019
The year 2019 is beginning with a wave of strikes, demonstrations and other manifestations of class struggle around the world.
One hundred years since the murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht
By Peter Schwarz, 15 January 2019
The ruling class had to kill Luxemburg and Liebknecht to prevent the revolution, which spread like wildfire throughout Germany during November 1918, from overthrowing capitalism as it had done in Russia.
The FBI’s police state operation against Trump
By Patrick Martin, 14 January 2019
A New York Times report aimed at reviving the anti-Russia campaign against Trump exposes a conspiracy by the political police of the FBI to negate the results of the 2016 election.
The political significance of India’s two-day general strike
By Keith Jones, 12 January 2019
This week’s general strike in India, one of the largest strikes in history, is part of a growing upsurge of the world working class.
Trump at the Rubicon
By Patrick Martin and Andre Damon, 11 January 2019
A presidential declaration of a “national emergency” to override congressional opposition would mean a permanent and irreversible break with constitutional government in the United States.
Trump’s “national emergency” threat and the danger of presidential dictatorship
By Patrick Martin, 10 January 2019
Congressional Democrats and the corporate media are deliberately downplaying the danger to democratic rights and constitutional norms embodied in Trump’s threats.
Los Angeles teachers prepare to strike
By Jerry White, 9 January 2019
Teachers in the nation’s second-largest school district are engaged in a critical battle to defend the right to public education.
Bolton walks back Trump’s Syria troop withdrawal
By Bill Van Auken, 8 January 2019
Whatever the intent of Trump’s demagogic promise to “bring the troops home,” the ruling establishment is determined to continue the US wars for hegemony in the Middle East.
Mobilize the working class against the US government shutdown
By Patrick Martin, 7 January 2019
The furloughs and payless paydays for 800,000 federal employees are a major attack on the American working class.
Wall Street rules
By Andre Damon, 5 January 2019
The Federal Reserve, responding to Thursday’s stock market selloff, declared it was “listening” to the markets and ready to scrap its plans to raise interest rates.
The global slowdown: US trade war comes home
By Andre Damon, 4 January 2019
The economic warfare pursued by the Trump administration with the support of broad sections of the US political establishment is coming home to roost in the form of a global slowdown spreading to the United States.
The Strategy of International Class Struggle and the Political Fight Against Capitalist Reaction in 2019
By James Cogan, Joseph Kishore and David North, 3 January 2019
The year 2019 begins amidst the explosive interaction of geopolitical, economic and social crises. All over the world the ruling class is turning to ultra-right and neo-fascist politicians and organizations to defend the capitalist system. The threat of dictatorship and war can be defeated only through the political mobilization of the working class on the basis of an international socialist strategy.
Amid global crackdown on refugees
One sixth of world’s people want to flee their home countries
By Eric London, 31 December 2018
Some 750 million people, not including children, want to escape war, poverty, conflict and disease caused by capitalism.
Facebook: The global censor
By Andre Damon, 29 December 2018
This year has seen an intensification of internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Twitter, transforming these companies into censors that police what their users say, do and think.
Trump’s visit to Iraq and Washington’s never-ending war in the Middle East
By Bill Van Auken, 28 December 2018
Trump’s buffoonish performance in Iraq carried one serious message: With or without troops in Syria, the decades-long US war for hegemony in the Middle East goes on.
The death of Felipe Alonzo-Gómez: A crime of US imperialism
By Eric London, 27 December 2018
The eight-year-old immigrant died in US custody after fleeing from Nentón, Guatemala, close to where a horrific massacre took place in 1982 during the country’s civil war.
Trump administration in question as political warfare in Washington intensifies
By Joseph Kishore, 24 December 2018
In Trump’s foreign policy shifts, the Democrats, speaking for the military and intelligence apparatus, see an abandonment of what they consider to be the fundamental premise of American geostrategy.
The resignation of General Mattis and America’s crisis of class rule
By Bill Van Auken, 22 December 2018
The panic and hysteria over the resignation of the former Marine Corps general reflects a deep-going crisis within the US ruling establishment.
Defense Secretary Mattis resigns amid Washington backlash over Syria troop withdrawal
By Bill Van Auken, 21 December 2018
Driving the outrage of Republicans, Democrats, Washington think tanks and major media are the imperialist interests underlying the Syrian intervention.
A closer look at American “democracy”
By Barry Grey, 20 December 2018
The population is given the opportunity every two or four years to go to the polls and vote for one or the other corporate-controlled party. This is what is called “democracy.”
The working class and the environmental crisis
By Patrick Martin, 19 December 2018
It is not “humanity” that is guilty of contributing to climate change or the destruction of the ecosystem. It is the capitalist class.
The disinformation campaign behind the allegations of Russian “disinformation”
By Andre Damon, 18 December 2018
The US media was dominated Monday by reports that Russia is responsible for the growth of opposition to police violence and social inequality in the United States.
The global crisis of capitalist rule and the strategy of socialist revolution
By Joseph Kishore, 17 December 2018
Whatever the national peculiarities, the political crisis of class rule in every country is driven by the same global processes.
China’s economic slowdown: The political issues confronting the working class
By Nick Beams, 15 December 2018
The China slowdown is part of a global process, exposing the fraudulent claim that the global economy had finally “turned the corner” after the deep recession produced by the financial crisis a decade ago.
Israel rolls out the welcome mat for Europe’s neo-fascists
By Bill Van Auken, 14 December 2018
Netanyahu’s hailing of Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Salvini as a “great friend of Israel” demonstrates the affinity between the Zionist state and neo-fascism.
A significant step forward: Detroit meeting of autoworkers resolves to form rank-and-file committees
By Joseph Kishore, 13 December 2018
In the center of world capitalism, the working class is beginning to establish the necessary organizational and political framework for a counter-offensive.
Political warfare in Washington escalates to crisis of capitalist rule
By Barry Grey, 12 December 2018
Trump’s embrace of murder, his defense of fascists, his racist attacks on immigrants are blowing up an ideological pillar of US imperialist foreign policy—the pretense that the United States is a bulwark of human rights and democracy.
Another day, another horror in America: Five children killed in Youngstown, Ohio, house fire
By Niles Niemuth, 11 December 2018
While the immediate cause of the fire remains under investigation, the tragedy which struck Sunday night is not an isolated event but the outcome of a failed social and economic system.
Which way forward for France’s “yellow vest” protests?
By Alex Lantier, 10 December 2018
The critical question is the independent organization of the working class, in France and internationally, in the preparation of a European general strike.
The kidnapping of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou
By Andre Damon, 8 December 2018
Meng’s arrest and confinement—without bail and on tendentious and opaque charges potentially carrying a sentence of 60 years—amount to little more than a kidnapping.
The demonstrations in France and the global class struggle
By Alex Lantier, 7 December 2018
As they face Macron’s brutal crackdown, workers and students in France fighting austerity and inequality must turn to the international working class.
The state funeral for George H. W. Bush and the ritual of oligarchy
By Patrick Martin, 6 December 2018
The passing of the 41st US president has evoked not the slightest sadness in the American population, despite the massive effort to present George H. W. Bush as a sympathetic and historic figure.
Mobilize the working class against Macron!
By Alex Lantier, 5 December 2018
The critical task facing protests against austerity and inequality in France is to expand the struggle more broadly into the French and international working class.
López Obrador’s rise in Mexico sets stage for explosive class struggles
By Eric London, 4 December 2018
AMLO’s proposed policies, packaged in pseudo-populist verbiage, make clear that the aspirations of his voters will soon be shattered.
The mass protests in France: A new stage in the international class struggle
By The World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board, 3 December 2018
This weekend’s anti-austerity demonstrations in France have shown the working class to be not just an oppressed class, but a revolutionary class.
One million dead from suicide, drug overdoses since 2007
Casualties of the social counterrevolution in America
By Eric London, 1 December 2018
The “mortality crisis” is the product of policies of social counterrevolution carried out by both the Democrats and Republicans in collaboration with the trade unions.
Democrats re-elect a right-wing leadership
By Patrick Martin, 30 November 2018
The Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives has reelected the same leadership team that collaborated with the Bush administration’s war in Iraq and the Obama administration’s bailout of Wall Street.
Ukraine’s provocation in the Azov Sea
By Clara Weiss and Andre Damon, 29 November 2018
The Ukrainian military, with the support of high-level figures within the US state, has instigated a major international crisis ahead of this week’s G20 summit.
A call to action to fight the GM plant closings and mass layoffs
By Jerry White, 28 November 2018
Autoworkers and the working class as a whole cannot accept the “right” of the corporate and financial elite to shut these plants down.
The military-police assault at San Ysidro
Defend immigrant workers from state violence!
By Eric London, 27 November 2018
The Socialist Equality Party (US) condemns the US government’s military operation at the US-Mexico border Sunday as a horrific crime against humanity.
Climate change, capitalism and socialism
New climate change report: Impact of global warming “already being felt”
By Bryan Dyne, 26 November 2018
The latest report from the US Global Change Research Program confirms the danger posed by climate change and the inability of capitalist governments to address it.
In Thanksgiving teleconference, Trump appeals to military against courts, political opponents
By Joseph Kishore, 24 November 2018
In a call with representatives of the five branches of the US Armed Forces, Trump denounced judges for “telling our incredible military and law enforcement what to do.”
No to the draft in France and Europe!
By Parti de l’égalité socialiste, 23 November 2018
Faced with plans to reintroduce military service across Europe, the decisive question is the construction of an anti-war movement in the international working class.
America’s Thanksgivings
By David Walsh, 22 November 2018
The US on Thanksgiving 2018 presents a picture of a country plagued by malignant social inequality, with tens of millions suffering in poverty. Meanwhile, the very rich are living like never before. Political and social explosions are inevitable.
The fire in Paradise, California: From natural disaster to social catastrophe
By David Brown, 21 November 2018
While wildfires, like hurricanes, are rooted in natural causes, the horrific consequences are the product of corporate malfeasance and government neglect.
US vice president beats war drums in Asia
By Peter Symonds, 20 November 2018
Mike Pence in effect issued an ultimatum to China: either accept a subservient, semi-colonial status, or confront the full force of US diplomatic, economic and ultimately military weight.
France shaken by mass protests
By Alex Lantier, 19 November 2018
There were cries of “Macron resign” from protesters holding signs saying “No to the president of the rich.”
Defend Julian Assange against US charges!
By James Cogan, 17 November 2018
The relentless persecution of Assange is intended to intimidate and silence all critical and independent journalists and media organisations, as well as would-be whistleblowers.
The political crisis in Sri Lanka: Its lessons for the international working class
By Keith Jones and K. Ratnayake, 16 November 2018
Only the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka) fights for the working class to assert its own class interests, independently of and in opposition to both rival bourgeois camps.
Trump demands end to Florida recount in new attack on voting rights
By Patrick Martin, 15 November 2018
The president’s demand that his favored candidates in Florida be declared the victors, regardless of the actual vote, is an ominous warning.
Washington’s censorship regime goes global
Facebook deletes WSWS post on Sri Lanka
By Andre Damon, 14 November 2018
Facebook is acting as an agent of the US intelligence agencies, which see the growing audience for international socialism as an obstacle to their efforts to exploit ethnic divisions in developing countries.
Great powers commemorate First World War, and plan the next one
By Andre Damon, 13 November 2018
The talk by Merkel and Macron of the “tragedy” and “suicide” of World War I could not hide the fact that the imperialist powers are engaged in active preparations for a new and deadly world military conflict.
The armistice of November 11, 1918 and the lessons for today
By Nick Beams, 12 November 2018
The silencing of the guns 100 years ago was not the end of the bloodshed and carnage but was simply the conclusion of the first phase of what was to become a thirty-year international war between the major capitalist powers.
French President Macron hails fascist dictator Philippe Pétain
By Alex Lantier, 10 November 2018
Macron’s attempt to rehabilitate Pétain is an unabashed appeal to the far right, which he is cultivating as a base of support amid rising opposition among workers.
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