6 May 2019

Israel pounds Gaza, stoking fears of invasion

By Jean Shaoul, 6 May 2019

Less than a month after his far-right bloc's victory in last month’s elections, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu authorised an aerial assault on Gaza, targeting at least 150 sites over the weekend.

Assange’s father tells demonstrators Australian government must secure son’s release

By our reporter, 6 May 2019

Friday’s protest in Sydney was held two days after Assange was sentenced in a British court to 50 weeks’ jail on bogus bail charges.

On eve of trade talks in Washington
Trump threatens new tariffs against China

By Nick Beams, 6 May 2019

Trump’s threats, aimed at putting intense pressure on Chinese negotiators when they sit down with their US counterparts on Wednesday, could have the effect of blowing up the talks.

Facebook escalates social media censorship with shutdown of far-right accounts

By Kevin Reed, 4 May 2019

While the far-right has the backing of powerful factions of the state and the ruling class, the move by Facebook creates a precedent for the overt censorship of left-wing organizations.

Teachers at three Chicago charter schools strike as union blocks common fight with public school educators

By Alexander Fangmann and Andy Thompson, 6 May 2019

The Chicago Teachers Union has worked closely with the Democratic Party to ensure that the two-tier education system is completely unaffected.

Sickout by teachers and school support staff in Nashville, Tennessee

By Warren Duzak, 6 May 2019

More than 1,400 teachers and support staff called in sick Friday after Democratic Mayor David Briley’s budget provided no increase in real wages for school employees.

Polls show growing sentiment for teachers strike in Mississippi

“We would benefit greatly if budgets were spent on minds instead of mines”
30,000 march for public education in North and South Carolina

San Diego Sweetwater Teachers Union begins bargaining as false financial situation reported by district

More on the defense of public education »

As contract deadline approaches
Faurecia auto parts workers in Michigan speak out on sweatshop conditions

By James McDonald, 6 May 2019

In advance of their May contract expiration workers at the Faurecia auto parts plant in Saline, Michigan, spoke out on brutal working conditions and harsh treatment by management.

Horrific plant explosion kills at least three workers in northern Chicago suburb

By Jessica Goldstein, 6 May 2019

The 30,000-square foot plant was located close to residential areas, where witnesses reported power outages and structural and other property damage in nearby buildings.

Initial Grenfell fire inquiry report to make “withering criticism” of London Fire Brigade

By Tom Pearce, 6 May 2019

The focus on the LFB’s alleged failings conceals the fact that all the main factors that ensured such a horrific loss of life were present long before June 14, 2017.

Australian youth speak out against climate change

By our reporters, 6 May 2019

The climate strikes are part of a growing politicisation of young people in Australia and internationally.

New in Turkish

Emperyalist “ruhtaki yalan”
Julian Assange hapiste çürürken, politikacılar “Dünya Basın Özgürlüğü Günü”nü kutluyor

David Walsh, 6 Mayıs 2019

Bu haftaki etkinlikler sırasında, herhangi bir etkinlikte, UNESCO ya da Dünya Basın Özgürlüğü Günü ile ilişkili hiç kimse Assange’a değinmedi.

New in Spanish

La “falsedad en el alma” imperialista
Políticos celebran “Día Mundial de la Libertad de Prensa” mientras Julian Assange languidece en prisión

David Walsh, 6 mayo 2019

Julian Assange, el editor y periodista de WikiLeaks, fue sentenciado a casi un año en prisión por un juez británico el miércoles en lo que solo se puede llamar un juicio amañado.

Después de las elecciones españolas, Podemos presiona por un gobierno de austeridad del PSOE

Alejandro Lopez y Alex Lantier, 6 mayo 2019

Incluso al tiempo que las políticas de austeridad y policiales del PSOE alimentan el ascenso de la extrema derecha, Podemos está pidiendo unirse a un gobierno del PSOE y lo está defendiendo de críticas desde su izquierda.

El nuevo presidente ucraniano Zelenski apoya campaña contra Rusia

Jason Melanovski, 6 mayo 2019

Zelenski ha aprovechado la nueva legislación sobre pasaportes de Moscú para respaldar públicamente la campaña dirigida por la OTAN y Estados Unidos contra Rusia.

New in Norwegian

Den imperialistiske «løgna i sjelen»
Politikere feiret «Internasjonal dag for pressefrihet» mens Julian Assange vansmekter i fengsel

David Walsh, 6. mai 2019

Ingen assosiert med UNESCO eller Internasjonal dag for pressefrihet nevnte forfølgelsen av WikiLeaks-grunnleggeren Julian Assange under forrige ukes begivenheter.

Franske Gul-Vest-protesterende kom til London for å forsvare Julian Assange

6. mai 2019

Protesterende reiste over Den engelske kanalen for å kreve frihet for den forfulgte Wikileaks-journalisten, som tirsdag i forrige uke ble dømt til å tilbringe 50 uker i Belmarsh Prison mens han trues med overføring til USA.

Ett hundre år siden 4. mai-bevegel...

Robert Stevens, 6. mai 2019

Williamson ble sparket etter en granskning av hvem som lekket fra drøftelser i Det nasjonale sikkerhetsråd, der den kinesiske telekomgiganten Huaweis deltakelse i Storbritannias 5G-datanettverk ble godkjent.

Handelsforhandlingene mellom USA og Kina går inn i sluttfasen

Nick Beams, 6. mai 2019

Ett av de vesentlige stridspunktene er enighet om hvordan amerikanske tariffer på kinesiske varer til en verdi av $ 250 milliarder skulle heves dersom en handelsavtale oppnås.

Japans keiser abdiserer fra tronen

Ben McGrath, 6. mai 2019

Det ytrehøyre i Japan, som inkluderer statsminister Abe og de fleste i hans kabinett, presser på for at keiseren gjenopptar førkrigsrollen som krumtapp for et repressivt, militaristisk regime.

New in French

Les négociations commerciales sino-américaines entrent dans la phase finale

Nick Beams, 6 mai 2019

L’un des points d’achoppement est le désaccord sur la procédure selon laquelle les tarifs douaniers américains imposés sur les biens chinois d’une valeur de 250 milliards de dollars seront enlevés si un accord commercial est conclu.

«mensonge dans l'âme» des impérialistes
Les politiciens célèbrent la «Journée mondiale de la liberté de la presse» alors que Julian Assange languit en prison

David Walsh, 6 mai 2019

Aucune personne associée à l'UNESCO ou à la Journée mondiale de la liberté de la presse n'a fait mention de la persécution du fondateur de WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, lors des événements de cette semaine.

Le Honduras sévit contre les enseignants, les médecins et les étudiants qui protestent contre la campagne de privatisation

Andrea Lobo, 6 mai 2019

L’opposition de masse contre le régime de privatisations et d’austérité, imposé depuis le coup d’État appuyé par les États-Unis de 2009 au Honduras, fait face à une répression brutale.

Les travailleurs des plantations de thé ont besoin d'une stratégie mondiale

Saman Gunadasa, 6 mai 2019

Les travailleurs dans les plantations de thé en Inde, au Kenya et au Sri Lanka ne peuvent mettre fin à leur exploitation brutale que s’ils rompent avec les syndicats et mettent de l’avant une stratégie socialiste et internationaliste.

Une chronique du New York Times falsifie l'héritage de Eugene Debs

Tom Mackaman, 6 mai 2019

Isserman dépeint le premier socialiste américain comme un réformateur moraliste.

New in German

Die extreme Rechte in der Europawahl

Peter Schwarz, 6. Mai 2019

Das Anwachsen rechtsextremer Parteien wiederspiegelt keine Rechtsentwicklung unter breiten Schichten der Bevölkerung. Es ist die Antwort der herrschenden Klasse auf die wachsende Militanz der Arbeiterklasse.

Die „Lüge der Seele“ der Imperialisten:
Politiker feiern den „Internationalen Tag der Pressefreiheit“, während Julian Assange im Gefängnis schmachtet

David Walsh, 6. Mai 2019

Niemand, der mit der UNESCO oder dem Internationalen Tag der Pressefreiheit in Verbindung gebracht wird, erwähnte während der Veranstaltungen letzte Woche die Verfolgung des WikiLeaks-Gründers Julian Assange.

Neonazi-Netzwerk im US-Militär entlarvt

Jack Cross, 6. Mai 2019

Aktuelle unabhängige Untersuchungen haben gezeigt, dass mehrere rassistische Gruppen ungehindert in allen Teilstreitkräften des Militärs aktiv sind.

Bernie Sanders attackiert Biden im Handelsstreit mit China von rechts

Ben McGrath, 6. Mai 2019

Bei seiner Kritik am ehemaligen US-Vizepräsidenten griff Sanders Trumps antichinesische Demagogie und dessen Wirtschaftsnationalismus auf.

„Fortschrittlicher Kapitalismus“ – ein Betrug

Nick Beams, 6. Mai 2019

Die Forderungen nach einer „Reform“ der kapitalistischen Wirtschaft, die von milliardenschweren Konzernchefs in den USA erhoben und von „linken“ Ökonomen unterstützt werden, entspringen der Angst vor dem Linksruck in weiten Teilen der amerikanischen Bevölkerung.

Sri Lanka: Erfolgreiche SEP-Versammlung zum 1. Mai

unseren Reportern, 6. Mai 2019

Rund 200 Arbeiter, Studierende und Jugendliche aus ganz Sri Lanka nahmen an der Versammlung zum Ersten Mai teil. Die SEP trotzte damit einem Verbot der Regierung nach den Terroranschlägen an Ostern.

Other Languages

Perspective

The nationalist “socialism” of Bernie Sanders

6 May 2019

Sanders presents Chinese workers, the largest single contingent of the international working class, as the enemy of American workers.

Earlier Perspectives »

International Online May Day Rally 2019

Opening report to Online International May Day Rally
The resurgence of class struggle and the fight for socialism

By David North, 6 May 2019

We are publishing here the text of the opening report to the 2019 International Online May Day Rally delivered by David North.

On May 4, the International Committee of the Fourth International held its annual International May Day Online Rally, with speakers and participants from throughout the world. Readers can listen to the entire rally here.

SEP (Sri Lanka) holds successful May Day meeting in Colombo, despite government efforts to bar celebrations

By our reporters, 3 May 2019

SEP (Sri Lanka) May Day meeting demands freedom for Assange and Manning

May Day 2019: The resurgence of the class struggle and the fight for socialism

History

One hundred years since the May 4 movement in China—Part Two

By Peter Symonds, 6 May 2019

The Chinese Communist Party today distorts the significance of the events of May 4, 1919. It has long ago repudiated the democratic principles of the New Culture movement and the socialist internationalism upon which the party was founded.

One hundred years since the May 4 movement in China—Part One

New York Times column falsifies legacy of Eugene Debs

By Tom Mackaman, 30 April 2019

Commentary

The German ruling class fears the spectre of socialism

By Johannes Stern, 6 May 2019

What the ruling class fears is the growing social and political opposition of workers and young people, which is breaking out in Germany, Europe and around the world.

Bernie Sanders attacks Biden from the right on China trade

By Ben McGrath, 4 May 2019

Bernie Sanders silent on Assange, vocal in promoting nationalism at Michigan rally

Bernie Sanders joins Trump’s attack on “open borders”

Washington political warfare intensifies with lawsuits, looming contempt charges

By Patrick Martin, 4 May 2019

US attorney general refuses to testify before House Judiciary Committee

More on the Trump presidency »

Media lies in service of war for regime change in Venezuela

By Bill Van Auken, 3 May 2019

Hands off Venezuela!

More on US militarism »

An assembly of political bankrupts: Historical Materialism and Jacobin host “Socialism in Our Time” conference

By Joseph Kishore, 16 April 2019

Who funded the ISO? An analysis of the financial basis of pseudo-left politics

Factional provocation, middle-class hysteria, and the collapse of the International Socialist Organization

Arts Review

Red Joan: A British spy story skirts some issues

By Fred Mazelis, 6 May 2019

The film is loosely based on the case of Melita Norwood, arrested in 1999 and accused of passing classified information to the Soviet Union.

Documentary about the brutal 2014 disappearance of teachers’ college students
The 43: A state massacre and cover-up in Mexico

By Rafael Azul and Don Knowland, 4 May 2019

Free Assange and Manning

The imperialist “lie in the soul”
Politicians celebrate “World Press Freedom Day” as Julian Assange languishes in prison

By David Walsh, 4 May 2019

French Yellow vest protesters travel to London to defend Julian Assange

4 May 2019

Attend Socialist Equality Party (UK) public meeting in London
Free Julian Assange, Free Chelsea Manning!

Berlin: Meeting held at Humboldt University to defend Julian Assange

By our reporters, 4 May 2019

On Tuesday, several dozen students and workers gathered at Humboldt University in Berlin to protest the persecution of Julian Assange and discuss the political and historical background to the attack on the courageous journalist.

“Assange can only be defended by an international movement of the working class”
Christoph Vandreier speaks at Berlin rally to defend Julian Assange

The sentencing of Julian Assange: A legal travesty

By Andre Damon, 2 May 2019

More on the campaign to Free Assange and Manning »

This week in history: May 6-12

25 years ago: Channel Tunnel opens, connecting Britain and France

On May 6, 1994, the Channel Tunnel officially opened, connecting for the first time the United Kingdom with the European mainland from Kent, England, to Pas-de-Calais, France.

More »

50 years ago: Battle of Hamburger Hill

On May 10 US forces in Vietnam began a 10-day assault on Hill 937, which was heavily defended by the North Vietnam’s People’s Army of Vietnam.

More »

75 years ago: Soviet offensive clears Axis forces from Crimea

During this week in 1944, Soviet military forces completed the destruction of the Axis bastion in Crimea, capturing the key port city of Sevastopol on May 12, 1944.

More »

100 years ago: Race riots and martial law in Charleston, South Carolina

On May 10, 1919, hundreds of white sailors serving in the US Navy rioted in the port of Charleston, South Carolina, attacking African-Americans and destroying property.

More »

SEP (Australia) Election Campaign

The Labor Party tries to “save capitalism”

By Mike Head: SEP candidate for Oxley, 3 May 2019

Victorian Socialists’ fake-left election campaign

By Patrick O'Connor, 2 May 2019

Join the fight for international socialism!
To halt climate change, capitalism must be abolished

By Tessa Pietsch: SEP Senate candidate for Victoria, 2 May 2019

Liberal and Labor compete in stoking anti-refugee scare-mongering

By Mike Head: SEP candidate for Oxley, 1 May 2019

SEP (Australia) to hold election rally and meetings in defence of Assange

22 April 2019

Workers Struggles

Fuel tanker drivers threaten new strike in Portugal

By Paul Mitchell, 4 May 2019

Brazilian unions defend reactionary pension “reform” at May Day rally

By Miguel Andrade, 3 May 2019

May Day: Police rampage in Paris as hundreds of thousands march in France

May Day 2019 in Germany: Trade unions call for support for the European Union

UK rail union calls off strikes against driver-only-operated trains

By Michael Barnes, 3 May 2019

Up to 400,000 jobs threatened as US sanctions deepen crisis of Russian auto industry

By Clara Weiss, 2 May 2019

Tea plantation workers need a global strategy

By Saman Gunadasa, 1 May 2019

Featured Report

UK: Liverpool man dies after being declared fit for work and denied benefits

By Barry Mason, 30 April 2019

“He should never have been found fit to work in a million years!”
UK advice worker Terry Craven speaks on the terrible death of Stephen Smith

European elections

“Join the fight for a united socialist Europe!”
Socialist Equality Party (SGP) publishes campaign video for European Elections

By the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei, 29 April 2019

The European elections and the revival of class struggle

International Youth and Students for Social Equality

”Dictatorships as alternative political orders?”—We say no!
Student Parliament at Humboldt University condemns Jörg Baberowski’s right-wing think tank

By the IYSSE at the Humboldt University, 30 April 2019

The Fight Against Fascism

Neo-Nazi networks exposed across US military

By Jacob Crosse, 4 May 2019

“If you agree with our analysis, you’ve got to decide what you’re going to do.”
David North speaks on the threat of fascism

By David North, 20 April 2019

The Threat of Fascism and How to Fight It
North and Vandreier conclude US tour at New York University

By our reporters, 20 April 2019

Princeton University provides $300,000 in funding for right-wing historian and propagandist Jörg Baberowski

By David North, 10 April 2019

More on the fight against fascism »

Lessons of the Matamoros workers' rebellion

New trade union bureaucracies or rank-and-file workers’ power?
Lessons of the Matamoros workers’ rebellion: Part one

By Andrea Lobo, 25 March 2019

The ongoing strike wave on the US-Mexico border provides critical lessons for the incipient movement of the working class on an international scale.

Book Review

Assembly by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri: A compendium of pseudo-left and anti-Marxist politics

By Emanuele Saccarelli, 22 April 2019

Assembly is saturated with reactionary postmodern conceptions, recycles worn-out anarchist recipes as innovative and progressive experiments and endorses virtually every political dead end of the recent and not-so-recent past.

Yabu Bilyana

Twenty years since the death of Australian Trotskyist and Aboriginal worker, Comrade Yabu Bilyana

Message of condolence from David North
“He based his life on the ideals of justice, equality and human solidarity”

Yabu Bilyana addresses ICFI World Conference: “Genocide of indigenous peoples is still practiced throughout Australia”

International Committee of the Fourth International

Indian Trotskyists hold Kolkata public meeting to celebrate 80th anniversary of the Fourth International

By our correspondents, 13 March 2019

The 50th anniversary of the founding of the SEP (Sri Lanka)
Victory of the Trotskyists in the 1985–1986 split in the ICFI

By Saman Gunadasa and K. Ratnayake, 29 December 2018

Eighty Years of the Fourth International: The Lessons of History and the Struggle for Socialism Today

By David North, 9 October 2018

On the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Fourth International

History of the ICFI

From the arsenal of Trotskyism
The Political Report by David North to the International Committee of the Fourth International—February 11, 1984

12 February 2019

Thirty-five years ago this week, David North, then the national secretary of the Workers League (predecessor of the Socialist Equality Party), presented at a meeting of the International Committee of the Fourth International a critique of the British Workers Revolutionary Party’s abandonment of key theoretical conceptions and programmatic principles of Trotskyism.

Halil Celik, 1961-2018

Halil Celik, a fighter for socialism (1961-2018)

By Peter Schwarz, 1 February 2019

On December 31, 2018, Halil Celik, founder and leader of the group Sosyalist Eşitlik, which supports the International Committee of the Fourth International in Turkey, died of cancer at the age of 57. This obituary presents an overview of his life.

In memory of Halil Celik (1961–2018)

Security and the Fourth International

New book now available
Agents: The FBI and GPU Infiltration of the Trotskyist Movement

By Mehring Books, 21 January 2019

The WSWS announces the release of a new book, Agents: The FBI and GPU Infiltration of the Trotskyist Movement, by Eric London.

The origins and findings of the Security and the Fourth International investigation

By Eric London, 14 November 2018