We are publishing here the text of the opening report to the 2021 International Online May Day Rally delivered by David North.
David North•
Top Stories
Perspective
Perspective
Perspective
New study doubles global COVID-19 death toll
Nearly one million people have died from COVID-19 in the United States–and 6.93 million dead globally—according to a new study by Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
Following Trump’s attempted coup, Republican-led states are enacting anti-democratic measures meant to restrict voting access across the country.
Jacob Crosse•
Two new indictments were brought by a federal grand jury against the four former Minneapolis cops who murdered George Floyd last year, the second of which involves a brutal assault by Derrick Chauvin on a teenager in 2017.
Kevin Reed•
Trump was suspended from Facebook and Twitter in the midst of an effort to overthrow a presidential election and install himself as dictator.
Andre Damon•
Colombia’s ruling class, backed by imperialism, is determined to force the working class to bear the entire cost of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Andrea Lobo•
The case has been filed in the context of the ongoing savage repression against popular upheavals in Colombia by the far-right government of President Iván Duque.
Mauricio Saavedra•
For months, the establishment parties have refused to adjust the electoral registration requirements of new parties to the pandemic situation. This is particularly aimed at the candidates of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP), which opposes their right-wing policies.
Christoph Vandreier•
Eighty-five years since a fascist coup began the Spanish Civil War in 1936, defenders of that coup are now taking office in the Madrid regional government.
Alex Lantier•
The Labor Department reported just 266,000 new jobs in April, far below predictions of 1 million or more, evoking loud calls from Republicans for an end to pandemic relief measures.
Shannon Jones•
Fed governor Lael Brainard said the collapse of the Archegos hedge fund had demonstrated the potential for nonbank financial institutions to generate risk for the entire financial system.
Nick Beams•
As the Bedaş workers’ militant struggle threatens to inspire other sections of the working class, capitalist politicians of all political colors have been mobilized to drive workers into the dead end of trade unionism.
Ulaş Ateşçi•
The Indian ruling elite’s criminal response to the pandemic—a global catastrophe
Whilst the mass of the population is condemned to want, hunger and death, a tiny minority gorge on wealth that would put the Mughals or even the more rapacious British colonial East India Company to shame.
Keith Jones•
The SEP leads the fight against company, police and union witch-hunt of Sri Lankan plantation workers
The ruling classes in South Asia, like their counterparts worldwide, have resorted to whipping up communalism to divide and weaken the working class.
M. Thevarajah•
The Brazilian ruling class is unwilling and incapable of mounting any struggle against the deadly pandemic
The fascistic president Bolsanaro is the most radical advocate of the policy of social murder, but the Workers Party (PT) of Lula carries out similar policies in the states where it is in power.
Tomas Castanheira•
The struggle for Permanent Revolution in South Asia
India has become the epicenter of the global pandemic, reporting the highest number of daily new cases anywhere in the world.
Deepal Jayasekera•
Alex Lantier•
Ulaş Ateşci•
Joseph Kishore•
Statement of the International Committee of the Fourth International•
Chris Marsden•
Attack on Bristol University Professor David Miller spearheads national anti-Semitism witch-hunt
Miller’s important research made him the target of a rotten smear campaign by the Labour Party, falsely alleging anti-Semitism, and earned him the enmity of the pro-Israel lobby and parliamentary war hawks of both parties, as well as the Israeli government.
Jean Shaoul•
Factional warfare engulfs Canada’s Green Party
The Toronto Star has run a series of sensationalist articles amplifying claims from “equity seeking” supporters of the Greens’ new federal leader that she faces determined opposition from the party’s “primarily white” old guard.
Roger Jordan, James Clayton•
US Secretary of State Blinken visits Kiev amidst ongoing tensions with Russia
Blinken conspicuously failed to publicly condemn a far-right march that had taken place just before his visit in Kiev.
Jason Melanovski•
Tory victory in Hartlepool by-election signals death throes of UK Labour Party
The results confirm the Socialist Equality Party’s analysis of the protracted death of the Labour Party, of Brexit, and the significance of the collapse of Corbynism.
Thomas Scripps•
Nick Beams•
Jerry White•
David North•
Kevin Reed•
David Walsh•
Sri Lanka: Stop the criminal mishandling of the pandemic! Lockdown the country with full compensation to those affected!
The Rajapakse government’s criminal policies have led to a new deadly surge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Statement of the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka)•
Indian medical staff indict Modi government, authorities for catastrophic mishandling of pandemic
“A death due to oxygen shortages is not a coronavirus death but criminal social murder by the Modi government,” an Indian doctor told the WSWS.
Yuan Darwin, Nanda Kumar•
Declaring that France must “live with the virus,” Macron ends limited lockdown
There is an attempt to desensitize the population to mass death, which is presented as inevitable, and not the result of well-defined policies that can be opposed and rejected.
Jacques Valentin•
New York tri-state area to lift most COVID-19 restrictions May 19
There is little distinguishing the Democratic governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut from their Republican counterparts like Florida’s Ron DeSantis.
Josh Varlin•
Bryan Dyne•
Benjamin Mateus•
Alex Johnson, Patrick Smith•
John Braddock•
Rory Woods•
NYU graduate student strike set to enter its third week as union seeks to officially end strike at Columbia
Late Thursday night, NYU raised its offered increase of hourly wages from $21.50 to $25, beginning September 2020, with a following yearly raise of 2.5 percent, which is the equivalent of the projected inflation rate.
Clara Weiss, John Conrad•
Opposition remains high among Volvo Truck workers to the latest UAW concessions deal
With a little over a week remaining until voting begins on May 16 on the UAW’s sellout agreement for workers at Volvo’s New River Valley manufacturing facility, opposition among workers remains high, with many indicating that they plan to vote “no” on the deal.
Our reporters•
UK: Jacob Douwe Egbert workers strike against fire and rehire contract
No effort is being made by Unite to join the fight of workers in Banbury with the 19,000 employed by the company in Europe and internationally.
Peter Reydt, Robert Stevens•
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and New Zealand
Korea: Renault Samsung autoworkers locked out; Bangladeshi transport workers demand food assistance; Australian broadband network technicians walk off.
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Ben Oliver•
Shelley Connor, Jerry White•
Carl Bronski•
Douglas Lyons•
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Fiji government scrambles to contain COVID-19 outbreak
The emergence and rapid spread of the Indian COVID-19 variant in the southwest Pacific further demonstrates how vulnerable the world remains to the pandemic.
John Braddock•
Australian union chief warns of workers’ pent-up discontent
There is nervousness throughout the union hierarchies that their role in policing unprecedented job and pay cuts has produced such unrest that they will no longer be able to suppress it.
Mike Head•
Australian Education Union’s anti-democratic “town hall” meeting underscores danger of new sell-out industrial agreement
Both the form and content of the event pointed to the AEU’s collaboration with the Victorian state Labor government against teachers.
Our reporter•
Widespread opposition to Australian government ban on citizens returning from India
Rather than address the quarantine shambles, the government is gambling with the lives of some 9,000 citizens in India, at least 650 of whom are deemed to be at a high-risk of succumbing to COVID-19.
Oscar Grenfell•
Our reporters•
John Harris•
Rohantha De Silva•
Wasantha Rupasinghe•
Mike Head•
The Bike Thief: The desperate acts people are driven to
In its title and subject matter, the movie pays deliberate and admiring tribute to the 1948 Italian neorealist film, Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette—US title, The Bicycle Thief ).
Joanne Laurier•
Writers, biographers protest W.W. Norton’s decision to “permanently” remove Blake Bailey’s biography of Philip Roth from print
Bailey’s book, likely to be the standard work on Roth’s life for some time to come, has been “pulped” and its author turned overnight into a “non-person.” There is no precedent for this in recent times.
David Walsh•
Tyron: Another side of British rapper Slowthai
On his sophomore album, Slowthai’s self-analysis is counterbalanced by regressive bluster.
Erik Schreiber•
2021 San Francisco International Film Festival—Part 4
Serious films about serious things—This Is My Desire (Nigeria), Radiograph of a Family (Iran), Poppy Field (Romania)
There were some well-made and thoughtful films screened at the recent San Francisco film festival, which give one some hope.
David Walsh•
David Walsh•
Alejandro López, Paul Mitchell•
Joanne Laurier•
David Walsh•
James Brewer•
Pittsburgh protester who lost eye from police projectile harassed by officer at court hearing
Alex Horell lost his eye last May during a protest against police brutality in Pittsburgh. Horell was then charged with rioting by the police and harassed at his hearing in April.
Alex Findijs•
Congressional Republicans move to purge Liz Cheney from leadership
The removal of Cheney, daughter of the former vice president and an arch-reactionary and warmonger, is a significant step in the transformation of the Republican Party into the fascistic instrument of Donald Trump.
Patrick Martin•
As pandemic continues and nearly 500,000 file for unemployment, US states seek to blackmail workers back on the job
Unemployment payments, as opposed to dangerous, low-paid and degrading work are being blamed for difficulties reopening restaurants and other businesses even as the pandemic continues, with the US approaching 600,000 official COVID-19 deaths.
Jacob Crosse•
As Biden administration renews privatization push
Former Obama administration official arrested on charges of charter school embezzlement
Seth Andrew, a senior advisor to former President Barack Obama in the Office of Education Technology, was arrested last Tuesday on charges he stole more than $200,000 from Democracy Prep Public Schools, a network of charter schools he founded in 2005.
Dan Conway•
Jacob Crosse•
Matthew MacEgan•
Karim Habib, Kranti Kumara•
Chase Lawrence•
Erik Schreiber•
Los Angeles teacher describes unsafe and intolerable working conditions
LAUSD educators face not only unsafe conditions, but longer hours, increased workloads, requirements to get COVID-19 tests on their own time and added duties that they did not previously have to perform.
Hong Jian•
San Diego educators interview atmospheric chemist Dr. Delphine Farmer on air quality in schools
Dr. Farmer and her team led a watershed study, which showed that, despite being installed in tens of thousands of classrooms, ionizers have a negligible effect on removing the airborne coronavirus in schools.
San Diego Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee•
Cross-Canada Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee demands immediate end to all in-person learning
The pandemic’s third wave is the direct product of the ruling class’ open economy/open schools policy, which prioritizes profits over working people’s health and lives.
Cross-Canada Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee•
Oppose the firing of Mitchell High School educators in Colorado!
Over 100 educators and staff members were notified in January that school administrators were laying them all off at the end of the school year and forcing any staff who wish to remain to re-apply for their own jobs.
Texas Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee•
Jonathan Burleigh•
Renae Cassimeda•
Chase Lawrence•
Alex Findijs•
Richard Dufour•
Gunboats dispatched to Jersey in UK/French fishing rights conflict
The immediate turn to threats, denunciations and the deployment of the military in a minor dispute over fishing is a product of the imperialist powers’ ever-deeper descent into nationalist reaction.
Thomas Scripps•
German government playing with fire by lifting restrictions and extending special rights to vaccinated citizens
An incessant debate about special rights for those who have received a COVID-19 vaccine or recovered from an infection is being conducted in the German media.
Marianne Arens•
G7 foreign minister discuss anti-Russia and China agenda amid global pandemic
Britain is using its position as host this year to confirm its wholehearted commitment to President Biden’s aggressive foreign policy and push other nations, especially the European powers, to do the same.
Thomas Scripps•
Families paint defiant Covid-19 memorial wall opposite UK Parliament
Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson has refused to meet with the Covid-19 Bereaved Families campaign.
Paul Mitchell•
Alex Lantier•
Johannes Stern•
Margot Miller•
Kumaran Ira•
Parwini Zora•
Britain ratchets up NATO’s war drive against Russia
The conflict between Ukraine and Russia and the interests of competing imperialist powers have transformed the Black Sea region into a powder keg that could ignite a worldwide conflagration.
Robert Stevens•
Ceasefire reached in deadly border conflict between Central Asian republics
Over 50 people died and hundreds more were injured on both sides of the disputed border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in the resource-rich Fergana Valley.
Andrea Peters•
UK to send largest Carrier Strike Group since Falklands/Malvinas war to South China Sea
No Royal Navy force has been mobilised on such a scale since the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas war.
Robert Stevens•
Russian foreign minister warns of a new “cold war”
Despite the recent pullback of Russian troops from the border with Ukraine, the conflict between Washington and Moscow continues and the New York Times continues to promote the right-wing oppositionist Alexei Navalny.
Andrea Peters•
Jason Melanovski, Clara Weiss•
Peter Symonds•
Patrick Martin•
Ben McGrath, Peter Symonds•
Jean Shaoul•
Violence against Asians spikes in San Francisco, California
Just in the last week, two elderly women were stabbed while waiting at a bus stop, and a father was brutally assaulted while walking his one-year-old child.
Gabriel Black•
US birth rate declines to lowest point in more than a century
The year 2020 continued the general decline seen since the 2008 financial crash, while the COVID-19 pandemic drove the birth rate down drastically starting in December.
Patrick Martin•
DNA evidence exonerates Ledell Lee, four years after his execution by lethal injection in Arkansas
Evidence from the scene of the 1993 murder of Debra Reese—that was never tested with modern technology—has exonerated Lee, who was wrongfully executed by lethal injection for the crime in 2017.
Kevin Reed•
Half of Canada’s population less than $200 away from insolvency as billionaires’ wealth surges
While working people have confronted widespread impoverishment, illness and death, Canada’s capitalist elite has seen its wealth soar during the pandemic.
Alexandra Greene•
Louis Girard, Richard Dufour•
Jacob Crosse•
Kevin Martinez•
Naomi Spencer•
Gabriel Black•
Climate change impact on Gulf Stream will have severe consequences for weather in Europe and North America
Modeling of the Gulf Stream’s rate of flow, based on data from a variety of proxy indicators demonstrates a dramatic slowing beginning in the mid-20th century.
Philip Guelpa•
Mars robot helicopter completes first rotor-powered flight on another world
Now that Ingenuity’s basic capabilities have been validated, several more flights will be attempted, the first as early as Thursday.
Bryan Dyne•
Major evolution of the human brain correlated with tool-making leap
A comparative study of brain impressions from early and later members of the genus Homo demonstrates a correlation between a major reorganization of the brain and the development of Acheulean tool technology.
Philip Guelpa•
Dinosaur fossil found sitting on eggs in a nest reveals well-developed parental care
The fossil, dating to 70 million years ago, consists of the partially preserved remains of an oviraptorosaur, a feathered, theropod dinosaur lineage tangentially related to those that eventually gave rise to modern birds.
Philip Guelpa•
Statement of the Socialist Equality Party•
Benjamin Mateus•
Benjamin Mateus•
Fred Mazelis, Philip Guelpa•
Bryan Dyne•
This week in history: May 3-9
25 years ago: Bosnian war crimes trials open in The Hague On May 7, 1996, the first in a series of war crimes trials stemming from the war in Bosnia opened in the international court at The Hague, Netherlands. Dusan Tadic, a Bosnian Serb, stood accused of carrying out atrocities against Bosnian civilians, including murder, rape and torture.
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Illinois Democrats race bait Abraham Lincoln—again
Chicago mayor targets monuments to Civil War, American Revolution
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has formed a committee to review the potential removal of five statues of Lincoln, along with monuments to Washington, Franklin, and Grant.
Tom Mackaman•
150 years since the birth of Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg, who was born on 5 March, 1871, was among the most important revolutionary Marxists of the 20th century, and her work contains vital lessons for today.
Peter Schwarz•
Watch lecture video “Three Grenades in August: Fifty Years since the Bombing of Plaza Miranda in the Philippines”—another devastating exposure of Stalinism
Scalice demonstrated that the “overwhelming weight of evidence” suggested that the Communist Party of the Philippines was responsible for the bombing and indicted its claims that fascism and martial law are “good for revolution.”
our reporter•
Peter Schwarz•
Fred Mazelis•
Alejandro López•
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Sri Lankan IYSSE to commemorate 150th anniversary of Rosa Luxemburg’s birth
The IYSSE meeting will discuss Luxemburg’s revolutionary struggle for Marxism in the German and international working class and its lessons for today.
IYSSE•
Columbia graduate workers: Organize opposition to the UAW strike “pause”!
The decision of the bargaining committee to accept a “pause” in the strike was in clear and direct opposition to the will of the 3,000 rank and file members.
International Youth and Students for Social Equality (US)•
Columbia graduate worker strike at a crossroads
The bargaining committee is employing many well-known mechanisms to try to browbeat the students into accepting a sellout proposal.
International Youth and Students for Social Equality (US)•
Support grows among workers for striking Columbia University graduate students
Autoworkers and others support the fight of Columbia graduate student-workers as the strike begins its third week.
Josh Varlin•
our reporters•
International Youth and Students for Social Equality at New York University•
International Youth and Students for Social Equality at University of Michigan•
John Conrad, Genevieve Leigh•
James Langley•
Human Rights Watch declares Israel has crossed apartheid threshold
HRW draws on years of human rights documentation, case studies and a review of government planning documents, statements by officials and other sources. It documents a catalogue of Israeli abuses committed against the Palestinians.
Jean Shaoul•
Fire at COVID-19 hospital in Baghdad kills at least 82 people
After an accident caused an oxygen tank to explode, eyewitness accounts and video clips of the terrible scenes of the fire at the hospital treating COVID-19 patients have provoked shock and anger throughout Iraq.
Jean Shaoul•
Turkish government rejects lockdown as pandemic spins out of control
As a result of the “herd immunity” policy implemented by Erdoğan’s government in the interests of the ruling class, the pandemic has spun out of control.
Ulaş Ateşçi•
Pandemic produced a “catastrophic year” for Middle East and North Africa
The pandemic has inflicted a horrendous toll, with more than 7.3 million recorded cases and 150,000 fatalities, a pale reflection of the real losses and suffering given the lack of testing and recording systems.
Jean Shaoul•
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Jean Shaoul•
Patrick Martin•
Jean Shaoul•
Britain looks to establish digital currency
As with virtually every other economic question, the introduction of a central bank digital currency is being analysed and discussed within the framework of a conflict with China.
Nick Beams•
Cryptocurrency bubble accelerates as Coinbase goes public
This week’s public launch of Grab Holdings, valued at $40 billion, and that of the cryptocurrency trader Coinbase, valued at around $85 billion, are the latest expressions of the speculative bubble fuelled by cheap money.
Nick Beams•
Taiwan, semiconductor manufacture and the US conflict with China
While the strategic importance of Taiwan in any conflict between the US and China is evident, not so obvious is the role that the country plays in the manufacture of semiconductor chips.
Peter Symonds•
Surging global food and fuel prices add further hardships for workers
Global food prices increased for the 10th consecutive month in March, reaching levels not seen since 2014, according to a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) assessment released Thursday.
Gabriel Black•
Nick Beams•
Steve Filips•
Nick Beams•
Fred Mazelis•
Nick Beams•
Facebook reverses censorship of WSWS article debunking “Wuhan Lab” conspiracy theory
On Friday, Facebook notified users that it had wrongly censored them for posting a WSWS article exposing the false claim that COVID-19 was released from a Chinese lab.
Andre Damon•
Biden extends Trump anti-Chinese TikTok policy
The Biden administration is weighing its options for continuing the anti-Chinese propaganda campaign launched by the Trump White House regarding the purported threat to national security posed by the Beijing-based social media platform TikTok.
Kevin Reed•
Democrats and Republicans use House hearing on social media “disinformation and extremism” to advance internet censorship
Democrats and Republicans used the platform of the hearing to advance their equally reactionary proposals to regulate and control online content in the aftermath of the January 6 fascist attack on the US Capitol and one year since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kevin Reed•
Facebook threatens teachers’ groups opposing unsafe school reopenings
Facebook is aggressively removing posts, disabling accounts and shutting down groups that are sharing scientifically accurate information about the COVID-19 pandemic and opposing the government’s deadly policy of reopening schools.
Kevin Reed•
Our reporters•
Tom Casey•
Kevin Reed•
By our correspondent•
Kevin Reed•
Julian Assange mural unveiled in Berlin
The Captain Borderline mural is a powerful reminder of the real issues involved in the persecution of Assange, and of the real forces being deployed against him.
Paul Bond•
Australian Labor Party conference passes mealy-mouthed motion “defending” Assange
Labor’s motion does not even oppose the US attempt to prosecute Assange under the Espionage Act for exposing American war crimes, human rights violations and diplomatic conspiracies.
Oscar Grenfell•
Australian Labor leader criticises Assange’s imprisonment, privately
Albanese’s highly conditional comments, made in a closed-room caucus meeting and leaked to the press, were a cynical public relations exercise that committed Labor to nothing.
Oscar Grenfell•
Assange’s partner exposes ongoing denial of his legal and democratic rights
Assange is still being denied proper access to his lawyers and to crucial legal documents, even after a Magistrates’ Court verdict blocking his extradition to the US last month.
Oscar Grenfell•
Our reporters•
Thomas Scripps•
Oscar Grenfell•
Our reporter•
our reporters•
President Bukele grabs dictatorial powers in El Salvador
As the pandemic demonstrates the inability of capitalism to meet the most basic needs of the working masses, the Salvadoran ruling elite is moving headlong toward dictatorship.
Andrea Lobo•
Rise in tuberculosis in Peru: A byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic
Epidemiologists predict a rise in tuberculosis (TB) due to treatment disruptions related to COVID pandemic. Treatment lapses leading to an increase of drug-resistant tuberculosis remains a concern reversing the progress made in TB progress worldwide.
Angelo Perera•
Mass protests in Colombia continue into second week amid deadly repression
Colombia’s police and military have turned in a systematic and coordinated fashion to the use of live ammunition against demonstrators, killing at least 27 of them.
Andrea Lobo•
Mexico City transit bridge collapse leaves 24 dead, scores injured
The disaster has fueled growing popular anger over criminal government negligence and corruption that has also led to hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 deaths in Mexico.
Bill Van Auken•
Eduardo Parati•
Miguel Andrade•
Tomas Castanheira•
Miguel Andrade, Tomas Castanheira•
Norisa Diaz•
The New York Times’ 1619 Project and the Racialist Falsification of History: A significant political and intellectual event
For its powerful explication of major themes related to the American Revolution, the Civil War and the emergence of the working class, this book will be of interest to all readers of American history, teachers, students and workers.
James McDonald•
Republican state legislators move to ban the New York Times’ 1619 Project from schools
Republican lawmakers, taking advantage of the racialist falsifications of the 1619 Project, are seeking to promote their own backward and chauvinistic version of US history.
Dominic Gustavo•
The Trump Administration’s 1776 Report: The far-right attempts to seize opening from the 1619 Project
Attacking the New York Times’ 1619 Project where it is weakest, the Trump Administration’s “1776 Report” responds to the controversy with its own brand of flag-waving “America First” demagoguery.
Tom Carter•
A politically motivated smear: Canada’s Globe and Mail blames “Marxists” for discredited racialist 1619 Project
In an act of political censorship, Canada’s “newspaper of record” has refused to publish a letter from WSWS Chairman David North answering its smear.
Roger Jordan, Keith Jones•
Dominic Gustavo•
David North•
Renae Cassimeda•
Niles Niemuth•
David Walsh•
One year of the coronavirus pandemic
March 11 marks one year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. We are republishing below statements and articles from the WSWS analyzing the response to the pandemic and calling for emergency measures to contain it.
Read more
For a globally coordinated emergency response to the coronavirus pandemic!
Vast resources must be immediately mobilized to contain the spread of the disease, treat and care for those who are infected, and secure the livelihoods of the hundreds of millions of people who will be affected by the economic fallout.
International Committee of the Fourth International•
The coronavirus pandemic crisis intensifies
Capitalism is at war with society
The spread of the coronavirus has exposed the disastrous consequences of decades of the massive concentration of wealth and inequality spawned by capitalism.
Joseph Kishore, David North•
The response of the ruling elite to the coronavirus pandemic: Malign neglect
Governments around the world are making a deliberate decision to minimize their response to the pandemic, threatening the lives of millions of people.
Alex Lantier, Andre Damon•
Message from big business on coronavirus pandemic: Save profits, not lives
As the death toll from the coronavirus soars and hospitals fill up, the White House and the US media are insisting that the profits of the corporate-financial elite must take precedence over the lives of millions.
Andre Damon•
Statement of the Socialist Equality Party•
Joseph Kishore•
Andre Damon•
Statement of the Socialist Equality Party (United States)•
WSWS Online Meeting
150 years since the Paris Commune
A discussion about the first time in history that the working class took power.
Watch the video
The historic and contemporary significance of the 1871 Paris Commune
On April 3, the International Committee of the Fourth International held a meeting commemorating 150 years since the Paris Commune, the world’s first workers’ state.
Joseph Kishore•
150 years since the Paris Commune
On March 18, 1871, the armed working class districts of Paris rose up and established the first workers state in world history, the Paris Commune.
Alex Lantier•
Lessons of the Paris Commune
This essay by Leon Trotsky was first published in French as a preface to the book by C. Talès, La Commune de 1871. It was written in the town of Zlatoust, on February 4, 1921, in the lead up to the 50th anniversary of the Paris Commune.
Leon Trotsky•
Paris Workers’ Revolution and Thiers’ Reactionary Massacres
Armed Paris was the only serious obstacle in the way of the counter-revolutionary conspiracy. Paris was, therefore, to be disarmed.
Karl Marx•
Karl Marx•
Friedrich Engels•
Vladimir Lenin•
Barry Grey•
Vladimir Lenin•
Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
Greek workers in one-day general strike against law curbing right to strike; midwives walk out and protest across France against lack of COVID safety; Vehicle and driver registration staff at UK headquarters Swansea begin further strikes over lack of COVID safety, demand remote working
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Ocupación S.A.: Documentary exposes Spain’s role in illegal occupation of Western Sahara
The territory has been claimed by both the Kingdom of Morocco and the bourgeois-nationalist Polisario Front since the end of Gen. Francisco Franco’s fascist dictatorship in Spain in 1975.
Alejandro López, Paul Mitchell•
Indefinite walkout by Georgian manganese miners in Chiatura over pay and conditions; pay strikes across the Netherlands in metal and electronics industries; teachers’ disputes in France and England over lack of COVID safety and privatisation
Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
Indefinite walkout by 3,000 Georgian manganese miners and supporters in Chiatura over pay and conditions; pay strikes across the Netherlands in metal and electronics industries over employers’ 1.1 percent offer; teachers’ disputes in France and England over lack of COVID safety, privatisation and victimisations.
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Pandemic produced a “catastrophic year” for Middle East and North Africa
The pandemic has inflicted a horrendous toll, with more than 7.3 million recorded cases and 150,000 fatalities, a pale reflection of the real losses and suffering given the lack of testing and recording systems.
Jean Shaoul•
Socialist publisher Mehring Books launches Australian website
Mehring Books Australia will feature works by the great socialist fighters and theoreticians of the 19th and 20th centuries, including Leon Trotsky, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Georgi Plekhanov and Rosa Luxemburg.
For more information
US Capitol Police inspector general report confirms police stand-down during January 6 coup attempt
The damning report is the second government document released in the last week to confirm the role of the state in facilitating Trump’s attempted coup.
Jacob Crosse•
Internal Pentagon document confirms military standdown during January 6 coup attempt
The report demonstrates that Trump-appointed officials in the Pentagon ignored pleas from lawmakers and the Vice President to deploy security forces as the fascist-led attack was under way.
Jacob Crosse•
January 6 fascist thug has been working with FBI since 2018, lawyer claims
Florida Proud Boy Joe Biggs is the latest participant in the January 6 storming of the Capitol to claim a long-term working relationship with the domestic intelligence agency.
Jacob Crosse•
House Speaker Pelosi names D.C. National Guard Commander William Walker new Sergeant-at-Arms
The appointment of Walker marks the first time both the House and Senate sergeant-at-arms will be members of military.
Jacob Crosse•
Jacob Crosse•
Jacob Crosse•
Jacob Crosse•
Jacob Crosse•
Barry Grey•
Sylvia Ageloff and the assassination of Leon Trotsky
With David North and Eric London
North and London discussed the significance of the latest revelations of the the Security and the Fourth International investigation into Trotsky’s assassination.
Watch the video
150 years since the birth of Rosa Luxemburg
The meeting examined Luxemburg’s role as a Marxist theoretician and political leader, and discussed the significance of her legacy to the contemporary struggle to build a Marxist leadership.
Watch the video
150 years since the birth of Rosa Luxemburg
The meeting examined Luxemburg’s role as a Marxist theoretician and political leader, and discussed the significance of her legacy to the contemporary struggle to build a Marxist leadership.
Peter Schwarz, Ulrich Rippert, David North, Johannes Stern•
WSWS online Q&A; with David North and Eric London
Sylvia Ageloff and the assassination of Leon Trotsky
David North and Eric London speak on the significance of the latest revelations, in the context of the decades-long Security and the Fourth International investigation by the ICFI into Trotsky’s assassination by Stalin’s GPU.
David North, Eric London•
The Trump coup and the rise of fascism: Where is America going?
This essay is based on the transcript of the remarks made by David North, the chairman of the international editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site and national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party (US), in opening an online discussion held January 17 on the significance of the fascist assault on the Capitol in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021.
David North•
The Crisis Elections: 1860 & 2020
An online meeting with historians James Oakes, Richard Carwardine and Tom Mackaman. Moderated by WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North.
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Socialist Equality Party launches campaign for 2021 German federal election
The SGP began its campaign for the 2021 German federal elections with a strong launch meeting that was followed by hundreds of workers and young people online.
Our reporter•
Life instead of profits! Socialism instead of capitalist barbarism!
Support the SGP’s campaign for the German federal election!
Workers in every country around the world confront the same problems and can only oppose exploitation, militarism and fascism by uniting. This is why the SGP’s election campaign is not restricted to Germany, but addresses itself to workers throughout Europe!
Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei•
SEP meeting in Australia discusses political issues facing locked-out Coles workers and the need for independent rank-and-file organisations
Speakers explained the vital stand taken by the Smeaton Grange warehouse workers and outlined the political perspective needed to defeat the escalating assault on jobs and conditions.
our reporter•
Turkish Trotskyists hold international online meeting on student protests
The Socialist Equality Group and IYSSE in Turkey held an international online meeting January 17 titled “Amid the global breakdown of democracy, the way forward for the Boğaziçi University protests.”
our reporters•
Our correspondents•
our reporters•
Our reporters•
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The Socialist Equality Party (Australia)•
Ten years since the Egyptian Revolution
To mark the anniversary of the 2011 revolution in Egypt, we present a selection of key statements and analyses produced by the WSWS in the course of the events of that year and their aftermath.
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Historian Joseph Scalice exposes the role of Stalinism in the rise of Duterte
What was most significant in the panel was the interaction between Scalice and the second speaker, Walden Bello, who has a prominent international reputation as a figure of the left and an opponent of globalization.
John Malvar•
Watch lecture video “Three Grenades in August: Fifty Years since the Bombing of Plaza Miranda in the Philippines”—another devastating exposure of Stalinism
Scalice demonstrated that the “overwhelming weight of evidence” suggested that the Communist Party of the Philippines was responsible for the bombing and indicted its claims that fascism and martial law are “good for revolution.”
our reporter•
Stalinist CPP attacks Dr. Scalice’s upcoming lecture on the 1971 Plaza Miranda bombing in the Philippines
In a desperate bid to turn people away from this week’s lecture, Marco Valbuena, Chief Information Officer of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), has again slandered Scalice as operating on behalf of the CIA.
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“Falsifications and slander are the weapons of Stalinism”
Joseph Scalice responds to Stalinist attacks over Diliman Commune article
“The honest assessment of history is the bedrock of revolutionary politics. Falsifications and slander, on the other hand, are the primary weapons of Stalinism.”
Joseph Scalice•
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Peter Symonds•
Joseph Scalice•
Peter Symonds•
John Malvar•
A video statement by WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North
Welcoming the relaunch of the World Socialist Web Site
The WSWS has been relaunched with an entirely new design and with vastly enhanced functionality.
The relaunch of the World Socialist Web Site and the future of socialism
The relaunch of the WSWS and the growth of its influence reflect a process of mass political radicalization under conditions of the greatest crisis since the 1930s.
David North•
Closing remarks from SEP national secretary Joseph Kishore
The WSWS has exhaustively documented and analyzed the political crisis and historical decay of American democracy.
Joseph Kishore•
The approach of the World Socialist Web Site to science
The WSWS was the only publication to warn very early on the dangers the working class faced if the coronavirus became a pandemic.
Bryan Dyne•
“The WSWS has not only commented on the struggles of the working class it has been an active participant in them”
In the vast archive of the WSWS, the working class will find the most critical lessons from the history of the global class struggle and an international socialist perspective needed to conduct its fight against world capitalism today.
Jerry White•
Genevieve Leigh•
Niles Niemuth•
Bill Van Auken•
Patrick Martin•
Tomas Castanheira•
From the Marxist Library
Thirty years since the reunification of Germany
To mark the 30th anniversary of the German reunification, the WSWS is presenting a special exhibit of documents and statements produced by the International Committee of the Fourth International amidst the crisis of Stalinism in the former GDR.
New study doubles global COVID-19 death toll
Nearly one million people have died from COVID-19 in the United States–and 6.93 million dead globally—according to a new study by Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
Bryan Dyne•
Rampant Wall Street speculation: The fever chart of a terminally diseased system
The phenomenal rise of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which has risen 11,000 percent since the start of the year, is the expression of a seemingly new principle in the world of speculation—the more intrinsically worthless a so-called “asset” the faster its rise.
Nick Beams•
The sentencing of former UAW President Dennis Williams and the case for rank-and-file committees
The rise and fall of the former United Auto Workers president makes it clear the problem is not a few “bad apples,” but the entire organization.
Jerry White•
Pfizer announces windfall profits as low-income countries denied vaccines
The drug maker’s windfall profits are inseparable from the US government’s refusal to share the rights to produce vaccines.
Bryan Dyne•
Joseph Kishore•
David North•
Alex Lantier•
Patrick Martin, Joseph Kishore•
David Walsh•
Modern Monetary Theory and the crisis of capitalism: Part one
Modern Monetary Theory is the latest in a long line of attempts by “left” theorists to maintain that capitalism can be made to work for society if only outmoded thinking about the monetary system is abandoned.
Nick Beams•
Book Review
Wilmington’s Lie: The 1898 white supremacist coup in North Carolina
The racist massacre in Wilmington was a major turning point in the entrenchment of Jim Crow segregation throughout the South.
Fred Mazelis•
Two novellas on the #MeToo issue: Mary Gaitskill’s This is Pleasure and James Lasdun’s Afternoon of a Faun
Two recent works of fiction interestingly portray the #MeToo campaign in operation, but don’t criticize (or probe deeply) much of what needs to be criticized.
Sandy English•
The Kill Chain: A new era of world war
The Kill Chain exposes US imperialism’s advanced war preparations against China, with Silicon Valley playing a critical role.
Shuvu Batta•
James McDonald•
David Walsh•
Andre Damon•
Clara Weiss•
Shannon Jones•
The Political Origins and Consequences of the 1982–86 Split in the International Committee of the Fourth International
This lecture was delivered by David North, chairman of the International Editorial Board of the WSWS, at the opening of the Socialist Equality Party (US) Summer School on July 21, 2019.
David North•
Drawing the lessons of the ICFI split—International Strategy and National Tactics: The change in the ICFI’s approach to national liberation movements
This lecture was delivered to the Socialist Equality Party (US) Summer School on July 25, 2019 by Deepal Jayasekera, Assistant Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in Sri Lanka
Deepal Jayasekera•
The World Capitalist Crisis and the Tasks of the Fourth International: An analysis of the ICFI Perspectives resolution of 1988
This lecture was delivered to the Socialist Equality Party (US) Summer School on July 23, 2019 by Andre Damon, regular writer for the World Socialist Web Site and leading member of the Socialist Equality Party in the US.
Andre Damon•
The ICFI and the Crisis of Stalinism
This lecture was delivered to the Socialist Equality Party (US) Summer School on July 24, 2019 by Barry Grey, US national editor of the World Socialist Web Site and leading member of the Socialist Equality Party in the US.
Barry Grey•
