Donald Trump still struts on the American political scene. It seems probable that he will stand again for president in 2024. This article considers one important aspect of his popular appeal – his carefully cultivated ‘blue-collar’ image.  

California was home to an estimated 150,000 indigenous people. But they were too weak and too peaceable to put up much resistance to the hordes of armed European invaders. They were easily wiped out and – except by a few experts — easily forgotten.  

Our companion party to the north, the Socialist Party of Canada, has just issued the Winter 2021 issue of its quarterly journal, Imagine.

Of particular interest is the article by Comrade L. Gambone of Vancouver Island (pp. 3–5), who argues that nowadays the Indigenous and Ecological movements, by ‘directly challenging capital over questions of ownership and control,’ wage ‘a much higher stage of class struggle’ than the business unions, which have agreed to stick to matters like wages and working conditions.

There is also a poem, originally published in 1909, by Wilfrid Gribble, a member of the Socialist Party of Canada who crossed the border to Detroit and in 1916 helped to found the Workers’ Socialist Party of the US (forerunner of today’s World Socialist Party of the US).

In the last issue of the World Socialist, we explained Clause Two of the World Socialist Movement’s Declaration of Principles, which is regarding the class struggle — the conflict between both of capitalism’s economic classes. In this issue, we’ll expound on Clause Three, which says: This antagonism can be abolished only by the emancipation of […]

Our comrade Joe Hopkins, in prison in Florida and gravely sick with cirrhosis of the liver, is not getting the care he needs. Please help by signing an online petition.

Why the people of San Cristobal in Mexico’s Chiapas State drink so much Coca-Cola and what it does to them.

Do you hang out your washing to dry in the sun and wind? Why do so few people in the US do this nowadays? Are there places where it is illegal?

Why do the United States and Canada commemorate Labor Day on the first Monday in September and not, as in many other countries, on the first of May?

The fourth issue of The World Socialist is out now! It features: a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune; a call against war from a Russian comrade; a theoretical elaboration on socialist calculation, along with a rebuttal from another comrade; an article touching on the duties of “wealth managers” for the bourgeoisie; […]

In the last issue of the World Socialist, we elaborated on Clause One of the World Socialist Movement’s Declaration of Principles, which deals with private property and the enslavement of the working class. In this issue, we’ll touch on Clause Two, which states that: In society, therefore, there is an antagonism of interests, manifesting itself […]

Cell phones are everywhere. Almost everyone has one. But there is mounting scientific evidence of the harm their radiation does to human health, especially to the health of children.

A collection of quotations from the speeches and writings of Eugene Debs (1855—1926). Debs was a prominent trade union organizer and socialist writer and speaker. Five times he ran for president as candidate of the Socialist Party of America – the last time (1920) from a prison cell following conviction for his opposition to World War One. On the whole we share his outlook.

Are the United States and China on the verge of war over Taiwan? Or is this just a war scare? What is the conflict about?

Members of the Socialist Party of Great Britain, our companion party in the UK, have recently been engaged in discussions with members of the Russian group Left Socialist Action (LSA), whose Russian-language website Is levsd.ru. This is a translation of one of the articles on that website, by Ivan Levchenko, a member of the Petersburg branch of LSA. It was posted on May 1, 2021, at a time when open hostilities between Russia and Ukraine appeared to be imminent.

Alan Johnstone describes the connection of the great anti-slavery writer and orator Frederick Douglass with Scotland.

This picture is a work of the 19th-century British painter and sculptor George Frederic Watts. Mammon — the power of money — crushes the life and spirit out of the young boy and girl.

Our comrade Mike Schauerte recently recorded a half-hour talk with this title on the Discord system. To listen to the talk please follow the links.

The US Congress reaffirms its unconditional support for Israel despite the anti-Palestinian pogrom in Jerusalem. A satirical sketch

The third issue of The World Socialist is out now! It feature’s an article on COVID-19’s lab-leak hypothesis, an elaboration on Clause One of our Declaration of Principles, an article on how politicians are bourgeois puppets, a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Kronstadt Rebellion, an explanation of the power crisis that hit Texas […]

One of the many things I love about the World Socialist Movement is how long it’s been around. The Socialist Party of Great Britain was founded in 1904, so their website — spgb.net — has a wealth of material you can dig through to find party members’ takes on different historical events, figures, and debates […]

How many immigrants can the United States accommodate? — asks Alan Johnstone (SPGB)

Tony Turner, renowned for his eloquence as a public speaker, was a member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain from 1931 to 1955, when he resigned in order to end a bitter internal conflict over his controversial views.

For those who don’t know, I currently work at a call center where we mainly act as middlemen between towing companies and insurance customers needing roadside assistance. You get the occasional rude caller, but it’s a pretty slow and easy job most of the year until things start to pick up in the winter time. […]

About 6,000 Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama are voting on whether to be represented by the Retail, Wholesale Department Store Workers Union (RWDSU).

These mostly Black workers, who have formed the Alabama Amazon Workers Union, ask sympathizers to sign a petition against the union-busting abuses of Amazon and its super rich owner Jeff Bezos.

In a guest post from India, Pramod Ranjan of Assam Central University reflects on the new annual budget of the Indian government and how it ignores the plight of the country’s poor in the wake of Covid-19.

The political and corporate elite are now free to commit crimes with impunity. Their immunity contrasts with the harsh punishment of even minor crimes committed by ordinary people.

Did the coronavirus leap from bat to man at a wildlife market or inside a scientific laboratory? We may never know for sure, but the lab-leak hypothesis is plausible. What are the implications?

Who do politicians represent? What is their place and function in our society? How does this affect the way they talk to us?

The second issue of our new journal, World Socialist, is now out.

Articles on antidepressants, squatting, Belarus, Assange, Biden/Harris, etc.

Follow this link for electronic and print versions.

Julian Assange’s extradition hearings have been a brazen example of the US government’s corruption. Rather than honoring a real journalist for exposing the war crimes of our military-industrial complex, many government officials instead call for Assange to be punished for heroically informing their constituents of these atrocities. Of course, that’d only come as a surprise […]

Some of my 2020 highlights so far have been: wage cuts all spring (but too little to have been eligible for unemployment benefits), having to cancel a short tour my twin, Roméo, had booked, being stuck in my room more often (which I was shocked to find out was physically possible), and wearing a facemask […]

Announcing an exciting new issue of Imagine, quarterly journal of our comrades in the Socialist Party of Canada!

An interview with Dmitry Kosmachev, a member of the Minsk Socialist Circle, about the situation in Belarus, the current protests, and where they may lead.

The World Socialist Party of the United States is excited to announce the first issue of our new quarterly journal, World Socialist. It contains articles on the coronavirus pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protests, the US–China confrontation, the presidential election, ‘human nature,’ the Wall Street bombing of 1920, revolution in ancient Anatolia, ‘How I became […]

On Thursday, September 16, 1920, at 12:01 PM EST, people were gathered on New York City’s Wall Street for lunchtime. A horse-drawn wagon made its way through the crowd and stopped across the street from the J.P. Morgan bank headquarters at 23 Wall Street – on the busiest corner of Manhattan’s Financial District. The wagon […]

In the 1950s there arose the myth of America as a ‘middle-class society.’ How has this myth developed since then? What relation does it have to reality?

Dramatic news spreads among the slaves. Their masters are at war! … Soon it is rumored that any slave who crosses the lines into enemy-held territory goes free.

A scene from the Civil War?
No! From the War of Independence!

The first known revolution took place 9,200 years ago in a Neolithic settlement in eastern Anatolia – present-day Turkey. There are no written records, but we know about it from archeological remains at a site called Çayönü. Çayönü began about 8800 BC as a settlement of hunters and gatherers. Seeds indicate the start of farming about […]

With the closure of China’s consulate in Houston and the American consulate in Chengdu, the confrontation between China and the United States moves up another notch.  Not such a big deal, you say? But other recent developments are more worrying. Following her re-election in May, Taiwan President Tsai Ingwen made it clear that Taiwan is […]

What is the significance of the mass movement of social protest? A powerful and moving commentary from the group Internationalist Perspective.

Who and what do the police protect? Three articles on the Black Lives Matter movement from the July 2020 issue of The Socialist Standard

The United States is in the midst of a massive social movement against police violence and racism. As socialists we support this movement wholeheartedly and without reservation.

When a group of people are stranded on an uninhabited island after a shipwreck, what sort of society do they form among themselves? And how does this affect their chances of survival? The historical record shows that groups based on cooperation and equality fare best.

Why is Trump reopening the US economy — and forcing Mexico to reopen its economy too — when the pandemic is still on the rise?

Ten nurses have been suspended at Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California for refusing to work without the protection of N95 respirator masks. Are they really in short supply?

The Covid-19 pandemic exposes the cruel and absurd results of relying on markets for the satisfaction of human needs. In Las Vegas homeless men sleep on a parking lot on a street full of empty hotels.

Interim results of trials of the drug Remdesivir on Covid-19 patients are very encouraging. But could the drug be reaching those who desperately need it more quickly?

Why are medical supplies in such short supply? This study explains the main reasons and presents three case studies: respiratory face masks, ventilators, and vaccines.

A Marxian analysis of the pandemic, its origin, and its economic impact. Reposted from the magazine Internationalist Perspective.

What is the point of studying the history of early socialism?

Maybe the question itself is rather pointless. After all, nothing really needs to have a point…

But I do think that there is a special value in studying the early period of socialist history, prior to the Russian Revolution. I say this because the “common sense” among many socialists in that era is quite different from the way of thinking that has prevailed since then. Above all, the understanding of what socialism itself means changed radically in the subsequent years.

What is a coronavirus? Where does the latest one come from? Why do we now face, about once every decade, an epidemic of some ‘new’ disease? In this article I answer these questions and demonstrate the link between COVID-19 and what might appear an unrelated issue — deforestation.

Including a response from Comrade Paddy Shannon and a counter-response from the author.

In this feature, members of the World Socialist Party of the US share personal stories of how they became socialists. More stories will be added as they become available.

What if there was a way to make capitalism environmentally friendly and more economically robust, in a way that benefited workers in particular? Liberals like Bernie Sanders and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are claiming that a ‘Green New Deal’ would do just that. Can it? Or is it the very nature of capitalism that makes it so destructive to the environment?

As rents soar and swallow up more and more of the earnings of working people, landlords face a problem — how to pack an increasing number of tenants into a given space. A San Francisco developer has the answer.

Joe the Dolphin pleads for more dolphin-friendly fishing methods and against the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Mekong.

Strictly speaking, the United States is already at war with Iran. By the rules of international law, the drone attack that killed General Soleimani and other high-ranking figures was an act of war. Iran will now retaliate against an American asset. How long can this crazy game of tit for tat go on without triggering […]

Whenever out-of-towners imagine Las Vegas, they’ll usually think of the extravagance of downtown and the strip. Glistening lights, risqué showgirls, exquisite food – It’s like a never-ending party that grossed over $19.5 Billion in the fiscal year 2018 alone.[1] Settled in 1905, Vegas became the most populated American city founded within the 20th century. Like […]

The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution abolished slavery in 1865. Or did it? Has slavery ever been abolished?

Can a Green New Deal within capitalism resolve the climate crisis? The author of this article, reproduced from the journal Internationalist Perspective, argues that any such program would be either inadequate or incompatible with the capitalist drive for growth.

Exactly 100 years ago today the Armistice that ended World War I was signed and came into force. It was signed between 5 and 6 am but did not come into force until 11 am. Fighting continued in many places right up to the last minute: nearly 11,000 men were killed or wounded on that last morning of the war.

Are police killings of unarmed citizens a matter of race, class, or both?

In fighting to survive as a species in a bearable climate, we are up against a broad range of capitalist interests. Ultimately we shall need to halt the endlessly expanding ‘growth machine’ of capitalism.

In a new pamphlet published by the World Socialist Party of the United States, our comrade Jordan Levi (known to some as Swami Netero) explains the meaning of basic terms like ‘capitalism’ and ‘socialism.’ He shows why reforms within the existing capitalist structure of society cannot solve the main problems facing humanity and the working class and why it is necessary to replace capitalism by a fundamentally new society — world socialism.

What sense does it make for a big city to exist in the middle of a scorching desert? What contribution does Las Vegas make to human wellbeing?

The resources spent by a billionaire on a single residence or yacht would suffice to eradicate trachoma — a painful tropical eye disease that leads to blindness.

John Ayers of the Socialist Party of Canada examines how capitalist firms put profit before people, taking plane crashes as examples of the tragic consequences. But, he explains, capitalist firms HAVE to operate that way.

A recently rediscovered essay by an early 20th century socialist theorist demonstrates that ecological thinking has always been part of the socialist worldview.

‘Patriotic’ appeals to ‘support our troops’ are based on lies and emotional blackmail. We support US troops by seeking to free them from military slavery.

The Electoral College is an archaic contraption designed to thwart the will of the people. It’s high time to abolish it.

The idea of “workers’ control” or “industrial democracy” is now being  discussed in American political circles. Even some of the more far-sighted employers now support the idea of “workers’ participation” or “worker directors”. Bernie Sanders, the progressive presidential hopeful, is set to introduces plan that encourage employee-owner businesses and would require corporations to reserve a […]

I have lived more years in Japan than in my native country, the United States. My impressions of American life come from visiting Chicago for a couple of weeks every year. One thing that strikes me immediately, from the moment I arrive at O’Hare Airport, is just how little the basic infrastructure has changed over […]

An American war against Iran has appeared imminent on previous occasions. Eleven years ago we saw similar military and political preparations for a US attack on that country. Fortunately, it never came. Now Iran is again in the crosshairs. War may again be avoided. However, even establishment analysts acknowledge that the confrontation in and around […]

From the May 2019 issue of the Socialist Standard ‘The Winnipeg Strike will go down in history as a magnificent example of working-class solidarity and courage’ (Bill Pritchard). In February 1919, Seattle workers engaged in the general strike tactic, with 30,000 workers in 130 unions walking out for 5 days in sympathy with 38,000 shipyard workers. The city’s […]

From the May 2019 issue of the Socialist Standard Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democrat member of the US House of Representatives who calls herself a socialist, tweeted in February:  ‘Workers are often paid for less than the value they create.’ The American financial magazine, Business Insider, picked this up, commenting ‘this is essentially a restatement of Karl Marx’s “Labour Theory of […]

Opinion polls suggest that the younger age groups in the United States – colloquially referred to as ‘millennials’1– are much more open to socialist ideas than their elders. At least the taboo that used to surround the word ‘socialism’ is rapidly disappearing. The figures are quite striking. A poll conducted in April 2009 found that […]

The Material World Column from the August 2013 issue of the Socialist Standard Dear Material World,  My life’s dream is to become a fully paid-up member of the capitalist class. Do you have any advice? How much money do I need to join? I am willing to work hard, but I need some guidance.  Greed is good!  […]

By Alan Johnstone The wheels of justice turn slowly. Lead poisoning also acts slowly, but is no less pernicious for that. The city of Flint’s water crisis began in April 2014. In a cost-saving measure to save around $5m the state-appointed city manager changed the city’s water source from treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department […]

Dancing round the Maypole on the First of May is an ancient custom. Only in 1891, however, did May Day become an occasion for workers’ demonstrations. The date was chosen to commemorate a police massacre during a rally at Haymarket Square in Chicago on May 4, 1886. The rally was in support of a strike […]

On February 5 our great flag-hugging president Donald Trump stood before Congress and delivered his State of the Union Address. Among other things he said: Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country. America was founded on liberty and independence — not government coercion, domination, and […]

From the December 2018 issue of the Socialist Standard The word ‘socialism’ is more attractive than scary these days—and that has the White House worried. Two hundred years after the birth of Karl Marx, socialism is making a comeback in the United States. That is not our optimistic claim, but rather the view expressed by the Trump […]