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Several hundred University of Michigan students marched and rallied in the rain on Friday to denounce the U-M administration’s arbitrary cancellation on Thursday of a student referendum vote on a resolution urging the university to acknowledge the genocidal character of Israel’s war in Gaza and divest from companies profiting from the slaughter.

Judy Ryden, Barry Grey

Israeli military kills two children in West Bank raid on last day of Gaza truce

The continuation of daily raids on the West Bank during the six-day truce in the bombardment of Gaza underscores the commitment of the Israeli regime to a policy of genocide against the Palestinian people, for which it enjoys the support of the imperialist powers in North America and Europe.

Jordan Shilton

The plight of Thai workers in Israel

Tens of thousands of highly exploited Thai agricultural workers remain in Israel as the Netanyahu government has intensified its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.

Robert Campion

Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific

Sri Lankan public sector workers demand higher living allowances; India: Maharashtra contract health workers’ strike enters sixth week; Australia: Queensland water utility workers strike for higher wage; New Zealand nurses begin new campaign for better pay and conditions.

US appeals court guts Voting Rights Act

With the Eighth Circuit ruling, a new stage in the assault on the Voting Rights Act and democratic rights more broadly has been initiated.

Barry Grey

Visit by Vietnamese president forges closer ties with Japan

As the US has stepped up its military build-up against China, Tokyo has engaged in its own remilitarisation and joined Washington’s diplomatic efforts to consolidate an anti-China bloc throughout the region.

Peter Symonds

UK COVID Inquiry reveals how Johnson government planned mass murder

Similar discussions would have taken place in the United States, Germany, France and in government circles around the world. In every country measures to contain the pandemic were opposed by a ruling class that priorities profits over lives.

Robert Stevens

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy

The events of the past decade have further substantiated the half-century appraisal of the event as an initial manifestation of the breakdown, under the pressure of interacting domestic and international contradictions, of American democracy.

David North

This week in history: November 20-26

This column profiles important historical events which took place during this week, 25 years ago, 50 years ago, 75 years ago and 100 years ago.

Russia’s war-time budget

In order to offset a massive increase in spending on national defense and security, the Russian government is gutting funding for social spending, education, healthcare, and utilities.

Andrea Peters
On the 50th anniversary of the Chilean coup

Fifty years after Chile’s horrific September 11 coup, its political relevance is becoming ever more urgent as the specter of dictatorship once again haunts the political life of Latin America.

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Unions celebrate suppression of GM strike in Brazil

The suppression of the strike based on court decisions continues the long record of the trade union officials in aiding the auto companies in cutting workers’ conditions and jobs.

Eduardo Parati
Leon Trotsky and the Struggle for Socialism in the Twenty-First Century

The essays in this book, though written over the span of more than 40 years, are connected by a central argument: Leon Trotsky was the most significant figure in the history of socialism during the first four decades of the twentieth century, and his legacy remains the critical and indispensable theoretical and political foundation of the ongoing contemporary struggle for the victory of world socialism.

Order your print or epub version of the book from Mehring Books today.

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Indigenous Voice leaders denounce Australian voters

An open letter, issued by a privileged layer of indigenous figures who led the Voice Yes campaign, further highlights the immense class chasm shown in the referendum’s overwhelming defeat on October 14.

Mike Head
20 years since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq

March 20 marks 20 years since the beginning of the US invasion of Iraq, launched on the basis of lies. At the time of the initial invasion, the WSWS published many statements on the background of the war, its history and its implications. This page features some of the most important statements.

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On the 25th anniversary of the World Socialist Web Site

Twenty-five years ago, the International Committee of the Fourth International began posting the World Socialist Web Site. In this video, WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North explains the background to the WSWS, reviews its record and contemporary significance and makes an appeal to all readers to donate to the WSWS and expand its readership.

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2023: The global capitalist crisis and the growing offensive of the international working class

In 2022 the accumulating pressure of these intersecting elements of the world capitalist crisis attained the equivalent of critical mass: that is, they have reached the point where the dynamic of crisis has passed beyond the ability of governments to control the movement toward a social cataclysm.

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The social roots of the Moroccan earthquake disaster

The scale of the Moroccan catastrophe is an indictment of the inability of the capitalist system to deliver earthquake-resistant housing and emergency services to the working population.

Alex Lantier
25 years since the death of Vadim Rogovin

Vadim Z. Rogovin (10 May 1937 – 18 September 1998) was a Soviet Marxist sociologist and historian. Working in close collaboration with the International Committee of the Fourth International, Rogovin helped lay the foundations for the Trotskyist movement’s fight against the post-Soviet school of historical falsification, including in his six-volume Was There an Alternative? This page collects major essays and commemorations on Rogovin as well as links to his own writings.

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NOW AVAILABLE
COVID, Capitalism, and Class War: A Social and Political Chronology of the Pandemic

Mehring Books, the publishing arm of the Socialist Equality Party (US), is proud to announce the publication of Volume 1 of COVID, Capitalism, and Class War: A Social and Political Chronology of the Pandemic, a compilation of the World Socialist Web Site's coverage of this global crisis.

Read the introduction

G7 members threaten Iran with regional war amid ongoing Israeli slaughter in Gaza

Just hours after the provocative G7 statement, US aircraft struck a site in eastern Syria allegedly used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, with officials noting that the action was “directed” by Biden. The air strike underscores the impending danger of the imperialist-backed genocide of the Palestinians erupting into a region-wide conflagration.

Jordan Shilton
A call to youth throughout the world: Build a mass movement to stop the Ukraine war!

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality—the student and youth movement of the Socialist Equality Parties, the national sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International—calls for the building of a mass global movement of young people to end the reckless escalation toward World War III.

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Statement of the Editorial Board
For a Global Workers’ Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Inquest is necessary to break through the cover-up, lies and misinformation that have been used to justify policies responsible for the avoidable deaths of millions.

Find out more
Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands: Right-wing propaganda disguised as historical scholarship

This five-part series and historical timeline exposes Snyder’s Bloodlands as a work of falsification, aimed at justifying the imperialist proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and the alliance of US imperialism with the Ukrainian far-right.

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The Wuhan lab lie: “Weapons of mass destruction” redux

In an uncanny instance of history repeating itself, the lies used to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq based on false claims about “weapons of mass destruction” are being used to promote the United States’ unprecedented military buildup around China.

Andre Damon

A discredited conspiracy theory about the origins of COVID-19

The Wuhan Lab Leak slander being resurrected to bolster US war drive against China

The Wall Street Journal disclosed that the Department of Energy has shifted its opinion on the origin of the coronavirus to it being most likely a result of a lab leak. However, unnamed sources who have read the report indicate the evidence is of low confidence.

Benjamin Mateus
Timeline of thirty years of war: The historical background to the US-NATO conflict with Russia

This interactive timeline presents some of the most important events that have brought humanity to the brink of World War III. It includes links to critical articles and statements produced by the International Committee of the Fourth International over the past 30 years.

View the Timeline

Marcus Garvey and the reactionary logic of racialist politics

More than one hundred years after the formation of his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), Marcus Garvey's legacy remains highly relevant in the struggle to overcome efforts to divide the working class along racial lines.

Lawrence Porter

Report to Seventh Congress of Socialist Equality Party (US)

Build rank-and-file committees, the organs of 21st century working class struggle!

This report was given by Eric London to the Seventh Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (US) in support of the resolution titled “Build the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees! For a global counteroffensive of the working class!”

Eric London
Forty-five years since the assassination of Tom Henehan (1951-1977): A Revolutionary Life

October 16 marked the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Tom Henehan, a member of the Political Committee of the Workers League—the predecessor of the Socialist Equality Party in the US. We are republishing here a tribute delivered by David North at a meeting in 1997.

Wije Dias: A fighter for Trotskyism (1941-2022)

Comrade Wije Dias, the longtime general secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka), died in Colombo on July 27, 2022. This exhibit includes two tributes to Wije by WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North as well as a selection of Wije’s most significant articles and speeches.

A historic advance in the fight for Trotskyism
The International Committee of the Fourth International accepts application of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Grubu to become its section in Turkey

The June 19 decision followed extensive discussions with representatives of the International Committee in Istanbul on the development of the fight for Trotskyism in Turkey and the Aegean and Black Sea regions.

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The fight for Trotskyism and the political foundations of the World Socialist Web Site

The WSWS is publishing the report delivered by David North 25 years ago, on February 1, 1997, motivating the proposal to end publication of the SEP’s printed newspaper and replace it with an international website; as well as North’s reply to the National Committee ‘s discussion of the proposal.

Pentagon national strategy document targets China

The US military published a series of documents Thursday outlining US plans for war with Russia and China, and asserting the central role of nuclear weapons in US warfighting.

Andre Damon

German President Steinmeier delivers war speech to the nation

Steinmeier's remarks to invited soldiers, journalists, think tank representatives and leading politicians can only be described as a “war speech to the nation.” The focus was de facto a declaration of war on Russia and the Russian population.

Johannes Stern, Christoph Vandreier
WSWS Review
Thirty years since the dissolution of the USSR

Review the most critical essays, lectures and letters produced by the ICFI in the course of its intervention in response to the crisis of Stalinism and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

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Eighty years since the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union

The WSWS has published a feature page incorporating a selection of essential essays from its own archives, and other documents produced contemporaneously by the Fourth International.

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New Zealand: Court action over Pike River mine disaster

The fathers of two of the 29 workers killed in the 2010 Pike River mine disaster are campaigning for the release of documents and correspondence relating to a 2013 decision to drop charges against Pike River CEO Peter Whittall.

Tom Peters
Cliff Slaughter: A political biography (1928-1963)
By David North

Cliff Slaughter died on May 3, 2021, in Leeds, England, at the age of 92. His enduring contribution in the 1960s to the defense of Trotskyism stands in tragic contrast with his subsequent political opportunism and repudiation of revolutionary Marxism.

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