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Christmas in America 2023

As billionaire wealth surges, US faces record homelessness

The latest “point-in-time” survey from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development revealed a staggering 12 percent jump in homelessness in 2023, one of many indicators of severe social distress in capitalist America.

The plans announced by Zelensky amount to an admission that the continuation of the imperialist-backed war is predicated on an even greater slaughter of the Ukrainian working class.

Jason Melanovski

Report to London meeting on the centenary of Trotskyism

Genocide in Gaza: Imperialism descends into the abyss

The unfolding genocide in Gaza is the realization of “the descent into the abyss” of which James P. Cannon warned in his Open Letter, published 70 years ago last week.

David North

Socialist internationalism and the struggle against Zionism and imperialism

This lecture provides a political and historical analysis of the genocidal war now being conducted by the Zionist regime in Israel against the Palestinians. It explains the relationship between the contemporary struggle against imperialism and the international socialist program of the Left Opposition, founded by Leon Trotsky 100 years ago in October 1923.

David North

Human Rights Watch reports mass censorship of opposition to Gaza genocide

A 51-page report published by Human Rights Watch on Thursday exposes the collaboration of Facebook and Instagram with US imperialist and pro-Zionist propaganda by documenting the censorship of content that exposes the war crimes being committed in Gaza by the Israeli military.

Kevin Reed

National defense budget extends illegal electronic spying on US citizens

The National Defense Authorization Act, which was sent to the White House by Congress on December 14, contains a little-known four-month extension of Section 702 provisions that enable the ongoing warrantless surveillance of US citizens in violation of fundamental constitutional rights.

Kevin Reed

This week in history: December 18-24

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.

Ten years since the death of leading British Trotskyist Dave Hyland

Ten years ago, Dave Hyland, a leading figure in the British Trotskyist movement, died on December 8, 2013, at the age of 66. Below we republish the remarks of comrade David North to a January 18, 2014, memorial meeting honouring comrade Hyland.

David North

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

Biden, Zelensky demand billions more for anti-Russia war

Zelensky's meeting with Biden was part of the White House’s ongoing effort to secure another $60 billion for Ukraine, which is confronting a military debacle in the US-NATO war against Russia.

Andrea Peters

Chile votes on revamped Pinochet constitution

Authoritarian and police state policies implemented under President Boric’s Apruebo Dignidad coalition government are enshrined in the draft constitution.

Mauricio Saavedra

Ruling class witch hunt against anti-genocide protesters and university presidents intensifies

Forty-one Brown University students arrested for protesting Gaza genocide

The Brown Divest Coalition called Tuesday’s protest in solidarity with Hisham Awartani, a 20-year-old junior at the university and one of three Palestinian-Americans who was shot by a right-wing libertarian last month.

Jacob Crosse

University of Michigan permanently bans student resolution against genocide in Gaza

What is really behind the suppression of the anti-genocide resolution is the fact that it was headed for victory, something the billionaire donors and regents, Democratic and Republican politicians, and Pentagon, CIA and State Department officials who collectively run the university would not allow.

Judy Ryden, Barry Grey
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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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.

Watch now
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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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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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
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
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.

Read statement
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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Christmas in America 2023

As billionaire wealth surges, US faces record homelessness

The latest “point-in-time” survey from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development revealed a staggering 12 percent jump in homelessness in 2023, one of many indicators of severe social distress in capitalist America.

Jacob Crosse
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.

Read more

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