The Trump administration is working to establish a presidential dictatorship, based on the military, police, paramilitary forces and fascist gangs.
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Perspective
The real issue in the government shutdown: Mobilize the working class against Trump’s dictatorship!
The central issue behind the government shutdown is the need for the working class to intervene to force the Trump administration from office and put an end to its criminal conspiracies for military-police dictatorship.
The Trump-Netanyahu proposal is intended to allow the US media to claim that the US and Israeli governments are seeking “peace” while they move ahead with their plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza.
As the US government barreled toward a Tuesday midnight shutdown, Democrats pleaded for negotiations, while President Donald Trump and the Republicans issued fascistic attacks on Democratic leaders and threatened to use a shutdown to carry out mass permanent layoffs of federal workers.
This volume presents the documents published during the first year of the Security and the Fourth International investigation, launched by the ICFI in May 1975.
This document traces the central historical experiences of the working class and Marxist movement in the 20th and 21st centuries, and establishes the principled foundations for the building of the Trotskyist movement in Turkey and throughout the region.
For weeks, leading political representatives of Germany and other European powers have been intensifying war propaganda against Russia and turning the Baltic Sea into a future battlefield.
A right-wing gang-up against NYC Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani took place this week, as the November 4 election nears.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s new immigration bills, combined with massive budget cuts that impact undocumented workers, expose the fraud of the state’s “sanctuary” status and the Democrats’ supposed opposition to Trump’s dictatorship.
With its soldier's eye view, realistic depiction of battle and rejection of national chauvinism, the film departed significantly from previous treatments of the imperialist slaughter.
The strikers face a political struggle against the Liberal government and all corporate Canada, which back the demands of Canada Post management to the hilt.
Tariffs on foreign films are part of Trump’s authoritarian drive, aimed at censoring culture, protecting corporate profits, and ultimately imposing the burden of crisis on the working class.
This week’s conference took the party’s jingoism to a new and repulsive level, coupled with the usual pledges of austerity and war.
The execution of Victor Jones, a survivor of horrific state-sanctioned child abuse at the Okeechobee School for Boys, even after the state formally recognized him as a victim, brings the state’s execution total to 13 in 2025.
Within 48 hours of audio of a professor teaching that there are more than two genders being uploaded to social media, the professor was fired.

Why has Hegseth summoned military commanders to Washington?
The unprecedented assembly of hundreds of generals and admirals to a conference next week is linked to Trump’s plans for dictatorship at home and war abroad.
Partial federal shutdown likely as Trump deploys troops, Democrats seek accommodation
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers face payless paydays and temporary or permanent layoffs beginning Wednesday morning.
Oklahoma schools superintendent resigns to lead campaign to destroy “radical leftists in teachers union”
The announcement marks a further escalation in the nationwide campaign of the Republican Party and the Trump administration to dismantle public education, criminalize teachers, and mobilize a political army around authoritarianism.
Republicans push series of harsh “anti-crime” laws with Democratic Party support following Trump’s occupation of Washington D.C.
With critical support from the Democratic Party, the Republican-led Congress has passed several harsh crime bills which further undermine the city’s home rule laws while punishing youthful offenders.
Trump administration celebrates the perpetrators of the Wounded Knee Massacre
The decision by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is a warning: The lessons of Wounded Knee are not consigned to the past, but must urgently be recalled as a present danger.
Netanyahu defends terrorism, mass murder, and genocide at the United Nations
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered an address before the United Nations General Assembly on Friday in which he vowed to defy international law, gloated about committing mass murder and terrorism, and vowed to continue the Gaza genocide in defiance of world public opinion.
Opening Report to the Founding Congress of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi – Dördüncü Enternasyonal
This report explains the historical and international foundations and political perspectives of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi, placing them in the context of the deepening crisis of the global capitalist system and the struggle for socialist revolution today.
In memory of Zorya Serebryakova (1923-2024), daughter of Old Bolshevik and Opposition leader Leonid Serebryakov
Zorya Serebryakova's fate and that of her family are a tragic embodiment of the meaning of the term “political genocide.”
The place of Security and the Fourth International in the history of the Trotskyist movement
The following report was delivered by David North, national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party (US) and chairman of the World Socialist Web Site, to the opening session of the SEP summer school last week.
The Lesson of Spain — A Last Warning
In this article, Trotsky contends that the Spanish Revolution was wrecked by the Popular Front’s subordination of workers to bourgeois interests, and that only an independent proletarian party guided by the strategy of permanent revolution could defeat Franco.
The class, the party, and the leadership
Trotsky’s unfinished 1940 polemic argues that the Spanish Revolution was defeated not by the “immaturity” of workers and peasants but by the counterrevolutionary role of the Stalinists’ Popular Front policies and by the absence of an independent revolutionary party capable of leading the proletariat to victory.
2025 Summer School Lecture 4 Part 3
The Stalinist counterrevolution during the Spanish Civil War
The Stalinist counter-revolution during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) crushed one of the twentieth century’s greatest revolutionary uprisings, when millions of workers and peasants fought to overthrow capitalism and fascism.
Black Bag: Steven Soderbergh’s spy thriller: “So we’re all horrible people. Is that what the point is here?”
The film and design work is intelligent, restless, assertive, but thematically, the watchword here is intense passivity and accommodation to the status quo.
Lincoln’s Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War, by Michael Vorenberg
To Vorenberg, the answer to the question of when the war ended, as a political matter, appears to lie in the passage of the Reconstruction Act in March 1867, which specified that states would remain under military rule unless and until they ratified the 14th Amendment, provided freed Black males the right to vote, and barred insurrectionists from obtaining public office.
Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel condemns Trump in return monologue watched by millions
The right-wing campaign leading to Kimmel’s suspension was launched in the wake of his comments on September 15.
American actor Robert Redford (1936-2025)
His popularity was not a fluke. Redford brought charm, calm intelligence and sophistication to his best work. His was an appealing personality and presence, not simply based on his handsome face.
Metroline bus drivers continue strike as Unite and Labour Mayor Andy Burnham shut down unified Greater Manchester action
Strike action by 2,000 Greater Manchester bus drivers at Stagecoach, First Bus and Metroline scheduled for Tuesday to Thursday this week was largely suspended at the last minute by Unite in collusion with Labour Mayor Andy Burnham.
Unison claims victory over NHS England “pause” on private subsidiaries: Beware the fine print
NHS England’s agreement with Unison confirms the preferred strategy of the Starmer government: inflict attacks on NHS workers via collaboration with the health unions.
Federal mediator intervenes in bid to break Boeing defense strike, as Trump demands “quadrupling” missile production for war with China
The Pentagon must have its missiles and fighter jets. This is why Boeing has been given a free hand to ruthlessly crush the strike, including through hiring permanent replacements.
Bosch to destroy 22,000 jobs in Germany
Although the jobs massacre is part of a massive wave of sackings, the IG Metall union and its Works Council representatives are doing nothing to defend jobs. The building of independent rank-and-file action committees, which oppose the nationalist policies of the union apparatus and its factory police, is more urgent than ever.
Corbynite John McDonnell calls for “maximum solidarity” with Starmer government as he is readmitted to Labour’s backbench
Back on Labour’s backbenches, McDonnell was offered a platform by Stop the War Coalition and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Liverpool on Saturday to burnish his tattered “left” reputation.
Bundeswehr manoeuvres in Hamburg as Germany undertakes largest rearmament programme since Hitler
One of the most threatening military manoeuvres of the post-war period took place in Hamburg. As the ruling class in Germany push forward their war offensive against Russia, they also intensify the repressive measures at home.
Workers Party of Britain leader George Galloway detained in London under counter-terror legislation
The attack on Galloway and his wife represents a ratcheting up of the massive onslaught against democratic rights in Britain being carried out by Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
Zarah Sultana speaks in Sheffield as Britain’s pseudo-left reaffirms full support for Jeremy Corbyn’s Your Party
The assembled pseudo-left groups offered Sultana a hero’s welcome, making clear their loyalty to Your Party despite Corbyn banning them from joining.
Online meeting in Sri Lanka: Oppose restructuring of the CEB! Defend CEB employees’ struggle!
The CEB workers’ fight to defend their rights has become a focal point in the struggle to defeat the Dissanayake government’s IMF program.
Australian government extends use of Nauru as a refugee prison
The latest extension of the Nauru prison contract underscores Labor’s brutal treatment of asylum seekers, its flouting of international refugee law and its use of Nauru as a neo-colonial dumping ground.
Typhoon Ragasa surges through southeast Asia, killing at least 28
The Super Typhoon was the most intense tropical storm of 2025 so far, with climate change creating the conditions for such events to become more frequent.
Australian PM in the UK: Militarism and reaction cloaked with paeans to “democracy”
Albanese fraudulently claimed to be defending “democracy,” alongside Starmer, under conditions where their governments are militarist instruments of the corporate elite carrying out a major assault on civil liberties.
Voices Without Faces: “We didn’t cross the border—the border crossed us” — Maria and Jacinto speak on exploitation, repression, and solidarity
Maria, an undocumented mother, and Jacinto a permanent resident, describe sacrifice, hardship, and political awakening, exposing immigrant exploitation and calling for international working class unity against Trump’s repression.
“The working class has to fight the true enemy”: Portland, Oregon workers denounce Trump’s military deployment
Workers in Portland, Oregon, expressed their opposition to the deployment of federal troops to their city and the complicity of the Democratic Party in Trump’s ongoing efforts to establish a dictatorship.
Iowans protest following kidnapping of Des Moines superintendent by immigration Gestapo
Protests have been held throughout the state following the abduction of Dr. Ian Roberts by ICE agents on Friday.
ICE agents brutalize protesters, retaliate against Broadview, Illinois
The arrival of ICE was met with protest and anger that is growing, at both the Trump administration’s violations of the most basic democratic and social rights and the inaction of the Democratic Party.
Mass shootings in America: 5 killed in Michigan Mormon church attack, 3 dead at North Carolina bar
Of the six mass shootings in the United States over the weekend, the two deadliest incidents were perpetrated by former Marines who had previously deployed to Iraq.
Chicago residents denounce public transit cuts at town hall event
Riders and workers warn of economic catastrophe as CTA officials outline a potential $1 billion shortfall, with solutions hinging on state action.
Double state murder: Alabama inmate executed by nitrogen asphyxiation, and a lethal injection in Texas
Hours before the back-to-back executions, Trump signed a presidential memo directing the US attorney general to “fully enforce” the death penalty for federal crimes in Washington D.C., which abolished capital punishment in 1981.
Make the oligarchs pay for transit and other public needs! Build rank-and-file committees to defend transit and other social rights!
In contrast to the Democrats and Republicans, who say workers must accept massive cuts, we insist that workers have the inalienable social right to transportation, as well as education, healthcare and other public services needed to live decently in a modern society.
This week in history: September 29-October 5
Sharon provocation triggers Palestinian uprising; British Trotskyists fight back against police raid, media-witch-hunt; Truman approves Cold War military build-up; Dancer Josephine Baker first performs in France
Historic images of slavery removed by national parks after Trump directive
The removal of powerful Civil War era photography from public museums is the latest in a series of attacks on historical truth orchestrated by the White House.
Trump issues threats against Smithsonian exhibitions and art works
President Trump has launched an aggressive campaign against the Smithsonian Institute, accusing the museum of promoting “anti-American ideology.”
In memory of Nathan Steinberger: A fighter against fascism and Stalinism
July 16 marks the 115th anniversary of the birth of Nathan Steinberger, a Jewish socialist and survivor of Stalin's terror in the Soviet Union.
Spain and Italy dispatch warships to Gaza flotilla as Israel considers violent assault
The deployment of warships aims to deflect popular anger and provide governments that have facilitated genocide for two years with an alibi while the slaughter continues.
New Zealand government whitewashes Israel’s genocide in Gaza
At the UN General Assembly, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters demanded the removal of Hamas from Gaza and did not condemn Israel’s genocide.
“All Eyes On Gaza”: Biggest ever demonstration in Germany against Israeli genocide
The mass mobilisation showed the enormous opposition among the population to Israel's war crimes and Germany's participation in them.
Netanyahu defends terrorism, mass murder, and genocide at the United Nations
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered an address before the United Nations General Assembly on Friday in which he vowed to defy international law, gloated about committing mass murder and terrorism, and vowed to continue the Gaza genocide in defiance of world public opinion.
Dockworkers in Genoa and Livorno block Israeli arms shipment, as mass protests denounce genocide in Gaza
Dockworkers’ blockade of an Israeli arms shipment in Genoa exposes the power of the working class against genocide—yet it also highlights the urgent need for independent, international, revolutionary organization.
Attempted prosecution of Kneecap’s Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh collapses
Chief magistrate Goldspring’s excoriating judgement could only come about because of the Starmer government’s attempt to ride roughshod over basic democratic norms.
World Children’s Day in Berlin: Michael Barenboim accuses the German government of complicity in genocide at musicians flash mob for Gaza
Barenboim’s powerful and moving indictment of the German government was greeted with huge applause by the large audience which had gathered at Berlin’s central Gendarmenmarkt.
Israel attacks third humanitarian Freedom/Sumud Flotilla bound for Gaza
The Israeli military continues to fire on European citizens and parliamentarians in the Mediterranean, including within the sovereign waters of European countries, with impunity.
Ukraine’s voiceless army: Ukrainian deserters speak out
In this article by Ukrainian journalists, deserters from the NATO-backed Ukrainian army speak out about their experiences.
Escalation in the Baltics: NATO exploits alleged airspace violation by Russian jets for new war escalation
With relentless war propaganda and anti-Russian agitation, the population is to be step by step accustomed to the idea that shooting down Russian aircraft in European airspace—i.e., a direct entry into the war—is an “option.”
Behind the partial opening of borders in Ukraine and the murder of far-right MP Andriy Parubiy
The very fact that various political figures are now assassinated with such regularity speaks of a crisis in the entire governance and security system. Simply put, the ruling class cannot rule in the old way.
NATO powers escalate confrontation with Russia after drone shootdowns over Poland, heightening risk of direct war
The shooting down of Russian drones over Poland has inaugurated a new stage in NATO’s war against Russia in Ukraine, threatening to trigger a direct military clash between the nuclear powers of Europe and Moscow.
Erdoğan-Trump meeting confirms Turkey’s allegiance to US imperialism
Erdoğan is relying on the support of the Trump administration and avoiding any conflict with it while he establishes an authoritarian regime to defend the interests of the Turkish bourgeoisie.
Erdoğan government in Turkey dismisses CHP’s provincial leadership in Istanbul, deploying massive police forces
The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has entered a new phase of its judicial operation targeting fundamental democratic rights and the Kemalist Republican People’s Party (CHP), which emerged as the leading party in the March 2024 local elections.
Syria threatened with carve-up as redivision of Middle East draws closer
The antagonistic interests of the imperialist powers and the regional powers of Israel, Turkey and the Gulf states that have backed Sharaa in their bid to control Syria has the potential to ignite further waves of bloody sectarian violence and precipitate the fragmentation of the country that itself could ignite a region-wide conflagration.
The US’s Turkey-backed “economic corridor” plan in the Caucasus targets Russia and Iran
Workers in the Caucasus and around the world need to be alert: Under the guise of an “economic corridor”, preparations are being made for bloody wars that will devastate the region’s peoples as US imperialism pushes forward its predatory plans.
Remarks to IWA-RFC hearing
The death of autoworker Ronald Adams Sr. and the law of capitalist profit
It is the capitalist system that produces tragedies like the death of Ronald Adams Sr., a system that operates in the interests of the ruling class, which derives value and profit from the labor of workers.
Dundee Engine nearly six months after workplace death: “The machines are running at full blast, and not a word is being said about Ronald Adams”
At a meeting for workers returning from layoff, management and United Auto Workers officials maintained a guilty silence about the death of the 63-year-old skilled tradesman.
5 months after death of Stellantis worker Ronald Adams Sr., silence and cover-up continue
Five months since the death of Ronald Adams Sr., his widow Shamenia Steward-Adams said, “... all I know is that my husband is dead, and the workers are back working.”
“The union works with the bosses behind closed doors to cover up the injuries and deaths that happen every day”
Autoworkers speak on the investigation into the death of Dundee Engine worker Ronald Adams Sr. and continuing industrial carnage
Workers contacted by the WSWS stressed the fact that the continuing toll of workplace and industrial deaths is the consequence of the subordination of all concerns over safety to the drive for profit.
As union continues silence
Pittsburgh-area steelworkers at Edgar Thomson Steel Works support call for independent investigation into Clairton Coke Works explosion
Their silence is an indication that both US Steel and the United Steelworkers are working to cover up the explosion, and the record of the company of putting profits before the safety of the workers.
Deaths in America's industrial slaughterhouse continue as OSHA faces axe
More than 100 US workers are killed on the job each week under conditions where the Trump administration is seeking to dismantle workplace safety protections.
UPS worker killed in Richmond, California—co-workers ordered to resume jobs as victim’s body lay in trailer
Workers at the facility were forced to continue laboring as their dead worker remained in an open trailer for hours.
Worker crushed to death at Palermo’s Pizza in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The death of Robert Cherone at Palermo’s Pizza’s Milwaukee plant exposes a long history of unsafe conditions and the subordination of workers’ lives to corporate profit.
Sri Lankan president invokes essential services act against power workers
The essential services order allows the government to ban industrial action by electricity workers. Those found guilty of breaching a ban face two to five years’ imprisonment, a fine of 2,000 to 5,000 rupees, or both.
Sri Lankan power workers oppose government restructuring plans
Around 10,000 workers joined the two-day protest in Colombo, opposing the government's pro-business restructuring of the electricity board.
Harassment of framed-up Alton Estate workers continues in Sri Lanka
The scheduled September 10 trial of 26 framed-up Alton Estate workers has been postponed until December because police failed to produce their main witnesses.
Sri Lankan unions undermine Ceylon Electricity Board workers opposition to government’s restructuring agenda
The Dissanayake government has only been able to go ahead with its cost-cutting attack on the CEB’s 22,000-strong workforce because the union leadership fully endorses it.
Trump imposes new tariffs as warning lights on US economy flash
So-called “reciprocal tariffs” are the key weapon in what is a massive international shakedown operation, more akin to Mafia measures than anything seen in the history of international trade.
After Tricolor collapse another indebted US auto-connected firm goes under
The US auto company, First Brands, involved in the sale of parts and highly dependent on debt, is facing bankruptcy, with its creditors involved to the tune of billions of dollars.
Extraordinary Fed meeting highlights developing US financial crisis
US President Trump is continuing to make strenuous efforts to bring the Fed under his direct control to engineer a cut in rates as the interest bill on US government debt mounts.
Faced with mounting US pressure, Mexico slaps trade tariffs on China
On September 10, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum announced a legislative proposal that would slap tariffs of between 10 percent and 50 percent on a wide range of goods.
Manual dexterity and the human brain evolved together
A new study examines the evolutionary connection between the fine manipulation of objects and the associated development of mental control that are key to tool manufacturing and use by humans.
“Plastics crisis” endangers humanity and all aspects of the environment, concludes Lancet study
The scientists warn: “Plastics are a grave, growing, and under-recognised danger to human and planetary health.”
Continents are drying at an accelerating rate, severely impacting the supply of fresh water
The inability of the moribund capitalist system to effectively address climate change and all its myriad devastating consequences poses an existential crisis for humanity.
Trump administration to eliminate key climate-related environmental regulation
The scientific record of the impact of capitalist industrial activity on Earth’s warming climate is clear and well established.
Mandatory vaccination and democratic rights: An interview with law professor Dorit Reiss
Dorit Reiss is a law professor specializing in the legality and necessity of school vaccine mandates.
Financialization and the crisis of US healthcare
Harvard study exposes deadly toll of private equity hospitals
A Harvard-led study has provided rigorous evidence that private equity ownership of hospitals increases patient mortality in emergency and intensive care units.
As over 1 million Americans are infected with COVID daily, Trump administration plans further cutoff of vaccines
Amid the 11th COVID wave in the US, Kennedy is dismantling federal vaccine policy and scientific institutions and eroding decades of public health progress in the service of a radical, anti-vaccine political agenda.
Florida’s “Charlatan General” Ladapo reveals no scientific evidence supported anti-vaccine policy
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo appeared on CNN Sunday to defend the state government’s push to end all mandates for vaccination against childhood diseases.
Nikolaev appeals court rules to prolong detention of Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk
The Nikolaev appeals court based its argumentation on a distortion of a previous ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.
Expand the campaign to free the imprisoned Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk!
We call upon all readers of the WSWS, supporters of democratic rights and opponents of imperialist war to respond to the ECHR’s decision to accept his case by expanding the campaign to free Bogdan.
1 year since the arrest of the Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk
Exactly one year ago, the Ukrainian socialist and leader of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists was arrested by the Ukrainian Secret Service.
European Court of Human Rights accepts case of imprisoned Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk
The acceptance of the case by the court is an important step in the campaign to demand the release of Bogdan.
Latin America’s “Pink tide” governments slam Trump at UN, while collaborating with Pentagon
The mostly muted criticism of the Trump administration, including its massacre of civilians in the Caribbean, came as Latin America’s militaries staged war games with the same US forces perpetrating these criminal attacks.
US bankrolls fascist Milei regime ahead of Argentine elections
The announced Argentine peso swap and other giveaways by the US Treasury constitute a brazen act of election meddling to prop up a regime whose popular support is collapsing ahead of October’s legislative elections.
Peru: Union leaders end 14-day strike by 60,000 EsSalud healthcare workers
While it promises anti-corruption measures, there are serious doubts about President Dina Boluarte and the right-wing parties that support her in Congress fulfilling the agreement.
Mass protests in Brazil against amnesty for Bolsonaro’s fascist coup attempt
Sunday’s nationwide demonstrations in Brazil expressed widespread social, economic and political dissatisfaction, which is also fueling mass protests around the world.
Uganda’s January 2026 elections to pit Museveni’s dictatorship against the bourgeois populism of Bobi Wine
Bobi Wine seeks to replace Yoweri Museveni as a more acceptable representative of the bourgeoisie in the eyes of imperialism.
Kenyan ruling class whips up nationalism over Somalis accused of desecrating national flag
A petty act by a couple of teenagers has been inflated into a national scandal, seized on by William Ruto’s unpopular government to promote “national unity”.
Treason trial of South Sudan’s Vice President threatens to reignite civil war
The SPLM-IO, formed after the December 2013 massacres of Nuer civilians in Juba, is the armed and political movement representing Machar’s core power base. President Salva Kiir has relied heavily on fighters from his Dinka base, the country’s largest ethnic group. These forces formed the backbone of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and, after independence, the national army.
Residents in working-class districts of Johannesburg protest after two-week loss of water supply
In this city of vast wealth residents of Westbury and Coronationville have been forced to block off streets with bricks, stones and burning tyres to demand water. Post-apocalyptic conditions have rapidly emerged.
Underlying the interlinked crises of the capitalist system is an oligarchy that subordinates all of society to profit and the accumulation of personal wealth. The fight against the oligarchy is by its very nature a revolutionary task.
May Day 2025: Socialism Against Fascism and War
The WSWS is posting here both the video and text of the speech by World Socialist Web Site International Editorial Board chairman David North, which opened the International May Day 2025 Online Rally.
May Day 2025
Join the Trotskyist movement to fight for socialism
This summation was given by Socialist Equality Party (UK) assistant national secretary Thomas Scripps at the International May Day 2025 Online Rally, held Saturday, May 3.
May Day 2025
The socialist response to the breakdown in Canada-US relations
This speech was given by Keith Jones, National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Canada), at the International May Day 2025 Online Rally, held Saturday, May 3.
May Day 2025
Unite the New Zealand and Pacific working class against war!
This speech was given by Tom Peters, a leading member of the Socialist Equality Group in New Zealand, at the International May Day 2025 Online Rally, held Saturday, May 3.
Wolfgang devoted over 50 years of his life to building the Trotskyist party and fought tirelessly politically and theoretically for the independence of the working class.
Nanda Wickremesinghe (1939-2025): A lifelong Trotskyist leader
Nanda Wickremesinghe’s political life as a Trotskyist spanned nearly seven decades. Right until the end, despite ailments that forced him to withdraw from active party work, our comrade had never lost his revolutionary spirit.
Sri Lanka: Hundreds pay their last respects to veteran Trotskyist Nanda Wickremesinghe
“Comrades, including Wicks, rejected the populist petty-bourgeois alternatives and turned to the International Committee, to the Sri Lankan and international working class and to building the revolutionary leadership of the working class.”
International condolences on the death of Sri Lankan Trotskyist Nanda Wickremesinghe
“Comrade Wicks brought to the struggle for Trotskyism an immense array of political gifts. Possessed of an extraordinary intellectual curiosity, Wicks was immersed in the history of the international Trotskyist movement”—David North
Wayne State University president resigns
President Espy and the Board of Governors that pushed her out were both responsible for a brutal police crackdown on pro-Palestinian and anti-genocide protests at the campus in 2023-24.
Take up the fight for socialism! Mobilise the working class against genocide, dictatorship and world war!
This statement by the IYSSE in the UK will be distributed throughout Britain this month during welcome week and freshers fairs.
Columbia University attacks graduate student workers’ right to organize
Columbia University’s administration, having capitulated in the face of Trump’s assault on academic freedom, cannot tolerate any semblance of workers organization on campus.
Oppose Trump administration’s witch-hunt against Chinese scientists at University of Michigan
The attack on Chengxuan Han and Yunqing Jian is intimately linked to the Trump administration’s broader war on students, immigrants and the working class.
Book Review
Biography as demonology: Aidan Beatty’s The Party is Always Right: The Untold Story of Gerry Healy and British Trotskyism
Aidan Beatty's new book is not a biography, but rather a political diatribe against Gerry Healy and Trotskyism.
“I’ve been very impressed by the articles you’ve published”
Historian Kerby Miller discusses Aidan Beatty and the writing of Irish history
Miller, the preeminent American historian of Irish history, was recently interviewed by the World Socialist Web Site.
Socialist Equality Party exposes Aidan Beatty’s falsifications in Institute of Historical Research seminar
After Beatty delivered a lengthy diatribe, Barbara Slaughter, David North and Eric London exposed his slanderous allegations against Gerry Healy and the history of the Trotskyist movement.
Slander vs. biography: Aidan Beatty’s falsification of Gerry Healy’s family and childhood in a decade of rebellion and civil war
This essay is devoted to a detailed review of Gerry Healy’s family background and youth, based on research conducted in Ireland, including visits to the relevant archives in Dublin and in Galway where the Healy family lived.
This lecture was given by World Socialist Web Site International Editorial Board Chairman David North at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on Tuesday, March 12.
Australian Electoral Commission blocks evidence on its SEP ballot access ban
The AEC’s escalated reasons for refusing to release the information—claiming that it would not be in the “public interest” to do so—further underscore the anti-democratic nature of its ban on the SEP registration.
The significance of the Socialist Equality Party’s vote and campaign in the Australian election
The vote for the SEP was small, but significant, revealing a growing constituency for a revolutionary, socialist alternative to the program of war, austerity and authoritarianism advanced by Labor and the entire capitalist establishment.
The Australian election, global opposition to Trump and the need for a socialist perspective
The election was marked by a mass repudiation of Trumpism, but within the framework of parliamentary politics, the outcome is a pro-business, pro-war Labor government that will collaborate with Trump.
Liberal leadership contest marked by factional divisions after Australian election rout
The much diminished party-room was split down the middle, presaging further ructions.
Trotsky's assassination was the greatest political crime of the 20th century. Alongside Vladimir Lenin, Trotsky was the leader of the 1917 October revolution in Russia, which led to the establishment of the first workers’ state in history, and the preeminent strategist of world socialist revolution.
Independent soil testing finds staggering levels of toxic contamination in Los Angeles fire zones
Testing shows toxic heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and mercury at levels hazardous to human health, with children and workers bearing the brunt of the risk.
The Los Angeles fires: How the Democrats facilitated utility companies’ criminal neglect
Emerging evidence suggests that Assembly Bill 1054, passed by the Democratic Party-dominated legislature and signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019, played a crucial role in this catastrophe.
California governor makes significant concessions to corporate interests in rebuilding wildfire-hit areas
Newsom’s suspension of California’s landmark environmental regulations to fast-track utility infrastructure rebuilding in wildfire-affected areas, is a direct attack on democracy, environmental safeguards and working-class communities.
Signs point to Southern California Edison’s negligence and Democrats’ complicity in Los Angeles fire disaster
Edison prioritized profits over maintenance and fire prevention, endangering lives and communities.
January 21 marked 100 years since the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924. This page includes a collection of essays reviewing the life and ideas of the great Marxist theoretician, founder of the Bolshevik Party, and co-leader of the Russian Revolution.
The case of Nancy Wohlforth, a.k.a. Fields, and the origins of Security and the Fourth International
On Tuesday, May 20, a memorial for Nancy Wohlforth was held in the national headquarters of the AFL-CIO. Notably absent was any reference to her central role in an attempt to destroy the Workers League, forerunner of the Socialist Equality Party.
The fight against fascism requires a fight against capitalism and war!
Having twice voted with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in favor of a brutal policy of sealing the borders against refugees, the conservative Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) parliamentary groups in the Bundestag are prepared to accept the far-right party as a government partner.
Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei slate in Berlin certified for the federal election
The SGP is standing in the election to oppose war, fascism and genocide.
Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei appeal in the German federal election
Oppose imperialist war through the fight for socialism!
The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) is contesting the federal elections to oppose the all-party coalition advocating war and austerity.
WSWS hosts webinar with Momodou Taal, target of Trump’s efforts to deport anti-war students
Situating the attacks on Momodou Taal and other student activists in their political and historical context, the speakers urged viewers to become active in the struggle to mobilize the working class against fascism and war.
Sounding the Alarm and The Logic of Zionism: A discussion with David North on his two recent books
This discussion with David North, chairman of the World Socialist Web Site International Editorial Board, will focus on his two most recent books, Sounding the Alarm: Socialism Against War and The Logic of Zionism: From Nationalist Myth to the Gaza Genocide.
Of, by and for the oligarchy: Trump’s cabinet & the restructuring of the American state
The election of Trump and his cabinet of reactionaries signifies the brutal restructuring of global society being carried out by the financial oligarchy.
The election debacle and the fight against dictatorship
The election of Donald Trump is a critical event whose political repercussions will be felt throughout the world. This fascist demagogue has won the 2024 election with both an electoral and popular vote majority. He will be re-installed in the White House on January 20, 2025.
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.
Premiere in Berlin of a new documentary–Julian Assange and the Dark Secrets of War
The most telling episodes of the film include the testimony of Ethan McCord who relates that witnessing the savagery of the American military on that day in Iraq had changed his life forever.
Julian Assange delivers first speech since release from UK prison: “I pleaded guilty to journalism”
Assange told the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe: “I am not free today because the system worked, I am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to journalism.”
Australian spooks and their media mouthpieces bemoan Assange’s freedom
The complaints have a pathetic character to them, but also underscore the fact that the assault on democratic rights associated with the persecution of Assange persists and deepens.
The Australian Labor Party’s record in the Assange case
The Australian government's involvement in the plea deal arrangements was the result of mass popular pressure. It followed years of Labor actively assisting the persecution of Assange.
Seminal documents of the Soviet Trotskyist movement from the early 1930s published for the first time
Published for the first time 90 years after they were written, the documents are an irrefutable vindication of the century-long struggle by the Trotskyist movement against Stalinism and for historical truth.
Analyzing a World in Chaos from an Island of Tranquility
This speech was given by David North at the second international commemoration of the work of Leon Trotsky on Büyükada (Prinkipo), Turkey, during the first period of his exile from the Soviet Union between 1929 and 1933.
A reply to an anarchist’s falsification of the Leon Trotsky commemoration on Prinkipo
The event was covered by many national and local media outlets and widely discussed on social media before and after the event in Turkey. However, a former Maoist and current anarchist published an article on his website denouncing and misrepresenting David North’s remarks.
On the anniversary of the assassination of Leon Trotsky
Eighty-four years ago today, on August 20, 1940, Leon Trotsky was assassinated by an agent of the Stalinist secret police, the GPU, in his villa in Coyoacan, Mexico, where he spent the final three years of his life as a political exile.
Opening report to the Eighth Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (US)
We are publishing here the opening report to the Eighth Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (US), given by David North, the national chairman of the SEP. The congress was held from August 4 to August 9, 2024.
Report to the SEP (US) Eighth National Congress
16 years since the Founding Congress of the Socialist Equality Party
We are publishing here the report to the Eighth Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (US) given by Joseph Kishore, the national secretary of the SEP.
H5N1 Bird flu, climate change, and the social rights of the working class
The threat of pandemics and the deepening climate crisis raise existential concerns for all life and well-being on the planet, with capitalism bringing the world to the brink of annihilation.
Report to the SEP (US) Eighth National Congress
The barbarism of “forever COVID” and the fight for socialist public health
We are publishing here the report to the Eighth Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (US) given by Evan Blake. The congress was held from August 4 to August 9, 2024.
Judge gives US government deadline to comply with order in Will Lehman’s UAW elections case
The ruling sets an October 31 deadline for the government to provide its explanation for rejecting Lehman’s claims about the anti-democratic character of the UAW elections, more than a year after it was first instructed to do so.
For a rank-and-file investigation into the death of Stellantis worker Ronald Adams Sr.!
An inquiry independent of Stellantis, the United Auto Workers (UAW) apparatus and state authorities is essential to uncover the truth, expose systemic safety violations and prevent future deaths.
UAW pressing Stellantis to “finish their retooling” of Dundee plant as cover-up of Ronald Adams’ death continues
In a June 5 letter, UAW Stellantis Department head Kevin Gotinsky says nothing about the death of the 63-year-old skilled trades worker.
Hundreds attend Detroit funeral for Stellantis Dundee Engine worker Ronald Adams
The 63-year-old skilled tradesman was crushed to death by an automated crane at the Dundee Engine Complex in southeast Michigan on April 7.
Helen Halyard (1950-2023), a tribute to a life dedicated to the victory of world socialism
We are publishing here the tribute given by David North to Helen Halyard, a leading member of the Socialist Equality Party and the International Committee of the Fourth International for more than half a century, who died suddenly at the age of 73 on November 28. North’s remarks opened a memorial meeting for Helen held Sunday, December 3.
Remarks by David North at the conclusion of the international memorial meeting for Helen Halyard
We are publishing here the summation given by David North to the memorial meeting for Comrade Helen Halyard held on December 3.
“Building the world party was Helen’s goal in life, to which she made an indelible contribution”
We are publishing here the tribute to Helen Halyard written by Patrick Martin, a member of the US editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site and a member of the Workers League and Socialist Equality Party for 52 years, and Esther Galen, a member of the Workers League and Socialist Equality Party for 53 years.
Tribute to Helen: Beverly Lozano, a supporter from California
A tribute to Helen Halyard written by Beverly Lozano, a supporter of the WSWS.
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.
Report to Sri Lanka meetings
Imperialism, the genocide in Gaza, and the world struggle for socialism
Socialist Equality Party (US) National Secretary Joseph Kishore delivered the following report to a meeting titled “Leon Trotsky and the Struggle for Socialism in the 21st Century” in Colombo on December 10.
University of Michigan IYSSE protests attack by pro-government thugs on Sri Lankan SEP members
We are publishing here a letter being sent by the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) at the University of Michigan condemning the violent attack on two members of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in Sri Lanka by pro-government thugs.
Magistrate court hearing on violent assault on Sri Lankan SEP members
While police have visited the crime scene and recorded witness statements they requested more time to obtain hospital medical reports.
Academics denounce pro-government thug attack on Sri Lankan SEP members
The SEP is calling on all those who are concerned to defend democratic rights of freedom of expression to register their opposition by sending protest letters to the relevant authorities.
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.
DOJ settlement with Ashli Babbitt’s family: A political gift to the fascist right
The $5 million payout to the family of a fascist insurrectionist, alongside Trump’s blanket pardons and the Democrats’ capitulation, underscores the ruling class’s turn toward dictatorship.
Wisconsin documents reveal details of strategy behind Donald Trump’s 2020 fake elector scheme
A trove of court documents released on Monday show Wisconsin attorney Kenneth Chesebro and former judge Jim Troupis were instrumental in formulating the strategy of Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 elections through court cases that generated “a cloud of confusion” combined with the appointment of “alternative” electors in seven key states.
Appellate court rejects Trump’s claim that he cannot be prosecuted for seeking to overthrow the 2020 election
The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled against Donald Trump's assertion of absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for seeking to overthrow the 2020 election.
Third Trump coup lawyer pleads guilty and agrees to testify in Georgia election case
Jenna Ellis is the third lawyer and fourth defendant to plead guilty in relation to the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
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.
Former Montgomery, Alabama teacher testifies about the forced reopening of schools in 2020-21
In this interview, Tynisa Williams, former teacher in Montgomery, Alabama, describes the experience of being forced to teach in-person in the fall of 2020 and winter of 2021. She and her coworkers waged a courageous struggle to stop the deadly return to in-person learning that cost the lives of eight educators in the district.
Accomplices to social murder
The international pseudo-left and the lifting of Zero-COVID in China: Part 1
The pseudo-left’s hostility to public health and support for imperialism found sharp expression in their universal demand—echoing that of the Western corporate media and political establishment—that China abandon its Zero-COVID strategy.
Accomplices to social murder
The international pseudo-left and the lifting of Zero-COVID in China: Part 2
The pseudo-left’s hostility to public health and support for imperialism found its sharpest expression in their demand—echoing that of the Western corporate media and political establishment—that China abandon its Zero-COVID strategy.
Immunocompromised mother in Manhattan speaks to Global Workers’ Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic
Melanie, whose children attend public schools in New York City, spoke to the WSWS about the toll the “let it rip” policy toward the pandemic has taken on her and her family.
The definitive left-wing critique of the 1619 Project. This volume includes interviews with eminent historians and essays from the World Socialist Web Site exposing the New York Times’ racialist falsification of history.
The Wuhan “lab leak” fraud: A political witch-hunt against science and public health
The hearings before the House subcommittee have been a bipartisan effort to foment anti-Chinese hysteria.
Democrats join with Republican fascists to witch-hunt scientist Peter Daszak
During Wednesday’s House Subcommittee on COVID-19 with Dr. Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, Democrats joined ranks with fascistic Republican colleagues to promote the Wuhan lab-leak lies.
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.
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.
Nikole Hannah-Jones’ Center for Democracy and Journalism: Racialist politics in the service of US imperialism
After one year, the Center’s main accomplishment has been to deepen the mutual embrace between sections of the upper middle class and the military-intelligence apparatus.
The 1619 Project and the New York Times’ promotion of the racialist ideology of Ukrainian nationalism
The racialist historical revisionism of the Times and the racialist ideology of the Ukrainian neo-Nazis share a common premise: the mythological reimagining of history as a struggle of “the nation” and “the race.”
Oppose political censorship of antiwar views at Howard University!
We call on all students, faculty and staff members at Howard University to oppose this censorship and demand that the IYSSE be allowed to hold its planned meeting on campus.
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.
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.
The arrest of journalist Richard Medhurst and the fight to defend democratic rights
Medhurst said of his detention at the UK’s Heathrow Airport, “I believe I'm the first journalist to be arrested under this provision of the Terrorism Act.”
Instagram shutters account of Palestinian publisher Quds News Network
Instagram shut the account without explanation. Quds is one of the most popular Palestinian networks and has featured on-the-spot exposures of the war crimes in Gaza.
WSWS readers demand Facebook reverse ban on SEG in New Zealand
Readers have expressed outrage at the social media company’s anti-democratic censorship of the Trotskyist Socialist Equality Group in New Zealand.
Facebook blocks Socialist Equality Group in New Zealand from advertising
We call on readers to oppose Facebook’s blatant political censorship of the Trotskyist movement in New Zealand.
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.
Over 80,000 sign petition against NYU Langone’s termination of a pro-Palestinian resident physician
Over 80,000 people have signed a petition opposing the anti-democratic termination of Dr. Zaki Masoud by NYU Langone.
Report exposes fraudulent antisemitism accusations at UK universities
The report concludes that critics of the Israeli state, advocates for Palestinian rights and those teaching the history and politics of the region have been “subjected to false allegations of antisemitism.”
An interview with Harvard anthropology Professor John Comaroff—Part one
We spoke recently to South African-born John Comaroff, the Hugh K. Foster Professor of African and African-American studies and of Anthropology, and Oppenheimer Research Fellow in African Studies, Harvard University.
Harvard UAW, pseudo-left groups organize provocation against professor John Comaroff
The right-wing witch-hunt of John Comaroff at Harvard University continued Tuesday with a stage-managed protest during his first class of the semester.
President Sheinbaum minimizes growing US threats to bomb Mexico
In response to continuing US threats to bomb drug cartels in Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum has issued unconvincing and toothless denials that they will ever be carried out.
Israel murders 274 Gazans in a further escalation of the genocidal war
For a demonstration on July 24 in Washington D.C. to protest congressional invitation for Netanyahu
The World Socialist Web Site calls on workers and youth to respond to Congress’ invitation to the war criminal Netanyahu with a demonstration in Washington D.C.
Leaders of London rally issue dead-end call for Sunak and Starmer to reverse support for Israel’s genocide
The determined opposition of workers and young people is being corralled into a dead-end, with calls that the only way to stop Israel is to put pressure on the Tories and, above all, the Labour Party of genocide apologist in chief, Sir Keir Starmer.
TikTok bans video demanding Bogdan Syrotiuk’s freedom, branding it “hate speech”
The TikTok ban comes just days after the Zelensky regime issued an order banning access to the World Socialist Web Site across Ukraine. The order was issued by the Ukrainian State Special Communications Service, a wing of the country’s military-intelligence apparatus.
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.
100 years of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was published 100 years ago. What accounts for its continuing popularity and resonance?
Brian Goldstone’s There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America: Working class families sliding gradually or dropping suddenly into homelessness
Goldstone constructs a damning brief. Though he limits his condemnation to the American housing system, the evidence he presents belies this limitation and makes an airtight case against capitalism itself.
Mario Kessler's Socialists against Antisemitism and Leon Trotsky on Antisemitism
The Marxist movement and the fight against antisemitism and Zionism
Kessler's books provide irrefutable evidence that the most powerful and consistent critique of both antisemitism and Zionism emanated from the revolutionary internationalist wing in the workers’ movement.
A Different Kind of Power whitewashes Jacinda Ardern’s right-wing, pro-imperialist government
The much-publicised memoir by New Zealand’s former prime minister uses empty platitudes about the importance of “kindness” and “empathy” to cover up the right-wing record of her Labour Party government from 2017 to 2023.
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.
The real issue in the government shutdown: Mobilize the working class against Trump’s dictatorship!
The central issue behind the government shutdown is the need for the working class to intervene to force the Trump administration from office and put an end to its criminal conspiracies for military-police dictatorship.
Trump declares war on American cities and the “enemy within”
Speaking before hundreds of generals and admirals assembled at a Marine Corps base outside Washington DC, President Donald Trump laid out a plan for establishing a presidential dictatorship in America.
Trump administration celebrates the perpetrators of the Wounded Knee Massacre
The decision by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is a warning: The lessons of Wounded Knee are not consigned to the past, but must urgently be recalled as a present danger.
Democrats, corporate media cover for Trump’s military coup
Trump has deployed troops in Los Angeles and Washington D.C., and ordered them into Portland and Memphis, while summoning hundreds of generals and admirals to the capital to pledge loyalty to him.
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.
Pike River movie undermined by glaring omissions
The film concerns New Zealand’s worst industrial accident—the gas explosions at the Pike River coal mine that killed 29 miners in November 2010.
Families continue fight to expose cover-up of Pike River mine disaster
Families of some of the 29 workers killed in the 2010 disaster in New Zealand are seeking to expose the full truth about how the prosecution of Pike River Coal’s chief executive Peter Whittall was stifled.
14 years after New Zealand’s Pike River mine disaster, no justice for victims’ families
For 14 years, successive governments, state agencies, the judicial system and the union bureaucracy have worked to prevent anyone being brought to justice for the avoidable deaths of 29 workers in Pike River Coal’s underground mine.
New Zealand: Court action continues over Pike River mine disaster
Families of some of the 29 workers killed in the 2010 coal mine disaster are continuing their fight for answers about why authorities dropped charges against Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Whittall over the extremely dangerous conditions in the mine.