I have been a daily reader of the World Socialist Web Site for three years, and I must say it is like a breath of fresh air! In today’s world, with the decline of global capitalism, no news organization presents current events happening around the globe for the working class like the WSWS.

I was first introduced to the site in 2008. I was horrified at the decay of democratic rights, the continuation of the war in Iraq and the rendition and torture policies of the Bush administration, and the betrayal of the Democratic Party after the 2006 midterm elections. I felt abandoned, with no one in the political establishment to stand up for the social position and rights of workers.

The articles that have left the most indelible impression on me are the articles exposing the so-called “left”, and what passes for it, the Democratic Party, the trade union apparatus, and all the media and news organs such as the Nation and the public access daily TV and radio show Democracy Now. Initially, I had a very difficult time understanding this social layer, and how it works to castrate the working class and to avoid all discussion of social issues from a class basis.

After the election of Barack Obama in 2008, coming as it did on the heels of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, I felt a new sense of gloom as I saw the new president continue and expand the corporate and anti-democratic policies of the Bush administration, including breaking his promise to close Guantanamo, continuing the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and asserting the right to spy on Americans and protecting Bush administration officials from lawsuits by using the fictional legal argument of “state secrets privilege”, an argument used to shut down inquiry into criminal abuses by the previous administration.

Specifically, the articles that had the most impact on me were the ones chronicling the new Obama administration’s preservation and continuation of the Bush government’s anti-democratic policy of “ extraordinary rendition “ and CIA secret prisons.

One article that I read and have returned to read again a time or two is “ The Nation and ‘socialism’ .” This provided the foundation for me in understanding the fraudulent character for what passes as the “left” in the United States.

The ongoing decline of global capitalism, and in particular the declining economic power of the United States as the top imperial power, must be understood by the international working class from a class basis internationally. The attack on democratic rights, imperial wars, the growth of social inequality as well as the social position of workers worldwide need to be understood in the correct context of this decline of capitalism. The World Socialist Web Site provides the critical analysis necessary to comprehend these events as a whole.

It is impossible to find to find another news web site that consistently provides this class analysis.