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.
Top Stories
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.
Perspective
The South Korean coup attempt and the global attack on democratic rights
The attempted military coup is a warning, not only to workers in South Korea but internationally, that the ruling classes around the world are being driven to dictatorial methods to impose their agenda of war and austerity.
The response was delivered after the US announced what were called “groundbreaking and sweeping” bans on Sunday, the third in a series of such measures undertaken by the Biden administration.
There is one “justice” for the ruling class and something entirely different for workers and poor people.
Trump names more and more billionaires to top posts
Charles Kushner, father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared, will be US ambassador to France
The fascist president-elect has named six billionaires to high positions since Sunday.
On Monday, Trump threatened, “If the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East”.
Mexico’s President Sheinbaum denied Trump’s claims that her administration has agreed to “effectively close” the US-Mexico border to migrants, but in reality this has already taken place.
Large numbers of workers from throughout Woolworths, Coles and more broadly must be rapidly mobilised to defend the strike, or this important struggle will be crushed.
Brian Thompson CEO of the insurance giant UnitedHealthcare was murdered Wednesday morning as he was walking to the company’s annual investor conference in New York City. The shooter is still at large.
The war plans of Washington against China involve the return of Japanese militarism to the Philippines, a country it occupied and ravaged during World War II.
SWAPO’s decline and that of other anti-colonial national movements have exposed the organic incapacity of Africa’s bourgeois nationalists to realise the aspirations of the African masses for freedom from foreign domination, democracy and social justice.
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.
Socialist Equality Party exposes Aidan Beatty’s hackwork and Zionist-Israeli financial ties
During an online discussion, David North challenged Beatty to explain his falsification of history and why Zionist foundations funded his anti-Healy and anti-SEP project.
The fabrication of a slander: Aidan Beatty’s forgery of Gerry Healy’s youth—and Irish history
This supplementary review exposes Beatty’s manipulation of evidence related to Gerry Healy’s youth in Ireland.
Aidan Beatty’s hackwork: The Israel-Zionist connection
The academic career of prominent DSA member Aidan Beatty, the author of a slanderous trash biography of long-time Trotskyist leader Gerry Healy, has been funded by Zionist institutions and Israeli-state sources.
The significance of Trump’s war to maintain dollar supremacy
Trump’s threats are not overblown rhetoric but the expression of the economic relations and contradictions daily at work in the US economy.
Germany’s war Chancellor Scholz visits Kiev
If anyone still required proof that Olaf Scholz is not a "level-headed peace chancellor,” as he tried to cast himself during Germany’s election campaign, but an aggressive war chancellor, his surprise visit to Kiev Monday morning provided it.
The Amazon workers’ Black Friday protests and the strategy of global class struggle
Amazon workers took part in protests in more than 20 countries on Friday and last weekend, during the Black Friday shopping event.
Stanford professor Jay Bhattacharya’s reactionary attack on public health
Bhattacharya, widely tipped to be chosen by Donald Trump as the next director of the National Institutes of Health, has attacked the WSWS for exposing his anti-public-health views.
1,500 artists call on Tate Britain to sever ties with organizations complicit in Gaza genocide
Kaur took the opportunity of receiving the prestigious Turner Prize in a ceremony held at the Tate on December 3 to denounce the Israeli crimes.
The Mother of All Lies: Reconstructing family and social history in Morocco
Narrating the film, Moudir asserts that the model neighborhood she and her father build is “a place where secrets can be revealed.”
John Proctor Is the Villain: Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, an anti-McCarthyite play, hijacked by the new McCarthyism, #MeToo
Of three male characters in the play, one is evil, one is occasionally evil but stupid and the last is merely stupid.
Woman of the Hour: Actor–director Anna Kendrick, a gender politics perspective and all the questions unasked and unanswered
A relentless, ham-fisted focus on gender precludes any serious or truthful depiction of a real-life serial killer and the society that produced him.
Australia: Health Services Union forces through Labor government wage-slashing deal
After workers resoundingly rejected Labor’s original offer, the HSU blocked any industrial action for more than two months, before pushing through a virtually unchanged deal.
Stellantis: The Opel plant at Rüsselsheim, Germany shrinks to single-shift operations
Hundreds of contract workers face losing their jobs, and the IG Metall union is refusing to defend them.
Battle lines harden with strike by 55,000 Canada Post workers in 3rd week
With the backing of the Liberal government, Canada Post continues to demand sweeping concessions, while the CUPW and Canadian Labour Congress bureaucrats work to keep striking postal workers isolated from their colleagues throughout the logistics sector and the working class as a whole.
UPS closing facilities in Oklahoma City and Vernon, California, laying off hundreds
UPS announced the closure of three facilities in November, laying off more than 1,000 workers as part of its plans to automate its operations.
After lengthy delay, DC cop goes on trial for protecting fascist Proud Boys
Former D.C. Metropolitan Police Lieutenant Shane Lamond exchanged hundreds of encrypted messages and phone calls with Proud Boy leader and FBI informant Henry "Enrique" Tarrio in the lead-up to the attack on the Capitol.
New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a DSA member, enters New York City mayoral race
Mamdani’s employment of pseudo-radical slogans is a desperate effort to boost the image of both the Democratic Socialists of America and the Democratic Party as a whole.
Trump’s Republican Party nears control of all levers of federal government
Four days after the US elections, fascist President-Elect Donald Trump’s Republican Party is nearing control of all levers of federal governmental power.
Wave of resignations and attacks put indicted Adams administration on life support
Amid the barrage of federal indictments and corruption investigations faced by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the Democratic politician’s inner circle is quickly falling by the wayside.
Oppose the attacks on the democratic rights of students at George Mason University! Mobilize the working class in defense of democratic rights!
Two club officers of the Students for Justice in Palestine were barred from campus and the club has had its activities halted for petty reasons.
University of Michigan confirms filing of complaint against campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine
SAFE, the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, is threatened with a two-to-four-year suspension. If UMich suspends SAFE, it will mark the first suspension of a legacy student organization in the university’s history.
Prominent anti-Zionist Tony Greenstein charged in Britain under Terrorism Act
It has been almost a year since police raided Greenstein’s home in the early hours of December 20, 2023 for a social media post defending the right of the Palestinians to resist Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The RCP’s call for a “student strike for Palestine” and the real lessons of the 2012 Quebec student strike
In its campaign material for a “Student Strike for Palestine,” the RCP advances no call for young people to turn to the working class and fight to mobilize it in struggle against genocide and imperialist war. Nor does it indict the trade unions and NDP for their support for the pro-genocide, pro-war Trudeau government.
Sheffield universities to cut hundreds of jobs amid higher education deficit crisis
76 higher education institutions are imposing restructuring and redundancy plans, according to an official report by the Office for Students, a UK government regulator.
French New Popular Front, neo-fascist RN poised to bring down Barnier government
Unless workers are mobilized independently in struggle, a censure of Barnier will only intensify behind-the-scenes maneuvers in ruling circles on how to replace him while continuing his policies.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael likely to seek coalition with Irish Labour Party
Ireland’s general election resulted in victory for the ruling parties, amid declining turnout and an ominous international situation. Talks to form a coalition are likely to start immediately and involve Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and third parties.
Hundreds take to the streets to oppose counter-terrorism police raids on Turkish Kurds in London
Police raids in working-class areas, including brutal immigration raids, have been normalised over the last decade. The Labour government is now ramping this up under the cover of the Terrorism Act that suspends democratic rights.
South Korean president attempts to impose martial law
The failed military coup is a sharp warning to workers in South Korea and internationally: Mired in worsening crises, dictatorship is the order of the day for the ruling classes around the world.
Growing anger over Australian university job cuts but NTEU deflects blame from Labor government
University managements have announced more than 2,000 job cuts in recent weeks, as a direct result of the Labor government’s cuts to funding and international student enrolments.
Widespread opposition to Australia’s social media ban for under 16s
The ban is not only an attempt to suppress political ferment among young people, but would impact upon the entire population.
Australian rank-and-file educators support striking Woolworths workers
“We say from bitter experience that to avoid yet another sell-out, you need to take matters out of the hands of the UWU bureaucrats.”
Turkey leads regime change battle in Syria
The US and NATO-backed war for regime change in Syria, launched in 2011, has been revived. Turkey, Syria’s northern neighbour and occupying power since 2016, is playing a major role.
US-backed Islamist militias storm Aleppo, Syria
This represents a major escalation of the global war between NATO countries, on the one hand, and Russia, Iran and China on the other.
The Workers’ Party of Turkey and the impasse of pseudo-left politics
The TİP failed to base its split with the Stalinist Communist Party on a study and assimilation of the great strategic and world-historical issues raised by Leon Trotsky’s struggle against Stalinism. This is a common feature of all the tendencies that emerged from the disintegration of the Stalinist parties after the collapse of the USSR.
Jury awards $42 million to 3 Iraqis tortured in Abu Ghraib prison 20 years ago, holding US military contractor responsible
Last Tuesday, a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, awarded $42 million in damages against US military contractor CACI Premier Technology, Inc., for its role in the torture of three Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison during the US imperialist occupation.
Trump team mulls Mexico “invasion” amid crushing tariff threats
The fundamental contradiction between world economy and the nation-state system under capitalism is bursting forth in the form of threats of cascading tariffs and war threats.
American Federation of Teachers president seeks common ground with Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education
With the nomination of Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education and the mounting threats to public education, the national teacher unions are seeking common ground with the fascists while attempting to funnel educator anger under electoral coalition pressure campaigns.
President Biden pardons his son Hunter Biden on gun and tax felonies
The decision to protect Hunter Biden is in sharp contrast to the White House refusal to protect any other likely targets of repression by the incoming Trump administration.
Will Medicare and Medicaid coverage for anti-obesity drugs survive RFK Jr.?
New anti-obesity drugs should be covered under federal health programs, but Trump’s top health nominee is a notorious anti-vaxxer and opponent of public health measures.
Sri Lankan police attack protesting School Development Officers, detaining four
The Dissanayake government, which is committed to implement the IMF’s austerity agenda, has made clear that it will ruthlessly crush any opposition.
SEP/IYSSE public meeting: The political lessons of the US and Sri Lankan elections
The meeting will discuss the urgent tasks that confronting the working class in the wake of the US and Sri Lankan elections and the socialist and internationalist strategy necessary to fight for the interests of working people.
Sri Lankan JVP/NPP government prohibits “commemoration of war heroes” by Tamils
The SEP vehemently opposes government’s anti-democratic ban on commemorative events and demands the immediate release of the three Tamil youth arrested last Saturday.
Sri Lankan government agrees with IMF to implement savage austerity measures
The working class needs to prepare both politically and organizationally to confront the Dissanayake government’s attacks on their social and democratic rights.
The Parti Québécois’ immigration plan: Normalizing the chauvinism and xenophobia of the far right
The PQ is making clear that any renewed push for Quebec independence will be explicitly founded on national-exclusivist appeals.
Denver Public Schools closing 7 schools, reducing grades in 3 others, as deeper cuts to public education funding loom
The school board took just two weeks from the announcement of the plan to vote to approve it, displacing more than 1,000 students and nearly 200 teachers.
The crisis of public education in California: Budget cuts, layoffs, and the role of the Democrats and trade unions
California, once celebrated as a hub of education excellence, innovation and progressivism, is now at the epicenter of a deepening crisis. School districts, community colleges, and public universities across the state are grappling with budget cuts, layoffs, and campus closures.
Los Angeles police terrorize schoolchildren in series of unannounced campus raids
This month, Los Angeles police armed and clad in riot gear burst into classroom without warning at Northridge Middle Community school, pointing rifles at students and staff and demanding that the school be put on lockdown. The event follows at similar series of police incursions which have resulted in no significant opposition from the teachers union
Russian Militant group supports campaign to free Bogdan Syrotiuk
More than six months have passed since Bogdan's arrest. During this time many organizations, parties, intellectuals and scholars have expressed their support for him.
WSWS readers demand freedom for Bogdan Syrotiuk
In the past few weeks, we have received around one hundred letters from 25 different countries from readers defending Bogdan and highlighting the political motives behind his imprisonment.
Free Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Six months after his arrest, Bogdan Syrotiuk, the courageous Ukrainian socialist arrested for opposing the war, remains in prison awaiting a drumhead trial in a legal travesty.
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein calls for release of Bogdan Syrotiuk
Stein has made this statement calling for the release of socialist and anti-war activist Bogdan Syrotiuk, who has been imprisoned by the Zelensky regime in Ukraine.
This week in history: December 2-8
Child tried for manslaughter in Australia; Greece abolishes monarchy; UNRWA established for Palestinian aid; Erich von Stroheim’s “Greed” premieres
Book Review: The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson
Contemporary lessons from the slave power’s plot to overturn the 1860 election
Erik Larson’s new book The Demon of Unrest, published this year by Penguin Random House, contains critical lessons for the fight against Trump and the threat of dictatorship today.
Reflections on the death of Lt. Willam Calley Jr.: Imperialist atrocities, from My Lai to Gaza
Calley spent only three days in prison for his role in directing the mass murder of 504 Vietnamese men, women and children. He is now reported to have died April 28 at the age of 80.
80 years since the liberation of Lublin-Majdanek concentration camp: From Hitler’s war in the East to the Holocaust
The history of the Majdanek camp reveals the links between Nazi Germany’s war of aggression against the Soviet Union and the Holocaust, and the extermination of the Jewish population, which primarily affected Poland and Eastern Europe.
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.
Trump will launch tariff war to defend dollar supremacy
Countries in the BRICS group must make a commitment not to try to create an alternative to the US currency or face the imposition of 100 percent tariffs.
The significance of Trump’s war to maintain dollar supremacy
Trump’s threats are not overblown rhetoric but the expression of the economic relations and contradictions daily at work in the US economy.
European Central Bank chief’s interview points to shock of trade war threat
Lagarde said the strategy of the European Union to the Trump tariff threat should be negotiation not retaliation, but whether that is possible is another question.
Small disturbances can have big effects, US Fed warns
Financial vulnerabilities have not gone away, as risks remain elevated, and they are being added to by the increasing institutional embrace of crypto currencies.
Biden administration pledges “massive surge” of weapons to Ukraine
Since the November 5, 2024 presidential election, the Biden administration has enormously expanded the scale of direct US military intervention into the Ukraine war.
Stop Starmer’s escalating war against Russia! Build a socialist anti-war movement!
By agreeing to Ukraine firing Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russian territory, Starmer has made a de facto declaration of war without so much as a debate in parliament.
Dubious “bomb scares” in UK, as de facto war is declared on Russia
This has all the hallmarks of a black propaganda campaign. Police and state forces are being mobilised with the explanation that there is an ongoing terror threat and that Russia is likely pulling the strings.
Pentagon “adjusts nuclear deterrence strategy” amid escalating war with Russia
The Department of Defense published a report on Thursday with details of changes to US arms strategy in an environment of multiple nuclear peer adversaries, especially Russia and China.
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.
Tehran makes overtures to Trump, as he prepares to escalate Washington’s war on Iran
Tehran is signaling its readiness to bargain with Trump, even as he makes clear that he intends to deal with Iran even more ruthlessly than during his first term, and that he will do so working in the closest concert with Israel, which is already waging war against Iran in all but name.
Trudeau smears Montreal anti-NATO protest as “antisemitic”
The baseless accusation of antisemitism promoted by Trudeau and the political establishment is rich coming from a ruling class that is providing massive military and financial support to Ukraine’s government and state, which are rife with the political descendants of the Ukrainian fascist and Nazi accomplice Stepan Bandera.
Israel carpet bombs Beirut after Biden announces ceasefire
Minutes after President Biden announced a ceasefire in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel, the Zionist regime of Benjamin Netanyahu unleashed several dozen air strikes across southern Beirut and its suburbs, some that targeted residential buildings where displaced people were sheltering.
Israel responds to ICC ruling with bombings in Lebanon, mass expulsions in Gaza
Israel has responded to last week’s arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant by intensifying its rampage throughout the Middle East.
COP29, climate change and the normalization of mass death
The latest climate summit embraced the same policy that has been adopted since such climate talks began in 1995: the subordination of Earth’s environment and the lives of those impacted to the corporate and economic demands of the United States and the other major capitalist powers.
COP29 ends with empty deal, as 2024 set to be warmest year on human record
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, “The average temperature anomaly for the rest of 2024 would have to drop to almost zero for 2024 to not be the warmest year.”
Current emission reduction pledges by governments internationally will result in disastrous global warming
A new United Nations report shows that the world is headed towards up to 3.1℃ of warming by the end of the century, with devastating consequences for billions of people worldwide.
New study warns of the dangers in “overshooting” climate targets
This research reinforces the scientific consensus that the only viable strategy to limit catastrophic climate change requires drastic and immediate emissions cuts.
Biden administration sets stage for ruthless escalation against Venezuela under Trump
The declaration of US-backed candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as “president-elect” of Venezuela by Secretary of State Antony Blinken paves the way for renewed sanctions and military operations to overthrow the Maduro administration.
Bolsonaro and top generals indicted for January 8 coup in Brazil
Sixty years after the US-backed 1964 military coup, revelations by the Federal Police have shown that Brazil was close to a new coup and the establishment of a dictatorship after Bolsonaro’s electoral defeat.
Haiti’s unelected prime minister ousted amid surging gang and state violence, increasing social misery
Haiti’s interim prime minister was ousted last week by the Transitional Council—the government “oversight mechanism” that the US, Canada and various factions of the country’s bourgeois elite put together earlier this year to provide a fig leaf of “popular” legitimacy for the latest imperialist-sponsored military intervention in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country.
Protesters at APEC summit in Lima, Peru: “Let the world hear, they are killing us.”
In the fourth consecutive strike held in less than two months, demonstrations were aimed at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum held in Lima during the week.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s role in Samoan measles epidemic
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine agitation in Samoa’s deadly 2019 measles epidemic is a warning of the global role he will play as Trump’s head of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
The spread of H5N1 bird flu among animals and the growing possibility of a pandemic
The developing avian influenza panzootic and the growing possibility of a pandemic bring to the fore the existential questions for humanity of climate change and the destruction of public health, both of which must be stopped in order to control the growing threats.
Mpox and H5N1 bird flu viruses continue on the march
Amidst a lackadaisical public health response, two viruses with pandemic potential continue to spread in the United States.
Global rate of measles surged by 20 percent in 2023
The WHO said that in 2023 measles surged 20 percent above the previous year, underscoring the need to vaccinate against this dreadfully contagious disease.
Chad ends longstanding military cooperation with France
Chad, a former African colony of France, has for decades been central to its military operations in Africa, but it is developing closer ties to Russia amid the NATO war with Russia in Ukraine.
Mozambique bans demonstrations after weeks of protests following general elections
Protests against the ruling FRELIMO party continue as opposition candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who is linked to Trump and Portuguese fascist circles, appeals for support from imperialism.
South Africa’s ANC government employs police blockade to trap illegal gold miners underground
The police’s murderous tactics, dubbed “surrender or starve”, have caused outrage in South Africa where unemployment has soared to 42 percent and economic desperation is widespread in the world’s most unequal society.
Nigerian government forced to drop treason charges carrying death penalty against 119 cost-of-living protesters
Despite the release of the protesters, the Nigerian government has made clear there will be no retreat from its relentless offensive against workers being plunged into extreme poverty by soaring inflation, food insecurity and high unemployment.
Warning strikes at nine VW plants in Germany
The head of Volkswagen’s works council Daniela Cavallo has made it clear that the IG Metall union and the works council do not want to fight but “let off steam”.
Thai autoworkers face mass layoffs
As the largest producer of vehicles in South East Asia, tens if not hundreds of thousands of jobs in Thailand are potentially on the chopping block.
Defeat Unite’s collusion with Stellantis and Labour government! Organise rank-and-file action to defend jobs!
United and effective action by Stellantis workers worldwide can only be achieved by the rank-and-file in direct opposition to the economic nationalism and corporatism of the trade union bureaucracy.
UAW president in damage control as rank-and-file anger mounts over Stellantis layoffs
According to the Detroit News, the automaker has laid off nearly 4,000 workers in Detroit and Toledo metro areas since September alone.
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.
The weaponization of student absenteeism: Lies to justify school privatization under Trump
The incoming administration intends to use the crisis of "chronic absenteeism," a product of the intense social crisis in the US, to justify vast new attacks on public education.
Student parliament at Berlin’s Humboldt University approves IYSSE motion opposing state attacks on freedom of expression and academic freedom
On November 11 the student parliament (StuPa) at the Berlin Humboldt University approved a resolution introduced by the International Youth & Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) entitled "Condemn the attack on academic freedom by the Federal Ministry of Education."
Western Sydney University IYSSE Annual General Meeting elaborates socialist perspective against war and genocide
The meeting at the working-class university outlined a socialist perspective, based on the mobilisation of the working class against the Gaza genocide and imperialist war.
Australian IYSSE clubs hold anti-war Annual General Meetings in Melbourne and Newcastle
The meetings included lively political discussion on the IYSSE’s perspective of building a global anti-war movement in the working class against Israel’s assault against the people of Palestine and Lebanon, and broader eruption of imperialist war.
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.
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.
SEP meeting in Australia calls for building worker rank-and-file committees to fight CFMEU administration
This report includes videos of speeches delivered by SEP members, explaining the administration and outlining a perspective to fight it.
SEP in Sri Lanka commemorates second anniversary of death of Trotskyist leader Wije Dias
Wije Dias belonged to the group of young people who took up the initiative in 1968 to form the Trotskyist party in Sri Lanka and he played a leading role in the movement for 54 years until his death.
UK Socialist Equality Party election rally advances socialist and internationalist opposition to war
The meeting’s platform featured many of the principal leaders of the party that the working class needs in the battles ahead—the International Committee of the Fourth International, the world party of socialist revolution founded by Leon Trotsky.
Attendees at UK general election rally speak: “The Socialist Equality Party is what I want to dedicate my efforts to building.”
WSWS reporters spoke to some of those in attendance on their response to the Socialist Equality Party (UK) general election rally held in London on Sunday.
May Day 2024: The working class and the struggle against imperialist war
This is the text of the introductory speech delivered by WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North to the 2024 International May Day Online Rally.
The political significance of the 2024 May Day Online Rally
This is the text of the speech delivered by Johannes Stern, editor of the German-language edition of the WSWS, as a summation to the 2024 International May Day Online Rally.
The struggle against imperialist war among students and youth
This is the text of the speech delivered by Dilaxshan Mahalingam, an IYSSE member in Sri Lanka, to the 2024 International May Day Online Rally.
The fight against imperialist war in New Zealand and the Pacific
This is the text of the speech delivered by Tom Peters, a leading member of the Socialist Equality Group in New Zealand, to the 2024 International May Day Online Rally.
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.
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 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.
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.
Trump coup plot accomplice Chesebro pleads guilty in Georgia fake elector case
Kenneth Chesebro, attorney and close associate of Donald Trump, pleaded guilty on Friday to one felony charge in exchange for his agreement to testify against the former-president and 16 other defendants in the fake elector scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
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.
1985-86: The victory of Trotskyism within the ICFI
The following lecture was delivered by Chris Marsden, the national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (UK), and Ulaş Ateşçi, a leading member of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Grubu (Socialist Equality Group) in Turkey, to the SEP (US) International Summer School, held between July 30 and August 4, 2023.
The Workers League’s defence of the Theory of Permanent Revolution against the opportunism of the Workers Revolutionary Party
The following lecture was delivered by Tom Peters, a leading member of the Socialist Equality Group of New Zealand, and Thomas Scripps, a leading member of the Socialist Equality Party (UK), to the SEP (US) International Summer School, held between July 30 and August 4, 2023.
1982: Marxism, the revolutionary party, and the critique of Healy’s Studies in Dialectics
The following lecture was delivered by Christoph Vandreier, the national secretary of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party) of Germany to the SEP (US) International Summer School, held between July 30 and August 4, 2023.
The role of Security and the Fourth International in the fight for the continuity of the International Committee of the Fourth International
The following lecture was delivered by Eric London, a leading member of the Socialist Equality Party (US), to the SEP (US) International Summer School, held between July 30 and August 4, 2023.
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.
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.
Australian government, opposition launch hysterical attacks on the Greens over Gaza genocide
The Greens are serving as something of a placeholder, with the real target the mass opposition to the genocide among workers and young people.
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.
Aidan Beatty’s hackwork: The Israel-Zionist connection
The academic career of prominent DSA member Aidan Beatty, the author of a slanderous trash biography of long-time Trotskyist leader Gerry Healy, has been funded by Zionist institutions and Israeli-state sources.
A comment on David North’s review: Biography as demonology: Aidan Beatty’s The Party is Always Right: The Untold Story of Gerry Healy and British Trotskyism
The following letter was sent by Steve Long, a former member of the Socialist Labour League/Workers Revolutionary Party who writes for the World Socialist Web Site as Stefan Steinberg.
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.
Book Review: The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson
Contemporary lessons from the slave power’s plot to overturn the 1860 election
Erik Larson’s new book The Demon of Unrest, published this year by Penguin Random House, contains critical lessons for the fight against Trump and the threat of dictatorship today.
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 South Korean coup attempt and the global attack on democratic rights
The attempted military coup is a warning, not only to workers in South Korea but internationally, that the ruling classes around the world are being driven to dictatorial methods to impose their agenda of war and austerity.
The significance of Trump’s war to maintain dollar supremacy
Trump’s threats are not overblown rhetoric but the expression of the economic relations and contradictions daily at work in the US economy.
Germany’s war Chancellor Scholz visits Kiev
If anyone still required proof that Olaf Scholz is not a "level-headed peace chancellor,” as he tried to cast himself during Germany’s election campaign, but an aggressive war chancellor, his surprise visit to Kiev Monday morning provided it.
The Amazon workers’ Black Friday protests and the strategy of global class struggle
Amazon workers took part in protests in more than 20 countries on Friday and last weekend, during the Black Friday shopping event.
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.
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.
Police locate more bodies in New Zealand’s Pike River mine
The police investigation into the 2010 disaster that killed 29 mineworkers has been dragged out until at least the end of 2023, with no guarantee that anyone will be charged over the avoidable deaths.
New Zealand police extend investigation into Pike River mine disaster until the end of 2023
Police are delaying their decision on whether to lay charges over the 2010 Pike River mine disaster that killed 29 people, until after the October election.