Unite calls off Greater Manchester tram drivers’ strike against fatigue to push through shoddy agreement
“It’s not a victory”, as the Unite union claims, “Nothing has changed”, tram drivers tell WSWS reporters.
•Our reporters
Latest articles
Australia: NSW premier, police justify violent arrests in Sydney following Bondi shootings
The police operation was clearly intended by the NSW Labor government and the police to create an atmosphere of fear and send a political message about the police-state conditions being created in the wake of the Bondi Beach tragedy.
•Mike Head
Trump approves largest-ever arms sale to Taiwan
The $11.1 billion package, the second since Trump was installed in office this year, is a calculated escalation in US imperialism’s war preparations against China.
•Peter Symonds
Russian court sentences members of Marxist circle to draconian prison terms
The media coverage and the extreme prison sentences make clear that the Russian state seeks to use this case, above all, to intimidate left-wing opposition to the Putin regime.
•Clara Weiss
Australia: Artists expose devastating impact of government funding cuts
Prolonged funding cuts and bureaucratic restructuring measures are systematically undermining Australia’s arts sector, devastating artists, and cultural institutions.
•Kaye Tucker, Richard Phillips
CDC-funded study in Guinea-Bissau exposes criminal character of Kennedy’s vaccine agenda
A CDC-funded trial withholding timely Hepatitis B vaccination from newborns in the tiny African country echoes historical abuses of vulnerable populations.
•Benjamin Mateus
“Devastating”: The New School students denounce major attacks on faculty and academic programs
The New School has targeted 40 percent of its full-time professors for elimination under the guise of “voluntary separation packages.”
•Elliott Murtagh
4 immigrants die in 4 days in ICE private prisons
The Trump administration is running a network of concentration camps, many of them established under Biden.
•Patrick Martin, Nancy Hanover
New evidence for the earliest intentional human fire-making
The knowledge of how to make fire rather than relying on the exploitation of naturally occurring fire marked a key development in human cultural evolution.
•Philip Guelpa
This week in history: December 22-28
Luoyang fire kills 300 in China; Castro Cuban CP holds first congress; US backs French colonial war in Vietnam; Communist Party of India founded.
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Trump announces creation of the “Trump Kennedy Center” in latest assault on democracy and culture
The renaming of the Kennedy Center is part of a wider authoritarian assault on democratic rights, critical art and public culture.
•Linda Rios
Musk’s wealth surges to $750 billion after court grants him $150 billion payday
The ruling lays bare the complete subordination of the American legal system to the financial oligarchy.
•Andre Damon
Baltimore youth detention facility forces its residents to go without heating during early winter cold snap
Maryland’s freezing Baltimore youth jail is emblematic of the brutal and neglectful conditions which the Democratic and Republican parties have imposed on the working population.
•Saadiq Shah
Science vs. suspicion and fear: An Open Letter to a critic of Socialism AI
This is an Open Letter responding to several harsh criticisms of Socialism AI posted by Professor Tony Williams in the comments section of the WSWS.
•David North
Storm Byron compounds catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza
At least 17 Palestinians have died due to the storm, including at least 11 people killed when damaged buildings collapsed on those sheltering inside and a 29-day-old baby and three small children from severe hypothermia.
•Jean Shaoul
Two-thirds of South Africa’s population in absolute poverty, with one-third unemployed
The African National Congress’s role is the culmination of the class function it performed during the transition from apartheid.
•Jean de Jager
Jacobin magazine denounces left-wing criticism of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani
Following Mamdani’s fundraisers with billionaires and decision to retain NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Jacobin insisted that left-moving workers, youth and students should refrain from any serious political criticism of “leftist elected officials.”
•John Conrad
1,600 students walk out against ICE in Hillsboro, Oregon
On Tuesday, over a hundred students from Lincoln High School in downtown Portland and from other schools in the city also walked out against ICE.
•Hector Cordon
Major shakeup at UAW headquarters as crisis of bureaucracy deepens
Amid seething rank-and-file anger over job cuts and collapsing living standards the UAW apparatus has purged DSA operatives Chris Brooks and Jonah Furman while restoring the duties of Secretary Treasurer Margaret Mock and Vice President Rich Boyer.
•Shannon Jones
New Zealand primary school teachers reject pay-cutting deal
Primary school teachers overwhelmingly rejected a sellout offer, which the union bureaucracy presented to them after similar wage cuts were imposed on high school teachers.
•Tom Peters
Australian Senate universities report covers up Labor’s onslaught on tertiary education
No mention is made of the ongoing destruction of nearly 4,000 jobs over the past year, nor of the underlying restructuring agenda of the Albanese Labor government.
•Mike Head
Doubts mounting over viability of AI boom
The decision by the Blue Owl private equity group to pull out of an AI investment with Oracle reverberated through the market because it was taken as a sign that “they’re not so bullish as [some investors] are.”
•Nick Beams
Wisconsin judge convicted as Trump administration escalates attacks on immigrants and political opponents
While Republicans gloated over the conviction of Judge Hannah Dugan, Democrats remained silent, implicitly backing Trump's attacks on the judiciary and efforts to establish a presidential dictatorship.
•Jacob Crosse
Australia: The political issues behind the Bondi Beach terrorist attack
The Socialist Equality Party calls on workers and youth to take matters into their own hands and come to the aid of Jewish people or any community that comes under racialist attack. Establish independent rank-and-file committees in working-class suburbs to protect basic democratic and social rights!
•Socialist Equality Party (Australia)
Trump Justice Department violates Epstein Act, continues coverup of sex trafficking network
Trump's Department of Justice released 10 percent of the Epstein files, heavily redacted, on Friday, violating the terms of the law signed by the president on November 19.
•Kevin Reed
Once again: Why German union IG Metall cannot be reformed and rank-and-file committees must be established
While the unions were still able to secure social concessions during the post-war economic boom, this is no longer possible under conditions of globalization.
•Dietmar Gaisenkersting, Ludwig Weller, Peter Schwarz
British playwright, screenwriter Tom Stoppard (1937-2025): Dazzling, erudite, damaged by history
His identification of Marxism and communism with the repression of its Stalinist distortions hampered his work. He exemplified the intellectual crisis of the later 20th century.
•Paul Bond
The bloody record: Florida executes Frank Walls amid 2025’s unprecedented US killing spree
The 2025 surge in Florida adds to the grim assembly line of state murder, in which the gears of “finality” grind over the complexities of mental illness, military trauma and institutional abuse.
•Kate Randall
Ford plant in Cologne: Death by instalments
Ford’s strategic turn away from larger electric vehicles is being used to drive through the destruction of thousands of jobs at the main plant in Cologne, aided by the IG Metall union and the works council, who are helping to enforce a coercive severance scheme.
•Andreas Kunstmann, Dietmar Gaisenkersting
Los Angeles school support staff hold rallies as contract talks officially reach impasse
The SEIU, which has kept workers on the job without a contract for over a year, is delaying in a bid to block a strike, announcing it would only hold an Unfair Labor Practice strike vote sometime “early next year.”
•Kimie Saito, Marc Wells
Far-right Alberta government invokes “Notwithstanding Clause” for fourth time in two months, as onslaught on democratic rights accelerates across Canada
Alberta's Bill 9 invokes the Canadian constitution’s anti-democratic “notwithstanding clause”— which allows governments to run roughshod over basic democratic rights—to shield three laws targeting transgender youth from legal challenge.
•James Clayton, Keith Jones
Seasonal workers at Amazon face grueling quotas and draconian computerized surveillance
Amazon workers face grueling quotas and draconian computerized surveillance techniques, used to enforce productivity during the peak holiday season with resultant injury rates double the industry average.
•T.J. Garrison
Oil and postal workers strike across Brazil
The strikes, part of a global movement, continue a struggle by Brazilian federal workers against attacks by the Lula administration.
•Guilherme Ferreira
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
India: Telangana steel workers halt production over colleague’s death in molten metal accident; Western Australia: Woodside Pluto-2 LNG construction workers ready to strike; Healthscope nurses in Victoria escalate industrial action; Union cancels Air New Zealand cabin crew strike.
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Support the fight for socialism in 2026: Donate to the WSWS New Year Fund!
As global war, dictatorship and social counterrevolution escalate, we appeal to all our readers to donate to the WSWS New Year fund, and fight to arm the international working class with the perspective and program of world socialist revolution.
•Joseph Kishore
Technology and the working class: Responding to an opponent of Socialism AI
This response seeks to clarify important issues related to the technical and political development of Socialism AI.
•Evan Blake, David North
National Postal Workers Day: A stage-managed CWU event to cover up collaboration with Royal Mail and EP Group
Postal workers were told to print glossy posters, pose for photographs, and help get #PostalWorkersDay trending.
•Tony Robson
Palestine Action political prisoners starving to death as Labour government refuses to intervene
Starmer’s Labour Party is less concerned to show a trace of sympathy and concern than even Margaret Thatcher’s government was at the height of British imperialism’s “Dirty War” against the Irish Republican Army.
•Robert Stevens
US secures military agreement between Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces and jihadist HTS regime
Washington sees an agreement as critical to prevent a civil war between its two allies in the regime-change war it instigated in 2011.
•Barış Demir, Ulaş Sevinç
Birmingham City’s Labour Council issues compulsory redundancies to striking bin workers
The dispute’s prolonged isolation and subordination to Unite’s bankrupt strategy of appealing to the Labour council to be “reasonable” threatens total defeat.
•Tania Kent
“They treat their employees like we’re disposable:” Last day of work Friday for workers at GM Factory Zero in Detroit and Ultium Cells in Ohio
Two days after Trump boasted about the “greatest economy in the history of our country” and ranted against immigrant workers, thousands of GM workers will be thrown out of work.
•Jerry White, Paul Sherman
Berlin state executive adopts austerity budget and steps up police powers
The two-year budget for 2026–27 continues sweeping cuts to education, health care, social services and culture, while massively expanding the police and security apparatus. The austerity measures expose the role of all the establishment parties and trade unions in enforcing social attacks to finance militarisation and the enrichment of the wealthy.
•Markus Salzmann
FBI informant, undercover agent played major role in alleged Turtle Island Liberation Front New Year’s bomb plot
In what appears to be another case of FBI entrapment, the Trump administration and FBI claimed to have foiled a bomb plot in which their agents and informants were intimately involved.
•Jacob Crosse
Democrats vote to give Trump $1 trillion for global war
As Trump escalates an illegal war of aggression against Venezuela, the Democratic Party has handed him a blank check.
•Andre Damon
Trump delivers fascist diatribe in year-end speech
The 18-minute nationally televised address was a declaration of war on the working class, delivered by a president who appeared both demented and fearful.
•Patrick Martin
Postal worker exposes rampant abuse at Illinois post office
After reporting persistent sexual harassment by a supervisor, a female postal worker received thinly veiled death threats and is now being further harassed for continuing to fight to expose the conditions that postal workers face on the job.
•Kathleen Martin
What next in the school strike against conscription in Germany?
Tens of thousands of students have launched a powerful strike against the reintroduction of conscription in Germany, expressing mass opposition to militarism and war. This struggle can succeed only if it is extended to the working class and developed into an international socialist movement against war and capitalism.
•International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE)
Australian Labor governments exploit Bondi shootings to outlaw anti-genocide protests
Vast police-state powers adopted over the past two decades under the false banner of combatting terrorism are being expanded in a bid to silence the opposition of workers and youth to genocide, war, social inequality and austerity.
•Mike Head
Trump’s border Gestapo target striking workers in Chicago
The provocation by Trump’s fascist Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino was a test to see if the police state measures against immigrants could be deployed against broader sections of the working class.
•Andy Thompson, Jerry White
Australia: Sunscreen products withdrawn over incorrect safety ratings
The ongoing sunscreen labelling scandal in Australia has serious implications for public health.
•Margaret Rees, Richard Phillips
Canada complicit as Trump escalates toward war on Venezuela
The Liberal government has greeted the criminal acts of Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth with a diplomatic shrug.
•Pierre Lajeunesse
The centenary of Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy
The most serious artists in the 1920s and early 1930s anticipated or often even assumed that society was proceeding to a new and higher stage.
•David Walsh, Sandy English
Australia postal worker encourages use of Socialism AI
“I call on my brothers and sisters around the world to use Socialism AI to educate, organise and unite.”
•Our reporters
Striking resident doctors speak out from picket lines across England
The WSWS urges all resident doctors to contact NHS FightBack which called for the rejection of Streeting’s insulting offer and outlined a strategy to end the isolation of their struggle.
•Our reporters
Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
Thousands of health, education and public sector workers in Greece walk out over austerity budget; protests continue across Iran by retirees, gold miners, energy and health sector workers; health sector unions in Nigeria winding down ongoing strike over pay and conditions
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Richest 125 Kenyans own more wealth than 42 million people
Today, land in Nairobi is concentrated in the hands of a small number of wealthy individuals, while millions are forced to live in slums such as Mathare, Kangemi, Kibera, Mukuru, Dandora and Kawangware, or remain entirely landless.
•Kipchumba Ochieng
Will Lehman: Every worker should be using Socialism AI
Mack Trucks worker and UAW presidential candidate Will Lehman released this video explaining the significance of Socialism AI for the working class.
•Will Lehman
For a united global movement against layoffs in the auto industry!
Workers in one country cannot defend their jobs at the expense of the jobs of workers in another. Their class interests transcend national rivalries and the chaos of the market. Workers share a common interest in the use of technology to benefit all of humanity, rather than to enrich a privileged few.
•International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees
Trump denounces actor-director Rob Reiner as “very bad for our country” following tragic killings
Reiner has been a household name in the US since his days on the immensely popular situation comedy "All in the Family" in the 1970s.
•David Walsh
Trump-backed redistricting effort fails in Indiana
In a 31-19 vote, more than half of the 40 Republicans in the Indiana Senate joined with 10 Democrats to reject a Trump-backed plan to gerrymander the state’s congressional map and eliminate the state’s two Democratic-held districts.
•Aaron Jefferson
Germany: Italian artist Costantino Ciervo rebuffs criticism from Zionist lobbies, politicians seeking to close his exhibition
Readers should note that the two leading politicians behind the smear campaign are members of nominally left organisations.
•Stefan Steinberg
European powers set course for escalation of war in Ukraine against Russia
The talks on a supposed “peace plan” for Ukraine, which took place in Berlin over the past few days, have made one thing clear above all else: the leading European powers—above all Germany—are doing everything they can to prolong NATO’s war against Russia.
•Johannes Stern
Australian government pledges to keep slashing spending
Treasurer Jim Chalmers outlined billions of dollars in cuts to government programs and declared that there would be more “difficult” decisions to come.
•Mike Head
Abuse and exploitation endemic in Australia’s Pacific “guest worker” scheme
Despite ongoing complaints, exposures and official inquiries into the exploitative Pacific labour schemes over many years, little has changed.
•John Braddock
More Australian workers and youth are using Socialism AI
“It gives you sources and suggests follow‑up questions… It raises consciousness and prompts you about what you can do.”
•Our reporters
Water main break in Waterbury, Connecticut, exposes decrepit state of New England infrastructure
By December 13, the widespread water outage had affected approximately 100,000 people in Waterbury and two suburbs, in one of the city’s most significant water emergencies in decades.
•David Harrison
Lecturer and students speak on jobs fight at University of Sheffield
World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke to lecturers and students about the implications of shutting down entire departments and the continuing financialisation of higher education.
•our reporters
Struggle against job losses at universities in Sheffield threatened by UCU/management collusion
This atomisation of HE workers’ struggles within a single city is an acute expression of the union's policy of isolating a series of local recent strikes over job losses, and other issues, including many dozens of course closures, at universities in Edinburgh, Nottingham, Cardiff, Bradford, Leicester and Dundee—all which face defeat.
•Simon Whelan
UK armed forces head demands “sacrifice for our nation” amid calls for military spending surge
“Sons and daughters. Colleagues. Veterans… will all have a role to play. To build. To serve. And if necessary, to fight,” Sir Richard Knighton insisted.
•Robert Stevens
Documents of the International Committee of the Fourth International on the suspension of the WRP
We are reposting here two documents, the resolution of the ICFI on the suspension of the WRP from December 16, 1985 and a statement adopted the following day.
•International Committee of the Fourth International
Rod Paige, George W. Bush’s Secretary of Education and the public face of “No Child Left Behind,” dies at 92
The death of Rod Paige, former US Secretary of Education under George W. Bush, who played a key role in subordinating public education to profit interests, provides an opportunity to review the bipartisan war on public education.
•Phyllis Steele, Nancy Hanover
Australia: Governments, police prepare a cover-up of Bondi shootings
Prime Minister Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns, along with top police and intelligence officials, are fashioning a narrative that protects the interests of governments and the state apparatus.
•Peter Symonds
Mass protests in Bulgaria: Government collapses immediately ahead of introduction of the euro
Sustained mass protests have forced the resignation of Bulgaria’s government just weeks before the planned introduction of the euro. The upheaval reflects deep popular opposition to austerity, corruption and militarisation driven by the EU and enforced by successive governments.
•Markus Salzmann
GM workers look to fight layoffs at Factory Zero in Detroit
In recent days many workers have reached out to the WSWS to express their anger and frustration with both GM and the UAW.
•Jerry White
Growing problems in Chinese economy
The biggest concern is the fall in investment which has declined markedly in the past year.
•Nick Beams
Russians at War: An honest portrayal of the people inside Russia’s military
Trofimova’s documentary rejects the bogus narrative peddled by US imperialism and its Canadian and European allies about “Putin’s unprovoked war,” and gives voice to the ordinary Russian soldiers the Western media has systematically dehumanized.
•Lee Parsons
Measles infections in Australia reach highest level since 2019
The rise in cases of the highly contagious, potentially deadly disease, 10 years after it was eliminated, is due to attacks on vaccination and public health, in Australia and internationally.
•Gary Alvernia
US unemployment highest in 5 years, as Ford, other companies announce layoffs before Christmas
The situation underscores the need for action by the working class to defend the right to a job.
•Tom Hall
40 years since the suspension of the Workers Revolutionary Party from the ICFI
The suspension of the WRP by International Committee in December 1985 marked a decisive victory for Trotskyism over Pabloite opportunism and opened a new stage in the building of the Fourth International.
•Peter Schwarz
In step toward war, Trump orders “a total and complete blockade” of Venezuelan oil
The US president declared Venezuela a "Foreign Terrorist Organization" and claimed the country owes the United States "oil, land, and other assets."
•Andre Damon
What was behind the rise of Pinochet in Chile? Answers from Socialism AI
This new feature will highlight selected questions and answers from Socialism AI—concise, clear and politically insightful responses to some of the most pressing issues of our time.
•Socialism AI
Fascist admirer of Pinochet to assume presidency in Chile
Boric’s government, like its “Pink Tide” counterparts in Latin America, paved the way for the right by defending capitalist property relations and failing to alter conditions of poverty and extreme social inequality confronting the masses.
•Mauricio Saavedra
NATO-Ukraine war on Russia spreads to commercial vessels in the Black Sea
Attacks on civilian merchant shipping in the Black Sea expand the scope of the war and threaten to drag NATO members like Türkiye deeper into the maelstrom.
•Barış Demir
Stop David Lammy killing political prisoners! Release all Palestine protesters!
These are the vindictive, lawless actions of a police state. Labour has branded Palestine Action and its supporters “terrorists” to justify swallowing innocent people into the prison system and subjecting them to cruel and unusual punishment.
•International Youth and Students for Social Equality (UK)
Resident doctors’ strike goes ahead in England, defying Labour Health Secretary’s ultimatum
The British Medical Association announced the ballot result on Monday: a 65.34 percent turnout with an overwhelming 83.2 percent voting to strike between December 17 and 22.
•Tony Robson
Workers and youth in Australia and New Zealand urge the use of Socialism AI
“I encourage workers to try Socialism AI…because it connects to what is happening in the broader sense—to understand why it is happening, what to do about it, and how to communicate these ideas to fellow workers.”
•Our reporters
Australian governments, media target anti-genocide protests over Bondi Beach shooting
Those responsible for the continuing carnage in Gaza, above all the Israeli government and its backers, are seeking to exploit the killing spree to insist that all protests and statements of opposition to the genocide must be shut down.
•Mike Head
Departing SEC official warns of coming “winter” for US capital markets
There is a now a “rapacious appetite” for deregulation of the financial system, recalling the period leading up the stock market crash of 1929.
•Nick Beams
How can GM workers at Factory Zero in the US oppose layoffs? Answers from Socialism AI
This new feature will highlight selected questions and answers from Socialism AI—concise, clear and politically insightful responses to some of the most pressing issues of our time.
•Socialism AI
Trump threatens neo-colonial war of plunder against Venezuela
The Trump administration is seeking to plunder Venezuela’s oil reserves as part of a campaign to dominate Latin America as a resource base for war with Russia and China.
•Andre Damon
Trump administration ordered TSA to provide passenger travel lists to immigration Gestapo
In furtherance of the mass deportation operation and a sweeping attack on the privacy rights of the entire population, the Transportation Security Administration is providing Immigration and Customs Enforcement with air passenger lists multiple times per week.
•Jacob Crosse
Washington state floods force more than 100,000 to evacuate
Numerous reports have emerged of residents who will be forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars or more for out-of-pocket repairs.
•Bryan Dyne
Modi greets Putin with pomp and ceremony as Trump demands New Delhi downgrade its ties with Russia
India’s demonstrative display of the “warmth” and “strength” of its decades-long strategic partnership with Russia was meant as a message to Washington that New Delhi will not allow the US to define its relationship with Moscow.
•Rohantha De Silva, Keith Jones
Berlin state government to expand surveillance powers with the support of the far-right Alternative for Germany
With the votes of the fascistic AfD, the state assembly has adopted sweeping amendments to the police law that massively expand surveillance powers, including covert home break-ins and mass data collection.
•Martin Nowak
New York nurses raise demands as contract expirations loom at year’s end
The contract expirations for more than 20,000 nurses create the potential for a major, coordinated fight for safe staffing, pay rises above inflation and the best possible healthcare benefits.
•Erik Schreiber
Workers Struggles: The Americas
In the first popular protest against right-wing President Rodrigo Paz, workers demonstrated against increases in flour and bread prices.
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30,000 LAUSD support workers must strike now and take control through Rank-and-File Committees!
On Wednesday, 30,000 Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) support workers are demonstrating against poverty and exploitation which the district is seeking to deepen in a new contract.
•Marc Wells
Australia: Tasmanian teachers strike again but unions block a unified fight
Last Friday, educators across the Australian state walked off the job for half a day, closing most public schools in Hobart, Launceston and Burnie.
•Sue Phillips
New Zealand navy vessel joins US-led provocations against China
The HMNZS Aotearoa carried out “surveillance and deterrence” activities on China’s doorstep, including a provocative passage through the sensitive Taiwan Strait.
•John Braddock
“We were in a death trap”: Cyclone victims in central Sri Lanka speak out
Survivors of Cyclone Ditwah in Sri Lanka’s central hill district speak out against decades of government neglect that left them living in known landslide zones with no protection or aid.
•Our reporters
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