Brazil reaches a quarter of a million COVID-19 deaths
After one year of suffering and hardship imposed upon Brazilian workers, the pandemic remains totally out of control.
•Tomas Castanheira
Latest articles
Grand jury declines to charge Rochester, New York officers who killed Daniel Prude
Prude died last March after police handcuffed him, put a hood over his head and pushed him into the cold pavement.
•Trévon Austin
German federal and state governments’ plans for reopening schools threaten thousands of lives
Unless the working class intervenes independently to close factories, offices, schools and day-care centres, hundreds of thousands of deaths loom in Germany alone in an even worse wave of the pandemic.
•Gregor Link
COVID-19 cases in New York colleges rise as state changes guidelines to keep schools open
Facing an impending wave of temporary schools closures due to growing COVID-19 outbreaks, the New York government and the SUNY system have altered university guidelines to keep schools open despite rising case numbers.
•Alex Findijs
Calls mount for investigation of Governor Cuomo in New York nursing homes scandal
The real scandal is not the Cuomo’s alleged “bullying,” but the massive death toll in nursing homes.
•Josh Varlin
Perseverance rover returns videos from its descent to the Martian surface
The rover also returned the first audio recorded on Mars.
•Bryan Dyne
Unemployment, redundancies and poverty soar as UK lockdown is brought to end
With all lockdown measures set to end by June, those who have been shielded to some extent by furlough scheme and other social support will face the class war agenda pursued by the British ruling class as it seeks to complete the post-Brexit “Thatcher Revolution.”
•Robert Stevens
South American states militarize borders against refugees
Conditions for refugees residing in Latin American countries have only deteriorated during the pandemic as millions have been laid off, evicted and made homeless.
•Mauricio Saavedra
Right-wing defection intensifies Australian government instability
Kelly’s move will be used to further foment a far-right movement and push the unstable government to suppress popular opposition to the lifting of pandemic safety restrictions.
•Mike Head
Washington Post’s “Wuhan Lab” conspiracy theory stands exposed
The Washington Post’s claims that COVID-19 was released from a Chinese lab have been totally discredited by the findings of the World Health Organization.
•Andre Damon
Australian government intent on scrapping JobKeeper and slashing JobSeeker despite mass unemployment
The government insists that both the wage subsidy and the JobSeeker supplement must end next month to stop “adverse incentives.”
•Martin Scott
Corporate media and both big business parties press to reopen schools in California
Despite the capitalist propaganda, parents have expressed overwhelming support for online learning, which they know prioritizes the health of their families, school workers and educators.
•Melody Isley
Los Angeles Unified School District moves to reopen schools for in-person instruction
Officials in Los Angeles announced on Monday that some in-person instruction will resume next week, with a full reopening planned for next month. The announcement comes amid reports that a more contagious variant of COVID-19 has become the dominant strain in California.
•Peter Ross
Chicago elementary teachers begin returning to classrooms under near-total media blackout
While local reporters and the Chicago Teachers Union maintain a wall of silence over the dangers facing educators and students, schools have become the number one potential exposure locations in the state, according to contact tracing.
•Alexander Fangmann
Native Son: Restoration of suppressed film starring, co-scripted by author Richard Wright
The restored 1951 film version of Wright’s Native Son paints a lacerating picture of social life in America’s second city.
•Frank Anderson
Biden administration reopens Trump-era child migrant detention facility in Texas
The Department of Health and Human Services is reactivating the Carrizo Springs Child Migration Detention Facility for detaining up to 700 teenagers in the coming days and weeks.
•Kevin Reed
Winter storm leaves behind billions of dollars’ worth of damage across Texas
The total value of losses is still being tallied, but the severity and geographic scope of the storm has meant that the total cost could exceed the $19 billion in damage inflicted by Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
•Trévon Austin
Senate hearing on January 6 coup: D.C. police were warned of armed attack on Congress
In the first public congressional hearing on the January 6 coup attempt, police chiefs and politicians sought to blame faulty or undelivered intelligence for the breach of the US Capitol.
•Jacob Crosse
Australia: Coles gloats over mid-year profits as Smeaton Grange lockout continues
Coles is only able to reap massive profits and to proceed with a sweeping restructure, as a result of the perfidy of the United Workers Union.
•Oscar Grenfell
Philadelphia teachers union endorses bogus claims of school renovations as cover for reopening schools
The PFT, while posing as “concerned” about certain elements of the reopening plans, claims falsely that schools can be made safe through updates to decrepit school buildings, in particular, improved ventilation systems.
•Douglas Lyons
Millions of German taxpayers to finance far right propaganda
The German government is preparing to give 70 million euros a year to a foundation run by the far-right Alternative for Germany.
•Peter Schwarz
Michigan teachers, students face double threat from school reopenings: contaminated water and COVID-19
With the Democratic Whitmer administration pushing for a March 1 reopening date for public schools, teachers and students face not only the danger of the coronavirus, but lead and legionella bacteria from unflushed water systems.
•Sheila Brehm, James MacDonald
Powell delivers reassurances to Wall Street
Outlining monetary policy—the central concern of Wall Street—the Fed chair emphasised that the present ultra-loose regime would continue even if inflation began to rise and there was a tightening in the labour market.
•Nick Beams
New revelations of FBI and New York police conspiracy in the assassination of Malcolm X
The deathbed confession of former undercover NYPD officer Raymond Wood points to an official cover-up.
•Fred Mazelis
Macron government doubles down on right-wing attack on French universities
Vidal’s proposal highlights the dictatorial nature of the projects of the entire political class and the need for a political mobilisation of the working class.
•Alex Lantier
Socialist Equality Party launches campaign for 2021 German federal election
The SGP began its campaign for the 2021 German federal elections with a strong launch meeting that was followed by hundreds of workers and young people online.
•Our reporter
Canada’s parliament condemns China for “genocide” on eve of Trudeau-Biden summit
Endorsed by an all-party coalition, the provocative motion is part of a propaganda offensive aimed at providing a bogus human rights justification for Canadian imperialism’s ever more prominent role in Washington’s military-strategic offensive against Beijing.
•Roger Jordan
Massachusetts nurses vote to strike for safe staffing ratios
Nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, without a contract since November 2019, on February 10 gave their overwhelming approval for strike action for safer working conditions and patient outcomes.
•Ben Oliver
Global vaccination at the mercy of competing national interests
Control over vaccine distribution strengthens the major powers’ political and economic influence—their “soft power”—over allies and enemies alike
•Jean Shaoul
Media censors British Medical Journal description of pandemic deaths as “social murder”
Finely attuned to the threat from below, Britain’s ruling elite understands the implications of any public discussion of the issue of social murder as it prepares to end the “last lockdown,” with the virus and its dangerous mutations allowed to rip through the population once again to deadly effect.
•Robert Stevens
Amid second wave of deaths: London bus drivers must form rank-and-file safety committees at all garages!
On average, more than one bus driver has died each week during the pandemic. Our lives count for nothing against revenue targets dictated in company boardrooms by Transport for London, Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan and the Johnson government, enforced by Unite the union.
•London Bus Rank-and-File Committee
Communist Party of the Philippines embraces Catholicism
Julieta de Lima, longtime leader of the CPP, delivered a speech to archbishops and religious leaders celebrating “500 years of Christianity in the Philippines,” and embracing the medieval barbarism of the church.
•John Malvar
Eight Sri Lankan plantation workers arrested in company-police attack
The Ceylon Workers Congress, Sri Lanka’s main plantation union, is actively supporting company and state attacks on striking Alton tea estate workers.
•M. Thevarajah
Half a million dead in the US from coronavirus pandemic: Catastrophe, crime and historical turning point
The catastrophic loss of life in the US is the outcome of deliberate decisions made by the ruling class and its political representatives to prioritize profit over lives.
•Joseph Kishore
Montgomery, Alabama schools moves forward with plans to convert public schools into privately-operated charter schools
The Montgomery Public School Board, a focal point of months of protests by teachers over COVID-19 deaths, is turning over three schools to charter operators.
•Shelley Connor
Workers and youth speak out against Facebook’s Australian news ban and corporate media cash grab
“The creation and distribution of news is controlled by a few corporations, ruthless in promoting their class interests.”
•Our reporters
With a 12-hour, seven-day schedule at Sterling Heights Assembly, UAW repudiates long battle for eight-hour day
With the announcement of an April 5 start day for a grueling 12-hour, seven-day schedule at the Stellantis Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP), the UAW has repudiated rights that workers fought and died for over the course of well over 100 years.
•Shannon Jones
The working class must come to the aid of the locked-out Smeaton Grange workers!
The working class everywhere must come to the defence of the locked-out Smeaton Grange workers and begin preparing concrete actions to strengthen their fight and break the isolation being imposed by the union.
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Texas’ COVID-19 vaccination and testing disrupted by winter storm
Freezing temperatures and mass power outages resulted in widespread disruption of COVID-19 vaccination efforts in Texas.
•Benjamin Mateus
Texas family files $100 million lawsuit against power companies after death of 11-year-old son
The lawsuit accuses the energy companies of gross negligence and placing profits ahead of the welfare of the population by failing to follow long-standing recommendations to winterize the power grid and misleading residents about how long blackouts would last.
•Trévon Austin
Protests continue as no-confidence vote against Thai prime minister fails
The no-confidence vote in parliament was an attempt by the opposition parties to falsely posture as defenders of democratic rights.
•Ben McGrath
Canada’s governments lift COVID-19 restrictions despite warnings of deadly third wave
Flying in the face of warnings from Canada’s chief medical officer and numerous other experts, Canada’s governments are accelerating the “reopening” of the economy even as more contagious variants of the virus take root.
•Frédéric Charlebois, Roger Jordan
Ignorance: Tamara Lindeman and the Weather Station sing about “climate grief”
On its first American album, the band has brightened its sound by incorporating saxophone, organ and other instruments. The weakness lies in the melodies and the perspective.
•Erik Schreiber
Ruling elite fears Liberal Party wipeout in Western Australian election
The potential electoral landslide underscores the fragility of the federal Liberal-National Coalition government as it moves to fully reopen the economy and push jobless workers into lower-paid and insecure employment.
•Mike Head
Coronavirus raging in Germany’s factories
Research by BuzzFeed News and Report Mainz shows that the virus is spreading without hindrance throughout workplaces in Germany.
•Ludwig Weller
Workers Struggles: The Americas
Workers at Mexican air carrier Interjet voted by an overwhelming 95 percent margin to continue their strike begun in January, while Molson has locked out 300 workers at its Toronto, Canada brewery.
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UK Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee opposes unsafe school reopenings
The UK Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee held a lively online meeting on Saturday, just days before yesterday’s unsafe reopening of schools across Scotland and Wales, and as the Johnson government moves to reopen all school on March 8.
•Our reporter
Spain’s PSOE-Podemos government showers arms dealers with billions in contracts
The Socialist Party-Podemos government is making sure Spanish arms manufacturers cash in as the imperialist powers rearm and prepare for new wars.
•Alejandro López
UK: Pandemic death toll among care home residents soars past 50,000
Researchers at the University of Manchester have found that COVID-19 deaths were “hugely underestimated” in the first wave.
•Stephen Alexander
UK Prime Minister Johnson announces end of lockdown that will see “more infections, more hospitalisations… more deaths”
The separation of infection rates and hospital admissions is a de facto declaration that the Tories are pursuing “herd immunity” by letting the virus spread largely unchecked.
•Thomas Scripps
How to fight for democracy in Myanmar
The only social force capable of carrying out a consistent struggle for democratic rights is the working class, as part of the broader struggle to refashion society to meet the pressing needs of the majority—that is, along socialist lines.
•Peter Symonds
Six more Oath Keepers indicted on conspiracy charges for assault on US Capitol
Over the weekend, the Washington Post reported that the Justice Department is investigating “Stop the Steal” organizers and promoters, including Alex Jones, Roger Stone and Ali Alexander.
•Jacob Crosse
Sri Lanka health workers discuss need for action committees at public meeting
Over 60 people, including doctors, nurses and other health staff, the participated in the Health Workers’ Action Committee at Peradeniya Teaching Hospital public meeting earlier this month.
•Our correspondents
Some new light shed on GameStop frenzy
Apart from revealing some aspects of the role of Robinhood in the GameStop bubble, a US congressional hearing on Thursday exposed some details about its modus operandi, which is assuming greater significance in the market as a whole.
•Nick Beams
How the Revolutionary Internationalist Organisation (RIO) is sabotaging the fight against the pandemic in Germany
The German pseudo-left group seeks to subordinate workers to the deadly policies of the trade unions and the bourgeois parties.
•Johannes Stern
Myanmar military fires on protesting shipyard workers, killing two
The bloody crackdown in Mandalay is part of intensifying repression as the protest movement against the February 1 coup shows no sign of abating.
•Owen Howell
Jackson, Mississippi’s public water system collapses after winter storm’s deep freeze
The city’s mayor reported late last week that there is no definite timetable for whenwater service will return for thousands of city residents, who must now rely on bottled water.
•Aaron Murch
Teachers in US resist demand to accept “reasonable risk” of dying
The Biden administration, the corporate media and the teachers unions have ganged up against educators who are refusing to risk their lives.
•Jerry White
The Texas catastrophe and the case for socialism
The Texas catastrophe lays bare the real state of class relations in the richest country in the world and makes clear why essential infrastructure can no longer be entrusted to the capitalist oligarchs.
•Tom Carter
Jacobin magazine downplays Democrats’ impeachment debacle
Jacobin has had next to nothing to say about the Democrats’ impeachment debacle and even less to say about the January 6 coup attempt and the ongoing threat of right-wing violence.
•Genevieve Leigh
Ten highlights from “Sylvia Ageloff and the Assassination of Leon Trotsky”
This article presents 10 key moments from the World Socialist Web Site’s live discussion with David North and Eric London, co-moderated by Joseph Kishore and Tom Mackaman, on the latest series in the International Committee of the Fourth International’s Security and the Fourth International investigation.
•Our reporters
Kroger to close at least two grocery stores in Seattle after hazard pay increase
Following a similar series of events in California cities, Kroger has announced the closure of two QFC grocery stores in Seattle, Washington in retaliation against the City Council imposing a $4 hourly wage increase for the remainder of the pandemic.
•Kayla Costa, David Fitzgerald
Ten years after New Zealand earthquake, no justice for victims of building collapse
No one has been held accountable for the extremely poor construction of the CTV building, which collapsed in seconds in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, killing 115 people.
•Tom Peters
Assange’s partner exposes ongoing denial of his legal and democratic rights
Assange is still being denied proper access to his lawyers and to crucial legal documents, even after a Magistrates’ Court verdict blocking his extradition to the US last month.
•Oscar Grenfell
Facebook shuts down group with 90,000 cruise ship crew members
On Friday, Facebook removed without explanation a group with 90,000 members who work in the international cruise ship industry.
•Tom Casey
Opposition to relocation of toxic metal recycling plant to Chicago’s working-class South Side raises political questions
While there is widespread opposition to the relocation of the General Iron plant to Chicago’s working-class South Side, the politics of the opposition must be scrutinized.
•George Gallanis
Death on an unprecedented scale: One year since the first death from COVID-19 in the US
It has been one year since the first death from COVID-19 in the US. The scale of death in that one year is unprecedented in US history.
•Benjamin Mateus
Charité, Season 3: Berlin’s famed hospital during the Cold War
The third season of the Charité television series features a gripping story line portrayed by a largely compelling array of actors. It leaves, however, the historical background of the building of the Berlin Wall in the dark.
•Verena Nees
Demands intensify for resumption of in person learning in Michigan by March 1
Michigan Democrats, backed by the corporate media, are ramping up pressure to reopen schools by March 1.
•Phyllis Steele
This week in history: February 22-28
25 years ago: Anti-Castro group aircraft shot down over CubaOn February 24, 1996, Cuban fighter jets shot down two planes flown by the Miami-based anti-Castro exile group Brothers to the Rescue. It was the end result of a provocation calculated to induce US economic, political and military retaliation against Cuba.
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Bus drivers to strike at RATP Dev London and Go North West: Break Unite’s stranglehold and launch a unified offensive
The transport companies are seizing on the pandemic to impose restructuring at the expense of drivers’ livelihoods, even as corporate disregard for safety has claimed the lives of more than 88 bus and coach drivers nationally.
•Tony Robson
Italian government preparing for confrontation with working class
The 73-year-old former head of the European Central Bank formed a government last week including all major national parties, apart from the fascist Fratelli d’Italia, from the far-right Lega to the social democratic Democrats (PD).
•Peter Schwarz
Devastation from winter storm that wreaked havoc in Texas felt across North America
In addition to the social crisis brought on by the storm in the United States, the populations of Mexico and Canada saw the extreme cold and snow knock out power and strain critical infrastructure.
•William Quartermaine
California Republicans claim 1.7 million signatures on petition to recall Democratic Governor Newsom
The right-wing petition drive against California Governor Gavin Newsom, organized by the state Republican Party, is on track to reach the 1.5 million signature threshold required to force a recall election later this year.
•Dan Conway
UK government’s policies lead to horrific COVID-19 death rates among disabled people
Disabled people have suffered a brutal disregard for life, left with woefully inadequate support throughout the pandemic by a ruling class which considers them a drain on profits.
•Rory Woods
The right-wing extremist murders in Hanau, Germany, one year on
One year after the Hanau murders, when right-wing extremist Tobias Rathjen killed nine strangers—eight men and one woman aged between 20 and 37—the background to this crime has still not been clarified.
•Marianne Arens
Pentagon report reveals growth of fascistic networks within US military
The October 2020 report to the House and Senate Armed Service Committees provides details of the extent of far-right forces within the US military.
•Jacob Crosse
Learn from the CTU’s betrayal in Chicago! Build committees nationwide to stop school reopenings!
The effort to reopen schools in Chicago was aimed at setting a precedent for reopening districts everywhere and shifting the relationship of class forces in the US as a whole.
•Chicago Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee
Rape allegations throw doubt over future of Australian prime minister
If the prime minister is found to have lied to parliament, he could be forced to resign.
•Mike Head
Australian union holds another “indicative” vote pushing sell-out at Coles Smeaton Grange
The union insists that workers have no choice but to accept the sell-out, while Coles signals it will end the protracted lockout only if there is complete capitulation to its demands.
•Oscar Grenfell
The Mars rover and the Texas catastrophe: Scientific possibility vs capitalist reality
If society operated on the principle of rationality and human need, not the insatiable greed of the rich, the scientific advancements that made possible the Mars rover would be used to end the many ills that plague humanity.
•Bryan Dyne
Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
Burmese police attack striking railway workers; West Bengal contract teachers demand equal pay; Australia: NSW ambulance paramedics to protest casualisation
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Texans receive exorbitant electricity bills after winter storm
Texas residents on variable rate electricity plans have been hit with electricity bills for tens of thousands of dollars after the market price of electricity soared this week amid a collapse of the power system.
•Trévon Austin
Half of Texas without clean water as state and federal governments look the other way
The phrase “too little, too late” does not even begin to scratch the surface of the essentially non-existent and frankly ridiculous response of the Biden administration to a still unfolding catastrophe which has killed dozens of people.
•Chase Lawrence
While Biden proclaims “America is back,” imperialist conflicts dominate Munich conference
Biden’s attempt to assert US leadership under the false banner of “democracy” received a chilly reception from Washington’s NATO allies.
•Bill Van Auken
Rush Limbaugh dead at 70: A media blowhard for American capitalism
An odious presence on American radio for more than three decades, Limbaugh specialized in bullying women, gays, blacks and other minorities, while glorifying American imperialism.
•Patrick Martin
Six Capitol police suspended, 29 others under investigation for role in January 6 assault
Press reports on those charged in the January 6 attack on Congress reveal that a substantial number are current or former police and active or former members of the military, many of whom are linked to far-right militias.
•Jacob Crosse
Michigan officials confirm 121 cases of COVID-19 variant at state prison in Ionia
The sudden discovery of a large number of cases of the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant in the Michigan prison system is a warning that the pandemic is moving into a new, more infectious and lethal stage.
•Kevin Reed
Ontario reopens all schools, delays March break ignoring warnings of a third COVID-19 wave
The growing opposition among teachers must find independent political expression in a struggle to shut down all in-class learning until the pandemic is brought under control.
•Jake Silver
Stop the deadly reopening of Philadelphia Schools!
Our committee unequivocally demands a stop to the drive to reopen the Philadelphia public school system amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
•Pennsylvania Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee
The Lancet reveals impact of COVID-19 on health care workers
The British medical journal describes how frontline workers have had to face higher than average rates of burnout, anxiety, depression and isolation during the global pandemic.
•Kevin Martinez
Nomadland: Forced out on the road (mostly) because of economics
Frances McDormand plays Fern, a 60-year-old woman at economic and personal loose ends. She lived for decades in Empire, Nevada, a company town owned lock, stock and barrel by the United States Gypsum Corporation.
•David Walsh
With thousands facing layoffs, Brazilian unions push temporary work at Ford
Knowing that they will soon be laid off, the workers are to return to the factories to meet the company’s demand for spare parts.
•Brunna Machado
CUNY breaks faculty and staff contract, withholding promised pay raises
Depression-like cuts are devastating the largest urban university system in the US.
•Elliott Murtagh
Protests mount against Socialist Party-Podemos persecution of Spanish rapper Pablo Hasél
The Lleida High Court has provocatively upheld another conviction, adding an additional two-and-a-half years to Hasél’s nine-month prison sentence.
•Alejandro López
World governments exploit pandemic depression to recruit youth into their militaries
Economic crises are notoriously fertile grounds for militaries to recruit applicants who would otherwise study or work.
•Eoin Oisin
Office staff at UK Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency ballot for strike after 535 COVID-19 infections and death of worker
The exposure of DVLA workers to a deadly disease is just one example of the thousands of employers who have put pressure on millions of employees to go into workplaces unnecessarily.
•Simon Whelan
Germany: MV Werften to cut 1,200 shipyard jobs
1,200 jobs at the MV shipyards on the Baltic Sea are to be cut, according to the owners’ plans.
•Gustav Kemper
UK academics face investigation, prison for China-linked “military” research
The “investigations” are politically-motivated propaganda aimed at justifying economic and military aggression against what they regard as a strategic competitor.
•Julie Hyland
Russian court sentences Alexei Navalny to prison
The opponent of the Putin government, who now faces imprisonment in a penal colony for more than two years, is seeking to channel social anger in Russia over inequality in a right-wing direction.
•Clara Weiss
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