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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.
The Trump administration is running a network of concentration camps, many of them established under Biden.
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.
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.
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.
The campaign to free Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk has reached a decisive turning point with the publication of a forensic linguistic analysis that shatters the fraudulent case against him.
A CDC-funded trial withholding timely Hepatitis B vaccination from newborns in the tiny African country echoes historical abuses of vulnerable populations.
The renaming of the Kennedy Center is part of a wider authoritarian assault on democratic rights, critical art and public culture.
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.
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.
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.
The African National Congress’s role is the culmination of the class function it performed during the transition from apartheid.
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.
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.
Elli devoted her entire adult life to building a better, socialist society. She joined the Trotskyist movement in 1975 and remained an active and leading member for the rest of her life.
It was as a steel fixer that Ken joined the Socialist Labour League, the precursor to the Socialist Equality Party, in the early 1980s. Once convinced of the program and the need to build the revolutionary party, he never wavered.
The New School has targeted 40 percent of its full-time professors for elimination under the guise of “voluntary separation packages.”
Prolonged funding cuts and bureaucratic restructuring measures are systematically undermining Australia’s arts sector, devastating artists, and cultural institutions.

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.
Lecture to public meeting in London
Where is America going?: Oligarchy, dictatorship, and the revolutionary crisis of capitalism
The WSWS publishes here the text of a lecture delivered by David North in London on November 22 examining the global crisis of capitalism and the Trump administration’s drive to dictatorship.
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.
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.”
Welcome Socialism AI: A historic advance in the political education of the working class
Socialism AI is a transformative application of advanced technological development to the political education and mobilization of the international working class.
A major advance for the working class
Socialism AI goes live on December 12, 2025
Socialism AI is a powerful new chatbot developed by the WSWS to advance socialist consciousness globally by bringing the scientific outlook of Marxism to workers, youth, and intellectuals.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A lawyer’s account of his struggle on behalf of a victim of the “war on terror”
Through the Gates of Hell: American Injustice at Guantanamo Bay
Jaber Mohammed, only one among hundreds of prisoners who faced a similar fate, lost five years of his life to a regime of abuse and torture, part of the imperialist reaction to the 9/11 attacks.
“From a small spark, kindled in America, a flame has arisen not to be extinguished”
Ken Burns’ The American Revolution
Audiences cannot help but grasp the relevance of the film’s subject—a population revolting against tyranny and despotism in the name of equality and inalienable rights.
Brutal Indonesian dictator Suharto declared national hero
The declaration that the mass murderer Suharto is a national hero is a statement of intent by the capitalist class and should be treated by the working class in every country as a serious warning.
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!
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.
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.
Australia: Sunscreen products withdrawn over incorrect safety ratings
The ongoing sunscreen labelling scandal in Australia has serious implications for public health.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Court rules dissolution of the Palestine Congress 2024 in Berlin was unlawful
A Berlin court has ruled that the violent shutdown of the 2024 Palestine Congress was unlawful, exposing the arbitrary political actions behind the police operation. The judgment highlights how the German authorities have trampled on democratic rights to suppress criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
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.”
Growing problems in Chinese economy
The biggest concern is the fall in investment which has declined markedly in the past year.
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.
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.
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.
Tanzania’s CCM regime imposes nationwide state terror on Independence Day
The government ordered civilians to remain indoors, leaving streets deserted and shops shuttered. Fuel stations were closed and public transport was suspended. Access to social media was severely restricted, following days of mass arrests.
US and European imperialists weaponise “human rights” following Tanzania’s post-election massacre
The US and European Union are cynically weaponising “human rights” over Tanzania’s post-election massacre to pull the country away from China amid an intensifying scramble for Africa’s critical minerals.
The December 9 protest in Tanzania, Nyerere’s “African Socialism” and the struggle for Permanent Revolution—Part Four
The trajectory of Tanzania under Nyerere stands as a decisive refutation of the petty-bourgeois illusion that national independence, state ownership, or Pan-African sentiment could substitute for proletarian revolution.
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.
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.
Trump says US will start ground attacks “soon” as US surges military assets near Venezuela
US President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States would begin ground attacks in the Caribbean on Venezuela “pretty soon,” raising the prospect of a US aerial bombardment of Venezuela.
Fraud charges mount in Honduras after week-long vote count and no clear winner
The Honduran election has been overshadowed by naked imperialist intervention, with Trump vowing there would be “hell to pay” if the country failed to elect his chosen candidate.
Two longstanding Sri Lankan Trotskyists die
The SEP sadly announces the death of two working class comrades R. M. Gunathilake (87) and Leela Balasuriya (79). We will publish tributes in the coming days.
“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.
Sri Lanka: Cyclone-affected plantation workers demand decent houses in safe places
Nuwara Eliya district, predominantly inhabited by Tamil-speaking tea plantation workers earning low wages, is among the worst affected by heavy rainfall, flooding, landslides, and stone slides caused by the cyclone.
Sri Lankan fake-left FSP offers to aid government amid crisis over cyclone devastation
The Frontline Socialist Party’s proposals to the JVP/NPP government are to help cover up its responsibility for the disaster and the capitalist system that produced it.
The anti–public health agenda and the resurgence of measles in America
The measles outbreak in South Carolina exposes the social and political roots of vaccine refusal and the broader assault on public health institutions in the United States.
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.
Uncontrolled global warming causes devastating storms and floods
Across the globe, severe weather due to climate change is causing thousands of deaths and widespread destruction.
The science and politics of ultra-processed foods
A new Lancet Series presents the most comprehensive scientific assessment to date of ultra-processed foods. Its findings expose a global health crisis driven by industry profit, political inertia, and the transformation of food systems worldwide.
Postal workers: Come forward with information on workplace deaths and unsafe conditions!
“The only way we will see justice is if we reveal the truth, hold accountable those responsible for the conditions that put us in harm’s way, and set up our own shop floor organizations to take control.”
“Whatever happens, I’m not backing down. People are going to die if this doesn’t stop.”
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.
Postal employees say coworker died on the job at Morgan PDC in Midtown Manhattan
At the time of writing, neither the postal service nor the postal unions have issued any public statement acknowledging the worker's death or explaining the circumstances surrounding it.
“Our family wants answers that we have not gotten”: 8 months since the death of Stellantis worker Ronald Adams Sr.
Adams’ killing on the shop floor—crushed while performing maintenance on a gantry hoist that suddenly activated—continues to be shrouded in silence.
“Our family wants answers that we have not gotten”: 8 months since the death of Stellantis worker Ronald Adams Sr.
Adams’ killing on the shop floor—crushed while performing maintenance on a gantry hoist that suddenly activated—continues to be shrouded in silence.
Remarks to IWA-RFC hearing
The death of autoworker Ronald Adams Sr. and the law of capitalist profit
It is the capitalist system that produces tragedies like the death of Ronald Adams Sr., a system that operates in the interests of the ruling class, which derives value and profit from the labor of workers.
6 months since the death of Stellantis worker Ronald Adams Sr., widow asks: “Why don’t I have answers?”
Stellantis, the United Auto Workers and Michigan safety officials continue to remain silent on the death of the 63-year-old skilled tradesman, even as full production at the engine plant has resumed.
Dundee Engine nearly six months after workplace death: “The machines are running at full blast, and not a word is being said about Ronald Adams”
At a meeting for workers returning from layoff, management and United Auto Workers officials maintained a guilty silence about the death of the 63-year-old skilled tradesman.
Drone shot down near Ankara
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.
The backdrop to Putin’s negotiations with Trump: A deepening domestic crisis
Whatever deal may be reached, it will not be a solution to the structural crisis of Russian capitalism and the imperialist efforts to carve up the entire former Soviet Union to bring its resources under the direct control of the imperialist powers.
Germany’s Greens approve delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine
The Greens’ party congress demonstrates that they have moved even further to the right, endorsing the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine and preparing for a future war with Russia. Behind their moral posturing lies the real class basis of their politics: unwavering loyalty to German imperialism and the capitalist system.
Zelensky’s chief of staff and closest ally forced to resign amid massive corruption scandal
With Yermak’s ouster amid peace negotiations with Russia and growing popular anger, the fate of the Zelensky regime is hanging by a thread.
Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi defies Turkish state’s intervention on its program
The Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi, which was officially established in August in Turkey, received a letter from the Supreme Court of Appeals Prosecutor’s Office demanding that it change its program. It categorically rejected this political intervention.
The Historical and International Foundations of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi – Dördüncü Enternasyonal (Socialist Equality Party – Fourth International)
This document traces the central historical experiences of the working class and Marxist movement in the 20th and 21st centuries, and establishes the principled foundations for the building of the Trotskyist movement in Turkey and throughout the region.
Opening Report to the Founding Congress of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi – Dördüncü Enternasyonal
This report explains the historical and international foundations and political perspectives of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi, placing them in the context of the deepening crisis of the global capitalist system and the struggle for socialist revolution today.
Statement of Principles of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi – Dördüncü Enternasyonal (Socialist Equality Party – Fourth International)
At its founding congress held on June 13–15, 2025, the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi unanimously adopted this Statement of Principles.
The place of Security and the Fourth International in the history of the Trotskyist movement
The following report was delivered by David North, national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party (US) and chairman of the World Socialist Web Site, to the opening session of the SEP summer school last week.
Lecture to the SEP 2025 Summer School
The Gelfand Case: Depositions and the fight against summary judgement
This lecture outlines the legal struggle of Alan Gelfand to expose the penetration of the Trotskyist movement by agents of the Stalinist GPU, and reviews the successful brief against the SWP’s motion for summary judgment.
Lecture to the SEP 2025 Summer School
The Gelfand Case: 1978-1982 (Part 2)
This lecture traces the filing of Alan Gelfand’s lawsuit against the SWP and the US government through the outcome of the motion to dismiss in June 1980.
Lecture to the SEP 2025 Summer School
The Gelfand Case: 1978-1982 (Part 1)
This lecture traces how Alan Gelfand’s principled efforts to investigate evidence of state infiltration in the SWP were met by censorship, intimidation, and an unconstitutional expulsion that set the stage for his landmark civil rights lawsuit known as the Gelfand Case.
Israel tightens its grip on West Bank
Functioning as Israel’s subcontractor in policing the Palestinians, President Mahmoud Abbas and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority have not lifted a finger to oppose any of Israel’s expansionist actions.
Alliance of war criminals: German Chancellor Merz meets Netanyahu
There is hardly anything more repulsive than when the German ruling class justifies its support for Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians by referring to the “fight against antisemitism” and its own historical crimes.
Abu Ghraib in the Everglades
Amnesty International report details torture, abuse at immigration detention camps in Florida
Immigrants held at the still operational state-run “Alligator Alcatraz” report that sadistic guards use the “box,” a two-by-two-foot cage, for punishment. Individuals placed inside are shackled by their hands and feet to the ground for hours with virtually no protection from the elements, insects or wildlife.
Israel bulldozed the bodies of unidentified Palestinians into mass graves in Gaza
A CNN investigation has exposed evidence of mass graves filled with the bodies of Palestinians killed by Israel and then bulldozed into the sands of Gaza.
In major attack on public health, CDC recommends delaying Hepatitis B vaccine at birth
What is being implemented under the guise of “health freedom” is, in fact, the demolition of the very institutions and structures that have protected millions from infectious disease.
The CDC embraces bogus claims of autism-vaccine links
At the direction of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has embraced the unfounded claims of right-wing anti-vaxxers that childhood vaccines may be linked to autism.
UK COVID Inquiry finds Westminster and devolved governments responsible for tens of thousands of deaths
And with that the Inquiry report—despite its damning conclusions, which point the finger at politicians responsible for social murder on a vast scale—will be placed in the House of Commons Library to collect dust.
Why the poor die 9 years earlier than the rich: An interview with Dr. Marc Cohen
Dr. Cohen is co-director of LeadingAge LTSS Center at University of Massachusetts Boston and has long studied the crisis of longevity in the US.
Underlying the interlinked crises of the capitalist system is an oligarchy that subordinates all of society to profit and the accumulation of personal wealth. The fight against the oligarchy is by its very nature a revolutionary task.
Expert report shatters fraudulent case against Bogdan Syrotiuk: Deepen the international campaign for his freedom!
The campaign to free Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk has reached a decisive turning point with the publication of a forensic linguistic analysis that shatters the fraudulent case against him.
Leading Ukrainian criminologist finds charges of “state treason” against Bogdan Syrotiuk baseless
The linguistic examination by Yuri Irkhin, one of Ukraine’s leading criminologist, marks not only a major setback for the prosecution. It is also a powerful vindication of the principled opposition by the Trotskyist movement to the war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian court rejects motion to dismiss judge for bias as Bogdan Syrotiuk is barred from accessing dental care
The decision to not dismiss the judge for bias underscores yet again that, within the Ukrainian court system, everything is stacked against Bogdan.
Nikolaev appeals court rules to prolong detention of Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk
The Nikolaev appeals court based its argumentation on a distortion of a previous ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.
Wolfgang devoted over 50 years of his life to building the Trotskyist party and fought tirelessly politically and theoretically for the independence of the working class.
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.
DEM Party international conference: The bankruptcy of the nationalist perspective
One of the main functions of the conference was to spread the illusion that negotiations between the Turkish state and the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), supported by US and European imperialism, could bring about democratization and peace, and to endorse Öcalan’s role and the anti-Marxist postmodern perspective he has developed.
16 students arrested in Turkey for protesting deaths of child workers
The persecution of students and teachers is a product of the government's agenda to eliminate fundamental democratic rights and establish a presidential dictatorship.
Erdoğan government escalates the class war over minimum wage
Following the 2023 presidential elections, Mehmet Şimşek was appointed as the Minister of Treasury and Finance to impose the severe austerity program demanded by international and domestic financial capital.
May Day 2025: Socialism Against Fascism and War
The WSWS is posting here both the video and text of the speech by World Socialist Web Site International Editorial Board chairman David North, which opened the International May Day 2025 Online Rally.
May Day 2025
Join the Trotskyist movement to fight for socialism
This summation was given by Socialist Equality Party (UK) assistant national secretary Thomas Scripps at the International May Day 2025 Online Rally, held Saturday, May 3.
May Day 2025
The socialist response to the breakdown in Canada-US relations
This speech was given by Keith Jones, National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Canada), at the International May Day 2025 Online Rally, held Saturday, May 3.
May Day 2025
Unite the New Zealand and Pacific working class against war!
This speech was given by Tom Peters, a leading member of the Socialist Equality Group in New Zealand, at the International May Day 2025 Online Rally, held Saturday, May 3.
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.
Nanda Wickremesinghe (1939-2025): A lifelong Trotskyist leader
Nanda Wickremesinghe’s political life as a Trotskyist spanned nearly seven decades. Right until the end, despite ailments that forced him to withdraw from active party work, our comrade had never lost his revolutionary spirit.
Sri Lanka: Hundreds pay their last respects to veteran Trotskyist Nanda Wickremesinghe
“Comrades, including Wicks, rejected the populist petty-bourgeois alternatives and turned to the International Committee, to the Sri Lankan and international working class and to building the revolutionary leadership of the working class.”
International condolences on the death of Sri Lankan Trotskyist Nanda Wickremesinghe
“Comrade Wicks brought to the struggle for Trotskyism an immense array of political gifts. Possessed of an extraordinary intellectual curiosity, Wicks was immersed in the history of the international Trotskyist movement”—David North
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.
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.
From the Archives
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.
Book Review
Biography as demonology: Aidan Beatty’s The Party is Always Right: The Untold Story of Gerry Healy and British Trotskyism
Aidan Beatty's new book is not a biography, but rather a political diatribe against Gerry Healy and Trotskyism.
“I’ve been very impressed by the articles you’ve published”
Historian Kerby Miller discusses Aidan Beatty and the writing of Irish history
Miller, the preeminent American historian of Irish history, was recently interviewed by the World Socialist Web Site.
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.
Australian Electoral Commission blocks evidence on its SEP ballot access ban
The AEC’s escalated reasons for refusing to release the information—claiming that it would not be in the “public interest” to do so—further underscore the anti-democratic nature of its ban on the SEP registration.
The significance of the Socialist Equality Party’s vote and campaign in the Australian election
The vote for the SEP was small, but significant, revealing a growing constituency for a revolutionary, socialist alternative to the program of war, austerity and authoritarianism advanced by Labor and the entire capitalist establishment.
The Australian election, global opposition to Trump and the need for a socialist perspective
The election was marked by a mass repudiation of Trumpism, but within the framework of parliamentary politics, the outcome is a pro-business, pro-war Labor government that will collaborate with Trump.
Liberal leadership contest marked by factional divisions after Australian election rout
The much diminished party-room was split down the middle, presaging further ructions.
Independent soil testing finds staggering levels of toxic contamination in Los Angeles fire zones
Testing shows toxic heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and mercury at levels hazardous to human health, with children and workers bearing the brunt of the risk.
The Los Angeles fires: How the Democrats facilitated utility companies’ criminal neglect
Emerging evidence suggests that Assembly Bill 1054, passed by the Democratic Party-dominated legislature and signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019, played a crucial role in this catastrophe.
California governor makes significant concessions to corporate interests in rebuilding wildfire-hit areas
Newsom’s suspension of California’s landmark environmental regulations to fast-track utility infrastructure rebuilding in wildfire-affected areas, is a direct attack on democracy, environmental safeguards and working-class communities.
Signs point to Southern California Edison’s negligence and Democrats’ complicity in Los Angeles fire disaster
Edison prioritized profits over maintenance and fire prevention, endangering lives and communities.
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.
Texas A&M University bans “race and gender ideology”
The fascistic administration of Governor Greg Abbott, at the behest of Trump, is seeking to ensure that the approximately 1.6 million students attending public universities in Texas only come into contact with instructional material acceptable to the far right.
Stop the censorship of anti-fascist meetings at Berlin universities!
While students face ever greater restrictions on their right to freedom of expression, German universities themselves are by no means neutral. They increasingly take sides with German militarism and defend far-right political positions.
Join the struggle for a socialist future! Mobilise the working class against genocide, dictatorship, and world war!
The contradictions that lead capitalism to these disasters also form the basis for social revolution. Workers and youth everywhere are looking for a way out of war, genocide, the high cost of living, unemployment and anti-democratic attacks.
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.
David Neita: January 5, 1948 – October 30, 2025
David Neita, who played a leading role in the Workers League (predecessor of the Socialist Equality Party) during the 1970s, died on October 30 in Los Angeles at the age of 77.
A working class fighter for socialism: Joe Parnarauskis, 1954–2025
Parnarauskis is best known to readers of the WSWS for his 2006 campaign for Illinois state senate.
The case of Nancy Wohlforth, a.k.a. Fields, and the origins of Security and the Fourth International
On Tuesday, May 20, a memorial for Nancy Wohlforth was held in the national headquarters of the AFL-CIO. Notably absent was any reference to her central role in an attempt to destroy the Workers League, forerunner of the Socialist Equality Party.
The fight against fascism requires a fight against capitalism and war!
Having twice voted with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in favor of a brutal policy of sealing the borders against refugees, the conservative Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) parliamentary groups in the Bundestag are prepared to accept the far-right party as a government partner.
WSWS hosts webinar with Momodou Taal, target of Trump’s efforts to deport anti-war students
Situating the attacks on Momodou Taal and other student activists in their political and historical context, the speakers urged viewers to become active in the struggle to mobilize the working class against fascism and war.
Sounding the Alarm and The Logic of Zionism: A discussion with David North on his two recent books
This discussion with David North, chairman of the World Socialist Web Site International Editorial Board, will focus on his two most recent books, Sounding the Alarm: Socialism Against War and The Logic of Zionism: From Nationalist Myth to the Gaza Genocide.
Of, by and for the oligarchy: Trump’s cabinet & the restructuring of the American state
The election of Trump and his cabinet of reactionaries signifies the brutal restructuring of global society being carried out by the financial oligarchy.
The election debacle and the fight against dictatorship
The election of Donald Trump is a critical event whose political repercussions will be felt throughout the world. This fascist demagogue has won the 2024 election with both an electoral and popular vote majority. He will be re-installed in the White House on January 20, 2025.
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.
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.
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.
“The union lets them get away with everything”: GM Factory Zero workers denounce UAW complicity, call for fight against mass layoffs
With the permanent layoff of 1,140 workers at assembly plant scheduled for January 5, workers are looking for a way to defend their jobs.
Mobilize to stop GM layoffs at Factory Zero in Detroit—Build Rank-and-File Committees
The layoffs at GM are part of a growing global jobs massacre by a money mad ruling class.
Ford hit again by layoffs as a second major fire erupts at critical aluminum plant in New York state
The disruption caused by the recent plant fires at Novelis in Oswego County, New York demonstrate the increasingly fragile character of supply chains, vulnerabilities exacerbated by Trump’s tariffs.
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.
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.
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.
Survivors of September 2 boat strike waved for rescue, did not know they had been attacked
The survivors of the US military's September 2 drone murder in the Caribbean attempted to wave to US military aircraft for rescue, the New York Times reported Friday.
President Sheinbaum minimizes growing US threats to bomb Mexico
In response to continuing US threats to bomb drug cartels in Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum has issued unconvincing and toothless denials that they will ever be carried out.
Israel murders 274 Gazans in a further escalation of the genocidal war
For a demonstration on July 24 in Washington D.C. to protest congressional invitation for Netanyahu
The World Socialist Web Site calls on workers and youth to respond to Congress’ invitation to the war criminal Netanyahu with a demonstration in Washington D.C.
Leaders of London rally issue dead-end call for Sunak and Starmer to reverse support for Israel’s genocide
The determined opposition of workers and young people is being corralled into a dead-end, with calls that the only way to stop Israel is to put pressure on the Tories and, above all, the Labour Party of genocide apologist in chief, Sir Keir Starmer.
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.
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.
A lawyer’s account of his struggle on behalf of a victim of the “war on terror”
Through the Gates of Hell: American Injustice at Guantanamo Bay
Jaber Mohammed, only one among hundreds of prisoners who faced a similar fate, lost five years of his life to a regime of abuse and torture, part of the imperialist reaction to the 9/11 attacks.
Peter Oborne’s Complicit: Britain’s role in the destruction of Gaza
While Oborne offer a biting and passionate critique of the UK’s support for Israel and complicity in its genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza, his disgust and moral outrage is no substitute for explaining its causes.
Interview with Brian Goldstone, author of There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America: “In America right now, a low-wage job … is homelessness waiting to happen”
Goldstone’s book documents the lives of five families trapped by low-wage work and homelessness in Atlanta.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The lessons of New Zealand’s Pike River mine disaster for workers internationally
The 2010 mine disaster, which killed 29 workers, and the cover-up by successive governments, demonstrate the urgent need for workers to build rank-and-file committees, independent of and opposed to the union bureaucracy and all capitalist parties.
Pike River film whitewashes Labour Party and union’s role in New Zealand mine disaster
The film rewrites history to promote the Labour Party and the union bureaucracy, obscuring their role both in the 2010 mine disaster, which killed 29 people, and in the ongoing cover-up.
Bernie Monk, spokesman for families of Pike River mine disaster writes
New Zealand letter of condolence to the families of those killed in Cobar, Australia mine explosion
Monk, whose son was one of 29 workers killed in the 2010 Pike River disaster in New Zealand, extends condolences to the families of the two people killed in the Endeavour mine explosion on October 28 and urges them to “stay strong and pursue answers and accountability.”
Letter from Bernie Monk, spokesperson for Pike River families in New Zealand, to the families of the Tennessee explosives plant disaster
Bernie Monk, whose son Michael was one of 29 workers killed in the 2010 underground Pike River Coal mine disaster, expresses support for the families of the 16 workers killed in the Tennessee Accurate Energetic Systems weapons factory explosion.
