Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:
1. As Palestinian death toll tops 56,000, Israel massacres dozens of aid seekers in one day
After each massacre, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claims to be
“reviewing the incident” and insists that its actions are for crowd
control and to prevent security threats. However, as the Associated Press and Al Jazeera report,
witnesses and humanitarian organizations have consistently stated that
the shootings are unprovoked and indiscriminate, with no evidence to
support claims of militants among the crowds.
Israel’s fascist
political leaders echo these lies, asserting that the killings are
necessary for “security” and to “prevent infiltration by militants”—a
lying narrative that is exposed by the eyewitness testimony and the
scale of the civilian casualties.
*****
As the World Socialist Web Site has repeatedly emphasized, the
mass killing and starvation of Palestinians is not an isolated atrocity,
but the opening phase of the reorganization of the Middle East to serve
the interests of US imperialism—with Israel as its henchman—in
preparation for a new world war.
2. The political significance and implications of Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City
The election has shattered a number of myths of American politics.
First, there is the myth that socialism is “toxic.” Mamdani openly
identified as a “democratic socialist.” His reform proposals—related to
soaring housing costs, child care, and other social problems—clearly
struck a chord with workers and young people, along with layers of the
middle class, in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
Second,
there is the claim that criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza amounts
to antisemitism. The billionaire-backed smear campaign led by Cuomo,
which centered on accusations of antisemitism against Mamdani,
backfired. Mamdani received tens of thousands of votes from among New
York’s 1.2 million Jewish residents. Popular opposition to war and what
Mamdani explicitly called a genocide was a major factor in his electoral
victory.
Third, Mamdani’s win refutes the media narrative that
Trump’s re-election in 2024 marked a right-wing shift in the American
population. Mamdani’s campaign benefited from mounting popular
opposition to the Trump administration, with the candidate pointing out
that Cuomo was backed by the same billionaires bankrolling Trump. Just
ten days before the vote, the largest anti-government protests in
American history were held against Trump’s dictatorship, and Mamdani
pledged to resist Trump’s attacks on immigrants.
Fourth, the basic
questions animating the great mass of the population center not on
issues of race and gender politics, relentlessly promoted by the
Democratic Party and their affiliated media outlets, but class.
The
sentiments animating the vote for Mamdani are bringing masses of people
into conflict with the entire political order. What terrifies the
ruling class is not Mamdani’s relatively milquetoast program, advanced
within the framework of the Democratic Party, but that his victory shows
socialism can gain mass support in America, and in a far more radical
form.
*****
The New York election demonstrates that there exists enormous
possibilities for the development of a genuine socialist movement.
Conditions are ripe, indeed overripe, for such a development.
This
makes all the more essential a correct understanding of the basic
political issues, which those who have given their support to Mamdani,
and for that matter Mandani himself, will have to confront.
*****
The Socialist Equality Party has insisted that the predominate
tendency within the working class, both within the United States and
internationally, is toward political radicalization and opposition to
capitalism. The New York mayoral election is a confirmation of this
assessment. However, we do not mistake the indication for the
fulfillment. While the SEP recognizes the significance of Mamdani’s
victory, it does not adapt its political program to the illusion that
his electoral success will lead to a change in the nature of the state,
the class character of the Democratic Party, and the violent and
oppressive character of American capitalism.
3. Kenya’s Ruto government bloodbath against Gen Z protests
Hundreds of thousands took to the streets across Kenya Wednesday,
with protests erupting in at least 27 of the country’s 47 counties,
marking one year since the Gen Z uprising that culminated in the
storming of Parliament on June 25, 2024.
President William Ruto
once again resorted to mass violence, unleashing a brutal crackdown
involving live ammunition, teargas, water cannons, and the deployment of
state-funded thugs to attack demonstrators.
*****
Organized largely through social media, with no backing among the
main bourgeois parties and trade unions, the protests were mobilized via
platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and X, using hashtags such as
#OccupyStateHouse, #OccupyUntilVictory, #RutoMustGo and #SiriNiNumbers,
which trended for days.
What unfolded was a nationwide political
revolt. Entire swathes of the country ground to a halt, with major
businesses, banks, and markets closed across urban centers. As with last
year’s uprising, the protests transcended the tribal and regional
divisions long exploited by the Kenyan ruling elite to maintain power.
This was a movement united in a common struggle against police
brutality, authoritarian rule, austerity, and the soaring cost of
living.
*****
As the World Socialist Web Site has stressed, the crisis unfolding in Kenya is not an
isolated event, but part of a growing international upsurge of youth and
workers against austerity, authoritarianism, and imperialist war. One
year of struggle, punctuated by protests, uprisings, strikes, and
betrayals, has demonstrated that courage alone is not enough. The
central task that now confronts the Gen Z movement and the broader
working class is the building of a conscious political leadership,
rooted in the working class and armed with a socialist and
internationalist program.
4. Trump’s destruction of Medicare: An update
The Trump administration has launched an unrelenting offensive against Medicare—a
centerpiece of American social policy that once stood as a minimal, yet
vital, bulwark against poverty, illness, and suffering in old age.
Over
the last three months in particular the scale and intensity of the
assault have plumbed new depths. Through a combination of executive
orders, regulatory sabotage, and covert restructuring, the
administration has moved aggressively to privatize and dismantle what
remains of this already frayed public health program.
The
groundwork for this onslaught was laid by the Democratic Party—most
notably under the Obama and Biden administrations—which facilitated a
gradual but decisive shift toward privatization through their expansion
and promotion of Medicare Advantage (MA). The Democrats’ bipartisan
complicity with the Republicans has been essential in converting
Medicare from a guaranteed public benefit into a goldmine for private
insurers, eager to profit from taxpayer funds while offering seniors
narrower care options and fewer protections.
What Trump has
done—openly and without apology—is push the program closer to the edge
of total privatization. His administration’s decisions reflect a
calculated strategy of the financial oligarchy to gut federal oversight,
reward corporate interests, and leave millions of elderly and disabled
Americans at the mercy of private profiteers.
*****
In the long term, the privatization agenda is unsustainable. The
Medicare Trust Fund is expected to become insolvent by 2033, a crisis
exacerbated by the hemorrhaging of public dollars into private MA plans.
With enrollment in MA projected to reach 60 percent by the end of the
decade, traditional Medicare risks becoming a neglected
relic—underfunded, underutilized and available only to those unable to
“opt into” private care.
This trajectory points to the emergence
of a two-tiered healthcare system: a profitable, selectively accessible
private system for those who can afford it, and a stripped-down,
increasingly inadequate public option for everyone else. Such a future
is not inevitable—but it is the logical outcome of bipartisan policy
choices that treat healthcare as a corporate asset instead of a social
right.
The Trump administration’s attack on Medicare is nothing
short of an assault on the working class and elderly population of the
United States. It is driven by the demands of Wall Street and the
healthcare industry, which view Medicare as a lucrative source of
revenue—not a lifeline for tens of millions. Meanwhile, unlimited funds
are allocated for war and repression by a bipartisan alliance.
5. Amazon founder Bezos and company flaunt their wealth in Venice
[Jeff] Bezos’ marriage to [Lauren] Sanchez is an ultra-luxurious event for a super-rich
elite spanning several days. The canal-dominated city is closed off to
autos, meaning that the invited guests, arriving in over 90 jet planes,
will be transported primarily by boat and helicopter. This requires the
renting of numerous yacht moorings, helicopter pads and the virtual
takeover of the city’s central municipal transport for the duration of
the event.
*****
In the midst of all this, Bezos flaunts his wealth in Venice. As the
world confronts world war, the re-emergence of fascist authoritarians
and climate catastrophe, the nonchalance and arrogance of today’s
insatiable and grasping super-rich, epitomized by Bezos and his
entourage, recalls the withering indictment of the rich in F. Scott
Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The wealthy, wrote Fitzgerald,
“smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their
money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them
together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. …”
6. ILA dockworkers union president Harold Daggett celebrates Trump’s attack on Iran
In an extraordinary letter to President Donald Trump, Harold Daggett,
president of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), offered
gushing praise and enthusiastic support for the criminal bombing of
Iran’s nuclear facilities by the US military. Moreover, he pledged the
ILA’s backing for Trump in future acts of aggression.
*****
Presuming to speak on behalf of all 85,000 ILA members, Daggett praised
Trump’s “bold and courageous decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear
facilities.” With these words, Daggett celebrated an attack on a country
that had neither attacked nor threatened the US. Parroting the
propaganda of the American ruling class, he called Iran “an enemy of the
United States.”
*****
The criminal character of Daggett’s letter is underscored by the man
himself. The US Department of Justice has previously alleged that
Daggett is an associate of the Genovese crime family and attributed his
rise in the ILA to mob influence. In his slavish praise of Trump,
Daggett—a gangster in charge of a union bureaucracy—has offered his full
support to a gangster at the head of American capitalism.
*****
There is a political logic at work here that goes beyond the crude
thuggishness of Daggett. His support for war flows naturally from the
nationalist policies which the ILA shares with the entire union
bureaucracy. UAW President Shawn Fain, who postures as a progressive, has tried to square the circle by claiming it is possible to support Trump’s tariff policies while opposing some of his other far-right policies.
But
Daggett’s letter demonstrates that this is a political fraud. Having
accepted the logic of economic nationalism, the unions cannot avoid its
consequences. If they accept “America First” trade policy, they must
also accept war.
*****
It is impossible to defend workers in the US while killing and
maiming their class brothers and sisters in Iran, China or elsewhere.
The real allies of American dockworkers are not in the White House or
the ILA headquarters, but among workers in Iran and around the world.
The
working class is the only force capable of opposing war because its
social interests are bound up with the fight for equality, not conquest.
7. Nato summit in The Hague: a milestone on the way to a third world war
The NATO summit, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday in The Hague,
Netherlands, will go down in history as a milestone in the imperialist
powers’ slide toward a third world war. The 31 members of the world’s
most powerful military alliance agreed on the most comprehensive
rearmament of Europe since World War II.
*****
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte wrote in a private text message to
US President Donald Trump: “Congratulations and thank you for your
decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no
one else dared to do. It makes us all safer.” Trump immediately
published the message on his social media channel. The Israeli genocide
in Gaza, which continues unabated, is also supported by NATO members.
The
European powers—especially the so-called E3: Germany, France and
Britain—are determined to continue the war against Russia at any cost,
even if Ukraine is militarily and financially exhausted. A significant
part of the summit preparations was aimed at keeping the US on board and
preventing Trump from pulling out of the war and reaching an agreement
with Putin over the heads of the Europeans.
8. India’s Modi government tacitly backs the US-Israeli war on Iran
New Delhi professes to be an ally of Iran, and it has been seeking to
develop port facilities at Chabahar on Iran’s southeastern coast, with
the aim of expanding India’s influence and trade ties with Afghanistan
and Central Asia more broadly. Even more importantly, India doesn’t want
to in any way harm relations with the Gulf States, which supply much of
its oil and provide employment for 10 million overseas Indian workers.
Modi’s
Hindu supremacist BJP recognizes, and to some degree champions, its
political-ideological affinity with the Zionist far-right. But the
government is also aware that the mass of India’s workers and toilers
are sympathetic to the Palestinian people and hostile to imperialism and
Washington’s global bullying and aggression.
*****
Much has been made of the Modi government’s failure to support the
US-NATO war on Russia, and its insistence on preserving India’s
longstanding close military-strategic ties with Moscow, which date back
to the Cold War, as well as the possibility of getting large amounts of
Russian oil at discount.
To be sure, this has miffed Washington
and the other NATO powers, but India has responded by aligning itself
still more fully with the US in regards to China. Moreover, during the
course of Israel’s Gaza and broader Mideast war, the Modi government has
expanded its ties with the Netanyahu regime to the point that India and
Israel are increasingly acting as partners in crime.
9. Sri Lankan government fails to condemn US strikes on Iran
The failure of the ruling Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna/National People’s
Power (JVP/NPP) to criticise, let alone condemn, the naked aggression of
US imperialism against Iran is to lend legitimacy to this criminal
US-led war.
10. Deadly heat dome engulfs Eastern US, as infrastructure fails and workers suffer
The heat wave starkly illustrates the class divisions within American
society. While wealthy areas maintain reliable air conditioning and
cooling systems, as well as more stable power distribution, working
class communities face disproportionate risks. An estimated 12 percent
of US households—approximately 39 million people—lack air conditioning
entirely. Even those with cooling systems face a cruel choice between
financial hardship and heat-related illness, as many cannot afford the
electricity bills required to run air conditioning.
*****
The ongoing heat crisis demonstrates that addressing climate change
and protecting working people from extreme weather requires fundamental
changes to the economic system. The profit motive that drives capitalism
is incompatible with the rational, scientific approach needed to combat
climate change and ensure workers’ safety.
A socialist
reorganization of society would prioritize human needs over corporate
profits, implementing comprehensive workplace safety standards, ensuring
universal access to cooling systems, and rapidly transitioning to
renewable energy sources. Only through the expropriation of the wealth
of the capitalist class and democratic workers’ control of production
can society address the climate crisis and protect workers and future
generations from its devastating effects.
11. Dallas, Texas letter carrier Jacob Taylor dies in extreme heat, second USPS worker to die in June
The working conditions in the USPS have been shaped not only by
management but by the active complicity of the union bureaucracy. Taylor
was a member of Lone Star Branch 132 of the National Association of
Letter Carriers. The current NALC contract was imposed
earlier this year through binding arbitration with the union’s backing,
after workers had rejected it by 70 percent. It enshrined sub-inflation
wage increases and did nothing to guarantee safe working conditions
during extreme weather. Worst of all, it cleared the path for the
privatization of USPS.
12. Australian court rules ABC illegally sacked journalist Antoinette Lattouf for opposing Gaza genocide
The judgement is not only a damning indictment of the ABC and a
vindication of Lattouf. It is an exposure of the entire political and
media establishment, extending from the federal Labor government to the
press and every institution of official society.
13. Australian workers and youth oppose US-Israeli attacks on Iran and ongoing genocide
As at previous demonstrations, speakers denounced Israel, the US and
the complicit Labor government. They criticised the fraudulent premise
that the unprovoked attack on Iran was a necessary “preemptive strike”
to stop the imminent development of nuclear weapons, drawing a parallel
with the “weapons of mass destruction” lie used by the Bush
administration in 2003 to justify the invasion of Iraq.
But,
having identified the persistent lies and hypocrisy of the imperialist
powers over decades, the rally organizers promoted the illusion that war
and genocide can be stopped through appeals to the same governments
that are perpetrating them. This was starkly illustrated by the
culmination of the protest march outside the US consulate.
14. The underlying geostrategic reasons behind the US-Israeli war against Iran
China, Iran’s largest trade partner, is the ultimate target behind this
war. The Trump administration, focused on preparing for war against
China, sees the kowtowing or removal of the Iranian regime as a critical
strategic step towards war with China. It clears the path to reclaim
vast energy reserves and to reassert US dominance over two of the
world’s most critical geopolitical chokepoints: the Persian Gulf and the
Caspian Sea.
*****
Since the 1990s, the US has spent billions to fund exiled monarchists
and opposition groups, while imposing crippling sanctions that have
devastated Iran’s economy and caused mass immiseration. These policies
have failed to bring down the regime—but they have succeeded in
generating enormous suffering.
Major protests broke out in 2017,
spreading to 85 cities. These demonstrations were not controlled by the
US but reflected widespread hatred of both the bourgeois nationalist
Islamic Republic and the imperialist chokehold placed on the country.
*****
Today, China purchases as much as 90 percent of Iran’s oil, largely
through informal or semi-clandestine channels, often at a discount.
These flows bypass Western oversight and sanctions, fueling both
nations’ strategic partnership and hampering US efforts to strangle
Iran’s economy.
*****
But Iran’s importance goes beyond the sheer production of oil. Iran
has virtual control over the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical
oil chokepoint. More than 20 percent of all seaborne oil passes through
this narrow passage. While Iran has threatened to close the strait in
retaliation for the US attacks, at the time of writing, oil markets are
down by several percentage points as traders bet that Iran will not shut
down the strait.
Part of the reason Iran has been reluctant to
use the so-called “oil weapon” is that the majority of oil flowing out
of the Strait of Hormuz now heads east—to China. Saudi Arabia, Qatar,
Kuwait and the UAE are all major suppliers to China. If Iran were to
close the Strait, it would strain its relations with these Gulf states
and, more critically, harm China—its largest trading partner.
*****
While China dominates the global refining of critical minerals,
the United States and its allies still exert far greater control over
global oil and gas flows. In any future confrontation with China, access
to oil and gas will serve as a critical pressure point. Every day, one
out of every nine barrels of oil produced worldwide is shipped to
China. If that flow were cut off, the impact on China’s economy would be
immediate and potentially devastating.
*****
For over a century, imperial powers have viewed control over Iran as key
to securing influence across the Eurasian landmass. Today, US planners
see Iran not only as a critical node in China’s energy security but as a
potential lever to disrupt regional integration between China, Russia
and their neighbors. From the US perspective, crippling Iran weakens an
entire axis of connectivity that threatens to undercut American
dominance across both East and West Asia.
*****
Wars typically produce unseen and far-reaching consequences. While the
Trump administration will no doubt try to spin its actions as proof of
his unparalleled “genius” and “dealmaking,” this would-be Hitler has
only accelerated a global process of radicalization. As the crisis of
the capitalist system deepens, billions are beginning to see more
clearly the scale of violence and horror it is unleashing.
15. The Left Party in Germany justifies the US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran
In a statement, Jan van Aken, co‑chair of the Left Party, called the
US‑Israeli attack on Iran what it is: an “illegal war of aggression
under international law.” Yet this seemingly unequivocal condemnation
serves merely as a rhetorical fig leaf for the party’s unconditional
backing of the imperialist war aims pursued through the attack. In
reality, the Left Party stands firmly behind the aggression against
Iran, once again exposing its inherently pro‑imperialist character.
Van Aken
states that military attacks were not a solution to preventing an
Iranian nuclear bomb, yet he simultaneously affirms that such an outcome
“must in any case be prevented.” Thus, he echoes precisely the
propaganda Washington, Tel Aviv and the European great powers invoke to
justify their illegal attack on Iran.
Significantly, in his
statement, he criticises that even the dropping of the largest
conventional bombs may not have sufficed to destroy Iran’s nuclear
program. “Perhaps the US’s illegal attack has damaged some of Iran’s
nuclear facilities today,” he writes, lamenting. “But that does not
prevent an Iranian bomb—it merely delays it by a few years at best. The
next facility will simply be built even deeper beneath rock.”
Van Aken’s
simultaneous insistence on “negotiations” and “on‑site inspections” is
the height of cynicism. It was the US that unilaterally abandoned the
Vienna Agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, despite Iran’s full
compliance with all agreed “inspections.” And the most recent
“negotiations” were then used by the US and Israel as a cover to prepare
and carry out massive attacks on Iran.
*****
That the Left Party aggressively defends Germany’s imperialist interests
on all war fronts is no accident. Despite its name, it has never been a
left‑wing or socialist party. From its inception, it was a bourgeois
project intended to channel social discontent into the existing
capitalist system. It represents the interests of privileged middle
class strata, state functionaries and academic milieus whose political
orientation is tightly bound to German imperialism.
16. Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
Belgium:
Tens of thousands of workers in countrywide strike against government budget cuts
Italy:
Tens of thousands of metalworkers strike for new contract agreement
Spain:
Metalworkers in Cadiz and Murcia continue strikes for a collective agreement with employers
EasyJet cabin crew flying out of Spain strike for pay increase
United Kingdom:
Car mechanics at London dealership strike over pay
Cleaners at health centres in north-west England strike over underpayment
Underground rail system workers in Glasgow, Scotland to strike over working conditions
Ethiopia:
Health workers continue strike over pay and conditions
Nigeria:
Workers in tertiary education join strike by teachers and council workers in Ondo State over minimum wage
South Africa:
Municipal workers in uMhlathuze Local Municipality continue strike over pay and horrendous conditions
17. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Bogdan
Syrotiuk
