Robert B. Livingston

1. The United States sees Turkey as a critical ally in its plans for full sovereignty in the Middle East, including preparations for war against Iran

2. Israel maintains deadly military air strikes on Palestinians after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with US President Donald Trump

3. A message from the Socialist Equality Party in Canada: Workers in Canada and the United States must reject nationalism and organize with workers of all countries to stop capitalism's inevitable slide to world war

4. A strike by 28,000 teachers in Chicago, one of America’s largest school districts, would be a catalyst for a broader, nationwide fight against Trump’s savage budget cuts to public education

5. Like every topic being raised by the establishment in Australia's federal election campaign, the “debate” on public school funding is being characterized on the one hand by misleading and false claims, and on the other by complete silence on the critical issues confronting workers and youth

6. Cutting tens of millions of dollars earmarked to provide a lifeline to its homeless, Los Angeles, California turns its focus on marketing illusions and opening up profit opportunities

This follows the pattern already set in cities like New York, where outsourcing homelessness services has enriched private contractors while failing to deliver lasting solutions. These changes reflect a conscious class strategy to commodify and profit from poverty while shifting the burden of [the homelessness] crisis onto the working class.

7. The Transport Workers Action Committee issues a call to BVG public transit workers in Berlin, Germany to form a committee to enforce an overwhelmingly agreed-upon all-out strike, which their union has been trying to suppress

8. A collective agreement at Deutsche Post DHL in Germany angers letter, post, and parcel delivery workers because it will mean cutting thousands of jobs

9. The Postal, Public Service, and BVG Action Committees invite workers to join an online meeting today to unite against a sellout labor contract being pushed by the United Services Union, Verdi, in Germany

10. The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) calls for a mobilization against the Trump administration’s escalating campaign of terror targeting international students in the United States

They also warn:

Democratic rights cannot be defended by appealing to the Democratic Party— a party of Wall Street, war and political reaction. The various pseudo-left organizations that orbit the Democrats are laying political traps for students and workers, seeking to channel opposition back into the very forces responsible for the crisis.

11. In New South Wales, Australia, more than 5,000 doctors strike to demand a 30 percent pay rise, an end to serious understaffing, punishing working hours, and unsafe conditions in the public hospitals

The strike, despite immediately targeting the NSW Labor government, is of national significance. It is being held amid a federal election campaign, in which Labor, the Liberal-National Coalition and the corporate media are desperately trying to suppress any expression of the immense anger in the working class over the cost-of-living crisis, real wage reductions and the decimation of social services, including health and education.

12. Striking doctors, nurses and other health workers in New South Wales, Australia speak to reporters of the World Socialist Web Site

13. Leonard Slatkin conducts a New York Philharmonic presentation of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, one of the greatest musical compositions of the 20th century

The composition and the content of the Shostakovich Fifth cannot be separated from the events of the decade in which it was composed, in the Soviet Union in particular. This was the decade of the Depression, the rise of Nazism, the bloody consolidation of Stalin’s rule and the emergence of the storm clouds leading to the Second World War. It is therefore remarkable, although not too surprising, that the New York Philharmonic program notes of two weeks ago—while including a separate section entitled “At the Time,” and listing events of 1937 such as the coronation of King George VI in England, the Hindenburg disaster in New Jersey and the opening of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and New York’s Lincoln Tunnel—make no mention of the frame-up trials in the USSR.

14. Gunboat diplomacy aimed at subordinating Mexico and the wider region to colonial status: the US Pentagon threatens to target drug cartels with drone strikes

15. In an attack on the free speech rights of the entire working class in the US and internationally, the US Department of Homeland Security announces that it will begin screening and logging social media accounts and flagging what it deemed “antisemitic” activity

16. The government of Papua New Guinea admits that police “successfully tested” placing a block on social media platforms, including Facebook

17. A 17-year employee of New York City’s Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital speaks to the World Socialist Web Site about the vital teaching hospital's impending closure

18. Holding out for an agreement with Washington, the European Union responds to US tariffs by implementing modest, incremental tariffs of its own

19. An announcement by US President Trump of a pause in the implementation of his tariffs, ostensibly to allow negotiations to take place, is another expression of the deepening economic and financial crisis of American imperialism and its state

Trump declared that, because China had retaliated against US tariff hikes, tariffs on Chinese goods would be raised to 125 percent “effective immediately.”
In an earlier period, such an economic blockade would have been recognized as an act of war.

20. The US Supreme Court declines to intervene in the execution of a man in the state of Florida, the third execution in the state, and the 11th in the US so far this year

21. Preceded by journalist strike, tens of thousands of workers in Greece hold a general strike to demand higher pay, end austerity, and win justice for the victims of the 2023 Tempi train collision disaster

22. The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) calls for youth and workers to oppose the UK Labour government's collaboration with the fascist US Trump administration and its crackdown on students protesting the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza

24. The UK Labour government’s repressive measures against the striking sanitation workers in Birmingham are aimed against the entire working class

The build-up of 17,000 tons of waste on the streets of Birmingham— underscoring the essential role bin workers perform— was seized on by the Labour council to declare a “major incident” on March 31, giving itself extraordinary powers to effectively illegalize strike action and enforce sweeping pay cuts. It has drafted in extra agency workers and additional vehicles to bolster strike-breaking operations and called on support from neighboring councils.

24. Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa

Greece:
Hundreds of thousands hold a general against continuing austerity

Spain:
Tens of thousands demonstrate across Spain for affordable housing and against property speculation

Hundreds of Spanish employees at the multinational giant, Bridgestone Corporation, begin the first of several strike days

Italy:
Students and teachers join a national strike and demonstrations against government cuts to education

Belgium:
Rail workers strike against government austerity measures affecting pensions, working conditions and rail services

United Kingdom:
Academic staff at London’s Brunel University walk out over job cuts

Cleaners and passenger-assistance workers at London's Heathrow airport strike

Middle East Region:
Strikes protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza in the West Bank take place across the region... and beyond including: Bangladesh, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Tunisia and Turkey

Israel:
Israeli Foreign Workers Administration staff strike over workloads

Prior to the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza there were around 160,000 foreign workers. Israel relied on the labor of around 100,000 Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank traveling into Israel each day to work. Since the beginning of the war, this source of labor stopped.
Israel plans to double the quota of foreigners entering the country and planned to employ around an additional 500 Israeli workers to administer the increase. However, because of low wages it failed to attract enough applicants, increasing the workload on the current staff.

Iraq:
Teachers and public sector workers walk out over pay and conditions

Iran:
Cost-of-living protests continue across Iran: among telecommunications retirees in Ahvaz, Bijar, Marivan, and Rasht, and among oil workers on the island of Lavan in southern Iran