1. The mayor of Lancaster, California calls for a federal purge of the homeless
Attempting to dress up his sociopathic sentiments as concern for “public safety,” Parris made sure to demonize the homeless population as a criminal menace. “They are responsible for most of our robberies, most of our rapes, and at least half of our murders,” he claimed, offering no evidence for this vile smear.
Trump’s push for the removal of Powell underscores the conflicting and internally contradictory aims of the administration—itself an indication that the deepening financial crisis is racing out of control.
On the one hand, Trump and other members of his administration have said that the dollar is overvalued, and this has led to American goods being priced out of global markets, worsening the US trade deficit.
On the other, they are determined that the dollar must remain as the global reserve currency. It is this status which enables the US to finance its rapidly growing government debt mountain, now at $36 trillion, in a way that no other country can.
An online meeting of the Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee will be held this coming Sunday
6. US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praises a physician who was seen treating patients while infected with measles
“Dr. Edwards’ choice to continue treating patients while symptomatic with measles— documented in video footage— represents one of the most fundamental breaches of infection control possible,” Dr. Jess Steier a public health scientist who runs the Science Literacy Lab noted on a Substack she co-authored last week. “The fact that this practice reportedly continued while treating vulnerable populations, including infants and children, raises the most serious ethical and public health concerns.”
The danger to those people exposed to Edwards is considerable. Measles is well known as one of the most contagious viruses known to humankind. Approximately one in five unvaccinated individuals who contract measles requires hospitalization. One in 20 children with measles subsequently get a pneumonia, which is the most common cause of death from measles. One to three in 1,000 with measles die from the disease.
8. "Fast-food education” and “sausage-factory learning"
Over the past year, the pro-business restructure at the Western Sydney University preparatory college [in Australia] has resulted in intolerable conditions for staff and students.
The loss of more than 10 percent of jobs, mostly academic teachers, a purging of experienced staff and a gutting of the Arts has set an alarming precedent for the university as a whole and for the entire tertiary education sector.
While the TA is a direct attack on rural carriers, its implications go far beyond wages. It paves the way for the destruction of the USPS itself as a public service by privatizing its operations. Trump officials, including Elon Musk, the fascist billionaire in charge of DOGE, have indicated that the USPS is on their list of agencies to be destroyed.
The destruction of entire departments and hundreds of thousands of federal layoffs under DOGE is a key part of Trump’s plans to establish a dictatorship, operating on behalf of and staffed directly by the Wall Street oligarchy.
In order to privatize USPS, it must be made attractive to investors. Wells Fargo recently published a “road map” to privatization which emphasized the need for the agency to cut costs and hike postage fares. According to that report, three-quarters of all routes are unprofitable, particularly in rural areas.
After spending 10 days imprisoned at the Florence Correctional Center in Arizona, a judge ordered 19-year-old Jose Hermosillo, a US citizen, released last Thursday and the charges against him dismissed. Juan Carlos Hermosillo was released the same day as 20-year-old Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a US citizen born in the state of Georgia who was also detained on false charges that he had entered the state of Florida “illegally.”
Contrary to depictions that this is an unfortunate consequence of administrative mismanagement, the layoffs are a direct result of decades of bipartisan austerity and political betrayal.
The district claims declining enrollment and the expiration of federal COVID-19 relief funds are to blame. But the real story goes deeper. During the pandemic, federal Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief Funds were never used to rebuild or expand public education. They were a temporary patch over deep budget holes caused by years of defunding and privatization. The politicians and administrators who leaned on these funds knew they would vanish by 2024 and did nothing to prepare except sharpen their knives for the inevitable cuts.
Since Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” trade war declaration, which the president claimed would lead to the “reshoring” of jobs and rebirth of American industry, there have been thousands of layoffs. Stellantis laid off 900 workers in Michigan and Indiana, following 4,500 cuts in Windsor, Canada and Toluca, Mexico. Another 1,000 are idled at the Warren Truck plant. GM has also announced layoffs at Detroit’s Factory Zero and CAMI in Ontario.
In Michigan, the center of the US auto industry, unemployment rose for the third straight month in March to 5.5 percent—the second-highest among US states, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Workers at ATI should reject this latest attempt to push through a concessions contract. They should make this the beginning of a struggle to organize independently of the bureaucracy, and mount the struggle for jobs and the restoration of wages and benefits that have been cut over the past decade.
The United Steelworkers bureaucracy is seeking to prevent a strike at all costs against ATI as it seeks to curry favors from the Trump administration. ATI has become a major supplier of specialty steel for the aerospace and military industries and the USW bureaucracy does not want to see that interrupted with a strike.
(English speaker Tom Scripps speaks approximately 24 minutes into the video; full subtitles for all speeches with translations are available if viewed directly at YouTube)
The SEP’s campaign is not simply or primarily about votes. Unlike every other party, we are seeking to build a new mass party of the working class, aimed at abolishing capitalism and establishing a society based on social need, not private profit.
More and more workers, increasingly including those with full-time jobs, as well as young people and the elderly, are being forced into homelessness.
18. Nanda Wickremesinghe, Comrade Wicks (1939-2025)
19. Workers Struggles: The Americas
- Brazil:
Teachers stage protest in São Paulo over privatization
- Argentina:
Police again repress pensioners protesting Milei administration cuts
Affecting ports and other points of entry into Argentina, customs employees strike for 48 hours over wages
- Mexico:
Police attack workers protesting transit fare increases
- United States:
Indiana casino workers strike over wages and retirement benefits
Negotiations resume in five-week old Cummins (maker of military vehicle axles) strike in Wisconsin
- Canada:
British Columbia health care workers rally at Victoria legislature
20. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Internationally, major artistic figures such as Roger Waters and Ai Wei Wei as well as historians such as Mario Kessler and Christian Gerlach have supported the campaign to free Bogdan Syrotiuk. Many political tendencies have also condemned his imprisonment and called for his release, despite their political differences with the Trotskyist movement. These include Jill Stein from the Greens in the United States, and several groups and websites in Russia and Turkey. Most recently, the website of the Socialist Laborer Party in Turkey, and that of the Partisan Defense Committee, which is affiliated with the Spartacist tendency, have issued statements in support of Bogdan.
21. San Francisco, California city legal resources for immigrants needing help
22. Please Join an International Online May Day Rally!
On Saturday, May 3, the International Committee of the Fourth International and the World Socialist Web Site will hold an annual International Online May Day Rally, uniting workers from across the globe in the fight against fascism, dictatorship, and war.
The return of Donald Trump to office marks a turning point in the global crisis of capitalism. His administration has rapidly advanced a fascistic agenda, dismantling democratic rights, escalating attacks on immigrants, launching a trade war, and preparing for military conflicts throughout the world. A chilling crackdown on student activists for opposing the genocide in Gaza has seen hundreds targeted, including Mahmoud Khalil, Momodou Taal, and Rümeysa Öztürk, who have faced arrests, deportation threats, and visa revocations for their courageous protests.
Backed by billionaires like Elon Musk, Trump embodies the oligarchic rule driving staggering inequality and imperialist aggression. Trump’s policies reflect the global shift of capitalist governments toward authoritarianism in the service of oligarchy— from Germany’s AfD to Italy’s Meloni and Argentina’s Milei. The ruling class worldwide is responding to the economic crisis and social opposition with militarism and repression.
These developments underscore
the urgent need for a unified international movement of the working
class, which is increasingly mobilizing against war, inequality, and
repression. This year’s May Day rally will present a socialist program
to unify workers internationally in the struggle against capitalism. It
will outline a revolutionary perspective to end imperialist violence and
build a society based on equality and human need.
