From his first day in office, Trump has worked methodically to establish a presidential dictatorship, following a blueprint drawn up by his fascist advisors
With May Day approaching, the holiday of international working class unity, workers in the United States must strive for unity with their brothers and sisters across the world, especially immigrant workers, rejecting “America First” poison being pushed by Trump.
The layoffs, affecting nearly every department from sanitation and tree trimming to clerical and maintenance services, will have devastating effects on the city’s functionality and population. Even as Bass described these cuts as “a decision of absolute last resort,” it is clear that this move is not a reluctant necessity but a conscious political choice made in service of the city’s rich and powerful.
The US bombardment of Yemen was triggered by statements by the Houthi movement that it would block the passage of Israeli ships through the Red Sea, a waterway critical for US control of the region, in response to Israel’s deliberate mass starvation of the population of Gaza.
While it is too early to determine with certainty what caused the blackout, initial analyses of the electrical grid suggest that the blackout had natural causes that interacted with a broader failure to make sufficient investments in the grid.
The official explanation of the budget shortfall is decreased ridership that has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, resulting in a fall in fare revenue. But the transit system has long suffered from a lack of investment and has been burdened by laws requiring most parts of the system’s operating costs to be 50 percent funded by fares. Service has been maintained up until this point by federal pandemic relief funding amounting to approximately $3.5 billion. Now that this funding has been used up, states and municipalities around the country are bracing for a massive reduction in federal funding as the Trump regime is threatening to cut vital funding grants.
The massive layoffs of the hospitals’ workforce is unlike anything seen in the region since the wave of layoffs associated with the bankruptcy of the Bethlehem Steel Company in the 1970s-1980s. It follows Volvo Group’s announcement less than two weeks ago that temporary layoffs would be hitting the Mack Trucks assembly plant in the Lehigh Valley due to worsening market conditions triggered by Trump’s trade war agenda.
Instead, Unison officials urged workers to spend their time writing to Members of Parliament--four from the Labour Party, two Conservatives and two Liberal Democrats)--NHS trust boards, and governors who are the architects of the privatization plan.
19. Workers Struggles: The Americas
- Bolivia:
Miners and members of miners’ cooperatives stage protest in La Paz
- Peru:
Indian farmers occupy oil pipeline station to protest spills
- Panama:
Teachers, with support of construction and trades workers, strike against government attacks on their social security rights and against US troops being stationed in the country
- United States:
Maryland transit workers strike over wages and benefits
Corning, New York healthcare workers vote to carry out informational picketing as contract expiration looms
Workers grant strike authorization at Philadelphia hospital
- Canada:
Saskatchewan healthcare workers rally at provincial legislature
25 years ago:
Actors and museum workers launched separate strikes across the US
In major cities, strikers displayed signs saying “Advertising Pays, Advertisers Don’t” and railed against corporate greed. It was the first major Hollywood strike since the over five-month long walkout by the Writers Guild of America in 1988. Well-known actors supported the strike such as Elliott Gould, Richard Dreyfuss and Tony Roberts, and so did the American working class.
50 years ago:
100,000 in Lisbon call for socialism after first election in 50 years
The events of Portugal in 1975 vindicated the analysis of the Trotskyist movement for the necessity of revolutionary leadership. Without a party independent of the Stalinists and Social Democrats, the working class could not take power into its own hands.
75 years ago:
At least 18 striking workers killed by police in South Africa on May Day
On
May 1, 1950, a May Day mass strike in South Africa was violently
suppressed, with police firing into multiple crowds of demonstrators,
killing 18 and injuring another 38. Thousands of South African workers
had gone on strike that day both to commemorate May Day (International
Workers Day) and also to oppose the Suppression of Communism Act,
proposed by the National Party which had come into power in 1948 and
already begun implementing its program of apartheid.
100 years ago:
Trade union federation formed in China
The Chinese working class was then a small portion of the population, which was primarily made up of peasants, but industrial centers in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shanghai had grown, increasing the number of and social weight of workers.
21. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Bogdan Syrotiuk
22. San Francisco, California city legal resources for immigrants needing help
23. International Online May Day Rally this Saturday!
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.
