Robert B. Livingston

1. Newest pope is chosen to give capitalism a facelift

As Trump’s second term is defined by threats of neo-colonial conquest and global war abroad, and mass deportations and fascist reaction at home, the Catholic Church is positioning itself as a “moral” counterweight to the naked oligarchic rule now dominating the center of global capitalism.
With 1.4 billion adherents worldwide—nearly half concentrated in the Americas and 20 percent in rapidly growing African nations—the Catholic Church remains a critical bulwark of the capitalist status quo, playing a central role in containing class struggle and suppressing working-class radicalization in much of the world.

2. The Settlers is a film provoking outrage among apologists for Zionism

Louis Theroux’s documentary on Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, made amid the Gaza genocide, paints a devastating picture of the ultra-nationalist religious fundamentalist movement. It brings out its role as the Israeli state’s advanced guard in the ethnic cleansing and mass murder of the Palestinians.

3. Class I rail companies are requesting that the Trump administration end federal regulations requiring the use of two-person train crews

A move to one-man crews would not only cost thousands of conductors their jobs, it would also create even more unsafe conditions than already exist on the railroads. On average, three trains derail in the US every day, as the railroads cut safety to the bone to maximize profit.

4. UN-backed food security report: the entire population of Gaza is at “critical risk of famine”

The IPC report comes just one day before US President Donald Trump will visit the Middle East, overseeing the US-Israeli policy of ethnically cleansing Gaza in preparation for what he said would be its annexation by the United States. Trump will arrive Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, a dictatorial theocratic monarchy, before traveling to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. In the process, Trump and his family members are expected to engage in personal real estate business in the region.
During the trip, Trump is rumored to announce the renaming of the Persian Gulf to the “Gulf of Arabia,” while Saudi Arabia is expected to announce over $100 billion in US arms purchases, including aircraft, missiles and radar systems.

5. Midterm elections in the Philippines

For the ruling elite the election was a referendum over geopolitical ties. For the mass of voters it was an expression of anger over the social crisis they confront.

6. Will Lehman, a genuine socialist who works at Mack Trucks in Pennsylvania, and is a former candidate for UAW president, contributes his opinion at Newsweek Magazine:

"Trump’s trade war policies are not about protecting workers. They are preparations for war— specifically, a potential war with China. His sweeping tariffs are designed to enrich the ruling elite and military-industrial complex while whipping up hatred against Chinese workers, who are not our enemies but our class brothers and sisters."

Will Lehman in 2023

7. UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announces a raft of anti-immigration measures, confirming that his Labour government is a far-right monstrosity

Close your eyes and Starmer’s speech could have been delivered almost in its entirety by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Since 2016, every right-wing scoundrel in Britain has embraced leading Brexiteer Dominic Cummings’ anti-immigrant Brexit slogan “Take Back Control”. Starmer’s narrative was that the Brexit pledge had been betrayed by the previous Conservative government, which had “lost control” of the UK’s borders.

8. Lawyers challenge the illegal deportation Dr. Rasha Alawieh by US border control

Dr. Alawieh is one of only three nephrologists specializing in kidney transplants in the entire state of Rhode Island. Her removal, as her colleagues and legal team have argued, will significantly harm public health by depriving patients of lifesaving care and reducing the number of specialists available to provide critical medical training.

9. The Berlin Senate prepares to intensify the brutal cuts being imposed on the German city’s cultural sector

10. An executive order signed by US President Donald Trump weaponizes the false claim that the virus that causes COVID-19 was manufactured in a Chinese laboratory

The order bans federal funding of what it describes as “dangerous gain-of-function research” carried out overseas in “countries of concern,” singling out China by name. It also places such research under strict federal control within the United States itself, whether funded by the government or conducted privately.

11. Pseudo-leftists at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia block Rank-and-File Committee members from speaking at a rally opposing education cuts

12. Ford workers in Cologne vote for an all-out strike as the German IG Metall union tries to slam on the brakes

Ford is a company with headquarters in the USA and almost 50 production sites in more than a dozen countries on four continents. Its plants in Australia were closed in 2016. Clearly, an international strategy and cooperation is needed in the fight against the company.
But this cooperation must come from the workers. The proclamations of solidarity from union and works council officials published by the Ford works council in Cologne are pathetic lies. They are designed to cover up the fact that the national trade union apparatuses are siding with their respective governments and playing the workforce off against each other.

13. Graduate student workers at the University of Rochester in New York, go on an indefinite strike

Graduate students at the University of Rochester are exploited by a system that pays them in stipends and earn as little as $15,000 a year, in a city that regularly ranks as one of the poorest in the country.
In comparison, with an endowment of $3.6 billion, UR is listed regularly among the top 100 richest universities in the US.
With a student population of 6,764 undergraduates and 5,396 postgraduates and a yearly tuition well above $60,000 a year, the university and its associated medical center are also the largest employers in the entire Rochester region.

14. Two more equipment failures plague Newark Liberty International airport triggering a disruptions and delays over many US and international routes

15. The US and China have agree to a mutual reduction in tariffs for a period of 90 days

The international assessment by economists is that the US was forced to pull back from its frontal economic assault on China because of the damage this inflicted on itself.

16. The Joint Trade Union Alliance, which includes 25 unions covering private sector workers, and various pseudo-left groups hold a May Day rally in Colombo, Sri Lanka

Behind the feigned concern about the wages, jobs and democratic rights, the unions have no intention of organizing a unified independent struggle of the working class to fight the government’s attacks. Rather they aim to prevent such a movement emerging by promoting illusions in [Sri Lankan President] Dissanayake’s pro-capitalist big business regime.

17. Workers Struggles: The Americas