This perspective was clearly articulated by the New York Times, speaking for the Democrats, in its lead editorial published on May 1, under the headline, “Fight Like Our Democracy Depends on It.” While purporting to lay out a strategy for opposing Trump, the editorial is primarily concerned with the dangers posed by a mass anti-Trump movement.
The ruling is a legal victory for every student protester across the country, hundreds of whom who have faced repression, arrest and even deportation for their opposition to the Gaza genocide. Among the most prominent include Cornell student Momodou Taal, who was forced to return to Britain at the end of March, Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, and Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk, who are both still detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Protesters expressed strong support for Irshad and fierce opposition to the university administration and the Democratic Party, which defended the seizure. Many drove more than an hour to the Watsonville, California, courthouse for the hearing.
The trade unions, many of whose top officials are SPD members, have been pushing through social spending cuts, real wage reductions and mass redundancies for years and suppressing resistance to them. During the Bundestag elections, the services union Verdi stabbed the collective bargaining struggle of almost 3 million federal and municipal employees in the back to prevent a broader mobilization.
Christmas is still some way off, but it is at this time of year that retail outlets place their orders for toys, Christmas trees, and decorations, the vast bulk of which come from China.
An article in the Times this week said that “alarm in the industry is palpable,” with some business owners consulting bankruptcy lawyers because they are simply unable to continue with 145 percent tariffs.
The article reported that in a survey of 410 toy companies, around 60 percent had cancelled orders, and around 50 percent said they would go out of business within weeks or months if the tariffs remained.
Here is the complete online discussion.
The conspiracy of silence extends to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Five years on, COVID-19 is falsely treated as a historical event by governments, health officials, trade unions, and the entire corporate media.
Only the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) tells the truth. COVID-19 is a real and enduring threat to human life, and must be eliminated, using existing scientific expertise and by marshaling society’s resources to combat the virus. Human life must be the priority, not private profit.
The killing of Lyoya, which was captured on smartphone and police video, sparked widespread outrage and calls for an end to racism, violence and murder by police. The trial and its outcome are being closely watched because the murder charge brought against a police officer is extremely rare and convictions even more so.
Lawyers for the imprisoned facing deportation presented three arguments before the court. First they argued that under the AEA Proclamation issued by Trump, their clients were not given reasonable “notice and a meaningful opportunity to challenge their designation as alien enemies.”
Second, they challenged the AEA Proclamation itself, asserting there is no “invasion” or “predatory incursion” against the United States by any “foreign nation or government,” including Venezuela.
Finally, they argued that the Proclamation targeting Venezuelans fleeing political persecution “violates the specific protections that Congress established under the Immigration and Nationality Act for non-citizens seeking humanitarian protection.”
US military spending surged to $997 billion in 2024, the largest nominal figure of any country in world history, according to figures released this week by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Here is a link to SIPRI's factsheet.
Although watered down from the contract of naked neocolonial plunder that the US presented in February, the deal underscores the imperialist and predatory character of the war in Ukraine. Far from defending “democracy” and “liberty,” the conflict has always been rooted in the drive of the imperialist powers to assert control over the vast resources and riches of the entire former Soviet Union, including Ukraine and Russia. This is why they deliberately provoked the reactionary invasion of Ukraine by the Putin regime, seeking to make it the starting point for the imperialist carve-up of the entire region.
Will Lehman, a socialist autoworker who ran for UAW president in 2022 issued the following statement:
If workers want to win their fight the cannot leave in the hands of the UAW bureaucrats. The UAW does not want to create any disruption in the production of arms shipments because Fain and the rest of the UAW apparatus are in alliance with Trump and his nationalist, pro-war agenda.
The union leaders are not calling a strike because they want to lead fight, but only because they feel they can’t contain the fight. If they are left in charge, they will only try to isolate and dissipate the fight.
Workers have repeatedly seen that a struggle can’t be won in one plant alone or even in one country alone. This fight will go in the same direction as other sellouts unless workers act independently. We need to fight, but it needs to be done by workers themselves outside of the bureaucracy through rank-and-file committees. We can win if we can connect the fight across plants. These companies have plants all over the world. We need international unity to fight back. The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees is prepared to assist Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and other workers link up with their class brothers and sisters internationally to defend our living standards and oppose war.
Des Beach
19. Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa:
- Belgium:
Transport and public service workers strike for 24 hours against government attacks on their pensions
- Portugal:
Rail workers strike for cost-of-living pay improvements
- United Kingdom:
Cereal manufacturing workers at two sites in Northamptonshire walk out over pay
Academic staff at Keele University, England begin a five-day stoppage over job cuts
A planned strike by UK teachers over job cuts and poor working conditions is called off by their union
500 drivers working for Stagecoach in West Scotland are set to walk out after rejecting a 4 percent pay offer from the company
- Iran:
Nationwide protests continue over worsening social conditions
- Zimbabwe:
University lecturers at the University of Zimbabwe continue their strike begun in early April to demand an increase in their wages
- South Africa:
Thousands of teachers march in Pretoria to demand the lifting of the government’s cuts to education
- Nigeria:
The Nigeria Meteorological Agency strikes nationwide over welfare issues, including low pay and lack of benefits
- Botswana:
Doctors protesting their low pay limit emergency calls to one a month despite a court order
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 this Saturday's 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.
