1. 85 years since the May 24, 1940 assassination attempt against Leon Trotsky
In Moscow, the failure of the May 24 attack was viewed as a political disaster. According to the former Soviet general and Russian historian Dmitri Volkogonov, “News of the failure of the assassination attempt sent Stalin into a rage,” leading him to decide that “Everything would now be staked on the action of an individual operator who had long been installed in Mexico, and who was preparing to carry out his mission.”
It “sends a message to people in Canada and the United States about why Canada is separate, why Canada is different,” quipped one expert. The King’s “presence was a show of muscle,” a “senior government source” told the Globe and Mail, meant to “emphasize Canada’s distinctive history and identity as a way of underlining its sovereignty in the face of US aggression.”
In truth, the visit and the regal and Canadian nationalist hoopla that surrounded it were a profession of bankruptcy and testament to the reactionary character of the Canadian ruling class, its state, and nationalist mythology.
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Even as the ruling class revels in its ties to the British monarchy and decries Trump’s actions targeting Canada, its preference and primary objective is to secure for Canadian imperialism the status of a duly recognized junior partner in a Trump-led Fortress North America.
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The Crown possesses vast, essentially unlimited “reserve powers” under Canada’s constitution. They are seldom used, but they permit the ruling class, acting through its state machine, to override democratic norms and, if need be, over the heads of the elected government and parliament in a period of extreme crisis.
These powers, once used only with great reluctance, lest their frequent deployment expose the true class nature of the state, have been increasingly resorted to as the crisis of world capitalism has escalated. In 2008, amid the world financial crisis, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper instructed the monarch’s representative in Canada, the Governor General, to prorogue— that is shut down— parliament for close to two months to prevent his minority government from being toppled by the opposition parties in a vote of non-confidence.
The massacre of aid-seekers for a second day in a row confirms the warnings by the United Nations, Oxfam, and other humanitarian organizations that the US-Israeli aid distribution scheme is nothing more than a logistical component of Israel’s ethnic cleansing program.
More than 380 writers, organizations and cultural figures have issued an open letter stating that the Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza and demanding an immediate ceasefire.
Here is a link to their letter
5. Australian court rejects appeal by jailed Afghan war crimes whistleblower David McBride
The ruling by the three-judge panel continues and upholds the extraordinary situation where the only individual convicted and imprisoned over documented Australian war crimes in Afghanistan is McBride. He is not accused of having committed the atrocities. His sole “offense” was to expose the violations of international law.
6. Indonesia seeking to appease Washington in tariff negotiations
7. Union cancels Connecticut nursing home strike, rams through sellout deal
Having sold out the New York workers, the union then reached an agreement with the governor in Connecticut to avert the strike in that state as well.
The union bureaucracy is corrupt, socially detached and contemptuous of the interests and priorities of the rank and file. This was shown in a recent corruption scandal, which led to the ousting of George Gresham as the longtime president of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. Tens of thousands of dollars embezzled from workers’ dues money served to supplement his $300,000 salary.
His replacement, Yvonne Armstrong, is another longtime bureaucrat, elected in a vote marked by more than 90 percent abstention, reflecting the deep alienation felt by workers to the apparatus.
8. SAG-AFTRA continues isolation of video game performers, on strike for more than 10 months
To be blunt: artificial intelligence is an astonishing technology and advance, with revolutionary implications. However, under the system of production for profit, the giant conglomerates plan to use it as a weapon to lower costs and destroy tens of thousands of film, television and video games jobs. The issue of how and when and where artificial intelligence should be used in the creative process, and how and when and where it should not be used, has to be decided upon by performers, writers, animators, technicians and other creators. SAG-AFTRA is incapable of developing a strategy for defeating the companies because it accepts the present economic framework. It has isolated the video game performers for more than ten months, and it can only propose more of the same.
9. Swedish journalist Joakim Medin released after 7 weeks in Turkish prison
Medin’s arrest was part of a sweeping crackdown by Erdogan’s government during and after March’s mass protests. Some 2,000 people were arrested or detained for one day or several days across the country, including over 300 who were kept in custody pending trial. Although some have since been released, 71 people reportedly remain in prison. In late April, as the World Socialist Web Site reported, authorities rounded up some 150 members of left-wing organizations and trade unions in advance of May Day. None of this prompted the Swedish government to issue statements of condemnation as one of its citizens languished in a high-security prison. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said following Medin’s release that the success was the product of negotiations that took place “relatively quietly.”
It took the European Parliament almost seven weeks to pass a motion calling for Medin’s release. This, under conditions in which Reporters Without Borders noted that if Medin is convicted on all charges, he could face a prison sentence of up to 27 years. Even though he has now returned to Sweden, the Turkish government could still pursue him with an Interpol notice.
10. School communities protest removal of principals in São Paulo, Brazil
As elsewhere around the world, accountability policies based on external evaluations have paved the way for the privatization of education. At the beginning of the year, [São Paulo's right wing] Mayor Nunes announced his intention to transfer the 50 most vulnerable schools in the municipal public network to the private sector. In fact, as reported by the daily Folha de S. Paulo, “Most of the schools affected by the measure work with students who are highly vulnerable socioeconomically and with disabilities.”
11. Ban on Red Media: EU sanctions against Russia attack press freedom
The as yet unproven accusation that Red Media is financed by Russia is completely irrelevant. Not only because numerous German media products are financed from other countries. Above all, freedom of the press includes not only the freedom of opinion of the publishers, but also the freedom of the population to listen to the different sides of a conflict and form their own opinion. However, in view of the preparations for war against Russia, any position that does not follow the official war narrative is declared “enemy propaganda” and banned.
12. The workplace carnage continues: New York City worker killed in explosion on sewage boat
New York City’s Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, who has carried out savage budget cuts to city services, released a perfunctory statement, claiming he was “devastated to hear about the tragic death.”
The decision to indefinitely postpone the scheduled broadcast is a blatant act of censorship and an indictment of the Britain’s publicly funded state broadcaster. At stake is the silencing of those who risked and lost their lives to save others from a genocide.
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A witch-hunt against the documentary was instigated when David Collier, a self-described “100 percent Zionist” activist, named Abdullah Alyazouri— the 13-year-old narrator— as the son of a Hamas-affiliated official, Dr. Ayman Alyazouri. The film was smeared as Hamas “propaganda,” even though it includes Palestinians expressing criticism of Hamas and offers no political advocacy—only the truth of life under siege.
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The BBC’s censorship of Gaza: Medics Under Fire demonstrates the complicity of the entire political establishment in Israel’s genocidal offensive. The smears against opponents of the mass murder of Palestinians as “terrorist sympathizers” have reached fever pitch just as the Netanyahu regime has launched the final phase of its drive to ethnically cleanse Gaza via the expulsion of more than 2 million Palestinians.
14. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
The sign says: "Peace for the world! Down with war!"
