Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:
In this exclusive interview with the World Socialist Web Site, Dr. Daszak recounts the story of his persecution and that of other principled scientists falsely accused of bearing responsibility for the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. The case of Nancy Wohlforth, a.k.a. Fields, and the origins of Security and the Fourth International
In 1978 Nancy Wohlforth embarked upon a career in the bureaucracy of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) and enjoyed a meteoric rise. Certainly, her activities in the Trotskyist movement proved no obstacle in the development of her career.
She became a full-time paid official in her local in 1983 and eventually rose to the position of the national union’s secretary-treasurer. At the height of her career as an OPEIU bureaucrat, she enjoyed an annual income of a quarter million dollars.
RP tries to reconcile verbal invocations of revolution, internationalism and Trotskyism with its own ties to Stalinist, social-democratic or bourgeois liberal parties and national union bureaucracies that support war and are violently hostile to Trotskyism.
4. Sri Lanka’s major apparel company, Next, retrenches 1,500 workers
Shocked by the sudden closure, hundreds of Next workers mobilized outside the Katunayake Free Trade Zone plant on Tuesday morning. The factory entrance was sealed with no factory management personnel present.
5. Bond market concerns over Trump tax bill
The determination of the administration to continue with tax cuts, come what may, is an expression of one of the most fundamental features of the US economy— the dependence of corporations and finance capital on money from the state.
6. Australia: Union officials offer no way to fight Labor government attack on workers’ compensation
Unions NSW, the peak trade union body for New South Wales, is holding a series of rallies around the state, protesting the Labor government’s moves to slash workers’ compensation payments for psychological injuries.
7. As talks resume at Pratt & Whitney in Connecticut, company cuts off workers’ healthcare
Striking workers must be on guard against sellout as official talks resume and demand that trusted workers, elected by the rank and file, take part in all talks and report to the membership.
8. 2 workers killed in separate fatal workplace accidents in US state of Georgia
A worker was killed at the Hanwha Qcells solar panel plant in Cartersville on Monday and another was killed at the construction site of the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America battery plant in Savannah on Tuesday.
9. US House declares war on working class and the poor, advances “Big Beautiful Bill”
Just before 7:00 a.m. on May 22, the US House of Representatives passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” by a 215–214 vote. The sweeping tax and spending legislation massively expands funding for the border Gestapo and military, delivers enormous tax cuts to the wealthy, and slashes essential social programs, including Medicaid, Medicare and food assistance relied on by millions.
10. A year after historic flood, Rio Grande do Sul continues to face Brazilian government’s negligence
This month marks one year since floods caused by capitalist-driven climate change devastated Brazil’s southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul, in one of the worst environmental disasters in the country’s history. This extreme weather event has exposed the utter indifference of the Brazilian ruling elite toward the lives of the state’s working population, whose living conditions have only worsened since then.
11. Presidential elections in Poland shake up the ruling camp
The DHS also seeks to transform Harvard and all other universities into cooperating surveillance arms of the state. In exchange for the return of the Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, the DHS is demanding that Harvard provide “[A]ny and all records, whether official or informal, in the possession of Harvard University, including electronic records and audio or video footage” regarding the “illegal” or “violent” activity of non-citizen students enrolled in the last five years and “any and all disciplinary records of all nonimmigrant students.”
13. Nurses carry out one-day strike at Long Beach and Alhambra hospitals in Southern California
Beyond immediate workplace grievances, the strike reflected a growing political opposition to the subordination of life to profit among healthcare workers.
14. US healthcare workers union president ousted by opposition slate following corruption scandal
The scandal lifts the lid on how the union bureaucracy as a whole lives— its corrupt appetites, its essentially parasitic and hostile relationship to the workers they claim to represent and their deep ties to management and the capitalist parties.
15. California fertility clinic struck by car bomb, leaving 1 dead and 4 injured
Guy Edward Bartkus, 25-year-old resident of Twentynine Palms, California, targeted a fertility clinic in Palm Springs with a car bomb, killing himself and injuring four others.
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Whenever a violent outburst occurs in the United States— and they do with frightening regularity— representatives of the ruling class often employ simple criteria such as “good” and “bad” in order to moralize and individualize the actions of the perpetrator. This is done to obscure the central role of the ruling class and the historic levels of social inequality they oversee in creating the conditions that give rise to such violent outbursts.
As with school shootings and other mass outbursts of violence, Bartkus’s actions can only be understood as a byproduct of the society he existed in.
the French Revolution— “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.”
Volvo Group’s decision to lay off nearly 1,000 workers is part of the global attack on the jobs, wages and conditions of the working class. These attacks must be resisted!
18. Kneecap rap group member charged with terrorism offense
Kneecap have refused to be cowed by their persecutors, while making clear they have never supported Hamas or Hezbollah or endorsed the killing of MPs.
19. Australian protests against Trump: The fight against fascism is a fight against capitalism!
While the protests express a growing opposition to Trump’s fascistic agenda, the pseudo-left organizers are seeking to channel those sentiments behind Australian nationalism and a pro-war Labor government.
20. Oppose the arrest of political prisoners Ahmad Mammadli and Afiaddin Mammadov in Azerbaijan!
The World Socialist Web Site and the Sosyalist Eşitlik Grubu, the Turkish section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, regardless of our political differences with the pair, demand the immediate release of Mammadli and Mammadov, as well as all other political prisoners who are being persecuted by capitalist states around the world.
21. Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa:
Belgium:
One-day general strike in the Belgian public sector against austerity
France:
Taxi drivers demonstrate in France against attacks on pay
Germany:
Bus drivers in Lower Saxony, and DHL drivers in Leipzig walk out over pay parity
Greece:
Workers on Ro-Ro ferries in Attica municipality defy courts and continue strike over pay and conditions
Strike for equal pay at outsourced junior schools in Palma de Mallorca continues
Rail workers’ stoppage in Bursa over pay and hours
More strikes against UK university jobs cull while union opposes unified action
Protest at London’s Ealing Council plan to close half its children’s centres
Wilson James workers at London’s Heathrow airport continue stoppages for pay parity
Waste collection workers begin strike over unpaid wages in Soran
Egyptian lawyers strike for 48-hours against new fees
Health workers defy intimidation, continue partial strike
Namibian fishermen continue their protests over pay and conditions
Care workers at home in Kimberley walk out and Gauteng doctors will withdrew services if they are not paid fully and on time
Zimbabwe:
University of Zimbabwe staff continue pay strike
18. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Bogdan Syrotiuk
