1. US demands Asian allies prepare for “imminent” war against China
Posturing as champions of peace, [US Defense Secretary] Hegseth and the Trump administration stand reality on its head. As has repeatedly been the case for more than a century, imperialism goes to war under the banner of “peace” and engages in a massive arms race under the guise of “deterrence.”
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The Trump administration is wielding the economic weapon of tariffs not just against China, but as the means to bludgeon governments in the Asia Pacific to line up militarily against Beijing and to bear a far higher burden of the costs of war.
To view the spiral toward war in the Indo-Pacific as simply the result of the fascist Trump would be to overlook the depth of the global economic and political crisis centered in the US of which he is the product.
US imperialism embraced China in the 1970s as a means for undermining the Soviet Union and as a seemingly endless source of cheap labor, as long as its manufactures were limited to low-tech goods. The sheer expansion of the Chinese economy to become by some measures the largest in the world threatens to eclipse the US, including in a range of hi-tech fields such as electronics, green technology, electric vehicles and artificial intelligence.
Chicago’s plight mirrors transit disasters nationwide. Philadelphia’s SEPTA proposes 45 percent service cuts and a 9:00 p.m. rail curfew. San Francisco and New York face similar shortfalls. All states are facing the impact of the evaporation of federal funding and the bipartisan refusal to tax the wealthy or corporate profits.
4. Video: Trump’s war on free speech: The case of Momodou Taal
The Socialist Equality Party (UK) hosted a public meeting in London May 31, addressed by Momodou Taal, the British-Gambian student who challenged US President Donald Trump’s unconstitutional war on free speech and the right to protest the Gaza genocide.
A video posted by socialist autoworker Will Lehman on TikTok calling for an independent investigation into the death of Stellantis worker Ronald Adams Sr. has garnered enormous support, with over 80,000 views, 23,000 likes, and 800 comments within 24 hours of posting. The overwhelming response demonstrates the deep anger among workers over unsafe conditions in factories and the systematic cover-up of workplace fatalities by the corporations and union bureaucracies.
6. Teachers lead growing strike movement across Latin America
A wave of teacher strikes from Mexico to Panama, Colombia, Argentina and Brazil signal the emergence of a counteroffensive against the onslaught of attacks on public education, pensions and other social rights across Latin America.
7. Jonathan Joss, King of the Hill voice actor, shot dead in alleged hate crime
Jonathan Joss, known for voicing John Redcorn in King of the Hill and various other roles in film and television, was shot to death June 1 outside the ruins of his San Antonio, Texas home. The gunman shouted violent homophobic slurs, according to Joss’s husband.
8. US train engineers union tries to whip up anti-Mexican hatred
Workers in Mexico are eager to link up with their brothers and sisters north of the border. In 2019, tens of thousands of factory workers in the border city of Matamoros launched a wildcat strike, in which they marched to the US border to appeal for international solidarity, chanting “gringos, wake up!” Later that year, GM autoworkers in Silao, Mexico were fired for refusing to scab on the GM strike in the United States.
9. Australian Labor government approves 40-year extension of major gas project
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government cynically delayed the approval until after the election because it makes a mockery of its claims to be committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
10. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) cuts global growth forecast
The report pointed to a significant downturn in US growth. It would fall from 2.8 percent in 2024 to 1.6 percent in 2025 and 1.5 percent in 2026. The OECD had previously forecast US growth for this year at 2.2 percent. At the same time, inflation would increase, preventing the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates to provide a boost to the economy.
Predictably, the downgrade in US growth prospects brought denunciations from the White House, with Trump’s spokesperson Kush Desai declaring that the OECD “joins a growing list of doomsayers that are untethered to reality.”
But the report is very much in line with other assessments.
Some of those who signed
Prominent media and arts personalities including Benedict Cumberbatch, Dua Lipa and Gary Lineker have joined academics, doctors, lawyers and Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos in signing the letter calling out Starmer’s characterization of the genocide as “intolerable” while continuing to arm Israel.
Here is a link to the open letter
12. Trump signs off on US Steel-Nippon Steel merger, while doubling steel and aluminum tariffs
Throughout a rambling speech Friday, Trump repeatedly called steel crucial for a strong military and made clear that the tariffs were meant to restructure US industry to be able to fight China.
National Tertiary Education Union officials barred staff members and students from speaking at a rally against 300 to 400 threatened job cuts at Western Sydney University [in Australia] yesterday. “No open mic,” [The union's] branch president David Burchell declared repeatedly during the event when challenged.
14. Kenya’s China orientation provokes Washington’s wrath
Kenyan President William Ruto’s state visit to China has provoked an angry response from the United States, amid an intensifying global struggle for geopolitical dominance over Africa’s strategic resources.
The the International Youth and Students for Social Equality invites students, university lecturers and employees to attend a significant meeting at the University of Peradeniya which will discuss the life-and-death questions now confronting humanity.
16. Far-right opposition candidate wins presidential election in Poland
Poland is among the most unequal countries in Europe, with the latest data showing that the top 10 percent takes in more than 37 percent of income, while the bottom 50 percent accounts for less than 22 percent.
17. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
