Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:
1. US defense secretary delivers war-mongering speech in Singapore
The Trump administration’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dramatically escalated the decade-long US confrontation with China in a provocative speech on Saturday at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, the annual premier Indo-Pacific military forum.
Hegseth’s war-mongering remarks, delivered to a gathering of defense ministers, government leaders, and military generals, had three major prongs. First, he declared that a war with China, ostensibly over Taiwan, was “potentially imminent.”
Second, he demanded that Asian countries massively increase their military spending to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)— requiring the expenditure of tens of billions of dollars— to join a US offensive against Beijing.
Third, he insisted that Asian governments must not try to balance between the US and China. They must “choose” to line up with Washington.
Understanding the situation is... complicated by the difficulty of conducting opinion polls. In informal conversations with us, sociologists and political scientists have indicated that 80 percent of those offered to participate in research refuse to speak in face-to-face groups. In telephone surveys, 9 out of 10 people refuse to be interviewed. What these people think about the economic situation in the country and how they characterize their own financial situation, one can only guess.
3. Ukrainian drones strike Russian nuclear bombers in Siberia
The British Financial Times celebrated the attack as “possibly… the most audacious attack of the war” by Ukraine. It comes just days after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared that Germany, which invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, killing at least 27 million people, would provide Ukraine with long-range missiles to strike targets deep inside Russian territory.
This timing was hardly a coincidence. The strikes deep inside Russia’s territory, thousands of miles away from the battlefield, were clearly meant to demonstrate both to Russia and to Ukraine’s imperialist backers that it can and will use such long-range missiles to escalate the war within Russia. The attack is all the more sinister as it was carried out less than a month after the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, which the general in charge of the “Situation Command Ukraine” in the German Bundeswehr spent in the company of the neo-Nazi commander of a Ukrainian drone battalion.
Having deliberately provoked the oligarchic Putin regime into invading Ukraine, the imperialist powers have transformed the country into a launching pad for a much broader war. Their principal aim is to secure full control over the Eurasian landmass and its vast resources.
For their part, with acts such as Sunday’s drone attack, the Secret Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Ukrainian oligarchy signal that they are determined to continue to play a central role in this imperialist effort to carve up the entire region and thus earn their “right” to a share of the spoils, even after hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have been left dead and injured.
The working class of Russia and the entire former Soviet Union faces an existential threat from imperialism. But the Putin regime offers no “protection” against this threat. Just as the Ukrainian oligarchy, it emerged out of the Stalinist destruction of the Soviet Union, which opened up the entire region to imperialist provocations and wars.
4. Israeli academics issue open letter condemning Gaza genocide
The statement declares:
As academics, we recognize our own role in these crimes. It is human societies, not governments alone, that commit crimes against humanity. Some do so by means of direct violence. Others do so by sanctioning the crimes and justifying them, before and after the fact, and by keeping quiet and silencing voices in the halls of learning. It is this bond of silence that allows clearly evident crimes to continue unabated without penetrating the barriers of recognition.
The letter signifies the emergence of public opposition within Israel to the war. It is not yet clear how broadbased this opposition is. Recently published polls indicated that there still remains widespread support for the regime’s onslaught against the Palestinians, which— if the polls are accurate— reflects the deep social disorientation produced by decades of reactionary Zionist policies and propaganda.
However, given the relentless barrage of lies to which Israelis are subjected, the fact that more than 1,000 academics have denounced the policies of the government as criminal is a significant development.
The letter is a devastating indictment not only of Netanyahu’s government but of its international backers in Washington, London, Berlin and other capitals, who have denounced criticisms of Israel’s genocide in Gaza as a form of “antisemitism.” The New York Times and other major imperialist media outlets have not reported on the letter, despite prominent coverage in Haaretz and Al Jazeera.
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The letter appeals to “all the people of this land, Palestinians and Jews.” It declares, “For the sake of the lives of innocents and the safety of all the people of this land, Palestinians and Jews; for the sake of the return of the hostages; if we do not call to halt the war immediately, history will not forgive us.”
The letter has the character of a moral appeal. Its authors do not address the fundamental historical and political issues that underlie the genocide. But however deeply felt the outrage against the war, the development of an effective opposition to the regime requires a break with the ideology and policies of Zionism. The genocidal character of this war is the culmination of the policies based on the reactionary political foundations upon which the “Jewish state” was erected in 1948.
The opposition of Jewish and Arab socialists, and the Trotskyist Fourth International, to the formation of the Zionist state in 1948 has been vindicated.
The authors of the letter state that “It is our duty to save what can still be saved of this land’s future.” The phrasing leads one to hope that the reference to “this land” rather than to Israel indicates a growing awareness that the existence of the Israeli state, based on the expropriation and annihilation of the Palestinian people, forecloses any future other than one that perpetuates mass murder.
The only viable future is one that achieves the revolutionary dissolution of the existing Zionist state and the unification of the Palestinian and Jewish working class in a socialist republic.
Lehman:
No individual worker on his or her own, no matter how experienced or conscientious, can enforce safety in conditions that are out of the worker’s control. Adams was placed in unsafe conditions imposed by Stellantis and rubber-stamped by the UAW “safety committee.” The conditions that killed him were not created by him or his coworkers. Again, they were imposed from the top-down, and those same conditions are now being covered up with the complete blackout of information from the company and, more importantly, the union bureaucrats.
6. Three months before presidential elections, Bolivia gripped by economic crisis
With less than three months until the presidential elections, Bolivia is gripped by an unprecedented political and economic crisis. The government has requested that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) delay the release of a document on Bolivia’s financial situation, but its contents have been leaked on social media.
7. DSA member Zohran Mamdani emerges as one of the leading candidates for New York City mayor
The fundamental fraud perpetuated by Mamdani’s campaign is that the Democratic Party, which has long functioned to contain social opposition and class struggle, can be pressured into reviving a bygone era of capitalist reform. At a time when the ruling class is instead turning to dictatorship and fascism to defend its position, the consequences of such illusions will be disastrous if not consciously rejected in favor of a struggle for a genuine socialist alternative.
8. Turkey: 23,000 workers on strike in Izmir Metropolitan Municipality
Workers all over the world are facing increasing attacks on their social conditions by the political establishment, which is seeking to transfer the social wealth they produce to a capitalist oligarchy for use in war preparations. Governments and local authorities are collaborating with the trade union apparatus to suppress class struggle and impose these attacks.
9. Industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp to be broken up
The term “locusts” is often used to describe financial holding companies that attack large corporations, breaking them up, filleting and plundering them, leaving a trail of devastation for employees and billions in profits for shareholders.
Last week, ThyssenKrupp, one of the world’s largest steelmakers, announced it was planning to become its own locust. According to the corporation, the strategic goal was to “gradually make all business areas independent and open them up to the participation of third parties.”
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But in order to become at all interesting for “third parties,” the individual divisions would have to undergo major restructuring so that they generate high profits. The approximately 96,000 employees will be made to pay for this.
10. Remastered 1977 live album Playing the Fool: The infectious eccentricity of Gentle Giant
The mid-1970s marked the zenith of progressive rock’s global popularity. Bands that embraced the genre were filling arenas and selling millions of albums worldwide. Gentle Giant, though never as commercially successful as some of its peers, was recognized within the progressive community for its innovation and live prowess. Its tours saw the group sharing stages with the giants of progressive rock, and its live act could “equal almost any act on the bill,” as one account of a 1975 Detroit show attests.
11. DOJ settlement with Ashli Babbitt’s family: A political gift to the fascist right
The Department of Justice under the Trump administration has agreed to settle a $30 million wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Ashli Babbitt for just under $5 million in taxpayer funds, according to multiple reports.
Babbitt, a U.S. Air Force veteran and follower of the fascist QAnon conspiracy theory, was fatally shot while participating in the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Video footage showed her at the front of a violent mob attempting to breach a secured hallway where lawmakers were being evacuated.
14. Momodou Taal meeting in London wins powerful support
Taal spoke at Saturday’s meeting for the first time about the circumstances surrounding his persecution by the US government. He was joined by his lawyer, Eric Lee, and Socialist Equality Party (US) National Secretary Joseph Kishore.
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Over the next days the World Socialist Web Site will publish the remarks of Taal, Lee and Kishore, along with interviews with attendees.
12. IMF demands Sri Lankan government increase electricity tariff by nearly 20 percent
Sri Lanka has the highest household electricity charges in South Asia, following increases by the previous government of President Ranil Wickremesinghe. It is 2.5 to 3 times higher than the regional average.
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The repayment of foreign debts at the cost of living and social conditions must be halted. These loans were borrowed not for the welfare of workers and the poor but for the 26-year communal war since 1983 against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and to boost profits for big business.
The working class must repudiate these foreign borrowings and use the money to develop ailing public health and education.
13. After adverse court ruling, Trump steps up tariff war
The decision against reciprocal tariffs, introduced under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, appears headed for the Supreme Court for final adjudication, but Trump has lost no time in hiking tariffs in areas not covered by the decision. He has also made threatening noises against China following the 90-day pause in the tariff hikes against it, indicating that negotiations are proceeding too slowly.
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Earlier treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the talks with China were a “bit stalled” and might need to be invigorated with a call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Given the magnitude of the talks… this is going to require both leaders to weigh in with each other,” he said, adding that he was “confident that the Chinese will come to the table when President Trump makes his preferences known.”
But one of the problems is determining exactly what are the US preferences. The basic drive of US policy toward China is the suppression of its economic development, above all in the areas of high-tech and artificial intelligence, which it sees as the greatest existential threat to continued US global dominance.
14. Australia rail union announces sell-out deal with New South Wales Labor government
The proposed deal, described by RTBU NSW secretary Toby Warnes as a “very positive development,” is in fact the product of a conspiracy by the union bureaucracy, Labor government, industrial courts and corporate media to sell rail workers out.
Turkey's notorious prisons are as brutal or more brutal than as they were depicted in Oliver Stone's 1978 film, Midnight Express.
25 years ago:
Bruce Springsteen song condemns police killing of immigrant worker Amadou Diallo
50 years ago:
Suez Canal officially reopens under Egyptian control
75 years ago:
Two US Supreme Court decisions challenge segregation laws
100 years ago:
Mass strikes and protests against imperialism in Shanghai
17. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Bogdan Syrotiuk
