Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:
“I have not gotten any information from Stellantis [multi-national automaking conglomerate], MIOSHA [the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration] or the UAW [United Auto Workers]. Not a letter. Not one word on why he died,” Ronald’s widow, Shamenia Stewart-Adams, told the World Socialist Web Site at her home this week. “I want answers, our family wants answers. We’re demanding the truth.”
She continued, “When I speak for mothers and wives of our husbands who go to these places and work to provide for their families, what I can say is when our husbands depart our home and families, we expect them back home. We don’t expect them to be killed by machinery.
What we want is accountability and transparency for mothers who have to stay behind and raise their children without a father. We want accountability and transparency from the UAW and Stellantis. I’ve not gotten that. Absolutely, no wife, no mother, no family should be left in suspense of what happened to their loved one.”
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I am overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and concern that I have received from families and workers throughout the United States, and even from Canada, Mexico and Turkey. I’m overwhelmed with gratitude and can’t thank them enough. Our entire family thanks them for their support, their condolences. We are so grateful to have family and workers acknowledge my husband in such a manner. I’m saying this with me making a heart emoji with the palms of my hands.
That goes for workers in all countries. Every time I read an article on the WSWS, my eyes just pop open, and I’m in awe. I’m just so appreciative. It must be that my family’s story may get close to home. They may have lost a loved one due to factory work and things of that nature. I was shocked and surprised by how many workers lose their lives from these accidents every year.
My final thoughts, I guess would be to tell people, just be safe at work. If you know something, say something and don’t accept working in unsafe conditions. Don’t feel pressured to work under those conditions.”
2. Demanding “unconditional surrender,” Trump plots assault on Iran
The US-Israeli war on Iran is an act of brazen criminality. The direct entry of American imperialism into the war will have catastrophic consequences for the people of Iran—a historically oppressed country—as well as for the broader Middle East and the world.
It constitutes a massive escalation in the unfolding US imperialist-led global war. Washington has long viewed its drive to subjugate Iran and exert unfettered dominance over the world’s principal oil-exporting region and key ocean trade routes as critical to preparing for war with China.
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Iran is a complex country with a population of over 90 million and a large and militant working class. The imperialist onslaught will radicalize the masses in Iran, across the Middle East, and globally.
The struggle against imperialism and the emerging third world war requires the development of an independent political movement of the working class animated by a socialist internationalist program.
3. University of California San Francisco medical professor fired for opposing genocide
Born in California to South Asian parents, Dr. Marya is a highly accomplished internal medicine physician and scholar, with 23 years at UCSF, including 17 years as a research professor. Her research, which has been published in The Lancet and a Nature-branded journal, focuses on understanding the impact of inequalities and power imbalances on health outcomes. Dr. Marya co-authored Inflamed: Deep Medicine & the Anatomy of Injustice with writer Raj Patel. She is also an accomplished composer and musician.
Dr. Marya spoke with the World Socialist Web Site about her case. “I was fired for saying, ‘Stop bombing hospitals,’” she explained. “Hospitals are protected under international law.”
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She requested that UC defend her against these attacks, as it had in 2020 when she received similar threats for advocating for public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of defending Dr. Marya, however, the UCSF Dean of Medicine informed her in late November that the university was investigating her social media activity for potential violations of UC policy.
As she explains in her lawsuit, “none of her posts targeted criticism at Judaism or Jewish people. Indeed, her posts make clear that her criticisms are directed at the policies, actions, and political ideologies of the Israeli government, and are not grounded in any antipathy toward Jewish people or their religious beliefs.”
4. Cardiff the latest British university to win court injunction against student protest
Britain’s universities have responded to students protesting the genocide in Gaza and the complicity of academic institutions not only by disbanding encampments. They are establishing a new legal framework aimed at outlawing protest altogether.
5. Oppose Starmer’s plans for war against Iran!
The Socialist Equality Party calls for the broadest industrial and political mobilization of the working class to stop Keir Starmer’s Labour government dragging Britain into war with Iran.
Starmer has made clear there are advanced preparations for the UK to intervene militarily alongside Israel and the United States in an unprovoked, illegal imperialist war with consequences that could dwarf NATO’s ongoing proxy war in Ukraine and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The 2003 Gulf War led to one million deaths in Iraq. Today, the heirs of Tony Blair, who dragged the UK into war using the lie that Iraq possessed “weapons of mass destruction”, are coordinating a military build-up in the Middle East with the Trump administration. They are supporting Israel’s criminal and escalatory bombing of Iranian energy infrastructure, the national broadcaster, hospitals and residential areas, nuclear facilities, missile defenses and command structures.
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Genocide and war can only be defeated through the independent political mobilization of the working class in a global anti-war movement on socialist foundations. It is the international working class, the most powerful social force on earth, and not Tehran, Moscow or Beijing, that must defeat the drive of the imperialist powers to redivide the world between them.
That the conditions exist for such a global counteroffensive was powerfully confirmed by last weekend’s eruption of mass popular opposition to Trump’s assault on migrants, his warmongering and efforts to establish a presidential dictatorship. Millions took to the streets across the United States, defying threats of violent repression.
6. Oppose imperialist-Zionist war against Iran and Turkey’s collaboration!
The Sosyalist Eşitlik Grubu (Socialist Equality Group, SEG), the Turkish section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, condemns the unprovoked attack on Iran by the Zionist state of Israel, supported by US-NATO imperialism. The SEG calls on workers in Turkey, the Middle East, and around the world to mobilize against this imperialist aggression.
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Turkey is not a passive accomplice. Oil from Azerbaijan to Israel, which is fueling its war machine, passes through Turkey, and the government profits from this trade. Not only does Turkey continue to trade with Israel, but US-NATO military bases in Turkey also provide Israel with logistical and intelligence support for its genocide and war.
The SEG demands that Turkey leave NATO and sever all relations with Israel. Military bases used for the benefit of the US and Israel must be closed immediately, and the mediation of oil flow from Azerbaijan to Israel must cease.
7. Marseille-Fos dockers block arms shipment to Israel
On June 4, dockworkers in the port of Marseille-Fos refused to load a container containing spare parts used to make machine guns and cannon tubes onto a ship bound for Israel. This initiative by the Marseille dockers underlines the determination of the working class to go on the offensive against the genocide in Gaza and against the imperialist governments complicit in this crime.
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The French government is embarrassed by this blocking of military equipment, as it has ratified the orders of the International Court of Justice and resolution 55/L.30 of the Human Rights Council, which states that “the Palestinian people face a grave risk of genocide” and orders Israel and the ratifying states to do everything possible to prevent it. Lecornu claims that these weapons are going to Israel temporarily to cover up his responsibility for the genocide in Gaza and avoid exposing himself to the wrath of the workers.
8. Questions raised over US Fed’s provision of dollars in a financial crisis
It is not a question of if there will be another severe crisis in the US and international financial system but rather when and how it might take place. And a related question now arising is whether in such a crisis, the US central bank will provide dollars to other central banks to try and alleviate it.
In the past, such a question would never have been raised. But such is the turmoil in trade relations, the financial system and international relations more broadly, set off by the actions of the Trump administration—amid the realization that the “norms” of the post-war order have been shattered—it is now being asked.
What emerged from last week’s nearly two hour APWU meeting—featuring remarks from President Mark Dimondstein and other top union officials—is that the tentative agreement is not, in any meaningful sense, a “contract” at all. Union officials admitted that none of the language in the document has been finalized with the Postal Service. Instead, workers are being asked to vote on a proposal drafted by the APWU and presented as if it were final—despite being subject to change at any time after ratification.
In other words, there is no contract, and what workers are being asked to vote on is a fraud. As Director of Industrial Relations Charlie Cash bluntly admitted during the meeting, “This is a tentative agreement. This is what we have done unilaterally without having any meetings with the Postal Service … So it is subject to change.” There is no indication that this disclaimer will even be included with the ballots, which are being mailed with only a QR code linking to the agreement online, rather than a printed copy.
10. ICE arrests New York City comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate for “obstruction”
In an escalation of Donald Trump’s drive to dictatorship, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Tuesday arrested Brad Lander on charges of obstruction. Lander is the comptroller of New York, the city’s second-highest elected official, and a candidate in the upcoming Democratic primary election for mayor.
A member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Lander is one of several self-styled “progressives” running in the primary election. He was escorting a migrant in the city’s main immigration courthouse, at 26 Federal Plaza, where ICE has been active in recent weeks, abducting immigrant workers as they appear in court for routine business.
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Lander’s arrest follows the indictment of Democratic Representative LaMonica McIver on June 10 for allegedly obstructing entrance to Delaney Hall Federal Immigration Facility, an ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey, and the arrest of Newark’s Democratic mayor Ras Baraka in May at the same Delaney facility. On June 12, California Senator Jose Padilla was cuffed and detained by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) thugs when he attempted to ask a question at a news conference in Los Angeles being held by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
11. Australia: State Labor government in Victoria secretly guts $2.4 billion in school funding
In an enormous attack on public education, the state Labor government in Victoria has secretly slashed more than $2.4 billion in promised school funding over the next six years.
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Meanwhile, as throughout the country, private schools, including the most elite that charge as much as $50,000 in annual tuition, continue to rake in enormous public funding and construct lavish facilities for their privileged students.
On Monday, Senate Republicans advanced a sweeping tax and spending bill that intensifies social inequality and deepens the bipartisan assault on the working class. The legislation, designed to expand tax cuts for the wealthy while slashing Medicaid and other vital programs, is a continuation of the Trump administration’s drive to redistribute wealth upwards to the billionaire oligarchy and impose austerity on the poor and vulnerable.
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The impact of these cuts cannot be overstated. Medicaid currently covers more than 80 million people, including children, the elderly, the disabled and low-income families. The most vulnerable among them will be hardest hit. The phase-down of provider taxes will devastate state budgets and force cuts to other essential services, compounding the impact of the bill.
13. Long Beach Medical Center nurses hold vigil against layoffs, appalling conditions
On Monday, nurses held an informational picket to protest catastrophic staffing shortages and mass layoffs that are gutting healthcare delivery at Long Beach Medical Center in southern California.
This takes place amid a growing wave of working-class resistance and a political context marked by the extreme rightward trajectory of the ruling class. Donald Trump’s escalated attacks on immigrants and democratic rights, his glorification of RFK Jr.’s anti-scientific lunacy, and the looming threat of world war are sharpening the class struggle in the US.
In reality, the new party has nothing to do with socialism or the interests of the working class. It is based on a vague “left” populism entirely tailored to saving, not abolishing, capitalist rule amid its deepest crisis globally since the 1930s, centered in the United States.
15. 26,000 Cádiz metalworkers set to strike in Spain
Barely a week has passed since Spain’s main trade union federations shut down the metalworkers’ strike in Cantabria and a new eruption of the class struggle is underway.
16. UK higher education strikes against job losses, as UCU demobilises unified fight
The unions, with the University and College Union leading the way, have a long record of abject betrayals over pay, conditions and pensions that have isolated staff between institutions and crippled their fight.
17. Royal Mail workers condemn CWU leader Dave Ward’s CBE honor as reward for betrayal
The honor, to be conferred by King Charles III, is a badge of shame for services rendered to the political establishment.
One protester:
“What is happening in Gaza is genocide. Whatever those ministers in government say, with their wishy-washy nonsense about Israel’s right to defend themselves, it’s genocide that is being committed and it should be called that."
19. Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh and Kneecap defiant at Westminster Magistrates’ court hearing
Ó hAnnaidh and Kneecap remain defiant, continuing their defense of the Palestinians and democratic rights. A member of the legal team told the crowd:
“Around the world Kneecap are hailed as heroes for speaking truth to power, but in the British court they’ve been criminalized and today the truth was outed – this was a rushed prosecution following the Coachella performance where Kneecap did not shy away from speaking truth to power.”
The Irish band Fontaines D.C. [Dublin City] perform in Barcelona
Opposition to Israel’s genocide is especially powerful, one might say overwhelming, among the young. This is registered in poll numbers, but it is more pointedly and dramatically expressed in the response of audiences of tens of thousands to those musicians and performers principled enough to say what is.
21. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Bogdan Syrotiuk
