Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:
1. NATO risks nuclear catastrophe with attack on Russian airports
The destruction of strategic bombers deep inside Russia by the Ukrainian secret service SBU shows that NATO will stop at nothing to escalate the war with Russia, even if it means provoking a nuclear catastrophe.
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It is inconceivable that NATO was not informed and closely involved. Such a complex operation, prepared over a long period of time, cannot be carried out without reconnaissance data that only the US has at its disposal. Military and intelligence officials from NATO and Ukraine are in constant, close contact, and President Zelensky exchanges information with the heads of government of NATO countries on an almost daily basis.
A few weeks after Ronald’s death, another worker said, Stellantis fired the plant manager, Ronald’s supervisor and the UAW safety representative. “They fired them basically right before Ronnie’s funeral. It was almost like they set it up purposely to make people at the funeral think, ‘Ok, that’s good, they got rid of them and somebody’s paying for this.’
“You can’t trust the union. Say you have a situation, and you confide in the UAW. The next thing you know, they pull you into the HR office. They’re in bed with them real heavy.”
The seizure of Nadler’s aide is the latest in a series of politically motivated attacks launched by the Trump administration aimed at making all opposition kowtow to its dictatorial agenda.
These workers have been dismissed as part of management’s attempts to suppress a campaign by Michelin Midigama employees who have been fighting since May 23 to defend their jobs and wages against the restructuring attacks of the international French-based corporation.
5. Michelin workers in southern Sri Lanka appeal for support from international Michelin employees
They make their appeal in an open letter:
The Michelin website says the company will make structural changes. It also states that last year’s profit was 3.4 billion euros. Our demand is only 0.39 percent of last year’s profits made by the company. We know that you understand the reasonable nature of our demand.
6. How Wall Street cashes in on charter schools
Charter schools are publicly funded but privately operated entities. As taxpayer-funded schools, they are legally required to be nonprofit; however, many have engineered a bypass by hiring Education Management Organizations (EMOs) to run operations. These EMOs are often for-profit entities with significant overlap in ownership with the charter itself. Even if the EMO is itself non-profit, they are free to pay their CEO and top administrators handsomely. The Trump change would further encourage unabashed profiteering and eliminate the “bureaucratic” paperwork to conceal the beneficiaries.
7. Three killed, dozens wounded in latest Israeli aid massacre in Gaza
In a statement Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanded an investigation into the killings.
“I am appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza yesterday,” Guterres said. “It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food. I call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable.”
8. Treasury secretary says US will never default on its debt
When the Treasury secretary, in charge of the finances of the world’s dominant power, is forced to go on public television to insist that the US will not default and will pay its debts, it is a sure indication that there are some deep-seated problems in the system over which he presides.
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[US Treasury Secretary] Bessent is right in his assertion that the US is not, for now, on the brink of a default.
But his assertions that it could never take place applied in very different times. Today, what were the norms of the past have been overturned, as is widely acknowledged.
Moreover, it should be noted that a crisis in financial markets takes a longer time coming than might have been expected, but when it arrives, it proceeds far more quickly than envisaged.
9. Canada Post rejects union’s offer of binding arbitration to end contract struggle
The union leadership has bent over backwards to reach a deal with Canada Post, prevent a resumption of last fall’s month-long strike and avert a head-on clash with the big business Liberal government. On Wednesday of last week, the CUPW [Canadian Union of Postal Workers] bureaucrats were compelled to admit that Canada Post’s “final” offers were essentially a carbon copy of their previous demands for massive concessions that would open the door to the “Amazonification” of the post office and the wholesale slashing of full-time jobs.
However, even as it decries management for “playing hardball,” the CUPW leadership is determined to prevent postal workers from using their industrial power and rallying the working class behind them in a fight to defend public services and the right to strike, and to secure workers’ control over AI and other new technologies so as to ensure that they are used to improve workers’ lives and public services, not slash jobs and increase worker-exploitation.
Thus the union responded to Canada Post’s provocative “final offer” gambit, by offering to surrender workers’ rights to strike and to determine, through collective bargaining, their terms of employment.
10. MIT class president banned from graduation over pro-Palestinian remarks
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology banned Megha Vemuri, the Class of 2025 president and valedictorian, from attending her own graduation ceremony on Friday. The ban followed a commencement speech Vemuri gave at another ceremony on Thursday in which she condemned MIT’s ties to the Israeli military and denounced the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
11. “Well, we all are going to die”: Republicans gloat over death-dealing social cuts
The Medicaid cuts are the largest spending reduction in the giant “reconciliation” bill passed by the House of Representatives and now awaiting action in Senate, where it cannot be filibustered. The legislation has two major purposes: to make permanent the tax cuts for the wealthy which Trump pushed through in 2017, which are set to expire at the end of this year; and to offset some of the cost of this bonanza for the rich by slashing social programs for the poor.
12. Australian Labor government prepares to boost military spending at Trump’s demand
Despite desperate efforts by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to play down the issue, his Australian Labor government is moving to implement the Trump administration’s public demand for a sharp increase in military spending as part of US war plans against China.
13. Starmer governent's defense review prepares UK for nuclear war with Russia
The Starmer Labour government published its strategic defense review (SDR) Monday, with its central aim to prepare Britain to fight wars against Russia in Europe and the Atlantic. The SDR makes clear that this is conceived of as a nuclear conflict.
The SDR categorizes Russia an “immediate and pressing” threat operating a “war economy” that “if sustained, will enable it to rebuild its land capabilities more quickly” after any ceasefire in Ukraine. China is labelled a “sophisticated and persistent challenge”, expected to have 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.
14. After 4 years of negotiations, World Health Assembly adopts toothless Pandemic Agreement
The Agreement is watered down with qualifiers, lacks enforcement mechanisms and specifies no penalties for failures to meet obligations.
Meanwhile, pickets have faced a coordinated strikebreaking operation involving agency workers, private contractors, and refuse crews from neighboring authorities. Police have been deployed to escort trucks through picket lines. This has been greenlit by the government. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, promoted by union leaders as a friend of workers in Starmer’s government, publicly attacked strikers, declaring, “they can’t be blocking lorries”. Rayner authorized the use of military personnel to coordinate the strike breaking operation in March.
16. Horror: The Mekons denounce imperialism and defend refugees
Who but the Mekons would open their latest album with a reggae song about Oliver Cromwell? The veteran British band has been blending musical styles and pointing to the reverberations of the past in the present for nearly five decades.
17. Workers Struggles: The Americas
Argentina:
The Federation of Maritime and Fluvial Unions paralyze ports
Buenos Aires healthcare workers protest
Buenos Aires healthcare workers protest
Brazil:
Petrobras office workers defy union, strike in Rio de Janeiro and Santos
Canada:
60,000 Quebec construction workers on indefinite strike
United States:
Strike by 800 workers at Providence, Rhode Island Butler Hospital continues
Strike threat at four New Jersey hospitals
Workers on strike at Sutphen, major Columbus, Ohio area firetruck supplier
Negotiations continue for workers at two Colorado grocery chains following strike vote
Strike continues at California cable plant after management terminates healthcare benefits
Union says Detroit-area nursing home fired employees who picketed
Champaign County, Illinois employees vote 96 percent for strike authorization
Southern Ocean Medical Center nurses in New Jersey vote to strike over staffing
18. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Bogdan Syrotiuk
