Jul 1, 2025

Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:

1. Zohran Mamdani responds to right-wing attacks with accommodations to the Democratic Party and big business

When asked, “do you think that billionaires have a right to exist?” Mamdani responded: “I don’t think that we should have billionaires because frankly it is so much money in a moment of such inequality. Ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city, across our state and across our country. And I look forward to working with everyone, including billionaires, to make a city that is fairer for all of them.”

If it is the case that billionaires should not exist because of the levels of inequality, how is this to be squared with Mamani’s proposal to “work with” the billionaires in addressing the crisis and implementing politics that will “benefit everyone”?

Revealed in these comments is the basic contradiction of Mamdani’s perspective. While appealing to the mass social anger that propelled his election victory, Mamdani claims that the issues that drove his support can be resolved through the Democratic Party, which is a party of Wall Street and the ruling class, and without challenging the foundations of capitalist rule.

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As part of this effort to consolidate support among sections of business and the political leadership of the Democratic Party, Mamdani has also “amped down” his opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. 

In the Meet the Press interview, Mamdani was pressed by Welker to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which he did not. In responding, however, Mamdani accepted the fiction of a “moment of antisemitism in our country and in our city.” He made no reference to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, which was a central issue in the broad popular support for his campaign. 

2. Dollar fall an expression of the crisis of US and global capitalism

The US dollar has had its worst start for the year since 1973, in the wake of President Nixon’s August 1971 decision to remove its gold backing and abrogate the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944, which had been a central plank of the post-war monetary order established after the chaos of the 1930s.

In the first six months of the year, it has fallen by more than 10 percent against a basket of six major currencies, in a sign of a loss of confidence in its status as the dominant currency and a safe haven in periods of financial turbulence and stress. 

3. UFCW ignores strike deadline for 45,000 California grocery workers: Workers must organize to override stalling tactics and launch a strike!

For weeks, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) has been holding “practice” pickets and noisily declaring that it is preparing to strike. Indeed, it said that last week’s round of talks were supposed to be the last such discussions. But as of this writing, neither a strike nor an agreement has been announced—and no details of talks have been shared with the rank and file.

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Even the union’s own press materials admit what’s at stake. UFCW Locals 324 and 770 stated, “Tens of thousands of additional union grocery workers across the country who are employed by Kroger and Albertsons ... also voted to authorize a strike last week, bringing over 100,000 grocery workers to the brink of a strike at the same time. Should the workers call a strike, it could create the largest grocery strike in modern history.”

But the bureaucracy is stalling precisely because grocery workers are in a powerful position, not in spite of it. They do not want to do anything that threatens their cozy ties with management. One of the most appalling examples of this was during the start of the pandemic, when the UFCW not only refused to close the meatpacking plants but worked out an “attendance bonus” at one Tyson plant, with managers taking bets on how many workers would get sick. Six workers are confirmed to have died at the facility.

All of the 100,000 workers on the brink of striking are members of the UFCW. But instead of laying the groundwork for a powerful nationwide strike, the bureaucrats are deliberately isolating each section from the others. 

4. With Philadelphia municipal workers strike looming, mayor offers miserable pay increase

The struggle unfolds against a budget crisis in the city that led the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) to adopt a “doomsday budget” last Thursday. “We have to budget not on hope but on reality,” said SEPTA General Manager Scott A. Sauer to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The budget would slash services in the coming fiscal year by nearly half.

The term “doomsday budget” was also used to describe a similarly catastrophic funding bill for the city’s school district a decade ago. At that time, the School District of Philadelphia eliminated thousands of non-core positions, leaving the teachers and schools stripped of resources.

Budget crises are unfolding in major metropolitan centers all over the United States, with the proximate cause in many cases being the cutoff of pandemic assistance by the Biden administration last year.

5. Nearly 100 Palestinians killed across Gaza, as Netanyahu prepares to meet Trump in Washington D.C.

As the daily killings continue, Prime Minister Netanyahu is planning to visit Washington D.C. next week to meet with President Donald Trump. The White House has been promoting the visit as part of “ceasefire talks,” but the meeting is widely recognized as a planning session for the next stage of Israel’s ethnic cleansing operation in Gaza.

6. New study shows immense impact of public health on life expectancy

The current landscape of public health in the United States is marked by a far-reaching attack on foundational scientific principles and institutions, threatening decades of progress in combating preventable diseases.  

7. Trump administration revokes US visas for Bob Vylan over anti-genocide chants at Glastonbury

The banning of Bob Vylan is an attack on the democratic rights of the entire working class and youth. The government and ruling elite are terrified of the growing global opposition to genocide, repression and war. The chants that rang out at Glastonbury express the sentiments of millions.

8. Australia: Black People’s Union doubles down on censorship of socialists

The BPU declares itself to be a revolutionary organization. Its website is replete with radical declarations that it is anti-capitalist, anti-colonial and anti-imperialist and its solidarity with oppressed indigenous peoples in the Pacific and internationally, including the Palestinians. It even declares the need for the international working class to overturn capitalism.

But, for all this radical-sounding demagogy, the BPU does not declare what its “revolution” is for, or what it intends to replace capitalism with. The word “socialism” does not appear on its website. As for its references to the working class, its claim that “as many as 3 in every 4 non-Indigenous people” in Australia are racist amounts to a slander against workers. It underscores the objective political role of black nationalism, along with every other form of nationalism and racism, as a means to divide the working class.

9. Labor governments support brutal police assault on Sydney pro-Palestinian protest

As thousands have expressed their shock and anger at a violent assault on a small pro-Palestinian protest in Sydney last Friday, senior representatives of the New South Wales state and federal Labor governments have defended the police rampage.

The response is all the more striking, given that it follows the exposure of the lawlessness of the police actions and the horrific injuries suffered by one of the participants.

10. Protest outside Woolwich Crown Court demands release of Palestine Action’s Filton 18

The “Filton 18” members of Palestine Action appeared in Woolwich Crown Court today, a high-security courtroom and the state’s preferred venue for terrorism cases. They are being prosecuted in connection with an action last August at Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems’ Filton site near Bristol, where protesters damaged property to impede the supply of war crimes in Gaza.

This week, Labour Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will be moving an order through Parliament outlawing Palestine Action altogether by adding it to the list of the government’s proscribed organizations—equating it with terrorist organizations like ISIS. Even expressing support for the organization or its members would be made a criminal offense, with a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

11. Palestine Action mounts legal challenge to Starmer’s “terrorism” ban, as public opposition grows

A broad spectrum of human rights groups, political and media organizations have called for the ban on PA to be halted. This includes top establishment figures such as Labour Peer Lord Falconer, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice under Prime Minister Tony Blair. He stated that spray painting a RAF plane would not meet the legal threshold for a terrorism proscription, but added that PA “may have done other things” to justify the government’s ban.

Writing in a similar vein in the pro-Tory Telegraph, Simon Heffer judged that PA’s actions were “bonkers and loathsome” but could not be compared to terrorism, warning, “This devaluation of a word with a precise meaning is highly dangerous.”

Friday’s High Court hearing will take place at the same time as a pre-trial hearing of SOAS 2 member Sarah, a student at University of London’s, School of African and Oriental Studies, charged under the Terrorism Act for defending the right of the Palestinian people to resist Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

12. 600,000 public sector workers in Turkey oppose contract imposing wage cuts

While the working class is in economic decline, social resources are being transferred to corporations, banks and militarism. According to the 2025 Global Wealth Report published by Switzerland-based UBS, Turkey stood out last year as the country with the largest increase in the number of US dollar millionaires. Turkey had 7,000 new dollar millionaires in 2024, the highest increase worldwide with a rate of 8.4 percent.

This has only been possible by increasing the exploitation of the working class and clawing back its social conditions. According to the Gini coefficient of wealth inequality cited in the same report, Turkey ranks ninth in the world, with a value of 0.73 by 2024.

The social attack on the working class is inextricably linked to militarism and war. At the last NATO summit in The Hague, leaders agreed to increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. Erdogan emphasized his commitment to this target, saying, “In fact, we are one of the countries closest to reaching 5 percent.” This foreshadows continuing attacks on the working class.

13. Germany: Protest and tribunal oppose Gaza genocide, state repression

On Saturday, around 500 people demonstrated in Duisburg against the genocide in Gaza and the repression directed at those who express solidarity with the Palestinians. Following the demonstration, those affected gave testimony at a public tribunal.

14. “Every worker has a stake”: In public meeting, USPS Workers Rank-and-File Committee launches investigation of heat-related deaths

The US Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee (USPS RFC) held a well-attended online meeting Sunday to announce the launch of an independent investigation into the deaths of two letter carriers who died in apparent heat-related incidents in recent weeks.

15. Australia: 160 workers locked out at Peabody’s Helensburgh coal min

The lockout, considered “protected employer response action” under Australia’s pro-business Fair Work Act, is a provocation aimed at intimidating workers, crippling them financially and discouraging them from fighting back against further attacks on job security, wages and conditions. Peabody has used the same tactic to pressure Helensburgh workers to accept rotten deals in every enterprise bargaining negotiation over the past decade.

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The current lockout at Helensburgh is a stark reminder that the so-called Fair Work Act, far from being “fair,” is completely stacked in favor of big business. The Act allows an employer to indefinitely lock out its entire workforce, without pay, in response to any industrial action, however limited, even when workers have fulfilled the byzantine requirements of the FWC to deem that action “protected.”

16. Workers Struggles: The Americas

Argentina: 

Workers, educators and students rally in defense of universities 

Canada:

Ontario Workers Compensation civil servants now in 5th week of strike

Ecuador: 

Protests against central Ecuador mining project 

Mexico:

Mexico City welfare workers demand an end to contingent work

Paraguay: 

Nurses demand higher wages

United States: 

Meatpacking workers overwhelmingly vote to strike Tyson Amarillo, Texas plant

Providence, Rhode Island healthcare workers vote for open-ended strike

Washington state emergency service workers to strike for first contract

17. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!

Bogdan Syrotiuk