Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:
1. SEP and IYSSE hold successful meetings in Sri Lanka opposing the US-Israel War on Iran
The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) in Sri Lanka held two public meetings under the title “Oppose the Israel-US war on Iran!”—one online via Zoom on July 6, and another at Veerasingham Hall in Jaffna, in the war-ravaged Northern Province, on July 8.
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At the Jaffna meeting, a participant questioned the SEP’s limited participation in local elections, asking why the party contests only a few councils rather than across the island.
Jayasekera explained that the SEP is centrally focused on mobilizing the working class independently on an international socialist program, rather than chasing votes. He emphasized that the SEP uses elections primarily as a platform to present its revolutionary policies to broader layers of workers, youth, and the rural poor.
2. Scabbing operation by Philadelphia union apparatus on city workers strike comes into focus
The sellout of the strike is so naked and blatant that even the corporate press, which usually ignores such matters out of self-interest, has been forced to take note. The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, which hailed the deal as a win for “fiscal discipline,” ran a story Thursday carrying the headline: “How the AFSCME DC 33 strike exposed fault lines in Philly’s labor movement.”
During the strike, the article states, “Philadelphia unions found themselves in the difficult position of having to choose between supporting the roughly 9,000 blue-collar municipal workers on strike and maintaining relationships with their employer, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker.”
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The Inquirer presents the “fault line” as being between different unions in the city of Philadelphia. In reality, it is between the union bureaucracy and the workers.
The role of the apparatus during the strike was standard practice. In every strike that the bureaucracy is not able to prevent, it does everything it can to isolate, limit and shut down the struggle as soon as it can. To cite only some recent examples: the 2023 “standup strike” in the auto industry; the three-day strike by east coast longshoremen last year; the Colorado grocery workers strikes this year, where the same union local kept King Soopers and Safeway workers separated from each other; and recent strikes by nursing home workers and submarine builders in Connecticut.
3. Militarized immigration raids on California farms leave one worker dead and over 200 missing
On Thursday federal immigration agents joined by National Guard soldiers carried out two brutal immigration raids in Carpinteria and Camarillo, California, which left at least one worker dead and several others hospitalized. Reports indicate as many as 200 people have been taken by the immigration Gestapo.
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The fascist raids have produced mass anger throughout the region. Carpinteria and Camarillo are both located north of Los Angeles County in the agriculture and industrial Central Coast. Between Caprinteria and Camarillo is Oxnard, the largest city in Ventura County, with over 200,000 residents. Hispanic and Latinos are by far the largest ethnic group in Oxanard, making up 77 percent of the population.
As of this writing, some 1,000 protesters are marching on Oxnard City Hall calling for the release of those detained by the immigration Gestapo, and for ICE to leave California.
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That the raids targeted agricultural workers—one of the most exploited layers of the American working class—exposes the lie that these operations are about “public safety” or “criminal aliens.” The reality is that the Trump government is targeting the working class as a whole. The same militarized tactics used against immigrant workers today will inevitably be used against any section of the working class that resists.
4. Trump’s tariffs and the threat of World War Three
While it was couched as a fight for democracy against fascism, whether in German or Japanese form, World War II was an imperialist war waged to determined which of the major capitalist powers would assume global dominance.
The US, due to its industrial capacity and consequent military might, was able to emerge victorious through the defeat of its rivals, Germany and Japan, and ensure that its ally, British imperialism, was placed in a subordinate position, unable to return to the glory days of the Empire.
Now a new world war is in rapid gestation as US imperialism seeks to overcome its protracted decline and reassert its global dominance.
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The ravings of Trump that the previous global economic and financial arrangements have resulted in the US being “ripped off” by the rest of the world through the growth of trade deficits and that it is necessary to Make America Great Again should not be dismissed as those of a lunatic.
In their own way, they reflect objective processes. The post-war economic and financial mechanisms have brought about a decline in the dominant economic position of the US. Trump expresses the insistence by all sections of the US political, military and economic establishment that it must be restored by all methods—economic war against its rivals combined with military means.
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At present Europe and Japan, together with many others are desperately seeking, at least publicly, to accommodate themselves to the US hoping they may get some concessions.
But in the councils and institutions of all the capitalist states—not only in China—there is a recognition that there is no real likelihood of this happening, and the US onslaught is directed against them.
Another response is starting to emerge based on the recognition that at some point they will be forced to confront the US if they wish to avoid being transformed into semi-colonies.
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Anyone who thinks that Japan and the European imperialist powers are simply going to fade away into the soft good night or that the US is going to let up on its drive for global domination is betting against history.
They have gone to war in the past and all the contradictions of the global capitalist system which precipitated those conflicts not only remain but have intensified.
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The perspective which opens up has a dual character. Either the bourgeoisie, now concentrated in the form of an economic and financial oligarchy, remains in the saddle and plunges mankind into unimaginable barbarism or the international working class undertakes a conscious political struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and establishes a higher socio-economic order, international socialism.
There is no third way.
5. Australian government’s Zionist “envoy” demands police-state powers
A press conference by Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke on Thursday marked a new stage in the campaign to criminalise mass opposition to the Israeli genocide in Gaza, and Australia’s complicity in it.
They were speaking alongside Jillian Segal, who they appointed as the country’s “Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism” last year. Segal and her office have nothing to do with fighting antisemitism or any other form or racism.
6. Ten years since the Greek referendum: The lessons of Syriza’s betrayal
Ten years ago this month, the Syriza (“Coalition of the Radical Left”) government in Greece overturned the overwhelming result of a national referendum rejecting austerity. On July 5, 2015, Greek workers delivered a decisive vote against further austerity measures demanded by the European Union. Syriza responded by ramming through the very cuts the population had just repudiated.
The referendum was a critical experience for the international working class, with enormous political lessons that are of burning relevance in the present political situation.
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The World Socialist Web Site defined the pseudo-left as political forces that “utilize populist slogans and democratic phrases to promote the socioeconomic interests of privileged and affluent strata of the middle class.” The pseudo-left “opposes class struggle, and denies the central role of the working class and the necessity of revolution… The economic program of the pseudo-left is, in its essentials, pro-capitalist and nationalistic.”
Syriza was part of a broader tendency that first appeared clearly during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, when ostensibly “left” forces intervened to derail mass revolutionary upheaval and channel it back into bourgeois politics.
In the years following Syriza’s betrayal, workers and youth encountered similar experiences around the world: The “Pink Tide” subordinated opposition to the interests of American imperialism; Podemos in Spain joined an austerity government led by the Spanish Socialist Party; Jeremy Corbyn in Britain defused mass opposition to austerity and war, only to see the Labour right retake control; and in the US, Bernie Sanders funneled growing discontent behind Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party
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These betrayals have had catastrophic consequences for the working class over the last decade, paving the way for the further enrichment of a super-wealthy oligarchy and plunging millions into social crisis.
Drawing conclusions from these events is not a matter of bemoaning the failures or deceit of specific leaders and parties, but of understanding the bankruptcy of their politics.
All of them sought to recruit the working class to a program of reforms—of an extremely timid character even by the standards of the second half of the 20th century—from the ruling class. Their program was based on the preservation of the capitalist system, which they hoped to make somewhat more livable for its citizens for the sake of social peace.
When the latter came into conflict with the former—as it inevitably must today, with national governments beholden to global capital to an unprecedented degree—all traces of a reformist program were abandoned, and yet another government of austerity was imposed.
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The fulfillment of workers’ socialist aspirations can only come once the advanced layers of the working class learn to reject and oppose the bankrupt semi-reformism of the leaders they presently support. Without this, the working class will be forced to repeat the Syriza experience—with ever more disastrous consequences.
7. California’s declining life expectancy driven by a public health crisis
California’s life expectancy crisis obliterates the narrative of progress peddled by the state’s political establishment. The JAMA report lays bare a landscape of deep inequality. The life expectancy gap between the poorest and wealthiest quartiles stands at a whopping 5.77 years. Black and Hispanic Californians, largely workers and immigrants, who experienced the steepest drops in life expectancy during the pandemic, now remain more than 1.4 years below their 2019 levels.
Life expectancy has always reflected the brutal reality of class society. People die earlier because of poverty, overwork, pollution, inaccessible healthcare and systemic neglect.
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The persistent life expectancy gap reflects the deep decay of capitalism, which offers no path to equitable recovery—only worsening inequality and mass suffering. To reverse this crisis, public health must be rebuilt as part of a socialist reorganization of society that guarantees universal access to care as a basic social right.
8. In German budget debate, Merz threatens Russia with war and declares himself leader of Europe
The budget debate in the Bundestag (federal parliament) was a repulsive spectacle, clearly demonstrating the ruthlessness with which the Social Democrats (SPD) and Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) are implementing a reckless programme of rearmament and a return to German great‑power politics—with the backing of virtually all parties.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) used his speech in the general debate to beat the war drums against Russia. He denounced the Russian government as a “criminal regime” that was “on its way to destroying the political freedom order of the entire European continent.” Merz declared: “The tools of diplomacy have been exhausted.”
That is a barely veiled declaration of war. First, the German government deliberately provoked Russia’s reactionary invasion of Ukraine, then systematically escalated the conflict and torpedoed any diplomatic solutions in order to use it today as a pretext to prepare for a comprehensive war against Russia. That is the purpose of the rearmament madness debated in the Bundestag over recent days.
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Today’s conflict concerns nothing other than economic interests. Germany aims to plunder Ukraine and subjugate Russia to secure vast resources and open up new markets. The burden of these great‑power politics is to be borne by the population once again. To pay for rearmament, the CDU and SPD plan substantial attacks on public services. “Yes, these are large sums that will hurt many,” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) admitted in the Bundestag.
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There was not a single voice of criticism against Merz’s war rhetoric and great‑power posturing in the Bundestag. The fascist Alternative for Germany (AfD), set the tone for the government much like it does on refugee issues. Its defense spokesperson, retired Colonel Rüdiger Lucassen, demanded rearmament and compulsory military service, and supported the chancellor’s leadership fantasies:
“We want to end this era of self‑belittling and lead not only ourselves, but the states of Europe into a safe and free future together—as sovereign nations, but someone must lead. I see no reason why Germany should not fill that role.”
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The unanimity with which all the establishment parties support the insane war plans of the government shows that it is not merely the narrow-mindedness of politicians such as Merz and Pistorius that is leading towards war, but the deep crisis of capitalism. That is why all capitalist parties stand shoulder to shoulder in restoring German militarism. As it did 90 years ago, this accompanies xenophobia against refugees and the criminalization of opponents of war.
Yet opposition to this madness is vast. The crucial factor is that this opposition must be organized and armed with a socialist perspective that opposes not only war but its root in capitalism. That is the program of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) and its sister parties of the Fourth International.
Old women-consent-dissent
by Costantino Ciervo
Costantino Ciervo:
"I don’t believe in artists as a category, but I believe in the power of art. The best art is like a good book: it allows you to examine and reflect on the world. Books can generate change. But too much art remains locked away in private villas, far from the public.
The truly important works are those designed for public spaces, in museums and squares, artworks that help the viewer deepen their understanding of the world–and of themselves."
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10. Crisis in the Trump White House over continuing Jeffrey Epstein cover-up"The best of art can be revolutionary because, unlike politics and philosophy, it employs a symbolic, non-argumentative, universal language. Its “truth content” emerges thanks precisely to its peculiar non-discursive, universal form of communication."
Attorney General Pam Bondi, one of the many fascists in Trump’s cabinet with a record of political favoritism and attacks on democratic rights, is at the center of the crisis. Earlier in 2025, Bondi made headlines by claiming she was in possession of Epstein’s “client list.”
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Donald Trump himself played a significant role in raising expectations about the release of Epstein-related documents. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly hinted that, if elected, he would “have no problem” releasing all Epstein files, including the supposed “client list.”
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The administration’s handling of the Epstein files has provoked outrage among Trump’s supporters and far-right influencers, many of whom had invested years in the belief that an explosive “client list” would be released.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, in particular, has become a lightning rod for criticism. After the DOJ’s memo, Bondi faced intense scrutiny for her earlier claims. She was accused of misleading the public and failing to deliver on promises of transparency.
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The Epstein scandal has always been about more than one man’s crimes. It is about how the mechanisms of the capitalist state are used by wealthy and powerful individuals to evade legal scrutiny and prosecution. Individuals such as Epstein—who had extensive connections with the financial oligarchy and its political representatives in the Democratic and Republican parties—are protected by the system and shielded from exposure.
11. Stop Labor’s destruction of Melbourne public housing towers!
The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) calls on workers to join with residents to fight the Victorian Labor government’s plans to tear down 44 public housing towers in Melbourne and displace some 10,000 people from their homes.
The staggering demolition of 6,600 dwellings, more than 10 percent of Victoria’s public housing stock, is the largest destruction of public housing in Australia’s history.
In particular, we urge building workers to take a stand in defence of the vulnerable and oppressed occupants, many of them immigrants, refugees, disabled or elderly. A total ban should be established on any work related to the demolition of public housing. A clear line must be drawn: Construction workers will not lift a finger to carry out Labor’s profit-driven program to destroy homes and communities.
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The national median home price is now over $1 million and Australian capitals top global lists of the most unaffordable cities. The soaring cost of housing has generated a huge increase in wealth for property developers and financial speculators, while driving working-class families into crippling debt, financial stress and even homelessness. Having engineered this housing crisis for their own benefit, the ruling class is seeking to plunge the knife in deeper, by tearing down and privatizing what little remains of public housing.
In New South Wales, for example, the Labor government has begun evicting the first of 3,000 residents of the Waterloo South public housing estate in Sydney. As with the Melbourne towers, this is transparently aimed at freeing up valuable inner-city real estate for redevelopment.
The attack on public housing being carried out by governments around the world is a stark demonstration of the brutal reality of capitalism. All human needs, including the basic right to a place to live, are subordinated to the interests of big business.
12. Trump visits Texas flood disaster: The perpetrator-in-chief at the scene of the crime
At his first major public response to the disaster—a press conference held a full week after the flood—Trump refused to answer questions about the role of his administration and that of MAGA ally Abbott in the catastrophe. Amid fawning praise from the assembled officials and right-wing media, Trump and company made clear that a massive cover-up is underway and no one will be held accountable for the preventable loss of life.
After remarks from Trump, Melania, and Abbott—filled with invocations of God and self-congratulation— a reporter asked Trump to address questions from victims and survivors about the lack of adequate warning as the river rose through the night and the absence of a flood warning system.
Trump replied: “Everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances. Only a very evil person would ask a question like that.”
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The degraded spectacle arguably reached its low point when Trump called on the TV evangelist and huckster Dr. Phil to add to the outpouring of praise for Trump, God and “Texas strong.”
At the same time, Abbott and other state officials, contradicting their claim that nothing could have been done to avert the massive loss of life, pledged to investigate the disaster and implement measures to prevent its repetition, a promise that will not be kept.
The World Socialist Web Site recently spoke to former NASA administrator Dan Weedman, 82, about the far-reaching and devastating impacts the cuts in the 2026 budget will have on science in the United States.
Dan Weedman:
"They're killing off the new generation of scientists, the seed corn, the people who will have ideas for the future. This applies to all the sciences, because the same thing is happening at NIH. Young people are bearing the brunt of this and it’s the young people that represent the future. It’s throwing away our scientific future in the US, it’s as simple as that."
14. Trump administration tightens sanctions on Havana as it detains and deports Cubans in US
On June 30, the Trump administration issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) tightening sanctions on Cuba, which is teetering on the brink of collapse from US imperialism’s decades-long embargo. At the same time, Cuban nationals in the United States, most of whom have fled the island due to the American government’s policies, are now being increasingly targeted for detention and deportation as part of Trump’s crackdown on migrants.
The NSPM reverses several moves made by the outgoing Biden administration during its last week in office, most notably placing the country back on the list of “state sponsors of terrorism.” It also reimposes the list of “restricted entities” tied to the Cuban government that are subject to additional sanctions beyond those already stipulated by existing law.
However, Trump’s current NSPM goes beyond the measures imposed during his first term in 2017, and suggest that Washington smells blood in the water and is looking to push Cuba further into total collapse in preparation for regime change.
The purpose of this meeting is to discuss building opposition to the tentative agreement announced by AFSCME District Council 33, and to organize rank-and-file resistance against the sellout.
This meeting is an urgent opportunity to discuss how to reclaim the strike from the union bureaucracy and fight for the real needs of Philadelphia’s municipal workers.
This sadistic call for mutilation is a thinly disguised pledge to continue murdering protesters. It comes in the wake of state orchestrated massacres, where over 50 people, many of them youth, have been killed in protests calling for Ruto to resign since the start of the year.
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This wave of repression is not limited to Kenya. The governments of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania are collaborating to suppress dissent across borders. Last year, Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye was abducted with Kenyan complicity while attending a book launch in Nairobi and resurfaced days later in a Ugandan military court. Exiled Tanzanian activist Maria Sarungi Tsehai was abducted in Nairobi, choked and interrogated by armed men demanding access to her phone. Kenyan activists who travelled to Tanzania in solidarity with opposition leader Tundu Lissu were detained, sexually abused, and deported.
This developing alliance between the security services of East Africa’s main regimes represents a version of the infamous Latin American Operation Condor of the 1970s, when US-backed military dictatorships of South America coordinated to hunt down, abduct, torture, and murder left wing opponents.
This brutal crackdown is an attempt to preserve capitalist rule under conditions of economic collapse. An estimated 34 percent of Kenyans live on under $2.15 a day, with 38 percent below the national poverty line and 29 percent enduring extreme deprivation. Youth unemployment remains at 67 percent. Formal-sector job creation has slowed, dropping from 123,000 new jobs in 2023 to just 75,500 in 2024 amid savage IMF austerity, while 70,000 formal jobs were lost between October 2022 and November 2023, 3 percent of the formal workforce. These conditions have been worsened by surging food prices, punitive taxation, and ballooning public debt. At the same time, according to Oxfam, the richest four Africans now hold more wealth than the poorest half of the continent’s 750 million people.
17. Macron and Starmer discuss war and attacks on migrants during state visit
French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to the UK—the first by a French leader since 2008 and the first by any European leader since Brexit—was marked by agreements on anti-migrant measures and continuing the war against Russia in Ukraine.
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Starmer and Macron discussed plans for their “Coalition of the Willing” over Ukraine. “The Coalition of the Willing will have a new permanent headquarters in Paris, with plans in place for a future coordination cell in Kyiv, as command structures for the future reassurance force are finalised,” read a Downing Street press release.
The British Prime Minister told reporters: “the Coalition of the Willing is ensuring we have a future force that can deploy following a ceasefire to deter Russian aggression for years to come.
“But as we continue to prepare for peace, our focus must also be on making it happen. So, alongside our partners, in the coming days and weeks, we will step up our support to keep Ukraine in the fight now, increasing pressure on Putin through crippling sanctions and ensuring Ukraine’s Armed Forces have the equipment they need to defend their sovereign territory.”
18. Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
India:Tamil Nadu vocational training teachers hold state-wide strike
Punjab: Mohali Municipal Corporation workers end strike
Odisha road transport drivers strike for improved conditionsAustralia:
Glencore coal miners in New South Wales strike for pay rise
KONE elevator technicians in New South Wales strike for industry standard pay
Stramit/Taurean Doors workers in Victoria strike for pay rise
Getinge lockout of electricians in Queensland enters eighth week
Star Casino workers in Queensland strike again for pay riseNew Zealand:
Uber drivers rally for employment rights
19. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Bogdan Syrotiuk and Leon Trotsky
