Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:
1. Six months of the Trump administration: The stench of fascism and political crisis
The eruption of the scandal over the deliberate cover-up of Trump’s connections to billionaire speculator and convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein—six years after Epstein’s supposed suicide in a Manhattan prison cell—is not a passing matter. It rather resembles such scandals of the 20th century as the Stavisky Affair (1933-34) in France, and the Profumo Affair (1963) in Britain, which upended governments and brought about major shifts in the political life of each country.
It is worth reviewing these historical experiences, always understanding these were not matters of individual misconduct, whether sexual or financial, but revealed the deep-going corruption of an entire ruling class, leading to the discrediting of the entire bourgeois political order in France and the collapse of the Tory government in Britain. The Epstein scandal has even more far-reaching implications, since it is exposing the criminality of the ruling class in the United States, the center of world capitalism.
2. After massacring Gaza aid seekers, Israel escalates bloodshed with assault on Deir al-Balah
Deir al-Balah had been until now the last settlement in Gaza spared bombardment, reportedly because Israeli officials believed Israeli hostages were held there. As a result, it became a center for Palestinian refugee camps, UN aid operations and the remaining operational water treatment facilities in Gaza. An estimated 80,000 Palestinians were forced to flee Deir al-Balah after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued evacuation orders for several neighborhoods in the city.
One Deir al-Balah resident, Thurayya Abu Qunneis, told CNN: “The planes came and dropped many leaflets on us; the entire sky was covered with leaflets on the houses, the streets and everywhere, stating that we had to evacuate from certain areas. … We are living on edge. We can’t sleep, eat or drink. There is no flour, no anything, and we are hungry. We are dying, and our children are dying of hunger.”
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Deir al-Balah had been until now the last settlement in Gaza spared bombardment, reportedly because Israeli officials believed Israeli hostages were held there. As a result, it became a center for Palestinian refugee camps, UN aid operations and the remaining operational water treatment facilities in Gaza. An estimated 80,000 Palestinians were forced to flee Deir al-Balah after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued evacuation orders for several neighborhoods in the city.
One Deir al-Balah resident, Thurayya Abu Qunneis, told CNN: “The planes came and dropped many leaflets on us; the entire sky was covered with leaflets on the houses, the streets and everywhere, stating that we had to evacuate from certain areas. … We are living on edge. We can’t sleep, eat or drink. There is no flour, no anything, and we are hungry. We are dying, and our children are dying of hunger.”
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Workers and youth must reject the illusion that pressure and moral appeals upon imperialist governments, whose hands are drenched in blood, can persuade them to oppose genocide. In reality, these governments have supported the genocide, while sometimes cynically issuing tepid criticisms of Israel, for the nearly two years the genocide has unfolded.
3. Defend University of London SOAS students, targeted for opposing genocide!
The International Youth and Students for Social Equality calls on young people and workers in Britain and internationally to come to the defense of students at University of London’s SOAS (School of African and Oriental Studies) who are being targeted in a state crackdown for opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
4. State audit sheds light on California OSHA’s systemic failures to protect workers
A new audit from the California State Auditor has revealed what many workers have long known from bitter experience: the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) is in a state of profound and deliberate decay.
The agency, charged with protecting the lives of millions of workers in one of the world’s largest economies, is crippled by chronic understaffing, enforcement failures and bureaucratic rot—symptoms of conscious political decisions made by the Democratic Party establishment that controls the state government.
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Cal/OSHA’s enforcement, when it does occur, is toothless. Inspectors often close cases without verifying that hazards were fixed. Basic practices—such as reviewing required injury-prevention plans or conducting worker interviews—are routinely skipped.
Fines issued are frequently slashed by over 50 percent after employer appeals, with no documentation explaining why. The supposed “watchdog” for California workers operates more like a concierge service for corporate law firms.
To even file a complaint is an ordeal. Workers cannot file directly through Cal/OSHA’s website. They must call, email or navigate the federal OSHA site, a barrier especially high for non-English speakers, low-wage workers or the undocumented. This by design excludes precisely those in the most dangerous, hyper-exploitative sectors.
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Cal/OSHA’s enforcement, when it does occur, is toothless. Inspectors often close cases without verifying that hazards were fixed. Basic practices—such as reviewing required injury-prevention plans or conducting worker interviews—are routinely skipped.
Fines issued are frequently slashed by over 50 percent after employer appeals, with no documentation explaining why. The supposed “watchdog” for California workers operates more like a concierge service for corporate law firms.
To even file a complaint is an ordeal. Workers cannot file directly through Cal/OSHA’s website. They must call, email or navigate the federal OSHA site, a barrier especially high for non-English speakers, low-wage workers or the undocumented. This by design excludes precisely those in the most dangerous, hyper-exploitative sectors.
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California, long glorified as a liberal bastion, is in fact a state where workers are left to die in unsafe factories, fall into unguarded machines and burn in unregulated warehouses, all while Democratic legislators and their backers in the labor bureaucracy issue press releases about “worker dignity.”
Cal/OSHA was created in 1973, two years after the federal OSHA, in response to massive pressure from the working class amid the explosive labor and social struggles of the late 1960s and early 70s. This was part of a broader movement that wrested critical gains in safety, wages and civil rights from the capitalist state. But what was won through struggle has been dismantled through bipartisan sabotage.
Just as in health care, housing and education, the same logic applies: starve the public function, declare it broken and hand it over to private interests. And just as predictably, the working class pays with its lives.
5. Mass arrests escalate in UK following proscription of Palestine Action (with video)
The arrests mean that around 300 people have now been arrested under sections of the Terrorism Act since PalAction was proscribed, compared to 248 people arrested on terrorism charges in the UK during the whole of last year.
Saturday saw the 28th national demonstration held in the capital against the Gaza genocide. Around 80,000 people attended the Palestine Coalition march and rally, braving a thunderstorm to do so. Two days before the protest the Met put out a statement designed to cow those planning to attend under the heading, “UPDATE: Met reiterates warning on support for proscribed organisations ahead of Saturday protests”.
It stated “There will be an increased police presence in Westminster on Saturday when a number of protests are due to take place.”
6. AFSCME rams through Philadelphia city workers contract in vote marked by low turnout
AFSCME shut down the strike at the point where it was its most powerful and sprung the new tentative agreement, with barely any difference from the city’s initial proposal. With a strike vote looming for thousands of the city’s white collar workers, the bureaucracy wanted to shut down the strike before it built into a broader conflict with the Democratic Party, of which AFSCME is a part in all but name.
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Transit systems and school districts in major cities across the country are facing “doomsday” cuts due to the cut-off of supplemental pandemic funding by the Biden administration last year. The cuts being carried out by Democratic Party city administrations will only intensify as the Republicans dismantle social programs at the federal level.
7. US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doubles down on support for Israel’s “defensive” genocide in Gaza
The “cooperative programs” that Ocasio-Cortez refused to vote to defund are part of the massive US military budget and provide additional funding for advanced Israeli anti-missile systems.
8. New Caledonia remains part of France under “historic” agreement
The deal creates a “State of New Caledonia” within France, and a New Caledonian nationality. Macron declared it a “bet on trust” leading to a “peaceful relationship with France.” It commits all the signatories, who must now sell it to their own deeply suspicious political bases.
9. Japanese ruling coalition loses its upper house majority
This is the second major loss for Shigeru Ishiba since becoming prime minister last year. The ruling coalition lost its majority in the general election for the lower house last October for only the third time since 1955, leaving Ishiba at the head of an unstable minority government.
Ishiba stated at a news conference on Monday that he intends to stay in power, saying “As the first party in parliament, we have to fulfill our responsibility with the public so as to prevent politics from stagnating or drifting… Challenges such as the global situation and natural disasters won’t wait for a better political situation.”
The Japanese economy is immediately facing a heavy hit from 25 percent “reciprocal” tariff on Japanese exports to the US slated to go into effect on August 1. Sectorial tariffs have also been imposed on Japanese goods including a 25 percent tariff on vehicles and auto parts. Japan experienced a trade deficit of 2.2 trillion yen ($US14.9 billion) for the first half of 2025, with exports to the US dropping by 11.4 percent in June alone. As a result, the government is under considerable pressure from big business to reach a deal.
10. Leaked documents expose Australian Labor government export of fighter jet parts to Israel
While the exact nature and contents of the packages remains unknown, the leaked documents uncovered by Declassified Australia expose the deliberate complicity of the Australian government in Israel’s war crimes.
This belies the claims by the Albanese government that F-35 parts sourced from Australia were not shipped directly to Israel, but were part of a global supply chain—a feeble attempt to distance the government from Israel’s war crimes.
The direct transfer of the parts, from an airforce base to Israel, could only have been approved by the military command and the government. That is an involvement, even more direct than the previously known practice of permitting private weapons companies to export their products to global networks aiding Israel.
11. European Union readies trade war retaliation against Trump tariffs
EU officials said 30 percent tariffs would price EU goods out of US markets and end US-EU trade, the world’s largest trading relationship at $1.7 trillion in goods and services per year. “It will be almost impossible to continue the trading as we are used to in the trans-Atlantic relationship,” EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said. Speaking of the 30 percent tariffs threatened by Trump, Sefcovic added: “Practically, it prohibits trade.”
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The world capitalist economy is teetering on the brink of collapse, with trillions of dollars in products and millions of jobs on the line. EU automobile, pharmaceuticals, food and luxury and machinery sectors, and US automotive and aerospace, machinery, medical and food sectors all face vast potential losses. US officials are threatening the largest hike in US tariffs since the devastating 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariffs, which accelerated capitalism’s plunge into the Great Depression.
Even if a last-minute deal is reached, the brandishing of the threat to cut off US-EU trade will have a long lasting impact on relations between American and European capitalism. On both sides of the Atlantic, government ministers and corporate executives must plan what to do if no deal is reached, and US-EU trade grinds to a halt. The economic foundations of the peaceful relations established between Washington and the major European powers after World War II are collapsing.
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International trade war does not bring together the classes in each country in national unity but sharply polarizes politics internationally along class lines. While the ruling classes pursue their rival imperialist interests, workers in every country face the same essential problems: social austerity, the loss of jobs in export industries and related supply chains hit by tariffs abroad, and the rising cost of living as imported goods are hit by tariffs at home.
These mounting economic difficulties will soon provoke mounting class struggles. The decisive question will be the international unification of workers’ struggles in America and Europe, and in particular opposing attempts by imperialist governments and union bureaucracies to divide workers along national lines. Only a common struggle of the working class to take the resources of the world economy out of the hands of the imperialists and subordinate them to social need instead of private profit can halt the accelerating downward spiral of the capitalist system.
12. Workers Struggles: The Americas
Argentina:Brazil:
Canada:
Police threaten arrest of strikers at Toromont’s Caterpillar refurbishing plant
Oshawa, Ontario truckers and technicians on strike
Chile:
Casino workers strike
United States:
California farm workers to strike against ICE raids
Pennsylvania iron workers strike nears three-month mark
13. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Bogdan Syrotiuk
