Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:
Mass and growing opposition to Israel’s crimes exist throughout the world. What is lacking is a clear program and perspective. The International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties insist that the genocide will not be stopped through appeals to the very capitalist governments carrying out and enabling the genocide. What is urgently required, and what has not yet occurred, is the independent eruption of the working class onto the political stage.
We propose that workers and young people throughout the world raise definite demands, including:
An immediate halt of shipment of all weapons to Israel. Since the beginning of the genocide, it is estimated that Israel has received some $25 billion in weapons and other assistance. The vast majority of bombs dropped on Palestinian homes have been provided by the United States and the European imperialist powers.
The boycott of all trade and other economic activity with Israel. The ability of the Israeli state to carry out the genocide must be halted by crippling its economic foundations. A recent comment in the Financial Times noted that since October 2023, Israel’s stock market has been the “best-performing in the world,” with an influx of foreign capital fueling the wealth of the ruling elite and financing the Zionist regime’s ability to murder Palestinians.
US, European and other corporations assisting Israel in carrying out the genocide must be indicted and prosecuted. The ruling class internationally is arming Israel behind the backs of the population and reaping vast profits by providing the IDF weapons, AI and surveillance infrastructure, just as corporations like IG Farben profited from making Zyklon B gas for the gas chambers the Nazis used to kill Jews. Washington retaliated against UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s denunciation of this “economy of genocide” by revoking her visa and freezing her bank accounts.
The arrest of Israeli officials for war crimes. International arrest warrants have already been drawn up against many Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but are ignored by the imperialist powers. Moreover, serving in the IDF are many citizens of the US and European countries. They should be subject to arrest and prosecution if it is determined that they in any way contributed to the genocide.
The end of repression of the opposition to the Gaza genocide. Capitalist governments, including those that signed this week’s statement, have relentlessly criminalized opposition to the genocide. They have carried out mass arrests against organizations criticizing it, launched bloody police assaults on pro-Gaza protests, and prosecuted defenders of Gaza on bogus terrorism or antisemitism charges. Workers and youth must fight to defend those who come out in defense of Gaza, for charges against them to be dropped and to end the repression of their activities.
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The fight against the genocide in Gaza is inseparable from the fight against the expanding global imperialist war, of which it is a component part. The aim of the imperialist powers to create a “new Middle East” under their domination is inseparable from their broader war plans against Russia and China.
The World Socialist Web Site, the International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties call for an end to the Gaza genocide through the building of a new international anti-war movement. This movement must be grounded in the working class and based on a revolutionary socialist program. Its goal must be to abolish the capitalist profit system, which is the root cause of war.
2. European Court of Human Rights accepts case of imprisoned Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk
Syrotiuk’s lawyers have based their complaint on the fact that Syrotiuk’s arrest on April 25, 2024 was in violation of his basic right to liberty. They argue that Bogdan, who was 25 and in poor health at the time of his arrest, at no point constituted a danger to society, had no prior criminal record, and was arrested purely for the expression of his political beliefs.
Bogdan was charged with “high treason under martial law,” which carries a sentence of between 15 years and life in prison. In fact, Bogdan, as a leader of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists, is a fighter for the unity of the working class in Ukraine, Russia and throughout the former Soviet Union against the present war and in political opposition to both the Zelensky and Putin regimes.
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The acceptance of the case by the court is an important step in the campaign to demand the release of Bogdan. It is worth stressing that the court, as an institution of European imperialism, has close ties to the Ukrainian ruling class and accepts cases against Ukraine only when the most egregious violations are undeniable.
In an indication of the severity and scope of the violations of human and democratic rights in Ukraine, the country ranks among the top three countries in terms of the number of applications before the ECHR. Every year it accounts for over 15 percent of all cases lodged. However, the ECHR accepts only a small minority of complaints and delivers a final judgement in an even smaller portion.
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By any legal standards, the case against him should have already been dropped and Bogdan released. The only “evidence” cited by the prosecution in its indictment are articles Bogdan wrote and translated for the World Socialist Web Site, and pamphlets and statements by the International Committee of the Fourth International. This was not “state treason,” but the exercise of his basic right to freedom of expression and freedom of thought. The claim by the prosecution that the World Socialist Web Site is a “Russian propaganda and information agency” is a transparent lie, disproven by the entire documentary record that the prosecution tries to use to indict Bogdan.
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Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Bogdan Syrotiuk and Leon Trotsky
3. CBS cancels The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Colbert’s ouster is part of a larger pattern. Media companies, law firms, universities and cultural institutions are falling into line under the weight of lawsuits, federal funding threats and regulatory intimidation. Columbia University had $400 million in federal funds frozen for allegedly “failing to address antisemitism” during pro-Palestinian protests.
As the World Socialist Web Site has argued, an argument only strengthened by Colbert’s cancelling,
Trump is implementing an American version of Gleichschaltung–the Nazi’s “synchronization” of all elements of intellectual and cultural life ... to correspond with state ideology.
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What is unfolding is the Detroit-ification of Hollywood. The 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes marked a major turning point, exposing the deep rot in the entertainment industry, its unsustainable foundations and the pathetic and treacherous role of the union bureaucracies.
Rather than respond to the crisis with investment in quality programming or improved working conditions, the studios have doubled down on automation and consolidation with the complicity of the unions. The spread of AI into screenwriting, animation and production has only accelerated this process. Technological change, under capitalism, is not used to liberate labor or enhance creativity—it is wielded as a weapon against workers.
World Socialist Web Site: Why are [Yunqing Jian and Chengxuan Han] facing up to 20 years [in prison]?
Kyle Broderick: I think it is a scare tactic. There does seem to be some animosity towards higher education and the institutes that are doing a lot of research, and when you throw China into the equation, that really complicates things. It would be very interesting to me if there were a similar case, maybe a graduate assistant of German descent, and what would happen then? Would it just be the standard fine? Would there be more of a reprimand? I don’t know, but I am curious about that.
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Kyle Broderick: The final thing, we need to track the movement of pests. In this case they went about things the wrong way and it’s being, I think, blown out of proportion for other reasons.
5. Balloting underway in government-forced vote on Canada Post’s “final” offers
A Carney Liberal government-imposed vote is now underway on “final offers” from Canada Post management, aimed at forcing through massive concessions on more than 55,000 urban and rural postal workers across the country.
The online vote, which began Monday and runs through 5 p.m. on August 2, is the latest in a series of anti-democratic moves coordinated by the Crown corporation, the Liberal government under Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney, and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) apparatus to break rank-and-file opposition to a major assault on the postal service.
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The rotten offers urban postal operations workers and rural and suburban mail carriers are being forced to vote on would implement new categories of part-time, precarious workers to expand parcel delivery to seven days a week. They would impose “dynamic routing” and AI-based surveillance to intensify workloads and eliminate even brief moments of downtime. They offer below-inflation wage increases and—most critically—lay the structural foundation for eliminating tens of thousands of jobs.
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The writing is on the wall. Canada Post, with the full backing of the Carney Liberals, is preparing to carry out a major restructuring in the name of profit. It will come at the cost of thousands of jobs, degraded conditions, and the dismantling of the postal service as a public institution. The union has made its position clear: it will do nothing to stop this. That task now falls to workers themselves.
6. EU interior ministers intensify attacks on refugees
Under Donald Trump, masked immigration officials—the so-called “ICE Gestapo”—are terrorizing entire communities. They are arresting people who have lived in the United States for years or decades and deporting them to concentration camps at home and abroad from which there is no escape.
The European Union (EU) is no less committed than the United States in this respect. For years, European borders have been sealed off, refugees illegally turned back, imprisoned in inhumane camps, and deported to countries where they have no chance of survival. In the process the Mediterranean Sea has become the world’s deadliest refugee route, claiming the lives of tens of thousands in the course of the past decade.
On Tuesday, the interior ministers of the EU member states met in Copenhagen to discuss further tightening up migration and refugee policies. Since the meeting was informal, no official decisions were made, but the interior ministers agreed on basic issues:
The EU’s external borders is to be further sealed, and funding for the EU border agency Frontex tripled in the EU budget to a total of €34 billion.
Rejected asylum seekers are to be deported more quickly and in greater numbers, including to war zones such as Syria and Afghanistan.
Return centers are to be set up outside the EU’s borders, from which refugees will be deported with the assistance of Frontex without ever having set foot on EU soil.
Overall, border protection and deportations are to be better coordinated and tightened.
7. Trump named repeatedly in Epstein files, Wall Street Journal reports
The Epstein affair has revealed previously concealed fault lines within the Trump administration and his entourage of fascists, anti-immigrant bigots, and white supremacists.
8. Black lung disease resurges as Trump and coal bosses sacrifice miners for profit and war
Long considered an affliction of older and retired miners, the disease, including the more aggressive form known as progressive massive fibrosis, is showing up with greater frequency among younger miners. This includes many under the age of 30 and those with less than 10 years of service in underground mines.
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In the push to extract every bit of coal from mines, operators are cutting into thinner seams of coal, releasing greater amounts of rock particles in the process. Rock or silica (quartz) dust, acting as tiny pieces of glass, cuts into the lung tissue of miners.
The increased amount of rock/silica dust—which is 20 times as dangerous as coal dust alone—has triggered the explosion in black lung cases among younger miners.
The wholly preventable but incurable disease continues to kill over 1,000 active and retired miners each year. Thousands more are disabled with the excruciatingly painful disease.
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This will only worsen as President Trump eliminates any remaining workplace protections to boost energy production and profits and prepare for war. Trump has promised to roll back or completely abolish government regulations over the coal industry.
This includes gutting the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), established in 1971 and tasked with developing standards and procedures to improve workplace safety.
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The horrible, slow deaths of miners are part of the daily toll of industrial murder, which claims the lives of approximately 385 workers a day in America from traumatic injuries and occupational diseases.
The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees has launched an independent investigation into the death of 63-year-old Stellantis worker Ronald Adams Sr. as part of the counter-offensive by workers to halt the relentless sacrifice of workers’ lives to corporate profit.
A review of the fight by coal miners for protections against black lung is critical for the development of this struggle.
9. Medical fascism in Tennessee: Pregnant woman denied treatment for being unmarried
This is the first publicly reported case of a patient being denied prenatal care under Tennessee’s Medical Ethics Defense Act (MEDA), a sweeping piece of legislation passed by the Republican-dominated state government. The law grants health care providers, hospital systems, insurers, and others the legal authority to deny care based on “religious, moral, or ethical” objections without any obligation to refer patients elsewhere.
These laws are not about “medical ethics” or the rights of individual conscience. They are part of a broader reactionary assault by the capitalist ruling class, spearheaded in particular by Trump and the extreme right. The overturning of Roe v. Wade and the wave of conscience-based denial laws are the opening salvo in an historically unprecedented attack on democratic rights.
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More than one-third of Tennessee counties are considered maternity care deserts, and half of the state’s rural hospitals no longer provide obstetric services. Since 2012, ten rural hospitals have closed, and nine more are at risk due to funding cuts included in President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill”, which also threatens to strip Medicaid coverage from 300,000 Tennesseans.
Tennessee lawmakers such as Rep. Bryan Terry (R–Murfreesboro), the bill’s sponsor, absurdly claimed that MEDA would encourage doctors to move to Tennessee by protecting their “freedom of conscience.” In reality, Tennessee is experiencing a sharp and accelerating medical exodus.
During the 2023–2024 academic year, obstetrics residency applications fell by 21 percent, and applications across all specialties declined by 12 percent. Many young physicians are unwilling to train or practice in a state where providing evidence-based care may place them at legal or ethical risk. “Women don’t have fair access to health care in the state,” said one OB-GYN. “And the women that don’t have that access suffer the consequences.”
Presented by the union’s substantial United Left faction as a new chapter for opponents of the Gaza genocide, it is a cynical maneuver by the Unite bureaucracy to salvage its credibility amid growing rank-and-file opposition.
For over 20 months, as Israel’s war of annihilation has continued Unite’s leadership under General Secretary Sharon Graham has done nothing. Worse, it has actively suppressed efforts by workers to take solidarity action in defense of the Palestinians. Graham’s apparatus has witch-hunted members advocating the boycott of arms supplies, blocked implementation of a previously adopted Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions policy, and defended the arms industry on the pretext that action would endanger workers’ jobs.
11. United Kingdom: Labour-led Sheffield Council rejects Veolia strikers’ petition for union recognition
The experience in Sheffield and Birmingham shows [that refuse collection workers'] struggles must break from the dead hand of the Labour and trade union bureaucracy. Unite’s token actions, including the poorly attended rallies and petition stunt, are designed to uphold its credibility while demobilizing the rank and file.
The “mega-picket” at Veolia on May 9, modelled on a similar token event at Birmingham in May (with another planned for Friday this week) confirmed the warnings by WSWS that this type of performative solidarity by Unite and other trade unions would not end the isolation of the dispute. Only around 150 attended, exposing as hollow the declarations of “solidarity” from a long list of sponsors, including the University and College Union, National Education Union, Public and Commercial Services Union, several Trades Councils (Sheffield, Barnsley, Leeds, Liverpool), “We Demand Change” linked to Jeremy Corbyn, and the Socialist Party’s National Shop Stewards Network.
12. Buchenwald concentration camp memorial site bans criticism of the Israeli genocide
At a time when the crimes of the far-right Netanyahu government and the Israeli army against the Palestinian population are increasingly evident, with images of the devastation in Gaza resembling the Nazi terror against Jewish ghettos and starving Palestinian men, women and children recalling the emaciated victims of those in the Nazi concentration camps, the more violently officialdom in Germany seeks to suppress the growing opposition to these crimes.
It has now been revealed that the memorial site of the former Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar has issued a manual to its security and educational staff that allows them to turn away visitors who express solidarity with the Palestinian population.
Under the heading “Problematic Brands, Codes, Symbols, and Signs of Right-Wing Extremist and Antisemitic Groups,” the document lists the Palestinian scarf, the keffiyeh, and other Palestinian symbols on an equal footing with far-right symbols that have been used in the past to denigrate the memorial site and mock the victims.
13. Trump’s war against the Fed intensifies
The Fed reduced its base interest rate by one percentage point between September and December last year, but since then has kept rates on hold, citing uncertainty over the direction of inflation and the impact of Trump’s tariffs on prices.
On Tuesday, Trump claimed Powell’s refusal to make cuts was “political.”
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The maintenance of relatively high rates over a sustained period is impacting on the highly leveraged financial system as well as the commercial real estate market, and is adding to the interest bill on the US government debt of $36 trillion, now at around $1 trillion and rising. Trump has claimed high rates are costing the government hundreds of billions of dollars.
In a handwritten note to Powell earlier this month, he wrote: “You are as, as usual, ‘Too Late.’ You have cost the USA a fortune and continue to do so.”
Plucking figures from the air, as is his usual practice, Trump claimed that reducing the Fed rate by three percentage points would save the government $900 billion on the interest bill. At the same time, independent analysis has estimated that his “big, beautiful budget,” with its tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, would add $3.3 trillion to government debt.
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On Tuesday, the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal intervened with an editorial titled “The Lunacy of Lawfare Against the Fed.” It noted that for weeks agitators within the Trump administration had flogged the Fed over office renovation as a pretext to harass Powell.
“Now comes the lawfare, with a criminal perjury referral against Mr Powell to the Department of Justice from a Member of Congress. How low can this crowd go?”
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The Journal’s intervention is significant, as it is another indication of the divisions within the ruling class that are being fought out on a number of fronts.
It has opposed Trump’s tariff war against the world because it undermines the capacity of the US to form an alliance directed against the main enemy—China.
And it has played a key role in reigniting the Jeffrey Epstein affair publishing, against Trump’s intervention and a threatened $10 billion lawsuit, details of his close relationship with Epstein.
The World Socialist Web Site interviews a psychiatrist in New South Wales.
Psychiatrist:
"I’ve been a doctor for about 20 years. There’s this myth in the medical field—people say, “Why would you do psychiatry? Your patients don’t get better.” But that’s not true. There’s huge potential to help people at very vulnerable points in their lives. I’ve seen that again and again throughout my career. There’s immense capacity to make a difference.
But more recently in NSW, I’ve found that I can’t practice what I was trained to do anymore—which is to help people recover. We do everything we can to keep our patients well and set up treatment plans, so they don’t bounce back into hospital. But I’ve come to realize that the system isn’t set up for that anymore.
It’s now organized to move people through beds as quickly as possible, with little interest in what happens after they leave. That’s incredibly dehumanizing."
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"Here’s what a normal day looks like. You start with a long list of patients. You’re told multiple patients are waiting in emergency—some for days. Some may have assaulted staff or absconded. Management may tell you to discharge one or two patients, even if they’re still unwell—or if they have nowhere to go, which is common.
If you discharge too early, the patient may end up back in hospital within days. But if you refuse, you risk being pressured or bullied by management. You’re often covering extra wards due to staff shortages, with colleagues off sick or burned out. If you raise safety concerns, no one listens. The focus is only on freeing up beds—not patient outcomes. It’s absolutely shocking."
15. Japan’s upper house election result foreshadows political upheavals
In the past, one election loss has usually led to the prime minister making a public apology and resigning. However, Shigeru Ishiba has not resigned and has declared that he will continue in office. He declared on Monday that, as the largest parliamentary party, the LDP had “a responsibility to prevent politics from stagnating or drifting,” amid global uncertainty.
While global issues were largely excluded from the election campaign, the most obvious remain Trump’s huge trade tariffs and demands that Japan make further major increases in military spending. Yesterday, the government reached a trade deal with the US that reduced the threatened tariff rates, but agreed to boost US imports, including of rice. Prior to the election, Ishiba had flatly rejected rice imports, fearing a backlash particularly among the LDP’s voter base in rural areas.
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Inflation is compounding social distress. A Lowy Institute article pointed out that staple rice dramatically increased in price. In May, a five-kilogram (approximately 11 pound) bag of rice cost 4,268 yen ($29.90), nearly doubling from 2,228 yen a year before. A survey late last year by Save the Children Japan found that a third of low-income families were reducing their rice consumption due to rising prices.
