Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:
1. David North: the death of autoworker Ronald Adams Sr. and the law of capitalist profit
Video and transcript of a remarks made by David North, the Chairman of the World Socialist Web Site International Editorial Board and National Chairman of the Socialist Equality Party (US), at the conclusion of the July 27 public hearing of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees’ investigation into the death of Stellantis worker Ronald Adams Sr.
2. Texas Republicans issue civil arrest warrants, as Democrats flee to block Trump-backed gerrymander
On Monday afternoon, the Texas House voted 85–6 to issue civil arrest warrants for more than 50 Democratic lawmakers, who fled the state Sunday night in order to break quorum and temporarily block Republican redistricting efforts aimed at eliminating five Democratic-held congressional seats.
The civil warrants issued by the Texas House have no legal force outside the state. None of the lawmakers face criminal charges, but in a fascistic letter issued Sunday night, Texas Governor Greg Abbott threatened to remove the elected representatives from office if they did not return by 3:00 p.m. local time Monday.
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While the civil warrants issued by the Texas House carry no legal weight outside the state, some unnamed Texas Democratic lawmakers “expressed concern” to the New York Times that Trump “would try and use federal agents to round up the legislators and bring them back to Texas.”
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This is not the first time Texas Democrats, nominally in defense of democratic rights, have fled the state to prevent a quorum. In 2021, 51 members fled to Washington D.C. to appeal for national Democrats to assist them in blocking a series of voter suppression laws.
Then-President Biden and the national Democrats, led by then West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, rebuffed their efforts to protect voter rights and the Democrats eventually returned to Texas, which allowed the Republicans to pass the bills, including one that would impose daily fines of $500 if Democrats attempted to break quorum again.
Once again, the Democrats are staging a spectacle for fear of a movement of the only social force capable of defending democratic rights: the working class. They are once again performing a stunt that is destined to end in defeat—just as it did in 2021.
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For decades, both parties of big business have done everything in their power to block any challenge to their political cartel at the local, state and federal levels. From gerrymandering to onerous signature requirements, independent, left-wing and socialist parties have been systematically excluded from the ballot, leaving workers and youth with no viable choice outside the candidates favored by Wall Street.
3. Israel’s “final decision” for conquest and occupation of Gaza
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly declared the plans by the Zionist regime for the annexation of the Gaza Strip. Speaking from the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu announced what he called “the full occupation” of Gaza.
The plan, described as a “final decision” by Jerusalem, is a significant escalation of the genocidal war on Palestinians, bringing Israel to new heights of barbaric occupation, forced displacement and conquest of Gaza. The implications of these measures are both catastrophic for the people of Gaza and also reveal a political crisis within Israel that threatens to plunge the entire Middle East into war.
Netanyahu’s statement came after a cabinet session closed to journalists but described in detail by Israeli media. Flanked by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and a silent, rigid-faced Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, Netanyahu spoke directly to the Israeli public, the international press, and—to leave no ambiguity—to Palestinians themselves.
The fascistic prime minister said:
The government of Israel has made the decision for the full occupation of Gaza. We are committed to freeing Gaza from the tyranny of these terrorists. Many Gazans come to us, and they say, “Help us be free. Help us be free of Hamas.” And that’s what we will do.
4. Australian workers and youth condemn US-Israeli ongoing genocide in Gaza
On Sunday, tens of thousands of people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to oppose Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and the role of Australian government in enabling it. The historic demonstration, held in defiance of police threats and government attempts to ban it, was one of the largest in Sydney’s history.
Despite pouring rain and a concerted effort by the New South Wales Labor government and police to suppress the event, the Harbour Bridge was flooded with protesters stretching its full length, with many more still massed in surrounding streets.
The crowd was estimated at 90,000 by police and up to 300,000 by organizers. In Melbourne, a similar rally took place the same day, where police blocked some 25,000 demonstrators from marching across the King Street Bridge.
As at previous rallies, speakers condemned the starvation campaign in Gaza and denounced the Albanese Labor government’s complicity in the slaughter.
But even as they exposed the horrors being perpetrated, the rally’s organizers promoted the dangerous illusion that the genocide can be ended by appealing to the very political establishment that is facilitating it.
5. As war tensions rise, Australia’s ASIO spy chief ramps up “espionage” scare campaign
Backed by the Albanese Labor government, Australia’s surveillance chief, Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director-General Mike Burgess made a speech last Thursday declaring that because of “strategic competition,” the country faced “unprecedented” dangers of “foreign interference” and “espionage.”
It was an obvious, and unsubstantiated, effort to drum up a scare campaign and demand an “all-of-nation” offensive to counter alleged plots by other countries—specifically China, Russia and Iran—to gain access to US-linked military information.
Burgess said Australians would be “shocked” by the number of other, unnamed, countries that were also trying similar tactics.
Global tensions were driving a “relentless hunger for strategic advantage and an insatiable appetite for inside information,” Burgess declared. He warned of public and corporate complacency against the “real, present and costly danger” that required all Australians to take action.
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Burgess’s assertions were clearly designed to further boost the role and powers of ASIO, Australia’s primary domestic spy agency. His speech became headline news. That was a sharp contrast to the almost total blackout on Labor’s sudden and previously unannounced introduction of legislation, on the first full parliamentary day since the May 3 election, to extend and expand ASIO’s compulsory interrogation powers.
ASIO was first handed unprecedented powers to forcibly question people in 2003, supposedly to protect the population against terrorism, as part of the “war on terrorism.” Under Labor’s new legislation, these powers will be extended indefinitely and broadened to cover four new war-related fields: “sabotage,” “promoting communal violence,” “attacking defence facilities” and “threatening border security.”
These headings have the potential to cover anti-genocide, anti-war and other political dissent. According to ASIO, “communal violence” refers to “activities that are directed to incite violence between different groups… so as to endanger the peace, order or good government of the Commonwealth.”
This police-state legislation overturns the right to silence and the presumption of innocence. If anyone fails to comply or hand over material, or provides “misleading” information, they face up to five years’ imprisonment. Those interrogated also face five years’ jail if they tell anyone, except an ASIO-vetted lawyer, over the next two years what has happened to them, thus helping to keep ASIO’s operations shielded from public scrutiny.
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ASIO and all the other Australian intelligence agencies work closely with their US counterparts, including through the massive US-led “Five Eyes” surveillance and data-swapping system, together with the UK, Canada and New Zealand.
Some indication of these connections appeared last week when Burke held an initially undisclosed meeting with Kash Patel, Trump’s hand-picked FBI chief, who was on his way to open a new FBI office in New Zealand, adding to the one already in Canberra.
6. New Zealand trade union endorses government’s war agenda
New Zealand’s largest trade union, the Public Service Association (PSA), is fervently supporting moves to roughly double the military budget in preparation for war.
Under the guise of seeking to protect jobs in the NZ Defence Force (NZDF), the union has denounced the National Party-led government, from the right, for not maintaining a strong enough military to join the coming US-led war against China.
The NZDF confirmed on July 21 that it intends to cut 255 civilian jobs. They include roles in the army, air force, strategy, financial, health and safety, defence college, joint defence services, joint support group, chief of staff office and veterans affairs. It brings a total of one in ten positions axed in the last year, including “voluntary” redundancies. A further 45 may also be cut.
At the same time, a major escalation of military front-line capability, equipment and weaponry is under way. With the support of the opposition Labour Party, the government plans to nearly double defence spending from just over 1 percent to 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), a $NZ9 billion increase, in line with demands of the US Trump administration and NATO powers.
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In May, Spain’s General Union of Workers (UGT) and Workers’ Commissions (CCOO), the two largest trade union federations, threw their full support behind the European Union’s plans for mass rearmament, aligning themselves with the European establishment’s preparations for war against Russia. In the US, the leader of the United Auto Workers Union, Shawn Fain, a rabid Trump supporter, has cited the collaborationist labour mobilisation of the American economy during World War II as the model for today’s trade unions.
There is mass opposition to war, witnessed in the ongoing protests against the genocide in Gaza. In every country, however, including in New Zealand, the union bureaucracy has refused to take any action to stop the supply of weapons and other materials for Israel’s war machine.
All the imperialist powers are involved the rapidly escalating wars that are engulfing the globe. New Zealand is no exception. A minor imperialist power in the Pacific and a US ally, it is part of the US-led Five Eyes spying network; NZ troops are in Britain training Ukrainian conscripts to fight Russia; and NZ forces are involved in repeated provocative military exercises aimed against China.
7. Australia: Queensland teachers strike for first time in 16 years
Public school teachers across the northern Australian state of Queensland will strike for 24 hours on Wednesday to oppose chronic understaffing, insurmountable workloads, occupational violence and low wages.
Teachers are outraged by the attempts of the Liberal National Party (LNP) state government to impose a wage “increase” that will do nothing to compensate for previous low-pay trade union-government deals and the soaring cost of living.
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Conditions in government schools are so bad that the number of teachers resigning in Queensland has more than doubled since 2020. The government is increasingly replacing them with unqualified staff, university students and graduates yet to be registered to teach in schools, including students in their first two years of education study.
The key issue is how the struggle of teachers is to be taken forward. Teachers in every state are facing the same deliberately engineered privatisation of school education which has led to public schools, especially those in working-class areas, being increasingly regarded as residual “safety nets” for those whose parents cannot afford private school fees.
On social media, teachers throughout the country are cheering on the Queensland teachers’ strike and asking why they can’t join in. Victorian educators are also waging a struggle for decent salaries and working conditions, after a bitter sellout by the Australian Education Union (AEU) in 2022 left Victorian teachers the lowest paid in the country.
8. Germany: Berlin state executive to impose brutal austerity amid rising debt
In contrast to the cuts in education and social services, spending on the repressive apparatus of the state is being pushed ahead and generously funded. In 2026, €57.9 million is earmarked solely for refurbishing police stations—more than €40 million more than this year. By comparison, the city’s dilapidated fire stations will receive just €10.2 million.
Police video surveillance will also be expanded over the next two years, at a cost of at least €4 million. Another €4 million per year is to be spent on surveillance of so-called “crime-prone areas.” Which areas those are was not disclosed by Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD).
Another €1.6 million will go to police drones to be used at demonstrations. Clearly, the state government is aware that its brutal austerity policies will provoke protests—and is preparing to suppress them by all means.
The Trump administration has moved to freeze $339 million—more than a quarter of UCLA’s $1.1 billion in annual federal grants and contracts—in science and medical research funding to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Justified with cynical claims of fighting “antisemitism,” this politically motivated act represents a sharp escalation in the ruling class’s drive to crush dissent, subordinate the universities to an increasingly authoritarian state and silence opposition to Israeli war crimes and US imperialism.
The defunding order, spearheaded by Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice, accuses UCLA of “race discrimination” and fostering a “hostile environment” for Jewish and Israeli students. In language typical of authoritarian regimes, Bondi warned UCLA—and by extension all universities—that allowing criticism of Israel would come at a “heavy price.”
The real issue is not antisemitism, but the mass opposition that has emerged on campuses against the US-backed genocide in Gaza.
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The World Socialist Web Site rejects the lying pretext that this has anything to do with fighting antisemitism. The fraudulent conflation of antisemitism with opposition to Zionism is being wielded as a political weapon against students and faculty who speak out against Israel’s mass slaughter of Palestinians. It is a central ideological tool of the ruling class to criminalize dissent and enforce ideological conformity under conditions of an ongoing genocide and growing political and social crisis.
The consequences of the UCLA defunding are far-reaching. Entire laboratories and research programs have been thrown into chaos. According to Chancellor Julio Frenk, whose administration received the notice last Wednesday, the cuts will affect “life-saving research” critical to public health, “national security” and the economy. But Frenk, far from being a defender of academic freedom, has actively collaborated in building the very framework for this repression.
Since taking office in January, pro-Zionist Frenk has led the charge at UCLA to equate opposition to Israel with racial hatred. Under his leadership, the university launched the “Initiative to Combat Antisemitism,” aimed at “eradicating” antisemitism through expanded surveillance, complaint mechanisms and political reeducation. He declared it his top priority to root out antisemitism from campus, claiming that universities have become hotbeds of hatred—a central lie used by the state to justify its clampdown on protest.
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The attack on UCLA follows a well established pattern. Columbia University paid $220 million and agreed to wide-ranging changes to admissions and campus policy. Brown paid $50 million. Harvard, facing the loss of federal research funds and the ability to host international students, has reportedly offered as much as $500 million to reach a settlement. Duke and George Mason face similar threats. Investigations are also underway against Cornell, Northwestern and other schools.
The goal is not to eliminate antisemitism, but to forcibly align higher education with the interests of US imperialism and the far right. University administrators are being told to purge their institutions of any opposition to Zionism, militarism and the capitalist status quo. Faculty and students are being told in no uncertain terms: support genocide or lose your funding, your job and your future.
At the same time, these attacks are a key front in the broader effort to destroy the social and democratic rights of the working class. The cutting of $300 million from UCLA research is not just an academic issue. It directly threatens scientific breakthroughs on which millions depend—whether in cancer treatment, clean energy or public health. This is an assault on the intellectual and material foundations of modern society in the interests of militarism, reaction and corporate profit.
10. United Kingdom: Rotherham child sexual abuse scandal: Allegations point to police involvement
Over a decade after a report into the sexual abuse of at least 1,400 children by men in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, evidence has emerged showing that local police not only knew of, but were allegedly involved in the crimes.
The High Court ruled last week that Palestine Action (PA) co-founder Huda Ammori can challenge the lawfulness of Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s order banning Palestine Action as a terrorist organization. The judicial review hearing will take place in November.
Cooper’s proscription of PA came into effect July 5, approved in a right-wing stampede by both houses of parliament. It is the first time in Britain that a non-violent civil disobedience group has been listed as a terrorist organization. Membership of PA, or support for it, is now a crime under the Terrorism Act (2000), punishable by up to 14 years’ imprisonment.
In June, before the ban was announced, UN legal experts and lawyers’ groups across six continents wrote to the Starmer Labour government, warning that police investigations of PA members under counter-terrorism laws and growing repression of dissent were “warning signs of erosion of the rule of law and democracy in the United Kingdom”.
12. Workers Struggles: The Americas
Argentina:
Retirees’ protest in Buenos Aires attacked by police
Brazil:
Workers and students protest US tariffs
Canada:
Chatham, Ontario aluminum workers strike
United States:
Sysco Minnesota workers authorize strike as contract expires
Puerto Rican artists protest energy shortages and high prices
Waikiki hotel workers rally to demand hotel management agree to pattern settlement
13. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Bogdan Syrotiuk
Bogdan, who is 26 years old and in poor health, is being held in a prison in Nikolaev under atrocious conditions on fraudulent charges of serving the interests of Russia. In fact, Bogdan is an intransigent opponent of the capitalist Putin regime and its invasion of Ukraine. He fights for the unity of the working class in Ukraine, Russia and throughout the former Soviet Union.
