Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:

 1. This week in history: May 4-10

• 25 years ago:

South African gold mine explosion kills 12 miners  

• 50 years ago:

Ulrike Meinhof found dead in prison cell

• 75 years ago:

  “Greenhouse George” nuclear test brings United States a step closer to creating the first hydrogen bomb

• 100 years ago:

The British General Strike begins  

2. The 2026 International May Day Online Rally and the tasks of the international working class

The 2026 International May Day Online Rally, held on May 1 by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), the World Socialist Web Site, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) and the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC), was a milestone in the development of an international socialist and revolutionary movement against imperialist war and capitalism.

A total of 18 reports were delivered by speakers from 14 countries on five continents. The broadcast was subtitled in 11 languages—English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Sinhala, Spanish, Tamil and Turkish—making it accessible to broad layers of the international working class. Five montages, drawing on more than 30 interviews on every continent, were interspersed throughout the program, integrating the analysis of the ICFI with the testimony of workers and youth entering into political struggle.

The rally was entirely unique in the political analysis and orientation it advanced. This is not a subjective claim. There exists today no other political tendency anywhere in the world that addresses the global crisis as the eruption of the historic and insoluble contradictions of the capitalist system, or that identifies the international working class as the revolutionary force capable of resolving that crisis. The language of Marxism is spoken nowhere else. The rally addressed, as a unified whole, all the decisive questions confronting the international working class. In doing so, it underscored a central political fact: the ICFI stands alone today in advancing a Marxist-Trotskyist program based on the perspective of world socialist revolution.

3. Spirit Airlines collapses: 17,000 workers pay for Wall Street’s war on Iran

On April 16, International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol warned that Europe had “maybe six weeks or so” of jet fuel remaining. That deadline is now imminent. Europe consumes 1.6 million barrels of jet fuel per day, of which 500,000 barrels previously came through the Hormuz corridor. South Korea, the world’s leading jet fuel exporter, has begun restricting its own exports as its Gulf crude supply dries up. 

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In Europe, Lufthansa is cutting 20,000 short-haul flights over the next six months. Air France-KLM has imposed a €100 surcharge on long-haul tickets. Scandinavian Airlines has canceled 1,000 flights. 

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Meanwhile, the war is generating a profit bonanza for the oligarchy. With oil around $100 per barrel, the major oil conglomerates—Aramco, ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron and others—stand to collect an additional $234 billion in 2026 profits, $30 million every hour, according to one report last month by The Guardian. ExxonMobil alone stands to gain an additional $11 billion; Aramco, $25.5 billion.

The six largest US banks posted collective first-quarter profits of $47.6 billion—JPMorgan up 13 percent, Goldman Sachs up 19 percent, Citigroup up 42 percent—boosted by war-driven market volatility, which they used to fund record share buybacks.

The Iran war shock is the trigger, but Spirit’s collapse is the outcome of 47 years of bipartisan policy. Indeed, Spirit’s ultra-low cost business model was made possible by the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act enacted during the Democratic administration of Jimmy Carter, sponsored in the Senate by Democrat Edward Kennedy and championed by Carter’s Civil Aeronautics Board chairman Alfred Kahn. The Civil Aeronautics Board—which had regulated routes, prices and market entry since 1938, creating the conditions under which airline workers won relatively high wages, relatively secure employment and defined-benefit pensions—was formally abolished in 1984.

In 1981, using blueprints first drawn up under Carter, Republican President Ronald Reagan fired 11,000 striking air traffic controllers from the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. The refusal of the AFL-CIO union officials to call a general strike in defense of PATCO began a decade of union-busting and wage-cutting during which time millions of industrial workers lost their jobs.

Mass layoffs and a steady erosion of working conditions, airline service and safety followed with no resistance by unions, which claimed to represent machinists, pilots, flight attendants and ground crews. Continental Airlines voided all union contracts in 1983 and operated with strikebreaking replacement workers. Eastern Airlines was liquidated in 1991 after a bitter two-year strike betrayed by the International Association of Machinists (IAM). Pan Am dissolved the same year, eliminating 26,000 jobs.

Following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, US Airways, United, Delta and Northwest used Chapter 11 to tear up labor agreements, destroy defined-benefit pensions and slash wages. American Airlines issued layoff notices to 13,000 workers.

One result is the industry has consolidated from dozens of competing carriers into four mega-airlines—Delta, United, American and Southwest—controlling 80 percent of domestic traffic.

During the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, $25 billion was handed to the airlines through the bipartisan CARES Act bailout, Spirit among them. The carriers then issued 100,000 layoff notices, with Southwest demanding 10 percent wage cuts. The union bureaucracy, especially the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA), openly collaborated with management to lobby Congress for bailout money.

Workers have sought repeatedly to fight back. But they are under the discipline of the Railway Labor Act, which enforces years of mandatory rounds of mediation before workers are allowed to strike. The law was used in 2022 by Congress to impose a contract on railroad workers who had voted to strike.

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Spirit’s 17,000 workers must receive full compensation—jobs, pay, benefits, pensions and seniority—and the same must apply to every worker thrown out of work by the economic consequences of the Iran war. This must be financed through the immediate expropriation of the windfall war profits of the oil majors, banks and defense contractors enriched by the Hormuz blockade.

The US-Israeli war on Iran must end immediately. The airline industry—which has now demonstrated that private ownership and the profit motive are incompatible with the needs of workers and the traveling public—must be taken out of private hands and converted into a public utility, collectively owned and democratically controlled by the working class. The Railway Labor Act must be abolished and the unconditional right to strike recognized for transport workers.

4. Israel violently and illegally intercepts Gaza flotilla, kidnaps organisers

Israel, aided by Greece, has kidnapped hundreds of people sailing in the Mediterranean as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF). The flotilla was bound for Gaza to protest the ongoing Israeli siege with a symbolic delivery of essential aid. Twenty-two of 60 boats were intercepted.

This was a violent act of piracy, carried out by Israeli armed forces 600 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza, in international waters, with the intent to commit grievous bodily harm and even murder.

Protesters report being fired upon by live and rubber ammunition and being manhandled with their hands tied. Three-dozen people suffered broken ribs and noses, serious neck injuries, and being knocked unconscious.  

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Last autumn, a flotilla was attacked by drones during its journey then intercepted roughly 65 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza, again with individuals seized and detained in Israel for multiple days.

That the latest seizure was carried out hundreds of miles further from its borders reflects the growing impunity with which Israel is allowed to act as an imperialist outpost—in the Gaza genocide and the war on Iran and Lebanon—above all on behalf of the United States.

US officials gave their full support for the attack on the flotilla, threatening European governments who did not do the same. State department spokesperson Thomas Pigott declared the protest “a pro-Hamas initiative and a baseless, counterproductive effort to undermine President Trump’s Peace Plan.”

5. United Kingdom:  Unite uses Barnsley May Day and 1926 General Strike centenary to proclaim “rebirth of the trade unions”

The final Barnsley rally, with Graham as keynote speaker, represented the very forces responsible for the betrayal of 1984-85 miners’ strike and every betrayal thereafter.

6. Socialist Equality Party intervenes at Unite event in Barnsley marking centenary of 1926 General Strike

An SEP stall next to Glass Works Square, where the rally assembled, promoted the party's public meetings this month across the UK.

7. Labor blocks return of Australian citizens interned in Syria

The Albanese government’s actions set a wider precedent for barring the return of citizens deemed to be lacking in respect for the “values” prescribed by the ruling capitalist establishment. 

8. From Port Huron to postmodernism: The class politics of the “New” Students for a Democratic Society

What later took ideological form as postmodernism and identity politics was already present in embryonic form within SDS. In practical terms, this perspective meant an orientation to the campuses, “communities,” identity-based movements and single-issue campaigns, all directed away from the independent political mobilization of the working class.

9. Federal appeals court issues nationwide ban on telemedicine and mail access to abortion pill mifepristone

Mifepristone was approved by the FDA in September 2000 as safe and effective for terminating pregnancies through 10 weeks of gestation. It is typically administered in combination with misoprostol, a second drug used to induce uterine contractions. More than one-fourth of all US abortions are now provided via telemedicine, according to Guttmacher Institute data. 

10. Two Prosecutors: A stubborn young lawyer confronts the criminal methods of the Stalinist bureaucracy

It is unusual to come across a Russian-language film dealing honestly, even if incompletely, with the tragic and horrific events of 1937, the height of the Stalinist terror in the Soviet Union. Many thousands of devoted revolutionaries, including most of the leaders of the October 1917 Revolution, were put to death between 1936-38 by the counterrevolutionary bureaucracy. 

Two Prosecutors, released last year, won the Francois Chalais Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, awarded to features dealing with social and political issues. The film was written and directed by Sergei Loznitsa and is based on a story by Georgy Demidov (1908-87). Demidov was a Soviet physicist, a victim of the purges who spent 14 years in the Stalinist prison camps, most of them in the notorious Kolyma region of Siberia. Later writings of his were based on this experience. 

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Two Prosecutors is a powerful depiction of the Great Purge in the USSR, when, by conservative estimates, hundreds of thousands of communists were killed. The first 40 minutes of the film are appropriately slow-moving, evoking the bureaucratic nightmare with gloom and long, pregnant pauses, as Kornyev speaks with the prison authorities. Following Stepniak’s testimony, the film proceeds steadily towards its grim conclusion. While the end is inevitable, it also effectively conveys the nature of the totalitarian regime.

Both Kuznetsov and Filippenko are outstanding in their roles. Anatoly Bely has little to do as a close-mouthed and duplicitous Vyshinsky. Watching the film, the viewer is reminded of the fact that many millions in today’s Russia, including possibly these actors themselves, number among their grandparents, or even their parents in some cases, victims of the Stalinist terror.

It is impossible to see Two Prosecutors without considering how the party that led the October Revolution was destroyed two decades later. Even a viewer who knows little about the history of the USSR is presented with evidence indicating that Stalinism was the antithesis of Bolshevism. 

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Only the Trotskyists were able to understand the Terror. As Leopold Trepper, the leader of the Red Orchestra Soviet spy network, wrote decades later, long after he had become disillusioned by Stalinism:

[The Trotskyists] fought Stalinism to the death, and they were the only ones who did. By the time of the great purges, they could only shout their rebellion in the freezing wastelands where they had been dragged in order to be exterminated. In the camps, their conduct was admirable. But their voices were lost in the tundra.

Today, the Trotskyites have a right to accuse those who once howled along with the wolves. Let them not forget, however, that they had the enormous advantage over us of having a coherent political system capable of replacing Stalinism. They had something to cling to in the midst of their profound distress at seeing the revolution betrayed. 

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The major weakness of Two Prosecutors stems from the fact that this historical background—the genuine opposition to the bureaucracy—is not supplied. The ideological basis of the bureaucratic dictatorship is not discussed: its rejection of internationalism in favor of the nationalist doctrine of “socialism in one country.” One must also consider the objective circumstances of isolation and defeats of revolutionary struggles of the 1920s and 1930s, the objective basis for the growth of the Stalinist bureaucracy. Furthermore, it is vital to understand how the ruling caste was strengthened by the successive defeats of the working class internationally, what Stalin represented and why he triumphed. 

In the absence of this context, the drama can be taken as evidence of the absolute futility of revolution, based on the reactionary conception that while Bolshevism and Stalinism were not identical, one led inescapably to the other. This may well be the view of both the filmmaker Loznitsa and the writer Demidov, whose story became the basis for the film.

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Two Prosecutors has been banned in both Russia and Ukraine, and that in itself speaks in its favor. In Russia, the regime of KGB veteran Putin has in recent years rehabilitated Stalin and the methods of the secret police. In Ukraine, Russian is banned as “the language of the aggressor,” so a Russian-language film is automatically excluded.

The symmetrical difficulties are a reflection of the fact that Two Prosecutors, with its reminder of the internationalist origins of the Russian Revolution, makes nationalists of all stripes uneasy. In any case, whatever the limitations of this film, Two Prosecutors is well worth viewing. It may be hard to find, however, following brief runs in a few US and European cities. Banned in Ukraine and Russia, its availability is very limited elsewhere. The cultural establishment is not eager to see an account of the actual history of the Soviet Union.

11. Ypsilanti utility board halts University of Michigan nuclear weapons data center

The U-M/LANL data center is an important element of the economic and military policy of the Democratic Party. Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the state Democratic establishment have worked to transform Michigan into an industrial, logistical and computational hub for the military-industrial complex.

Using the Michigan Strategic Fund and tapping into federal subsidies provided by the Biden administration’s CHIPS and Science Act, the state government is attempting to “reshore” critical military supply chains. Democratic local and state representatives, working closely with the trade union bureaucracy, have cynically packaged this militarization as a boon for the working class, touting the “creation of high-paying jobs” and “workforce development.” U-M promotional materials boast of creating 200 permanent jobs and 300 union construction jobs at the site.

This push to build the U-M/LANL data center is another step in the militarization of the university system and its political alignment with the ruling class’s drive toward authoritarian rule. US imperialism is preparing for war with rival nuclear-armed powers and for the suppression of internal dissent, while university leaders trade scientific principles, academic independence and worker protections for defense contracts.

Over the past year, the U-M administration has collaborated with a sweeping campaign of political repression. Five Chinese national scholars—Yunqing Jian, Chengxuan Han, Xu Bai, Fengfan Zhang, and Zhiyong Zhang—were fired by the university, charged by the Department of Justice (DOJ) with conspiring to smuggle biological materials, detained for months, and removed from the country. At Indiana University, Youhuang Xiang was deported to China after almost five months of detention. In all six cases, the DOJ elevated administrative lapses, which would ordinarily be handled with a fine, into felony conspiracy and smuggling charges carrying a potential 25-year prison sentence.

On March 19, Danhao Wang, a brilliant 30-year-old Chinese postdoctoral researcher in U-M’s College of Engineering, took his own life at the G.G. Brown Laboratory building. Wang was subjected to hostile interrogation by federal agents just a day prior to his death. He was a rising star in advanced materials science, co-authoring a landmark April 2025 Nature paper on wurtzite ferroelectrics—semiconductors that could form the basis for the next generation of microelectronics.

On March 26, just a week after Wang’s death, U-M President Domenico Grasso testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce at a hearing provocatively titled “US Universities Under Siege: Foreign Espionage, Stolen Innovation, & the National Security Threat.” Grasso boasted of U-M’s collaboration with the national security state, saying, “Safety and security is a team effort, and at Michigan, we know how important it is to be a team player.” [Grasso’s emphasis]

12. Break the isolation: Harvard graduate students’ strike must be expanded

Will Lehman, a rank-and-file Mack Trucks worker who is running as a socialist candidate for UAW president, is calling on workers to break the union's isolation of the nearly two-week walkout by 4,000 Harvard graduate student workers.

13. Sri Lankan SEP/IYSSE meeting against US-Israeli war on Iran

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) held a public meeting on April 26 at Hatton Town Hall in Sri Lanka’s central plantation district, opposing the US-Israeli war against Iran and explaining the necessity of building an anti-war movement of the international working class based on socialist policies. It followed meetings in Colombo and Peradeniya and received an important response from plantation workers and others.

Workers and oppressed people in Sri Lanka, like their counterparts internationally, are bearing the brunt of the war’s economic fallout, with rising energy costs driving up the price of food and other essentials. Plantation workers, who are among the most exploited sections of the working class, are being severely affected by the escalating cost of living. SEP and IYSSE members campaigned extensively in Hatton and nearby Bandaranaike, going door-to-door to speak with plantation workers, teachers, state employees and youth.

Sri Lankan socialists protest against the US-Israeli war on Iran, April 26, 2026

Party supporters also held a protest at the Hatton bus station to denounce the devastating attacks on Iran and highlight the connection between imperialist militarism and the intensifying assault on workers’ living standards and democratic rights in Sri Lanka. The protest attracted hundreds of people, including plantation workers, teachers, and state and private-sector employees, as well as youth. Several media organizations reported on it.

14. Trump says US Navy will begin escorting ships out of the Strait of Hormuz

The latest announcement is evidence that Washington is preparing to launch military action against Iran’s control of the strait. While Trump’s post framed the escort plan as a means of safeguarding shipping, it is clearly a threat to escalate the war which began on February 28.

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Trump’s escort announcement came just three days after the US received Iran’s 14-point plan for an end to the war. According to reports, the proposal included a ceasefire, a broader regional de-escalation and measures tied to the withdrawal of US military forces from sensitive areas near Iran.

The plan also reportedly called for lifting sanctions, easing the blockade on Iranian ports, releasing frozen assets and establishing a new framework for the management of the Strait of Hormuz. It also proposed longer-term political and security conditions, including an end to hostilities in Lebanon and lifting sanctions.

Other reports said Iran was reviewing a US response to its plan, although Trump stated a day earlier that he had not yet reviewed Iran’s proposal himself. These contradictory reports suggest either disarray in the diplomatic process or a deliberate effort by the US to keep negotiations subordinated to military pressure.

 

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While the war against Iran intensifies, Israel’s offensive in Lebanon continues with no sign of abating. Strikes in southern Lebanon killed 13 people in one day, and a total of 41 people were killed since Saturday, including four women and a child. 

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Israel has also issued a new round of displacement orders in southern Lebanon. As of May 3, the  orders expand Israel’s area of operations to include towns north of the Litani River for the first time. The orders cover over 10 villages and towns, including several in the Nabatieh district that are outside of the previously established “Yellow Line” buffer zone. 

Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that 2,618 people had been killed since Israeli attacks began on March 2, with 8,094 wounded. Those figures reveal that the war has already produced a humanitarian disaster of enormous proportions. The dead include not only combatants but also civilians, children and women, underscoring the indiscriminate nature of the violence. 

15. Strike of Little Lake teachers in California shut down after 10 days

The decision was taken before teachers were given access to the full terms of the tentative agreement and before any meaningful rank-and-file review could take place.

16. “May Day Strong” in Chicago: Labor bureaucracy, Democrats seek to smother growing resistance to war and Trump dictatorship

With thousands of workers and young people marching to oppose Trump, the AFL-CIO and Democratic Party is trying to prevent this movement from evolving into a politically conscious challenge to oligarchic rule and the capitalist system that both parties defend. 

17. Australia: Interim report provides no answers on Bondi terrorist attack

The section of the report dealing with the role played by the federal policing and intelligence agencies, about which so many questions remain, has been suppressed entirely. 

18. UK Labour Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood targets children for brutal treatment in asylum seeker crackdown

In a joint letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer on April 27, almost 150 organizations—including social care workers, refugee charities, and fostering groups—accused the government of a “sustained attack on children’s rights.” 

19. The Revolutionary Communist Party abandons Corbyn only to embrace Zack Polanski’s Green Party

Building socialist consciousness means fighting to bring the historical and international experience of the working class to bear on contemporary political issues, in order to break the working class from its potential misleaders.

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

A video reminder describes Syrotiuk's ongoing plight 

The fight for the Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist's freedom is an essential component of the struggle against imperialist war, genocide, dictatorship and fascism.

Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today: 

1. Capitalist crisis, war and the international class struggle

 

Opposition to imperialist war, the unyielding defense of democratic rights and the fight against all forms of class oppression animate our celebration of May Day. This is the spirit in which we open today’s rally.

However, the celebration of May Day must not be limited to declarations of international solidarity. It must also be the occasion for an objective analysis of the present world situation, for it is on the basis of such an analysis that the strategy of the working class is formulated. This task acquires the greatest urgency today, as this May Day is being held in the midst of a critical stage in the crisis of the world capitalist system. 

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The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 was proclaimed by the American ruling class as a historic triumph of capitalism. The so-called “failure of socialism,” it claimed, cleared the way for the restoration of the capitalist world as it was before the socialist October Revolution. All that had occurred in the aftermath of the revolution—the upsurge of the international working class, the monumental global movement of the oppressed masses against imperialism, and the social advances that were won in the aftermath of the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 and the victory of the Chinese Revolution in 1949—was to be reversed. 

However, this nightmarish perspective was based on a false appraisal of the causes of the dissolution of the USSR and its global significance. What had failed in the Soviet Union was not socialism but the Stalinist regime of anti-socialist nationalism, which was a repudiation of the Marxian internationalism that had inspired the October Revolution. The Stalinist program of “socialism in one country,” which detached the building of socialism in the USSR from the international struggle of the working class against global capitalism, had proven economically and politically bankrupt. 

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Gorbachev took the first road. The dissolution of the USSR in December 1991 was the consummation of that betrayal: The Stalinist bureaucracy, having begun as the gravediggers of the October Revolution, ended as the most venal and rapacious faction of the new Russian oligarchy, led today by Putin. 

For American imperialism, the same underlying contradiction produced a different response, but one no more a matter of free choice than the Stalinist collapse had been. Confronted with the irreversible erosion of its economic supremacy—the rise of Japanese and German industrial competitors, the emergence of China as a powerful economic and industrial force, the hollowing out of domestic manufacturing, the mounting burden of trade and budget deficits—American capitalism could not recover its position through economic means. The only instrument it still possessed in overwhelming preponderance was military force.

The following three decades of militarism shattered Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Ukraine and other countries. While costing millions of lives, destroying entire societies and creating the greatest refugee crisis since World War II, these wars ended in debacles and failed to reverse US imperialism’s fortunes.

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The most visible and ominous manifestation of the US-centered global crisis is the staggering growth of the national debt. It stood at roughly $5.8 trillion in 2001. It is now approaching $40 trillion. An even more historically and economically significant manifestation of the crisis of US capitalism is the price of gold. At the Bretton Woods conference of 1944, which established the status of the dollar as the world reserve currency, the value of an ounce of gold was set at $35. 

That price prevailed until the Nixon administration repudiated the Bretton Woods system in 1971. This set into motion a relentless rise in the price of gold, which during the last year has assumed an explosive character. The price of an ounce of gold now stands at approximately $4,600. In other words, the value of the dollar relative to gold, which has functioned for several thousand years as a measure of value, has declined by more than 99 percent in just over a half century. 

This is the framework within which the 35 years from 1991 to 2026 must be understood. They constitute a single historical process: the attempt by American capitalism to overcome, through the application of military violence, a contradiction that it could not overcome by economic means. The wars are component parts of a continuous trajectory, driven by the same unresolved contradiction between the world economy and the nation-state system that produced the two world wars of the 20th century. 

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The war against Iran has exposed not only the predatory aims of American imperialism abroad but the social and political reality of the regime that prosecutes it at home. Trump is the product, personification and culmination of a protracted process—economic, social and political—rooted in the breakdown of American capitalism and the putrefaction of its ruling class. 

The political structure of the United States is being brought into alignment with its social foundation: the domination of society by a tiny oligarchy that controls staggering wealth and regards all legal, democratic and moral restraints as intolerable impediments to its interests. The rise of Trump is the expression of this reality.

The war against Iran is being financed through a frontal assault on the social rights of the working class. Trump’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget requests roughly $1.5 trillion for “defense”—the highest military spending level in modern American history and a massive escalation of preparations not only for the war against Iran but for global war against China and Russia. This is, in the most direct sense, a budget for world war.

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What is taking place in the United States is not simply a national political crisis. It is a convulsion of world-historical significance. The United States, the former stabilizer of world capitalism, has become the greatest source of global instability. The breakdown of democratic forms in the United States, the turn to open gangsterism in politics, the subordination of all social life to the interests of the oligarchy, and the drive to redivide the world through military violence express the crisis of the entire capitalist order in its most concentrated and explosive form.  

The same underlying processes are evident in every major capitalist country. The crisis of capitalism is international, and so, too, is the turn toward dictatorship and war. The European ruling class is rapidly and shamelessly shedding its hypocritical pacifist phrase-mongering, reviving its long traditions of imperialist militarism, and proclaiming that the working class and youth must be prepared to fight and die as their grandfathers and great-grandfathers did in the two world wars of the last century. This is not mere rhetoric. The European NATO powers are already engaged in a de facto war against Russia. Ukraine has been transformed into NATO’s East European equivalent of Israel. 

In its analysis of the historical experiences of the last century, the International Committee has stressed that the same contradictions that produced World War I in 1914 resulted in socialist revolution in Russia in 1917. The same historical dynamic is at work today. The global crisis of capitalism that underlies the eruption of imperialist violence is also preparing the explosion of revolutionary struggle by the international working class. 

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The second half of the decade is being increasingly characterized by the eruption of the countervailing tendency of social struggle on an international scale. In 1845, Marx wrote: “With the thoroughness of the historical action, the size of the mass whose action it is will therefore increase.” In an initial confirmation of this insight, masses of working people are being drawn into social and political struggle. 

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There have been 458 strikes across just eight European countries in the first quarter of 2026 alone, including five general strikes at the national or regional level. This represents a measurable acceleration over comparable periods in 2025. The first quarter of 2026 has already produced national general strikes in Belgium (March 12) and Italy (March 9), regional general strikes in Spain’s Andalusia and Basque Country (March 8 and 17), a general strike in Northern Cyprus, and a national general strike in Argentina in February—a density of general strike actions in a single quarter that exceeds 2025’s already considerable pace. Approximately 1.7 million state employees went on strike in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

On objective indices—number of strikes, size of mobilizations, geographic distribution, sectoral spread, duration, strike authorization margins and frequency of confrontation with state forces—the early months of 2026 represent a clear and measurable escalation of class conflict beyond 2025 levels.

There have been mass anti-ICE demonstrations drawing millions in the United States, including 8 million in the March 28 “No Kings” mobilization. There have been strikes by 42,000 University of California workers and 31,000 Kaiser healthcare workers.

These struggles are an objective expression of an international working class entering into struggle against the conditions imposed by the same crisis that drives the oligarchy toward fascism and war. These struggles are unfolding across every continent and every major sector of the economy, simultaneously and increasingly in direct conflict not only with employers and governments but with the trade union bureaucracies that function as an anti-strike corporate police force. 

The decisive question of the present period is which of these two tendencies will prevail. The ruling class has answered the deepening crisis of its system with fascism and war, the militarization of society, the abrogation of democratic rights, the assault on immigrants and political dissidents, and the preparation of conflicts that carry within them the threat of nuclear catastrophe. The working class is answering with the only force capable of stopping this trajectory toward disaster—the mobilization of its own collective social power. The outcome is not predetermined. It will be settled by the struggles now underway and by the political consciousness, organization and leadership that the working class develops in the course of these struggles.

What can be stated with certainty is that the period of relative social equilibrium has ended. The objective conditions identified at the start of the decade—the breakdown of the post-war capitalist order, the impossibility of continuing the old methods of rule, the necessity of either revolutionary transformation or descent into barbarism—have not only been confirmed but have intensified. The first months of 2026 mark the point at which the resistance of the working class has emerged as a global force, contending against the offensive of the oligarchy on a scale that places the fundamental questions of the epoch—war or peace, dictatorship or democracy, socialism or barbarism—directly on the historical agenda.

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The demoralized cynics and skeptics of the middle class pseudo-left will dismiss this perspective as fantasy. Groveling before the ruling class, they are staunch believers in the invincibility and permanence of capitalism. Their attitude to the working class is a mixture of fear and contempt. 

But the revolutionary perspective of the Trotskyist movement, led by the International Committee of the Fourth International, is grounded in the most realistic appraisal of objective economic and social processes operating on a global scale.

The same globalization of production that has driven the contradictions of the existing order has produced—as an objective, structural fact—the largest international working class in human history. The figure must be grasped concretely. Since 1980, the development of the world’s productive forces has increased the size of the working class by over 2 billion people. For the first time in human history, a majority of the world’s population lives in cities, a figure that rises by the millions every week. 

More than 500 cities now have populations exceeding 1 million, accounting for roughly a quarter of humanity; at least 31 of them are megacities of more than 10 million people, and an estimated 90 percent of world trade flows through a few dozen of these centers. An estimated 1 billion African workers are expected to enter the global labor force in the decades ahead. The billions of workers who have moved from the backward countryside of India, China, Latin America and Africa into the globalized circuits of production have, as the WSWS has characterized it, “leapt forward centuries in a single lifetime.” 

Objective social and economic processes are generating revolutionary struggles. The daily deterioration of living standards, the staggering scale of social inequality, the grotesque corruption and crimes of the ruling class are provoking the indignation and anger of the masses. But this anger must be developed into a politically conscious and internationally unified struggle against capitalism.

And this brings to the fore the central problem of this historical epoch: the resolution of the crisis of revolutionary leadership in the working class. The grip of the old and reactionary instruments of capitalist rule—the existing capitalist parties, the trade union bureaucracies, the bourgeois nationalist organizations, the innumerable petty-bourgeois groupings—must be broken. The political independence of the working class from all the agencies of the ruling class must be established. 

This requires the building of the Fourth International, the world Trotskyist movement led by the International Committee. Concentrated in its program is a vast body of revolutionary experience spanning a century of struggle. 

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In May 1940, in the Manifesto of the Fourth International written by Trotsky just three months before his assassination by a Stalinist agent, the incomparable strategist of world socialist revolution explained:

In history, war has not infrequently been the mother of revolution precisely because it rocks superannuated regimes to their foundation, weakens the ruling class, and hastens the growth of revolutionary indignation among the oppressed masses.

Such a situation is emerging. The very fact that the American ruling class has placed a gangster in the White House and entrusted the management of its affairs to the underworld is irrefutable proof of its historical bankruptcy. 

In the face of the greatest obstacles, the International Committee of the Fourth International has worked tirelessly to prepare the advanced sections of the working class for the present crisis. We have created the World Socialist Web Site, which has for the last 28 years served as an incomparable instrument of political analysis and strategic orientation. It has waged an unrelenting struggle to preserve the heritage of Marxism and the historical continuity of the struggle for socialism.

The parties affiliated with the International Committee have spearheaded the fight against the pro-imperialist and corporatist labor bureaucracies through the development of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC). Its purpose is not to influence the existing trade union bureaucracies but to organize a rank-and-file insurrection against them and to transfer power to the factory, shop floor and workplace committees.

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE), guided by the ICFI, educates the younger generation as Marxists, provides a revolutionary alternative to the demoralizing policies of protest politics and directs their energies toward the struggles of the working class.

The ICFI has developed Socialism AI, which was launched on the World Socialist Web Site in December 2025. While the ruling class utilizes AI for the purpose of enriching itself, impoverishing workers and intensifying exploitation, the International Committee is utilizing the vast potential of this technology to advance and accelerate the struggle for socialism.

All the different elements of the work of the International Committee are directed to the goal of building the Fourth International as the World Party of Socialist Revolution that will defeat capitalist barbarism and secure the future of humanity. This party will be built by the workers, the youth and the socialist intellectuals who draw the necessary conclusions from the experiences of this epoch and take their place in its ranks. To the workers fighting ICE, to the strikers on the picket lines, to the students opposing genocide on the campuses, to the millions in the streets of every continent: The question now posed is not whether to fight but how to fight and under what banner. 

Our answer to these questions is this: The road forward is the conscious and organized struggle of the international working class for power. The banner is that of the Fourth International. We say: Build sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International in every country. Take up the fight for socialism. Forward to the world socialist revolution!

2. Democrats pave way for $70 billion infusion to ICE and Border Patrol

Congressional Democrats joined Republicans in ending the longest Homeland Security shutdown in US history while clearing the way for Trump’s immigration Gestapo to receive tens of billions of dollars, without any reforms, through a fast-track budget process requiring no Democratic votes.

3. Inside Amir: Tehran, before US and Israeli bombs rained down...

One can’t help but wondering after two months of war and countless waves of bombing, and thousands of civilian deaths: Does that neighborhood still look like this?

This is a first report from this year's San Francisco International Film Festival. 

4. US national debt surpasses size of the economy, as Trump administration demands surge in military spending

The US national debt has crossed 100 percent of gross domestic product for the first peacetime year since 1946, according to data released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)—a milestone that arrives as the Trump administration is demanding a $1.535 trillion Pentagon budget and preparing for conflict with nuclear-armed China and Russia.

5. World Bank details Iran war global commodity shock

The bank’s chief economist has warned that the war is hitting the global economy in a series of cumulative waves.

6. Swedish government commits to coalition with fascist Sweden Democrats after upcoming parliamentary election

Over the past two months, the Swedish political establishment has moved to consolidate the Sweden Democrats—the far-right party that emerged from the neo-Nazi milieu of the 1980s—as the dominant force in official politics.

7. United States:  UIC graduate workers launch third strike in seven years against poverty wages

The more than 1,500 graduate workers who have walked out teach courses, run laboratories, and generate the research revenue that makes the the University of Illinois Chicago function. 

8. Vote “no” on the SEIU sellout agreement for Los Angeles school workers!

The central fraud of this contract is that it conceals massive cuts just over the horizon. A new budget proposal for the next school year is expected in mid-May—days after the ratification vote closes.

9. Australia:  Victorian Labor leaks pay offer while teacher union prepares another sellout

The reported 28 percent pay rise offer reflects the fears of state and federal Labor governments that strikes in Victoria could become the starting point of broader action by teachers and others nationally.

10. Australian inflation soars as economic effects of Iran war bite

The official cost-of-living index rose 4.6 percent in the 12 months to March, up sharply from 3.7 percent in February. 

11. Homelessness among young people in Germany has almost tripled since 2022

The housing crisis is destroying the lives of tens of thousands of children and young people: The number of homeless minors has almost tripled nationwide. 

12. Stop the war against Iran!

The editor of the World Socialist Web Site German site explained the social, political and historical basis of the struggle against imperialist war. 

13. PSTU leader Zé Maria sentenced to two years prison in Brazil for criticizing Israel: a grave attack on democratic rights

The case is a politically motivated fabrication and an assault on the political conscience of millions of workers and young people in Brazil and around the world.

14. Disney announces full deployment of facial recognition at Disneyland Resort

Expansion of biometric surveillance raises concerns over privacy loss, data sharing with authorities and erosion of anonymity in public life. 

15. Executions in Florida and Texas: Condemned prisoners maintain their innocence

The twin executions of James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, and James Broadnax, 37, took place as the US death penalty machinery continues its accelerating pace in 2026.

16. South Africa’s ruling class incites pogroms against migrants

This scapegoating must be understood in the context of the social order the ANC has presided over since 1994. While the legal framework of apartheid was dismantled, the underlying class structures have been preserved. 

17. United Kingdom:  Golders Green attack used to launch ferocious right-wing campaign against democratic rights and anti-genocide protests

Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded by holding those who have protested the Gaza genocide responsible, and promising draconian attacks on demonstrations. 

18. Campaign begins for meetings on 100 years since British General Strike

Reports from SEP branches in London, Sheffield and Inverness are featured. 

19.  Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia

Australia:

Queensland rail workers resume industrial action

 

Downer EDI water mains plumbers strike in Victoria

 

Dorevitch pathology workers in Victoria strike for improved pay and conditions

 

Disability care workers in Victoria protest funding cuts

 

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology educators strike

 

Wilmar BioEthanol plant workers in Victoria strike

 

Victoria’s state school nurses demand wage parity

Bangladesh:

Candidate teachers demand immediate government school appointments

 

Rana Plaza building collapse victims demand compensation

India:  

Andhra Pradesh hospital sanitation workers at Vijayawada demand outstanding wages

 

School midday-meal workers protest privatization in Andhra Pradesh

 

Sportking India factory workers in Punjab protest for wages and permanent jobs

 

Haryana fire and emergency services workers’ strike enters fourth week

20. Defend and help free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk! Please add your name to our petition! 

The fight for the Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist's freedom is an essential component of the struggle against imperialist war, genocide, dictatorship and fascism.

Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:

1. Join the May Day Online Rally! For Socialism! Against war, genocide and fascism!

The cause for which the Haymarket martyrs gave their lives was embraced by the working class all over the world. Three years later, in 1889, the founding congress of the Second International, meeting in Paris, resolved that May 1 would be the day on which workers of all countries would simultaneously demonstrate for the eight-hour day. From that day forward, May 1 has belonged to the international working class.

The eight-hour day was the central demand of those first May Days. Today, May Day is a fight for the survival of human civilization itself. Indeed, such is the state of exploitation that even the most elementary conquest of the workers’ movement, the eight-hour day, has been abandoned by the trade union apparatus. While AFL-CIO functionaries organize “May Day Strong” events with the Democratic Party, workers in the warehouses, hospitals, schools and factories endure 10-, 12- and 14-hour shifts.

The celebration of May Day came to be embedded in the fight for the unity of the international working class against capitalism, inequality and exploitation—a day dedicated to advancing the struggle for workers’ power. Leon Trotsky wrote in 1918 that the original purpose of May Day had been “by means of a simultaneous demonstration by workers of all countries on that day, to prepare the ground for drawing them together into a single international proletarian organization of revolutionary action having one world center and one world political orientation.” 

That task—the construction of an international revolutionary leadership of the working class—remains the unfinished historical work of our epoch. It is the work of the International Committee of the Fourth International. 

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Speakers will include leading representatives of the ICFI and its supporting organizations from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Brazil and Russia; along with representatives of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality and the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees. 

The rally will feature statements collected from workers and young people on every continent—postal workers, autoworkers, teachers, dockworkers, students—who are entering into struggle and looking for a way forward. 

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Register now at wsws.org/mayday. The rally begins at 3:00 p.m. US Eastern Time. Gather your coworkers, your classmates, your families, your friends. Today, May 1, 2026, take your place in the international socialist movement. 

2. Anti-genocide activist denounces imperialist violence in the Middle East in statement supporting International May Day Online Rally

Dr. [Abeer] Omar, who has over 25 years of experience as a nursing educator and researcher, has faced down persecution of her principled defense of the human rights of Palestinians, Lebanese and Iranians under imperialist attack. That she should have had to do so comes as no surprise: Canada’s Liberal government has backed the genocide in Gaza and the US/Israel war on Iran to the hilt. In June 2025, she joined hundreds of academics and civil society groups in signing an open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney that denounced Canada for its complicity in the Gaza genocide and demanded Carney take action to stop any “aid and assistance” to Israeli war crimes. Predictably, this letter fell on deaf ears.

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In a video statement... in support of the International May Day Online Rally to be held Friday, May 1, Dr. Omar denounces the systematic slaughter of healthcare workers by Israel in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, and the US and Israel’s targeting of civilians in their war of extermination against Iran.

3. Venezuela’s interim president paints Trump as defender of “peace” after Washington shooting

Minutes after US Secret Service agents took Donald Trump from the stage at the White House Correspondents Dinner Saturday and detained an alleged attacker after a shooting incident, Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez became one of the first world leaders to publicly condemn the attack.

In a post on X, she declared: “We reject the attempt of aggression against President Trump and his wife, Melania, to whom we extend our good wishes, as well as to the attendees of the Correspondents’ Dinner. Violence will never be an option for those of us who defend the banners of peace.”

This statement was one of the most grotesque from any leader. Associating Trump with “peace,” Rodriguez whitewashes the ongoing avalanche of war crimes unleashed by Washington across the globe and directly against Venezuela itself.

The World Socialist Web Site opposes the kind of attack alleged at the Washington Hilton on a principled basis. Political violence carried out by individuals serves only to strengthen the forces of reaction. But this opposition does not require—or permit—portraying Trump, or US imperialism more broadly, as a victim divorced from its own systemic violence.

Indeed, as in previous assassination attempts, Trump is already exploiting the incident to criminalize opposition and escalate his authoritarian drive. His efforts to overturn democratic processes in the United States are inseparable from a broader imperialist campaign aimed at recolonizing Latin America. Rodríguez’s statement, along with a similar one from Mexico’s “leftist” president Claudia Sheinbaum, objectively lends support to these efforts, providing political cover for Washington’s aggression. 

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The January operation was not a one-off attack. US military activity in the region has intensified dramatically. Bombing campaigns have expanded into Latin American waters and border regions. A joint US-Ecuadorian operation dubbed “Total Extermination” targeted rural areas, bombing rural homes and detaining agricultural workers.

Simultaneously, the Pentagon has escalated maritime strikes, particularly in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. More attack aircraft and MQ-9 Reaper drones have been sent to bases in El Salvador and Puerto Rico to carry out more air strikes on fishing boats, killing at least 186 people under the pretext of combating drug trafficking since September.

Meanwhile, Washington is openly threatening further regime change operations, including against Cuba. Trump has declared that “Cuba is next” after Iran.

US naval exercises have begun near Cuba, codenamed Flex2026, integrating artificial intelligence, unmanned systems, and traditional forces to enhance surveillance and control. Reconnaissance drones like the MQ-4C Triton and electronic aircraft such as the RC-135 patrol Cuban airspace and maritime routes, tightening the noose around the island.

Within Venezuela, Rodríguez’s statement has drawn criticism even from Chavista circles, with some pointing out that it ignores the long campaign of US sanctions that has caused over 100,000 excess deaths and forced over 8 million to flee the country.

Some commentators, however, argue that the government is merely “buying time,” hoping for better conditions—higher oil prices, geopolitical shifts, or a popular upsurge—to reassert sovereignty and defend social programs. But such illusions have already been exposed. 

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This trajectory is not a betrayal of Chavismo’s principles—it is their logical outcome. The so-called Bolivarian Revolution, proclaimed after the 1998 election of Hugo Chávez, represented sections of the national bourgeoisie seeking better terms within the global capitalist system. During periods of high commodity prices and closer ties to China, Russia and other economic powers, it used limited social programs to contain the class struggle and negotiate a greater share of the profits for the local ruling class.

But as conditions changed—particularly with the slowing growth of the Chinese economy, the weight of US sanctions and military threats—these same forces have capitulated, prioritizing their own privileges and class rule over the working class. 

*****

The events in Venezuela confirm a fundamental lesson: the national bourgeoisie in oppressed countries is incapable of carrying out democratic tasks, including genuine independence from imperialism.

This reality vindicates the Theory of Permanent Revolution advanced by Leon Trotsky. Only the working class, leading a socialist transformation of society, can break the chains of imperialist domination. This requires not only the overthrow of capitalist states domestically, but an international movement aimed at restructuring the global economy to serve human need, not private profit.

Rodríguez’s statement is not merely hypocritical—it is symptomatic of a deeper crisis. It reflects a political movement that has abandoned any pretense of resistance to imperialism and now seeks accommodation with the very forces responsible for the immense suffering of the people it claimed to represent. 

4. Sri Lankan government blocks release of Tamil writer’s books

In a blatant act of censorship in late March, Sri Lankan Customs authorities have seized books by Tamil writer Pradeepan Deepachelvan, who teaches Advanced Level students at Murugaananda College in Killinochchi in the war-ravaged northern province of the country. The targeted works included three novels titled Naduhal (Memorial Stone), Bayangaravadi (The Terrorist) and Cyanide, along with a collection of essays and a volume of interviews.

Customs seized 360 copies of the five books, which were shipped from Chennai, India and arrived in Colombo, underscoring the state’s direct intervention to block the circulation of literature dealing with the social and political experiences produced by Sri Lanka’s decades-long communal war.

Customs authorities claimed without providing a shred of evidence that the books posed a threat to “national security” and “national harmony.” Unable to substantiate the accusation, Customs officials reportedly referred the matter to a “special committee” attached to the Ministry of Buddha Sasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs, as well as to military authorities, before making any final decision.

Such high-handed, politically charged allegations would not be levelled by Customs officials without being prompted by the ruling Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna/National People’s Power (JVP/NPP) government, which is steeped in anti-Tamil chauvinism.

Deepachelvan told the World Socialist Web Site that officials informed his representatives in Jaffna that the books were being held for review. Following criticism of the government’s actions by several civil rights groups, including the Free Media Movement, Customs has agreed to release three of the books.

The two remaining works continue to be withheld on the grounds that they could allegedly damage “coexistence among communities,” a claim that remains entirely unsubstantiated.

These actions by the government and its authorities constitute a direct and blatant attack on freedom of expression, carried out under the fraudulent banner of protecting “national harmony.”

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and the World Socialist Web Site condemn this act of censorship and demand the immediate and unconditional release of all of Pradeepan’s books. Writers and artists must have the democratic right to present their views without state interference or intimidation.

Deepachelvan, a Tamil writer with seven poetry collections, has consistently addressed themes stemming from Sri Lanka’s three-decade civil war. His works have been translated into Sinhala, Malayalam, Hindi, French and Norwegian, reflecting a broad readership that crosses the communal divide in Sri Lanka and extends internationally. 

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The anti-democratic action against Deepachelvan takes place amid a deepening economic crisis and rising social anger. The Dissanayake government is implementing the austerity dictates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), imposing severe attacks on workers and the poor through tax increases, spending cuts and privatisation.

Since independence in 1948, successive Sri Lankan governments have systematically cultivated anti-Tamil chauvinism to divert mounting social tensions and defend capitalist rule. This policy culminated in a protracted communal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed during the final months of military operations, and thousands more were forcibly disappeared. The JVP, mired in Sinhala chauvinism from its inception, was an ardent supporter of the communal war.

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, a toothless, government-appointed body, has criticised the seizure of Deepachelvan’s books as a violation of freedom of expression. The Free Media Movement, condemning the seizure, has also questioned the authority of Customs officials to determine whether literature constitutes a threat to “national security.” 

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Such attacks on freedom of expression are not unique to Sri Lanka. Across South Asia, governments increasingly invoke “national security,” “religious harmony” and “public order” as pretexts to suppress dissent. In India, the Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party government has encouraged censorship and attacks on intellectuals accused of offending religious sentiments. In Pakistan and Bangladesh, journalists and writers face arrest and intimidation under allegations of spreading “anti-state propaganda.”

These developments are inseparable from the deepening global crisis of capitalism and the intensification of imperialist rivalries. Governments around the world are strengthening authoritarian forms of rule as they prepare for social upheavals driven by war, inequality and economic breakdown. 

*****

The Socialist Equality Party insists that Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim workers must reject all forms of communal politics and defend the democratic rights of writers, artists and intellectuals.

The immediate release of Deepachelvan’s books must become part of a broader struggle against state repression, austerity and the capitalist system itself, which breeds dictatorship, war and communal division.

5. Amid massive government-employer assault on workplace safety, US unions sow complacency on Workers Memorial Day

The observance of Workers Memorial Day 2026 took place amid an escalating assault on workplace safety in the United States of breathtaking scope. Trump has vastly accelerated the dismantling of already inadequate safety regulations and enforcement mechanisms.

According to “Death on the Job,” the annual report issued by the AFL-CIO in conjunction with Workers Memorial Day, based on 2024 figures, an estimated 380 workers die each day from illness and traumatic injury.

The report notes that over the past year, job fatality rates increased in several sectors, including leisure and hospitality (from 2.3 to 2.4 deaths per 100,000 workers) and government (from 1.8 to 2.0). Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting remain the most dangerous industries (20.9 per 100,000), followed by mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (13.8 per 100,000).

At the same time, staffing at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has fallen to historic lows, with only five inspectors per 1 million workers. The fatality rate for young workers has nearly doubled since 2020. Environmental rules are being repealed wholesale, including limits on the emission of toxic chemicals, greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

Despite these conditions, the American trade union bureaucracy marked the day with largely boilerplate statements that neither accept responsibility for worsening conditions nor propose meaningful initiatives to defend workers’ lives, beyond appeals to employers, lobbying in Washington and electoral activity.

The AFL-CIO stated that its officials “will be in the streets and at worksites to peacefully engage our co-workers and neighbors on the issues at stake in the next election so we can ensure that everyone can vote and every vote is counted.” This only underscores the union bureaucracy’s efforts to subordinate workers’ lives to the Democratic Party, a party of Wall Street and corporate America no less than the Republicans.

Similarly, the American Postal Workers Union encouraged members to participate in symbolic actions such as moments of silence, candlelight vigils and AFL-CIO events.

Meanwhile, the past year has seen major workplace tragedies, including fires and explosions that have traumatized entire communities. These include deadly explosions at US Steel’s Clairton Works in Pennsylvania, a fireworks factory in Esparto, California, a munitions plant in Tennessee and the crash of a UPS cargo jet in Louisville, Kentucky.

Recent deaths include:

• The death of 64-year-old autoworker Greg Knopf on March 16, 2026, at the Ford Sharonville Transmission Plant in Ohio, when a press machine activated during maintenance.
• Two workers killed on April 23 at a chemical facility in Institute, West Virginia, with dozens more injured.
• The death of April Flores following a forklift accident on April 4 at an H-E-B warehouse in San Antonio, Texas.
• A 53-year-old worker crushed by an excavator on February 6 at RJ Industrial Recycling in Flint, Michigan.
• The November 8, 2025 death of maintenance mechanic Nick Acker at a Detroit mail facility, where safety features were reportedly disabled, followed by the death of Russell Scruggs Jr. days later in Georgia.

It has also been more than one year since the death of Stellantis Dundee Engine worker Ronald Adams Sr., who was killed on April 7, 2025, when a gantry crane activated during repairs. Stellantis has not been held accountable, and the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration has released no findings. The only detailed investigation was conducted by rank-and-file workers associated with the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees.

Globally, the International Labour Organization estimates that 2.93 million workers die annually from work-related causes, including up to 380,500 from workplace injuries. 

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The lack of seriousness with which the American labor bureaucracy views the question of workplace safety was perhaps best highlighted by the short shrift paid by UAW President Shawn Fain, who posted a short statement on X on the occasion of Workers Memorial Day. Following a year of fires, explosions and workplace carnage, the only actual incident he referenced was the recent death of Ford worker Gregg Knopf. He said nothing about the continued stonewalling and cover-up by MIOSHA and Stellantis of the circumstances of the death of Dundee Engine worker Ronald Adams Sr.

The reason for this is clear. The UAW is part and parcel of the cover-up of Adams’ death. Last year, the UAW bureaucracy used the occasion of Workers Memorial Day to issue a joint video with Stellantis executives praising their joint efforts to protect workers’ lives. This insulting video, which made no mention of Adams, was released the same day as the 63-year-old skilled tradesman was buried in Detroit.

Far from fighting for strengthening safety, the UAW actively collaborates with management to cover up safety violations and to ensure that management is not held accountable when deaths and injuries occur. This is because the union apparatus is joined at the hip with Stellantis and other automakers through the UAW-Stellantis safety committees and a host of other similar corporatist programs that essentially funnel company cash into UAW coffers. 

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Even the actual tracking of official statistics is undermined by the patchwork of state, federal and local oversight and reporting in the US, largely the product of corporate lobbying. While the federal OSHA implemented a Severe Injury Dashboard in 2024, which compiles all the reports from 2015 to the present, there are major limitations. The data only covers just over half the US population, which works in the 28 states covered by federal OSHA programs. Injuries to workers in the 22 “state plan” states, which administer the OSHA program at the state government level, do not appear in the data, unless covered by federal OSHA, like United States Postal Service workers. Federal OSHA does not cover state and municipal workers, so those workers are not represented in the data. 

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The basic social rights of the working class, such as workplace safety, can only be defended and advanced through the independent mobilization of the working class in opposition to the parties of the ruling class and their defenders in the trade union bureaucracy. Over the past year, the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) has taken the initiative in defense of workers’ safety by conducting independent investigations into the deaths of Ronald Adams Sr. and postal workers Nick Acker and Russell Scruggs Jr.

The IWA-RFC calls on workers to form rank-and-file committees in every factory, warehouse and workplace to counterpose the will of shop-floor workers to the dictates of management and the union apparatus. This includes fighting for workers’ control over line speed, safety conditions and production, enforced through collective strike action against any unsafe conditions.

The fight for health and safety is bound up with the fight to put an end to a global social system based on the exploitation of wage labor for private profit. This requires the building of a socialist and internationalist leadership in the working class.

6. Australia:  four workers killed on the job in southeast Queensland in recent weeks

Two more workplace deaths have been reported this week in Queensland, taking the total number of workers known to have been killed in Brisbane, the state capital, and its surrounding region to four in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, a 36-year-old worker was crushed while employees were moving large crates filled with stock at around 5:36 p.m. at a workplace in Wellcamp, near Toowoomba, a regional city about 130 kilometers west of Brisbane.

Initial police and media reports indicated that crates slipped and landed on the worker below. The man, from Harristown, a Toowoomba suburb, was assessed by paramedics at the scene for critical injuries but was declared dead a short time later.

Also reported this week was that Miikael “Mikey” Varuhin, 32, a Finnish construction worker, fell about four meters through scaffolding at a development site in Clayfield, an inner northern suburb of Brisbane, on April 6, suffering a catastrophic brain injury.

Varuhin was declared brain dead later that night. He had reportedly raised concerns about the scaffolding on site on the day he fell and had sent a photo from his phone.

The young worker’s sister, Anniina, told the media: “This is an injustice what happened—no one should go to work and never come back.” She said her young brother had moved to Brisbane seven years ago and planned to make the city his home.

The known workplace fatalities around Brisbane now total seven in six months. This is part of a rising toll due to unsafe conditions, increased rates of exploitation by employers, official coverups and government complicity in Australia and internationally.

The latest shocking deaths follow two others just reported in April. 

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In all these cases, the official state safety agency, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland (WHSQ), said it would investigate the circumstances with assistance from police, but few details have been released. Such investigations can take many months or years and always end up in whitewashes or, at best, paltry fines on employers.

Even where trade unions have members on sites, they work hand-in-hand with managements and the supposed government safety bodies to cover over the real cause of dangerous working conditions—the subordination of workers’ health and lives to the interests of corporate profit, notably through speed-ups, subcontracting and casualisation.

As a result, workers’ deaths continue. Data from Safe Work Australia indicates that by April 9, 30 workers had died nationally in 2026, following 180 deaths in 2025. These figures understate the true toll because chronic occupational illnesses and unreported incidents are often excluded from official counts. 

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Workplace deaths and serious injuries are on the rise globally, as corporations cut costs and impose productivity increases to satisfy the demands of their financial backers. 

To fight this, workers need to take matters into their own hands. Rank-and-file committees, independent of the union apparatuses, must be established in workplaces everywhere to fight for improved safety, wages and conditions. 

7. United States:  Senate Democrats voice support for major surge in military spending at Hegseth briefing

Hegseth spoke as the representative of a completely criminal government, personally advocating that US troops commit war crimes—including upon direct questioning at the hearing.

In the face of a broadly unpopular administration, the Democrats made it their highest priority to emphasize—despite tactical disagreements—their solidarity with the Trump administration’s megalomaniacal program of world conquest. Their objections were that Trump’s plans do not go far enough, or that the Iran war has left the United States unprepared for war with nuclear-armed China and Russia.

Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York called for doubling the number of nuclear-capable stealth bombers in the request, from 100 B-21 Raiders to 200. “We’ve been working together to grow the industrial base because we’re all worried about how our stockpiles would hold up in a conflict against China,” Gillibrand said. The B-21, she added, “will be a critical part of both our conventional and our nuclear deterrence against China and Russia.”

Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona voiced his support for expanding military spending, saying: “I’ve always been supportive of defense spending in my entire time here. After 25 years in the Navy, I want to make sure our folks have what they need.”

Democratic Ranking Member Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the senior Democrat on the committee, opened his remarks by saluting the war against Iran. “Tactically the United States military performance against Iran has been remarkable,” Reed said, “and I salute the service members who executed this mission with skill and bravery.”

His criticism was that the war has left the United States less prepared for war with China. Three carrier strike groups have been pulled into the Middle East, leaving the Pacific thinly covered. “In terms of … where we’re putting … the most powerful part of our Navy,” Reed asked, “can you explain again what that means in terms of the situation in INDOPACOM where China is watching?” His argument was for a larger war, redirected at Beijing.

Democratic Ranking Member Adam Smith of Washington took the same line at the parallel House hearing Wednesday, telling Hegseth he had heard “the chairman on the need for an increased” budget and attacking popular opposition to the war: “I strongly disagree with the folks on the far left who say that we don’t really face any threats.” 

After Iran, Everyone Knows It.” The Iran war, the Times argued, exposed weaknesses adversaries can now see. “The good news is that Congress, the administration and the Pentagon can all now see our military shortcomings,” the editorial concluded.

At Thursday’s hearing, Republican Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi endorsed the Trump administration’s military budget as necessary to prepare for military conflict with China.

“First and foremost, we’re locked in a competition with Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party,” Wicker said. “The competition is high stakes, and it is about whether this will be an American-led century or a century defined by authoritarian, autocratic regimes that care little for the needs of their citizens or those in neighboring countries. The Chinese Communist Party has accelerated its historic military buildup and its predatory economic practices against Americans and countries the world over. Xi Jinping leads not only China, but also an axis of aggressors.” Of the budget: “Every penny of it should be money well spent.” 

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The criminal character of the administration was on open display at Thursday’s hearing. Asked to retract his March 13 order that US troops give enemies in the Caribbean “no quarter, no mercy,” Hegseth refused. Kelly read him the definition from his own department’s Law of War Manual—that no “legitimate offers of surrender will be refused or that detainees will be executed”—and asked twice whether he stood by the statement. Twice Hegseth replied: “We fight to win.” 

The character of “the mission” the Democrats endorsed was thus on the record. Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan told Hegseth: “I agree with the Chairman … that the world has never been more dangerous and complicated, and … we can all agree that we want our military to come out of it safely and successfully.” A successful mission, by the secretary of defense’s own definition, means offering “no quarter” to those targeted by US imperialism and the destruction of “a whole civilization,” in the words of Trump.

Thursday’s hearing took place as the administration moved to defy the 60-day War Powers Resolution clock on the Iran war. Friday is the statutory deadline by which the president must either seek congressional authorization or certify in writing that more time is required to withdraw US forces. The administration intends to do neither. Hegseth said the White House takes the position that a current ceasefire pauses the clock—a reading with no basis in the statute.

Trump was scheduled to be briefed Thursday evening by U.S. Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper on new military options against Iran, including, per news reports, a “powerful” series of strikes on Iranian infrastructure, a ground operation to seize part of the Strait of Hormuz and a special forces mission to secure Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

The Senate Democrats speak for the same capitalist oligarchy as Donald Trump. Their disagreements were operational—anxiety that the Iran war is going badly, anxiety that the United States is unprepared for the larger conflict with China both parties expect. On the question of whether US military spending should surge toward $1.5 trillion to wage that war, Thursday’s hearing revealed no disagreement at all.

8. German government passes war budget, agrees sharp attacks on healthcare

His predecessor Olaf Scholz “always said he did not want to play security policy off against social policy,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz told Der Spiegel in a detailed interview. “We can no longer afford that,” Merz said. “We must set priorities.”

The cabinet did just that on Wednesday. Military spending has priority. It is being increased sharply, and social spending slashed accordingly.

According to the financial benchmarks presented by Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (Social Democratic Party, SPD) and adopted by the cabinet, the Defence Ministry’s spending financed from the core budget will rise from €82.2 billion this year to €179.9 billion in 2030. Almost one in three euros from the federal budget will then flow directly into rearmament and war. In the next two years, additional billions will be added from the “special fund for the Bundeswehr [Armed Forces]” passed in 2022, which expires at the end of 2027.

Outlays on debt servicing are also rising, as rearmament spending is largely financed via additional loans. According to Klingbeil’s plans, the government’s interest expenditure will climb to €78.7 billion by 2030, which is about 12.5 percent of the budget. This year it still amounts to €30.3 billion. Little will be left for social spending.

Parallel to the benchmarks for the budget, the cabinet has initiated a draft law to reform statutory health insurance from Health Minister Nina Warken (Christian Democratic Union, CDU). It will now be debated in the Bundestag (federal parliament) and is to be passed before the summer holidays. It will deliver the death blow to healthcare in its current form.

As early as next year, the spending of the statutory health insurance funds is to be reduced by €16.3 billion. This is to be achieved by cutting and increasing the cost of services as well as imposing strict savings targets for hospitals and doctors. The latter are to bear the main burden of the cuts.

Overall, spending in the healthcare sector may only rise as fast as the average contributory income per fund member. This is supposed to save €11.3 of the total €16.3 billion. The consequence will be that hospitals and doctors’ practices are faced with the alternative of cutting salaries or laying off staff. Many will go bankrupt or no longer be able to find enough staff willing to do the demanding work while understaffed and poorly paid. 

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What is completely missing from the draft law—apart from a slight increase in the contribution assessment ceiling, i.e., the income limit up to which health insurance contributions are payable—are measures that make the rich pay. The massive wealth accumulated through rising stock market prices, exorbitant real estate values and inherited fortunes do not contribute to these costs. In Germany, there is not even a wealth tax.

The problem, therefore, is not that there is not enough money available for good healthcare for everyone, but that healthcare stands in the way of the enrichment and war plans of the ruling elites. It is of interest to them only insofar as it yields profit. 

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Klingbeil’s budget plan contains numerous further austerity measures at the expense of the wider population. Federal subsidies for long-term care insurance and pension insurance are also to be cut, and social benefits slashed. In pension insurance alone, €4 billion a year are to be saved, even though its requirements are growing due to the increasing number of pensioners; the pension commission set up by the government will not present its report until the summer.

Overseas development aid is also to be massively curtailed. In addition, all ministries are to reduce their spending by 1 percent, even though inflation is rising sharply again. The Ministry of Defense is, of course, exempt from this.

9. Germany’s Morenoite RIO joins Left Party in support of war, attacks on the working class

The integration of the RIO Morenoites into the Left Party marks a further political shift to the right by this pseudo-left tendency, which can only be understood in the context of the current crisis of capitalism. It is taking place against a backdrop of escalating imperialist wars, growing social attacks and increasing political radicalization, particularly among young people and workers.

Worldwide, the development towards a Third World War is intensifying dramatically. NATO is escalating its confrontation with the nuclear-armed power Russia in Ukraine. Israel is committing genocide in Gaza with the support of the US and European powers. The US-Israeli attack on Iran threatens to plunge the entire region into war. At the same time, Germany is witnessing the largest military buildup since the Second World War, while social and democratic rights are being systematically dismantled.

This development is meeting with growing resistance. In Germany, in the past year, before and after the federal election, thousands—primarily young people—have joined the Left Party, often in the hope of finding there a political instrument in the struggle against war, fascism and social inequality.

“There is a huge discrepancy between the hopes that young people associate with the Left Party and what it actually is. The former want to oppose the fascists, they reject the refugee agitation, and they want reasonable incomes and affordable rents,” wrote the Socialist Equality Party (SGP) in a statement on the result of the 2025 federal election. “But the Left Party has no program to counter the shift to the right by those in power. It is spreading the illusion that the main parties of the ruling class can be persuaded to change course through a combination of parliamentary opposition and pressure from the streets.”

The statement continued: “The Left Party claims it is possible to reform capitalism, not abolish it. But that is a dangerous illusion. The ruling elites’ turn to the right is not simply the product of mistaken policies that can be corrected by a bit of pressure. The ruling class everywhere is resorting to dictatorship and war because it is confronted with the deep crisis of its social system.” 

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Officially, RIO justified its entry into the Left Party by citing a focus on the party’s new, predominantly young members. Yet instead of—as would be the task of Marxists—educating them about the character of the Left Party, breaking them away from it and winning them over to an independent socialist perspective, RIO pursues the opposite goal: It deliberately ties these potentially oppositional forces to a party that is itself deeply integrated into the capitalist state apparatus and actively supports the reactionary offensive of German imperialism. 

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The reactionary nature of this orientation can only be understood by clearly defining the character of the Left Party itself. It is not a contradictory “arena” in which different class interests vie for influence but a historically developed bourgeois party that represents the interests of the state and the wealthy middle classes.

Its roots lie in the SED (Socialist Unity Party), the Stalinist ruling party of the GDR (East Germany), which oppressed the working class for decades and organized the capitalist restoration in 1989–90. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Stalinist bureaucracy transformed itself into a bourgeois force, secured property rights and integrated itself into the reunified German state. In doing so, it carried the nationalist and anti-Marxist character of Stalinism to its ultimate conclusion.

As resistance to the consequences of the Schröder government’s Agenda 2010 intensified, the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism), the successor party to the SED, merged in 2007 with the Electoral Alternative for Labour and Social Justice (WASG) to form the Left Party, in order to absorb and neutralise the resistance. The WASG was an alliance of former SPD and trade union officials who feared that the SPD, due to its right-wing policies, was no longer capable of suppressing the class struggle.

Since then, the Left Party has established itself as an integral part of the capitalist profit system. Its participation in government, particularly in the state of Berlin, was inextricably linked to massive social spending cuts. Under its shared responsibility, tens of thousands of public sector jobs were cut, public housing was privatized and comprehensive austerity programs were implemented. The party thus proved that it is prepared to enforce the interests of capital just as consistently as the SPD or the CDU.

At the same time, it played a central role in laying the political groundwork for the return of German militarism. The involvement of its foreign policy spokesperson, Stefan Liebich, in the 2013 strategy paper “New Power—New Responsibility” was a decisive step in this direction. This document openly articulated Germany’s ambition to once again assume a leading military role on the international stage and served as a blueprint for the bellicose speeches delivered by Gauck, Steinmeier and von der Leyen at the 2014 Munich Security Conference.

In the years that followed, the Left Party increasingly and openly supported this course. It backed the NATO war offensive against Russia, the regime change war in Syria, the genocide in Gaza and, most recently, the US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran.

The party’s political callousness is particularly evident in the statements of its chairman, Jan van Aken, who welcomed the assassination of Iranian leaders by saying they should “rot in hell.” This statement is not a personal lapse but an expression of the political character of a party that has placed itself entirely at the service of imperialist interests and the barbarism that goes hand in hand with them.

The Left Party also bears primary responsibility for the rise of the far right. In its former strongholds in the east, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is now the strongest party. On the one hand, it has itself contributed significantly to the social misery that is driving many workers, in particular, to despair. On the other hand, the fact that it pursues right-wing policies under the guise of “left-wing” rhetoric fuels the disappointment and political frustration that the AfD and other far-right forces deliberately exploit. And like all other bourgeois parties, the Left Party is also prepared to cooperate even with the far right and its supporters within the ruling class and to implement their anti-refugee and anti-worker policies. 

RIO’s role is deeply rooted in the history of Morenoism. This current, named after the Argentine politician Nahuel Moreno, has for decades been characterized by its adaptation to non-proletarian forces. As early as the 1950s, it broke with the world Trotskyist movement and aligned itself with Peronism. Moreno and his followers joined this bourgeois-nationalist movement and declared that their organization acted “under the discipline of General Perón.” In doing so, they abandoned the fundamental principle of Marxism—the political independence of the working class.

This accommodation had devastating political consequences. In 1958, on the instructions of Perón, who had fled abroad to escape the military, Moreno supported the election of a right-wing bourgeois president, even as sections of the Peronist rank and file opposed this course.

In the 1960s, this pattern was repeated in the attitude towards the Cuban Revolution. Initially, Moreno denounced Fidel Castro because the Peronist movement glorified his opponent, the dictator Fulgencio Batista, as the “Cuban Perón.” Moreno subsequently made a 180-degree turn, describing Cuba as a workers’ state and hailing Castro, a petty-bourgeois nationalist, as a model for the revolution throughout Latin America. Underlying both positions was Moreno’s refusal to formulate an independent policy for the working class.

The full extent of the reactionary role played by Morenoism became apparent in Argentina in the 1970s. While the country was in the throes of a deep revolutionary crisis, Moreno’s party aligned itself with the Peronist government and advocated for its stabilization. It signed declarations in defense of the “institutional order” and pledged to fight for the “continuity of the government” at a time when paramilitary forces were murdering workers and left-wing activists. This policy contributed to the political disarmament of the working class and paved the way for the 1976 military coup, which cost tens of thousands of lives.

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For workers and young people who wish to fight against war, fascism and social inequality, a clear conclusion follows: This struggle cannot be waged within parties that are themselves part of the bourgeois state and political reaction. It requires a conscious break with all such organizations and the building of an independent revolutionary movement of the working class on an international basis.

RIO’s entry into the Left Party is therefore not merely a political declaration of bankruptcy on the part of this organisation. It creates political clarity. The struggle for a socialist perspective is inextricably linked to the struggle against pseudo-left tendencies which, under the guise of radical rhetoric, defend the political pillars and interests of the capitalist system. It requires the building of an independent revolutionary world party—the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), which is represented in Germany by the Socialist Equality Party (SGP) and its youth organization, the IYSSE. 

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

Bogdan Syrotiuk holds a copy of John Reed's Ten Days That Shook the World 

The fight for the Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist's freedom is an essential component of the struggle against imperialist war, genocide, dictatorship and fascism.