Perhaps the most brazen purchasing of influence in the second Trump administration has come through the issuance of “memecoins,” a cryptocurrency that is tied to a joke, a phrase or a particular personality. All cryptocurrencies are tokens with zero intrinsic value. They are generated through a complex computer-based calculation process that uses vast quantities of electricity and therefore represents a sizeable waste of society’s resources. They are vehicles of pure speculation that often follow a typical Ponzi scheme: New buyers drive up the price, and as long as the price rises, further new buyers are attracted. But once the buying spree stops, it is musical chairs with nothing at all to sit on: The real value drops to near-zero, and the last holders lose everything.
Chicago’s transit crisis is not an isolated incident. From Philadelphia to San Francisco, agencies are slashing services, hiking fares and laying off workers as federal aid dries up. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority recently proposed a 45 percent service reduction and a 9:00 p.m. rail curfew to address its own deficit. Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s threats to gut federal transit grants have left cities scrambling to fill the gaps.
In one passage of his speech, Steinmeier referred to Victor Klemperer, a linguist of Jewish descent who survived the Nazi dictatorship in Dresden and whose diaries are among the best accounts of life in the Third Reich. He should also have mentioned the book The Language of the Third Reich: A Philologist’s Notebook, in which Klemperer carefully analyses the language of the Third Reich (Lingua Tertii Imperii) and demonstrates how the Nazis turned terms into their opposite and repeated them stereotypically in order to manipulate public opinion. Steinmeier employed the same technique.
The deepening starvation in Gaza is unfolding alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to fully occupy the territory and place the distribution of all remaining humanitarian aid under the exclusive control of the Israeli military.
On Thursday, US and international newspapers reported a proposal to have a group of American security contractors and ex-military officers, called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, take over the provision of food. The plan would bring the US more directly into the occupation of Gaza, following the declaration by US President Donald Trump earlier this year that the US would “own” Gaza.
While the state is moving might and main to prosecute Hinton Jr., the Cincinnati police officer who shot and killed his son has yet to be publicly identified—let alone charged with a crime—more than a week later.
6. Top economic officials from the US and China plan to meet in Switzerland this weekend
All sections of the US economic, financial, political, and military establishments, whatever the conflicts which may arise within different sections, are agreed on one thing: the rise of China poses an existential threat to US dominance and must be crushed by all means necessary. If possible, using economic measures, but if that fails, by military means.
The issues in the economic war are no less profound on the Chinese side. The transformation of China from a backward economy 40 years ago to the world’s chief manufacturing center and the number two economy has raised fundamental issues before the Chinese capitalist oligarchy represented by the Xi Jinping regime.
For about 90 seconds, airliners and other aircraft hurtled through the airspace of one of the busiest airports in the US with no one watching the big picture or controlling the operation. Controllers sat helplessly, electronically blind and deaf sitting in a windowless and dark control room. They did not know when or if their equipment would turn on again.
On Wednesday afternoon, a group of around 100 anti-genocide student protesters took over Butler’s main reading room and renamed it the “Basel Al-Araj Popular University,” after the Palestinian activist and writer killed by Israeli forces in 2017.
The students’ demands include Columbia’s financial divestment from Zionist organizations, an academic boycott of complicit institutions, cops and ICE off campus and amnesty for all university members unfairly targeted and disciplined for pro-Palestinian actions.
Both in Lula’s national radio and TV address on the eve of May Day and in the rallies organized by the trade union federations, the primary demand was for a reduction in the working day in Brazil from 44 hours to 40 hours a week with no reduction in wages and an end to the 6x1 work schedule (six days on, one off), which is prevalent in the retail and services sectors that operate on weekends.
Workers, whether across North America or internationally, cannot defend their jobs and livelihoods amid an unfolding global trade war—one moreover that is part of a developing imperialist world war—by lining up with their “own” ruling class. But this is precisely what they are being told to do by the union bureaucracies and government officials, who have sought to outdo each other in nationalist slogan-mongering since the threat of tariffs was first raised.
The unions cheering on a Labor Party win should not come as a shock. The two are deeply intertwined— financially, politically, and organizationally. Senior union officials hold powerful positions on the Labor Party’s national executive and key policy committees. A significant number of Labor parliamentarians began their political careers by rising through the ranks of the union apparatus.
But there is an air of desperation to the bureaucrats’ proclamations that “The election outcome is down to the work of the trade union movement,” and “WE DID IT!” This is because the union officials are well aware of the mounting hostility among workers to Labor, who received scarcely more than one-third of the primary vote on Saturday.
To the extent that the unions— which themselves can count as members just 13 percent of the workforce— played any significant role in the election, it was entirely on the basis of urging workers to “keep [the Liberal-Nationals'] Dutton out,” on the grounds that Labor represented a “lesser evil.”
The Daily Blog is silent about the real purpose of military service: funneling young people into the armed forces so they can be used as cannon fodder in the service of imperialism. The armed forces have experienced significant levels of attrition in recent years, which the right-wing National Party-led government is determined to turn around.
The government, supported by the Labour Party, has committed to doubling military spending. The ruling class aims to integrate New Zealand more fully into the US imperialist build-up to war against China, as well as the NATO war against Russia and efforts to carve up the Middle East.
Across the world, the ruling class is responding to the breakdown of capitalism by militarizing society and preparing young people to fight. Conscription is now being openly discussed in Germany, Britain and other European countries, as the imperialist powers seek to violently redivide the world and reduce large parts of it to colonial slavery.
The World Socialist Web Site... reiterates its call upon all organizations and individuals who claim to defend democratic rights and be left wing to join the fight to free Bogdan Syrotiuk. It is an essential component of the fight against imperialist war and the escalating attacks on democratic rights not only in Ukraine and Russia, but the US, across Europe and internationally.
Tüpraş, owned by Koç Holding, one of the largest capitalist groups in Turkey, operates the Kırıkkale, Batman, Kocaeli and İzmir-Aliağa refineries. During the negotiations for a collective agreement covering more than 3,500 workers, workers at the four refineries protested against the low wage offers of the company.
While Tüpraş, which was privatised and sold for a song by the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2006, is making record profits every year, the workers are witnessing a decline in their real wages and living standards. This process takes place with the collaboration of the Petrol-İş bureaucracy, which is affiliated to the Türk-İş confederation.
Thus far, efforts to “de-platform” Kneecap, led by the Labour government in Britain and the political, media and music establishment on both sides of the Atlantic, have largely backfired. Although Kneecap have been subjected to a deluge of moral outrage from apologists for mass murder and are under investigation by London’s Metropolitan Police, musicians and music fans have made clear their opposition to their persecution, justified with two out of context videos. While gigs have been cancelled, new ones have been booked and quickly sold out. Downloads of Kneecap’s music also indicate support for their stance.
19. Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa:
Italy:Tens of thousands of Italian rail workers in national strike over pay and conditions
French rail workers in nationwide strike over pay rates and work schedules
French civil aviation workers at Toulouse airport in wildcat strike
Finland:
Hundreds of airport workers in Helsinki strike after unsuccessful pay negotiations
20. "Dictatorship, war and the fight to build the SEP in Turkey"
21. "The IYSSE’s fight for a Marxist political culture among youth"
22. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Bogdan Syrotiuk
23. San Francisco, California city legal resources for immigrants needing help
