Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:
1. Greetings to the Founding Congress of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi
These greetings from Socialist Equality Party (US) national chairman David North were sent to the founding congress of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi, held on June 13–15, 2025.
2. Calling Palestinians “barbaric animals,” US Secretary of State hails Israeli assault on Gaza City
On Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a joint appearance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hail what Netanyahu called the “concluding moves” in the US-Israeli onslaught on Gaza: the conquest and destruction of Gaza City.
The Israeli onslaught against Gaza City will place the Gaza Strip under total military occupation, creating the conditions for the internment of the population in concentration camps for their extermination or forcible displacement.
“We’re going to take over and destroy the Hamas stronghold,” Netanyahu bellowed.
But the Israeli prime minister, who has a warrant for his arrest by the International Criminal Court, was outdone in genocidal bloodlust by the American secretary of state, who publicly repeated the notorious declaration by former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that the Palestinians are “animals.”
Rubio ranted, “This happened because on October 7th these animals, these barbaric animals, conducted this operation ... against innocent people.”
He concluded, “It needs to end. And how does it end? It ends by eliminating the people who did it, by ending them as a threat.”
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The Gaza genocide is a warning: American imperialism, facing a social, economic and geopolitical crisis from which it can find no way out, is capable of any crime, whether against the peoples of the world or the working class inside the United States.
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The experience of Gaza, in nearly two years of mass murder and collective punishment, proves a decisive lesson: The genocide cannot be stopped by appeals to the capitalist powers that perpetrate and defend it. It can be halted only by the independent mobilization of the working class in every country, in a mass movement that takes aim at the root cause of war and oppression—the capitalist system itself.
3. Emmy award winner Hannah Einbinder denounces ICE and proclaims “Free Palestine”
The major awards ceremony September 14 took place a few days after the assassination of fascist political operative Charlie Kirk and in the midst of a Trump administration-led propaganda barrage against the “left” aimed at legitimizing police-state rule in America.
The aim of the producers of the Emmy broadcast was to prevent any commentary on the explosive events in the US or mass murder in the Middle East. Bargatze, a “clean,” Christian comedian, adhered to his earlier promise not to include any political references “at all,” while telling the media that the Kirk shooting was the “saddest thing in the world.”
The Emmy awards were intended, in other words, to take place in an air of utter unreality.
Fortunately, despite the efforts of the producers and Bargatze to chloroform the audience on hand and at home, supporting actress award winner Hannah Einbinder (for the comedy series Hacks) bravely exclaimed, upon receiving her honor, “F—- ICE and free Palestine!” The roar of applause from the audience was an indicator of the real state of public opinion in Hollywood and around the US.
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Spanish actor and Emmy nominee Javier Bardem appeared at the ceremony conspicuously wearing a keffiyeh, and declared his support for a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions. On the red carpet, speaking to a CNN reporter, Bardem indicted Israel for its massive crimes:
Here I am denouncing the genocide in Gaza, and talking about the IAGS, which is the International Association of Genocide Scholars, who study thoroughly genocide and have declared that it is a genocide. That’s why we ask for a commercial and diplomatic blockade, and also sanctions on Israel to stop the genocide and free Palestine.
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Putting the Einbinder-Bardem comments even more sharply into focus, one day earlier Israeli soldiers carried out an attack on the West Bank home of Basel Adra, one of the co-directors of the Academy Award-winning documentary film No Other Land, about Zionist violence on the West Bank.
Yuval Abraham, one of Adra’s fellow co-directors, posted on X
happening now: Israeli army raiding the house of Oscar winner Basel Adra after Israeli settlers attacked his village earlier and beat up his family member. Soldiers could try to abduct Basel into one of Israel’s prisons, which are effectively torture sites.
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The strongest and most subversive television series this year, Andor, won five prizes over the two weekends, but only one major award—outstanding writing for a drama series—for Dan Gilroy. The science fiction-political thriller set in the Star Wars universe, as the World Socialist Web Site wrote, encourages and reflects “anti-establishment, anti-authoritarian sentiment.” It is a serious effort
dealing with repression, totalitarianism and revolt. As a piece of popular entertainment, it emerges undeniably out of the same moods that have burst to the surface in the gigantic protests against Donald Trump and the recent New York City Democratic primary.
What makes Andor remarkable is not its visual effects or action sequences, but the extent to which it portrays the ravages of imperialist violence and encroachment. The scenes and characters in Andor are not allegorical, they speak to contemporary conditions and processes.
The Trump administration is using the assassination last week of fascist mouthpiece Charlie Kirk as an opportunity to launch a far-reaching campaign targeting democratic rights. The US government is seizing on the killing of Kirk to arrogate to itself new powers aimed at silencing dissent and establishing police state rule.
On Tuesday, prosecutors in Utah unveiled multiple charges against 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, the suspect in Kirk’s killing. The charges include aggravated murder, which carries with it the possibility under state law of the death penalty by firing squad or lethal injection.
The documents do not assert that Robinson was part of a far left-wing network or a member of “antifa.” In the documents, prosecutors allege that Robinson, in front of family members, accused Kirk of “spreading hate.” They allege that following Kirk’s death, Robinson admitted to his roommate, “a biological male who was involved in a romantic relationship with Robinson,” that he killed Kirk.
Text messages produced in the charging documents do not point to a coherent political ideology or program. In interviews and in Discord messages shared by journalist Ken Klippenstein, Robinson’s friends indicate that he was heavily immersed in online video games and internet meme culture but not overtly political. One of Tyler’s friends told Klippenstein, “Obviously he’s okay with gay and trans people having a right to exist, but also believes in the Second Amendment.”
These facts have not prevented the Trump administration from using Kirk’s killing to wage war on its political enemies, using the power of the state and the mass media, and relying on the cowardly silence of the Democrats on Kirk’s fascist politics.
5. Victimization of teachers across the US for criticizing Charlie Kirk
School districts across the United States are firing and threatening educators for making critical comments about the late extreme-right provocateur Charlie Kirk. Since his assassination on September 10, at least 33 educators in K-12 schools and college campuses nationwide have been fired, suspended or placed on administrative leave for social media comments or classroom remarks about his death. Hundreds more are currently facing investigation or pending disciplinary action.
The glorification of Kirk, orchestrated by the Trump administration and its allies, is being used to escalate repression, censor critical voices and legitimize far-right ideology. This escalation aims to purge schools of opposition, enforce ideological conformity and prepare the way for dictatorship and imperialist war.
The World Socialist Web Site denounces this witch-hunt, which is aimed not only at silencing teachers but the working class. It is part of Trump’s plan for dictatorship, which also includes deploying the National Guard to major American cities, at the behest of corporate executives. It is also part of the nationwide attack on public education itself, with almost every major school district facing huge deficits and Trump threatening to close the Department of Education.
We call for a nationwide defense campaign, centered in the working class, to answer the attempt to ban all criticism of the extreme right.
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Within hours of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, far-right online networks launched a coordinated doxxing campaign targeting any educator, worker or student who failed to publicly mourn Kirk or who posted critical remarks. Trump loyalist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer threatened to destroy the careers of those “sick enough to celebrate his death,” while Republican activist Scott Presler mobilized his followers to hunt down and publicly shame teachers.
The anonymous website “Expose Charlie’s Murderers” contains reports on over 50,000 individuals making critical comments about Kirk. It includes their names, locations and their employers to encourage their firing or worse. The “Libs of TikTok” social media account is broadcasting personal information about educators, professors and healthcare workers, demanding mass firings and calling to “demolish” public education, with a message urging parents to homeschool in protest.
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At the national level, AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA (National Education Association) President Becky Pringle have made no public defense of teachers and staff. Themselves high-ranking figures in the Democratic Party’s hierarchy, they are parroting its hypocritical denunciations of “political violence” and lending legitimacy to the crackdown.
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The campaign of intimidation must be answered with the development of a movement in the working class in defense of democratic rights. Independent of both parties, the organizational form of such a campaign must be a nationwide and international network of rank-and-file committees. This is the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC).
6. Trump’s state visit to Britain: All that glitters…
Donald Trump’s second state visit to the UK, the first afforded any second-term US president, will be a spectacle of political corruption, decay and delusion.
Behind the walls of a palace, or within the grounds of a country retreat, far from a population which despises him, the fascist would-be dictator Trump will be fêted with all the pageantry the British state has to offer.
7. Texas State University labor historian fired for political speech
On September 10, a Texas State University professor was fired after having been accused by a far-right provocateur of inciting violence in a video posted on social media of the professor speaking at a socialism conference.
Tom Alter, an associate professor in the History Department at Texas State University in San Marcos, was fired for his comments during an online political meeting that took place on September 7. Alter’s remarks at the Revolutionary Socialism Conference, a meeting organized by various socialist groups, were secretly recorded by an unknown attendee and subsequently uploaded to social media.
Alter is a serious historian whose scholarly focus includes transnational approaches to race, labor, capitalism and protest movements. Some of his works include the essay “The Role of Independent Working-Class Political Action” and his recently published book Toward a Cooperative Commonwealth: The Transplanted Roots of Farmer-Labor Radicalism in Texas. In the latter, Alter reckons with the influence radical German migrants fleeing from the backlash of the 1848 revolutions had upon the burgeoning farmer-labor bloc in Texas, challenging the notion that Texas is a state home only to reactionary politics and history.
In a post on Elon Musk’s X by Karlyn Borysenko, a prolific peddler of fascist misinformation, Alter’s remarks are edited and misrepresented to suggest that the professor was calling for a violent “overthrow of the ‘bloodthirsty’ US Government.” According to the student newspaper at Texas State, Alter was soon fired without any chance to respond, give his version of events or defend himself against the accusations.
8. Echoes of Nazi eugenics: Fox News host calls for “lethal injection” of the homeless
The prevalence of mental health disorders among the homeless is overwhelming. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 85 studies found that 67 percent of unhoused people have mental health disorders. Other research estimates the mean prevalence of any current mental disorder among homeless persons at 76.2 percent. Specifically, schizophrenia spectrum disorders affect a staggering 12.4 percent of homeless individuals, a rate significantly higher than in the general population. Homeless people face a 60 percent higher mortality rate and a life expectancy 26 years shorter than the general population, suffering from high rates of infectious disease and mental illness, and often being victims of violence themselves.
[“Fox & Friends” co-host Brian] Kilmeade’s call for “lethal injection” is an incitement to state violence against an already demonized and neglected segment of the population. It reveals the contempt of the ruling class for those cast aside by its brutal economic system, seeking to scapegoat the victims of systemic neglect, while deliberately failing to address the root causes of homelessness and mental illness: the capitalist system that places profit over human life. Rhetoric such as Kilmeade’s serves to prop up this barbaric system to pave the way for further violent attacks on democratic rights and the most vulnerable in society.
9. UK children on free school meals blocked from accessing vital curriculum subjects
As the autumn school term begins in Britain, research reveals the devastating impact of inequality and poverty on the access to educational opportunities by children from poorer families.
A survey commissioned by the charity Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) reveals that children on Free School Meals (FSM) were less likely to take up costlier subjects at GCSE level than their better off counterparts. Many subjects incur costs to be shouldered by parents, such as fieldwork in geography, foreign language trips, ingredients in domestic science, and kit and equipment for PE (physical education).
General Certificates of Secondary Education (GCSEs) are subjects taken by 15-16-year-olds with exams at the end of year 11. While English, maths and science are compulsory, other subjects are optional. The outcome of GCSE’s determines the next step in a child’s education.
An online poll commissioned by CPAG conducted between April 17 and May 1, 2025, by Survation of 1,701 secondary school pupils, including 1,027 children in England found:
- 23 percent of children on free school meals were deterred from selecting GCSE subjects of their choice because of fear of costs incurred, compared to 9 percent not on FSMs.
- 29 percent on FSMs said the costs of a subject informed their choice, compared to 11 percent not on FSMs.
- 30 percent of FSM pupils said homework costs were hard to afford, including laptops.
CPAG’s head of education policy Kate Anstey said, “Children in struggling families are going back to school only to be bounced out of some subjects and learning by costs—cut off from opportunities just as the foundations of their futures are being laid.”
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The statistics for child poverty in the UK are stark, in a country where the richest 50 families own more wealth than the poorest half of the population or 34 million people.
According to the Child Poverty Action Group, there are 4.5 million children in the UK living in relative poverty, defined as below 60 percent of the median income. This translates to 31 percent, or nine children in a classroom of 30, growing up in poverty. 7 out of 10 children in poor households have at least one parent in work, due to pitifully low wages. Among families where a member is disabled, 44 percent of children live in poverty.
Almost half (49 percent) of children from black and Asian families live in poverty, compared to 24 percent of children in white families. 49 percent of children from single-parent households also grow up in poverty.
The figure for child poverty has risen by 700,000 in the last 10 years, due to successive government austerity to pay for huge bank bailouts.
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Beneath the cynical pose of closing the attainment-gap, successive governments over the past 40 years, facilitated by the education unions, introduced major “reforms” to UK education—including the proscriptive National Curriculum, Academy schools and hated government inspectorate Ofsted to police the teaching workforce. But what is needed is a fully funded education system, informed by child psychology and pedagogy, not driven by tests and targets that squash inquiry and creativity.
On taking office Labour declared as one of its missions to “break down barriers to opportunity… to make sure there is no class ceiling on the ambitions of our young people”. Prime Minister Keir Starmer declared his government would “leave no stone unturned to give every child the very best start in life”. Such comments were pure electioneering, with the punitive two-child benefit cap introduced by the Tories that has reduced many families to penury and stunts the life chances of children kept in place.
Capitalist governments worldwide have concluded that historic average spending on health, education and pensions is no longer affordable. Labour’s misnamed Schools and Well Being bill making its way through the House of Lords makes no mention of education funding, which has been cut to the bone. The government is dedicated to defending not the well-being of children but the profits of the rich and increased military spending.
10. Residents in working-class districts of Johannesburg protest after two-week loss of water supply
Johannesburg, South Africa’s most populous city and economic hub, has been rocked by protests in its working-class districts of Westbury and Coronationville after residents were left without water for more than two weeks.
The city has a population of 5.5 million, while the wider urban agglomeration exceeds 14.8 million, making it a global megacity and the richest in Africa by GDP and private wealth. It is the capital of Gauteng, the country’s wealthiest province, home to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the Constitutional Court and stands at the center of the international gold and mineral trade.
Yet, in this city of vast wealth residents of Westbury and Coronationville have been forced to block off streets with bricks, stones and burning tyres to demand water.
Post-apocalyptic conditions have rapidly emerged. An elderly woman clutching medical papers made a heartbreaking plea to SNL24 reporters, stating, “These are my results from the doctor. I have cancer and I’m due for an operation. I’ve been turned away from the hospital three times because of water shortages.”
Diana Louw, a community activist, explained, “Children cannot stay at school because there is no water.”
The Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in Westbury has a borehole on site, but staff report that it is insufficient to meet daily needs. One nurse told TimesLIVE, “Water is an issue, and it affects the hospital. We cannot operate as we should. Procedures are delayed because there is no running water.”
The African National Congress (ANC)-run city unleashed police, who attacked residents with stun grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets, indiscriminately targeting children and the elderly. Journalists covering the demonstration were also fired upon. “They shot an 81-year-old with rubber bullets,” relayed one resident to News24. A 15-year-old boy was also hospitalized after being shot in the head.
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Westbury and Coronationville were classified as “colored” (mixed-race) neighborhoods under Apartheid, the white-minority capitalist regime that from 1948 to 1994 legally enforced racial segregation across every aspect of society.
The black majority was stripped of political rights, herded into segregated districts and barren “homelands,” and systematically denied access to quality education, health care, housing, and essential infrastructure such as water and electricity. These conditions were deliberately created to divide the working class along racial and tribal lines, while guaranteeing South African and international capital a vast pool of cheap labor for the mines, factories, and farms that generated enormous profits.
Three decades after the ANC came to power promising redress, this legacy of neglect continues. Residents endure years of intermittent water supply and repeated protests, while successive administrations under the ANC, the pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA), and the Islamist-leaning Al Jama-ah, have all failed to resolve the crisis.
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After more than three decades in power, the ANC has demonstrated that it is incapable of addressing even the most basic needs of the working class. Its record is one of crumbling infrastructure, mass unemployment, staggering inequality, and endless repression of social opposition. The experience underscores the incapacity of the national bourgeoisie to resolve the crisis of South African capitalism.
Technology, science, and resources exist to provide clean water, reliable electricity, and modern infrastructure for all. But under capitalism they are monopolized by a handful of corporations and subordinated to the profit system, not the needs of society. In South Africa, this has meant decades of austerity, privatization, and looting, overseen by the ANC and its political accomplices.
11. Pacific Islands Forum meets amid escalating US war drive against China
The 54th Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) met over five days from September 8 in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands. It was attended by representatives from 18 member states: the regional imperialist powers Australia and New Zealand, and 16 small, impoverished colonial territories and semi-colonial countries.
The summit took place amid soaring geopolitical tensions in the Pacific, fueled by the advanced US preparations for war against China. The US and its allies Australia and NZ are militarizing the entire region and are pressuring the Pacific countries to cut economic and diplomatic ties with China.
A tense dispute erupted last month over Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele’s decision to bar all “dialogue partners”—21 governments from outside the Pacific region, including the US, China and Taiwan—from participating in the PIF summit.
A US State Department spokesperson told Reuters it was “disappointed” with the announcement and pointedly declared that all partners should attend “including Taiwan.” The US and its allies are seeking to provoke a conflict with China over Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province of China.
The Solomon Islands switched its diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China in 2019, and in 2022 signed a security and policing deal with Beijing. This prompted a hysterical outburst and threats of a US-Australia regime change operation if China moved to establish a military presence there.
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A frothing article in the Australian newspaper on September 12, headlined “China’s insidious grip on the Pacific,” claimed that Beijing was creating a “surveillance state” by collecting data on Solomon Islands citizens through its community policing initiative. Australia’s opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash called it “a very concerning development.”
All of this is thoroughly hypocritical and turns reality upside down. Australia, NZ and the US dominate military and policing operations across the Pacific including in the Solomon Islands, where Australia has dozens of police officers stationed and recently supplied the local police with a $5.2 million fleet of 61 security vehicles.
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At this year’s summit, Pacific leaders endorsed the so-called “Ocean of Peace Declaration,” purportedly committing the region to “peace, sovereignty, and climate justice.”
Recalling the bloody battles fought in the Pacific during World War II, Manele declared, “The Ocean of Peace Declaration is a reclamation of our sovereignty and our shared destiny. It is a solemn vow that our seas, air, and lands will never again be drawn into the vortex of great power rivalry.”
Such statements fly in the face of reality. Practically all the countries who signed the “peace” document are making far-reaching security and military deals with the imperialist powers.
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The “Ocean of Peace Declaration” also called for “bold, decisive and transformative action” to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The Pacific governments are well aware that the imperialist powers, even as they spend record sums of money on war, are taking no action to stop catastrophic climate change. Already this is leading to more frequent destructive events and threatens to completely wipe out low-lying islands like Tuvalu.
The intensifying confrontation with China and the militarization of the Pacific by the US and its allies must serve as a warning to the working class in Australia, New Zealand, and across the Pacific region. The only way to prevent a catastrophic third world war is through a unified struggle by workers throughout the Pacific and internationally based on socialism, to put an end to the capitalist system which is the root cause of imperialist war.
Following the announcement Monday of a US military strike against a vessel in the Southern Caribbean allegedly killing three passengers accused of transporting drugs, US President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that the US had hit a third boat without providing any details.
The first attack against small boats accused of “narco-terrorism” took place on September 2 allegedly killing 11 people.
The latest massacres of unidentified people on speedboats near Venezuela mark a dangerous escalation in US preparations to attack Venezuela and overthrow President Nicolas Maduro, whom the Trump administration has accused of leading the inexistent “Cartel of the Suns.”
The attacks, crassly celebrated by the White House on social media, constitute premeditated mass killings. According to a detailed analysis by Just Security, the deliberate killing of people aboard these vessels—without evidence of an imminent threat—violates Section 1111(b) of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, which forbids “the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought” on the high seas. The administration has failed to produce any credible evidence of drug trafficking or self-defense claims, rendering these actions unlawful extrajudicial killings also under international law.
Trump further escalated the confrontation with a direct threat from the Oval Office that if Venezuelan military jets fly near US warships, they would be “shot down.” Standing beside a general, Trump told him he could “do anything you want” if the situation escalated, signaling a green light for potentially unchecked military aggression.
The claim that these military operations target drug cartels is preposterous. Ninety percent of drugs are trafficked through the Pacific. Venezuela is not a significant producer and accounts for barely 5 percent of cocaine transshipments.
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The US escalation against Venezuela serves a dual purpose. First, it advances efforts to recolonize Latin America and secure the region as a strategic base for any future conflict with China—aiming to reassert US imperial dominance across the Western Hemisphere.
About 85 percent of oil exports from Venezuela are destined for China, with the China Concord Resources Corp. installing a new offshore platform in Maracaibo Lake, Zulia only last week.
Seizing control of Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest on the planet, has remained a key goal for US imperialism. US-based Chevron has gradually increased its operations in the country following Trump’s decision to renew a license exempting the company from US sanctions.
Second, the militarization and conflict narrative provide President Trump with a fabricated image as a “wartime president” against an external enemy, justifying the extraordinary powers he seeks in order to implement a fascistic police-state dictatorship at home.
As explained by Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research for Newsweek: “A war, for instance in Venezuela, could be used to justify more repression at home. Trump has already tried to do just that, invoking a fictional ‘invasion’ of the U.S. by a South American gang to deploy the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.”
On September 12, roughly 300 workers from South Korea landed in Seoul, more than a week after they were kidnapped and imprisoned by the US immigration Gestapo while laboring at the joint Hyundai-LG Energy Solutions battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia. Following their release, workers have begun speaking out on the deplorable conditions they suffered at the hands of federal immigration agents while imprisoned in the privately run Folkston ICE Processing Center.
“They tied our hands behind our backs like criminals. We had to bend down to drink water from the floor,” said Kim Ji-hoon, a 38-year-old Korean electrician, describing his detention by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “They took our phones, our wallets, everything,” said Park Min-seo, another detained worker, in an interview with Donga News, a South Korean publication. He added, “We were kept in a room with almost no light. The bathroom had no doors—just a sheet. We were treated like animals.”
Over 450 workers were shackled and imprisoned, in the largest ICE operation of Trump’s second term, with many reporting degrading treatment, physical restraints and psychological trauma during their detention. While some 300 have returned to South Korea, many of the non-Korean immigrants kidnapped in the September 4 raid remain imprisoned or unaccounted for.
It is believed that the many of the 175 workers, predominantly Latino, remain detained in Georgia’s Folkston ICE Processing Center, a facility with a history of inhumane conditions. A July 2022 report by the US Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General found “numerous violations that compromised the health, safety and rights of detainees.”
In unannounced surprise visits in November 2021, inspectors described “unsanitary and dilapidated” facilities, including “torn mattresses, water leaks and standing water, mold growth and water damage, rundown showers, mold and debris in the ventilation system, insect infestations, lack of access to hot showers, inoperable toilets, an inoperable thermometer display on a kitchen freezer, and an absence of hot meals.”
In justifying the raid earlier this month, the US government claimed that workers at the facility had violated the terms of their visa or were in the country illegally. As of this writing, the US government has brought zero charges against any of the workers or businesses operating at the Georgia plant.
14. Australian state Labor governments deepen assault on cultural institutions
Scores of workers at publicly funded museums and galleries in Australia are under attack as state Labor governments in Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) impose major job cuts and other destructive measures.
On August 11, Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW) management revealed that the state Labor government’s “Change Management Plan” will eliminate 51 jobs—or 10 percent of full-time positions. That is part of a $7.5 million budget reduction imposed by the administration of Premier Chris Minns on the historic facility. The latest cuts followed a June announcement that 91 jobs—or 25 percent of the total workforce—would be slashed at Create NSW, the state’s principal arts funding agency.
Two weeks later, it was disclosed that Museums Victoria—the largest public museum organization in Australia—plans to cut 55 full-time roles as part of a four-year, $56 million budget reduction mandated by the Labor government of Premier Jacinta Allan.
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Despite widespread public opposition to the government’s attack on museum workers, the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has opposed any mobilisation of its members to resist this destruction.
The “left” leadership of the CPSU—recently elected on a platform of defending public sector jobs and conditions—has yet to even acknowledge the job cuts on its website or social media, let alone express opposition or call a stop-work meeting.
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The cuts to arts funding by the Victorian and NSW state Labor governments are taking place amid growing opposition from public sector workers across the country—including nurses, doctors, teachers, rail drivers, and others—over attacks on jobs, wages and understaffing. In every case, these workers confront government austerity programs enforced by the trade union apparatus.
To fight the attacks on state-funded cultural institutions, museum and gallery workers must reach out to other public sector workers and form rank-and-file workplace committees for unified statewide and national action. These committees must be independent of the trade union bureaucracies, which are inseparably tied to the Labor Party and enforce its pro-business agenda.
Free access to arts and history must not be a privilege reserved for the wealthy. Like public healthcare, education, and housing, it must be fully funded and available to all. This requires a socialist perspective and a direct challenge to the capitalist system, which demands private ownership and profit from every aspect of art and culture.
Public educators in the Hampton Roads, Virginia area are reeling under the combined impact of austerity and attacks on public health. Norfolk is closing nine schools in predominantly working class neighborhoods. In Virginia Beach, teachers are facing a 110 percent health insurance premium hike. The city is also experiencing a measles outbreak as schools open for the year.
These crises are symptoms of a nationwide assault on public education and the social rights of the working class. The Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” is slashing federal education aid while expanding voucher schemes to funnel public money into private hands. At the same time, anti-vaccination policies championed by figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are eroding public health safeguards, allowing preventable diseases like measles to resurface in schools.
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Neither the teachers’ unions nor the Democratic Party are mounting serious opposition to the latest threats to public education and health systems. Teachers, parents and students must draw the necessary conclusions. The closure of nine Norfolk schools, the effective pay cut in Virginia Beach, and the public health crisis sparked by the measles outbreak are part of the accelerating assault on the working class by the ruling elite.
The struggle to defend education is inseparable from the broader fight of the working class against austerity, inequality, and war. Teachers must link their struggle with that of workers in logistics, health care, and other sectors to secure the resources needed for a truly high-quality, public education system for all.
16. Divisions deepen in Australia’s Liberal-National Coalition
The May 2025 election saw the Coalition reduced to a parliamentary rump, especially in urban areas, holding just two out of 43 inner metropolitan seats and only seven out of 45 outer metro seats. The Liberals lost a record number of formerly blue-ribbon city seats in some of the country’s most affluent areas to “green” industry-backed “Teal” independents.
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The political crisis in the Liberal Party reflects the disintegration of its social base among layers of the middle classes amid ever-deeper social polarization. Now professionals, including doctors and teachers, are being proletarianized, and small businesses are under intense financial pressure, while billionaires’ fortunes soar.
In ruling circles, there is considerable nervousness about the potential break-up of the big-business Liberal Party and perplexity about what to do about it. Since the end of World War II, the ruling class has relied on the two-party system—the Coalition and Labor—as the means for implementing its agenda.
Even among the Murdoch media’s right-wing commentators, there is concern about the adoption of openly fascistic Trump-like policies, given their clear rejection at the May election. Chris Kenny, for instance, urged the Liberal Party to “recast a conservative agenda built on Australian values and avoiding the Trumpian themes that bedeviled the federal election campaign.”
Moreover, previous efforts to establish openly far-right parties, including by making immigrants the scapegoat for worsening social crises, have failed to gain substantial votes. These bids included Senator Cory Bernardi’s short-lived Australian Conservatives of 2017 to 2019, and billionaire Clive Palmer’s two recent operations, the United Australia Party and the overtly-Trump-style Trumpet of Patriots.
An editorial in the Australian last week surveyed the dire state of the Liberal Party at the federal and state levels before concluding: “The only hope is to rise above internal divisions and present a better alternative for voters.” However, it gave no indication of what a “better alternative” might be, amid deepening hostility to the big-business, pro-war policies of the entire political establishment.
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The rightward plunge of the entire Australian political establishment mirrors political processes internationally that have led to the installation of the fascistic Trump administration in the United States and far-right governments in Europe. It can be answered only by building a socialist movement of the working class, in Australia and internationally.
17. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Bogdan Syrotiuk
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.
