Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:
1. Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov speaks out powerfully against Gaza genocide at BBC Proms
Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov ended his recent BBC Proms performance with a bold and powerful statement against the atrocities being committed by Israel, saying “we cannot let this go on any longer.” Volkov then announced that he will not work in his homeland for the foreseeable future.
The 49-year-old conductor, who was born and resides in Israel, had just led the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBCSSO) in a fine performance of Brahms’s Second Symphony and music by Stravinsky and Gabrieli. He concluded not with an encore, but with an emotional reading of a short, prepared statement.
“In my heart,” he said, “there is great pain now every day for months. I come from Israel and live there. I love it. It’s my home.
“But what’s happening now is atrocious and horrific.”
At this point he was interrupted by hecklers. He told them “You can go if you don’t want politics. Politics is part of life every day,” before resuming.
He described feeling “completely hopeless in front of innocent Palestinians being killed in thousands, displaced again and again, without hospitals, without schools, not knowing when the next meal is [coming].”
Volkov pointed to the “inhuman conditions” of Israeli hostages, saying categorically “political prisoners are languishing in Israeli jails, Israelis, Jews and Palestinians, Israelis, Jews AND Palestinians…”
Interrupted again, he told his hecklers, “You will let me finish, and then you can curse me all your life, no problem…”
He finished with an impassioned plea.
“Israelis, Jews and Palestinians, we are not able to stop this alone. I ask you, I beg you all to do whatever is in your power to stop this madness. Every little action counts while governments hesitate and wait. We cannot let this go on any longer. Every moment that passes puts the safety of millions at risk. Thank you.”
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The BBC ended its broadcast when Volkov spoke and did not report his statement. There has been little media coverage of it generally, outside of the Times and Haaretz, but the video has circulated widely on social media. It can be seen here on TikTok and here on X.
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Volkov told the Times:
“In Israel, there is no real democracy,” he told the Times. “The media is not showing reality, the police are under a fascist minister and the justice system has supported the occupation for decades. We Israelis alone—Palestinians and the small minority of Jews standing against it all—won’t be able to stop Netanyahu’s government. We need the support of the whole world to make this massacre end.”
The European imperialist powers have continued to escalate the war on Russia following last week’s shooting down of drones over Polish territory. The European Union (EU) aims to adopt its 19th package of economic sanctions against Moscow by next week, while Germany and NATO seized on the brief incursion of a Russian drone into Romanian airspace over the weekend to issue yet another barrage of militarist threats.
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The incursion came just days after Poland claimed that 19 Russian drones entered its airspace, although the actual number may have been significantly lower. Poland invoked Article 4 of the NATO Treaty, which obliges member states to discuss joint defense measures and serves as a prelude to Article 5, the provision requiring member states to give military support to an ally in the event of war.
The European NATO members have seized on the drone incidents to expand military operations on the alliance’s eastern flank. Poland sent 40,000 troops to its border with Belarus and closed the border until further notice, citing the long-planned Zapad military exercise involving Russian and Belarusian forces as a pretext. At the same time, some 30,000 NATO troops—including soldiers from the US, Canada and Poland—are participating in Iron Defender-25, which encompasses land, air, and sea exercises across Polish territory throughout the month of September. Germany, France, and the Czech Republic have announced the deployment of further military equipment to Poland since last week. In neighboring Lithuania, the German military is coordinating the “Grand Eagle 25” exercise, while NATO naval manoeuvres in the Baltic Sea are ongoing.
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Over the weekend, Trump released a “letter to NATO members” asserting that he is “ready to do major sanctions on Russia,” but only if NATO members halted all purchases of Russian oil—a demand aimed above all at Turkey, Hungary, and Slovakia. His message followed a two-day visit to Brussels by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright to negotiate terms on the European powers’ pledge to purchase US oil, natural gas, and nuclear energy worth $750 billion over the coming three years.
The would-be dictator demanded in his statement that the European imperialist powers support Washington’s preparations for an all-out military conflict with China by adopting tariffs of 50 to 100 percent on Beijing in retaliation for its large purchases of discounted Russian oil. Under conditions in which Trump has already slapped 15 percent across-the-board tariffs on European imports to the US, European industry—which is heavily dependent on trade with China for components and raw materials—could not follow his proposal without committing suicide.
These developments lay bare the complete breakdown of the Transatlantic relationship that existed throughout the post-war period. Amid the renewed scramble to redivide the world’s markets, raw materials, and labour among the major powers, the former American and European imperialist partners are not only setting their sights on Russia and China, but on each other. As the World Socialist Web Site explained following last month’s Alaska summit:
However the situation develops, certain fundamental issues must be stressed. First, Trump’s shift on Ukraine is not a “peace policy.” His support for the genocide in Gaza and the bombing of Iran make this clear. The divisions within the American ruling class center on tactical issues related to a shared project of global domination.
Second, Trump’s maneuver takes place within the framework of an escalating global war and intensifying conflicts between the United States and the European imperialist powers. The costs of this conflict will be imposed through a massive assault on the working class.
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Opposition to the rapidly escalating world war and turn to dictatorship can only be led by the international working class. Workers entering into struggle in defense of their jobs and living standards must establish their political and organizational independence from the established parties and trade union bureaucracies, all of whom back militarism and war. This requires the building of rank-and-file committees in every workplace to coordinate the struggle against austerity and war, and a socialist and internationalist program to put an end to the capitalist profit system—the root cause of imperialist war.
3. Royalty celebrates oligarchy—Trump’s second state visit to the UK
Trump and his wife Melania were, over two days, treated to a fairytale version of royal life involving coach rides through the grounds of Windsor—the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world—and a tour of its historical treasures. Trump laid a wreath at the tomb of Queen Elizabeth II in St George’s Chapel, which includes the burial vault of Henry VIII.
But this was only a prelude to the main event: a state banquet held Wednesday evening. The 160 guests at the white-tie dinner were seated at a 50-metre mahogany table groaning under the weight of the gold, silver and crystal ornamentation, crockery and cutlery, and a floral display worthy of a botanical garden.
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Charles, Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales were joined in welcoming Trump by Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.
The guest list was dominated, however, by Trump’s own retinue of oligarchs: big-tech tycoons Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Tim Cook of Apple, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Alex Karp of Palantir, Rene Haas of Arm Holdings and Ruth Porat of Alphabet; plus financiers Steve Schwarzman of Blackstone, Jane Fraser of Citigroup, Larry Fink of BlackRock and Brian Moynihan of Bank of America.
Other billionaires and multimillionaires invited included media mogul Rupert Murdoch, James Taiclet of Lockheed Martin, Leon Topalian of Nucor Steel, Kelly Ortberg of Boeing, and Marc Benioff of Salesforce.
From British corporations, Pascal Soriot of AstraZeneca, Emma Walmsley of GSK, Tufan Erginbilgiç of Rolls Royce, Paula Reynolds of National Grid plc and Charles Woodburn of BAE Systems made an appearance.
To give an indication of the levels of wealth they embody, the combined personal worth of two dozen of the richest at the table was $274 billion. The average figure per person of $11.4 billion is over 67,000 times the wealth of the median Briton. Between them, they represented companies with a market capitalization of $17.7 trillion, more than the combined value of every publicly listed company incorporated in the UK.
The royal family was poor by the standards of its guests, representing barely a third of a percent of the personal wealth of these two dozen people. But what they bring to the table is “History”: a tradition of centuries of rule and luxury, which the new financial and corporate aristocracy finds deeply attractive.
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Trump is presently seeking to turn the clock back by centuries, eliminating all the democratic and social gains secured as a result of the revolution of 1776, and of the Civil War to abolish slavery, recently complaining that an “out of control” and “woke” elite is obsessed over “how bad slavery was.”
Trump would go a long way towards agreeing that throwing off the monarchy might also have been a terrible mistake, perhaps preferring a dual monarchy, on the model of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, spanning the Atlantic. His affinity with the monarchs of old is such that the mass protests against Trump in America have been organized under the slogan “No Kings.”
The performance at Windsor Castle was an open rebuttal to this profound democratic sentiment. Trump’s breaking of bread together with the British aristocracy and the British and American oligarchy, attended by one of Europe’s oldest social democratic parties, is a symbolic moment of political decay—a coming together of all that is rotten in human history.
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It was therefore fitting that Trump’s state visit concluded with the agreement of $250 billion worth of investment between the US and the UK, before a select audience of slavering business chiefs.
Starmer claimed this was proof of his “delivering” for the UK. But workers and young people who watched any of the affair will have seen something else entirely.
On show over the past two days, nearly 162 years after Abraham Lincoln summed up the democratic principle at the heart of the American Civil War, was its polar opposite: a government of the oligarchy, by the oligarchy, for the oligarchy. Or, as the motto of the British monarchy would have it, “Dieu et mon droit” (God and my right).
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Wars and genocides play out against the backdrop of an unprecedented theft of wealth from the working class, who produce it, and by the rich, who enjoy it, resulting in what Karl Marx described as an “Accumulation of wealth at one pole” and “of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole.”
None of this is compatible with democracy. Trump’s establishment of a presidential dictatorship in the United States is echoed in Britain by the Labour government’s unprecedented assault on democratic rights, including the arrest of thousands for speaking in defense of the right to protest and opposing an ongoing genocide in Gaza.
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Trump and King Charles spit on the revolutionary legacy of America’s War of Independence in the name of transatlantic unity. But it is the socialist revolution, waged by the working class of Britain and the United States against their joint oppressors, that will truly reunite the destinies of the two peoples.
The censoring of Jimmy Kimmel at the behest of the fascist Trump administration has provoked outrage among large sections of the population. The longtime host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! and frequent target of Donald Trump was suspended by the Disney corporation on Wednesday following right-wing outrage and government pressure over his Monday commentary on the Charlie Kirk assassination.
In his Monday monologue Kimmel correctly observed that the “MAGA gang” was trying to “characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
On Tuesday, right-wing accounts on X immediately began a witch-hunt against Kimmel, calling for his firing. This call was seconded by Trump’s Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Brendan Carr in a Wednesday appearance on Turning Point USA contributor Benny Johnson’s podcast.
On the program, Carr directly threatened the Disney corporation, which owns ABC, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” He called on the company to “change conduct, to take action, frankly, no Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Within hours of Carr’s appearance on Johnson’s podcast, Disney confirmed it was suspending the program “indefinitely.”
Following Disney’s announcement, fascist President Donald Trump gloated on his social media platform:
Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.
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In addition to threats from Carr, Kimmel was suspended by Disney after two of the largest television broadcasting networks in the United States—Nexstar Media Group, which is awaiting regulatory approval from the FCC to acquire TEGNA for $6.2 billion, and Sinclair Broadcast Group—released statements announcing they would suspend carrying Jimmy Kimmel Live! from their stations “indefinitely.”
In its statement, Sinclair added that in place of Kimmel’s show, it would air a tribute to fascist Charlie Kirk on Friday and again “across all Sinclair stations this weekend. In addition, Sinclair is offering the special to all ABC affiliates across the country.”
The company said it would not lift the suspension of Kimmel until “formal discussions are held” and Kimmel issues a “direct apology to the Kirk family” and makes “a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family” and his organization, “Turning Point USA.”
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It is unclear if Kimmel’s show will ever return. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Disney “saw a path to the show potentially returning in the next several days, according to a person familiar with the situation.”
The Journal also reported that sources confirmed the decision to pull Kimmel was made by “senior leadership,” including “Chief Executive Bob Iger and co-chairman of Disney Entertainment Dan Walden.” The paper said Nexstar’s decision to stop airing the program “influenced Disney’s decision given the large number of ABC affiliates the company operates.”
Kimmel’s suspension is part of the ongoing suppression and subordination of all cultural, educational and intellectual endeavors towards the dictates of the financial oligarchy. Following Columbia University’s capitulation to Trump earlier this year, WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North observed:
An American Trumpian version of what the Nazis called Gleichschaltung—the official subordination of intellectual and cultural life to Nazi ideology—is being implemented by leading “liberal” American universities.
This subordination and Kimmel’s suspension has provoked widespread outrage among large sections of the population. Until Wednesday, Jimmy Kimmel Live! was the longest running late-night television show in the history of ABC and the flagship program in its late-night lineup. The show has received numerous Emmy nominations, including at the most recent awards show. Kimmel himself has hosted the Emmy Awards three times (2012, 2016, 2020) and the Academy Awards four times (2017, 2018, 2023, 2024).
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The [US] House [of Representatives] Democratic leadership issued a pathetic statement in response to Kimmel’s suspension. The Democrats called on Carr to resign and threatened “the relentless unleashing of congressional subpoena power.” This is an empty threat, as Republicans control the House.
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What is required is the mobilization of workers in every industry through mass political strikes to shut down production, paralyze the financial arteries of capitalism, and reassert democratic control over society. On this basis, the working class must fight for a workers’ government—of, by and for the people—which will expropriate the billionaires and place the vast resources of society under democratic control to meet human need, not private profit.
5. United States: Evergreen classified staff strike ended with a sellout contract under union pressure
On Thursday, September 11, classified staff in Evergreen Public Schools in Vancouver, Washington voted to ratify a tentative agreement, ending their 12-day-long strike. The walkout by more than 1,400 paraeducators, bus drivers, custodians, food service staff and mechanics— the first strike of its kind in the district’s history—had already delayed the start of school for nearly 22,000 students.
The settlement was pushed through under the combined pressure of the school board’s legal threats and the maneuvers of the Public School Employees of Washington (PSE), which operates as SEIU Local 1948. The deal was ratified by just 63 percent of voting members, meaning a substantial minority opposed. The district immediately announced schools would open Friday, September 12.
The union had originally demanded a 15 percent raise for paraeducators and pay for all hours worked. Instead, the ratified deal totals about 13.5 percent over three years overall, according to the union. In its last public offer before ratification, the district proposed 12.5 percent over three years for paraeducators, 10.5 percent for transportation staff and 9–9.5 percent for other classifications.
Crucially, the settlement denies workers pay for September, leaving them effectively without income for the first month of the school year. Other central demands—including retention pay, protections from unpaid work hours and meaningful improvements to working conditions—were either watered down or dropped entirely.
The district’s “final offer,” now enshrined in the contract, was touted as “fiscally responsible.” Evergreen officials claimed a $26 million shortfall over three years made anything more impossible, even as they pressed ahead with injunction filings to force staff back to work.
From the outset, Evergreen’s school board prepared to use the courts to smash the strike. On September 5, it voted unanimously to authorize legal action, branding the strike “unlawful” and directing the district to seek an injunction and financial penalties against the union. Days later, the district filed for relief in Clark County Superior Court, a move widely publicized in local press.
The threat was clear: the union faced escalating fines and potential criminalization if it failed to deliver a settlement. The PSE leadership seized on this to push through an agreement that fell far short of members’ demands, framing capitulation as the only alternative to total defeat.
The claim that there is “no money” for education is a cynical lie. Every year, hundreds of billions are funneled into the US war machine, including the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine and the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza. And trillions more are handed to the American oligarchy, such as the $100 billion in wealth recently gained by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.
It is not a lack of funds that causes shortfalls in education, but the directing of society’s wealth to militarism and Wall Street, the defining feature of capitalism.
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The outcome in Evergreen cannot be separated from developments in nearby Mead School District, north of Spokane. There, teachers voted by 97 percent to authorize a strike over class sizes, safety and workloads, only for the Mead Education Association (an National Education Association affiliate) to announce a last-minute settlement on September 1, before a picket line could even be formed.
Mead’s non-teaching staff, meanwhile, are organized in multiple fragmented units under the same SEIU Local 1948 umbrella that oversaw Evergreen. This bureaucratic patchwork ensures that even when conditions are intolerable across the workforce, strikes remain divided and easily defused.
The tactical differences between Evergreen and Mead—a walkout smothered by mediation in one case, a strike authorization nullified in the other—are superficial. In both, the apparatus intervened to block a unified struggle and preserve labor peace.
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The battle in Evergreen is a concentrated expression of a nationwide campaign to dismantle public education. Earlier this year, the Trump administration and congressional Republicans unveiled plans to gut or abolish the Department of Education, slash Title I funding for low-income students and undermine the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Bilingual programs and after-school support are also on the chopping block. What remains of federal funding is being redirected toward private “school choice,” vouchers and homeschooling.
These measures are justified under the cynical banners of “parental rights,” “efficiency” and “choice,” but their real purpose is to strip workers and youth of access to quality education, clearing the way for privatization and profit.
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The outcome of the Evergreen strike must be taken as a serious warning. Workers fought courageously for nearly two weeks, confronting poverty wages, understaffing and decades of neglect. But their determination was systematically contained and ultimately derailed by the very organizations claiming to represent them.
The lesson is clear: the needs of educators and students cannot be secured through the existing union apparatus. These organizations function as enforcers for austerity, working hand in glove with the state and corporate interests.
To take the struggle forward, Evergreen staff, together with teachers, paraeducators and school workers across Washington and the US, must build independent rank-and-file committees, democratically controlled by workers themselves. Such committees would link struggles across districts, reject the framework of “budget limits,” and fight for the resources schools truly need. They must turn outward, connecting with autoworkers, health care workers, logistics workers and every section of the working class now entering into struggle.
The defense of public education cannot be won in isolation, nor under the straitjacket of the unions and the Democratic Party. It requires the political mobilization of the working class against austerity, inequality and war, guided by a socialist program. Only on this basis can educators secure what they and their students require: living wages, safe and well-funded schools, and the protection of democratic rights now under assault.
6. David Pittman executed: Florida leads US in state murder in 2025
Florida carried out its 12th state-sanctioned murder so far this year with the lethal injection of 63-year-old David Joseph Pittman on September 17. The state now leads the nation in executions in 2025. Pittman maintained his innocence and his legal team pointed to his intellectual disability in an effort to halt the execution.
Florida under Trump ally Governor Ron DeSantis has now set a new single-year record for the state, driving a national increase in capital punishment over the past decade. The 12 executions in the first nine months of 2025 surpassed any previous year for Florida since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. This surge contrasts with DeSantis signing only one death warrant in 2024 and six in 2023.
Pittman was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. local time at Florida State Prison, near Starke. His last words were a defiant rejection of the state’s verdict: “I know you all came to watch an innocent man be murdered by the State of Florida. I am innocent. I didn’t kill anybody. That’s it.” As the lethal drugs were injected, Pittman took a few deep breaths before falling still. His death was met with satisfaction by officials like Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, who declared Pittman “evil then” and “never changed,” having “wiped out an entire family.”
Opponents of the death penalty, including Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP), gathered outside the prison to protest the state murder, saying, “None of us are going to wake up tomorrow and be safer because David Pittman is dead,” as they tolled a bell, proclaiming, “Not in my name.”
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Perhaps the most egregious aspect of Pittman’s execution is his documented intellectual disability. His attorneys argued that executing him would violate the US Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, including the execution of intellectually disabled individuals.
Evidence presented by his defense pointed to a lifelong history of cognitive impairments: IQ scores of 70 and 71 before age 18, placement in special education classes, documented brain damage consistent with congenital impairment, and a diagnosis of organic personality syndrome, a condition characterized by significant and lasting changes in a person’s personality and behavior due to an underlying brain injury or medical condition affecting the brain. Pittman’s background also revealed a childhood scarred by physical and sexual abuse, inflicted by an abusive mother, which his lawyers argued contributed to his brain damage and mental state.
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The US Supreme Court has ruled execution of the intellectually disabled unconstitutional but left it up to the states to determine the criteria. Of the 31 death row inmates executed so far this year, at least 11 of them had some type of documented mental impairment.
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Governor DeSantis has asserted that some crimes are “so horrific the only appropriate punishment is the death penalty” and that executions provide “closure” for victims’ families, a statement contradicted by many of these families who have found no such relief. This tough-on-crime posturing comes amidst declining public support for the death penalty nationwide, making Florida an increasingly isolated outlier in its enthusiastic embrace of state-sanctioned killing. DeSantis has brushed aside appeals from Christian leaders and Catholic bishops in Florida to halt the executions.
Florida also leads the nation in death row exonerations, with 30 individuals freed since 1973, prompting Maria DeLiberato, a capital defense lawyer and the executive director of FADP, to state: “We get it wrong more than any other state,” making it all but certain that innocent individuals have been sent to their deaths.
The national increase in executions, now at a decade high, is not an isolated phenomenon but a chilling reflection of the “Trump effect” on the US criminal justice system. President Trump has consistently urged prosecutors to aggressively seek the death penalty, with his attorney general, Pam Bondi, promising to expand federal capital cases. Trump has also vowed to execute individuals for murder in Washington D.C., where he has deployed National Guard groups to fight a non-existent “crime wave.”
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With 11 more executions scheduled across eight states before the end of 2025, the US is on track to execute at least 42 inmates, a figure not seen since 2012.
7. Louisiana immigration judge orders Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil deported to Syria or Algeria
On Wednesday, a Louisiana immigration judge’s order to deport Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil to either Syria or Algeria was made public.
The order by Judge Jamee Comans is a significant escalation of the Trump administration’s efforts to criminalize free speech and target opponents of the Gaza genocide for removal from the US.
The basis of the ruling is the claim that Khalil “willfully misrepresented” facts on his green card application and it denies him the discretion for relief, asserting he is unworthy of continued permanent resident status.
The ruling is notable for its transparent political purpose. Trump administration immigration authorities are pursuing a vendetta against Khalil who has no criminal record and has steadfastly refused to be intimidated.
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Khalil completed his undergraduate studies in computer science at the Lebanese American University and was admitted to Columbia University’s prestigious School of International and Public Affairs for his master’s degree, graduating in December 2024.
While at Columbia, Khalil emerged as a leading spokesperson and negotiator for campus protests denouncing the Israeli assault on Gaza. He came to the US as a student in late 2022 and has been a lawful permanent resident since 2024, building both personal and professional roots. He is married to a US citizen and is the father of a five-month-old son born while he was previously illegally detained.
Khalil’s ordeal began in the early days of the Trump administration’s campaign against critics of the US-backed Israeli ethnic cleansing operation in Gaza. On March 8, 2025, a dozen Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents entered his Manhattan apartment building and seized him without warning, claiming he had committed fraud on his green card application by not listing all his associations.
Khalil denies any intentional misrepresentation, and no supporting evidence or criminal charges have ever been brought. He was detained in isolation for 104 days at the LaSalle immigration jail in Louisiana and was denied timely access to family and legal counsel.
As the Columbia protests, and others across the country, drew the attention of national and international press, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio incited a campaign to label Khalil and other pro-Palestinian activists as “security threats” and “terrorist sympathizers,” directly linking his case to efforts to criminalize protest protected by the first amendment.
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The attack on Khalil’s rights is central to Trump’s bid to suppress any opposition to US foreign policy and the descent into dictatorship within this country. The argument that Khalil poses a national security threat—the same argument originally used by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an unsuccessful effort to revoke his green card—is a fraud manufactured to conceal the administration’s war on dissent, civil liberties and the First Amendment.
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There is a direct connection between that assault on Khalil’s rights to the broader witch-hunt, as administration officials are using his case as precedent for mass removals and blacklists. As Khalil himself has declared: “They are expanding the police state and using my case as a blueprint. But we will not back down. The fight for Palestine and for democracy in the US are the same struggle.”
8. No opposition in German parliament to Chancellor Merz’s war and austerity policies
The continuation of the budget debate on Wednesday underscored not only the insane war and brutal austerity policies of the Christian Democrat (CDU/CSU)-Social Democrat (SPD) coalition government, but above all showed that within the Bundestag (federal parliament) there is no serious opposition to them.
Even if he struck a somewhat more restrained tone than in his notorious budget speech before the summer recess, [German Chancellor Friedrich] Merz once again made the extreme right-wing agenda of his government crystal clear. Once again, he painted the absurd picture of an imminent Russian attack on Germany in order to justify the deranged rearmament and war preparations against the country. “Putin has long been testing the limits,” he declared.
On the Ukraine war, Merz threatened that for his government, no peace could be considered “at the expense of the political sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.” In other words, the government intends to continue and escalate the war until NATO itself has seized Crimea—a goal that makes a nuclear confrontation not just possible, but likely.
To implement this insanity, the government is planning the largest rearmament program since Hitler. For next year alone, military spending of €128 billion is planned, rising to €153 billion by 2029, to be financed entirely from the regular budget. Added to this are numerous infrastructure projects intended to make the entire country “fit for war.”
Alongside these horrendous war expenditures, the rich are once again being showered with tens of billions. Two-thirds of the planned €46 billion in tax cuts are earmarked for individuals earning over €180,000 a year, the top 1 percent of society.
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The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) regards itself as the driver of this. The government’s cuts do not go far enough, they argue. The AfD parliamentary faction submitted around a thousand amendments ahead of the debate. In them, it defended the massive spending on the armed forces and the state apparatus, as well as the tax gifts to the rich, but demanded far deeper social cuts to reduce new borrowing. Bürgergeld should not be cut by €5 billion, but by at least €14 billion, according to the AfD.
All the establishment parties have deliberately built up and integrated the AfD into parliamentary work because it is needed to push through this program against growing resistance.
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While the AfD drives the government before it and the latter implements much of the fascists’ program, the Greens and the Left Party trail behind Merz’s government. The Greens had already helped secure a majority for the one trillion euros in war credits and now criticize the government from the right. Green parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge addressed Merz directly: “You can’t help Donald Trump. You can’t help a difficult global economy.” But what the government was doing for business in this situation, “is not nearly enough,” Dröge insisted. In particular, electricity tax must be cut for all companies.
Besides a few empty phrases about social improvements for families, tenants and children—none of which the Greens implemented during their own time in government—Dröge concentrated on criticizing the government for not pushing forward the war against Russia with enough aggression. She demanded an additional €10 billion in weapons for Ukraine and more sanctions against Russia.
The Left Party had also voted for the war credits in the Bundesrat (upper chamber of parliament) and paved the way for Merz’s rapid election as chancellor. In the budget debate, too, frontwoman Heidi Reichineck avoided directly addressing the war course against Russia and the rearmament plans. After a couple of jokes about rearmament in general, she spoke almost exclusively about social issues, without addressing the government’s massive cuts. With her ostentatious lack of seriousness, she essentially presented a social wish list.
Far from mobilising resistance against austerity, she instead appealed to the conscience of former Blackrock manager and current chancellor Merz: “Look people in the face and tell them they’re living beyond their means! If you can’t bring yourself to say that because you still have a shred of decency left, then maybe we can still save something in the next budget.”
Dröge’s entire speech was one long trivialization of the acute danger of war and the impending social devastation. In the end, Reichineck even stressed her fundamental agreement with the war policy: “I can assure you: My party stands in solidarity with Ukraine, even if our paths may differ.” The “different path” consists in cloaking the war course in a little more diplomacy in order to more effectively enforce the interests of NATO and the EU.
Particularly cynical was her call at the end of her speech: “All eyes on Gaza! You must no longer oppose sanctions. No one here may remain silent about what is happening there.” Reichineck has previously denied the brutal genocide by Israel and repeatedly stressed the “right of Israel to self-defense.” At a time when the far-right Netanyahu government is driving forward the genocide of Palestinians, the ruling class as a whole is seeking to cover its tracks. Merz himself recently tried to provide himself with an alibi with the purely symbolic announcement of a “partial stop” to arms exports to Israel. In reality, German support for Israel continues unabated.
The debate made it abundantly clear: Workers and young people who want to fight against genocide and war, against rearmament and conscription, and against social devastation, cannot rely on any Bundestag party. The only way to stop the drive to war and avert catastrophe is the independent mobilization of the working class on the basis of a socialist program.
9. Long-term unemployment in US surges to 1.9 million as job openings dry up
The number of long-term unemployed in the United States has reached levels not seen since the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data released last week by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In August, more than 1.9 million had been out of work six months or longer, almost 26 percent of the total number of unemployed. This is the highest percentage since February 2022, near the ending of the pandemic lockdowns. That level of long-term unemployment has previously been seen only during periods of recession.
According to the Washington Post, the average time to find a job is now six months, a period longer than before the pandemic. In addition, there are now more job seekers than there are job openings.
The figures are the latest indication of the rising levels of economic distress that are fueling social tensions at the same time as the Trump administration is seeking to criminalize political opposition with troop deployments to US cities and the witch-hunt following the shooting of far right ideologue Charlie Kirk.
Of significant note is the high percentage of the long-term unemployed who are college graduates, nearly one third of the total, compared to one fifth 10 years ago. In the past, holding a college degree tended to make someone more employable. Currently, the overall jobless rate for recent college graduates is 6.5 percent, well above the official unemployment rate of 4.3 percent.
The difficulties that college graduates are encountering finding work are the product of a number of factors, including the rise in the number of graduates and a decline in the number of job postings that require applicants to possess a degree. Trump’s slashing of federal jobs has disproportionately impacted the college educated. Automation, restructuring and the use of artificial intelligence are additional factors fueling this trend.
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According to a survey by Resume.org of 1,000 employers, 58 percent of companies report they plan to lay off employees in 2026. So far in 2025, 39 percent have already conducted layoffs. Another 35 percent say they plan additional cuts by year end.
It is these conditions that are behind the increasingly aggressive turn to authoritarianism in the US. It is also fueling massive social discontent which inevitably must find expression in the eruption of ever more intense opposition from the working class. This social force must be provided an internationalist program and perspective aimed at the root cause of the societal breakdown, the capitalist profit system.
10. Kennedy’s anti-vaccine panel deepens assault on childhood vaccines
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s handpicked vaccine advisory panel deepened its systematic attack on childhood immunizations Wednesday, voting to dismantle decades of evidence-based vaccine policy in favor of ideological opposition to public health measures.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), whose members Kennedy selected for their shared anti-vaccine stance, opened its two-day meeting by immediately targeting the MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella, varicella) combination vaccine and hepatitis B birth dose, two interventions that have saved countless lives and nearly eliminated preventable childhood diseases.
In its most significant action, the panel voted to no longer recommend the MMRV combination vaccine for children under 4, replacing it with separate MMR and varicella shots. While Kennedy’s appointees cited concerns about febrile seizures—which occur in fewer than one per 1,000 doses—experts warn the real consequence will be reduced vaccine uptake, greater inconvenience for families, and dangerous gaps in immunization among vulnerable children.
Even more devastating is ACIP’s planned delay of the hepatitis B vaccine from birth to one month of age, which will be voted on on Friday. The decision, a foregone conclusion, will mark an ideological assault on the universal approach that has nearly eradicated childhood hepatitis B in the United States.
This reckless change abandons a critical safety net, exposing newborns—especially those born to mothers with undiagnosed infections or lacking early healthcare access—to preventable lifelong infection and liver cancer. With only 85 percent of mothers receiving proper hepatitis B screening, delaying the birth dose leaves thousands of infants vulnerable during their highest-risk period.
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The timing could not be more cruel. The US is in the midst of its 11th wave of the COVID pandemic, with nearly half the population infected this year alone. Recent studies indicate that the rates of Long COVID globally have reached 36 percent, according to a large meta-analysis of 144 contributing studies, yet Kennedy’s panel appears determined to strip protection from the most vulnerable.
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The Infectious Diseases Society of America, representing over 13,000 experts, condemned the committee’s lack of transparency and expertise. Medical organizations have called for Kennedy’s resignation, recognizing that his policies threaten to reverse a century of progress in protecting children from preventable diseases.
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The American Medical Association has warned that “vaccine guidance must remain independent and evidence-based,” yet Kennedy has systematically replaced scientific expertise with ideological conformity.
Vaccines represent one of humanity’s greatest achievements, saving millions of lives annually and serving as the foundation of modern public health. Yet Kennedy’s ACIP threatens to unravel this progress, replacing evidence with ideology and endangering the health of an entire generation.
If this agenda proceeds unchecked, routine childhood immunization will become a privilege of the wealthy rather than a public health guarantee. The working class, already bearing the heaviest burden of preventable disease, will suffer most from Kennedy’s ideological crusade against scientific medicine.
11. Canada continues to face measles outbreak as result of capitalist assault on public health
Canada remains in the midst of a major measles outbreak, a devastating public health catastrophe that is the entirely predictable outcome of decades of deliberate policies to subordinate human lives to corporate profit. The outbreak, which began in New Brunswick last autumn, has spread across the country and threatens to strip Canada of its “eliminated” status for measles, which has been maintained for over a quarter century.
By the first week of September, federal data confirmed 4,902 measles cases in 2025—a staggering toll that surpasses by multiples the yearly averages in other advanced economies. Ontario has reported more than 2,379 cases, Alberta over 1,850, and British Columbia close to 300. Other provinces, including Manitoba, continue to post exposure alerts.
The death of a newborn infant in Ontario earlier this year, infected congenitally, tragically underscores the human cost of this entirely preventable crisis. Officials were eager to highlight the infant’s comorbidities to avoid placing blame on public health failings.
Canada stands out among developed nations even under conditions of a global resurgence of the disease, which according to the United Nations has seen cases internationally reach 350,000 in 2024. Despite an ongoing outbreak in Texas, infection figures in the United States are one-third that of Canada, a country with a population around one-tenth that of its southern neighbour. It is also far greater than the 13-year high reported in England last year. Despite the upsurge of cases and the concern over transmission in schools, the United Conservative Party Alberta provincial government, led by far-right Premier Danielle Smith, has refused to introduce mandatory vaccinations for students. Dr. Mark Joffe, the province’s former chief medical officer, has denounced the official response as “a complete failure of leadership at all levels.”
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The overwhelming majority of those infected are unvaccinated or have unknown vaccination status. In Ontario, nearly 90 percent of cases were in unimmunized individuals. Children and adolescents make up the largest share. This reflects not some mysterious turn of fate, but the collapse of routine immunization and the shredding of the health infrastructure required to sustain it. National monitoring shows measles vaccination coverage has plummeted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with two-dose coverage for seven-year-olds in Ontario hovering at just 70 percent—far below the 95 percent needed to stop measles from spreading.
While there are multiple factors responsible for the outbreak, including a lack of access to family physicians and the disruption of routine immunization during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the primary culprit is clear: a decline in vaccine uptake due to vaccine hesitancy spurred by misinformation.
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The ruling elite bears full responsibility for creating the political and social conditions that have fuelled the resurgence of this most contagious of diseases. The so-called “Freedom Convoy” of early 2022, portrayed at the time by the mainstream press as a spontaneous eruption of popular opposition to COVID-related public health measures, was in fact systematically promoted by powerful sections of the ruling class and their media mouthpieces. Big business, backed by the corporate media, sought to force through the full reopening of the economy in the name of profits, regardless of the death toll. The far right was deliberately mobilized to menace Parliament and blockade border crossings with the US as a battering ram against even the most limited mitigation measures.
The lifting of all anti-COVID measures was then endorsed by all the official parties, from the Liberals and Conservatives to the NDP and the Bloc Québécois. The unions played a critical role in legitimizing the far right’s anti-science tirades. Working systematically to block any independent movement in the working class to demand serious public health measures and a massive expansion of health care, the unions enforced the ruling class line of “living with the virus,” which meant mass infection, death, and the spread of Long Covid.
The political establishment and media deliberately spread misinformation to sow confusion and demoralization, and justify sending workers back into factories and workplaces, and children back to school, where the coronavirus quickly spread.
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The resurgence of measles must serve as a warning. The Canadian ruling class, having already condemned tens of thousands to premature death during the COVID-19 pandemic, is normalizing a future in which diseases once suppressed run rampant and new pathogens are allowed to spread unchecked. It intends to further slash social spending in order to pour billions of dollars into militarism and war.
12. Australia: Labor’s “reforms” axe support for workers suffering mental health injuries
Figures released last month by WorkSafe show that support for mental health injuries under Victoria’s workers’ compensation scheme has been drastically reduced over the past year.
These numbers reveal that hundreds of injured workers are now suffering without adequate treatment—a direct result of the state Labor government’s so-called WorkCover Scheme Modernisation Act, introduced in March 2024. Similar measures are being prepared by the Minns Labor government in New South Wales (NSW).
Between July 2022 and June 2023, 3,695 mental health compensation claims in Victoria were approved and 1,565 rejected—around 70 percent of workers had their injuries recognized, granting access to limited income and treatment. For many, this meant the difference between recovering with dignity and spiraling into crisis.
Since the new laws came into effect, approval rates have plummeted. From April 2024 to April 2025, just 33 percent of the 5,201 assessed mental health claims were accepted. A staggering 61 percent were rejected outright, with the remainder still pending.
The 2023–2024 financial year saw the scheme post a $389 million surplus—the first sign of the economic “benefits” of the changes. The 2024–2025 surplus is expected to grow. While most claims were previously approved, now the majority are denied—with injured workers suffering to improve the compensation scheme’s bottom line.
Under the revised rules, mental health injuries are only recognized if caused by a single traumatic incident. Burnout and other psychological injuries—often stemming from overwork—are not considered legitimate unless linked to one specific moment. This is completely disconnected from the increasingly exploitative and high-pressure working conditions which produce mental injuries.
Ambulance officers, for example, may encounter multiple traumatic events in a single shift—from a routine case to a suicide, a car crash involving children, and later a fatal overdose. Each leaves a mark. The trauma is cumulative. To demand a worker isolate one “triggering event” is to deny the reality of their job.
Nurses describe being worn down not by one event, but by repeated exposure to death, understaffing and emotional labor. None of this now counts under the new criteria.
The growing number of mental health injuries stems, above all, from ongoing government refusals to provide adequate funding and staffing across health, education, welfare and essential services.
13. Major Australian supermarket chains face $1 billion in fines and compensation over underpayment
The protracted legal proceedings dealt with wage theft that occurred between 2013 and 2019, meaning some of these workers have been out of pocket for more than a decade.
The methods that produced this wage theft are widely used by employers. Woolworths told investors the decision would mean “significant and widespread changes to accepted retail practice,” while experts in workplace law have warned the ruling could have ramifications reaching far beyond the supermarket industry.
Horrified by the prospect of changes that would result in workers being properly paid, representatives of big business have seized on the ruling to step-up their calls for industrial awards to be “simplified”—transparent code for the evisceration of workers’ entitlements.
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Woolworths, which employed more than 19,000 of the workers, has previously repaid some $486 million but expects to pay as much as another $530 million because of the ruling, inclusive of superannuation and payroll tax. A component of this is that the decision also impacts the company’s continued use of “set-off” arrangements from 2019–2025.
Coles, which has only repaid $31 million to its more than 8,000 affected workers, anticipates a further cost of between $150 and $250 million. But the lawyer who led the class action against the supermarket noted that “employers frequently underestimate the ultimate cost of remediation programs,” and estimated Coles’ total bill could reach $500 million.
Australian Business Lawyers workplace managing director Luis Izzo told the Australian Financial Review the decision “will have a huge impact on liability Australia-wide” and that “record keeping is an almost universal problem among employers.”
He continued: “Employers don’t want a clock-on, clock-off culture—they want a workforce that’s based on trust and where, as long as they remunerate fairly, employees will put in discretionary effort.”
Izzo’s comments expose the reality behind big-business calls for “modernization” or “simplification” of the awards and broader industrial relations law. They are seeking to eviscerate longstanding basic entitlements like overtime, enabling corporations to impose ever-greater workloads without any additional compensation—effectively demanding that full-time staff work for free once their rostered hours are complete.
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The reliance on the pro-business courts to address wage theft and other attacks inevitably means cases drag on for years. Vast legal bills are racked up on both sides, while workers wait years for (often token) compensation, if they receive anything at all.
A stark recent example was the Transport Workers Union (TWU) case against Qantas over the illegal sacking of 1,800 baggage handlers in 2020. After five years, workers have received less than a years’ pay in compensation, while the TWU has pocketed at least $40 million after legal costs.
The Federal Court ruling, while vindicating the legitimate grievances of the 27,000 workers involved, is no cause for celebration. The response of big business shows that it plans to deepen the attack on workers’ pay and conditions as part of a broader drive to increase “productivity”—that is, exploitation and profit—spearheaded by the Labor government and backed by the unions.
14. England: Vehicle ploughs into Sellafield picket, hospitalising strikers
A striking worker from the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria, England was seriously injured Wednesday when a vehicle ploughed into construction workers picketing the Calder Gate entrance.
The driver of a Polaris Ranger off-road vehicle crashed into the picket of Unite members shortly before 9.00 a.m., with police confirming an Isuzu D-Max was also involved. A 55-year-old picket was admitted to West Cumberland Hospital with serious injuries, while a 39-year-old was taken to hospital with minor injuries and later released.
A Sellafield striker posted an update on their hospitalized colleague: “He’s had a CT scan, broken a collar bone, got a fracture at the top of his spine, fractured a rib and a small fracture of the skull which has caused a bleed on the brain.” He was reportedly being transferred to Carlisle hospital for monitoring over the next few days.
Four men were arrested, aged 16, 19, 50 and 52, and were held in custody on suspicion of dangerous driving and causing grievous bodily harm with intent. In the early hours of Thursday morning, police later charged Craig Fawcett, 50, with causing serious injury by dangerous driving, and Albert Fawcett, 52, with dangerous driving.
The brothers appeared today at Carlisle Magistrates Court, where they denied the charges. Both were granted bail and will appear at Carlisle Crown Court to enter a plea on 20 October.
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More than 1,500 construction workers at Sellafield have been on strike since Monday in a dispute over site-specific pay entitlements for working in dangerous conditions. Sellafield employers are refusing to match pay premiums awarded at other nuclear projects such as Hinkley Point C in Somerset.
Multiple trades are involved in this week’s walkout, including electricians, joiners, welders, pipefitters, riggers and groundworkers. The strike will run until 11:59 p.m. on Friday. Picket lines are running at all gates from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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Workers at Sellafield must demand a full and independent investigation into the attack on the picket. Measures must also be taken immediately to ensure the safety of pickets. The fight to secure pay entitlements and the halting of company stand over tactics will not be achieved through ACAS. A rank-and-file strike committee is needed to turn out and win support among energy, transport and construction workers nationally.
15. Elon Musk’s call for far-right insurrection in Britain meets silence from Starmer
Elon Musk, the world’s second-richest man and former senior advisor to US President Donald Trump, appeared on giant video screens in central London on Saturday to address the largest far-right demonstration in British history. Musk issued a call for mass violence against the left, the dissolution of parliament and a “revolutionary government” to return Britain to “greatness.”
Wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the words “What would George Orwell think?” the tech billionaire portrayed himself as the champion of free speech chafing under the yoke of government oppression. Worth an estimated $463.2 billion, Musk called for “government of, by, and for the people.”
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Musk’s call for a far-right movement to bring down the Starmer government is not play-acting. In January 2021, Trump organized a fascist rabble to storm the US Congress and prevent certification of Joe Biden as President of the United States. They came within minutes of succeeding. Trump is now erecting a dictatorship in plain view, overturning the constitution, deploying the military into major cities, and effectively ruling by decree. The Nazi-saluting Musk is a public symbol of this coup by the oligarchy.
There is no constituency in the British ruling class for the defense of democratic rights. Starmer’s craven response to Musk—who has used his X platform to incite anti-immigrant riots in Britain, including those in Southport last summer—makes clear Labour will do nothing to oppose far-right agitation, up to and including plans for a coup. This week, Starmer has rolled out the red carpet for Dictator-in-Chief Donald Trump’s state visit.
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Starmer is under intense pressure to slash public spending and make the working class pay for Britain’s mounting debt and for increased military spending. Reform UK is being promoted in ruling circles as a possible replacement. Should a far-right coup be mounted in Britain, the Labour government, like the Democrats in the US, will not resist.
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As the Socialist Equality Party and the World Socialist Web Site warned almost a decade ago, the state campaign against “leftwing antisemitism” launched against Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters in 2015-2019—aimed at criminalising pro-Palestinian, left-wing and socialist politics—has served to bolster the real source of antisemitism in the cesspools of the far-right.
Corbyn enjoyed the overwhelming backing of party members to take on and defeat the Blairite witch-hunters, but he opposed any challenge to the right-wing, insisting on the unity of all factions in Labour’s “broad church”. Corbyn’s legacy was a peaceful transition to Starmer who has backed Israel’s genocide in Gaza and is overseeing the most severe repression in modern British history against the right to protest and free speech, while boosting the far-right.
Now, Corbyn is setting up a new left-wing party, but he advances no strategy to mobilise the working class against the Starmer government, the far-right and the capitalist system which they defend.
16. Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
Africa
Kenya:
Sugar workers strike to demand arrears
Sugar workers strike to demand arrears
Nigeria:
Doctors in Federal Capital Territory begin indefinite strike over pay and conditions
Judiciary staff in Enugu State begin indefinite strike
South Africa:Workers in Buffalo walk out over outsourcing of services, face police teargas and rubber bullets
Residents in Mondlo township, KwaZulu-Natal protest electricity cuts and lack of services
Refuse workers in KwaMashu in Durban strike and protest pay cut
Workers in Buffalo walk out over outsourcing of services, face police teargas and rubber bullets
Residents in Mondlo township, KwaZulu-Natal protest electricity cuts and lack of services
Refuse workers in KwaMashu in Durban strike and protest pay cut
Uganda:
Teachers begin national strike
Europe
Cyprus:
General strike over government austerity measures including Cost-of-Living Allowance reforms
General strike over government austerity measures including Cost-of-Living Allowance reforms
Portugal:
Transport workers in Lisbon strike for improved pay and conditions
Transport workers in Lisbon strike for improved pay and conditions
Spain:
Airport security staff in Madrid work to rule for pay increases and other benefits
Airport security staff in Madrid work to rule for pay increases and other benefits
United Kingdom:
Walkout at nuclear power site over allowances
Walkout at nuclear power site over allowances
Civil servants at housing ministry walk out over office closures
Civil servants at housing ministry walk out over office closures
Iran:
Ongoing protests by Iranian workers over living conditions
Ongoing protests by Iranian workers over living conditions
17. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, 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.
