Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:
1. Christmas in America: Staggering wealth concentration and deepening social crisis
This Christmas, Detroit’s downtown business district—home to the new GM corporate headquarters, luxury residential towers and sports arenas—is brightly lit for the holidays. Just blocks away, homeless men sleep beside steam pipes in the Greektown entertainment district to keep warm. It was here, in a casino parking lot, that two small children died from carbon monoxide poisoning inside their mother’s car in February 2025, after city and state agencies refused aid to their homeless family.
At the Leland House—one of the few remaining downtown buildings where low-income families could afford rent after most subsidized housing was shuttered or converted to “market rate” units—scores of residents have been forced from their homes in the dead of winter.
After a grassroots fundraising effort raised enough money to pay an overdue DTE Energy bill owed by the property managers, the building’s basement electrical system was flooded under suspicious circumstances. Fire officials then ordered an emergency evacuation.
The tenants—many elderly and on fixed incomes—remain displaced weeks later, have been denied access to retrieve personal belongings and face the likely loss of their homes. Local reporting shows the property owners neglected critical infrastructure, municipal responses were slow and inadequate, and residents are left uncertain. As one long‑term tenant put it: “They don’t want people like me living downtown. They’re creating a new downtown. That’s what they want.”
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There is growing anger in the working class, which possesses enormous social power. Supply chains, transport, healthcare and public services cannot function without labor. The strategic task is to convert widespread opposition into an organizational and political counteroffensive in 2026.
The World Socialist Web Site and the International Workers Alliance of Rank‑and‑File Committees (IWA‑RFC) call for the formation of rank‑and‑file committees in every plant, workplace and neighborhood to demand an immediate halt to permanent layoffs; full pay and benefits for affected workers; and shortened working weeks with no loss of pay to preserve jobs.
These committees should demand a ban on utility shutoffs and mass evictions; cancellation of predatory debt and an end to wage garnishment for student loan defaulters; and the reversal of public subsidies to billionaire projects in favor of massive public investment in housing, healthcare and services.
An industrial counteroffensive must be connected to a political struggle against the Trump administration—a government of, by and for the oligarchy. Trump is erecting a presidential dictatorship, the political form that corresponds to a society riven by staggering levels of social inequality. The vicious, fascistic campaign against immigrant workers, including Gestapo-style raids and the rounding up of entire families, is the spearhead for a broader attack on the democratic rights of the entire working class.
The Democratic Party has refused to mount any opposition, as it agrees with the main elements of Trump’s social program. Just one month ago, the Democratic Socialists of America mayor-elect of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, met with Trump at the White House, smiled for photos, and declared his readiness to work with the fascist president.
It is not a question of tinkering around the edges of a bankrupt economic and political system, but mobilizing the immense power of the working class in an irreconcilable fight against the entire corporate and financial oligarchy. This fight must be waged independently of—and in opposition to—both capitalist parties and the corrupt union bureaucracies, which serve as enforcers for the corporations and the state. The trade unions seek to divide workers along national lines and disarm them in the face of a historic offensive against jobs, wages and democratic rights.
The program of this counteroffensive must be the expropriation of the financial and corporate elite, the socialization of the major industries, and the use of modern technology to eliminate poverty, guarantee decent housing and healthcare and raise the material and cultural level of all humanity. The resources exist to guarantee full employment, housing, healthcare, and education for all. The question is: Who controls these resources—the oligarchy or the working class?
2. Epstein’s co-conspirators remain protected in new DOJ file release
In the Epstein saga, the behavior of the entire capitalist ruling establishment stands exposed as that of a socially degenerate layer presiding over a decaying socio-economic order. The files reveal a world in which billionaires, princes, presidents and media celebrities treated the sexual exploitation of vulnerable girls as an accepted perk of wealth and power, and in which the institutions nominally tasked with “law enforcement” functioned as their shield and accomplice.*****
The fact that Trump’s own resort was subpoenaed for employment records in the [Ghislaine] Maxwell case, and that an FBI tipster described being invited to a “Jeffrey Epstein party” at Mar‑a‑Lago “for prostitutes,” indicates how deeply the activities of billionaire degenerates overlap.
That both Democrats and Republicans now posture as champions of “transparency” while continuing to defend the institutions and property relations that created this cesspool only underscores their hypocrisy. For all the vituperation in Congress, no faction of the ruling class is prepared to identify the network of bankers, hedge‑fund managers, intelligence operatives and political fixers who enabled Epstein’s crimes because they are part of the same ruling oligarchy.
From the moment of Epstein’s arrest in July 2019 and his sudden death in a Manhattan jail a month later, the World Socialist Web Site warned that the case was not an aberrant scandal but a window into the rot of American capitalism and its state.
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The new release of Epstein files, with all its calculated obfuscation, further confirms the central lesson of Epstein affair: No section of the capitalist state—no administration, no party, no law enforcement agency—can be relied upon to expose, much less punish, the crimes of the ruling class.
Only the independent political mobilization of the working class, armed with a socialist program, can bring the full truth to light and hold to account those who built, financed and protected Epstein’s predatory empire.
3. European Union provides €90 billion for war against Russia in Ukraine
The fact that the EU is investing such large sums in the war in Ukraine confirms that it is a proxy war between NATO and Russia.
4. “Get the knowledge that you need, at SocialismAI.com”
Ty, an educator who led sickouts against COVID in 2020, explains how workers can use Socialism AI to get the knowledge they need.
US President Donald Trump’s appointment Sunday of a special envoy for Greenland underlines American imperialism’s abandonment of all restraints in pursuit of its interests and the deepening rift between Washington and its erstwhile European allies.
6. High-ranking Russian general killed in Moscow car bombing
There is little question that Ukraine is behind the assassination, which took place against the backdrop of the US-Russia negations over a peace deal and an intensifying drone war by Ukraine on Russian territory.
7. One hundred years since the death of Russian poet Sergei Esenin
The World Socialist Web Site republishes an article published in 1926 by Leon Trotsky about the Russian lyric poet who died tragically. Trotsky describes Esenin as "an unguarded, unprotected soul."
Wrote Trotsky:
Our times are harsh, perhaps among the harshest in the history of so-called civilized humanity. Revolutionaries born in these decades are possessed by the frenzied patriotism of their era—of their homeland, of their time. Esenin was not a revolutionary. The author of “Pugachev” and “The Ballad of the Twenty-Six” was a most intimate lyricist. Our era, however, is not a lyrical one. This is the main reason why Sergei Esenin, of his own will, left us and his era so early.
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Someone once said that everyone carries within themselves the spring of their destiny, and that life unwinds this spring to the very end. This is only partly true. Esenin’s creative spring, as it unwound, collided with the boundaries of the epoch and was broken.
Esenin has many precious verses imbued with the spirit of the epoch. His entire poetry is suffused with it. At the same time, Esenin is “not of this world.” He is not a poet of the revolution.
I accept everything as it is, I accept everything.
I am ready to follow in well-trodden footsteps,
I will give my entire soul to October and May
But I will not give up my beloved lyre!His lyrical spring could only unfold to its fullest extent in a harmonious, happy society that lives with song, where friendship, love, and tender compassion reign instead of struggle. Such a time will come. The current era, in whose womb many merciless and life-saving battles of men against men are still hidden, will be followed by different times—the very ones that are being prepared by the current struggle. The human personality will then blossom in its true color. And with it, poetry....
8. US brands DACA recipient Yaa’kub Vijandre a “terrorist,” then offers $3,000 to “self-deport”
The Trump administration has detained a longtime Dallas resident as a “terrorist” based solely on social media posts opposing the Gaza genocide, then attempted to force him out of the country with a $3,000 cash bribe, exposing the political character of his detention.
9. Australia: Labor governments exploit Bondi shootings to impose sweeping anti-democratic laws
Legislation passed today in New South Wales creates a framework that can effectively criminalize all political gatherings.
10. Australian teenagers oppose police repression, social media ban after beach clash
What happened at Mordialloc beach last week was not a pre-planned “youth riot” as the media and government claim, but a confused chain of events sparked by a heavily-armed police operation.
11. Australia: Hundreds rally against Labor’s anti-protest laws
Since the shootings on December 14 at Bondi Beach, Labor governments have introduced a barrage of anti-democratic legislation aimed at suppressing any opposition to the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
12. The funeral of Elisabeth Zimmermann-Modler in Duisburg: “An extraordinarily courageous personality”
“Elli was an extraordinarily courageous personality. She pursued her path in life with great clarity and consistency.”
This was said by Ulrich Rippert, honorary chairman of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) at the funeral of Elisabeth Zimmermann-Modler. “Elli,” as she was known to everyone, had been a member of the SGP for 50 years. She died on 28 November at the age of 69 as a result of a tragic accident.
On Friday, a grey winter day, around 50 mourners gathered at the Ruhrort cemetery to pay their last respects to Elisabeth Zimmermann-Modler. The violinist Ella Rotsch played “Air” by Johann Sebastian Bach. Among those present, in addition to SGP members who had known Elli for many years, were work colleagues from Siemens, several colleagues of her husband, Peter, who had been a steelworker at Thyssenkrupp, as well as neighbors and friends. Thas, a Tamil comrade, recalled at the graveside how Elli had taken him and other refugees from Sri Lanka into her home, educated them in the principles of Trotskyism, and proved herself a friend in every situation in life. “She was our family,” Thas said.
13. Gold price resumes its rise to hit new record
So far, the price of gold has risen by almost 70 percent this year, the biggest surge since the aftermath of the Iranian revolution in 1979.
14. Australian-owned rare earths plant in Malaysia drawn into US war preparations
The Lynas Advanced Materials Plant, the only commercial-scale producer of separated heavy rare earth oxides outside China, now occupies a central position in Washington’s efforts to secure strategic supply chains essential for advanced weapons systems.
15. Elite “noble” installed as new Tongan prime minister
The return to Tonga’s monarchy and nobles reflects the shift to authoritarian forms of rule by governments around the world.
The four-month strike by 700 nurses and case workers at Henry Ford Health’s Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc, Michigan has entered a new and dangerous stage. Hospital management has sent a threatening letter telling strikers that the hospital is now posting their positions.
The threat of permanent replacement represents an intensification of the strikebreaking operation mounted by Henry Ford Hospital while the Teamsters union bureaucracy continues to isolate the struggle and refuses to mobilize the broader strength of healthcare workers across Michigan.
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The strike at Henry Ford Genesys is part of the struggle by the entire working class against the capitalist system and the control of the healthcare industry by powerful financial interests that are focused on one thing: profits. The struggle for a healthcare system that is operated to provide for the needs of the public requires that the hospitals, clinics, health insurance companies and the pharmaceutical monopolies be placed under the control of the working class and operated based on socialist policies.
What is needed now is a conscious turn to a new strategy, one that unites the struggle at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital with the broader movement of healthcare workers and other sections of the working class, and that strips control of society from the financial oligarchy and places power in the hands of the workers who create all the wealth in society.
The City University of New York (CUNY) School of Labor Studies hosted an event earlier this month titled “The 2005 NYC Transit Workers Strike: Reflections on the 20th Anniversary,” featuring Roger Toussaint, who was the local union president at that time, Joshua Freeman, a labor historian, and Kafui Attoh, an associate professor of labor studies. Rather than drawing out the fundamental lessons for today from this critical experience for the working class, the event was an exercise in covering up the union leadership’s betrayals.
The 2005 transit walkout, involving about 34,000 workers, was one of the largest and most powerful strikes of the decade. The strike began on December 20, 2005, shutting down the city of New York, which is heavily dependent on mass transit, for three days.
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The ruling class in New York responded by passing the anti-labor Taylor Law with the tacit support of the union bureaucracy, including Victor Gotbaum of AFSCME’s District Council 37. The law seeks to prevent public sector strikes by imposing monetary fines against workers who are threatened with the loss of two days’ pay for every day of a job action or strike.
This law was used to attack transit workers during the next walkout, an 11-day stoppage in 1980. After the union bureaucracy called off the strike in exchange for a concessions contract—a move opposed only by executive board member Ed Winn, a member of the Workers League (the forerunner of the Socialist Equality Party)—transit workers were forced to pay heavy monetary penalties.
This experience discouraged another strike for 25 years. During that period, there was a massive increase in social inequality alongside a huge rise in public indebtedness, including that of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The transit agency had accumulated $20 billion in long-term bond debt by 2005 and determined that workers would have to make a variety of concessionary demands to pay for it.
Multibillionaire Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg (now a Democrat), not satisfied with the anti-strike provisions of the Taylor Law, went to court to seek an injunction that would fine every striker $25,000 for the first day of the job action and double for each subsequent day.
A major ingredient of the 2005 walkout was the fact that the older workforce was increasingly being replaced by younger workers determined to engage in a struggle against intolerable working conditions, threats, low wages and demands for more sacrifice. This contributed to New Directions’ union election victory, a faction led by Toussaint that promised greater militancy. By the time the contract struggle erupted in 2005, the sentiment for a fight was so strong that union leadership had little choice but to call a strike.
During the meeting at CUNY, Toussaint acknowledged some of the major features of the strike, while completely covering up others.
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The most revealing part of this public meeting, however, was the absence of any discussion on the role of the Democratic Party, which the union bureaucracy presented as an ally of strikers. In reality, the Democrats worked to undermine and defeat the strike on behalf of the business and financial interests they represent.
Politicians, who previously postured as backers of transit workers, made clear over the course of the two-and-a-half-day strike where they stood. The TWU-endorsed Democratic candidate for mayor, Fernando Ferrer, was nowhere to be seen during the strike. Senator Hillary Clinton, who attended one of the union’s mass membership meetings, reaffirmed her support for the Taylor Law and declared herself “neutral” during the walkout. Democratic politician Jesse Jackson, who was the keynote speaker at the mass membership meeting that authorized the strike, became silent when it actually occurred.
The silence on the Democratic Party was not an innocent omission. It aligns with Toussaint’s entire outlook. During the event, the ex-union leader expressed his opposition to a general strike at the time and downplayed the lack of support from leaders of other unions. In reality, not a single union head in New York came forward to give even verbal support for the strike. What the union leaders and Democratic Party politicians had in common was a fear of the potential for the transit strike to win widespread support and provide an impulse for a broader struggle. All of them were determined to prevent this.
Now, 20 years later, Toussaint is long since retired and New Directions no longer exists. However, the outlook of the union bureaucracy, including that of the current TWU national president, John Samuelsen, previously former Local 100 president and member of New Directions, remains fundamentally the same.
Samuelsen embodies the union apparatus’ integration into the Democratic Party. He previously hobnobbed at $25,000-a-plate fundraisers hosted by former governor Andrew Cuomo, while more recently joining incoming New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s transition team.
Meanwhile, since the transit strike 20 years ago, the level of social inequality and the depth of the affordability crisis have exploded. Transit workers in New York City are entering into a contract struggle in 2026 amid a social powder keg, where the immense social power of labor, revealed in part during the 2005 strike, must come to the fore.
Last week, World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke with Tour 2 and Tour 3 workers outside the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center in New York City about the death of a fellow postal worker. The worker has now been identified as Lucy Diaz, who died on November 6 while working Tour 1.
No facility-wide notification or explanation was issued following Diaz’s death, forcing workers to piece together information through word of mouth and private social media posts. Diaz was a sorter with 28 years of service. She operated the Automated Package Processing System (APPS) machine.
Diaz’s death occurred inside one of the largest facilities operated by the United States Postal Service, a major processing hub serving the New York metropolitan area, including Wall Street and surrounding financial districts.
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Both the United States Postal Service and the unions representing Morgan workers—the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU)—have so far said nothing about the circumstances of this tragedy.
When our reporters raised the question of a facility-wide meeting to address the death, workers across multiple tours agreed that a meeting would be important to clarify what had happened. One worker said, “Everyone should know about the death of a fellow employee.”
19. Sharp price increases make basic foodstuffs unaffordable for millions in Canada
The latest report on food prices in Canada confirms what the working class, and especially the most vulnerable in society, already know: Nutritious food is quickly becoming a luxury item in one of the world’s most advanced and wealthiest capitalist countries.
Along with access to higher education, quality healthcare, proper housing or even a decent-paying job, nutritious food options are now on the list of things that are, or may soon be, unattainable for the vast majority of the population.
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The 2026 report anticipates that overall food prices will increase by 4 percent to 6 percent—significantly above the predicted general inflation rate of 2.2 percent. This is on top of what has already been a 27 percent increase in food prices over the last five years. With an increase of up to $994.63 in 2025, the average family of four could expect to spend $17,571.79 on food in the coming year.
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While the pressure on ordinary people to afford the basics in the populous regions of Canada is intense, the situation in the North is even more extreme. Food prices in the North are two to four times higher than in urban areas, and food insecurity is about double the national average. For decades, long distances, the lack of infrastructure and transportation costs have been used as excuses for the deficiency of fresh, nutritious food in the North. Northern Saskatchewan recently recorded 27 cases of scurvy, linked to a lack of fresh, affordable foods. The resurgence of this 18th century disease is not an inexplicable cluster of unfortunate maladies but the result of deliberate social policy choices.
An important focus of the CFPR report is the level of market concentration in the grocery sector in Canada. It rightly bemoans the power of the largest four grocery chains, which control at least 72 percent of the market, to limit competition and consumer choice. It does not refer to Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro and Walmart by name, but suggests the “Grocery Code of Conduct,” a voluntary framework meant to guide how grocery retailers and their suppliers interact, due to come into effect in January 2026, could help to stabilize food prices. But the history of the insurance, telecom and energy sectors, among many others, prove that such tinkering around the edges of corporate capitalism, which strives for consolidation and market dominance, would prove utterly fruitless. In any case, there is no will within the political establishment to restrict the profit motive and rein in the power of the financial oligarchy, regardless of the negative social impact.
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The CFPR hopes to enable consumers to make better purchasing decisions by understanding trends in the food industry with its reports. But the reality is there are no solutions to be had for the working class within the capitalist system. Food insecurity is increasingly flooding working class families along with precarious employment and unaffordable housing—and no reforms within the capitalist system will stem the tide.
Securing affordable food, and resolving the myriad social problems associated with it, is a task that depends on the independent political and industrial mobilization of the working class in the fight for socialism. Only by expropriating the ill-gotten wealth of the financial oligarchy and placing society’s vast resources under democratic workers’ control can the needs of everyone for a full and fulfilling life be met.
20. Two more pro-Palestine UK political prisoners hospitalized while Starmer government refused to act
The hunger strike now involves five people: Amu Gib, Kamran Ahmed, Heba Muraisi, Teuta Hoxha and Lewie Chiaramello.
16. 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.
