Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:

1. Democrats help kill resolution to impeach Trump over Iran war

In a demonstration of political support for Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional war against Iran, a majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives joined a unanimous Republican caucus on Tuesday to block a resolution to impeach the president. Democrats voted by 128-79, and Republicans 216-0, to table the resolution that had been introduced by Democrat Al Green of Texas.

Every Democratic Party leader—from Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on down, along with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and former Majority Whip James Clyburn—voted to kill the measure. At a press briefing before the vote, Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar dismissed the impeachment resolution as a “distraction.”

Notably, Green’s resolution did not denounce Trump’s bombing of Iran as an unprovoked aggression or a violation of international law. Instead, it focused narrowly on his failure to seek congressional authorization, accusing Trump of abusing presidential powers by “usurping Congress’s power to declare war” and ordering strikes “without the constitutionally-mandated congressional authorization or notice.”

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The Democratic Party is an advocate and instrument of American imperialism. While supposedly “antiwar” figures like Green, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders engage in political stunts to give a “left” cover to this right-wing party, the real concerns of the Democrats are those of the Pentagon and the CIA. They object not to the homicidal belligerence of Trump but to his erratic and even seemingly manic conduct of the US foreign policy. 

These concerns were spelled out most bluntly by Biden’s former Secretary of State Antony Blinken in an op-ed column in the New York Times, published under the headline, “Trump’s Iran Strike Was a Mistake. I Hope It Succeeds.” He called the decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities “unwise and unnecessary,” but added, “Now that it’s done, I very much hope it succeeded.” 

2. How the New York Times launders Zionist slanders against children’s content creator Ms. Rachel  

The New York Times emailed questions to Accurso [Ms. Rachel], including the big bomb shell: did she receive money from Hamas? The “newspaper of record” has the temerity to ask this question solely on the basis of a piece of Zionist hatchet work!

One can admire her response, “This accusation is not only absurd, it’s patently false.”

But, the Times assures, “She did not dispute that she has posted more frequently about Gazan children.”

Caught red-handed! How could Accurso escape this charge, posting “more frequently” about Gazan children because they were being massacred “more frequently”? 

“The painful reality is that Palestinian children in Gaza have been killed by the thousands and continue to be killed, maimed and starved right now” she replies, adding, “the idea that caring about one group of children prevents us from caring about another group of children is false.” 

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In reality, the New York Times is waving, clapping and pronouncing its pedagogy in alignment with the US State Department and the murderous Netanyahu regime. This is not journalism, but propaganda, designed to intimidate and silence dissent. The Times, long a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party and the American foreign policy establishment, has once again demonstrated its role as an enforcer of ideological conformity. 

Rachel Accurso has dared to say what tens of millions of working people around the world feel instinctively: that the mass killing of children is unacceptable, and that silence in the face of such crimes is unjustifiable. Her advocacy is not “wading into a debate”—it is legitimate and, one might add, elementary political activism. Quite rightly, Accurso recently told an interviewer that “it should be controversial to not say anything.” 

3. Israel, confirming ceasefire, declares “campaign against Iran is not over” 

Following his ceasefire announcement Tuesday, Trump traveled to the NATO summit in Brussels, which is set to announce major increases in military spending by all NATO members.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump shared a series of texts from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who praised the illegal US attack on Iran. “Mr President, dear Donald, Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do. It makes us all safer,” Rutte wrote.

Despite Trump’s boastful claims about having obliterated what he called Iran’s “nuclear weapons” program, the actual damage inflicted on the program appears to have been limited.

On Tuesday, CNN, the New York Times and other media outlets disclosed a classified US intelligence report indicating that the attack set back Iran’s nuclear program by only a few months.

4. Detroit high school student, on brink of graduating, deported to Colombia

Maykol Bogoya-Duarte, a senior at Western International High School in Detroit, has been deported to Colombia by the Trump administration. A June 12 post on the Facebook page of the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center read: “We are deeply saddened to report that our young client Maykol was deported yesterday. His flight left approximately 3 hours after his stay was denied. Instead of being able to complete his education, Maykol was abruptly removed from his family and friends. These are the real life and heartbreaking consequences of the policies of this administration.”

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The working class must take action to force a stop to Trump’s immigration gestapo, which is a key part of his broader strategy to build a dictatorship in the United States. This was shown by the deployment of Marines and National Guard troops to the streets of Los Angeles in response to largely peaceful protests, denouncing immigrants and their supporters as an “invasion.” Mass outrage contributed to the massive turnout in nationwide protests on June 14, by some estimates the largest in American history.

But the fight to stop deportations must be rooted in the industrial and political mobilization of the international working class. This requires workers take action themselves. Not a single major trade union, including the AFT or the Teamsters, has called for any real action—such as strikes or protests—in defense of immigrant rights.

To that end, workers, students and community members must build independent rank-and-file committees in every school, workplace and neighborhood. These democratic structures, united through the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC), must take up the following immediate tasks:

• Organize emergency meetings in schools, hospitals and workplaces to expose the full extent of immigration repression.
• Plan for a general strike to unite workers—immigrant and native-born alike—against deportations, police violence, and economic exploitation.
• Expand the movement internationally, linking struggles in the US with those of workers worldwide. 

5. Fired DOJ lawyer alleges senior Justice Department officials lied to courts, ignored orders and directed subordinates to do the same

In a revealing whistleblower complaint first reported by the New York Times on Tuesday, Erez Reuveni, the former acting deputy director of the Office of Immigration Litigation (OIL) at the Department of Justice (DOJ), accused several senior figures in the DOJ of “knowingly and willfully” defying court orders and directing “their subordinate attorneys to make misrepresentations to courts” in order to advance Trump’s mass deportation operation.

Reuveni’s complaint is supplemented by emails and direct quotes, lending credibility to its allegations. It exposes the criminal and lawless character not only of the Trump administration but of the entire US government. 

6. Events in Detroit and Los Angeles mark 43nd anniversary of racist murder of Chinese American draftsman Vincent Chin

Vincent Jen Chin ( 陳果仁) days before he was murdered 

The brutal killing of Chin took place amid an earlier wave of anti-Japanese hysteria whipped up by the UAW and Democratic Party officials, who scapegoated Japanese workers for supposedly “stealing” American jobs. The UAW has never acknowledged, let alone apologized for its role in fueling anti-Asian hate.

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One would hardly learn from the official speeches what is taking place all across America: the virtual declaration of martial law in Los Angeles, the mass round up of immigrants and “foreign looking” people by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Gestapo, and their detention in inhuman conditions without due process. Among those immigrants being rounded up are also US citizens and legal residents. 

7. In an act of political censorship, Deutsche Bank terminates publisher Mehring Verlag’s account

The attack on Mehring Verlag is inseparable from the return to war and militarism and the assault on social and democratic rights. What is unfolding in Trump’s America—the ICE-Gestapo’s hunt for migrants, the domestic deployment of the military, gangster-style foreign policy, and the illegal bombing of Iran—is also developing, in varying forms, across all imperialist countries, including Germany.

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The attack on Mehring Verlag reveals what the ruling class in Germany fears most: the spread of ideas that threaten the foundations of its tottering, rotten capitalist system—namely, the program of socialism. As the great French writer Victor Hugo said 150 years ago: “One can resist the invasion of armies; one cannot resist the invasion of ideas whose time has come.” 

8. German finance minister presents war budget

The very fact that [Finance Minister Lars ] Klingbeil has the financial leeway for such high new borrowing is the result of decades of social cuts. The debt brake, which sets strict limits on government borrowing, was enshrined in the Basic Law in 2009 specifically for this purpose. As Klingbeil himself emphasized, the low debt ratio of 63 percent compared to other countries now allows him to take out large new loans. What has been saved in social spending, local government and other socially relevant areas, is now being poured into rearmament and war.

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Before leaving for the NATO summit on Tuesday, Chancellor Friedrich Merz emphasized that Germany was not increasing its military spending “to do the US and its president a favor. We are doing this based on our own views and convictions.” That is undoubtedly the case. However, Merz’s claim in his government statement that the issues at stake are peace in Europe and protection against alleged planned attacks by Russia is a lie.

For years, leading representatives of the German elite have been demanding that Germany once again play a political and military role in the world commensurate with its economic weight. The Merz government has declared its goal of making the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) the strongest army in Europe.

With NATO’s advance into Eastern Europe and its support for the 2014 coup in Ukraine, the Western powers provoked a reactionary attack by the Putin regime, which felt surrounded and threatened in its existence. Since then, Germany has deliberately fueled the war in Ukraine, supporting it with arms deliveries worth billions and sabotaging any negotiated solution that does not involve Moscow’s complete surrender.

For the first time, the German armed forces have permanently stationed a brigade in Lithuania, at a key strategic location that would place them at the center of the war if the conflict with Russia escalates.

The goal is not only complete control over Ukraine, but also the subjugation and destruction of Russia and unhindered access to its valuable natural resources. In a world increasingly dominated by great power conflicts, trade wars and military confrontations, German imperialism is once again expanding in the same direction as in the First and Second World Wars, when it also occupied Ukraine and attempted to subjugate Russia, or rather the Soviet Union. 

9. Britain’s National Security Strategy prepares militarization of society 

Britain’s National Security Strategy (NSS) 2025 is Labour’s blueprint for militarizing society in preparation for major wars. It calls for a “hardening and a sharpening of our approach to national security across all areas of policy, already seen in a shift towards more investment in hard power and an emphasis on increasing the lethality of our armed forces.”

The document’s release comes just days after Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a commitment to lifting military spending to 5 percent of GDP by 2035, adopted as a common goal at yesterday’s NATO summit, which the NSS hails as “the largest sustained investment in our armed forces since the Cold War, with an emphasis on greater lethality” and “warfighting readiness”. 

 10. Thai government on brink of collapse

The main opposition People’s Party has called for the dissolution of parliament and a new general election, saying it is necessary to prevent a coup. Army head General Pana Klaewplodthuk claimed that the military was committed to “democracy” and that the armed forces would continue to operate within “existing mechanisms.”

This is no guarantee a coup will not occur, especially in a country that has experienced two in the present century alone. Anti-government protests have taken place, with more planned. The military could use these demonstrations or the overall instability in the government to carry out a coup under the pretext of restoring order.

The factional warfare among the Thai ruling class now erupting to the surface is not the result of a diplomatically embarrassing phone call. It has been ongoing behind the scenes for months and has already claimed one Pheu Thai prime minister. Srettha Thavisin was removed from office on trumped up ethics charges last August. It is an expression of the profound contradictions gripping not only Thailand but the entire region, under the impact of the crisis of global capitalism and escalating US-instigated wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Washington is escalating its preparations across the Indo-Pacific region for war against China and is applying pressure on countries like Thailand to line up with its military plans, including through Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs. Thailand faces a potential rate of 36 percent when the tariffs are set to take effect on July 9 if a trade deal is not worked out.

11. Chicago Teachers Union sanctions closures of two Acero schools as Democrats prepare massive assault on public education  

The permanent closure of Cruz K‑12 and Paz Elementary—two Acero charter schools in Chicago that serve predominantly working‑class, immigrant and Latino communities—was officially carried out in mid‑June. June 11 marked the last day for students and June 12 saw teachers and staff barred from their classrooms by “end of business.”

These closures represent nothing less than social arson, orchestrated by the Acero Schools management in collaboration with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), Chicago Public Schools officials and Mayor Brandon Johnson. The brazen attack will displace hundreds of students and nearly 100 educators, dissolving vital community institutions. Far from defending educators and students, the CTU bureaucracy has functioned as an enforcer of austerity.

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The final closure of Cruz K-12 and Paz Elementary on June 11-12 was met with almost total silence from both the corporate media and the CTU. Only a single Spanish-language news outlet reported the last day students walked through the doors or the moment educators were barred from returning to their classrooms. The deliberate media blackout, despite the presence of media companies with journalists devoted to covering education matters, underscores the political calculations behind the closures: Cruz and Paz had to be disappeared, quietly and without resistance, lest their destruction provoke broader opposition among educators and working-class families throughout the city. 

12. “The union and the company aren’t saying anything”: Stellantis Dundee Engine worker backs rank-and-file investigation into death of Ronald Adams Sr

Monday marked 11 weeks since the fatal accident that took the life of 63-year-old machine repairman Ronald Adams Sr. at the Dundee Engine Complex in Michigan. The highly skilled and respected worker, a husband, father and grandfather, was crushed to death on April 7, 2025, when an overhead gantry that lifts engine blocks suddenly engaged, pinning him to a conveyor. 

In the nearly three months since the tragedy, Adams’ family and co-workers have not received any explanation of the causes of his death from the company, the United Auto Workers or the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA). In an email to this reporter Tuesday morning, MIOSHA Communications Specialist Mike Krafcik wrote, “Our investigation remains open. No updates to share at this time.” 

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One Toledo Jeep worker said she knew Antonio Gaston, who was crushed to death at the factory on August 21, 2024, just eight months before Adams lost his life at the Dundee plant. “We still don’t know what happened to Antonio,” she said, telling IWA-RFC supporters that she would spread the word about the rank-and-file investigation to her fellow workers.  

13. Australian universities in crisis: Oppose Labor’s cuts to international students and jobs

Staff and students at public universities across Australia face a deepening crisis. Over the past six months, despite protests at individual universities, managements have announced the destruction of more than 3,000 jobs—both academic and professional—mostly as a result of the Labor government’s reactionary cuts to international student enrollments.

14. Canada’s Liberal government gives full-throated support to US imperialism’s war on Iran

Within hours of the US attacking Iran’s civil nuclear facilities last Saturday evening with the most powerful non-nuclear bombs ever deployed, Prime Minister Mark Carney issued a statement on X welcoming the attack and America’s entry into the illegal war of aggression Israel launched against Iran on the night of June 12.

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The Canadian prime minister’s statement went even further than those of his European counterparts, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Marz, who both also endorsed the US strike on the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan Iranian nuclear sites. 

Trump’s Monday night announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran was immediately praised by Carney, who called for a return to “negotiations” and a “diplomatic solution.” This under conditions where Israel and the US have worked together to repeatedly use the White House’s promise of negotiations as a ruse to cover their aggression. Moreover, it is Trump who in 2018 blew-up the UN backed Iran nuclear accord, then imposed a campaign of punishing globally-applied sanctions, continued under Biden, aimed at crashing Iran’s economy and provoking “regime change.” 

15. One year since the Gen-Z Uprising in Kenya: The need for a socialist and internationalist strategy

The eruption of mass protests across Kenya in mid-2024, led primarily by young people, marked a turning point in the social and political life of the country, with reverberations felt across the African continent. Opposition to Ruto’s International Monetary Fund (IMF)-imposed Finance Bill 2024 rapidly developed into an insurgency against the entire post-independence capitalist order. It exposed the deep crisis of Kenyan and global capitalism.

16. The Trial of Dedan Kimathi returns to the Kenya National Theatre: The unresolved issues of the Mau Mau struggle 

The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, the powerful historical drama co-written by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Micere Githae Mugo, has returned to the Kenya National Theatre in Nairobi nearly 50 years after its original performance in 1976. This long-awaited revival comes just weeks after the death of Ngũgĩ on May 28 at the age of 87.

The performance ends in total darkness, with Ngũgĩ’s pre-recorded voice echoing through the theater, urging the audience to “resist tyranny”, a direct call to Kenya’s youth to rise against the corrupt ruling elite and its imperialist backers. 

17.  UK teachers walk out at Outwood Grange Academy schools over plans to lengthen school day

The strikes are part of a growing movement of educators against the effects of decades of government funding cuts, imposed with the collaboration of the education unions. 

18. Stagecoach West Scotland bus drivers’ strike betrayed by Unite

After nine days of a solid and determined strike in pursuit of an improvement in their pay, 430 bus drivers at Stagecoach West Scotland have been dragooned by company management and Unite trade union officials into accepting a miserable pay deal which meets none of their demands. In the aftermath of the dispute, several workers are reported to have been suspended for picketing. 

19. Workers and students in Manchester and Bradford speak out against Iran war, Palestine Action ban (videos included)

Ahmed, a rail worker, told the World Socialist Web Site, “The attack on Iran is totally unjustified, it’s also a total threat to democracy… Before we know it, we won’t be able to protest.”

20. South Australian Socialists launch: The pseudo-left promotes reformism, parochialism

For the Socialist Alternative, the electoral fronts are a means of cultivating ties with elements of the union bureaucracy, the Greens and the Labor Party, while seeking to parachute its leadership into the corridors of power and influence. The objective function of the new outfits, amid a massive breakdown of capitalism globally and a crisis of the Australian political establishment, is to divert growing anti-capitalist sentiment into the safe channels of parliament. 

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

 

Bogdan Syrotiuk  

This is the four-point program advanced by the Socialist Equality Party to fight Trump:

1. The fight against Trump must be rooted in and led by the working class, centering on the call for a general strike to force out the Trump-Vance administration.
2. Mass opposition to Trump’s attacks must be connected to specific democratic demands: withdrawal of troops from American cities, dismantling of ICE; removal and prosecution of those involved in his attempted coup.
3. The fight against dictatorship must be waged on an international basis, linking workers in America with their class brothers and sisters in countries around the world.
4. The fight against dictatorship and war must be a fight against capitalism and for socialism. The defense of democratic rights requires putting an end to the profit system and vast social inequality on which it is based.

Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:

1. Poll shows DSA candidate Mamdani ahead of former governor in New York City Democratic mayoral primary

The surge in the Mamdani campaign over the past several months reflects broad hostility to the Trump administration and the enormous social anger that is building up in New York and throughout the country. Mamdani has proposed a series of social reforms, such as a freeze on rent raises for almost two million apartments, free bus service and universal daycare, which have won increasing support in a city that has become unaffordable for most of the population.

In the last week, Cuomo, who resigned from the governor’s office in 2021 over a sex scandal, has received support from the Democratic establishment, including former President Bill Clinton. Cuomo was housing secretary in Clinton’s second term, and Clinton alluded to the housing crisis in the city, but, in line with Cuomo’s law-and-order campaign, noted in his endorsement that “public safety must be restored.”

This is the real concern within the ruling class over the prospect of a Mamdani victory, not because of the candidate himself, but because of the popular expectations that might accompany his victory. Not only are economic conditions deteriorating for the working class, but for 20 months the city has been roiled by protests against the Gaza genocide, particularly on college campuses.

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On the other hand, relatively late in the election, Mamdani was endorsed by fellow DSA member and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, along with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Through the Mamdani campaign, this faction of the Democratic Party is seeking to channel mass social anger back behind the political establishment.

Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders, along with Brandon Johnson in Chicago—despite their rhetoric against the oligarchy—have served as critical instruments for the Democratic Party. Sanders and AOC were both among the chief promoters of “Genocide Joe” Biden, and both supported Biden’s partner in genocide, Kamala Harris.

Mamdani has also been endorsed by the United Auto Workers and its president, Shawn Fain. Fain, a prominent backer of Biden during the 2024 presidential elections, has turned to promoting Trump’s economic nationalism. The UAW apparatus is confronting growing anger from rank-and-file workers, after a series of sellout contracts and the revelations of corruption and thuggishness in the recent report from a court-appointed Monitor.

One of their major concerns is the discrediting of the Democratic Party among broad sections of workers and youth. In New York, this has been augmented by the role of current Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, which used the New York Police Department to beat and arrest students.

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Cuomo and Mamdani, in the end, belong to the same ruling class party. They both function to support the authority of the party and the capitalist system that it defends, but by a different emphasis and with different tactics: Cuomo is the unabashed candidate of war and repression, while the DSA seeks to channel social opposition with talk about moderate reforms and a kinder, gentler American imperialism. 

2. US Supreme Court order threatens “thousands” of immigrants with risk of torture and death

While the decision was technically a procedural one—allowing the government to continue carrying out no-notice third-country deportations while the issue is litigated in the federal courts—that process could take years. In the interim, this would mean “exposing thousands to the risk of torture or death,” as the three moderate-liberal justices warned in a 20-page dissent. 

3. Modi government accelerates violent expulsion of impoverished Muslim refugees

This mass deportation campaign is an integral part of the bellicose and communalist rampage that the BJP government has gone on in the aftermath of the April terrorist attack in Pahalgam, in Indian-held Kashmir. It includes India’s illegal “Operation Sindhoor” attack on Pakistan, which brought South Asia’s rival nuclear-armed states to the brink of war, and an ongoing barrage of provocative actions and threats, such as New Delhi’s vow—made by Home Minister Amit Shah in an interview last Saturday—that it will never return to the Indus Water Treaty.

Those targeted for expulsion include Rohingya refugees and recent impoverished migrants from Bangladesh, as well as many poverty-stricken Muslims who have been living in India for generations, but are classified as “foreigners” because they cannot produce the “birth” and “nationality” documents demanded by the authorities.

In its anti-Muslim, anti-refugee witch hunt, the BJP government, led by the would-be Hindu strongman Narendra Modi, is using gangster methods akin to those that the Trump administration is employing against immigrants to the US.

4. Israel continues to bombard Iran after Trump announces ceasefire

Even as Trump has announced a ceasefire, sections of the US political establishment have called for the US to take advantage of the limited response from Iran and expand the US war aims.

5. Alfred Brendel, world-famous classical pianist, is dead at 94

Brendel himself claimed he had no school. As one obituary quoted him, “I do not believe in schools of piano playing, and I have no technical regimen. Only the particular piece you happen to be playing can tell you about its technical problems.” He objected to a frequent description, including from some critics of his style, that he was too “cerebral.” He saw the intellectual and emotional interpretations as inseparable sides of his playing. “It bothers me when people call me an intellectual as a musician,” he said. “For me, music begins and ends with feeling, but the mind has an important function as a filter.”

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A late bloomer as a musician, Brendel was largely self-taught. He was not a child prodigy. “I had loving parents,” he once explained, “but I had to find things out for myself.” Some master classes he attended at the age of 16 were essentially his last lessons, but he studied continuously for his entire career, listening to his own recordings as well as the recordings of other pianists to deepen his understanding and find new meaning in the classics of the past.

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His early experiences are probably reflected in the broad and international outlook for which Brendel was known. In the words of Daniel Barenboim, he had a towering intellect and was a “wonderful humanist.” Brendel loved the rich musical life of London. While he was especially enthusiastic about the BBC Proms, the eight-week season of classical concerts held at the city’s Royal Albert Hall, he also remarked that he did not attend the “Last Night at the Proms,” pointing to what he called its chauvinistic tone.

6. Philadelphia educators vote overwhelmingly to authorize first strike in 25 years

The Philadelphia school district is underfunded by $1.25 billion and is in need of nearly $10 billion in repairs. The district was only able to avoid massive cutbacks because of $1.8 billion in federal COVID-19 relief school funding it received over the last few years. However, the Biden administration allowed the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds to expire before leaving office, pushing Philadelphia like so many other districts across the country over a “fiscal cliff.” 

7. Conditions for a financial crisis building up

All the conditions are present for the eruption of a new crisis in the US and global financial system. How rapidly it will emerge cannot be predicted. But the characteristic feature of the present period is the speed of events.

In just a matter of months, the post-war trading order has been upended, democratic rights in the US are being shattered, the most powerful bombs, short of nuclear weapons, have been used against Iran, the dollar has declined, and the price of gold has hit new record highs—a 30 percent increase so far this year. In this situation a financial crisis is likely to make its appearance very much sooner than later.

8. US protests erupt against imperialist war on Iran: “I’m 100 percent for a general strike”

While smaller than the massive “No Kings” demonstrations held the previous week against the Trump regime’s assault on democratic rights and looting of society’s resources for the oligarchy, thousands still protested in cities across the United States, including New York City; Dearborn, Michigan; Los Angeles, California; and Seattle, Washington.

9.  Oppose the proscription of Palestine Action under UK counter-terror laws! Defend the right to protest imperialist genocide and war!

The Socialist Equality Party denounces the Starmer Labour government’s announced proscription of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act (2000). Labour’s preparations to ban PA as a “terrorist organization” are a frame-up and a fundamental attack on the democratic rights of the entire working class.

The government is moving with extraordinary speed. Speaking in parliament Monday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper declared: “A draft proscription order will be laid in Parliament on Monday 30 June. If passed, it will make it illegal to be a member of, or invite support for, Palestine Action.” 

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The proscription of Palestine Action is a Trojan Horse for a frontal assault on the right to protest and free speech. It transforms the duty to oppose genocide and other crimes under international law—including the launch of an unprovoked war of aggression against Iran—into an act of terrorism.

And if non-violent sabotage by individual protesters is designated terrorist, then what of strikes by seafarers and waterside workers, or factory and logistics workers who boycott the supply of weapons and other equipment to the Israeli war machine, as has been done by French, Greek and Italian dockers?

Britain has a long history of civil disobedience campaigns, where the right to protest, including at military installations, has been upheld by the courts. In 1996 four British women, the Ploughshare Four, vandalized a BAE Hawk plane to stop it being sent to Indonesia for use against the East Timorese people. Facing a possible ten-year sentence for criminal damage, they were exonerated by a jury who deemed their action reasonable to prevent a genocide. 

10. Protest in London against Palestine Action ban amid police provocation

London’s Metropolitan Police moved quickly against protesters in the wake of Labour’s plans to declare Palestine Action a terrorist organization.

11. Australian Labor government explicitly backs US assault on Iran

Yesterday, after a 24-hour delay, the Albanese government publicly  endorsed the Trump administration’s criminal attack on Iran,  underscoring Labor’s commitment to the US military alliance.

12. New Zealand withdraws millions in aid from Cook Islands

New Zealand has abruptly halted nearly $NZ 20 million ($US 11 million) in funding to the Cook Islands in retaliation for a partnership agreement the tiny Pacific Island nation concluded with China in February without consulting Wellington.

NZ Foreign Minister Winston Peters informed the Cook Islands government of the decision early this month, but it only became public on June 19 after a Cook Islands news outlet saw its brief mention in a government budget document.

13. Washington pressures Peru to line up with US war policy against China

At a meeting held at the Pentagon at the beginning of last month between US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Peruvian Minister of Defense Walter Astudillo and Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmer Schialer, Hegseth warned Peru that China poses a “significant threat to peace and security in Latin America.'

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As for the obsequious tributes by the visiting Peruvian ministers to a supposed “historic” partnership and shared “values”, they failed to elaborate on that record for good reason. Washington’s ties to Peru, along with the rest of the region, are based upon ruthless exploitation of labor and natural resources, along with the fomenting of coups and support for regimes based on mass murder, “disappearances” and torture.

14. ICE detains immigrant in operation inside Riverside Community Hospital in Southern California

Social media reports suggest that the nurse who attended to the detainee has also been taken by ICE, placed on administrative leave without pay and now faces possible termination. Hospital management is reportedly disciplining staff members who refuse to cooperate with ICE.

15. European powers serve as accomplices to US-Israeli war against Iran

While the US and Israel have bombed Iran and set the entire Middle East ablaze, the European powers have served as accomplices. Under the guise of calling for “de-escalation” and a “diplomatic solution,” they demand that Tehran capitulate unconditionally to imperialist aggression.

The events are reminiscent of a mafia movie. Israel launched an unprovoked attack against Iran, bombing industrial facilities and cities and deliberately assassinating high-ranking politicians, scientists and officials. The US sent a fleet of strategic bombers across the Atlantic and has destroyed Iranian nuclear facilities. President Donald Trump and his Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have threatened the country with total annihilation in gangster language if it does not surrender voluntarily. And the Europeans are playing the lawyer and calling on the regime in Tehran to commit suicide voluntarily in order not to be murdered. 

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The primary goals of the Europeans are to continue to commit the US to supporting the war in Ukraine and to prevent Trump from concluding an agreement with Russia over their heads. In return, they are expected to provide even stronger support for the US offensive in the Middle East and the encirclement of China.

As was the case before the First and Second World Wars, when one fateful decision followed another and all the imperialist powers were drawn deeper and deeper into the maelstrom of war, they are once again racing toward a catastrophe that threatens the survival of humanity.

What drives them is the insoluble crisis of the outdated capitalist system—the incompatibility of global production, which unites billions of workers in a single international production process, with the nation-state system and private property on which capitalism is based. As in 1914 and 1939, the capitalists are trying to resolve this crisis through the violent redivision of the world. 

16. Workers Struggles: The Americas

Canada:

DHL Express delivery workers in third week of lockout

Panama:

Worker is killed during protests against government moves for the privatization of social security 

Peru:

Truck drivers strike nationwide 

United States: 

Workers in three states in contract struggle with French-owned company Airgas

Healthcare workers at Stillwater, Minnesota clinic vote 99 percent to strike

Essentia Health workers in northern Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin to hold strike vote

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

Bogdan Syrotiuk

Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:

1. A Statement of the World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board:  American imperialism’s bombardment of Iran: A day that will live in infamy 

Codenamed “Operation Midnight Hammer,” the assault involved more than 125 aircraft, including at least eight B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, backed by fighter jets, refueling tankers and surveillance aircraft, in what was the largest B-2 strike operation in US history. 

The centerpiece of the attack was the deployment of the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), a 13.6-ton bunker-busting bomb—the most powerful non-nuclear weapon of its kind ever used. Twelve MOPs were dropped on the heavily fortified Fordow uranium enrichment site, and two more on Natanz. These were accompanied by numerous 2,900-pound Tomahawk missiles, which rained down on both facilities as well as the Isfahan research complex.

US President Donald Trump justified his attack in a four-minute homicidal, lying rant, delivered Saturday night. Announcing that US forces had struck three nuclear facilities, he claimed they were part of a “horribly destructive enterprise” which was supposedly necessary to “stop the nuclear threat” posed by Iran.

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Trump boasted of the “spectacular military success” of the attack, which he intended to serve as a message to the entire region, declaring that “Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace.” 

The reference to Iran as the “bully of the Middle East” turns reality on its head. For over a third of a century, US imperialism has been at war and carried out regime change operations throughout the region, including in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Yemen. Over the past two years, the Israeli government has waged a genocidal war in Gaza with continuous US support, slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent civilians. This has been merely a dress rehearsal for a broader campaign of mass murder.  

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The strikes were directly coordinated with the fascist Israeli government, which is continuing to launch missile attacks on Iran. As Trump stated, “We worked as a team as perhaps no team has worked before.” Just prior to Trump’s remarks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement hailing the US airstrikes and thanking Trump, declaring that the two were pursuing a policy of “Peace through strength: First comes strength, then comes peace.” In other words, slaughter and terror must precede submission.

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Saturday’s attack makes clear that there are no red lines for American imperialism, which will stop at nothing. Its criminality knows no limits. No government has so openly and flagrantly violated international law since the Nazi regime.

The bombing of Iran is a central component of an escalating global war. It is not a question of warning of the danger of a new world war—it has already begun. American imperialism is seeking to resolve its deepening internal social and political crisis through military aggression. Having targeted Iran, the logic of imperialist war is leading inevitably to confrontation with China. Regime change in Iran is aimed at securing unchallenged control over the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea and the broader Eurasian landmass—regions rich in oil, gas and critical trade routes.

Trump hailed the strikes as a “spectacular military success,” but in reality, he has embarked on a catastrophic and utterly reckless course of action. Whatever short-term calculations were made by the White House and Pentagon, they have now launched a war whose consequences they cannot control. They have sown the wind and will reap the whirlwind. As with the war against Iraq launched in 2003, American imperialism has a rendezvous with disaster, but on a far larger scale. 

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The war will pour gasoline on the already raging social and political crises in the United States, across Europe and around the world. It is the action of a regime ruled by and for the financial oligarchy. As it bombs and murders abroad, the Trump administration is dismantling democratic rights at home and erecting a political dictatorship. The Democratic Party, the so-called opposition, is paralyzed and complicit—paralyzed by its fear of the working class and complicit in the aims of imperialism. 

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The working class is the social force that must be mobilized to stop imperialist barbarism. The criminal war being waged against Iran is not an aberration, but the product of the entire capitalist system. It must be halted through the unified global struggle of the working class, organized across all national boundaries. 

The International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties call for an immediate end to the US-Israeli war against Iran and the dismantling of the entire imperialist war machine. We urge workers and youth to organize protests, walkouts and strikes in every country. 

2. A Different Kind of Power whitewashes Jacinda Ardern’s right-wing, pro-imperialist government

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Photo source: Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

The much-publicized memoir by New Zealand’s former prime minister uses empty platitudes about the importance of “kindness” and “empathy” to cover up the right-wing record of her Labour Party government from  2017 to 2023. 

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What is behind this phenomenon? Ardern is being elevated amid an historic crisis of the capitalist system, centered in the United States. The ruling class has brought the fascist Donald Trump back into power in order to escalate imperialist wars throughout the world while shredding democratic rights and eviscerating workers’ living standards at home.

The Democrats, and similar bourgeois parties internationally, are terrified that these developments are fueling the leftward movement of workers and layers of the middle class, especially young people, who are increasingly opposed to capitalism and all of its political representatives.

In this context, the embrace of Ardern is part of increasingly desperate efforts to reassure people that all is not lost, that the capitalist system can be saved if only it is given a kinder, more sympathetic face. As one of Ardern’s interviewers, Katie Couric, said, “In a time of extreme disillusionment, she reminds us that optimism isn’t naïve, in fact it’s necessary.”

3. Israeli troops engage in continuous indiscriminate killing of Palestinian aid seekers in Gaza

Over the weekend, Israeli troops once again unleashed a wave of military violence upon Palestinian civilians in Gaza, killing at least 44 people in a series of attacks. According to local officials, many of those killed were simply trying to obtain desperately needed food for their families.

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One of the most barbaric developments in the ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza has been the establishment of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a privately-owned US-Israeli program that is taking over aid delivery in the territory.

The GHF is run by military contractors and not humanitarian professionals. It operates under strict Israeli government oversight, lacking any transparency, independence or accountability. This arrangement has effectively militarized aid distribution, turning it into a tool of the war of extermination.

Since the GHF began operating, Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on Palestinians gathered at its aid distribution points. Witnesses have described scenes of horror, with Israeli troops, tanks and drones targeting crowds of desperate people seeking food. 

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The Israeli military has offered a litany of justifications for its repeated shootings of civilians at aid distribution points. In almost every case, the IDF claims that “suspects” or “militants” were approaching their forces, necessitating warning shots and, ultimately, lethal force.

The military insists that its actions are intended to control crowds and prevent security threats, but eyewitnesses and humanitarian organizations have consistently reported that the shootings are unprovoked and indiscriminate. 

4. Dundee Engine worker describes deadly conditions at Stellantis plant, where Ronald Adams Sr. lost his life

“For the company it’s just, ‘Make the numbers, get it done.’ That’s all they care about. ‘Don’t cause any problems. Just put your head down and do what I said,’ that’s their motto. The ones who say something about safety get blacklisted. They’ll keep you from becoming a team leader, getting overtime or transferring from night shift, even though you have seniority,” the worker said. 

5. US Supreme Court upholds state bans on gender-affirming care for adolescents

Last Wednesday, the US Supreme Court upheld a reactionary Tennessee law banning medically based hormonal therapies to treat transgender adolescents. The 6-3 ruling, along familiar ideological lines, further dismantles judicial recognition of equal protection under the law and opens the door to continuing attacks on groups disfavored by the fascists in control of the Republican Party.

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Challenges faced by transgender youth, their families and doctors have been seized upon by the fascists demagogically to mobilize zealots and others in the purported defense of traditional gender distinctions, while undercutting support for the Democratic Party. In his second week after becoming president, Donald Trump signed an executive order to restrict medical treatment for transgender youth under 19. Such treatment for adults is no doubt next up on the chopping block.

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Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of Berkeley Law School, called the ruling “a tragic abdication of the judiciary’s responsibility to protect minorities,” citing Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1937 that protect “discrete and insular minorities” from discrimination. 

6. Notes on the socioeconomic crisis in Russia

Recent events around the world confirm the general trend of capitalism toward dictatorship and war. Unable to cope with the crisis in any other way, imperialist and bourgeois-nationalist regimes are betting on weapons as the only “almighty” means of resolving their contradictions, threatening the world with nuclear war.

The Putin regime is no exception and has long been trying to resolve its own crisis through dictatorship, weapons and diplomatic maneuvers with imperialism, attempting to strike a deal that would save the Russian oligarchy from the blows of imperialism while at the same time preventing the development of a working class revolution in its own country. 

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The Putin regime has no progressive strategy or rational response to the general escalation of war worldwide and the imperialist war strategy against Russia in particular. Relying on the legacy of Stalinism and capitalist restoration, it is desperately seeking to defend the interests of a narrow oligarchy which has no independence from imperialism and is itself deeply divided. As a result, Putin’s regime is inevitably drawn into open conflict with its own working class, which is increasingly bearing the brunt of the Russian economic crisis.

The Russian working class is again confronted with the fundamental historical and social problems that gave rise to the 1917 October Revolution: Imperialist war and immense social inequality. In order to resolve these problems, it must again take up the perspective of world socialist revolution, which informed the Bolsheviks under Lenin and Trotsky when they led the working class in the seizure of power in 1917. 

7. 45,000 Southern California grocery workers vote to strike, as UFCW bureaucracy moves to block it 

Tens of thousands of Southern California grocery workers employed by Kroger-owned Ralphs and Albertsons and Albertsons-owned chains Vons and Pavilions voted by 90 percent to authorize a strike, in a massive show of militancy between June 8 and June 11. These 45,000 workers, organized under the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, have been laboring without a contract since March 2, 2025.

Yet despite this powerful show of strength, the UFCW bureaucracy is doing everything in its power to smother and derail this movement, reduce it to toothless theatrics, and ultimately betray it in the service of the grocery conglomerates and the capitalist system they defend. This underscores the need for a fight by workers to assert control over their struggle, countermanding any violation of the democratic will of the workers themselves through rank-and-file committees

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There is enormous potential for a united movement of Kroger and Albertsons workers across the country. But activating this potential requires workers take the initiative into their own hands. They must connect their struggles with the broader mass movement against dictatorship, war and oligarchy shown by last week’s mass protests against the Trump administration, which has now launched a catastrophic new war with Iran which will be paid for by working people.

Trump is escalating his fascistic attacks on immigrant workers—many of whom stock the shelves, bag groceries, and clean the floors in these stores. While grocery locations have not yet been targeted, raids have already struck Home Depot and Lowe’s. 

8. Australia: Queensland teachers to protest against derisory government pay offer

Public school teachers in Queensland will join a rally outside state parliament in Brisbane on Tuesday against the Liberal National Party state government’s “offer” of a three-year agreement that will continue years of real pay-cutting, under-funding, severe staff shortages and heavy workloads. 

9. Workers in Germany express solidarity with the fight against the Trump dictatorship

The World Socialist Web Site has received statements and a video from workers in Germany who stand in solidarity with the resistance to Donald Trump’s attempts to erect a military dictatorship in the US.

10. High Court of Australia rejects challenge to Labor’s attack on the CFMEU 

As the World Socialist Web Site explained in September, the case was “a political diversion, designed to demobilise workers by placing their struggle in the hands of the courts.” It was never likely to succeed. In any case, the Albanese government had made clear that, in the improbable event of a High Court loss, it would simply amend the legislation.

The case was never about defending the interests of construction workers. The sole preoccupation of the ousted officials was, and remains, the restoration of their privileged positions within the union apparatus.

11. As Democrats back war drive against Iran, Bernie Sanders seeks to contain mass anti-war sentiment on “Fighting Oligarchy” tour

Now that the United States has bombed Iran using B-2 stealth bombers and Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-busting bombs—among the most aggressive escalations imaginable—the toothless character of the Kaine, Sanders and Massie resolutions stands fully exposed. Far from restraining US militarism, these measures serve as post-hoc political cover for war. Their built-in “self-defense” loophole provides a pretext for strikes that are in violation of international law and thoroughly criminal.  

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Sanders’ empty calls to oppose the war are an effort to stay ahead of public opinion and channel mass anti-war sentiment back into the Democratic Party. Like the Republicans, the Democrats have long used Israel as a beachhead for launching US military campaigns across the Middle East.

By framing the war as solely the product of Trump and Netanyahu, Sanders is attempting to whitewash the fact that this war enjoys bipartisan support and has been planned in advance by US imperialism for decades.

Sanders seeks to shield the capitalist system and the US government as a whole, all while burnishing his “anti-war credentials”—badly tarnished after 20 months of unwavering support for “Genocide Joe” Biden and Kamala “Holocaust” Harris, and his refusal to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza as such. 

12. Brian Wilson (1942-2025) expressed both joy and tragedy through his harmonies

The subjects of the Beach Boys tunes did not include the explosive developments of the 1960s, assassinations, civil rights and antiwar protests and ghetto rebellions, but as Wilson’s internal suffering melded with those social convulsions, he became more removed from life around him and more concentrated on the harmonies he heard in his head.

13. Canada Post worker speaks out following government order imposing vote on rotten company offer 

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers surrendered our right to strike last year, then proceeded to fully participate in the Liberal government’s rigged Industrial Inquiry Commission. Now, we’re on a totally useless “work to rule” strike, while other courier companies, including Canada Post-owned Purolator, soak up all our parcel volume.

The union has dug our grave, and now they’re trying to throw us in the hole!

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Every worker has a stake in our struggle! The issues we are fighting over—defense of public services and the right to strike; against Amazon-style low-paid, precarious employment; and for workers’ control over the use of AI and other labor-saving technologies—are of vital importance to all workers.

14. Mass protest in London against genocide in Gaza, war on Iran offered nothing but pressuring Starmer

Hundreds of thousands protested in London on Saturday to oppose the genocide in Gaza and the war on Iran. Organisers put the attendance at over 350,000 people, despite stifling hot weather.

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The Socialist Equality Party attended the London demonstration to distribute and discuss its June 17 statement, “Oppose Starmer’s plans for war against Iran!”, which calls for the “broadest industrial and political mobilisation of the working class to stop Keir Starmer’s Labour government dragging Britain into war”.

It warns that “For almost two years, mass demonstrations have been told that the Gaza genocide can be ended by placing pressure on Labour and other imperialist governments to end support for Israel.”

Now, “Starmer and Trump are dragging humanity towards a potentially catastrophic war, yet Corbyn still offers nothing but moral appeals to war criminals…

“Genocide and war can only be defeated through the independent political mobilisation of the working class in a global anti-war movement on socialist foundations. It is the international working class, the most powerful social force on earth, and not Tehran, Moscow or Beijing, that must defeat the drive of the imperialist powers to redivide the world between them.” 

15. International Labor Organization reports declining share of global income for workers and slowing job creation

All the ILO report could offer as an answer was to encourage governments to ensure that “the gains of economic progress are fairly shared” by working to strengthen “labor market institutions that uphold fundamental principles and rights at work, promote social dialogue, and reinforce collective bargaining.” The latter refers to the trade union bureaucracy, whose real role is to police the class struggle on the corporations’ behalf.

Nevertheless, the ILO’s findings illustrate why, when the world’s handful of multibillionaires deprive billions of people of their rights, including the right to a decent standard of living, they must turn ever more forcefully to repression and dictatorship. 

16. This week in history:

• 25 years ago:

  US Supreme Court upholds Miranda rights in Dickerson v. United States 

• 50 years ago:

Indira Gandhi imposes state of emergency

• 75 years ago:

Korean War commences with Operation Pokpung  

• 100 years ago:

French and British troops massacre protesters in Guangzhou

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

 

Bogdan Syrotiuk  

Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:

1. A World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board Perspective:  Stop the war against Iran! 

Through war, the would-be dictator Donald Trump and the financial oligarchy that rules via the Republican and Democratic parties hope to:

• Reimpose the shackles of neo-colonial subjugation on Iran, 45 years after the Iranian people toppled the monarchical dictatorship of the US-installed Shah.
• Secure unbridled US imperialist control over the world’s principal oil-exporting region and key global ocean trade routes, so as to prepare for war with Washington’s principal strategic adversaries, China and Russia.
• Stave off economic crisis and financial collapse through plunder.
• Divert attention from a massive domestic crisis and mounting social opposition.

The consequences of this reckless gamble will be catastrophic for the Iranian people, the Middle East and the entire world.

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In the US, all factions of the Democratic Party and its chief media voice, the New York Times, are supporting a war that has been organized by a president they themselves admit is systematically violating the Constitution and seeking to establish a presidential dictatorship.

Trump is waging war on two fronts: abroad against Iran, and at home against democratic rights and the working class. These are two sides of the same process. A war with Iran will inevitably be accompanied by an escalation of political repression and social austerity. With the war budget already over $1 trillion, the working class will be forced to foot the bill.

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This war, like World War I and World War II, arises out of the fundamental contradictions of capitalism: between a globally integrated economy and the outmoded nation-state system, and between private ownership of the means of production and the social character of modern economic life.

The International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties call for mass opposition to the Trump administration’s plans to launch a direct war against Iran. We call for protests, demonstrations and walkouts to oppose this act of imperialist aggression.

Only the international working class, armed with a revolutionary socialist program, can put an end to imperialist war and the capitalist system that breeds it. The ICFI insists that the fight against war must be fused with the fight for workers’ power and the socialist reorganization of global economic life.

2. As 1,300 University of California Children’s Hospital workers begin strike: NUHW bureaucracy calls hospital security on WSWS reporter 

The immediate impetus for the strike, supported by a 70 percent strike vote within the National Union of Healthcare Workers membership, is the university’s so-called “Integration Plan,” which would unilaterally fire all unionized workers and rehire them as University of California employees.

Although University of California claims workers would retain current pay levels, substantial increases in healthcare costs and other benefit cuts would cut take-home pay for workers by as much as $10,000. In addition, dozens of unionized workers would be converted to non-union “at will” employees.  

3. Ninth Circuit grants Trump control over California National Guard in Los Angeles

On June 12, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer—a Clinton appointee—issued a temporary restraining order in response to Newsom’s lawsuit, directing that control of the Guard be returned to the governor. The Trump administration immediately appealed the decision, and the Ninth Circuit issued an administrative stay on Breyer’s order, blocking it from taking effect.

Thursday’s 3–0 ruling—issued by Judges Mark J. Bennett and Eric D. Miller, both Trump appointees, and Jennifer Sung, a Biden appointee—extends the stay and marks a clear victory for the Trump administration and its ongoing drive to establish a presidential dictatorship. The ruling underscores the reality that the working class cannot rely on any bourgeois institution, including the courts, to defend democratic rights.

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The decision paves the way for Trump to similarly deploy soldiers around the country in response to any protests against the immigration Gestapo that impede disappearing and deportation operations. 

4. Philadelphia transit system facing “death spiral” in coming fiscal year

The failure of the state’s political leaders to resolve the SEPTA funding crisis reflects a deeper realignment of the political superstructure. This restructuring, tailored to today’s oligarchic rule, has overseen an assault on workers, manifesting in attacks on democratic rights, public resources and scientific institutions. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has led this assault on behalf of the ruling class at the federal level. Now, with COVID-19 relief funds expiring, there is no political will to replace them in the interests of the greater public good. Instead, public resources are diverted to subsidies for the wealthy and war funding.

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 While mass transportation is a necessity in a modern society, it also entails large maintenance and operating costs, which must be born as a public expense if private capital cannot turn a profit. This is not stopping the ruling class from cutting public funding for mass transit at the expense of the functioning of society.

5. SpaceX Starship explodes during test amid string of other failures and explosions

While the Apollo program represented American capitalism at its height, the string of disasters of the Starship program represents American capitalism in its death spiral.

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There is a certain money-mad aspect to the whole endeavor, as if throwing cash at the problem can overcome the fundamental difficulties inherent in space travel. But such an approach flows logically from a member of an oligarchy increasingly detached from reality.

While it would be a mistake to remember fondly such ruthless and unprincipled representatives of American capitalism as Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, the emergence of figures such as Musk and Trump also testify to the deep cultural and intellectual decline of the American bourgeoisie.

Faced with this historic decline, American capitalist politics consists more and more of desperate, increasingly reckless improvisations, from attempts to impose dictatorship at home to ever more dangerous new wars.

But just as the launch attempts of the Starship have run up against the laws of physics, so too have the efforts to set up a dictatorship run up against the development of the class struggle. As the ruling elites the world over have moved sharply to the right, the international working class has moved to the left, opposing the attacks on immigrants and democratic rights and marching in their millions against genocide and war.

6. A critical assessment of United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain’s appointment of Laura Dickerson to head union’s Ford department

For rank-and-file Ford workers Dickerson’s rise signals not progress, but a continuation of the UAW’s decades-long record of betrayals. Her career, based at UAW Local 600 and Ford’s global flagship Rouge complex, spans a period during which the destruction of jobs, safety, and living standards have defined the union’s partnership with corporate management. 

7. Two central bankers foreshadow challenges to US dollar

The multi-polar economic, trading and financial world of the 1920s and 1930s was the breeding ground for conflicts which led to World War II.

Today the palpable economic decline of the US—its transformation from the industrial powerhouse of the world at the end of the war to the center of debt and financial parasitism today—has led to ever intensifying military and economic conflict as it seeks to retain its dominant position. 

8. As Trump weighs open war with Iran, Bernie Sanders announces toothless war powers bill

In his press release announcing the legislation, Sanders portrayed the US-backed Israeli airstrikes on Iran as solely the responsibility of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He wrote: “Netanyahu’s reckless and illegal attacks violate international law and risk igniting a regional war. Congress must make it clear that the United States will not be dragged into Netanyahu’s war of choice.” 

9. In court testimony, Bolsonaro and military chiefs acknowledge conspiracy to overthrow democracy in Brazil 

The testimony, broadcast live nationwide, represents a landmark political event in Brazilian history. In a country that lived under a brutal military dictatorship for two decades, from 1964 to 1985, for the first time, generals appeared in the dock being questioned about their crimes against democracy.

The most significant fact that emerged from the testimony was the acknowledgment by Bolsonaro and the other defendants that the former president conspired with the armed forces command to prevent the inauguration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers Party, who was democratically elected in 2022.

9. Jacobin downplays “No Kings” mass protests and shields Democratic Party

The article is significant for what it leaves out. It gives no expression to the revolutionary crisis revealed by the protests. 

10. French imperialism in New Caledonia and Pacific targets China

Amid stalled talks over New Caledonia, Macron’s summit with Pacific leaders centered on its escalating anti-China agenda. 

11. John Singer Sargent at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art: Sargent and Paris

“Sargent and Paris” provides ample evidence of Sargent’s brilliance, as well as his willingness to use modern compositional or brushwork techniques. It also demonstrates that Sargent embodied the restoration of capitalist order after 1871 and the bourgeois ideals of refinement and cosmopolitanism. He hobnobbed with diplomats, aristocrats and industrialists, and his paintings idealized the dazzling surface of bourgeois life. He did not examine the origins of his subjects’ wealth, not least because it could have jeopardized his own material interests. 

12. Mahmoud Khalil is released from ICE detention but faces new charges in immigration court

Khalil’s wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, who gave birth to their son while Khalil was in detention, expressed her relief over the ordeal her family endured:

After more than three months we can finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Mahmoud is on his way home to me and Deen, who never should have been separated from his father. … We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family, and so many others the government is trying to silence for speaking out against Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians. But today we are celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family, and the community that has supported us since the day he was unjustly taken for speaking out for Palestinian freedom. 

13. New Zealand government feigns neutrality in US-Israeli war against Iran 

The reality, however, is that New Zealand is actively supporting Israeli and US military operations in the Middle East. In January 2024, a group of New Zealand Defense Force personnel were sent to Saudi Arabia to assist in the US bombing of targets in Yemen, in response to the Houthi forces’ efforts to stop ships from supplying the Israeli war machine.

New Zealand is a minor imperialist power allied with the US and a member of the US-led Five Eyes intelligence sharing network, raising further questions about its involvement. Asked during a press conference on June 16 whether New Zealand had received advance notice from the US about the attack on Iran, Peters replied, “Well, we don’t make those discussions public.”

14. Michigan’s 2025 on-the-job death toll climbs to 13 following two recent school-related tragedies 

Thirteen workers have lost their lives this year in on-the-job accidents in Michigan, most of which were preventable. The most recent tragedies include two school-related deaths, both likely connected to budget cuts.

This ongoing industrial slaughter underscores the importance for all workers of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees investigation into the April 7 death of Stellantis skilled tradesman Ronald Adams, Sr. The 63-year-old machine repairman was crushed at Stellantis’ Dundee Engine Complex in southeast Michigan. To this day, his family and coworkers have received no detailed account of the causes and circumstances that led to this death from the company, the United Auto Workers or state authorities.

15. Contracts expiring for GE Aerospace and GE Vernova workers in the US 

Tens of thousands of workers at GE successor companies remain in non-union shops. The WSWS has learned that at the plant at Pensacola, Florida, half the roughly 500 workers are temps, earning about $20 an hour. Regular workers are divided into tiers, with the lower tier—mostly hired after the 2008 financial crash—earning around 30 percent less than senior workers. “GE is making big money. Their stock is high. No one is speaking for us,” one worker said.

Workers must make an appeal to workers at all plants regardless of union status, as well as to GE workers in dozens of plants in Europe, Latin America and other parts of the globe.

A genuine fight for workers’ interests requires that the initiative be transferred from the hands of the union apparatus to the rank and file. New organizations of struggle, independent of the IUE-CWA and the entire pro-corporate trade union structure, must be built.

The conditions exist for the development of such a movement, but it must be consciously organized on the basis of internationalism, not American chauvinism, and class struggle, not appeals to the Pentagon and corporate shareholders.

16. Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific

Bangladesh: 

Healthcare workers demand outstanding salaries and job security

Government sector workers oppose “black law”

Protesting garment workers in Gazipur arrested 

India:

Telangana domestic workers demand rights and welfare benefits

Tamil Nadu gas bottling workers in Salem strike against victimisation 

West Bengal teachers protest over job losses

Kerala: Sabarimala Forest region plantation workers strike

Sri Lanka: 

Government sector educators begin work-to-rule campaign 

State sector agricultural casual employees rally for permanency 

Australia:

Victorian firefighters’ dispute enters ninth month

Bluescope Steel electricians in New South Wales impose bans

Striking Qube crane operators in Queensland reject pay offer

Snowy Mountains hydro-power construction workers strike again

Glencore coal miners in New South Wales strike for pay rise 

New Zealand: 

Doctors and dentists strike over pay

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

Bogdan Syrotiuk