Pitchfork shocks many fans by announcing the end of its Chicago music festival: “Corporations ruin everything”
The demise of the Pitchfork Music Festival has provoked outrage, as attacks on art, culture and education escalate.
•James Martin
Latest articles
Israel bombs Beirut and Lebanon-Syria border, as UN declares basic foodstuffs “barely exist” in Gaza
Coming as the Zionist regime continues to starve Gaza and the US military once again struck targets in Yemen, the attacks show that there is no let-up in the drive by Washington’s attack dog to redraw the map of the Middle East.
•Jordan shilton
Sounding the Alarm: Socialism Against War: Foreword to the German edition
We are publishing here the foreword to the German translation of David North’s new publication Sounding the Alarm: Socialism Against War If you want to stop the return of world war and fascism after the catastrophes of the 20th century, you must read this book.
•Johannes Stern
Germany’s early elections: A conspiracy of all parties in favour of war and cuts
While there are differences over the means, the establishment parties largely agree on the goals of their policies: increasing defence spending, deporting migrants, mass layoffs, reducing real wages and cutting social services.
•Peter Schwarz
Zionist lawsuit initiated against two anti-genocide Australian academics
This case is a major attack on basic democratic and legal rights, seeking to set a wider precedent to suppress any dissent against the escalating Israeli mass killings in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.
•Jack Turner
Lee: New film examines the life of courageous World War II photographer Lee Miller
A complex and fiercely independent figure, Lee Miller reached her creative peak as a combat photographer and reporter during World War II.
•Richard Phillips
Public housing residents speak out against planned tower demolitions in Melbourne
“In general, I think the government wants to get rid of the housing commission establishments forever—this is capitalism at work.”
•Our reporters
Enforcing employers’ demands, Canada’s Liberal government decrees end to port disputes
The Labour Minister’s order is part of an escalating assault on workers’ rights, in which worker job action is being systematically criminalized so as to enable the ruling elite to intensify its class war agenda of increased worker exploitation at home and imperialist war abroad.
•Carl Bronski
Scottish local authority workers should reject COSLA's agreement
Scottish local authorities are offering a supposedly “enhanced” agreement which includes no extra money and no reduction in hours as a conclusion to this year's pay round. It follows a two-week strike by workers at schools in Perth and Kinross.
•Steve James
Starmer agrees deal to deport migrants to South Atlantic like UK Conservatives’ Rwanda plan
Any future arrivals to the Chagos Islands, of which Diego Garcia is the largest and most well-known as it houses a crucial UK-US military base, before the islands’ transfer of sovereignty to Mauritius next year, would not be admitted to the UK.
•Jean Shaoul
White House endorses Israel’s deliberate starvation policy in Gaza
The US State Department declared Tuesday that Israel is not committing “gross violations of human rights” by withholding food to Gaza, effectively endorsing Israel’s policy of deliberately seeking to exterminate the population of Gaza through starvation.
•Andre Damon
“We’re treated like numbers”: Boeing, Stellantis lay off thousands as US job cuts mount
Social anger is growing among workers as mass job cuts and factory closures mount across the US and the world.
•Jerry White
Management and Verdi union conceal cuts programme at Berlin transit operator BVG
For the first time at BVG, the rank-and-file “Action Committee” is running a slate of candidates and calling for workers to break the dictatorial control exercised by the Verdi trade union and for independent rank-and-file committees to be set up in all depots and departments.
•Ulrich Rippert
Trump assembles cabinet of fascist repression and imperialist war
The two priorities of the incoming administration are preparing for war with China and arresting and deporting millions of migrants.
•Patrick Martin
Australia: More than 2,000 Sydney workers protest Labor government takeover of CFMEU
While the two previous strikes were national events, this time, workers in Sydney marched alone, cut off from the majority of building workers.
•Martin Scott
Strike looms for 1,700 University of Illinois nurses, as Trump plans sweeping assaults on healthcare system
More than 1,700 nurses set to strike indefinitely at University of Illinois Health in Chicago demanding better pay and safer working conditions for themselves and their patients.
•Benjamin Mateus
Poll shows majority of Australians oppose participating in US-China conflict
The results gave a glimpse of the massive gulf between the militarism of the ruling class, and the growing anti-war sentiment of working people.
•Oscar Grenfell
Michigan Medicine strike called off with “memorandum of understanding”
The leaders of United Michigan Medicine Allied Professionals (UMMAP) called of the one-day strike less than 24 hours before it was scheduled to begin in exchange for a meaningless “memorandum of understanding” from the University of Michigan hospital administration regarding contract negotiations.
•Kevin Reed
Australian Labor government faces widespread opposition to its “misinformation” laws
The public response reflects intense concern over the Albanese government’s bid to suppress online material that is deemed to be politically or economically harmful.
•Mike Head
Trump tariff threats sending shock waves around the world
There have been warnings that the US tariff hikes could rival those of the infamous Smoot-Hawley measures of the 1930s, which led to a global trade war and played a significant role in creating the conditions for the eruption of World War II.
•Nick Beams
From the Stalinist SED to the xenophobic BSW: The political evolution of Sahra Wagenknecht
The Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) is not an alternative to the established parties, but rather an attempt to erect new props for capitalist rule in the midst of the deepest global crisis of capitalism.
•Peter Schwarz
Valencia floods expose inaction of Spanish trade unions
The official inaction at the floods that cost at least 223 lives also exposes the political complicity of the CCOO and UGT union bureaucracies, who are tied to the ruling PSOE and Sumar parties.
•Alejandro López
Morenoite CRT tries to tie anti-genocide protests to Spain’s pro-government union bureaucracies
The CRT proposes that protests impotently appeal to Spain’s PSOE-Sumar government to compel Israel to stop the genocide, whereas that government is deliberately and consciously sending arms to Israel to carry out the genocide.
•Santiago Guillen
German auto and supplier industries announce job cuts on a daily basis
Hardly a day goes by without a German company announcing massive job cuts at an international or national level.
•K. Nesan
Meeting of postal workers demands rank-and-file control over contract struggle at Canada Post
A resolution adopted by a large majority called for the building of the Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee at every Canada Post location in opposition to the CUPW bureaucracy, and the launching of a political struggle against the Trudeau government, which backs Canada Post’s concessions demands to the hilt.
•our reporters
Message of support from David O’Sullivan to Berlin Transport Workers Action Committee: “The fight against war and the fight against austerity are one and the same”
The Berlin Transport Workers Action Committee is contesting staff council elections being held this week for the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG).
•Our reporter
Nigerian government forced to drop treason charges carrying death penalty against 119 cost-of-living protesters
Despite the release of the protesters, the Nigerian government has made clear there will be no retreat from its relentless offensive against workers being plunged into extreme poverty by soaring inflation, food insecurity and high unemployment.
•Alice Summers
More than 100 staff accuse BBC of pro-Israel bias over Gaza genocide
An open letter, signed by more than 230 figures in the UK’s media industry, writers and academia, said the public broadcaster had failed to provide “fair and accurate” coverage of the conflict.
•Jean Shaoul
Global temperatures set new record as capitalist governments abandon climate change pledges
The latest United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP29, opened Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan. It is the third year in a row that the ostensibly highest political meeting to fight climate change is being held in a country that has non-renewable fossil fuels as its main export.
•Bryan Dyne
Dozens killed by Israeli air strikes and ground assaults across Gaza and Lebanon
Israel intensified its murderous assault on civilians across Gaza and carried out air strikes on Lebanon over the weekend. Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said the election of Donald Trump means it is time for the Zionist annexation of the West Bank.
•Kevin Reed
The socialist response to the election of Trump
The November 10 online meeting hosted by the Socialist Equality Party analyzed the causes and consequences of the Trump victory and elaborated a political strategy for the working class to fight back.
•WSWS Editorial Board
NSW nurses and midwives: Form rank-and-file committees to fight the Labor government’s wage cuts!
The strike in Australia's most populous state shows that nurses want to fight cuts to their wages and conditions. But they are in a struggle against the Labor government and the union bureaucracy.
•Health Workers Rank-and-File Committee
Teachers strike 3 districts on Massachusetts’ North Shore
Teachers' strikes have begun in three districts on the North Shore of Massachusetts. Strikes began Friday, November 8, by about 800 educators in Beverly and 1,000 in Gloucester. Five hundred Marblehead teachers are set to strike beginning Tuesday, November 12.
•Mike Ingram, Kate Randall
Kaiser Permanente mental health workers in California continue strike to improve patient care and secure pensions
The strike by 2,400 Kaiser Permanente workers in Southern California has entered its fourth week.
•Our reporters
Trump names key aides for war on immigrants, China
The initial appointments show the fascistic and militaristic character of the incoming Republican administration.
•Patrick Martin
Grounded, a contemporary opera with an anti-war theme, premieres at the Metropolitan Opera
The subject of long-distance war crimes makes this an opera of vital importance.
•Jesse Thomas
South Korean auto parts workers strike
The auto workers’ union in South Korea is attempting to prevent a broader struggle against job cuts as the car industry around the world prepares a jobs bloodbath as part of the so-called “just transition” to electric vehicles.
•Ben McGrath
PPG Industries to cut 1,800 jobs worldwide and sell off manufacturing plants
As part of the global assault on jobs, 1,800 workers at PPG Industries throughout the United States and Europe will lose their jobs in the coming months. In addition, the company is selling off many of its paint manufacturing plants threatening the jobs of over 6,000 other workers.
•Logan Brazek
Workers Struggles: The Americas
No cargo is moving at Canada’s three largest ports following a series of employer lockouts, while military police in São Paulo last week attacked students and educators opposing privatization.
•
Employer lockouts close Canada’s largest container ports in Montreal and British Columbia
The employers on both coasts have crippled Canada’s largest port operations with the aim of compelling the Trudeau Liberal government to intervene to enforce pro-company contracts through binding arbitration or other anti-democratic means.
•Niles Niemuth
Trump victory deepens crisis of UK Labour government
Trump’s threat that the US could end support for NATO unless the European powers significantly up their budgets for military spending, his declaration that he intends to end the “loser” war in Ukraine, and threats to increase tariffs on all goods being imported into the US have sent a shudder through Britan’s ruling elite.
•Robert Stevens
Break the UAW bureaucracy’s isolation of the Eaton walkout! No strikebreaking in Michigan!
After nearly two months on the picket line, the walkout by 525 Eaton Aerospace workers in Jackson, Michigan is in danger of defeat unless rank-and-file autoworkers break the isolation of the struggle by the UAW bureaucracy.
•George Kirby, Jerry White
UK Labour government hikes student tuition fees, maintains Tory repayment threshold
The policy is an attack on students and graduates, who will be made to pay for the economic crisis through fee hikes.
•Henry Lee
Australia: Build rank-and-file committees to fight Labor’s attack on construction workers and the entire working class!
The past three months have demonstrated that the fight against Labor’s administration of the CFMEU requires a rank-and-file movement independent of the ousted union leadership.
•Socialist Equality Party (Australia)
Michigan Medicine technicians prepare for one-day strike
Members of United Michigan Medicine Allied Professionals (UMMAP), 4,500 technicians at the University of Michigan health system in Ann Arbor are scheduled for a one-day strike on Tuesday, November 12.
•Kevin Reed
Lying allegations of antisemitic pogrom in Amsterdam fall apart
The official account of the Amsterdam clashes is an abominable lie, using false accusations of antisemitism against Amsterdamers as a political tool to defend fascism and the Gaza genocide.
•Alex Lantier
European governments debate relations with Trump at Budapest summits
The re-election of the billionaire fascist as US president places an eruption of class struggle on the agenda in the United States and across Europe.
•Alex Lantier
Australia’s two major supermarket chains charged for price-gouging with fake discounts
The fraudulent practices targeting consumers are a component of a broader offensive by governments and big corporations against working people.
•Taylor Bennington
Vote SEP in Sri Lanka’s November 14 parliamentary election!
We urge workers, students, youth and rural poor to vote for the SEP in this election to express their support for our international socialist perspective and on that basis prepare for the class struggles ahead.
•Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka)
Australian government defies another High Court ruling on immigration detainees
The Labor government last week issued new regulations to allow the immigration minister to reimpose outlawed curfews and ankle bracelets on released detainees.
•Mike Head
China announces package for debt-ridden local governments
It was not a bailout for local governments but a debt swap which is not expected to provide a major boost to the economy now experiencing its lowest growth in more than three decades.
•Nick Beams
White House sends military contractors to Ukraine
The Biden administration has authorized US military contractors to deploy to Ukraine in a major escalation of US involvement in the war with Russia.
•Andre Damon
Mass protests erupt in Spain over official inaction on deadly Valencia floods
It was reportedly the largest protest march in Valencia’s history, mobilizing a large portion of the metropolitan area’s 2.5 million inhabitants.
•Santiago Guillen
Early federal election in Germany: Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei declares war on all-party coalition of war and austerity
The end of Germany’s coalition government heralds a further intensification of the class struggle and the pro-war policy. The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party) is standing in the early federal election to arm workers with a socialist perspective.
•Christoph Vandreier
CDC video downplays danger of H5N1 bird flu
The presentation, so brief as to be little more than a public service announcement, signals an abandonment of efforts to prevent the emergence of a wider avian flu pandemic.
•Bill Shaw
Sumitomo Tire abruptly closes western New York plant, wiping out 1,550 jobs
Workers reporting to work faced the chilling spectacle of security in tactical gear blocking entry to the plant.
•Steve Filips
Justice Department reaches $102 million settlement in Baltimore bridge collapse case
The settlement does not cover the costs for reconstructing the bridge, which is the subject of a separate suit brought by the state of Maryland against the ship owner and operator.
•Ray Coleman
A few points about My Old Ass with Aubrey Plaza
The film, now streaming and popular with audiences, has certain strengths, including one quite moving scene but also banal and grating aspects.
•David Walsh
This week in history: November 11-17
This column profiles important historical events which took place during this week, 25 years ago, 50 years ago, 75 years ago and 100 years ago.
•
Mountain Fire rages through Southern California causing massive destruction
As of Friday, the fire has destroyed more than 130 structures, mostly residential homes and has damaged 88 others.
•Dan Conway
RMT and Aslef bureaucracy call off London Underground strikes: Rank and file must take control of pay fight
A major sellout is in the making behind closed doors in ongoing talks with Transport for London officials on behalf of the London Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan.
•Micheal Barnes, Tony Robson
Trump’s Republican Party nears control of all levers of federal government
Four days after the US elections, fascist President-Elect Donald Trump’s Republican Party is nearing control of all levers of federal governmental power.
•Barry Grey
University of Michigan moves to ban local chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine
The University of Michigan has filed a complaint against the campus chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine, threatening to suspend the organization for two to four years. The IYSSE denounces this attack on the campus organization and the democratic rights of all students and faculty, and demands that the complaint be rescinded.
•Luke Galvin
The role of the Biden administration in the Boeing sellout
The real focus of the Biden administration has always been to ensure “Boeing’s future as a critical part of America’s aerospace sector,” by which Biden means the corporation’s role as the chief US exporter and major defense contractor.
•Bryan Dyne
UN report: Israeli war of extermination kills more children than men
On Friday, the United Nations’ Human Rights Office published a report showing that nearly 70 percent of verified deaths in Gaza are of women and children, adding further evidence that Israel is waging a war of extermination in Gaza.
•Andre Damon
MIT suspends student and bans magazine for article opposing Gaza genocide
Last Friday, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) issued an immediate “interim” suspension of graduate student Prahlad Iyengar for penning an article titled “On Pacifism” in an MIT student magazine Written Revolution opposing Israel’s genocide against the people of Gaza. The publication itself has been banned from campus.
•Chase Lawrence
South Asia’s governments rush to congratulate America’s fascist president-elect Trump
Indian Prime Minister Modi and Sri Lankan President Dissanayake were quick to publicly hail Trump’s victory.
•Deepal Jayasekera
NATO states denounce “antisemitism” after Israeli football hooligans riot in Amsterdam
While NATO governments are outraged that five Israeli football hooligans were briefly taken to hospital, they support the mass murder of defenseless Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
•Alex Lantier
Australian Labor government pushes phoney student debt relief in bid for youth votes
The move is wholly inadequate in dealing with the mounting cost-of-living crisis and is a cynical attempt to garner support as a federal election looms.
•Eric Ludlow
Australian Labor government pledges to collaborate with fascist Trump
Labor’s primary preoccupation is the continuation of the AUKUS pact and the aggressive US-led confrontation with China that threatens a catastrophic war.
•Oscar Grenfell
Australia: New guidelines for toxic “forever chemicals” in drinking water allow levels 50 times higher than US
The National Health and Medical Research Council is aiming to play down the major health risks posed by the presence of PFAS in the drinking water supply.
•Jenny Campbell
Attend Canada Post Worker Rank-and-File Committee’s first public meeting this Sunday!
The meeting will enable postal workers to voice their concerns and demands, and discuss the PWRFC’s strategy to counter the union bureaucrats conniving with Canada Post management to impose yet another concessions-filled contract on us.
•Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee (Canada)
The election debacle and the fight against dictatorship
Countless millions in the United States and throughout the world are stunned by the outcome of the election, which was made possible by the policies of the Democratic Party. But the shock is turning into disgust as they witness the Democrats’ craven surrender to Trump.
•David North
Agent of Happiness: People in this small South Asian country live in an economically unequal, unjust and oppressive society, why should they be happy?
The rich are satisfied with life, the aspiring petty bourgeois worries about his or her property and status, the workers and rural poor are overworked and angry.
•David Walsh
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
South Korea: Strike at Hyundai Transys enters fourth week; Bangladesh: Tea gardens workers still on strike; Australia: Qube Port workers voting to extend action; Nurses and midwives walk out at Healthscope’s Northern Beaches Hospital
•
German parliament adopts far-right “antisemitism” resolution
The resolution aims to defend Israel's genocide against the Palestinians and to criminalise any criticism of it under the false accusation of “antisemitism."
•Johannes Stern
Demands grow in ruling circles for UK Labour government to massively increase military spending
With the election of US President Donald Trump, a chorus is growing that all delays to raising military spending must end and that it is hiked higher than presently planned.
•Robert Stevens
Democrats grovel before Trump
President Biden and Vice President Harris have pledged full cooperation with the incoming fascist president-elect, while issuing no warning to the American people of the dangers of mass repression and rule by force.
•Patrick Martin
Stellantis laying off 1,139 Toledo Jeep workers, as global auto jobs bloodbath expands
The UAW bureaucracy is collaborating with Stellantis to eliminate a shift at the giant plant in northwestern Ohio.
•James Langley, Jerry White
Book presentation in Nuremberg: Leon Trotsky and the Struggle for Socialism in the 21st Century by David North attracts great interest
More than 50 visitors attended the lecture by Peter Schwarz, who spoke about the current relevance of Leon Trotsky’s perspective.
•Mehring Verlag
Breakup of Germany’s coalition government ushers in new phase of class struggle
Like the Democrats in the US, which with their arrogance towards the falling living standards of the working masses, their support for the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and their anti-refugee deportation policy paved the way for the fascist Trump to return to the White House, the SPD also strengthens the most right-wing elements with its policies.
•Peter Schwarz
After campaigning for Clinton, Biden and Harris, Bernie Sanders accuses Democrats of “abandoning working class”
When did Sanders reach this epiphany? Since running for president in 2016, the “democratic socialist” from Vermont has used left phraseology to cover for the Democrats’ right-wing agenda while at the same time rallying his supporters behind the viciously anti-worker presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
•Jacob Crosse
Woolworths warehouse workers in Australia face punitive performance monitoring
“I can’t sleep thinking about what would happen if I lost my job because I didn’t meet the standards a few times and my average wasn’t high enough.”
•Paul Bartizan
Fed cuts interest rate as chair Powell bats away questions on impact of Trump agenda
Powell pointedly sidestepped a question about how his picture of a “strong” economy contrasted so markedly with the lived experience of millions of workers and their families struggling with a significant reduction in their living standards.
•Nick Beams
More than 5,500 writers pledge to boycott Israeli cultural institutions
The writers' statement accuses the Zionist state of “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide.”
•Sandy English, David Walsh
New study warns of the dangers in “overshooting” climate targets
This research reinforces the scientific consensus that the only viable strategy to limit catastrophic climate change requires drastic and immediate emissions cuts.
•Mark Wilson
New Zealand government pledges “even closer” alliance with US under Donald Trump
The National Party-led coalition government has hailed Trump’s victory and called for closer military cooperation with the US in the Indo-Pacific region, where US-led preparations for war against China are already far advanced.
•Tom Peters
Big business demands back-to-work legislation on Canadian docks
With the lockout of dock foremen on Canada’s Pacific Coast entering its fifth day and the partial strike of longshoremen in Montreal now in its ninth day, big business interests, political officials and their mouthpieces in the country’s mainstream press are clamouring once again for government intervention.
•Carl Bronski
Schools on rations: US education funding lags behind UNESCO benchmarks
A recent report from the Education Data Intiative exposes the fact that the world’s richest imperialist country has underfunded schools for decades. It indicts the US for failing to meet global benchmarks for education and, despite economic growth, allocating proportionally less for schools.
•Nancy Hanover
Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
Strike by German air force engineers joined by one-day stoppage by 10,000 Mercedes engineers demanding 7 percent pay rise; nurses across Iran strike against collapsing living conditions, retirees continue protests while government imprisons three workers for protesting; pay strike at Mr Sweet in South Africa ends after union accepts offer workers rejected
•
Vauxhall workers in Luton speak on threatened plant closures by Stellantis and fightback in global auto industry
The giant auto producer like all its major competitors has seized on the transition to EV production to cut jobs and labour costs at the expense of its global workforce, including slashing thousands of jobs in the US and Italy.
•our reporters
Ukrainian army suffers major setbacks, as Trump election sows doubt on US war plans in Ukraine
Ukraine has been shattered as its people were used as NATO cannon fodder to attack Russia, and opposition to the war is mounting among Ukrainian workers and soldiers.
•Alex Lantier
Largest employer in Juniata County, Pennsylvania to close, costing 420 workers their jobs
The Thompsontown closure is another in a string of plant closures and layoffs throughout Pennsylvania and more broadly.
•Frank Kapture
Milwaukee public education under attack, with 13 schools targeted for closure
Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) is considering closing 13 schools.
•Bill Shaw
Australian police step up targeting of anti-genocide protesters
The police crackdown, being coordinated at the highest levels of government and the state, marks a further step in the criminalisation of opposition to war.
•Eric Ludlow
Republicans capture US Senate, near control of House of Representatives
The Democratic Party lost at least three Senate seats, and possibly as many as seven, while largely failing in its efforts to gain seats in the House.
•Patrick Martin
Why has CUPW refused to call a strike at Canada Post?
After a year of negotiations and more than one hundred bargaining sessions between CUPW and management, Canada Post workers are not any clearer as to if or when the union will authorize job action.
•Niles Niemuth
Booming US economy is a mirage
A significant article in the Financial Times characterised the US as a gilded economy with a “shiny but thin veneer.”
•Nick Beams
Transport Workers Action Committee slate in Berlin meets with significant support
Since the Transport Workers Action Committee published a statement in support of its candidates for the staff council elections at Berlin’s regional transport provider (BVG), a lively discussion has been taking place among workers at the company.
•Ulrich Rippert
Western Sydney University “Green Paper” sets out pro-war and pro-business restructuring
WSU is becoming a prototype for the Labor government's Universities Accord, channelling students and research into war-related industries.
•Western Sydney University Rank-and-File Committee
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