Beating the Drum for War: The Pro-Imperialist Tour of the Pseudo Left

Beating the Drum for War: The Pro-Imperialist Tour of the Pseudo Left

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Since September 3, four individuals tied to the International Pabloite tendency and its outlet, International Viewpoint, have been touring the US to beat the drum for an escalation of the NATO war against Russia in Ukraine. The title of the tour is "Resisting Russian Imperialism: Ukraine's Struggle for Self-Determination."

The individuals involved are: Ilya Budraitskis and Ilya Matveev, both leading figures of the Pabloite Russian Socialist Movement (RSM) and now based at UC Berkeley; Denys Bondar, a physics professor at Tulane University; and Hanna Perekhoda, who is based at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Bondar and Perekhoda are both members of the Ukrainian Sotsialnyi Rukh (Social Movement), an organization that the WSWS exposed last year as a setup of the US State Department and CIA, from which it has received substantial funding.

Both Sotsialnyi Rukh and the RSM have close ties to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a pseudo-left faction within the Democratic Party, and International Viewpoint, the international publication of the Pabloite International Secretariat, which emerged in the post-war period as a revisionist tendency that sought to liquidate the Trotskyist movement into the Stalinist bureaucracy. The tour was organized by the so-called Ukraine Solidarity Network, which has less than 120 followers on Twitter, as of this writing, and whose leadership and origins are obscure.

After kicking off their speakers' tour at the DSA-affiliated Socialism 2023 Conference in early September, they have spoken at Loyola University, Chicago, an LGBTQ center in New York City and are scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley on September 13. Budraitskis and Perekhoda were also interviewed on Democracy Now! as well as by Ashley Smith in the Nation. Smith, now a member of the DSA, played a prominent role in supporting the US imperialist operation in Syria while still a member of the now defunct International Socialist Organization (ISO).

Hanna Perekhoda and Ilya Budraitskis speaking on Democracy Now!, September 7, 2023

To state the main conclusion at the onset: The tour has nothing to do with educating anyone about the origins and dangers of the war, much less calling for its end. On the contrary, it is a pro-war tour. Its main purpose is to prop up the faltering US war propaganda of the "unprovoked" invasion of Ukraine by the Putin regime and advocate for more weapons for Ukraine, i.e., an extension of the bloodbath.

One of the clearest signs of the pro-war character of this tour is that it completely covers up the horrific reality of this war. In not one of their public appearances did any of the speakers even mention the staggering death toll of this war, now estimated to be as high as 350,000 or even 400,000, meaning that the number of wounded would be in the millions. Ukraine had become the most heavily mined country in the world, even before the Biden administration began sending cluster bombs to the war zone, one of the most brutal weapons of modern-day warfare.

Amid this unfolding bloodbath, the principal demand of Perekhoda, Budraitskis, Matveev and Bondar is: more weapons. As Hanna Perekhoda put it at the Socialism 2023 Conference: "We ask to increase military, financial, and diplomatic support for the Ukrainian state." All their claims and statements to justify this demand are lies and distortions of political and historical reality. We can only discuss a few of the most important ones.

Lie #1: The war was not provoked by NATO

Just like the principal outlets of the US state and ruling class-the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and CNN-Perekhoda, Matveev, Budraitskis and Bondar claim that the war in Ukraine has no history. They ignore the reality that, since 1997, NATO has expanded to Russia's borders; a far-right coup was organized in Kiev in 2014 by the US and Germany, triggering a civil war in the East; Ukraine was armed to the teeth by NATO in the years that followed; and NATO staged multiple, highly provocative, large-scale exercises in the Black Sea region and Eastern Europe in the immediate lead-up to the Russian invasion. As Perekhoda explicitly stated in an interview with Democracy Now! "This war is not a response to some external threat for Russia emanating from NATO."

The expansion of NATO

At the Socialism 2023 conference, Perekhoda even claimed that NATO could not be seen as "an objective threat to the Russian security." One could argue that the fact that this supposedly "non-threatening" alliance has bombed a dozen countries since 1991 alone-including Iraq, with up to a million dead, Afghanistan, several countries in Yugoslavia and Libya-might suggest otherwise.

A government building burns during heavy bombardment of Baghdad, Iraq, by U.S.-led forces Friday evening, March 21, 2003. [AP Photo/Jerome Delay]

If anything, the RSM's Budraitskis went even further in his endorsement of NATO, suggesting that for the Baltic States and Poland, as well as Georgia-which is not a member of NATO-the military alliance "is a question of guarantees for their independent existence," effectively advocating its further expansion.

On its surface, there is a glaring logical contradiction between these two claims-one suggests that NATO is "no external threat" to Russia, while the other holds that NATO expansion is the only possible guarantee of "independence" against Russia. But the political and class logic behind these claims is perfectly coherent: They advocate complete support for NATO, an imperialist alliance of thiefs and murderers, that has wreaked havoc in the Middle East, North Africa and southeastern Europe and that now bears principal responsibility for the most horrific bloodbath on European soil since the fall of the Nazi regime in 1945.

Lie #2: The far-right in Ukraine plays no significant role in politics and the army

In response to a question by Democracy Now! about the Azov Battalion, which has helped train American and other neo-Nazis since its inception in the wake of the 2014 coup, Perekhoda insisted that the Ukrainian far-right after 2014 "did not manage to become legitimate [a] political subject in institutional politics." She continued, "In Ukrainian parliament, you would not find right-wing parties represented. They were represented before 2014, but now this is not the case."

These are blatant lies. The government that came to power in the February 2014 putsch included the neo-fascist Svoboda party, which openly places itself in the traditions of the Nazi collaborators of Stepan Bandera's Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The OUN was principally involved in the Holocaust in Ukraine and is responsible for the massacre of up to 100,000 Poles in 1943-1944.

Indeed, this was the first time since the end of World War II that an openly neo-fascist and anti-Semitic party joined a European government. Joe Biden-then vice president under Barack Obama-as well as leading German politicians like President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (then the foreign minister) shook the hands of neo-Nazi Oleh Tyanybok, the leader of Svoboda.

Since then, Ukraine's neo-Nazi forces have been systematically armed and trained by the imperialist powers. As a result, their role in the state apparatus and politics far outweighs their support in the population, but this makes them no less dangerous. Parliamentary parties like the European Solidarity party of Petro Porochenko, the president of Ukraine from 2014-2019, while not openly neo-fascist, have extensive ties to Azov and other far-right formations. The chief of the Ukrainian army, Valeryi Zaluzhnyi, is an open admirer Stepan Bandera.

Perekhoda is not confused about this reality. She deliberately hides it. Paraded as a "historian" on Democracy Now!, her academic work exposes her as an adherent of the views and historical falsification of the Ukrainian far-right nationalists.

In a chapter on the "Ukrainian revolution, 1917-1920" in a recently published book, Perekhoda managed to discuss the period of civil war in Ukraine, which followed the 1917 Russian Revolution, and the politics of the Ukrainian nationalists without mentioning the term "anti-Semitism." The fact that these three years saw the massacre of an estimated 200,000 Jews, above all by anti-Bolshevik forces and Ukrainian nationalists and most of them on the territory of contemporary Ukraine, is simply of no concern. Nor does she care to mention that German imperialism occupied the country until the November 1918 revolution brought about the end of Germany's involvement in the war.

Instead, Perekhoda claims that the Ukrainian national movement forced upon the Bolsheviks its territorial conception of Ukraine, writing: "It was not Bolsheviks who 'invented' Ukraine: since the end of 1917, Ukraine had imposed itself upon them as a new political reality, including in its territorial dimensions." (Hanna Perekhoda, "The Ukrainian Revolution, the Bolsheviks, and the Inertia of Empire," Ukraine's Many Faces: Land, People, and Culture Revisited, ed. by Olena Palko and Manuel Férez Gil, Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag 2023, 159).

These are the words of a far-right Ukrainian ethno-nationalist and anti-communist. At the very least, Perekhoda is entirely indifferent to the sinister record of the Ukrainian nationalists who have, time and again, including after World War I and during World War II, combined their collaboration with imperialist powers with bloody massacres of ethnic and religious minorities and the violent suppression of the Ukrainian working class.

Lie #3: "The Ukrainians" are united in their determination to fight against Russia whatever it takes

At the Socialism 2023 Conference, Bondar, also a member of Sotsialnyi Rukh, insisted that the Ukrainian population, after 18 months of war, is still united in its desire to fight against Russia, even if this means nuclear war. Citing some poll, he claimed, "89 percent of respondents said that we should carry on fighting even if Russia is using a tactical nuclear weapon against a Ukrainian city; 89 percent, so there is no way in hell on earth Ukrainians will give up fighting, there is just no way" [huge applause].

Leaving aside the questionable origins of this poll, what is the reality that Bondar and his cheering audience at the Socialism 2023 conference ignored?

Since the beginning of this war, 13 opposition parties, including several left-wing parties who oppose the war, like the United of Left Forces-For a New Socialism Party! have been banned and violently persecuted. People can now be arbitrarily declared "traitors to the state" and thrown into prison, without evidence and without a trial. Tens of thousands of young men have enrolled in university education, and hundreds of thousands have fled the country in order to avoid being drafted to the war. In order to replenish its rapidly shrinking ranks, the Ukrainian military has for months resorted to effectively kidnapping men from off the streets. This is not to mention the state-sponsored promotion of virulent anti-Russian sentiments, including with bans of Russian literature and culture, and the systematic falsifications of history.

The reasons for Bondar's "omissions" are clear enough: A look at his faculty page at Tulane University and his personal LinkedIn profile reveals that the man who is claiming that millions of Ukrainian men are eagerly going into the slaughter has, for almost a decade, been funded by the US Army.

Out of five awards Bondar has received since 2016, three were by the US military. In 2016, he was part of the Air Force Young Investigator Research Program. In 2018, he participated in the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. And in 2019, he received the Young Faculty Award from DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency" of the Department of Defense. According to the US Army Magazine, his lab has also worked for the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory, and has employed undergraduate students who funded their apprenticeship at his lab with funds from Army Educational Research Program.

Honors and awards indicated on Denys Bondar's LinkedIn profile, September 23, 2023. (screenshot)

The statements by Bondar are despicable war propaganda, uttered by a man on the payroll of the same US military that has murdered millions of Iraqis, Afghans, Syrians, Vietnamese and countless more civilians in other parts of the world. It is US imperialism that demands a continuation of the war "until the last Ukrainian," not the Ukrainian people.

Lie #4: The principal threat to the Putin regime emanates from the pro-NATO Russian opposition in the oligarchy and middle class

Central to the line of the Pabloites on this war tour is the claim that the Putin regime, in launching this war, was responding not to an external, but an "internal threat": that posed by Russian "civil society" since the protests of 2011-2012 as well as of the "democratizing" tendencies that "a democratic" and "prosperous" Ukraine on Russia's borders would foster. Thus, Perekhoda stated at the Socialism 2023 Conference:

This war is a response to a subjective and internal threat to the Putin clan who have seized control of the state apparatus and have seized control of all the natural resources of this country. You know, it is not easy to preserve power in a country where 1 percent of the population owns 75 percent of the total wealth. That's why the regime does everything it can to suppress democratic tendencies in the neighborhood and its own country.

This is a confusing amalgam of distortions and half-truths. While it is certainly true that the Russian regime is an oligarchic regime, so is the Ukrainian regime. Far from "prosperity" and "democracy," in reality, pre-war Ukraine was a country that was ruled by a bunch of corrupt and criminal oligarchs while counting, along with Moldova, as the poorest country in Europe. As for Ukraine as the supposed spearhead of "democracy" on the borders of Russia, suffice it to say that the country underwent a coup in 2014 that was heavily backed by the imperialist powers, creating conditions where far-right forces like Azov were free to terrorize ethnic minorities like the Sinti and Roma, along with opponents of NATO and the Ukrainian regime.

The forces dominating the protest movement of 2011-2012 and what Perekhoda and Budraitskis call "Russian civil society" are no more "democratic" than the right-wing nationalist tendencies that dominated the Maidan protest movement in Kiev that led up to the 2014 coup. Socially, both protest movements were dominated by privileged layers of the middle class, of Kiev, Moscow and St. Petersburg, respectively. In Russia, as the WSWS has documented, Alexei Navalny, the principal figure of the NATO-backed opposition since the 2011-2012 protests, has been a co-organizer of far-right marches. He has extensive ties to sections of both the Russian and the American ruling class.

The Pabloites of the Russian Socialist Movement, under the leadership of Budraitskis and Matveev, have oriented for over a decade toward propping up Navalny and his alliance with the far-right and various Stalinist forces. Far from opposing the class rule of the oligarchy, these forces oppose the rule of one particular faction of the oligarchy-that represented by Putin and his allies. They seek a redistribution of the wealth of the top 1 percent to other factions of the oligarchy that were disempowered under Putin and layers of the upper middle class that feel that they deserve far greater privileges than they already have.

Many within this layer-including Budraitskis and Matveev themselves-have fled Russia since the beginning of the war and are now advancing their careers at universities in NATO countries. They view the war not in terms of the lives destroyed or the threat of the nuclear annihilation of the planet, but in terms of book contracts, fellowships, speaking engagements and other very real career opportunities that imperialism provides them.

It is on these social forces that US imperialism bases itself in its ongoing operation to bring about a regime change in Russia. Indeed, the replacement of the Putin regime by another regime that would be directly subservient to the foreign policy and economic interests of NATO is a primary goal of this war.

Ilya Budraitskis, Ilya Matveev and their RSM speak for a social layer that seeks to benefit from this operation and an imperialist carve-up of Russia into a series of statelets. This is what they call "civil society" and the "democratization" of Russia.

Their false claims not only obscure the political and social interests of the RSM and US imperialism in this war, but also the character of the Putin regime itself. The truth is that both the Putin regime and the NATO-backed faction of the oligarchy around Navalny share the same historical origins and class interests. Like the Ukrainian oligarchy, the Russian oligarchy emerged out of the destruction of the Soviet Union by the Stalinist bureaucracy in 1991. For both oligarchies, the main threat is not some amorphous "civil society," composed of sections of the oligarchy and privileged layers of the middle class, but the Russian, Ukrainian and international working class. It is on this class that all genuine opposition to this war must be based.

Lie #5: Opposition to NATO's war in Ukraine means support for the Putin regime and "Russian imperialism"

Underlying all the arguments advanced by these forces is that any opposition to the war in Ukraine by NATO signifies support for the Putin regime and what they call "Russian imperialism." This is a lie whose principal purpose is to intimidate and discredit genuine left-wing opposition to this war.

The Trotskyist movement has opposed the Russian invasion from the very beginning from the socialist left, not the imperialist right. In its first statement on the war, published on February 24, 2022, the International Committee of the Fourth International insisted:

Despite the provocations and threats by the US and NATO powers, Russia's invasion of Ukraine must be opposed by socialists and class-conscious workers. … What is required is not a return to the pre-1917 foreign policy of tsarism, but, rather, a revival, in Russia and throughout the world, of the socialist internationalism that inspired the October Revolution of 1917 and led to the creation of the Soviet Union as a workers state. The invasion of Ukraine, whatever the justifications given by the Putin regime, will serve only to divide the Russian and Ukrainian working class and, moreover, serve the interests of US and European imperialism.

Last fall, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE), along with its sister organization, the Young Guard of Bolshevik Leninists in Russia and Ukraine, initiated a campaign to build a global movement of youth and workers against this war. Since then, the IYSSE has held an online webinar with speakers from throughout the world and organized an international meeting series against the war last spring, with meetings on five continents.

In this work, we have developed a consistent, socialist and Marxist opposition both to the imperialist powers and the oligarchic regimes in Russia and Ukraine. However, we have also insisted that workers and youth must reject the claim that Russia is an "imperialist" country because this is historically and economically false and serves as a political cover for the operations of imperialism.

Contemporary Russia emerged out of the restoration of capitalism in the USSR, the culmination of the decades-long reaction against the socialist October Revolution by the Stalinist bureaucracy. At the time, the Pabloites, out of which the RSM emerged, supported this social counterrevolution which destroyed all the conquests of 1917. But capitalist restoration did not bring "peace and prosperity" nor did it provide the basis for any substantial development of Russia as a major economic "world power." Rather, the restoration of capitalism gave rise, in both Russia and Ukraine, to criminal oligarchies that have plundered the wealth of society but have been incapable of establishing any basis for substantial economic development. The Russian oligarchs' primary source of income, along with the exploitation of the working class, is the selling off of raw material resources to other countries.

Neither of these oligarchies have been or can be independent from the imperialist powers. While Ukraine is now ruled by a faction of the oligarchy that has transformed the country into a staging ground for an imperialist-provoked bloodbath, the entire war strategy of the Putin regime has been based on the desperate and bankrupt conception, inherited from Stalinism, that it could use limited military pressure to negotiate terms for a deal of "peaceful coexistence" with imperialism.

But the imperialist powers are bent not on negotiations but the imperialist subjugation of the entire region, which is home to some of the world's largest energy resources, as well as vast reserves in rare earths and critical mineral resources. The claim that Russia is "imperialist" serves to cover up the real economic and geopolitical war aims of the imperialist powers, as well as their strategy to break up the country into a series of statelets whose energy and other resources can be directly exploited by imperialism. It is a strategy that threatens not only a series of wars and civil wars, but also raises the very real threat of nuclear war.

Lest anyone think that this is an exaggeration, it is worth recalling the strategy and brutality that underlay imperialist policy in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s: Basing themselves on sections of the corrupt elites that emerged out of the restoration of capitalism, as well as openly fascist forces like the adherents of the Croatian Ustasha, the imperialist powers deliberately fostered ethnic and religious conflict. The resulting series of civil wars and NATO bombing raids have turned the region into a socioeconomic wasteland. A repetition of this scenario in the former Soviet Union, which is home to the largest nuclear arsenals in the world outside the United States, would be even more devastating, and far more dangerous.

There is another element of the Yugoslav wars that bears remembering: It was over these wars in the 1990s that a whole layer of the middle class ex-left and in particular the Pabloites began to fully support NATO, based on the fraudulent propaganda of "humanitarian interventions" and the "right to national self-determination." In its analysis of this phenomenon, the ICFI stressed the class basis for this shift to the right:

A whole layer of those who were radicalized by the experiences of Vietnam, the events of May-June 1968 in France and the militant labor conflicts of the late 1960s and early 1970s abandoned, during the past two decades, their opposition to imperialism and reincorporated themselves into the middle class life. Of these ex-radicals, not a few saw their material fortunes skyrocket with the stock market takeoff in the 1990s. This has produced a dramatic realignment in their politics.

A quarter century and many wars and millions of dead later, the social privileges of this layer are far greater and, in its integration into the state and war machine, is far more advanced. The DSA-promoted war tour by the RSM and Sotsial'nyi Rukh, no doubt sponsored by the army and discussed with the CIA, is a clear expression of that. It confirms, yet again, that what separates these tendencies from the working class and the Trotskyist movement are the most fundamental class interests and, for that matter, a river of blood. Workers and youth must treat these lackeys of imperialism with the contempt they deserve.

• 100 komentarzy
  ostatnie komentarze z World Socialist Web Site

  › lamy, david 2024-05-18T12:47:18  0

  Mr. Kishore's riposte is spot on. All of us should retweet it and/or copy its text and forward to acquaintances.

  › old corinthun 2024-05-18T12:19:17  0

  A 'raw deal' for workers would be a more honest description.

  › Sebouh80 2024-05-18T08:08:15  0

  This tells us that there is something wrong in the American Society. For the great majority of the people today feel alienated from the system.

  › Sebouh80 2024-05-18T08:02:34  0

  The willingness to provide sensitive intelligence information to Ukrainian regime, and the preparation for sending NATO ground troops are all signs of renewed escalation. For the purpose of this article is to create a greater awareness to the working class of the growing dangers of war that could likely end into an open confrontation between Russia and NATO under these conditions.

  › old corinthun 2024-05-18T07:05:18  0

  Preparing to 'go in' -
  https://www.telegraph.co.uk...

  › Finbar28 2024-05-18T07:03:48  0

  As the soviet labour code cannot be shifted away like soviet statues, even with torch and clubs of Euromaidan, there is longing for the nationalised-property relations of the former Soviet Union in Ukraine amongst the eldest generations and a longing for equality and happiness amongst youth. 150,000 men are now newly mobilised in the Ukraine military, not out of choice though . But the Ukrainian government doesn't want to send them to train abroad, even to nearby Poland, as, unlike with the banderist elements trained by British military on their islands, for fear that these.new recruits abscond and flee abroad. Many Ukrainian working people and youth are realising that one cannot defend Ukraine by protecting her fascists and oligarchs that rule the native land of Trotsky. Even Zorro would face arrest for writing the letter Z. The methods used by the SBU simply add even more disrepute to the Ukrainian government, famous for its corruption which could make a Babanguida look like a little angel.

  › Brian 2024-05-18T05:56:44  0

  Treason is always and everywhere a right-wing entity. The right-wing Zelensky and his corrupt regime are themselves proof of that as they volunteered to be the bitches of US empire, fully paid off and owned by a parasitic, imperialist, foreign capitalist power, for whom he sacrificed hundreds of thousands of his own nation's people to do the dirty work of the empire and to whom (BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan) he has promised to give away his nation's wealth.

  This treason by Zelensky and his right-wing regime is the same thing we see from empire all throughout history and all over the world. The imperialist power frequently overthrows a left-leaning leadership whose crime was using too much of his own nation's wealth to provide for his nation's people and replacing that leadership with a brutal, murderous, right-wing dictator whose job is then to help foreign capital rape his own nation's people and loot away his own nation's wealth.

  Any look back at history proves this point. A nice concise little article that I like to use as support material when I tell some flag-waving right-winger that it is always the right-wing that is treasonous is titled, "A Timeline of CIA Atrocities" by Steve Kangas.

  › Carolyn Zaremba 2024-05-18T03:23:38  0

  Just remember how the U.S. provided intelligence to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. Same deal.

  › Carolyn Zaremba 2024-05-18T03:11:32  0

  Thanks for this. I co-wrote an article about the Longshore strike of 1934 with Robert Louis for the WSWS in 2009. Harry Bridges' papers are stored at San Francisco State University.
  https://www.wsws.org/en/art...

  › PeterHL 2024-05-17T22:55:51  0

  The strike is around an employment issue, that of academic freedom. If stifling the freedom of expression of the students is allowed to occur unchallenged then this will lead to suppression of freedom of expression of the academic workers. The next step would be prohibiting the instructors from raising the issue of Gaza or face termination.

  › BrianH 2024-05-17T22:14:46  0

  In this phase of the class war against the “group of billionaires and business titans”. The Students have a unique opportunity to call on the working class at the ports and factories to come to their aid.
  We have seen and heard from the International
  Criminal Court, with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity. United Nations Charter include establishing peacekeeping operations, enacting international sanctions, and authorizing military action. The UNSC is the only UN body with authority to issue resolutions that are binding on member states. No matter their deliberations, the Zionist State and holds itself impervious to these international bodies. Still, the genocidal horror intensifies.
  Disinvestment is a necessity, But it won't stop the genocide.
  Stop the manufacture of the munitions, Stop the shipping of arms! Stop the genocide!
  The working class has the power to do this!
  Build the Rank and File Committees!
  The Unity of the Students with the Working Class will be a powerful force, not only to stop the genocide, but to prepare for the state violence to come.

  › Dango 2024-05-17T19:57:31  0

  The fear of retribution may be keeping whistleblowers from coming forward in Pratt&Whitney Canada

  › Leon 2024-05-17T15:54:35  0

  Excellent and timely article. The genocide in Gaza is catalysing an anti-war movement on university campuses. This movement will fail unless students join forces with workers in the US and elsewhere. It is time to follow the logic of Trotskyism: the science of revolutionaty socialism, to determine what actions are necessary and by whom to stop the genocide.

  › Leon 2024-05-17T15:50:12  0

  When the capitalist class in Australia or elsewhere declare war on the anti-war movement, it is time to declare war on capitalism. Students will fail to achieve any of their demands unless they join forces with workers from all the economic sectors and countries that are enabling the genocide of the Palestinians.

  › Leon 2024-05-17T15:47:04  0

  People on this forum know my position on Julian Assange. His extradition to the US gulag is the ultimate stage in the merciless revenge demanded by the US and UK ruling class for revealing their criminal deeds. All injustices in this world have a single cause: capitalism.

  › Leon 2024-05-17T15:44:24  0

  Thank you Oscar. Good article. Under capitalism the psychotic murderers get rewarded and those who reveal their foul deeds get jailed.

  › Greg 2024-05-17T15:28:35  0

  There are two justice systems in the United States, based on class.
  -Major Trump trials delayed until after election

  Notice how they prefaced the threat below with the assertion of their supposedly unquestionable class role as being the one of the corrective actor.

  “Failing to accurately report leave,” the letter warned, “is a serious violation.”

  That from the very political establishment that doesn't view the consequences to workers of an attempted coup, committing genocide and starting a third world war as a serious matter.

  But that's just it, workers are not asking them what they think matters.

  The university administration claims that the strike is impermissible because of its political character and that it is supposedly not connected with “any employment issues whatsoever.”

  It's not only telling them what morally matters.

  It's telling them what politically matters.

  The working class is taking corrective action.

  Because historically that has been the nearly exclusive role of the working class since human civilization began.

  It doesn't need to proclaim its moral authority as such because as it represents the vast majority of the population it organically possesses it.

  It's very collective will in the interests of its class is moral authority.

  But even more obviously so, more morally so, more politically so and consciously so with regard to capitalism and the advent of the Russian revolution.

  They remember well how opposition to World War I was a chief factor in the Russian Revolution of 1917.

  That is, with revolutionary leadership of the working class it's the increasing understanding of the past and the only way forward.

  › Leah Jeresova 2024-05-17T15:06:07  0

  A thought-provoking article. Biden doesn’t go on television because he is afraid of the people. We recall how popular protests brought the Nixon administration to its knees, forcing an end to the Viet Nam war. Where is that spirit now?!

  I don’t believe NATO has a coherent plan. Like Hitler and Napoleon before him, Zelensky has learned the hard way that Russia cannot be defeated on the battlefield in Eastern Europe. NATO is playing with fire. Putin has already said that Russia would respond to attacks. Within days we could be facing a catastrophic, regional war in Europe and beyond.

  › RK01 2024-05-17T13:27:32  0

  The usual US tactic of starting a war on other people's soil while they sat on the far side of the Atlantic fanning the flame of destruction which will consume the entire European continent. It is time for the Europeans to stand up to Washington and say 'NO' to this invitation to their own demise.

  › lamy, david 2024-05-17T13:15:03  0

  My personal hope is that this saber rattling by U.S. military spokespersons is a bluff. The logistic demands and current munition inventories for NATO forces point to a very short time window of combat capability. That will not augur well for the war of attrition that the Russian forces are waging in Ukraine.

  › Sebouh80 2024-05-17T12:45:25  0

  "The only way to stop the genocide in Gaza is through the independent political mobilisation of the international working class"
  Absolutely. This is the only path that can help put an end to the pain and suffering of Palestinian people.

  › Sebouh80 2024-05-17T12:35:02  0

  First let us ask this question why NATO imperialist states most notably the US are escalating the conflict now in Eastern Europe. Well we need to remember that for the past two years the Western ruling classes had spent a whopping quarter of trillion dollar in a war that was supposed to defeat the Russian state. However, this did not happen, and the growing loses of Ukrainian young men in the battlefields have convinced these forces that the only way to protect their interests is thru direct intervention. These are all concerning signs that would greatly increase the risk of a direct collision between NATO and Russia.

  › Felix Kreisel 2024-05-17T12:34:03  0

  Norisa is mostly right. The US imports about 15% of the food consumed by the population. Most of the imports are from south of the border. A huge proportion of farmworkers, butchers and meat handlers, grocery workers, etc. are also migrant workers or immigrants, legal and illegal.
  The attacks on migrants are vicious and driven by the fascist right, and the Democrats are no better.

  › Tracy 2024-05-17T12:19:59  0

  Dire news. WSWS said this was coming all along, as we know from countless US wars launched in the past, this is the pattern. This situation could not be worse, except for the new bad news certain to come in the months ahead.

  › William Black 2024-05-17T10:58:21  0

  Unfortunately , most people in the US are not even aware
  or paying attention to what's happening in Ukraine. If it doesn't affect them personally there seems to be a very prevailing attitude of indifference. The public have got to understand how dangerous this is. These imperialist warmongers are sociopaths and are indifferent themselves to the potential catostrophic civilization ending war that would kill millions. The public must get its head out of the sand before it's too late.

  › Terry Lawrence 2024-05-17T10:47:07  0

  The Fourth Reich, aka NAziTO, is as delusional as its predecessor was in 1941. They have been spewing their nonsense propaganda for seven decades now and have come to believe it themselves. For instance, one of the Canadian TV networks regularly interviews a retired Canadian NATO general who for over two years now has been parroting "Russia is running out of missiles" weekly like a broken record. The fact that a few hours later Russia fires another barrage of 100 or more week after week, month after month for more than two years hasn't caused him to rethink his religious faith that the Russian economy is smaller than Italy.

  Looking at the "leadership" of the so-called "west" there is not a single sane or competent person in any position of power. They are all consumed with their own hubris and freak show "wokeness" which is leading them to sleepwalk into a nuclear war.

  › nanda wickremasinghe 2024-05-17T10:12:11  0

  The May 4 meeting held by the WSWS marks a significant turning point.
  The roster of speakers expressed the dynamic:
  The international socialist revolution is now imperative for the survival of the human race.

  The speakers ranged from veterans to youth all who embodied the heritage of near two century struggle for the workers International , now continued in the struggle of the International Committee of Fourth International [ICFI] ; it t has built the movement for decades ;the rally addressed by the leadership and the advanced workers and pristine youth working class fighters, for worldwide action against the crisis ridden capitalist class tobogganing headlong into the 3rd World war.

  The significant support for the world party of the socialist revolution was mobilized through the World socialist Web Site .The concerted effort in the current phase of the movement characterized as the period we are now passing through ,is a period in which the crisis of the post war capitalist order is peaking to an explosion.

  The US dominance of the postwar order, achieved through massive military and economic destruction of rivals, and the murderous exploitation of the working class, has failed to avoid massive trade deficits ,compelling plunder of rivals through drastic devaluation of currency , trade and import restrictions and direct war and conquest. Following four decades of war, now US imperialists are launching the 3rd World War.
  As anticipated by the ICFI the imperialist onslaught has run into mass resistance . The initial wave of resistance at the start of he current century was dissipated by pseudo lefts. The May 4 rally underscored that the two decades of work by the ICFI set the stage for a new settlement of accounts , taking power world wide by the working class.

  The Political , theoretical work, exposure of the renegades who were out to liquidate the ICFI, the principled daily work to win control of the mass movement to the international socialist perspective to imbue he emerging global movement of working class through incessant unrelenting principled daily work of the WSWS.ORG .
  Against US imperialist led 3rdworld war drive of which the current fronts include the Gaza and UKRENE a, the working class must fight internationally.
  The enthusiastic role of the youth in the rally is heartening.
  Free Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk!
  Free Julian Assange!

  › Finbar28 2024-05-17T09:26:19  0

  I particularly like the 4th paragraph of this work, putting to the test of the Constitution a US President publicly informing US population about the advent of nuclear war. Did they inform us about the consequences of the COVID pandemic, its 30 million dead to-date? Only this site does. Such a presidential address would lead to millions of gatherings in streets and repeat a February 1917 revolution, masses of humanity would fight for life and peace. NATO nuclear warplans are a secret icepick against humanity. Only through secrecy and deceit can such a belligerent intent become effective.

  › Tony Williams 2024-05-17T02:56:41  0

  It ss a shame you have decided to conclude this series since I was looking forward to seeing your perspective on Robert Aldrich's THE LONGEST YARD (1974). He was a director brought up in the progressive ideals of the 30s, a friend of blacklisted Abraham Polonsky, and got a superb Richard Nixon-influenced performance from Edward Albert using sport as a metaphor for political corruption. Many other films could have been covered.

  › Greg 2024-05-17T02:38:55  0

  There are two justice systems in the United States, based on class.

  Which is to say there can be no justice system within global capitalism.

  The dominant ruling class is the law.

  It arrogantly proclaims that it is defending what it calls “the rules-based order,” by which it means: “We make the rules and the world follows our orders.”

  › Greg 2024-05-17T02:22:09  0

  In opposition to the UAW’s “stand up” strike the faculty member said, “there should be an all-out strike. These students are being attacked by thugs acting on behalf of the administration.”

  The only way the UAW would ever support a real strike is in opposition to an all-out strike.

  Time for workers to make them choose the "lesser evil."

  › PaulB 2024-05-17T01:36:58  0

  Good piece. Is anyone surprised by this? The very existence of the US was predicated on stealing land from the indigenous population and basing a large fraction of its ‘economy’ on cotton, reared and picked by African Slaves. Since 1940, the US has been almost continuously involved in war. It should be noted that despite ‘investing’ trillions of taxpayer money, the Pentagon has not ‘won’ a war since 1945.
  Considerations-
  1. Israel is vital to the American empire’s control of West Asian energy supplies. As we have seen, Israel is supported by the ruling elite, corporate media and entire political class.
  2. Israel is fully integrated into US/NATO, functioning as a US military platform in the ME and central to American power projection in the region for control of West Asian energy reserves and solidifying Israeli control over the massive Leviathan gas field in the eastern Mediterranean (See- The disputed gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean Al Jazeera Mar 7, 2017; https://www.aljazeera.com/n....
  3. Should Trump prevail in November, looking increasingly likely, Israel will be assured of continued lavish American taxpayer support for their war on Palestinians.
  4. Sen Lindsey Graham (R, SC) suggested on ‘Meet the Press' that Israel should ‘nuke’ Gaza (https://www.nbcnews.com/mee.... This is indicative of the thinking of the American ruling elite.
  Reality check- those of us living in the US inhabit a society that is not only corrupt, but ethically and morally bankrupt. We need to be completely honest about this and be held accountable.

  › Greg 2024-05-17T00:02:28  0

  Only “if circumstances justify” according to a UC unit chair of UAW 4811 in a recent interview.

  The attacks on students and workers at UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Irvine and elsewhere by Zionists and police are more than sufficient “justified circumstances” to call a strike.

  Along with, in the same interview, simply stating that it was a “stand-up strike” adopted by the union but without mentioning the toothless nature of last year's UAW “stand-up strike.”

  That strike, affecting only a small minority of plants, was followed by a sellout contract that is now being used to carry out mass layoffs.

  Or the fact that they never asked union members "about doing a worthless “stand-up strike.”

  But while mentioning the June 30th strike deadline, not mentioning that union members weren't informed (until too late) about that either.

  Calling an end to the strike in advance makes it ineffective.

  Or mentioning what effect that will have.

  The leadership of the UAW bureaucracy is proof that in reality, you can't stop genocide and support imperialism, capitalism, nationalism, anticommunism and the Democratic Party.

  In reality, the support for imperialism flows from the bureaucracy’s support for capitalism, American nationalism and anticommunism both at home and abroad. It finds one of its most explicit forms in its century-long support for the Democratic Party.
  -In Jacobin interview, UAW official covers up bureaucracy’s support for genocide

  That's just covering up for the support of genocide.

  › ommmarx 2024-05-16T23:59:49  0

  It should be quite clear to all of us that the 'coming' war is already here.

  › RK01 2024-05-16T23:07:47  0

  The over-whelming majority of the world's population, especially the working class would never want to see their country involved in wars. We can see very clearly just how deep the Zionists are embedded into the power corridors of governments by looking at some of the western governments' reaction on the ongoing genocide being carried out on the Palestinians in Gaza.
  Just take a look at the long list of pro-Zionist corporations and financial entities and we will understand how some of the western ruling class have become mere puppets and now they have been put on a war footing by their masters because they saw the reality of a multipolar world is about to unravel their God-given right of world domination towards which they have been working for centuries. A global working class revolution is needed right now if we were to stop nations going into war with one another, wars that were instigated by the Zionists within governments.

  › Greg 2024-05-16T22:56:24  0

  My frustration with the UAW approach is they’re trying to make this about “workplace conditions” and not about the situation in Gaza. They’re trying to keep it a legal strike and not about stopping the genocide.

  They’re trying to keep the blame on the membership as being simply too indifferent and backward to do anything about the situation in Gaza.

  According to Mancilla, while the bureaucracy is “leading the fight for social and economic justice,” the membership is simply too indifferent and backward to do anything. This is a cynical attempt to falsely palm off the reactionary policies of the apparatus onto workers. -In Jacobin interview, UAW official covers up bureaucracy’s support for genocide

  › Crazy Horse 2024-05-16T22:49:22  0

  Disgusting indictment. Funny how Sunak and Starmer can find billions for increased military spending and handouts to right wing Zelensky regime, but there is no money to fight for children. Funny that.

  › Crazy Horse 2024-05-16T22:22:07  0

  Good article. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the Greens support warmongers and war - the German Greens are the biggest supporter of German militarisation in their coalition government. Whether greens dont realise war is the biggest obstacle to a clean environment or not, or whether they secretly desire the mass population reduction involved in a nuclear war, I cant say. Either way, theyre not genuine socialists. Consider the cost of the clothes Golriz stole, I would never even consider wearing something that pricey. The mind boggles...

  › Stefano R. Baldari 2024-05-16T21:56:08  0

  As Norman Finkelstein recently said, "Israel is a Satanic state." And I wholeheartedly agree. Moreover, Zionists and the Israel Lobby are using a fictional anti-Semitism crisis to justify Israel's support for the real genocide of the Palestinian people.

  › Jason Fitzgerald 2024-05-16T20:25:50  0

  Agreed, 100%. Your Party's claims to be the authentic representative of World Trotskyism are, however, fatally undermined by your British Section's extraordinary refusal to admit Jimmy Roberts, a blacklisted Trotskyist of 50 years standing, into its ranks. Your organisation has a rather murky & disreputable history of infiltration by the KGB, CIA, and MI5 as evidenced by the degeneration of the SLL, later the WRP, under KGB and CIA agents like Healy, Banda, Slaughter et al. Healy ended his life as an honoured guest of Stalinist degenerate and counter-revolutionary, Gorbachev! These are questions that need to be addressed by your organisation. If you avoid them, it will be clear to REAL Trotskyists that penetration of your organisation by capitalist Intelligence Agencies continues to this day.

  › Abigail Stevens 2024-05-16T19:05:55  0

  Yeah why would anyone think of the future in pessimistic terms, given the world looks so rosy right now! Russia didn't invade Ukraine, it rescues the people of Donbass from a fascist mob and a murderous government taking orders from the US beast. A people who had been completely disenfranchised and rightly saw no future in NATO controlled Ukraine.

  › eric reinhardt 2024-05-16T18:22:06  0

  If Trump is a fascist so is Biden
  the democratic party is no friend of working class people

  › Greg 2024-05-16T18:05:35  0

  Britain’s High Court will hear a final appeal from Assange on the narrowest grounds: whether to accept worthless US “assurances” that a man they tried to assassinate will receive First Amendment protections if he is extradited.

  No better--in fact worse than Israeli “assurances” that it will conduct its genocide in the most humane way possible.

  Every Gazan knows what those assurances are worth.

  Every arrested genocide protester knows what those assurances are worth.

  Shamefully, Robinson made no mention of Labor’s escalating war against whistleblowers and journalists, including the vicious five-year prison sentence handed down this week against former Australian Army lawyer and whistleblower David McBride who exposed war crimes in Afghanistan.

  Trusting and believing otherwise represents an absurd orientation to the very class that is waging war on the working class--in this instance in the persecution of Julian Assange.

  No faith can be placed in the war mongers in Washington or London.

  › The Kid 2024-05-16T16:30:56  0

  The University of Southern California's rationale for canceling the valedictorian speech of a Muslim student was because it might 'trigger' terroristic behavior from supporters of Israel.

  › oswald durand 2024-05-16T16:29:16  0

  " After 1993, that is, following the dissolution of the USSR, Russian scientists were invited to participate. Serving as a symbol of international cooperation in space exploration, it remains a joint research station with the space agencies NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe) and CSA (Canada) participating."
  Wy is the author silent on the absence of the PRC's space agency, is it because it was excluded, thereby undermining the positive gloss he wants to impart to that initiative?

  › Greg 2024-05-16T15:44:37  0

  Only six days after Democrats in the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to keep ultra-right Republican Mike Johnson in office as Speaker, Johnson appeared outside of Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan.

  The message to the working class from the ruling political and media elite, the state and its institutions is that workers must trust and believe them and not their own lyin' eyes.

  It is through what Trotsky referred to as the “direct interference of the masses in historical events” that the fight against imperialist war and dictatorship must be waged.

  But it's the reality as seen through the eyes of Leon Trotsky that not only captures today's individual feelings and aspirations of many of the vast majority of the population that is the working class but moreover the actual necessity to intervene in accordance with and in fulfilment of its historical revolutionary role in events.

  Nuclear war in I.S.S., like just about everything else, develops outside of history and therefore apart from human understanding and any possible action to stop annihilation. -I.S.S.: War in space without—for a change—anti-Russian xenophobia

  The working class must look to its past to see the future.

  › Todd Smekens 2024-05-16T15:35:37  0

  I've written plenty about the corruption of the US government, especially about the Julian Assange case, which has been ongoing for over a decade.

  The DNC Leaks, Sheldon Adelson, UC Global, Lenin Moreno and Ecuador, Mike Pompeo and the CIA, Hillary Clinton, Seth Rich, Sean Hannity and Fox News, Tulsi Gabbard, Guccifer 2.0, etc.

  I still believe that Hillary Clinton is most likely behind the punishment of Julian since she blames him for receiving the leaked data from DNC computers and then publishing them on Wikileaks. The emails showed how she and John Podesta screwed Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary election. I also believe she was responsible for Seth Rich's unsolved murder claimed to be a botched robbery even though nothing was stolen. Hillary claims the emails and Comey's announcement caused her to lose the election. There is no way it could have been she was absolutely the worst choice the DNC could pick for 2016 (the year of the populist).

  So, yes, the persecution against Julian Assange is highly political. It's about as high as one can get in the US/UK Intel worlds. Not sure how much Lenin Moreno, former president of Ecuador, received for betraying Rafael Correa and the Ecuadorean people, but I hope it was worth it. The US must have made lots of promises. ;)

  By the way, didn't Biden appoint John Podesta as Climate Czar replacing Kerry? It's still a swamp in Washington and Trump is part of it.

  › Sebouh80 2024-05-16T14:02:51  0

  Absolutely the freedom of Julian Assange is deeply correlated with the toxic climate of war and dictatorship back home. Now I do know that the international working class even under these deeply hostile conditions would not leave this brave journalist alone.

  › Sebouh80 2024-05-16T13:49:06  0

  The additional billion dollars coming from the Biden administration would only further fuel the genocidal impulse of the Zionist regime against Palestinians.

  › Siew Wong 2024-05-16T13:27:48  0

  War hawks like Emily Kilcrease is commonplace in the American establishment. American geopolitics always has a war element in it to project US supremacy, exceptionalism and imperialism. US politics and corporate commerce thrives on war and the military. Without these two elements, the US would be reduced to a "paper tiger". In other words, the US employs military threats and economic sanctions to impose its will on the world. How shameful.

  › Sebouh80 2024-05-16T12:51:20  0

  Today the lesser-evil politics only exists in the figment of imagination of American ruling class circles that includes the media outlets linked to them. For they all equally support the war industry aims and the interests of the existing power structure that continue to fund them.

  › lamy, david 2024-05-16T12:10:15  0

  I long for the day when my criticism of Democrats is not taken as support for Republicans.
  That day might come soon. If Biden and Trump do debate many viewers may see that these two are not a choice.

  › John Kendall 2024-05-16T07:40:17  0

  It's quite obvious what is being ''manufactured'' here. A form of subliminal messaging that seeks to create a logic between ''antisemitism'' and immorality and terrorism .

  Again as with 'fake news' and 'alternative facts', the fascist must turn reality on its head.

  What is clearly coming down the line in fascisms last desperate stand is that the students and workers must ''if push comes to shove'' be killed as terrorists, all in the defence of our ''glorious freedom and democracy''.

  Everything for America !!

  › PeterHL 2024-05-16T00:39:34  0

  The U.S. government and corporations, ever since former U.S. President Richard Nixon's visit to China, has for decades been offshoring U.S. manufacturing to China. After doing that, how is the U.S. working class to really believe that what they are doing now is motivated by concern for adequate employment for them?

  › Avant_Garde_1917 2024-05-16T00:25:50  0

  Biden is doing EVERYTHING in his power to increase the price of everything and make life Unaffordable to american workers and poor. It was already bad enough. Like a GPU that has the minimum memory requirements to use for anything but gaming costs well over $1400 - now this will just increase more. Gas $3.70+ lets increase that too. Food, increase those prices. increase all the prices!

  Wow, so progressive of you biden! You're being so protectionistic! NOT.

  › Avant_Garde_1917 2024-05-16T00:22:45  0

  And coming soon to the news - the attempted industrial sabotage of Chinese passenger jets who are outcompeting boeing et al

  › Avant_Garde_1917 2024-05-16T00:18:40  0

  Well idk if I would call even the combined US/NATO 'military might' a "continued supremacy" .... but they certainly want people to think that. In reality it is deceit and delusion.

  I dont give them the benefit of the doubt - their ability to bully the world and carry on the projection of being the global hegemone, 'at least militarily' - is based on their ability to make others believe it. But its falsification is demonstated on the battlefields of Ukraine and in almost every other military conflict the US has been involved in.

  Supremacy my ass. Yes it is more expensive - but all powerful or most-powerful ? No, far from it.

  Only by recognizing this weakness can people overcome their fear and challenge it directly. But giving them a freebie and advertising their military supremacy does the opposite, it doesnt hasten the revolution it only makes it look more hopeless. I say the strength of american military power should be downplayed and reduced rhetorically as much as possible

  › Geraldine Clifford 2024-05-15T22:57:30  0

  I will donate the dollar equivalent of British £303 to allow a wsws reporter to attend Julian's scandalously cruel final hearing. It is important for the truth to be heard and shared. If only it were as easy to buy Julian's way out of prison and home to his family. FREE JULIAN ASSANGE!

  › sumwunyumaynotno 2024-05-15T21:25:33  0

  Max Blumenthal, of the Grayzone, has made the point that the Nazi collaborators were brought in to act as strikebreakers against the increasingly socialist-minded Canadian working class.

  › Greg 2024-05-15T18:56:37  0

  The use of military means to offset parasitic financialization is as class-delusional as is proclaiming that the trade union role is to protect the interests of American workers.

  One of the main reasons US corporations have fallen behind is that profit accumulation has increasingly centered on parasitic financialization, often via massive share buybacks, rather than the development of the productive forces.
  
  The result is that America’s economic supremacy has been severely eroded, to which the imperialist state is responding in the area where it enjoys continued supremacy: the use of military means.

  Workers must not only take part in neither but unite to oppose both.

  › Liz 2024-05-15T16:30:47  0

  Well. I certainly do.hope that at least a couple of the Post Office bosses go to prison over this: and that the sub-postmasters do finally get full compensation!

  › Ted Mccabe 2024-05-15T15:54:38  0

  Nick Beams assumes something which really needs to be questioned. Does increasing material wealth advance our ability to redress the climate crisis? Physicists would say no. Energy always forgets. Mass always remembers. The universe forgets far more than it remembers. As a species, we should be much more afraid of fire than we are. Climate scientists are in a panic. The climate crisis is advancing much more quickly than predicted. The problem is famine which is a problem that will correct itself. The Pentagon employs climate scientists. The SEP should do the same. It won't. The SEP is too keen on reading. In this, the anarchists are right. While socialists read, anarchists look. You have to do both. As the ecologists crunch their numbers, the computers give off heat. The very process by which we understand the problem is the problem.

  › Sebouh80 2024-05-15T15:44:14  0

  The Biden administration is seen simply pushing the Trump era tariffs to the next level against China. For they are claiming that these measures are done for the sole purpose of protecting the American worker while in fact it is aimed at securing the interests of big domestic tech companies that are lagging far behind China technologically speaking . The targeting of strategic sectors of Beijing is part of deep economic warfare that could likely push for a direct confrontation at some point. All these aggressive shits that we are seeing taking place in the overall political economy brings us back to the power blocks system of previous century that had played a pivotal in creating the conditions for second World War. In any case, these convulsive times should not be viewed as a moment of despair, but a renewed opportunity from the part of the working class to advance their own program.

  › Greg 2024-05-15T15:13:33  0

  McBride was condemned for having gone against military command and for showing no “contrition,” while the contents of what he exposed were scarcely mentioned.

  To a far lesser degree in terms of state prosecution--so far, it's the same demand and expectation by the political and media elite and college administrators when it comes to protest against the genocide in Gaza.

  The genocide would hardly seem to be a factor, at all.

  In fact war crimes and their connection to imperialism and the next world war is what it's all about.

  Anything that interferes with the plans for imperialist world war have become the political "third rail"--for workers.

  Even--especially when it comes to exposing the reality of war crimes by the class oppressor.

  The US president boasted, “We don’t merely watch global events unfold; we shape them.”-Biden signs bipartisan bill for world war

  But with the increasing class consciousness of workers, the ruling political and media elite and the state and its institutions are left not shaping events but merely illusions.

  It's up to revolutionary leadership of the international working class to shape not just events, but the future.

  Otherwise there will be none.

  › Cornet Joyce 2024-05-15T14:58:25  0

  Nothing could more clearly reveal the utter irrationality of the capitalist system than that the production of cheaper goods in greater quantities, thereby increasing material wealth and advancing measures to deal with climate change, is a danger.

  
  The author appears to be suggesting that dumping electric cars on the US market, probably selling at less than their cost of production, is a rational thing to do because US customers will thereby be wealthier and climate change effects will be mitigated. Actually, the utter irrationality of the capitalist system is revealed most clearly by crises of over-production, a symptom of a society in which the process of production has the mastery over man, instead of being controlled by him.

  › Leah Jeresova 2024-05-15T13:39:29  0

  I have never seen university students so excited about a political issue since the time of the Viet Nam War. The actions of students were effective in pressuring the Nixon administration to negotiate a peace treaty. I remember a student strike over the war when I was in grad school.

  Students must not lose the momentum now, when the humanitarian crisis in GAZA is worsening!. This time, students must go further than their 1960s counterparts, and unite across campuses with other students and workers, as this article suggests.

  The UW staff member who commented that SEIU does not allow discussions of political issues at union meetings, is correct. If you are unhappy about anything, union officials will tell you “Write to your congressman!” I was a member of SEIU for 20 years in Ohio. The unions, Congress and the employers are all connected. The UAW is even more rotten than SEIU. Workers are catching on

  › lamy, david 2024-05-15T13:35:23  0

  This is a valuable article I am forwarding to my Canadian family and friends. I am sad to see Canada succumb to screwing its citizens as my U.S. government does us.

  › stevenjohnson2 2024-05-15T13:32:08  0

  Redbaiting unions is not an acceptable means of struggle, it strengthens reaction. You can't claim to stand for internationalism while encouraging backward workers to fight socialists. In your hands, "Stalinist" is meaningless.

  › lamy, david 2024-05-15T12:38:25  0

  There has been enormous contraction of the number of Chinese EV manufacturers, from 500 to 100. (Are there even 10 in the U.S.?) There has been furious competition for customers there. By many accounts, these vehicles are well engineered and a terrific value.
  On the home front, we have a few sclerotic corporations holding their hands out for government bailouts in form of tariffs and weakened labor protections.
  Ginning up a war that is unwinnable for most of us is the final act of theft by our capitalists.

  › Skip 2024-05-15T09:31:57  0

  University have to get accreditation feom te UN. Students need to organize against the Universities at the UN. Threaten their accreditation.

  › Finbar28 2024-05-15T08:02:35  0

  This photo of the GMB trade union with a pro-war pro- Bandera fascist Ukrainian trade union recognized by the Ukrainian government, is significant: trade unions with workers dues money that call for war, war that kills, starves , destroys, eradicates. In line with their NATO chiefs, Never did they call for a ceasefire towards a peace plan on missile security and territory issues. With impotent token opposition thievery of miners wages and pensions was overseen by Ukrainian trade unions since 2014, bloodied by the Odessa massacre at the Trade Union House by banderists.
  What is their aim: to replace the old, the best ever, Soviet labour code that Ukraine workers still have. And war is a means to do so.
  "Moreover, without extensive reconstruction aid, the end of the war will bring mass unemployment. It is vital that collective bargaining exists across the economy to support workers through this, and limits the extent to which unemployment can be weaponised by employers. Doing this will require trade unions to be allowed to contribute to establishing a new labour code to replace the 1971 Soviet one."

  https://www.thesocialreview...

  › Dorje Dharma 2024-05-15T06:13:32  0

  Canada is and always was nothing but Americas' ugly Northern lickspittle.

  › Dorje Dharma 2024-05-15T06:04:05  0

  This is our 21st Century Holocoust.

  › John 2024-05-15T05:46:39  0

  I think over production is one of the main drivers of climate change. But these new tariffs don't really adress that problem. Though the irony is that Capitalism has essentially devolved into mercantilism. And there is a real big disconnect between opening new markets through the barrel of a gun or gun boat diplomacy and then closing yourself off to them or trying to destroy them when they become bigger than yours. Biden has been in office close to the Sino-Soviet split and around when Nixon travelled to China. So their is no way he doesn't recognize the absurdity of it all. If anything it shows that global production doesn't make sense under a Capitalist system.

  › gooddoctor 2024-05-15T04:48:16  0

  You do realize that the polar ice is melting with Russian battle ships challenging Canada's (ha,ha,ha) defences.$35 million ''pledged'' over 20 years.No kidding. The Russians have just held a victory parade of captured NATO weapons. The F-35 plane is a disaster, and hugely expensive.

  This is not a military alliance, it's a shakedown.

  › gooddoctor 2024-05-15T04:16:44  0

  The map of the class war in the text you referenced in 1934 in similar circumstances called for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie in no uncertain terms., not a pacifist movement to '' stop the war'' . WIII is lost.Moreover, Trotsky had a global map before hm. On that map, the US and NATO are suffering a debacle after debacle now Ukraine and Palestine. I am talking military defeat. We are in 1944 not 1934, and the possibility of revolutionary ovrthrow of capitalism.--- the collapsing West,not Russia.,still less the Ukraine.

  In any event, much praise for actually reading Trotsky, seldom referenced these days on WSWS.

  Trotsky and the paradoxes of dialectics capturing the richness of historical reality always in movement:

  ''The war of 1914-18 officially ushered in a new epoch. Its most important political events up to now have been: the conquest of power by the Russian proletariat in 1917 and the smashing of the German proletariat in the year 1933. The terrible calamities of the peoples in all parts of the world and even the more terrible dangers that tomorrow holds in store result from the fact that the revolution of 1917 did not find victorious development on the European and world arena.

  Inside the individual countries, the historic blind alley of capitalism expresses itself in chronic unemployment, in the lowering of the living standards of the workers, in the ruination of the peasantry and the town petty bourgeoisie, in the decomposition and decay of the parliamentary state, in the monstrous poisoning of the people by “social” and “national” demagogy in face of an actual liquidation of social reforms, of the pushing aside and replacement of old ruling parties by a naked military-police apparatus (Bonapartism, of capitalist decline), in the growth of fascism, in its conquering power and smashing of each and every proletarian organization.

  On the world arena, the same processes are washing away the last remnants of stability in international relations, driving every conflict between the states to the very edge of the knife, laying bare the futility of pacifist attempts, giving rise to the growth of armaments on a new and higher technical basis and thus leading to a new imperialist war. Fascism is its most consistent artificer and organizer.

  On the other hand, the exposure of the thoroughly reactionary, putrified and robber nature of modern capitalism, the destruction of democracy, reformism and pacifism, the urgent and burning need of the proletariat to find a safe path away from imminent disaster put the international revolution on the agenda with renewed force. Only the overthrow of the bourgeoisie by the insurgent proletariat can save humanity from a new, devastating slaughter of the peoples.

  › Vish 2024-05-15T02:41:09  0

  You have to give American regime rulers credit. They don't even bother to even hide the fact that they are criminal accomplices in the Gaza Genocide.

  Jake Sullivan is only one in a long list of American war criminals who have revealed themselves as such--from the Executive Branch to the United States Congress to the American military and US national security state in general.

  › JTP 2024-05-15T01:48:59  0

  Thank you for this article on H5N1!
  Just a heads-up you might want to retitle one of the images. That isn't a feed lot; it's an auction barn.

  › PaulB 2024-05-15T00:34:25  0

  Good piece. Israel is vital to the American empire’s control of West Asian energy supplies and will be fully supported in their genocidal war on Palestinians. As we have seen, Israel is supported by the ruling elite, corporate media and the entire political class. Considerations-
  1. The Pentagon has not ‘won’ a major war since 1945, while the IDF has not won a war since 1973.
  2. Israel is fully integrated into US/NATO, functioning as a US military platform in the ME and central to American power projection in the region for control of West Asian energy reserves and solidifying Israeli control over the massive Leviathan gas field in the eastern Mediterranean (See- The disputed gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean Al Jazeera Mar 7, 2017; https://www.aljazeera.com/n....
  3. Israel’s importance to American capitalism can be gleaned from comments by representatives of the ruling elite:
  i) Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig described Israel as our ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’ in the Middle East.
  ii) President Joe Biden stated “if Israel didn't exist, we (the US) would have to invent it’. (See: US President Joe Biden: “If there were not an Israel, we’d have to invent one.” Middle East Eye Oct 28, 2022; https://www.youtube.com/wat....
  Bottom line. The survival of Israel is of paramount importance to the American empire, as recently pointed out by Pepe Escobar.
  Links follow.
  1. Richard Medhurst on the Shocking Truth Behind Israel's War & What's Next for the Middle East. Danny Haiphong May 8, 2024; https://www.youtube.com/wat...
  2. The hidden reasons behind the war on Gaza (Part I). Either the Resistance Axis and the Global South decolonize the Middle East, or "Israel" and the US will continue occupying the region, choking off the New Silk Road,
  plundering Syria's oil, and keeping Russian, Iranian, and Arab gas cut off from the world market. The hidden reasons behind the war on Gaza (Part I) By Richard Medhurst. Al Mayadeen English Nov 24, 2023; https://english.almayadeen....
  3. Israel has Lost the Global South and Continues Losing Much More | Pepe Escobar Dialogue Works May 11, 2024;

  › Ed Bergonzi 2024-05-14T23:39:14  0

  The frenzied and hysterical response by the mouthpieces of German imperialism is testament to their increasing isolation.

  › Finbar28 2024-05-14T23:17:07  0

  The UK government already sent depleted uranium rounds and warheads about 18 months ago to Ukraine, thus already putting the conflict into a nuclear fog of war. With these are also BROACH and MAC augmented charges used for marine and land nuclear mines, as the UK military practiced since the 1950s with the SBS Germany ( New Scientist 16 July 2003 Rob Edwards .) The SBS helped retake Snake Island for the Ukrainian military in 2022-2023.
  The GMB and other British trade unions control most of the weapons production plants workers, about 12,000 at DE&S and others at BAE which makes 39 types of ammunition for the military.
  9 months ago 50 GMB members making the Storm Shadow missiles in Ayrshire went on a two week strike, which the union bypassed production disruption like the US auto industry. Tellingly the GMB and other British unions cooperate with Ukraine trade unions to divide workers and promote war effort:
  "The GMB said it had won support for the dispute from Ukrainian trade unions and a Ukrainian opposition MP and lawyer, Lesia Vasylenko, who has supported calls for Russia to be expelled from the UN.

  The union released a letter from Mykhailo Volynets, chair of the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine, that said the staff at Beith played “a crucial role” in supplying Ukraine with munitions.

  “The supplies you ensure are a lifesaver for civilians in cities under constant attack by Russian forces, as well as for the brave Ukrainian military on the frontline,” Volynets wrote. “We sincerely appreciate your commitment to supporting Ukrainian workers during the hard times and stand in solidarity with union members in their struggle. We urge the employer to negotiate to resolve the problem as soon as possible.”

  In a statement issued by the GMB, Vasylenko urged DE&S executives to settle the dispute. “The work being done by GMB Scotland members at Beith could not be more important to Ukraine as we fight for our freedom,” she said.
  https://www.theguardian.com...

  › Greg 2024-05-14T21:04:54  0

  Robertson insisted the CWU’s main task was to show Royal Mail a way “to bridge that cost gap”. He vented against workers for opposing this race-to-the-bottom against companies like DPD: “While we can moan and wail that it is all unfair, it’s gig economy and it’s this and that, the company’s going to be looking at the bottom line saying ‘Yeh but it’s cheaper.’”

  Well then maybe the premise of the problem shouldn't be one that looks at it from the company's point of view!

  Robertson's comments were framed entirely from the standpoint of accepting the “company’s bottom line” and “returning Parcelforce to profitability.”

  The only acceptance going on is that of the union leadership bureaucracy that puts the interests of profit over the fair compensation and welfare of workers.

  The fight against war and inequality must be combined with the struggle against the outmoded capitalist system. The profit motive, whose destructive logic is being played out in Gaza as well as on the campuses, must be replaced with rational planning of the world’s resources to meet human needs, under the control of a workers’ government. This is the program of socialism. -University of California strike vote must be the start of a working class fight against war and assault on democratic rights

  But from a workers perspective they're going to be looking at war and inequality saying, "Who needs the outmoded capitalist system?!"

  The CWU’s distain for owner-drivers, who have no job security or basic employments rights sums up the corrupt, pro-company union bureaucracy: unity with Royal Mail shareholders and divide and rule for the workers.

  Who needs the CWU bureaucracy?!!!!

  › Crazy Horse 2024-05-14T19:32:08  0

  Rishi Sunak as usual speaks with a forked tongue.
  Prior to all wars the politicians talk up "threats" and build up their militaries and attempt to frame others as "enemies". The mind boggles at how Iran or North Korea could possibly be a major danger to the UK. Does Sunak, and Starmer, see these places as potential refugee dumping sites when Rwanda is full? Who knows what they fantacise about.
  The challenge is convincing the people to see through these lies and unite with all people for a just, socialistic, peaceful world.

  › C M Concepcion 2024-05-14T18:51:50  0

  I remember seeing this film when it came out. I remember being terrified but, because I was only 13 years old at the time, I wasn’t able to articulate what made me so afraid. Now that I’m much older and have experienced a number of events, including surviving 9/11 (I was in the Pentagon), it’s made me even more afraid, though not for myself, but for the future if we don’t get rid of capitalism. I may have to rewatch this film at some point, because there are lots of parallels with what has happened in the last 40 years.

  › Ted Mccabe 2024-05-14T17:28:15  0

  This is a complicated question as Sri Lanka actually does face the consequences of global warming and the consequent climate crisis which are causing sea levels to rise and storms to become more deadly. The country's net imports exceed net exports. Imports consist largely in processed petroleum (mostly from India and the Middle East), rubberized fabric for its major export industry of knit goods, and special purpose ships, principally serving military purposes. Given the ecological crisis, tourism is likely to fail. You can't really separate Sri Lanka from the climate crisis nor the increasing likelihood of global imperialist conflict. In short, the future of the working class in Sri Lanka is intimately tied to the global crises of capitalism over which they have little control.

  › Carolyn Zaremba 2024-05-14T17:20:08  0

  And Jake Sullivan is a liar, along with the rest of the neocon cabal. They work so hard to convince people that what they are seeing in Gaza with their own eyes is not happening. What are they smoking? Or what do they think we're smoking?

  › Greg 2024-05-14T16:32:21  0

  The genocide has the support of the entire ruling class and its two parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. And as terrible as it is, the genocide is only one front in an emerging Third World War.

  The mindset of one of the mentioned two roads is to force workers to accept the very concrete fact of genocide and an emerging Third World War.

  Just as the vast majority of the population that are workers were forced to "accept" the fact of their economic exploitation by a tiny minority of the ruling elite.

  "In for a penny..."

  Hence, now the attacks on the free press, free speech and assembly.

  "...In for a pound."

  Because the crisis of capitalism is driving things further along one of those two possible roads.

  As the wsws has pointed out before, one road is the normalization of genocide (hence, attacks on the free press, free speech and assembly) and an emerging Third World War.

  It's "business as usual."

  The other road, in its earliest and most crucial stages, is one of resistance to all of those things based on the right of resistance of the oppressed class that is the majority against the elite class that is oppressing it.

  And in fact it's that context that the ruling political and media elite try most to gloss over, distract from, if not ignore altogether.

  Because it ultimately comes down to two roads or two versions of what things actually are: through the eyes of the oppressor or through the eyes of the oppressed.

  For workers, "in for a penny"... must necessarily be in for the interests of the entire working class.

  If it's seeing those interests through the eyes of the oppressor then the "pound" will be the normalization of barbarism.

  It can only be all one or all the other--not both.

  Illusion in "what things actually are" is on the side of the oppressor.

  Seeing reality for what it is, as a worker, is resistance.

  That crucial resistance just requires revolutionary leadership to be effectively unified and put into action.

  › Tony Williams 2024-05-14T16:19:40  0

  Not only that but Graham is now the equivalent of Kubrick's General Jack D. Ripper in DR. STRANGELOVE. https://www.msn.com/en-us/n...

  › Gus 2024-05-14T13:55:59  0

  Ten years ago, motorcycle mechanics would refuse to work on any Chinese bike because there was no guarantee they could be fixed. Now, not only does China make the best value bike, they are the best quality bikes on the market. Tariffs punish Americans both as workers and as consumers.

  › Eric Sommer 2024-05-14T13:10:07  0

  It's time to revisit the old but great IWW song 'Solidarity Forever', written at a time when trade unions still had a progressive abeit limited reformist role to play. Note the currently pirtent words: "Without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn'. When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run
  There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun
  Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one
  But the union makes us strong
  Solidarity forever
  Solidarity forever
  Solidarity forever
  For the union makes us strong
  Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite?
  Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?
  Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?
  For the union makes us strong
  Solidarity forever
  Solidarity forever
  Solidarity forever
  For the union makes us strong
  It is we who plowed the prairies, built the cities where they trade
  Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid
  We stand outcast and starving, midst the wonders we have made
  But the union makes us strong
  Solidarity forever
  Solidarity forever
  Solidarity forever
  For the union makes us strong
  All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone
  We have laid the wide foundations, built it skyward stone by stone
  It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own
  While the union makes us strong
  Solidarity forever
  Solidarity forever
  Solidarity forever
  For the union makes us strong
  They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn
  But without our brain and muscle, not a single wheel can turn
  We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
  That the union makes us strong
  Solidarity forever
  Solidarity forever
  Solidarity forever
  For the union makes us strong
  In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold
  Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold
  We can bring to birth a new world, from the ashes of the old
  For the union makes us strong
  Solidarity forever
  Solidarity forever
  Solidarity forever
  For the union makes us strong
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