This week in history: April 28-May 4
Actors and museum workers strike; mass movement for socialism in Portugal; South Africa workers protest; Chinese communists mass trade union center
Actors and museum workers strike; mass movement for socialism in Portugal; South Africa workers protest; Chinese communists mass trade union center
Over a more than hour-long Zoom meeting, union officials offered no concrete plan to halt the outsourcing of porters, housekeeping, catering, and estates staff into a SubCo, in a transparent privatisation operation.
Illusions promoted by the education unions that a Labour government would end more than a decade of austerity in Britain under the Tories, have rapidly dispersed.
SEP national secretary Cheryl Crisp explains in this video why our candidates appear on the ballot papers in Victoria, NSW and Queensland without their party affiliation.
At the online meeting, this Thursday at 7p.m., SEP candidates will speak on the socialist alternative to war, austerity and dictatorship.
The Socialist Equality Party candidate opposed the nationalism and militarism of the Labor, Liberal-National, Greens and pro-Trump “Trumpet of Patriots” representatives.
We warn working people not to believe Amarasuriya’s promises. What she stated is exposed by JVP/NPP government’s six months of austerity and police state measures.
The electorate is a microcosm of the social crisis caused by the onslaught on workers’ jobs and wages, presided over by Labor and the union bureaucracy.
Decades of social cuts by the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party, supported by the trade unions, have allowed the AfD to grow into the second strongest force in the Bundestag. Now the fascist party is needed to intimidate and suppress growing social and political opposition.
Behind the attacks on Trump in the European media lie bitter rivalries between Washington and the European imperialist powers over the plunder of Ukraine and trade war policies.
The leaked plans completely vindicate the position of the WSWS, which warned that the CTU, the Democrats and media were concealing the real scope of the impending cuts.
After seven weeks of a full blockade of food, water, medical supplies and electricity, the United Nations World Food Program warned that it had delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meal kitchens in Gaza, raising the prospect of imminent mass starvation for the enclave’s remaining population.
Trump has pardoned the fascist thugs who attacked the US Capitol, while arresting a judge who objected to an immigration raid in her courtroom.
Only days after workers voted overwhelmingly to strike, the Teamsters announced a contract and a snap vote, to the outrage of the rank and file.
It is a measure of how far to the right all the official parties of Canadian imperialism have moved that in many policy areas, the Tories’ far-right program is virtually indistinguishable from the platforms of the Liberals and New Democrats.
This report on the ongoing military and social crisis in Ukraine was submitted to the WSWS by Ukrainian journalists.
The anti-science policies of Trump and Robert F. Kennedy are aiding the spread of long-suppressed childhood diseases.
In a further escalation, the two sides have repeatedly exchanged gun and artillery fire across the Line of Control that demarcates India-held Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistani-controlled Azad Kashmir,
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer boarded the Prince of Wales as it prepared to leave UK shores at Cornwall, declaring, “We are sending a clear message of strength to our adversaries, and a message of unity and purpose to our allies.
Irish rap group Kneecap are being investigated by British counter-terrorism police. The move, part of an orchestrated campaign, is in response to the widespread support amongst young people for the group’s principled and determined opposition to the Gaza genocide.
The following letter was sent to British Foreign Secretary David Lammy by Socialist Equality Party (UK) National Secretary Chris Marsden on April 27, 2025.
The event has always been a celebration of militarist reaction, but all the more so under conditions of the greatest threat of a world war in 85 years.
Peach spoke strongly on issues that are being covered up by every other party in the official election campaign, including the immense threat of a nuclear world war.
The Radio NZ journalist was vilified as a “Russian agent,” resigned amid a manufactured public furore and, in a sinister development, was investigated by the country’s spy agency.
Immigration agents claimed Khalil needed to be arrested before a warrant could be produced because he was a “flight risk” and not “cooperative,” lies disproved by video of Khalil’s abduction taken by his wife.
The FBI arrested Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan on Friday morning, and she was charged with obstruction and harboring a fugitive in connection with an immigrant worker, who appeared before her on April 18.
“Comrade Wicks brought to the struggle for Trotskyism an immense array of political gifts. Possessed of an extraordinary intellectual curiosity, Wicks was immersed in the history of the international Trotskyist movement”—David North
The raids were executed across Ann Arbor, Canton and Ypsilanti. No one was arrested or charged during the raids, but police and FBI agents seized electronic devices and personal belongings and briefly detained 11 individuals for interrogation.
Wolfgang Weber, an outstanding fighter for Trotskyism and a longtime leading member of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGP) died on November 16, 2024. We are publishng here a message of condolence by the national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in the US, Joseph Kishore.
The most basic lie in The Nation’s article is that it is possible to create a “progressive” nationalist politics which benefit the working class.
China: BYD electronics manufacturing workers strike; India: Tamil Nadu power-generation workers walk out indefinitely; Pakistani health workers continue to protest privatisation; Australia: Public mental health workers strike again
Support for the NDP, which is fraudulently presented in the mainstream media as a party of the “left,” has plunged to under 10 percent—its lowest share in a quarter century.
The attacks on education in São Paulo and around the world are part of the increasing shift of the world’s ruling elite towards war and fascism.
Increasingly dry conditions due to global warming compounded by reductions in forest management practices presage a dramatic increase in wildfire danger.
Anti-genocide protests which have taken place regularly in Morocco escalated to coincide with the arrival of the US-flagged Maersk Detroit and another container ship involved in the onward transit of the components to Israel, the Nexoe Maersk.
The ruling class and all its parties are indifferent to the fact that earthquakes and similar natural phenomena threaten millions of people. This shows that there is no other way out than for the working class to mobilise and take matters into its own hands.
“All these parties, Labor, Liberal, whatever, it’s just a façade. At the end of the day they all want the same thing.”
Chinese government officials have said claims by the Trump administration that there are “active” discussions between Washington and Beijing are “fake news.”
Labor’s proposed change would not protect workers from the elimination or slashing of penalty rates through union-management agreements.
Islamabad has warned that it will consider it "an act of war," if India makes good on its threat to cut off Pakistan's access to the water upon which its power grid and irrigation network rely.
With Trump’s tariffs on auto parts set to begin May 3, the UAW has ignored or tried to downplay the mounting attacks on auto jobs.
Exactly one year ago, the Ukrainian socialist and leader of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists was arrested by the Ukrainian Secret Service.
The phrase “precarious work” may be metaphorical in some cases, but in the unstable and perilous existence Souleymane leads the “precariousness” is real and ever-present.
The legal setbacks have already prompted House passage of a law against “rogue judges,” while Trump for the first time attacked the Supreme Court publicly.
The following remarks were delivered to a January 19 meeting by David North, chairman of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site.
More than 1,500 student visas have been summarily revoked, including at least four at Wayne State University. Campus workers who have spoken out against genocide are having their jobs terminated at the University of Michigan.
Sánchez plans to impose this increase by decree, bypassing the normal budgetary process, underscoring how militarism and war are inseparable from a drive to dictatorship at home.
The strike received overwhelming support from the population, which is increasingly hostile to the political setup in a country deemed by the World Bank as the fourth most unequal in the world.
Whose “national interests” and “division of labor” do Taiwan’s social democrats and Stalinists embody?
Over 80,000 hotel, catering and hospitality workers in the Canary Islands walk out to demand pay increase; cost-of-living protests continue across Iran by pensioners and workers in shadow of growing US war threats; Nigerian teachers and council workers continue stoppage over minimum wage in Federal Capital territory
It is impossible to defend democratic rights or any of the social interests of working people without seizing the unearned wealth of the billionaire parasites.
A critical shortage of affordable housing, grossly inadequate mental health services and escalating poverty rates have seen increasing numbers of homeless people in Footscray and other inner-city meeting points.
The struggle, taking place in the midst of mounting opposition to Trump’s authoritarian regime, is also a confrontation with both the Democratic Party machine that governs Los Angeles County and the SEIU bureaucracy.
More than two weeks since the fatal accident, the company, UAW and state safety agencies have not released any new information.
The Socialist Equality Party is the only party in this election telling workers the truth about the climate crisis and advancing the program needed to end it globally: socialism.
On Monday, Harvard University sued the Trump administration and demanded an injunction against the government’s cutoff of over $3 billion in grants that are vital to the ongoing research and educational work of the oldest university in the US.
Socialist Equality Party candidate for Oxley, Mike Head, appeared Wednesday night on 4ZZZ’s Queer Radio, hosted by Blair Martin.
The boundless potential of astronomical discovery contrasts sharply with the backwardness and reaction promoted by Trump and the entire American oligarchy.
The war games are an immense provocation, a combined and coordinated simulation of war with China over Taiwan and the South China Sea.
Over 100,000 people have been deported and more than 113,000 have been arrested as part of Trump's mass deportation drive.
On Tuesday, Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir attended a meeting with leading members of Congress at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club where he pledged to bomb food and aid distribution centers, claiming his proposals met with support on the part of the lawmakers.
The US Supreme Court denied Mendoza’s request for a stay of execution, clearing the way for his lethal injection. His attorneys had asked the high court to review a Texas Criminal Court of Appeals decision to deny a request that claimed Mendoza’s counsel at trial was ineffective.
The media’s praise of Pope Francis aims to place a last coat of “democratic” and “modern” varnish on the Catholic Church as it grants its blessing to the global turn to fascist and dictatorial forms of rule.
Police broke down the door of at least one of the three raided residences and initially refused to show warrants for the assault.
This attack is part of U-M’s efforts to placate Trump in order to avert his threat to block billions in government grants, bowing in the process to the government’s drive to carry out an American version of Hitler’s Nazification of higher education.
One of the stated goals of the coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD is the militarization of universities.
The bin workers’ uncompromising stance finds no reflection in the position of Unite’s top officials, led by general secretary Sharon Graham.
As the gateway to the Sahara, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, Sudan’s location gives it enormous geostrategic importance for imperialism.
Nanda Wickremesinghe’s political life as a Trotskyist spanned nearly seven decades. Right until the end, despite ailments that forced him to withdraw from active party work, our comrade had never lost his revolutionary spirit.
When he speaks before a national audience, Adam Bandt avoids even mentioning Gaza for fear that the mass slaughter of Palestinians will get in the way of the Greens’ aspirations for a coalition government with Labor.
In the current Australian election, the practice of deception centres on trying to cover up the global economic conditions—the breakdown of the entire capitalist order—under which it is being held.
The first ever 24-hour strike by senior doctors is the latest in a rising struggle of medical workers against underfunding, under-staffing and low pay in the public health system.
Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a 32-year-old Venezuelan immigrant and father, legally in the United States, has apparently been disappeared to El Salvador after making a wrong turn on the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit to Ontario, Canada.
Against the backdrop of the prospect of a US-brokered peace deal between the Zelensky and Putin governments, the Ukrainian military has launched another incursion into Russian territory.
IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva has said “trade policy uncertainty is literally off the charts.”
Annual television production in Los Angeles declined by 58.4 percent in just three years.
The implications of multi-million dollar port fees will be nothing short of disastrous for workers inside the US and abroad.
The US Department of Education, aiming to end federal loan support for students, has announced aggressive debt collection measures targeting nearly 10 million former students delinquent or in default on their college loans.
Fifteen international students have had their visas revoked and terminated at George Mason, as part of the Trump administration’s assault on democratic rights.
On Friday, April 18, the Trump White House replaced the COVID.gov site with a web page promoting the lie that the COVID pandemic was the product of nefarious activities conducted by China with the assistance of US scientists.
The next federal government will defend the interests of the property companies and ensure they continue to reap massive profits at the expense of tenants.
The single-family home had been illegally converted into at least a dozen cubicle-sized “apartments” creating extremely dangerous conditions, to which the city building department turned a blind eye despite years of complaints.
The move affects essential workers in housekeeping, catering, portering, estates, and health and safety roles, many of whom are among the lowest-paid staff in the NHS.
We urge workers and young people looking for an alternative to the lies and misinformation of Labor, the Liberal-Nationals, the Greens and the media to attend.
Turbulence in financial markets has intensified with Trump’s threats to sack Fed Chair Powell, amid concerns that the lawlessness which has characterized every area of the administration could extend.
Workers need an international strategy to fight against Trump's trade war measures, which are already causing mass layoffs throughout North America.
The policies proposed by the parliamentary parties will do nothing to address the acute and worsening shortage of affordable homes.
On April 15, some 2,000 teachers rallied at Sao Paulo City Hall to oppose their conversion to contingent status. In Canada, a strike by 1,100 LifeLab medical technicians continues into its 11th week.
The Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) in Southern California is poised to carry out a devastating assault on public education by eliminating the jobs of nearly 280 teachers and counselors by June 30, 2025.
Jose Hermosillo, a resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is at least the second US citizen arrested and imprisoned by immigration agents this month.
Nanda Wickremesinghe, known as Comrade Wicks, played a prominent role in the leadership of Trotskyist movement until his deteriorating health prevented him taking part in day-to-day political work.
Rex Parris, mayor of Lancaster, just north of Los Angeles, claimed that homeless people were responsible for the vast majority of crime in his city, and said he would support a “purge” by the Trump administration.
As expected, the deal is a virtual copy of the concessions-filled agreement imposed earlier this year on city letter carriers through binding arbitration.
When asked if he were suffering from measles, Dr. Ben Edwards confirmed, saying that his symptoms began one day prior to working in his clinic.
In a warning of what is to come after the May 3 election, university administrations across the country have launched similar attacks in recent months, now targeting close to 3,000 jobs of academics and professional staff.
Colleagues are referring to “fast-food education” and “sausage factory learning.”
After overwhelmingly voting down the first concessions contract, the United Steelworkers bureaucracy is again seeking to push through a second, largely unchanged, contract for the 1,000 steelworkers at ATI, formerly Allegheny Technologies Incorporated.
Around 50 students and workers demonstrated in front of Berlin’s Humboldt University last Thursday against the impending deportation of four pro-Palestine activists.
The Dortmund Labour Court found that the sacking of Ahmad Otham, who had supported Palästina Solidarität Duisburg (PSDU), by the state of North Rhine-Westphalian was unlawful. The Duisburg Regional Court stayed the proceedings against Jamal A, who was accused of “condoning criminal offences,” in reference to the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023
The Communication Workers Union hierarchy is enforcing the USO’s dismantling, in partnership with Kretinsky, Ofcom and the British government.