The struggle against war
The Causes and Consequences of World War II
By David North, 31 August 2019
David North, the chairman of the WSWS international editorial board, delivered the following lecture at San Diego State University on October 5, 2009, marking the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War.
US escalates preparations for nuclear war with Russia and China
By Andre Damon, 23 August 2019
After withdrawing from the INF treaty, the US is accelerating its preparations to fight a nuclear war with China or Russia by testing and stockpiling dangerous new weapons in a nuclear arms race.
007 Nuclear war threat
22 August 2019
Establishment figures welcome renewed anti-China hysteria in Australia
By James Cogan, 13 August 2019
The ruling elite requires Australia’s incorporation into US war preparations to be accompanied by slandering any public opposition as the product of “Chinese interference.”
Preparing for great-power war, France creates space command
By Will Morrow, 31 July 2019
The implication, covered over by the media and political establishment, is that the French ruling class is preparing for war against militarily-advanced, nuclear-armed powers.
Beijing raises prospect of military intervention in Hong Kong
By Ben McGrath, 26 July 2019
Beijing ultimately fears that the growth of working class anger will fuel similar mass protests throughout China.
Germany: Racist assassination attempt on Eritrean man
By Marianne Arens, 26 July 2019
On Monday a man from Eritrea was gunned down on the street and seriously injured in the town of Wächtersbach in the state of Hesse.
Prominent Australian academic suggests building nuclear weapons
By Peter Symonds, 11 July 2019
The debate over nuclear weapons is another warning of the advanced preparations for war being made in capitals around the world.
War threats mount as Iran exceeds limit on enriched uranium stockpile
By Bill Van Auken, 2 July 2019
Israel carried out one of its most intense raids in Syria Monday amid speculation that Tel Aviv is preparing to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Democrats back Trump’s massive “World War III” military budget
By Andre Damon, 1 July 2019
Senate Democrats voted overwhelmingly for the largest US military budget ever in a bill that gives Trump a green light for war with Iran and backs his “state of emergency” on the border.
EU powers build joint “Future Combat Air System”
European Union rearms for World War III
By Johannes Stern, 21 June 2019
At the Le Bourget air show the defence ministers of Germany, France and Spain signed major agreements to develop a joint European air combat system.
US names Taiwan a “country,” stoking tensions with China
By Robert Campion, 21 June 2019
Washington deepens ties with Taipei in preparation for war against mainland China.
US secretary of state declares “military response” to Iran “being considered”
By Peter Symonds, 17 June 2019
Clearly Japan and Germany simply do not believe the US allegations against Iran and suspect that the tankers attacks could well be a US provocation to provide the pretext for war.
Germany: Protest vigil in Dusseldorf demands release of Julian Assange
By our reporters, 17 June 2019
“Assange’s surrender to the US would mean that war crimes, spying on the population, or government intrigues and conspiracies would no longer be reported.”
Leaked OPCW engineering report concludes alleged 2018 chemical attack in Syria was staged
By Paul Bond, 28 May 2019
The Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media research group conclude that its findings “establish beyond reasonable doubt that the alleged chemical attack in Douma… was staged.”
“Many of us are a shell of who we were before”
Memorial Day 2019: US Army tweet prompts outpouring of antiwar sentiment
By George Marlowe, 27 May 2019
The horrors and crimes of US imperialism were detailed in a torrent of responses after the US Army asked its Twitter followers how military service had impacted them.
As Assange faces 170-year sentence, Trump proposes pardoning US war criminals
By Eric London, 27 May 2019
Trump’s suggestion to pardon US war criminals exposes the class character of the bipartisan campaign against Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning.
No to war against Iran!
By Bill Van Auken, 15 May 2019
The threat of all-out war in the Middle East is greater than at any time since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, and the potential consequences are far graver.
Washington pushes to brink of war against Iran
By Bill Van Auken, 14 May 2019
Pompeo’s abrupt trip to Brussels and the deployment of more US military assets to the Persian Gulf point to a calculated US escalation of a war crisis.
Preparing for World War Three
Global military spending tops $1.8 trillion, highest on record
By Niles Niemuth, 30 April 2019
Nearly three decades after the end of the Cold War, the world’s capitalist elite, led by the United States, are preparing for a devastating conflict of global proportions.
New study documents over 1,600 killed in US siege of Raqqa, Syria
By Bill Van Auken, 26 April 2019
The killings in Raqqa, like those in Mosul, Iraq, constituted massive war crimes committed in the so-called war against ISIS.
Macron moves to prosecute journalists who revealed French arms sales in Yemen war
By Will Morrow, 26 April 2019
French security services have summoned Disclose journalists for questioning over their April 15 report documenting French arms supplies to Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.
Dearborn, Michigan residents protest on four-year anniversary of US-backed Saudi war on Yemen
By Tim Rivers, 1 April 2019
Around a hundred people carried signs and flags, chanted slogans and heard speakers denounce the unrelenting assault on one of the poorest countries in the world.
Unsealed documents shed light on state conspiracy against Chelsea Manning
By Kevin Reed, 22 March 2019
The unsealed documents shine a light on the desperate measures to which the US government has resorted in pursuing a legal pretext to prosecute Julian Assange.
Pompeo enlists US energy conglomerates for global oil war
By Bill Van Auken, 15 March 2019
The US secretary of state’s speech laid out in stark terms Washington’s turn to global “great power” conflict in which control of the world’s oil remains a key component.
US imperialism stages provocation on Venezuela’s borders
By Eric London, 25 February 2019
The threat of a disaster of world historic proportions looms as the US moves toward war in Venezuela.
MIT refuses to cut ties to Saudi regime
By John Marion, 22 February 2019
The MIT president announced the university’s commitment to maintaining relationships with Saudi Arabia in the wake of the murder of the Saudi dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi last October.
US missile treaty withdrawal sparks global nuclear arms race
By Andre Damon, 21 February 2019
A half-century after the Cuban Missile crisis brought humanity to within a hair’s breadth of destruction, Washington is fueling an even more dangerous global nuclear standoff.
Munich Security Conference
German defence minister advocates German-European war policy
By Johannes Stern, 16 February 2019
Almost 75 years after the end of World War II, the imperialist powers are openly preparing for a new round of military conflicts.
Munich Security Conference overshadowed by rising great power conflicts
By Peter Schwarz, 15 February 2019
The conference will be dominated by the preparations of the US and its allies for war against Russia and China, and the deepening conflicts between the Western allies.
After US withdrawal from INF nuclear treaty with Russia
France conducts dry-run simulation of nuclear weapon strike
By Will Morrow, 8 February 2019
The operation lasted 11 hours and included “all phases” of what was referred to as a “nuclear dissuasion mission,” except for the detonation of an actual nuclear warhead.
Rohini Hensman’s Indefensible: The ISO discovers its muse—the CIA—Part 1
By Alex Lantier, 14 December 2018
Hensman’s arguments tend inescapably in one direction: That US wars have been the main liberating force over the last quarter century.
Washington’s ultimatum on INF treaty heightens threat of nuclear war
By Bill Van Auken, 6 December 2018
While charging Moscow with violating the accord, US imperialism’s real aim is to build up its own forces for aggressive war against both Russia and China.
Russia fires on and captures Ukrainian Navy ships
By Clara Weiss, 26 November 2018
A military escalation in the Azov Sea was prepared over months, with a series of provocations by the Ukrainian regime that enjoyed the support of the EU and US imperialism.
Great powers commemorate First World War, and plan the next one
By Andre Damon, 13 November 2018
The talk by Merkel and Macron of the “tragedy” and “suicide” of World War I could not hide the fact that the imperialist powers are engaged in active preparations for a new and deadly world military conflict.
US missile treaty withdrawal: “Prepare for nuclear war”
By Andre Damon, 24 October 2018
The Trump administration’s withdrawal from the INF treaty has put the world closer to nuclear annihilation than at any time since the end of the Cold War.
Trump’s threat to tear up nuclear pact with Russia met with alarm in Europe, silence from Democrats
By Bill Van Auken, 23 October 2018
The sole criticism from the Democratic Party is that Trump has failed to articulate a clear strategy for confrontation between the world’s two major nuclear powers.
War, censorship, and the invention of “fake news”
By Andre Damon, 22 October 2018
Under conditions of mounting social opposition and escalating plans for military conflict, the US political establishment is moving to ever more brazenly implement internet censorship.
Trump says US will withdraw from Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces treaty
By Alex Lantier, 22 October 2018
As it targets Russia, China and other major powers, Washington is scrapping the entire framework of nuclear arms control that emerged from the Cold War.
A reply to French daily Libération
Is the WSWS exaggerating the threat of war?
By Alex Lantier, 17 October 2018
While admitting the WSWS accurately reports US military measures aimed at Russia and China, Libération claims that we are overstating US preparations for “total war.”
Russia implicates pro-NATO Ukrainian regime in MH17 shoot-down
By Kumaran Ira, 20 September 2018
Using serial numbers provided by European investigators, Moscow gave evidence that the missile that shot down MH17 was held not by Russian, but Ukrainian forces.
German Foreign Minister Maas sees Europe setting “red lines” for US conduct
By Ulrich Rippert and Peter Schwarz, 29 August 2018
More clearly than government officials have done so far, Maas describes the US as a major obstacle to a new German drive to become a world power again.
Japan: Tens of thousands on Okinawa denounce US base relocation plan
By Ben McGrath, 21 August 2018
Given that Okinawa is a major staging pointing for US military action in Asia, opposition to the base is intimately bound up with the struggle against militarism.
Trump threatens Iran with a catastrophic war
By Keith Jones, 24 July 2018
Trump’s tweet was no idle bluster. His administration is pursuing a provocative and reckless drive for regime change in Iran that threatens to ignite a catastrophic war that would set the entire Middle East ablaze.
Amid Trump’s war on immigrants and social programs
Democrats back massive Pentagon budget for war and repression
By Andre Damon, 23 June 2018
Democrats voted overwhelmingly for a bill to vastly expand the US nuclear arsenal, authorize Trump’s planned military parade, and keep the Guantanamo Bay prison camp open.
SEP (UK) meetings on war and censorship: “War preparations are powered by lies”
By Julie Hyland, 18 June 2018
Socialist Equality Party (UK) Assistant National Secretary Julie Hyland addressed recent public meetings in England, Scotland and Ireland titled “War, lies and censorship: For the building of a socialist anti-war movement.”
Geo-strategic conflicts set to intensify following US-North Korea summit
By Ben McGrath, 14 June 2018
The disagreements in Washington are over how best to proceed with planning for war against China and Russia.
The G7 summit collapses
By Alex Lantier, 11 June 2018
The acrimonious breakdown of the G7 summit gave jarring expression to the tensions ripping apart the crisis-ridden world geopolitical order.
Google says it will not renew Project Maven—but collaboration with Pentagon will continue
By Will Morrow, 2 June 2018
The decision is a response to widespread opposition among employees and the public to Google’s role in the illegal US drone murder program.
US special forces operations in Yemen presage wider regional war
By Jordan Shilton, 5 May 2018
The secretive decision to deploy US special forces to Yemen last December underscores once again Washington’s reckless drive towards a regional conflagration with Iran.
Global military spending at record $1.7 trillion
By Niles Niemuth, 4 May 2018
After a quarter century of regional wars, the imperialist powers are rearming for a third world war to redivide the planet.
Washington and Tel Aviv lurching toward a war with Iran
By Bill Van Auken, 2 May 2018
The aggression that is being prepared by the US and Israel threatens to drag all of the major powers into what could prove a catastrophic world war.
Israel denounces Iran nuclear deal after new missile strikes on Syria
By Bill Van Auken, 1 May 2018
Netanyahu’s bellicose speech indicting Iran, following on the heels of missile strikes on Syria, underscores the growing threat of a region-wide war.
No to World War III! For the building of a socialist anti-war movement!
By Statement of the World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board, 17 April 2018
The assault by the imperialist powers on Syria is only the prelude to a far broader and bloodier conflict with Iran, Russia, and China.
“I feel repulsed and outraged about last night’s attack on Syria—it was completely unnecessary”
UK workers oppose drive to war
By our reporters, 16 April 2018
Anti-war protester: “There should have been a referendum on whether to go to war! They are asking us to go to war with no evidence.”
US and imperialist allies launch strikes against Syria
By The World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board, 14 April 2018
All of the governments participating in this new onslaught are crisis-ridden and lack any electoral legitimacy.
War fever grips German media
By Peter Schwarz, 14 April 2018
Die Welt demanded the “eradication of the Assad regime” and the deployment of “hundreds of thousands of soldiers” to Syria to “in the worst case scenario, fight Russians and Iranians.”
Spanish government promotes militarism in schools
By Alejandro López, 14 April 2018
The reactionary syllabus includes the need to respect the army, the police, the flag, the anthem and the King and to uphold the unity of Spain.
US, Britain and France prepare onslaught against Syria
By Statement of the World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board, 12 April 2018
The imperialist powers, based on fraudulent allegations, are on the verge of launching another bloodbath in the Middle East.
Opposing forces mobilise for war in Syria
By James Cogan, 12 April 2018
Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon stressed Moscow’s repeated warnings that it will retaliate against any attack that threatens its personnel in Syria.
German government supports war preparations against Syria
By Peter Schwarz, 12 April 2018
Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Maas have made it clear that they unreservedly support US, French and British military action against Syria.
The pseudo-left’s silent complicity in the drive to war against Syria and Russia
By Tom Hall, 10 April 2018
The major publications of the pseudo-left, including Jacobin and Socialist Worker, have written nothing on the imperialist war drive or on the shutdown of Internet access for Julian Assange.
Tens of thousands protest mass shootings in New York, Michigan, Boston and the southern United States
By Tom Hall, 27 March 2018
IYSSE members and supporters spoke to demonstrators at a large number of demonstrations throughout the country.
“This can be turned around by people who want to build a new society”
California: Protesters denounce war and social inequality
By our reporters, 27 March 2018
The large turnout in the most populous US state reflects a political shift, as a new generation of young people are being thrust into politics for the first time.
The protests against school shootings and the growth of the class struggle
By Joseph Kishore, 24 March 2018
The simultaneous development of a movement among workers and student youth portends a major eruption of social and class conflict in the United States and internationally.
Now available from Mehring Books
New pamphlet: The social and political roots of mass shootings in America
By Shannon Jones, 24 March 2018
There is a growing awareness that something is deeply amiss with the present social order.
UK-led anti-Russia campaign used to hit out at Trump, pressure EU
By Chris Marsden, 22 March 2018
Tuesday was the day the UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats and their families, while May chaired a session of the national security council to discuss further actions against Russia.
The campaign over the Skripal poisoning: An international war provocation
By Chris Marsden, 17 March 2018
The campaign by the imperialist powers in Europe and the United States over the poisoning of former Russian spy and British double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter stinks to high heaven.
South Korea delegation heads to Pyongyang for talks
By Peter Symonds, 5 March 2018
Despite appeals from South Korea, there is no sign that the Trump administration is prepared to make any concessions to enable negotiations with North Korea to proceed.
Responding to US threats, Russian President Putin proclaims nuclear arms race
By Andre Damon, 2 March 2018
In a belligerently nationalistic speech Thursday, Putin boasted about advances in Russia’s nuclear arsenal and played a video depicting a nuclear strike on the United States.
The growing threat of global trade war
By Nick Beams, 24 February 2018
Two major initiatives by the Trump administration over the past month have ratcheted up global tensions, bringing the threat of retaliatory actions from the European Union and China.
The Russian meddling fraud: Weapons of mass destruction revisited
By Andre Damon and Joseph Kishore, 20 February 2018
As with the Bush administration’s lies about Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction,” the claim that Russia “attacked” the US by “meddling” in the 2016 elections is aimed at creating a justification for war.
French President Macron calls for the draft and threatens strikes on Syria
By Alex Lantier, 15 February 2018
Macron's alliance with Berlin is aimed at converting Europe into an aggressive militarist bloc.
Trump’s parade and the threat of military dictatorship
By Bill Van Auken, 8 February 2018
The US president’s bid to roll tanks down Pennsylvania Avenue is no mere personal whim. It is bound up with deep-going changes in US society and the capitalist state apparatus.
Trump considers “bloody nose” strike on North Korea
By Peter Symonds, 6 February 2018
US aggression against North Korea would almost certainly trigger retaliation and result in an escalating conflict that would drag in other nuclear-armed powers such as Russia and China.
The Economist: Humanity teeters on the brink of world war
By James Cogan, 30 January 2018
The latest issue of the London weekly declares that the past quarter century of bloody conflicts is just the prelude to an even more horrific future.
The media’s guilty silence on Hawaii nuclear war alert
By Bill Van Auken, 29 January 2018
Little more than two weeks after Hawaii’s 1.5 million people received a false alert of impending nuclear disaster, the media has quietly shelved the story.
The “fractured world”: Plutocrats convene in Davos amid war and great-power conflict
By Andre Damon, 27 January 2018
The 47th annual World Economic Forum was dominated by apprehension over every aspect of global politics and economics, from the possibility of a 2008-style financial collapse to the threat of a new world war.
US escalates war for annexation of Syria
By Bill Van Auken, 25 January 2018
In Syria, the Pentagon’s declared shift from the “war on terror” to great power conflict has already been realized in bloody facts on the ground.
British Armed Forces chief prepares for war with Russia
By Robert Stevens, 25 January 2018
The statement by General Sir Nick Carter of the “need” to project land warfare capability up to 2,000 km is a direct threat to Russia with a horrifying historical parallel.
Australian foreign policy White Paper underscores danger of war
By Peter Symonds, 5 December 2017
The document reflects the rising anxieties in ruling circles over the breakdown of the post-World War II order and the emergence of “a more competitive and contested world.”
US Senate hearing exposes danger of nuclear war
By Andre Damon, 16 November 2017
Tuesday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the use of nuclear weapons highlighted the acute danger of the eruption of a war that could kill hundreds of millions of people.
Saudi crisis threatens wider war in the Middle East
By Bill Van Auken, 13 November 2017
The mass arrests in Saudi Arabia, combined with the kidnapping of Lebanon’s prime minister and the escalation of the war against Yemen, point to immense instability.
The colossal cost of Washington’s unending wars
By Bill Van Auken, 9 November 2017
According to Brown University’s latest “Costs of War” report, the Pentagon has squandered nearly $6 trillion over the past 16 years of US invasions, occupations and military interventions.
US prepares to put nuclear bombers on 24-hour alert
By Andre Damon, 24 October 2017
Amid a standoff with North Korea and tensions with Russia and China, Washington is preparing to return its fleet of B-52 nuclear bombers to 24-hour alert for the first time since 1991.
Afghanistan prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl pleads guilty to desertion
By Niles Niemuth, 17 October 2017
Bergdahl pleaded guilty out of concern that he would not receive a fair trial after President Donald Trump declared him a traitor and called for his execution multiple times.
The US on the brink of war with North Korea
By Peter Symonds, 12 October 2017
As Trump faces a mounting political crisis at home, the US president may see a war with North Korea as a means of shoring up his administration and crushing domestic political opposition.
US army chief urges greater “combat readiness” for war with North Korea
By Peter Symonds, 11 October 2017
The US is planning an illegal war of aggression against North Korea on a scale that would dwarf its military interventions into Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria.
North Korea warns that Trump’s threats are a declaration of war
By Peter Symonds, 26 September 2017
Washington’s constant drumbeat of threats and military provocations is aimed at forcing Pyongyang to unconditionally capitulate or goad it into action that can be seized on as the casus belli for a war of annihilation.
At site of Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech
Sanders declares his allegiance to US imperialism
By Tom Hall, 26 September 2017
Sanders’ speech, which denounced Russia and promoted the war in Syria, was an affirmation of support for the imperialist and militarist foreign policy of the American ruling class.
As Trump threatens North Korea, most Americans oppose war
By Peter Symonds, 25 September 2017
An opinion poll revealed the majority of Americans oppose a US attack on North Korea, fear it will lead to a wider war and do not trust Trump as commander-in-chief.
Trump provokes North Korean counter-threats and heightens war danger
By Peter Symonds, 23 September 2017
North Korea has clearly concluded that the US is intent on destroying its government and is developing its nuclear arsenal in a desperate bid to counter the US threat.
Trump’s UN tirade and the logic of imperialism
By Bill Van Auken, 22 September 2017
The absence of any serious evaluation of the implications of war reflects the aggressive militarism and recklessness that prevails within the political establishment.
205 Trump "Mein Kampf " speech video
21 September 2017
Sixteen years after 9/11: lies, hypocrisy and militarism
By Bill Van Auken, 12 September 2017
The media has largely blacked out new revelations of the direct role of Saudi Arabia, one of Washington’s closest Mideast allies, in preparing the attacks.
UN head warns Korean crisis could spiral into world war
By James Cogan, 7 September 2017
Sharp divisions exist between the US, China and Russia over Washington’s demands that the UN impose a total trade embargo on North Korea.
The “military-industrial complex” in power
By Andre Damon, 24 August 2017
The ruling elite has used the crisis surrounding the president’s endorsement of the neo-fascist rampage in Charlottesville, Virginia to consolidate the grip of the military over the White House.
Amid India-China war crisis, Washington boosts strategic ties with New Delhi
By Deepal Jayasekera and Keith Jones, 19 August 2017
Washington’s intervention in the conflict heightens the danger that an Indo-China border clash could draw in the US and other powers, with catastrophic consequences.
Indian students speak out against imperialist war drive
By our correspondents, 19 August 2017
Chennai college students discuss the US-led war drive and the Indian government’s role as Washington’s strategic partner.
The US sanctions drive and the danger of war
By Alex Lantier, 1 August 2017
Amid a mounting domestic political crisis and a breakdown of long-standing alliances, the United States is simultaneously escalating its military threats against nuclear-armed Russia and China.
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