United States
999 Tennessee Educators R&F statement
19 January 2021
Navalny arrested in Russia as Biden nominates Victoria Nuland for top State Department position
By Clara Weiss, 19 January 2021
Navalny’s return to Russia and his arrest have unfolded in the context of growing geopolitical tensions and the staggering political crisis in the United States.
Morgues overflow, air quality restrictions on crematoriums suspended as Los Angeles County surpasses 1 million COVID-19 cases
By Angelo Perera, 19 January 2021
Some hospitals report operating at over 300 percent capacity as southern California counties procure dozens of refrigerator trucks to hold the dead.
US prompts new “human rights” resolution to push Sri Lanka to line up against China
By Pradeep Ramanayake and K. Ratnayake, 19 January 2021
By all indications Washington is behind the move intended to press President Gotabhaya Rajapakse’s government to break from Beijing’s “influence.”
Conductor Riccardo Muti expresses solidarity with Metropolitan Opera Orchestra musicians
By Fred Mazelis, 19 January 2021
The statement by the famed leader of the Chicago Symphony came in response to a call from the musicians, who have been without pay since last spring.
999 Boston schools reopening facilitated by union
19 January 2021
Andre Damon speaks to Rolling Stone on internet censorship and Trump’s coup attempt
19 January 2021
Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper interviewed WSWS reporter Andre Damon on the most recent episode of Rolling Stone’s Useful Idiots podcast.
As COVID cover-up continues
Wage theft exposed at Fiat Chrysler/Stellantis Detroit Assembly Complex
By Stephen Fuller, 19 January 2021
After receiving millions of dollars in incentives to construct a new plant in Detroit, management attempted to short pay workers on negotiated wage increases, while covering up the spread of COVID-19.
What workers need to know about the Fiat Chrysler-PSA merger
By Marcus Day, 19 January 2021
The formation of the new transnational giant marks new milestones in both the global integration of production and the protracted decline of America’s industrial dominance, while heralding intensified attacks on workers’ jobs internationally.
999 Chicago schools update or r/f statement
19 January 2021
The Trump coup and the rise of fascism: Where is America going?
By David North, 19 January 2021
This essay is based on the transcript of the remarks made by David North, the chairman of the international editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site and national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party (US), in opening an online discussion held January 17 on the significance of the fascist assault on the Capitol in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021.
Peruvian doctors strike, Phoenix area teachers launch sickout over COVID-19 dangers
Workers Struggle: The Americas
19 January 2021
Doctors across Peru have walked out over pay and COVID-19-related issues while teachers in Arizona’s Peoria Unified School District staged a sickout over dangerous in-person instruction.
Paid aides to Trump campaign played key roles in organizing fascist assault on US Capitol
By Jacob Crosse, 19 January 2021
An analysis by the Associated Press reveals direct material connections between the White House and the fascist coup attempt.
Educators and workers across the US denounce arrest of whistleblower Rebekah Jones
By Matthew MacEgan, 19 January 2021
Jones, who faces persecution in response to her efforts to expose the spread of the pandemic in Florida and in K-12 schools across the US, was released on bond after turning herself in to Florida police.
999 Racialist narrative on coup
19 January 2021
The global COVID vaccine distribution debacle is mirrored in the US
By Benjamin Mateus, 19 January 2021
The global vaccination distribution has been characterized as a “catastrophic moral failure” by the WHO’s director-general. Despite the US predominance in access to these life-saving vaccines, its national vaccine initiative has been a dismal disaster.
International online meeting
Where is America going? Trump’s coup and the rise of fascism
18 January 2021
At this event, leading members of the SEP in the US, Germany and UK spoke on the national and global significance of the rise of fascism in America, its social and political origins, and the necessary strategy for the working class to fight back.
Indiana lawmakers propose new law shielding businesses from COVID-19 liabilities
By Jack Temple, 18 January 2021
The proposed law seeks to remove legal rights from workers if they get sick or die from contracting COVID-19 at work.
999 AD interview with Rolling Stone
18 January 2021
Democrats intensify calls for “unity” in aftermath of fascistic insurrection in Washington D.C.
By Jacob Crosse, 18 January 2021
The Democrats’ calls for “unity” come as more revelations confirm the high-level coordination between Capitol Police, the FBI, and the military in facilitating the storming of the Capitol on January 6.
Free COVID-19 whistleblower Rebekah Jones!
By Bryan Dyne, 18 January 2021
Jones is being prosecuted by the state of Florida for exposing its effort to cover up cases of COVID-19 and opposing the state’s policy of prematurely reopening schools.
School nurses return to campuses as United Teachers Los Angeles covers for Democrats
By Tadakatsu Čapek, 18 January 2021
Two years after betraying the strike by 33,000 teachers, the United Teachers Los Angeles is collaborating with state and local Democrats to reopen schools in the epicenter of the world pandemic.
City of Detroit files lawsuit attacking protesters’ basic democratic rights
By Kevin Reed and Brady Leonard, 18 January 2021
The city has filed a counter lawsuit against a group of protesters who successfully argued in their own case that police officers used excessive force to crack down on demonstrations last year against police brutality.
US deaths from COVID-19 lead to a more than one-year decline in life expectancy
By Benjamin Mateus, 18 January 2021
Life expectancy in the US has declined dramatically, by more than one year, due to deaths associated with COVID-19 infections. Adding to the catastrophe of the pandemic, a new variant of the coronavirus has been detected across more than 12 states, threatening to further exacerbate the crisis.
Massive rise in unemployment in Germany during the pandemic
By Elisabeth Zimmermann, 18 January 2021
The German employment agency published the official unemployment figures for December 2020, reporting an increase to 2.7 million unemployed, 480,000 more than in the same month last year.
999 Racialist narrative on coup
18 January 2021
999 Chicago schools update or r/f statement
18 January 2021
999 Biden and Democrats downplay coup attempt
18 January 2021
999 Report on FCA Mack Assembly
18 January 2021
999 Latest science on school reopenings
18 January 2021
Three million in Los Angeles County have been infected with COVID-19 as workplace outbreaks reach all-time high
By Kevin Martinez, 16 January 2021
The virus is so widespread, according to the Los Angeles Times, that the infection rate has likely been slowed down by the large numbers of people who have already contracted it and developed a temporary immunity.
As proof of high-level conspiracy mounts
Justice Department proposes internal investigation to cover up state involvement in January 6 coup attempt
By Eric London, 16 January 2021
Although the January 6 attempt failed at seizing power, the entire political establishment is now lurching further to the right.
Inside the COVID-19 outbreak at Lakepointe nursing home in Clinton Township, Michigan
By Zac Corrigan, 16 January 2021
At least three Lakepointe residents have died from COVID-19 since Christmas, and workers say that residents who catch COVID are no longer able to be removed from the home, which has resulted in a growing outbreak that they can’t contain.
Biden “recovery” plan will fail to relieve social misery or stop pandemic death
By Jacob Crosse, 16 January 2021
The package, which falls woefully short in meeting the current crisis for millions of workers and their families, will be further watered down as the Democrats seek “bipartisan” support from Republicans.
Trump administration executes two more death row prisoners in pre-Inauguration Day killing spree
By Kate Randall, 16 January 2021
The US government executed two prisoners Thursday night and early Saturday as the Trump administration continued its killing spree in advance of the inauguration of Joe Biden as president on January 20. The US Supreme Court allowed both executions to proceed.
Killeen, Texas police officer shot and killed unarmed man during mental health call
By Chase Lawrence, 16 January 2021
Patrick Warren, Sr. was shot multiple times in the front yard of his home as his family watched in horror.
Fed chief pledges massive support for Wall Street will not cease
By Nick Beams, 16 January 2021
In an interview on Thursday, Powell said there was “real sensitivity” among investors about asset purchases and the Fed did not talk about an “exit” because “markets are listening.”
Lightfoot administration blocked release of video showing Chicago police crushing woman’s leg with SUV
By George Gallanis, 16 January 2021
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her Democratic administration, aware of the growing social tensions in Chicago’s working class, are concerned that the quick release of incriminating police violence videos can lead to massive social upheavals.
The unionization vote at Alabama Amazon facility
Build rank-and-file committees to defend worker rights
By International Amazon Workers Voice, 16 January 2021
Workers need organization and a leadership to fight, but bitter experience has shown that the unions do not represent workers.
UFCW complicity exposed in outbreak at Tyson pork plant where managers bet on infections
By James Langley, 16 January 2021
The indifference of UFCW Local 431 to the plight of workers in the plant is so unconcealed that it was even acknowledged by the local press.
What would have happened if Trump’s fascist mob had seized hostages?
By Joseph Kishore and David North, 16 January 2021
The attempts by various left journalists to deny that the events of January 6 were an attempted coup undermines resistance to the danger of fascism.
United Steelworkers betrays Constellium strike in Alabama after weeks of isolating workers
By Cordell Gascoigne and Jessica Goldstein, 16 January 2021
Following the sellout of the strike by 400 aluminum workers in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the United Steelworkers continues to hide details of the contract.
999 Racialist narrative on coup
16 January 2021
US State Department designates Cuba state sponsor of terrorism
By Alexander Fangmann, 16 January 2021
The announcement is a continuation of the rollback of Obama’s normalization of relations as the island has been hit hard by COVID-19 and a deepening economic crisis.
Former governor Rick Snyder charged over role in Flint, Michigan water poisoning
By James Brewer, 15 January 2021
Snyder and eight others were indicted Thursday on charges relating to the criminal poisoning of the city’s water supply that began almost seven years ago.
Teachers and parents speak out on deadly reopening of Chicago Public Schools
By Our reporters, 15 January 2021
There is growing opposition throughout Chicago to the city’s Democratic leaders aggressive push to reopen schools, bars and restaurants as COVID-19 infections are ripping through schools and other workplaces.
Mentally ill woman executed as Trump continues federal killing spree
By Chase Lawrence, 15 January 2021
The US Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution of Lisa Montgomery at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, despite clear evidence of her mental incompetency.
As COVID cases surge: Sharp rise in new US unemployment claims
By Shannon Jones, 15 January 2021
The adjusted number of new jobless claims rose to 965,000 for the week ending January 9 as the US Federal Reserve reports 20 percent of low-income workers are unemployed.
999 Racialist narrative on coup
15 January 2021
Fascist Wisconsin shooter Rittenhouse posed with Proud Boys and waved “white power” sign
By Kevin Reed, 15 January 2021
Kyle Rittenhouse, the right-wing vigilante who shot three anti-police violence protesters in Kenosha on August 25—two of them to death—was photographed celebrating at a bar with members of the fascist Proud Boys shortly after his January 5 arraignment and not guilty plea.
999 Biden covid policy speech
15 January 2021
The pandemic and Trump’s coup attempt
By Andre Damon, 15 January 2021
To implement its homicidal policy of herd immunity, the ruling class is resorting to ever more violent and dictatorial forms of rule.
999 Detroit countersuing Black Lives Matter protest org over protests
15 January 2021
Chicago Teachers Union accepts further reopenings as virus outbreaks erupt in schools
By Alexander Fangmann, 15 January 2021
A potential cluster of infections has emerged at McCutcheon Elementary on the city’s North Side, leaving just one educator in the building, while the CTU works to isolate teachers and prevent them from taking any independent initiative.
999 Amazon unionization drive in Alabama
15 January 2021
999 Chicago mayor lied about suppressing yet another police violence video
15 January 2021
999 LA county workplace Covid-19 outbreaks at an all time high
15 January 2021
Biden’s top economic advisor demands that “schools open” so parents “can get back to work”
By Bryan Dyne, 15 January 2021
Such efforts will only spur the pandemic to ever greater heights of death in a country where there are already more than 3,400 newly reported deaths each day.
FBI reveals “dozens” of neo-Nazis and white supremacists on Terror Watch List traveled to D.C. for January 6 coup
By Jacob Crosse, 15 January 2021
In addition to active Republican politicians and off-duty military and police, many militiamen and fascists claiming membership in the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and III Percenters marched on the Capitol
999 Federal execution of Lisa Montgomery
14 January 2021
New data shows that nearly 1400 kids in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula have caught COVID-19
By James Vega, Debra Watson and Eboni Davis, 14 January 2021
Since mid-October more than 13,500 people in the U.P. contracted the virus, a three-fold increase since the pandemic began in March.
999 Exposure of NEU, teachers unions' "Day of Resistance"
14 January 2021
California health care worker explains how COVID-19 catastrophe has been fueled by the drive for profit
14 January 2021
The WSWS encourages health care workers to speak out on the disastrous conditions which are now overwhelming hospitals due the reopening and “herd immunity” policies pursued by the ruling class in countries around the world.
999 Ford pulls out of Brazil, will close 3 factories
14 January 2021
999 Detroit countersuing Black Lives Matter protest org over protests
14 January 2021
999 State charges against Snyder over Flint poisoning
14 January 2021
Warning that Wall Street bubble may burst
By Nick Beams, 14 January 2021
Concerns are starting to be voiced that the orgy of speculation, literally feeding off the death and destruction of the pandemic because of the actions of the Fed, could end in a major crash.
DSA-aligned teachers unions’ “Day of Resistance”: a pathetic appeal to Biden and the Democrats
By Evan Blake, 14 January 2021
Tuesday’s event, organized by an umbrella group of teacher unions led by pseudo-left officials, was a political stunt aimed at channeling opposition to in-person instruction behind dead-end appeals to the Democratic Party.
999 Amazon unionization drive in Alabama
14 January 2021
999 Exposure of NEU, teachers unions' "Day of Resistance"
13 January 2021
Growing threats of fascist violence as Democrats appeal for “unity” and “healing”
By Eric London, 13 January 2021
The Democratic Party’s appeals for compromise with Republican conspirators amid the ongoing coup threat makes clear the need for an independent working class intervention to stop the growth of fascism in America.
Chicago teachers docked pay and locked out of virtual classrooms for not teaching in-person
By Alexander Fangmann, 13 January 2021
As district officials continue to peddle lies about the safety of reopening schools, CTU is negotiating over a reopening plan that would split the working class and undermine the struggle to close non-essential workplaces until mass vaccination is carried out.
California hospitals ration oxygen as COVID-19 death toll surpasses 30,000
By Peter Ross, 13 January 2021
More than one in ten of the total number of COVID-19 deaths in California since the beginning of the pandemic took place in just the last week, at a rate of almost 500 per day.
999 How the working class can intervene to stop Trump's coup plotting
13 January 2021
999 (1/12) Ford pulls out of Brazil, will close 3 factories
13 January 2021
Video shows Modesto, California police officer gunned down unarmed man with hands up
By Shawn Velia and John Andrews, 13 January 2021
A body camera recording released by the Modesto Police Department in California shows an unarmed man gunned down, and then shot a second time while trying to surrender with his hands raised.
999 Racialist narrative on coup
13 January 2021
Global COVID-19 death toll nears 2 million
By Benjamin Mateus, 13 January 2021
It has been one year since the first person died from complications caused by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19.
999 Execution of female federal prisoner stayed
13 January 2021
George Clooney’s The Midnight Sky: Not doing a good job of looking after the planet
By Joanne Laurier, 13 January 2021
The Midnight Sky, a post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by George Clooney, is done with some care and sensitivity, but ends up primarily as an exercise in resignation.
999 Jacobin covers up Trump coup
12 January 2021
Nurses speak on conditions in Arizona hospitals where COVID-cases reach national highs
By Katy Kinner, 12 January 2021
Arizona COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations rise to national highs as testing and vaccine administration continue to be inadequate.
Ford “Finish Strong” ad campaign invokes nationalist mythology as cover for company’s “herd immunity” policies
By Tim Rivers and Tom Hall, 12 January 2021
Ford’s advertising blitz is aimed at covering up its own crimes, and those of the capitalist ruling class as a whole, with patriotic, militaristic bluster, portraying the virus as a common external enemy for the country to unite against.
999 Standardized testing in schools during pandemic
12 January 2021
Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant shut down due to part global semiconductor shortage
By Steve Filips, 11 January 2021
It is noteworthy that the plant shutdown came not in response to the spread of covid, but due to a lack of parts.
Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee in US holds first national meeting of 2021
Matthew MacEgan, 11 January 2021
The first ERFSC meeting of 2021 was attended by over 150 educators and other workers from across the US and around the globe.
Hundreds of workplace outbreaks of COVID-19 along US West Coast
By Kayla Costa, 11 January 2021
In California, there are 511 active workplace outbreaks connected to the infections of 10,000 employees in service, logistics, food processing and other industries.
West Virginia schools slated to return to in-person instruction next week
By Naomi Spencer, 11 January 2021
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice has ordered elementary and middle schools to reopen for daily in-person instruction beginning January 19, even as infections and deaths surge.
999 More info emerges about Trump coup attempt
11 January 2021
New details about January 6 riot reveal need for full-scale investigation
By Eric London, 11 January 2021
Trump’s January 6 fascistic insurrection had high level support from within the Republican Party and critical sections of the police and military-intelligence apparatus.
Elon Musk becomes world’s richest person as pandemic death toll breaks records
By Jessica Goldstein and Tom Hall, 11 January 2021
Perhaps more than anyone else, Musk personifies the parasitic character of the corporate-financial oligarchy which dominates society.
Nearly 30,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 in the past 10 days
By Bryan Dyne, 11 January 2021
At the current rate, more than a quarter million people will die across the globe before the end of January, including more than 60,000 in the US alone.
As students return to Chicago schools, educators face battle against Democrats and the CTU
By Alexander Fangmann, 11 January 2021
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and school officials continue to press bringing children back into classrooms on Monday in the face of widespread opposition among parents, teachers and other educators.
Google engineers form Communications Workers of America-affiliated union
By Kevin Reed, 11 January 2021
A group of 200 employees have formed a union called the Alphabet Workers Union that is open to all employees and contractors at the parent company of the tech giant Google and is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America of the AFL-CIO.
This week in history: January 11-17
11 January 2021
25 years ago: Hashimoto replaces Murayama as Japan’s prime ministerOn January 11, 1996, Ryutaro Hashimoto, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), became prime minister of Japan. He succeeded Tomiichi Murayama after the latter’s sudden resignation on January 5 opened a new stage in the breakup of the postwar political system in Japan.
999 Trump's coup and the pandemic disaster
9 January 2021
Texas educators oppose Trump’s fascist coup and the drive to reopen schools
Texas Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee, 9 January 2021
We are fighting to unify the working class across Texas and throughout the region to close all schools and nonessential businesses and oppose the fascistic conspiracies of Trump.
999 Ford ad
9 January 2021
Tennessee Education Association estimates more than 16,000 Tennessee educators have had COVID-19
By Harvey Simpkins, 9 January 2021
In response to a recent survey conducted by the Tennessee Educators Association over 84 percent of educators reported a negative “emotional impact” from working in public education during the pandemic.
Details emerge of high-level state involvement in Wednesday’s coup attempt
By Eric London, 9 January 2021
New revelations show the fascist putsch was prepared with the involvement of sections of the military, police and Republican Party and that the danger has not passed.
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