World Socialist Web Site

The fight against mass layoffs at GM

Industry publication boasts: GM plant closures aimed at extorting more concessions from autoworkers

By Jerry White, 30 November 2018

In an article posted on the Automotive News web site Thursday, reporter Michael Wayland acknowledges GM is using plant closures to demand “untraditional employment practices” from workers, including more temporary and contracted labor.

“Everybody—Ford, Chrysler, GM—needs to strike right now”
Autoworkers’ outrage grows over GM plant closings

General Motors worker on job cuts: “This is all about corporate greed”
Detroit-Hamtramck autoworkers want to fight against plant closures

A call to action to fight the GM plant closings and mass layoffs

Form rank-and-file committees
Reject the UAW-Lear sellout contract! Unite with GM and other autoworkers in a common fight!

By the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter, 28 November 2018

In run-up to contract vote
UAW intensifies campaign of intimidation against Indiana Lear workers

UAW negotiates secret deal with Columbia University to block strike action by graduate students

By Alexander Fangmann, 26 November 2018

More on autoworkers issues »

David North in Australia and New Zealand

Meetings in Australia and New Zealand to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Fourth International

The meetings will take place in Sydney on Sunday, December 2, in Melbourne on Thursday, December 6, and in Wellington, New Zealand on Sunday, December 9.

Friday, November 30, 6pm for 6:30. Admission free, please RSVP to Gleebooks.

Commentary

New York Times: Our crime was telling the truth

By Andre Damon, 29 November 2018

After Trump fires tear gas at immigrant children
Sanders declares caravan members lack a “credible” claim to asylum

By Barry Grey, 29 November 2018

Ukraine’s provocation in the Azov Sea

By Clara Weiss and Andre Damon, 29 November 2018

US airstrikes kill at least 30 civilians in Afghanistan

By Oscar Grenfell, 29 November 2018

US administration signals unconditional backing for Saudi regime as Senate votes on Yemen war

By Bill Van Auken, 29 November 2018

From the Nazis to the AfD: Big business finances the far-right

Plead for charity or die: A blunt message from the American health care system

The Campaign to Free Julian Assange

Guardian newspaper spearheads new accusations against Assange and WikiLeaks

By James Cogan, 28 November 2018

SEP meeting and livestream on December 16: What next in the fight to free Julian Assange?

By the Socialist Equality Party (Australia), 28 November 2018

The meeting will discuss the Socialist Equality Party’s political perspective to mobilise and lead the defence of Julian Assange.

Obituary

Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci dies at 77

By Richard Phillips and David Walsh, 28 November 2018

Workers Struggles

‬Greyhound axes bus service across Western Canada

By Penny Smith, 29 November 2018

Trudeau government illegalizes Canada Post strike

By Roger Jordan and Keith Jones, 27 November 2018

Canada Post workers need socialist strategy to defy and defeat Liberals’ back-to-work law

Arts Review

Green Book and At Eternity’s Gate: Overcoming racism and painter Vincent van Gogh’s final years

By Joanne Laurier, 29 November 2018

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs: Only a fool “expects better” from humanity

By David Walsh, 26 November 2018

Leonard Bernstein’s operetta Candide at the University of Michigan

Science

NASA InSight mission successfully lands on Mars

By Bryan Dyne, 28 November 2018

California Wildfires

Rainstorm ends California wildfires, but threatens to cause flash flooding

By Evan Blake, 23 November 2018

Photo Essay: The social cost of the Camp Fire

Refugees from Paradise

The WSWS spoke to some of the thousands who lost everything in the Camp Fire disaster in northern California. Many blame energy monopoly PG&E.

The fire in Paradise, California: From natural disaster to social catastrophe

Mehring Books

Mehring Books launches holiday sale
Most titles 10 to 50 percent off!

By Mehring Books, 23 November 2018

Our annual holiday sale is a great opportunity to introduce friends to socialism and to expand your Marxist library.

David North in conversation with Nick Beams
Book launch of The Heritage We Defend in Sydney, Australia

Why are they back?
New title from Mehring Books explains resurgence of fascism in Germany

Socialist Equality Party

SEP (Canada) to hold Montreal meeting on “Leon Trotsky, the Lessons of History, and the Struggle for Socialism Today”

24 November 2018

The SEP (Canada) is holding a meeting in Montreal on Wednesday, November 28, as part of events worldwide to mark 80 Years of the Fourth International.

Indian Trotskyists celebrate 80 years of the Fourth International

SEP (Sri Lanka) holds successful public meeting on political crisis

By our correspondents, 22 November 2018

SEP (Sri Lanka) to hold lecture on “Lessons of History and the Fight for Socialism Today”

SEP (Sri Lanka) to hold meetings on the socialist solution to the political crisis

The political crisis in Sri Lanka: Its lessons for the international working class

New In Arabic

Arabic translation of “Eighty Years of the Fourth International: The Lessons of History and the Struggle for Socialism Today”

We are publishing here the Arabic translation of a lecture delivered by World Socialist Web Site International Editorial Board chairman, David North in Colombo to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Fourth International and the 50th anniversary of the Socialist Equality Party in Sri Lanka.

History

The centenary of the “Spanish Flu”—Lessons for today
Part two

By Benjamin Mateus, 20 November 2018

This is the second part of a two-part series. The first part was posted on November 19.

The centenary of the “Spanish Flu”—Lessons for today
Part one of a two-part series

History of the Fourth International

“Eighty Years of the Fourth International” series continues with meetings in California and Oregon

By our reporters, 17 November 2018

Taking place in the backdrop of the rising death toll from the California fires and the rise of the far-right, the meetings attracted broad audiences of youth, students and workers across the West Coast.

Growing interest in socialism at Chicago meeting on 80th anniversary of Fourth International

By the IYSSE at University of Illinois at Chicago, 14 November 2018

David North lecture tour
Nearly 100 attend meeting in New York City on the 80th anniversary of the Fourth International

David North lecture tour
More than 100 attend meeting at MIT on anniversary of the Fourth International

David North begins US speaking tour in Michigan to mark 80 years of the Fourth International

Eighty Years of the Fourth International: The Lessons of History and the Struggle for Socialism Today

By David North, 9 October 2018

Large Colombo audience hears David North’s lecture on the history of the Fourth International

On the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Fourth International

By David North, 3 September 2018

Security and the Fourth International

The origins and findings of the Security and the Fourth International investigation

By Eric London, 14 November 2018

This is the text and audio of a lecture delivered by Eric London in Detroit, Michigan reviewing the monumental investigation conducted by the International Committee of the Fourth International titled Security and the Fourth International, which exposed the infiltration of the movement by agents of the FBI and Stalinist GPU.

SEP 2018 Election Campaign

Significant vote for SEP candidate Niles Niemuth in Michigan’s 12th district

By our reporters, 8 November 2018

Final campaign meeting for Niles Niemuth reviews experiences from campaigning

By our reporters, 7 November 2018

Vote Niles Niemuth, Socialist Equality Party, for US House of Representatives in Michigan’s 12th district!

Democratic Party mailer removes SEP candidate Niles Niemuth from sample ballot

Campaign website »

Socialist Equality Party (Australia)

Watch: Two Hundred Years Since the Birth of Karl Marx

By Nick Beams, 31 October 2018

Nick Beams delivers successful lectures on the contemporary relevance of Karl Marx at Australian universities

By our reporters, 31 October 2018

Science

World vertebrate populations have fallen 60 percent since 1970

By Bryan Dyne, 1 November 2018

The latest Living Planet Report demonstrates the far-reaching implications of human activity on both the climate and the degradation of the natural environment.

Book review

DSA covers for unions and Democrats in new book on walkout by West Virginia teachers
55 Strong, Inside the West Virginia Teachers’ Strike

By Nancy Hanover, 18 October 2018

A new book promoted by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is centered on the lie that the West Virginia teachers’ strike, which set off the series of strikes nationally last spring, was a “victory” in which the unions played a heroic role.

International Committee of the Fourth International

Resolution of the SEP (US) Fifth National Congress
The Resurgence of Class Struggle and the Tasks of the Socialist Equality Party

8 August 2018

This resolution was unanimously adopted by the Socialist Equality Party Congress, held from July 22–27, 2018.

Opening report to the Fifth National Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (US)

By David North, 4 August 2018

The 50th anniversary of the founding of the SEP (Sri Lanka)
The lessons of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party’s Great Betrayal

By Rohantha De Silva and Vilani Peiris, 24 September 2018

PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE

Support the Socialist Equality group in Turkey!
Statement of the SE group, in sympathy with the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), on the snap elections in Turkey

Security and the Fourth International

An “Exemplary Comrade”: The Socialist Workers Party’s 40-year-long cover-up of Stalinist spy Sylvia Callen: Part one

By Eric London, 14 August 2018

This is the first part in a four-part series examining the cover-up by the Socialist Workers Party beginning in 1947 of information exposing the role of Sylvia Callen, the personal secretary of long-time party leader James P. Cannon, as a Stalinist agent.

Part two | Part three | Part four

Seventy-eight years since the assassination of Leon Trotsky

By Eric London and David North, 21 August 2018

On August 21, 1940, Leon Trotsky, the founder of the Fourth International and the co-leader of the Russian Revolution, died from wounds inflicted the day before by an assassin, the Stalinist GPU agent Ramon Mercader.

WSWS 20th Anniversary

Twenty years of the World Socialist Web Site: 1998–2018

By David North and Joseph Kishore, 14 February 2018

As the WSWS marks its 20th anniversary of daily posting, it is taking the lead in exposing the conspiracy by governments and corporations to censor the Internet as the ruling class prepares for war and domestic repression.

Lenin, Trotsky and the Marxism of the October Revolution

By David North, 19 March 2018

David North, chairperson of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site and of the Socialist Equality Party (US), delivered this lecture at the University of Leipzig on March 16.