Tag Archives: WSWS

A year to Election 2024: The political outlook

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One year to election day 2024 and the field is set. It will incumbent Joe Biden as the Democrat nominee and Donald Trump for the Republicans. Biden is running unopposed because no opposition (particularly from the left) is allowed within the Democratic Party or its corporate media apparatus. Any criticism from the left is branded as racist, misogynist and/or anti-semetic by the philistine fake media.

The experiences of 2016 & 2020 have taught the Democrats that primaries can be dangerous to elite interests. Bernie Sanders undermined Hillary Clinton in 2016, and as Wikileaks reported, the Democrats rigged that primary to ensure her nomination over a fake left figure in Bernie. In 2020, Joe Biden got hammered in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada before the Democrats pulled the machinery in South Carolina and rigged the vote for him from then on. By Super Tuesday 2020, the path had been cleared for Biden to grab the nomination and Bernie had dropped out– again.

The Democratic Party last year approved the reordering of its 2024 presidential primary, replacing Iowa with South Carolina in the leadoff spot to ensure a smooth nomination process for Joe Biden. In 2020, Biden received only 14% of the caucus vote in Iowa, then 8% in New Hampshire, and 19% in Nevada, which allowed Bernie Sanders to take an early delegate lead. It’s those pesky voters who screw things up for the Democrats in the primaries and this is how they are brought under control by the ruling establishment.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump took over the Party in 2016 and has held it in a stranglehold since. Not even the events of 1/6/21 can dissuade his most emboldened supporters who are given platforms throughout the right-wing media. The rest of the Republicans are a combination of career bureaucrats & businessmen who have no appeal to grassroots Republican voters. Everyone from Mike Pence to Ron DeSantis to Vivek Ramaswamy is a stick figure. None of them can speak to voter frustrations with any degree of empathy or believability, and thus they have been left by the wayside despite attempts from conservative Republicans to prop them up as legitimate alternatives to Trump.

The fact is both parties aren’t happy with their presumed nominees. Roughly 70% of Democrat voters don’t want Joe Biden to run again, and over 60% of Republicans don’t want Donald Trump as their candidate– yet this political re-match is set in stone. Joe Biden is semi-senile & non-responsive to the problems facing most Americans such as rising living costs, declining wages, attacks on democratic rights & imperialist wars abroad. The truth is Joe Biden supports attacks on workers & more wars everywhere. It’s how he plans to stay in power.

As for Trump, the problem is a lack of political backbone anywhere in two-party politics. Neither major party has the courage or the will to fight fascism, so Trump is allowed to do whatever he wants, including an insurrection & coup attempt on 1/6, and is never held accountable for his actions. This is what makes him so dangerous. As much as he is criticized & vilified by the fake left, Trump is seen as an essential backstop for capitalism in its late-stage crisis. If democratic forms of rule are no longer able to contain & control the working population, then dictatorial forms of rule will become the law of the land and that’s where Donald Trump comes in, as he’s being protected by powerful elites who understand this dynamic.

So where does that leave ~85% of people, who see no choice in either party or its pre-selected candidates? It’s time to organize rank-and-file workers across all industries for an all-out political fight against the two-party system. This will take the forms of massive workers’ strikes in heavy industry, education, health care & the rest. This is the ONLY way the workers can make their voices heard. It must be collective & internationally coordinated action with the goal of overthrowing capitalist parasites who rule every industry & business, and establishing worker control over production in all sectors.

This is the only way to stop the madness in Israel/Gaza, Ukraine/Russia, Taiwan/China, etc. It is the US government that is the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism, inequality & violence against civilians. It is Wall Street that commands this, in order to extract ever greater profits for itself. It’s the CIA & US intelligence apparatus that coordinates with fascists in Kiev & Tel Aviv to silence dissidents & bomb hospitals. It’s been like this since the end of WW2, and we have now reached a point where if it isn’t stopped, we will be hurled into a Third World War by madmen with no ethics.

The only viable political option outside of the two-party system is the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and it’s daily organ the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS). All the other so-called “left” parties are frauds whose purpose is to funnel workers & youth back into the orbit of the Democrats. This includes the Green Party, the DSA’s, and the corrupt trade unions which are run by bureaucrats who sell out their rank-and-file constituents every time. The bottom line is that nothing is going to change for the better until workers & youth unite internationally and take matters into their own hands.

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Shawn Fain, the corrupt UAW, and fake “strategic strikes”

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Things you will NEVER read about Shawn Fain in the corporate media.

1) He is widely despised among the rank-and-file auto workers. Facebook chats & live-streams are full of hostile comments from workers, which he ignores.

2) Shawn Fain was installed as UAW president in a sham election last year where he only receive 3% [!] of the membership vote. Most auto workers didn’t even know there was an election & never received a ballot.

3) Shawn Fain is a career bureaucrat in bed with corporate management. He wants to settle this labor dispute in favor of the Big Three, ASAP.

4) “Selective strikes” turn fellow non-striking auto workers into scabs, which is how to defeat a strike. That’s Shawn Fain’s plan. Right now, only 3 auto plants are on strike, with the UAW bureaucracy ordering workers to stay on the job everywhere else, even though they don’t have a contract.

5) The UAW has an $825 million strike fund, which came entirely from workers’ union dues, but the bureaucracy doesn’t want to call an all-out strike because it considers this money to be its own personal piggy bank. “Strategic strikes” prevents most auto workers from getting any strike money.

6) Bernie Sanders, AOC, etc, will be brought in to give Shawn Fain a boost from the fake left.

7) If the entire auto workforce eventually walks out, that’s the work of the WSWS. The UAW (and the fake left) is trying everything it can to PREVENT this from happening.

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Fake news: Not in the news?!

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Fake news is anything but the truth. Ruling elites (of all stripes) use fake news to lie, manipulate & deny– for everything. The common feature of fake news is that it’s always intended to keep you from the truth.

Everyday it’s the same story in the NYT, WaPost, USA Today, FOX, Yahoo, etc– fake news everywhere. Why is that? Why isn’t this discussed– at all? Why is NO truth even allowed to be mentioned anymore. Comments have been shut off everywhere, with ghosting and other covert online attacks such as de-ranking, de-platforming, etc, being part of this technological suppression of free speech & public exchange of information. AI bots are the new frontier for Zuckerberg & Musk.

It’s not like truth was ever acted upon by the American ruling class, but at least it was allowed to be discussed, somewhere. Not so anymore. This total censorship regime really started with Obama/Biden, when they banned WikiLeaks for publishing its Iraq War Diaries, which included a horrifying video of a US military helicopter murdering a group of reporters just talking in the street. These truths made the US military look bad, so they had to be silenced. Julian Assange is still in a UK maximum security prison because of this ruling-class political vendetta.

Social media is the game-changer which ruling elites can’t fully control. Revolutionists with writing skills & truth on their side, such as myself, are able to electrifying followers online. The World Socialist Web Site fits this category, as the ONLY online socialist daily. The rest (DSA, Greens, etc) are fake left.

Attack algorithms, NSA spying, and a host of other nefarious covert activities by the US Government (which the DSA has been a part of) are now common knowledge, but NEVER allowed into public debate or discussion. America has a propaganda epidemic, and like COVID-19 (& all other problems), it isn’t going to go away on its own.

As much as Mark Zuckerberg hates my online content, he really can’t ban me because he NEEDS me. I provide regular fresh content (exclusively on his platform) that excites & interests people. Without that, he can’t sell advertising (or my personal data without my consent). I don’t go for ‘likes’ or comments. My posts & comments are intended to educate and make people look at things differently. People are searching for that, with all the fake news now.

Once social media connects you to a global audience, you are no longer isolated. That’s the democratizing power of social media, which scares the ruling elites to death. It allows everyone to have a voice, and ALSO allows those with the best ideas (which people online agree with) to become the most influential. That’s why we have such an extreme level of political censorship today.

This especially concerns the ruling class, because they aren’t so good on social media. Trump is considered the best by many bourgeois political observers, and he’s horrible– a total snowflake. They dominate by monopoly and controlling all the levers of power, but their rationale & logic stink. In short, these crybabies lost the REAL social media battle long ago, which is for the truth. That’s what the Millennials are interested in.

Working class rank-and-file committees are the answer to fascism, and they can be formed anywhere, even online. In fact, that’s where most of the work is being done now by the WSWS. The labor union bureaucrats are widely despised by the rank-and-file workers in every industry, from the Teamsters & UAW to teachers & nurses. These self-appointed bureaucratic windbags spout hot air & militant rhetoric to the workers, while they cozy-up to corporate lawyers behind closed doors to sellout the rank-and-file for their own personal gain.

Rank-and-file committees in every industry & profession will take power out of the hands of this corrupt bureaucracy (which is part of the Democratic Party machinery), and put it in the hands of the workers, the ones who create all the economic value with their labor power.

Neighborhood committees need to be formed for the same reasons, as the police (local, state & federal) are agents of the ruling class. When corporate-hired, neo-Nazi thugs are brought-in as strikebreakers to escort scabs across rank-and-file picket lines & physically attack workers, the police will watch these scum in silent approval. They’ve ALWAYS done so.

Rank-and-file committees need to be part of our new school system, which seeks to protect & educate children, instead of de-funding schools and standardizing ignorance in-between shooter lockdowns. Rank-and-file workers’ committees everywhere can link-up online with their global brothers & sisters to affect coordinated strike & workers-defense actions against capitalist assaults. This is the ONLY way workers & youth of the world can win.

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Coronavirus & Revolution

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The stock & bond markets around the world have crashed. As of this publication, mid-afternoon EDT, Europe is paralyzed due to the coronavirus epidemic. China is starting to recover, but nothing is moving economically yet. Wherever it isn’t an epidemic, it’s a pandemic, waiting to become an epidemic. That’s because the nationalist governments of the world are unable to come up with any kind of scientific & coordinated response to this human disaster. History will remember coronavirus as the pin that popped the bubble of capitalism.

There are several things that are becoming increasingly clear as this global crisis unfolds. First is that our way of life is now changing forever. For those who are still working, many are doing it at home. For most of them, this is the way it should be, as texting, email & video conferencing no longer necessitate that management personnel meet in the same building. We have global warming, and this change for the better will cut down on unnecessary business meetings & travel, which under capitalism are almost always useless.

A second lesson that is being learned is that sports aren’t very important, in the big picture. These were the first activities that were shut down, when this coronavirus was spreading globally. Sports are an integral part of this fake economy which is meant to provide bread & circuses for the masses. But when things get tough, sports & entertainment get put on hold, as history collides with class forces.

Does anyone care what LeBron James or Jennifer Lopez have to say right now? The answer is no, because they have no expertise on the problem. All they know is what they are good at, so their opinions on anything else aren’t any better than anyone else who doesn’t know. So why are celebrities idolized & elevated so much? People staying at home have lots of time to think about stuff like this.

To take it a step further, it’s educational to go onto YouTube & watch any older version of your favorite sport(s), and observe how much better most leagues were in the past. Not that is was perfect back then (it wasn’t), but there were far less commercials, less exploding graphics, and less-annoying announcers. The contests were shorter, and more action-packed. The same holds true for Hollywood television & cinema being better in much of the 20th century, as compared to today. Since the old stuff is more entertaining, so why do we need all this new garbage? It’s progress to have this 24/7 fakery machine shut down.

The final truth here is that capitalism is responsible for this coronavirus pandemic, and unable to meet its challenges. US President Donald Trump has hopelessly poured trillions of dollars into the stock & bond markets to keep them afloat over the past two weeks, but to no avail. Any brief rise in the markets has been a “sugar high” from these injections of trillions, that quickly wears off as reality sets in. There are no markets left to trade in, because the global supply chains have collapsed. Thus it’s futile to throw money at the markets.

All this started in China in December 2019, with the coronavirus COVID-19 mutating in bats, then spreading to humans. The rest of the world’s governments had months to prepare for this contagion, but arrogantly & ignorantly refused to take it seriously. Now what do they have to say? The coronavirus denialists are now being shouted down everywhere, by the facts on the ground, and the workers who are on the front lines.

Every government’s policy is trillions more for the 0.01%, while the rest of us must face this coronavirus without mass testing & protection. Without testing, there can be no tracing, nor effective treatment & quarantine of the ill. It was bipartisan policy for the US government to reject WHO test kits over eight weeks ago, the most essential front-line tool for containing coronavirus.

You can’t fight what you can’t identify. US officials wanted “our” pharmaceuticals to make their own proprietary tests so they could profit handsomely, but the pandemic has spread too quickly. Today, we still don’t have mass testing for coronavirus in America. Democratic presidential hopefuls Joe Biden & Bernie Sanders only make excuses for this colossal failure. That’s how this two-party political system fails all of us.

What these parasites, strawmen & figurines have done to the world is unforgivable, and it won’t take long for the masses to realize this. Workers have bills to pay, with little-to-no reserves, and now no cash flow. When people can’t afford food & rent, that’s when the pitchforks & torches come out, looking for retribution against those responsible.

The biggest shame of all this is the fact there are millions of workers (in America alone) who are skilled & are heroically doing everything they can to contain this virus, while providing essential services to the population, despite the willful neglect of political leadership. These are the true heroes, but they are unrecognized by the media; starved of funding, supplies & necessary protective equipment by a corrupt system. These everyday heroes are forced to work because they care, and also because they live paycheck-to-paycheck. These are the people who live & work in reality, and therefore need to be in charge, not capitalist politicians.

Both US political parties, Dems & Reps, are eventually going to call off Election 2020, due to their inability to deal with this coronavirus. That will be another clear signal for revolution, as maintaining the status quo won’t do for the 90+%. This is now a revolutionary situation, and requires class-conscious leadership within the working class. Workers & youth need to organize amongst themselves. Appeals to the union bureaucracies & the capitalist class are a dead end.

Trump & the Democrats listen closely to the screams of Boeing, and how they need hundreds of billions. Meanwhile angry workers & youth are asking, “Why does this zombie corporation, that knowingly committed mass murder with their MAX 737 crashes, deserve a bailout?” As already stated, it’s not going to take long for youth & workers to put a revolutionary political program together, and it will be led by the Trotskyists of the World Socialist Web Site & SEP/ICFI.

What’s become apparent is that the working population & kids of the world are far ahead of any government. They understand the realities of global warming, social inequality & now the coronavirus better than their elected leaders. Many offices, stores & small businesses closed on their own, before they were ordered to, proving they recognized the risks better than our so-called “leaders.”

In this age of the internet, we now can identify the enemy. They start with all the names you see on Fox, CNN & Yahoo!, then it goes to those behind-the-scenes. It’s Wall Street, silicon valley, Hollywood, the East coast media, the pentagon, CIA, NSA, FBI, White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court. This is the criminal capitalist class, which must be ousted, and replaced with a workers government of the world. This is called socialism, and it’s only achievable through an international revolution. Please join us.

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