As 2017 comes to a close, the political crisis within the United States and internationally is entering a new stage: Ferocious conflicts within the ruling class, talk of nuclear war against North Korea, unprecedented levels of social inequality, moves to pass a tax plan that will hand out billions to the corporate and financial elite.
Under these conditions, the ruling classes around the world are seeking to block workers from accessing a socialist perspective. Google, working closely with the intelligence agencies and the Democratic Party, has led the way through its campaign of internet censorship, which has particularly targeted the WSWS. This is only the beginning.
Donating to the WSWS has never been more important. We need your help to fight back. There is a great deal that we must do. The fight against Internet censorship requires resources. We must have more meetings. We must send reporters to more areas. We must invest in new technologies.
Support for socialism is growing all over the world. We see it every day. But the WSWS needs your aid to carry forward the fight.
Last week, the WSWS launched its New Year Fund Appeal. Please read the appeal and make a large donation to the WSWS today.
Fraternally,
Joseph Kishore
SEP National Secretary |
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 Support the World Socialist Web Site New Year Fund!
We are calling on all our readers to make a large donation to develop and expand the work of the WSWS in the new year. Donate! » |
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By Andre Damon
Over the past year, the Democratic Party and leading American media outlets have been monomaniacally focused on unsubstantiated allegations that the 2016 US elections were undermined by Russian interference.
It is worth considering these claims as one assesses the response to the decision of Russian officials to block Alexei Navalny from participating in the upcoming presidential election. The move has been met with self-righteous denunciations in the American and international press. Newspapers have run articles lauding Navalny as an “anti-corruption crusader” and the “democratic” face of “popular opposition” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Washington Post published an editorial condemning the move to bar Navalny. It declared that Navalny’s “real offenses were helping to lead opposition” to Putin’s “authoritarian” government and “bringing out tens of thousands of followers in cities across Russia this year to denounce the regime.”
The hypocrisy and cynicism here are breathtaking. While the alleged Russian “meddling” in the US elections consists of several tens of thousands of dollars in Facebook advertising, Navalny is almost entirely a creature of the US State Department. Read more » |
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 Democratic Party witch-hunters target Green Party candidate Jill Stein
Statement of the Political Committee of the Socialist Equality Party (US)
The Socialist Equality Party condemns the targeting of Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate in the 2016 election, by the neo-McCarthyite witch-hunters on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The SEP has fundamental political differences with the Green Party. However, we unequivocally defend the constitutional right of the Green Party to conduct its work and campaign for office unmolested by the government and its police and intelligence agencies. The attack on Stein, spearheaded by the Democratic Party, is an unconstitutional attempt to delegitimize and suppress political opposition to the monopoly of the capitalist two-party system. Read more » |
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 Health care threatened for nine million low-income US children
By Patrick Martin
State health officials throughout the United States are preparing for major cutbacks or outright shutdown of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The plans are going forward despite stopgap legislation enacted by Congress December 21 and signed into law by President Trump that supposedly averted an immediate collapse of CHIP, which provides health care coverage for nine million low-income children.
In Colorado, Connecticut, Utah and Virginia, state agencies sent out letters notifying families of children enrolled in CHIP that the program is likely to terminate January 31 without additional congressional action. The state of Alabama delayed its own shutdown—originally set to begin January 1—until the end of the month. Read more » |
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 Pentagon admits presence of US troops in Yemen as cholera cases top one million
By Bill Van Auken
The Pentagon admitted for the first time this week that it has “conducted multiple ground operations” in Yemen, the impoverished and war-ravaged country on the Arabian Peninsula, while conducting more than 120 air strikes there this year, triple the number in 2016.
This revelation of an escalation on yet another front in the expanding US military intervention in the Middle East came as Yemen marked the 1,000th day of the war being waged by Saudi Arabia and its fellow Gulf oil sheikdoms against the poorest nation in the Middle East.
Multiple aid agencies issued statements warning that the deaths of millions are threatened as the war claims more victims and plunges vast portions of the population into conditions of famine and disease. Read more » |
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 Romanian Ford worker speaks to WSWS about wildcat strike at Craiova plant
By Eric London
Last Thursday, 1,000 autoworkers at the Ford Craiova plant in southern Romania, 114 miles (184 km) west from the capital city of Bucharest, walked off the job the day after the union signed a sellout agreement with the US-based multinational corporation.
The deal would do nothing to offset a new tax hike by the social democratic government, set to start on January 1, that forces workers to pay the full cost of social insurance, instead of sharing the payment with employers, resulting in a pay cut of at least 22 percent. New Ford workers are paid as little as 300 Euros (US $356) a month.
Workers began their job action by tying cloths around their arms to protest the collusion of the union—known as Sindicatul Ford Automobile Craiova—with the company. As demands for a strike grew, workers refused to go back to work after lunch and walked out, chanting slogans denouncing the union leaders, including “thieves, this is slavery,” “resign,” and “strike!” Read more » |
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 Engineering workers occupy three BiFab yards in Scotland
By Darren Paxton and Sandy Campbell
Last month, workers at the Scottish engineering firm BiFab briefly occupied and barricaded the company’s construction yards. The occupation took place after contractual disputes left BiFab on the brink of bankruptcy and 1,400 workers facing unemployment.
BiFab operates three facilities: in Burntisland and Methil in Fife, and Arnish on the Isle of Lewis. Of the company’s workforce, 1,132 are agency workers, leaving only 251 with permanent contracts.
Around 1,000 BiFab workers marched in Edinburgh on November 16 in protest, wearing their full work clothing, high visibility jackets and boiler suits. Children supported their parents with signs such as “Save Daddy’s Work.” Read more » |
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