Peter Symonds

World Socialist Web Site editor (Australia). Writes and comments on Asian geopolitics, politics and history.

[Peter Symonds @SymondsWSWS]

@BaseAmerickX 40

[David North @DavidNorthWSWS]

History teaches that it is a mistake to predict a war's outcome based on the "successes" of attacks launched by the aggressor in the opening days, weeks and even months of the conflict. Trump and his cabal have started a war whose consequences they neither foresee nor control.

[David North @DavidNorthWSWS]

Statement by David North, national chairperson of the Socialist Equality Party (US), opposing the war and calling for an immediate end to the illegal attack on Iran.

[David North @DavidNorthWSWS]

An American Trumpian version of what the Nazis called “Gleichschaltung” — the official subordination of intellectual and cultural life to Nazi ideology — is being implemented by leading “liberal” American universities. The total capitulation of Columbia University to the Trump administration is not only to be explained by the cowardice of its administrators, though cowards they certainly are.
The last 40 years of financialization and stock market driven wealth accumulation have created a new type of extremely affluent upper middle class that is intellectually corrupt and without any seriously grounded democratic consciousness. The university administrations are heavily staffed with this social stratum. The great American philosopher John Dewey (1859-1952) would not find a position at Columbia University (where he taught from 1904 to 1930) today.
Dewey wrote in 1902: “Any restriction of academic freedom is, at bottom, a restriction of the freedom of intelligence, and of that free play of mind upon every sort of material which is our only assured deliverance from intellectual bondage.”

[David North @DavidNorthWSWS]

At the Dec. 2 seminar hosted by the Institute of Historical Research, Aidan Beatty's rehash of his anti-Healy slanders took up 60 minutes of the 90 minute program. I had time only to raise a few of the questions that I had prepared. This is the full text of my 10 questions.

[David North @DavidNorthWSWS]

I have sent this letter to an outstanding historian of the Civil War era

Trump’s victory may be shocking, but it is hardly surprising. His election is the disastrous outcome of the long-term and very deliberate repudiation by the Democratic Party of any programmatic orientation to the working class, which Hillary Clinton infamously dismissed as “a basket of deplorables” and Biden recently referred to as “garbage.”

Focused on the flim-flam of identity politics — i.e., the politics of more or less affluent sections of the middle class seeking a more favorable distribution of the wealth among the top 10 percent — the Democratic Party convinced itself that it had found an alternative to the politics that prioritized class. This intellectual regression was promoted and justified in the academy by the various forms of anti- and pseudo-Marxist philosophies (Frankfurt School and Post-Modernism) that were embraced by a generation of ex-radical students in the aftermath of 1968.

In the United States, the new anti-Marxism blended with the longstanding tradition of anti-communism. Leftwing politics, of the sort connected to working class militancy, disappeared. The grievances related to identity displaced any serious concern with the massive concentration of wealth in a small segment of society at the expense of the working class.

The pseudo-left replaced calls for equality with demands for equity. This was closely connected to the relentless harping on racial and ethnic differences, and, with it, a contempt for the genuinely democratic traditions of the United States. This found noxious expression in the 1619 Project. All this has been accompanied by a general cultural degradation, the promotion of every form of backwardness.

To the extent that the Biden administration had an agenda, its number one item was the escalation of military conflict with Russia and China. Its endorsement of the Gaza genocide — among the greatest crimes in the history of the new century — has been entirely bound up with its militaristic global strategy.

The disastrous consequences of Trump’s victory can be averted only by “a new birth” of genuinely socialist politics, based on the working class and animated by an international strategy that unites global humanity.

[David North @DavidNorthWSWS]

1/ In my review of @AidanJBeatty's biography of Gerry Healy, I accused him of violating the principles that apply to the writing of a scholarly work, especially his neglect of primary sources, his unlimited use of hearsay, gossip and other forms of unsubstantiated allegations.

[Joseph Kishore @jkishore]

Tuesday marks eight weeks until the US presidential elections. Polls indicate that the contest between Harris and Trump is very close, including a NYT poll published today that shows Trump with a slight lead in the popular vote.

What could be a more devastating indictment of the Democrats than the fact that the former president, who attempted to overthrow the last election in a fascistic coup, is able to gain traction and could even win the 2024 elections?

Harris and the Democrats have absolutely nothing to put forward to deal with the social crisis and the devastating conditions confronting the broad mass of the population. Their central priority is the escalation of war, particularly the US-NATO war against Russia, which is not popular. And they, along with the Republicans, are fully responsible for the genocide in Gaza.

The announcement that war criminal Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz, are backing Harris says everything about the politics of a future Harris administration. At the same time, it comprehensively exposes all the pseudo-left promoters of the Democrats, Sanders, AOC and the rest.

Trump and the Republicans are utilizing the elections to build up the framework for an authoritarian regime, whether they win or not. As Trump made clear in his remarks to the New York Economic Club last week, the program of the Republican Party articulates the interests of the corporate and financial oligarchy.

At the same time, Trump is able to capitalize on broad-based discontent that finds no expression within the political establishment.

It is impossible to fight the danger posed by Trump through support for the Democrats. Not only will the Democrats intensify a war abroad that threatens nuclear annihilation, the entire experience of the Biden administration demonstrates that they serve not to undermine but rather strengthen the fascistic right.

The only way forward is through the building of a political movement in the working class that articulates its interests, in opposition to the Democrats and Republicans and the entire capitalist system. This is the what the Socialist Equality Party is doing in our election campaign.

Read the SEP's election program, adopted at the SEP Congress last month. Join and build the SEP campaign! Take up the fight for socialism!

https://t.co/alsKmb3Dm7

[David North @DavidNorthWSWS]

This Open Letter demanding that the Zelensky regime halt its frame-up of socialist leader Bogdan Syrotiuk and release him from prison is addressed to the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova. Support the fight for Bogdan's freedom. https://t.co/sL36Eq1u19

[David North @DavidNorthWSWS]

The on-line May Day rally sponsored by the International Committee of the Fourth International begins today at 3 pm Eastern Daylight Time. Make sure to sign on and join the rally.

https://t.co/ej2Po42fqL

[David North @DavidNorthWSWS]

Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk, a fighter for a unified struggle of Ukrainian and Russian workers against the reactionary war of the regimes in Kiev and Moscow, has been arrested on trumped-up charges by the fascistic Zelensky dictatorship. Demand his freedom! #FreeBogdan

[Peter Symonds @SymondsWSWS]

The barbarism of capitalism and its inability to offer humanity a future are becoming evident to millions. The WSWS not only provides unparalleled analysis of events but a socialist program for ending the outmoded profit system. Watch this video and support the WSWS by donating.

[Tim Avery @TimAveryWrites]

The WSWS's coverage of the major political events of the past four years is utterly unique and indispensable. Please watch this video and make the largest possible donation today.

[Tom Carter @CarterWSWS]

There's nothing on our planet like @WSWS_Updates: a quarter century of continuous publication, 29 different languages, more than 100,000 articles in English alone, the best coverage of workers' issues anywhere, and a political heritage that can be traced directly to Leon Trotsky.

[Eric London @EricLondonSEP]

The international working class will have an anti-war, socialist voice in this election!

[David North @DavidNorthWSWS]

The Socialist Equality Party has selected Joseph Kishore and Jerry White as its presidential and vice-presidential candidates. This is the socialist alternative in 2024 to Biden and Trump, the corporate candidates of war and dictatorship. #Socialism2024 https://t.co/bXWdMRYhkN

[Peter Symonds @SymondsWSWS]

Australia-US critical minerals deal: The “third pillar” of the military alliance https://t.co/pFp3dArSZu

[Peter Symonds @SymondsWSWS]

US to sell drones to Taiwan in provocative intelligence-sharing plan https://t.co/piXuiZnT78

[Peter Symonds @SymondsWSWS]

China military drills following provocative US visit by Taiwanese president https://t.co/BWdVveYUnZ

[Peter Symonds @SymondsWSWS]

Top level Taiwanese ministers hold secret talks in Washington https://t.co/nfhT0xRczF

[Peter Symonds @SymondsWSWS]

Top US general predicts war with China by 2025 https://t.co/BYx6CJaApp