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The year 2018 is coming to a close amidst a historic political crisis in the United States.
In the past week, Washington has been convulsed by conflicts over Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from Syria and reduce troop levels in Afghanistan, and the ensuing resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis.
This has coincided with a sharp drop on the stock market and a partial government shutdown that could extend well into next year.
It is not Trump’s fascistic attack on immigrants, his war on the working class or his belligerence toward China that has triggered paroxysms of rage within the state and from the Democratic Party. It is, rather, his seeming intention to wind down the wars in Syria and Afghanistan, both of which are undeclared and illegal.
The World Socialist Web Site has published a series of statements explaining the significance and underlying causes of the crisis in Washington:
- Trump administration in question as political warfare in Washington intensifies
- The resignation of General Mattis and America’s crisis of class rule
- Defense Secretary Mattis resigns amid Washington backlash over Syria troop withdrawal
- The global crisis of class rule and the strategy of socialist revolution
Nowhere in this conflict—from the Trump administration, to the Democratic Party, to the pseudo-left—is there any expression of the interests of the vast majority of the population, the working class.
The working class cannot allow itself to be diverted behind any faction of the ruling class. It must advance its own solution to the capitalist crisis: socialist revolution.
The past year has seen a significant growth of working class struggle, in the United States and around the world. This is only an anticipation of the social explosions that will characterize 2019.
The critical task is the building of a political leadership, the Socialist Equality Party, to impart an ever-greater level of understanding and consciousness to the working class movement, and to connect the growth of class struggle to a socialist, internationalist and anti-imperialist movement to take state power and reorganize economic life on the basis of social need, not private profit.
Sincerely,
Joseph Kishore
SEP National Secretary
Police Violence
Behind the epidemic of police killings in America: Class, poverty and race
A statistical analysis of every police killing in the United States during 2017 demonstrates that socio-economic class, not race, plays the most decisive role. Read more.
Pseudo-left Politics
Rohini Hensman’s Indefensible: The ISO discovers its muse—the CIA
Rohini Hensman’s book Indefensible, issued by the International Socialist Organization’s (ISO) Haymarket Books publishing house, is a full-throated endorsement of imperialist war.
The bulk of Indefensible consists of vitriolic attacks on left-wing and socialist opponents of war. Read more.
Workers Speak Out
Amazon hired private detectives to spy on injured worker
When Michelle Quinones, a 27-year-old living in North Texas, developed carpal tunnel from working at Amazon, she had no idea the nightmare that was in store. Read more.
“Amazon ruined my life…They had photos of me sitting on my balcony. The night that I got the packet, I couldn’t sleep with my light off.”
Michelle Quinones, injured Amazon worker who was under invasive surveillance by the company’s private investigators.
Workers Struggles
UPS workers describe company reign of terror in wake of Teamsters sellout
It is more than two months since the Teamsters union illegitimately ratified a sellout five-year national labor contract covering a quarter of a million United Parcel Service (UPS) workers.
The union utilized a loophole in its constitution to despotically override a 54 percent “no” vote by the membership. Read more.
“We had two people die on the line this year”
Faurecia auto parts worker in Saline, Michigan describes appalling work regime
A worker from the Faurecia plant in Saline, Michigan, recently contacted the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter to discuss the conditions in the sprawling 1.3 million-square-foot facility.
The long hours, health and safety concerns, substandard pay and virtual management-union dictatorship mirror the situation throughout the auto parts industry. Read more.
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