4+ hour, 14+ min ago (839+ words) A political crisis in the Philippines over revelations of immense corruption has thrown the political elite into turmoil. Fueled by explosive social unrest, the crisis is moving towards a possible military coup, as no faction of the Philippine elite seems to have the capacity to contain the growing instability. Typhoons have repeatedly hammered the country this rainy season, tearing apart poorly maintained infrastructure. Hundreds have died and hundreds of thousands have lost power, shelter, and access to water. The price of oil has gone up by more than 33 percent since the beginning of the year, driving up transit costs and price of basic necessaries. Since the beginning of October, the price of oil has gone up seven times. Gasoline rose from P44 per liter at the beginning of October to P58 per liter by 10 November. Rice prices are rising. Government regulated rice,…...

4+ hour, 41+ min ago (411+ words) Barely a month in office, Japan's new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has triggered a diplomatic row with Beijing over her remarks in parliament on November 7 suggesting that Japan would automatically be involved in any military conflict between China and Taiwan. Far from subsiding, the battle of words has escalated over the past fortnight with mounting economic repercussions. The phrase has a precise legal meaning within "collective self-defence" legislation passed in 2015 by the government of Shinzo Abe allowing Japanese military deployment overseas in "a survival-threatening situation." No previous post-World War II Japanese government, even that of the militarist Abe, has publicly indicated that Tokyo would go to war with Beijing over Taiwan. Takaichi, a prot'g' of Abe, is pursuing a similar policy. Just a week after being installed, she met with Trump aboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier at the…...

5+ hour, 27+ min ago (795+ words) More than 3,200 Boeing defense workers in the St. Louis area voted Thursday to accept a five-year contract, ending a 15-week strike that had shut down production of fighter jets and weapons systems critical to the US war machine. The 68 to 32 percent vote came after workers had rejected four previous company offers. Those rejections were a sign of militancy and defiance, but the critical element allowing the company to end the strike was its isolation by bureaucracy of the International Association of Machinists, which allowed Boeing to starve workers into submission. The strike was part of a significant upsurge in the class struggle in recent months. This includes strikes by tens of thousands of healthcare workers on the west coast at Kaiser Permanente and UC Health, as well as healthcare strikes in New Orleans, Minnesota, Wisconsin and western Michigan. Other strikes…...

5+ hour, 53+ min ago (254+ words) What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the Revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The Revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected, from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen years before a drop of blood was drawn at Lexington." "John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 24 August 1815. From a small spark, kindled in America, a flame has arisen not to be extinguished. Without consuming, it winds its progress from nation to nation, and conquers by a silent operation. Man finds himself changed and discovers that the strength and powers of despotism consist wholly in the fear of resisting it, and that, in order to be free, it is sufficient that he wills it. It is as if these events and people, slumbering for a quarter millennium,…...

6+ hour, 40+ min ago (671+ words) This week, one of the most aggressive military manoeuvres of the postwar period took place in Berlin. Under the codename'Bollwerk B'rlin, the government deployed 250 heavily armed soldiers of the Guard Battalion in underground railway tunnels and on an abandoned industrial site to train for urban warfare and operations against opponents in urban terrain. Officially, the exercise was intended as "preparation for a state of defence." In reality, it marks a qualitative escalation of domestic militarisation. It is part of the systematic preparations by the ruling class for war abroad and repression at home. At the same time, developments in Germany cannot be viewed separately from events in the United States. There, the fascist President Donald Trump is attempting to establish an openly dictatorial regime; mobilising military and paramilitary units in city centres to crush the growing opposition to his oligarchic…...

7+ hour, 6+ min ago (1743+ words) This is the first part of the lecture "The Gelfand Case: 1978-1982" delivered by Norisa Diaz and Tom Carter, to the 2025 Summer School of the Socialist Equality Party (US) on the history of the Security and the Fourth International investigation. The suit named as defendants the heads of the US Department of Justice, the FBI, the CIA, the National Security Agency, the SWP, and the SWP leaders instrumental in his expulsion. At the convention, Gelfand raised his concerns to SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes and noted that, as an attorney, the documents appeared legitimate to him. Barnes told Gelfand that the documents were in fact true, and that their contents represented a part of the party's history that was supposedly known to many. He claimed that Hansen's meetings with the FBI were to gather information on Trotsky's assassination, and assured Gelfand…...

7+ hour, 17+ min ago (930+ words) Last week Wall Street feverishly anticipated the quarterly revenue and profit results from Nvidia, the chipmaker at the center of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. Would the results exceed expectations and quell the growing fears that the AI boom is a bubble which may soon burst with major consequences? They were published after Wall Street had closed on Wednesday and were above forecasts with a 62 percent increase in revenues to $57 billion in the three months to the end of October and forecasts of even more to come in the current quarter$65 billion, some $3 billion more than expectations. When trading opened on Thursday Nvidia's shares jumped by 5 percent with the tech-heavy NASDAQ index and the S&P 500 recording significant rises. But it was a different story by the end of the day. Nvidia's share price was down 3.2 percent and the gains…...

7+ hour, 42+ min ago (563+ words) We encourage all postal workers to contact the Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee at'[email protected]'or by filling out the form at the end of this article. The deal'which involves both the Urban and RSMC bargaining units'was struck in total secrecy. The union, moreover, is refusing to provide the membership with a single concrete detail of its contents. Nonetheless, CUPW has halted all remaining job action during Canada Post's most profitable period of the year as the winter holiday shopping season kicks into high-gear.' Canada Post and CUPW confirmed Friday that "all strike or lockout activities are suspended" while lawyers formalize the "agreement in principle," and that no details will be released until tentative contracts are concluded. Management and the Carney Liberal government know exactly what the "agreement" contains; postal workers, whose livelihoods are being bartered away, are on the other…...

8+ hour, 42+ min ago (1681+ words) At two major public meetings held over the past week'in Berlin on November 18 and London on November 22'David North, chairperson of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site, delivered lectures examining the global crisis of capitalism and the Trump administration's drive to dictatorship. The text of his London lecture is presented here in full. North used both events to announce the upcoming launch of Socialism AI, a groundbreaking tool to assist workers and youth in the development of socialist consciousness. Tonight's lecture poses the question, "Where is America Going?" I think that most people, if asked, would respond rather quickly, "To hell." And, if only meant metaphorically, the answer would be justified. There is another similar phrase, "Going to hell in a hand basket'denoting a crisis situation that is careening rapidly and uncontrollably toward disaster'that describes the…...

8+ hour, 57+ min ago (338+ words) The fire erupted shortly before 9 am November 20 in the hot mill area of the Novelis plant just outside Oswego, New York. Thick smoke and flames prompted a five-alarm response from local fire departments and the emergency evacuation of more than 1,100 workers and support staff. Miraculously, no workers, firefighters, or contractors were injured in the event. Ford and Novelis released coordinated statements assuring that shipments would resume and that unaffected parts of the plant were operating. Their priority was clear: reassure investors that losses would be contained. "Ford is the stupidest auto maker." To which more than one co-worker replied, "At this point we need a full investigation done." Another co-worker added, "There's so many people working 24 hours a day to get it back in operation, things happen." The recent rise in injuries at the Jeep complex follows the death in…...