the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Jun 23, 2025
Well, Trump did it: he jumped to put the U.S. into the war on Iran. On Saturday, June 21, several B-2 stealth bombers delivered fourteen “bunker buster” bombs to three nuclear sites in Iran, in an elaborately planned attack that was clearly in the works for weeks, if not months.
Trump’s stated intention was to disable Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, which he and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had claimed was very close to being able to assemble a nuclear bomb.
Never mind that the U.S. and Netanyahu have been claiming for twenty years that Iran was “weeks away” from a bomb; never mind that both the U.S. and Israel HAVE nuclear warheads … supposedly the mere possibility that Iran might (soon) have the capability to build ONE is enough for them to justify an intense bombing campaign, started by Israel on June 13, and joined by the U.S. on Saturday, June 21.
In fact, Israel and the U.S. have been targeting Iran for decades. It intensified after Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023. Israel then attacked Hamas (and the entire population of Gaza), as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen (joined also by the U.S.)—all three are supported by Iran. With all of them weakened (and with the downfall of the regime in Syria, another Iran ally), Netanyahu apparently decided this was the time to strike Iran.
As for the U.S., it has had Iran in its crosshairs ever since the popular revolution in 1979 that toppled U.S. imperialism’s preferred dictator, Mohammad Reza Shah. A brutal theocratic dictatorship may have come to power after that revolution, but that is not what the U.S. cared about, not at all. The U.S. continues to support many brutal theocratic dictatorships in that region. What they have always cared about has been that a revolution in a large, major country, overthrew THEIR dictatorship, and that the current regime is not under their control.
This is why there has been so much vilification of Iran’s regime and its influence in the region. This is why the U.S. and other Western countries have submitted Iran to sanctions for decades, causing poverty and death for many in the country.
Trump wants to say that the U.S. and Israel’s attack was targeted, precise, and completely successful in shutting down Iran’s nuclear program. Mission Accomplished.
This is not going to be that easy.
In the first place, this bombing attack could not possibly have been successful in completely shutting down Iran’s nuclear program. If anything, it may speed up Iran’s attempt to build a nuclear weapon. Before, Iran was led to believe that if it showed itself to be compliant, U.S. sanctions would be lifted. Now it knows that none of that matters. If anything would have shown Iran the need for a nuclear deterrent, it would have been these attacks last weekend!
So, this will not just end with the U.S.’s one bombing campaign. Iran may respond with attacks on one or more of the many U.S. military bases in the region. If so, Trump will almost surely feel a need to respond. If the Iranian regime is threatened or toppled (a stated goal of the Israeli government), a number of other regimes in the area are fragile and could start to fall as well. This is one powder keg, now lit, that could well blow into a wider regional war, or even a world war.
At the very least, it could turn into the kind of “forever war” that Trump claimed to oppose when he ran in 2016 and 2024. All experts agree that if the goal is truly to shut down Iran’s nuclear program, that cannot be done through aerial bombing alone. It takes boots on the ground to do that, leaving open the possibility that this will turn into another dragged-out occupation like we saw in Afghanistan and Iraq.
This is what the Trump administration has just pulled us into. It is not just Trump—it is the entire capitalist class he is acting for, which for decades has insisted on seeking complete control of a region it considers as crucial to its profit-making and to its control of the world.
This war is just starting. And we will be made to pay for this war, in myriad ways. Workers have no interest in this war. More than that, we have every interest to join with and support the working people of Iran—and of Israel and of Gaza—who have been made to suffer for imperialism’s war for control and profit.
Jun 23, 2025
ParkChicago paid 1.16 billion dollars in 2008 to control Chicago’s parking meters for 75 years. Since then, prices have more than tripled in some places. They’ve already raked in 2 billion dollars—and still have 58 years to keep cashing in.
During COVID, the city paused meter ticketing. ParkChicago cried about “lost revenue,” and now they’re getting a 15.5-million-dollar payout.
The deal also includes stricter enforcement. So not only do we pay more, but we get ticketed harder—for their profits. Meanwhile, none of this money touches schools, transit, or anything that actually helps workers.
Jun 23, 2025
A lot of people saw the interview between former Fox TV host Tucker Carlson and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, during which Carlson told Cruz that he doesn’t know anything about Iran. For example, Cruz didn’t know how many people lived in Iran, (answer: 92 plus million people), nor what ethnic groups they were, other than “Persian.” Persian people make up half the Iranian population.
Carlson is calling out Cruz for knowing nothing about a country that Cruz may be helping the U.S. government to declare war against.
Since both Cruz and Carlson call themselves MAGA, the back and forth is ironic.
Jun 23, 2025
Instead of celebrating Juneteenth this year, Trump took to the Truth Social platform that he owns: “Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed….” “The workers don’t want it either,” he added. Working people were long overdue to have a holiday to celebrate the end of slavery. And so long as we still have wage-slavery, for bosses, most of us want and will take our well-earned holidays!
Jun 23, 2025
Librarians have stood up for decades to defend the right of ordinary people to freely access books, the internet and the creative wonders of human culture. The Patriot Act, passed after September 11, 2001, tried to force librarians to disclose who was reading what. Librarians refused!
Since 2021, right-wing politicians and fundamentalist religious groups have stepped up the push for book bans. Librarians have organized their communities to push back. As a popular slogan puts it, “It’s never the good guys who ban books!”
The recent firing of Carla Hayden, who served as the Librarian of Congress since 2016, came as a shock. Ms. Hayden was the first black female to head the national library. It is the largest library in the world.
In a PBS interview after the firing, Ms. Hayden described this library as a treasure chest of photographs, film and books. It does not loan books to children, so the claim that Carla Hayden was fired because of “putting inappropriate books in the library for children” is a lie. What is true is this firing signals a new attack on libraries.
It puts a spotlight on the far-right’s “hopes” for the future—a “future” of going backwards! A future of narrowing access of the working class and the population to learning and culture.
In the PBS interview, Carla Hayden mentioned that librarians have been called “feisty fighters for freedom.” She spoke of plans by librarians, nationally, to try to mobilize public support for libraries. “It’s been known that restricting access to books and reading is often a tactic.… As centuries of dictators, tyrants, slave owners and other illicit holders of power have known … if you cannot restrict a people from learning to read, you must limit its scope.”
Jun 23, 2025
Illinois legislators passed their budget just before midnight on the last day of May. Governor Pritzker signed the budget two weeks later.
To close a billion-dollar gap in the budget, they included 700 million in new taxes, much of it on sports betting.
The rest of that gap, they closed by yanking healthcare for the undocumented population, between ages 42 and 65. They discussed cutting a similar program for undocumented seniors in May, but that program was spared, for now. As it stands, 30,000 adults served by the program will lose their healthcare coverage. They will either go without, or resort to hospital emergency rooms.
Almost all of the Democrats in Springfield voted for these cuts. And Governor Pritzker signed off on it.
The Democrats, in Illinois and other states, have been making a big show, presenting themselves as champions of the immigrant population—particularly in the face of Trump and the attacks by ICE and Homeland Security. But at the same time, we see them turn around and quietly carry out attacks like these behind the scenes.
Jun 23, 2025
The Women’s National Basketball Association is a partner to the NBA, the men’s National Basketball Association. But not an equal partner.
The NBA gets huge publicity and fees from the major broadcasting outfits, billions of dollars to broadcast the popular men’s games. They don’t spend much of it promoting the women’s games, even though the sport is exploding in popularity.
Even worse, women rookie players start at $60,000 for a season, while men players start at $1,160,000—which is 18 times higher. The top women stars make a quarter of a million dollars, while the top men stars make tens of millions—yet they need the same skills.
Half of the women in the WNBA go overseas to play each year to supplement their salaries. That’s how Brittney Griner ended up in a Russian prison for 10 months, on her way to play basketball for a Russian team in Ekaterinburg.
Men and women are playing the same sport, using the same skills. In no way does the sports world, whether announcers, broadcasters, sports writers or media people give the same attention or admiration to women players as they do for men players.
Money reflects the unequal treatment women receive in capitalist society.
Jun 23, 2025
Trump’s disgusting deportation push has slammed into an economic and social reality: Key industries rely heavily on workers living in the U.S. illegally, many of them for decades.
This has been proven over and over again over the last few months.
In Tallahassee, Florida, federal agents swarmed the construction site for a 220-unit student housing development, arresting 100 of the 175 workers, while they were pouring the concrete foundation. Without these workers, much of the concrete work was ruined, and eventually had to be redone.
In early June, federal agents fanned out across California’s vast agricultural area. The raids spread chaos where most of the nation’s vegetables, grapes and delicate fruit, like peaches and strawberries, are starting to be harvested. Growers reported that 30 to 60% of workers stopped reporting to the fields in the days after the raids and warned that without these workers the food would not be picked on time, leading to possible food shortages.
In early June, federal agents raided Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, Nebraska, arresting 75 workers, roughly half the assembly line. The work ground to a halt … and not just at Glenn Valley Foods. Word of the raid spread so quickly that many workers at other meat processing companies, fearful of additional raids, also walked off their jobs. “Without immigrant workers, there wouldn’t be an industry,” concluded a Glenn Valley Foods executive.
Undocumented immigrants play an important role in the running of the entire U.S. economy. They may account for only about 4.4% of the U.S. workforce. But their share of the workforce in key industries is much higher. More than 40% of all agricultural workers in the U.S. have no legal immigration status, the Agriculture Department has estimated. Goldman Sachs also estimates that 19% of all workers in landscaping services, 16% in meatpacking and 13% in construction are undocumented.
But these employers don’t hire undocumented workers out of the goodness of their heart. They take advantage of the workers’ legal status by paying the workers less, while working them longer and harder.
Once the raids began, and the workers deserted the work sites, industry groups and corporate executives, many of whom are important donors and supporters of Donald Trump, pressured the Trump administration to exempt them from further raids. The Trump administration then did a big flip-flop. At first, Trump relented, posting a message on Truth Social that seemed downright friendly toward the very immigrants he has spent much of his political career demonizing, calling immigrants in the farming and hospitality industries “very good, long-time workers,” in order to entice the workers back to work.
Trump quickly reversed himself and confirmed that the worksite raids would continue. He did so in order to threaten and discipline the working population in the face of much higher prices, and big cuts in social programs and government employment. The administration needs this in order to fund big tax breaks and other giveaways for the big corporations and the rich.
But these attacks could very well backfire, not just on Trump, but the capitalist class which he serves. For by staying away from work, immigrant workers demonstrated not just how vital their work is, but the fact that their vital role in the economy gives them power to fight to defend their own interests.
Jun 23, 2025
Millions of people across the central and eastern U.S. are under a “heat dome” that began on the first day of summer and is supposed to extend through the end of the following week. The National Weather Service is predicting temperatures reaching 100 degrees and above, and more than 200 million people are expected to be affected.
Heat domes form when high pressure from the earth’s atmosphere compresses warm air and pushes it down to the surface. They have become increasingly common in the U.S. in recent years amid rising global temperatures.
Extreme weather events have become more frequent and more severe. Not from any “Mother Nature” reason, but because we live in a system where industries burn a massive amount of fossil fuels to produce energy while at the same time, causing massive carbon dioxide emissions.
And while national and local news stations continuously warn people about the high temperatures, nearly 60% of the United States’ population are on their own to deal with its effects.
People are told to stay home, but what about the fact that people have to work? And when people are at work, how about all the workplaces that have no air-conditioning—including major factories?
People are told to put on their air conditioning—but what if they have none?
Large apartment complexes in working class neighborhoods are heat traps, and even when these buildings have air conditioning, often it goes out—and these heat traps become death traps. Even if you have air-conditioning, what about power outages, that are widespread, especially in the summer time?
People are told to go to a cooling center—but if you are an elder and have no means of transportation, or don’t even know about these centers—how is that possible? And where are there such places in rural areas, in the first place?
All of these proposed measures are, at best, Band-Aid measures to a problem that is so widespread; it can only be tackled by widespread solutions.
We live in a capitalist system that creates the conditions for everything from poverty, war, racism, and—you got it—global warming. It is a system that puts profits first—and ordinary human beings be damned.
Jun 23, 2025
This article is translated from the June 20 issue #2968 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the revolutionary workers group of that name active in France.
The price of a barrel of oil jumped 10% as soon as Israel began bombing Iran. War brings destruction and anguish to populations. But it gives speculators a chance to get rich.
Capitalism is an inherently unstable system, based on war of all against all. And it regularly experiences periods of heightened military tensions, like now. Israel’s attacks on Iran provided an opportunity for speculative trading on the oil market.
Even before an Iranian oil site was hit by Israeli bombing, speculators anticipated the risk that such facilities would be destroyed, which would reduce the supply of oil on the world market, and therefore increase the price per barrel.
Iran is the world’s seventh-largest oil producer, and the Strait of Hormuz, which it borders, is a strategic route for Middle Eastern cargo to Asia and Europe. Last year, JPMorgan estimated that blockage of access to the Persian Gulf could push the price of crude oil to $130 a barrel.
The speculators who anticipate this risk are not concerned for the populations who will suffer the price increases at the gas pump. In their language, “risk” means a way to get rich. Betting on a rise in the price of oil, they buy it in quantity. The increase in demand on these markets pushes up the price per barrel, allowing these speculators to resell oil at the higher price.
Happy are the speculators who take advantage of war to make good moves on the stock market!
Jun 23, 2025
This article is translated from the June 20 issue #2968 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the revolutionary workers group of that name active in France.
Thousands of people from around 50 countries gathered in Cairo, Egypt on June 13 as part of the Global March to Gaza organized by various groups.
The idea was to march to Gaza to protest the genocide and the Israeli blockade. On June 9, a caravan of 80 buses and 400 cars called Sumud (Arabic for perseverance) set off from Tunisia to Cairo. Bringing together activists, doctors, men and women, people of all ages and from across North Africa, the caravan sparked a surge of solidarity and hope along its way. The buses left Algeria’s capital city Algiers discreetly, because demonstrations in support of Palestinians are banned there. Some local people were disappointed to learn about the caravan only after it left, so they couldn’t participate.
The convoy was supposed to reach Egypt before June 15. But Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, an ally of the Egyptian regime, stopped it in Sirte, in eastern Libya. Thirteen Tunisian, Algerian, Libyan, and Sudanese activists were arrested, including those who had been posting about the caravan’s journey on social media. The caravan was forced to retreat to Tunisia.
At the Cairo airport, hundreds of people were turned away on arrival. Some were arrested at their hotels. Two hundred participants who managed to get through these checkpoints were arrested before joining a gathering in Ismailia along the Suez Canal. Plainclothes cops beat them brutally. The organizers expressed surprise at this repression. They had complied with all the demands of Egyptian embassies in more than 15 countries.
Egypt’s leaders present themselves as peace mediators and officially condemn the ongoing siege of Gaza. But they are complicit in it. In fact, Egyptian authorities make life very difficult for 100,000 Gazans who managed to escape the hell of the enclave by paying thousands of dollars to Egyptian army auxiliaries to let them enter Egypt. Their children are under close surveillance and can’t attend school. Since October 7, 2023, thousands of Egyptians have been imprisoned for showing solidarity with Gazans.
At 1.3 billion dollars per year, Egypt is the second-largest recipient of U.S. military aid after Israel, with which it maintains close economic and military ties. No surprise that Egypt obeys the Israeli Defense Minister’s orders to prevent the arrival of these protesters, whom he describes as jihadists.
In failing to break the blockade, this caravan highlights the chasm that exists between the Arab peoples, who are genuinely outraged by the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and their leaders. Official support for the Gazans is nothing but hypocrisy. This is evident for Egypt, the Gulf monarchies, and Morocco, which recently hosted the American-led African Lion military maneuvers on its soil, in which the Israeli Golani unit, responsible for the March 23 massacre of fifteen paramedics and rescue workers in Rafah, participated. This is also true for Algeria and Tunisia, which claim to have made the Palestinian cause their own.
Jun 23, 2025
This article is translated from the May 24 issue, #1351 of Combat Ouvrier (Workers Fight), the paper of the Trotskyist group of that name active in Guadeloupe and Martinique, two islands that are French overseas departments in the Caribbean.
On Saturday, May 17, over 200 people marched through the streets of Fort-de-France to protest against violence against Haitians in the Dominican Republic.
During the demonstration, the crowd chanted “Stop massacring Haitians in Santo Domingo!”
The mobilization was the initiative of a group of political organizations, unions and associations. It brought together many Haitians as well as activists from various political groups such as Palima, Peyi-a, GRS, Combat Ouvrier, as well as the Martinique Women’s Union (UFM) and the CDMT trade union.
Since October 2024, President Luis Abinader and his government in the Dominican Republic have been implementing a plan against Haitian immigrants. Thousands of Haitian nationals have already been expelled to Haiti, often in an atmosphere of pogrom and manhunt, led by militiamen in the pay of the rich. As of April 21, a number of additional measures against illegal aliens have been put in place. One of these is to demand identity papers from people presenting themselves at the hospital, in order to prove their legal status in the country. A revolting measure, which has the effect of preventing migrants from accessing healthcare.
This racism against Haitians is revolting and must stop! The workers and the working population of the Dominican Republic have nothing to gain by taking the path of the government’s extreme right-wing and divisive policies. This division only serves the capitalist bosses, who take advantage of it to exploit more ferociously a foreign workforce that is paid less, housed worse and given the toughest jobs. On the other hand, the workers and working population of the Dominican Republic have everything to gain by joining forces with Haitian workers against capitalism, a system that exploits migrant workers as well as legal workers. Proletarians of all countries, unite!
The results of this anti-migrant policy can be dramatic, as in the case of Lourdia Jean-Pierre, who died on May 9, 2025. On that day, she gave birth at home, without medical care, for fear of being deported on her way to hospital. Following this tragic event, the authorities arrested the father and newborn and deported them.
Jun 23, 2025
This article is translated from the May 24 issue, #1351 of Combat Ouvrier (Workers Fight), the paper of the Trotskyist group of that name active in Guadeloupe and Martinique, two islands that are French overseas departments in the Caribbean.
On Tuesday, May 13, demonstrators caused a general power cut in the Port-au-Prince region and the Centre department. They forced the shutdown of the hydroelectric plant that supplies the entire region.
The director of Haitian Electric denounced sabotage. One of the organizers replied that the action was carried out to protest against insecurity, declaring: “We decided to stop the hydroelectric plant because the government has abandoned these towns to criminal gangs. The authorities refuse to deploy the necessary force to drive out the bandits and restore peace. As long as this situation persists, the power station will remain closed.”
Organized gangs, murderers and kidnappers are targeting the population. Raids in popular neighborhoods have resulted in over two million internally displaced persons, according to figures from non-governmental organizations. The inhabitants of the neighborhoods are driven out by the violence of the criminal gangs, who take everything they can find and then set fire to the houses. In the rubble, they set up armed posts to combat any police presence.
Most of the displaced victims have taken refuge in public buildings, on empty plots of land set up on the sly, or on the sidewalk in the street. Many are also trying to make their way out of the country, fleeing the incapacity or complicity of the authorities. But those who manage to cross over to the Dominican Republic are sent back after suffering the violence of the guards and the ostracism of a section of the population.
As for the workers in the few factories that are still open, they have been subjected to a wage freeze for the past three years. Today, with the devaluation of the gourde, the daily wage of 500 gourdes is barely equivalent to $3.80. With that, a worker can’t even buy a dish of rice with sauce in front of the factory—that’s the price of the journey to and from work. So, to bring home a few pennies, he has to walk and doesn’t eat at lunchtime.
At the same time, the price of everyday consumer goods has doubled or tripled, as have public transport and rent. Faced with their dwindling purchasing power, the workers are demanding that the authorities adjust their wages to take account of this inflation. This is not the priority of the Presidential Transition Council, whose members are jostling to run the state and help themselves to the public purse.
Their intervention against insecurity is a fiasco. The Haitian police force is outmatched and under-armed in relation to the gangs. As for the multinational security mission led by Kenya, it is ineffective and its deployment has remained limited to the airport area. In the first three months of 2025, more than 1,600 people were killed, according to the United Nations.
Asphyxiated by gang violence, the popular masses bend their backs and resist. They are waiting for the right moment, an opportunity that will enable them to take action, as they have done at certain times known as “bwa kale.” They are striving to pool their forces, build their own organization and rely on themselves.
Jun 23, 2025
On June 14, many people around the country came out for what the organizers called “No Kings” rallies held in over 2,000 cities and towns. It’s certainly possible there were at least two to three million people protesting that day, based on the crowds that were seen.
It’s not a surprise that so many would come out to protest. The working population is under attack today. Many people are angry and their homemade signs at the rallies showed why they are angry. Some were protesting the arrests and deportations of immigrant workers. Others were protesting the cuts to Medicaid and other essentials.
What would it take to go from a one-day demonstration to a massive movement or a general strike? To have a movement strong enough to force changes?
First, it would take a focus on an issue or issues that people agree is worth a fight for, like attacks on immigrant workers or cuts to Medicaid. Or it could be issues like low wages and high prices that every working family is feeling today.
To build a fight would mean involving the general population, bringing together people in workplaces and neighborhoods to discuss what people fight for and what they were ready to do.
If many people were ready to go forward, then the goal could be bringing as many people as possible together in a show of force. Such force as could take over the streets and shut down Washington or other cities and keep them shut down until they got changes. A movement organized in the factories and workplaces could lead to a general strike.
That’s where a protest could lead. That’s not what June 14 was; the slogan “No Kings” was obviously leveled against Trump. Clearly it was a call to get rid of Trump. And while that is understandable, it focuses on an electoral solution that will call, once again, for a vote for one of the two major parties, in this case, Democrats.
Yes, Trump is making outrageous attacks on the working people, like deportations of immigrant workers or budget cuts. But most recently, Biden and Obama, deported more immigrants than Trump has so far. The Democrats made the same kind of cuts when they were in office. And both parties represent the capitalist class which is driving down the standard of living of the working class.
The working class needs its own party, a party based on its own interest to organize a real fight. This party will have to put forth the goal of fighting not just to defend against everyday attacks. Finally, we need to fight with the goal of bringing down capitalism with its wars and exploitation. We need an end to capitalism—to replace it with a system run by and for the workers.
Jun 23, 2025
Thousands of Philips Respironics mechanical respirators and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines with dangerous and potentially fatal flaws are still in use in Mexican hospitals, even though the problems have been public information for years.
The machines pump air for people with difficulty breathing. But noise-reducing foam padding can shred tiny, abrasive, cancer-causing particles into the pumped air, especially in hot, humid conditions. The company learned of the problem in 2009 but kept selling them. Some machines also automatically stop pumping air when patients cough, which is when they need air the most!
During the COVID pandemic Philips made a show of donating 2,000 E30 ventilators to the Mexican government for use in hospitals. The company also sold more than 530 of six kinds of defective machines to two dozen Mexican states and cities, and the machines are still being sold there.
As customer lawsuits racked up around the world, Philips finally offered to recall its machines in 2021 but did nothing to take them back and fix them, especially in Mexico. A Mexican lawyer estimates as many as 30,000 patients have died so far from these machine faults in Mexican hospitals.
Capitalists stop at nothing to make more profit. In a poor country like Mexico, the human cost means even less to them.
Jun 23, 2025
On June 9, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. fired 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control’s vaccine advisory committee. The people he fired were medical professors from some of the top schools in the country and many were considered public health experts.
In defending the firings, Kennedy made a number of false claims against the committee’s recommendations on childhood vaccines. Kennedy falsely claimed that other than the COVID-19 vaccines, no other childhood vaccines had been tested against placebos and shown to be safe and effective. In reality, every vaccine has been tested against some form of placebo, according to infectious disease expert Jake Scott.
While it’s certainly true that there are risks associated with vaccines, the risks associated with infectious diseases among the unvaccinated are much greater. One need only look at the recent measles outbreak in the U.S. to see that effect. When the measles vaccine was first applied, it led to a dramatic decrease in the rate of infection.
After posting on X the night after the firings that he would not appoint “ideological anti-vaxxers,” he went ahead and did exactly that a day later, according to public health experts.
Among those he appointed was Dr. Robert Malone, who advocated for treating COVID-19 with ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, both of which were found to either be ineffective or even harmful in the treatment of COVID. Another of RFK Jr.’s appointees, Martin Kuldorff, had advocated no anti-COVID restrictions being taken for anyone other than vulnerable populations like seniors so that exposing children, youths and adults would produce “herd immunity.”
The firings come after RFK Jr. pushed for ending the CDC recommendation for COVID vaccinations for pregnant women and healthy children. He falsely claimed a study had shown that COVID-19 vaccines had caused heart inflammation in young males, when in fact the study had found that the risk was greater among those who contracted COVID than among those vaccinated, in whom the conditions were rare.
RFK Jr.’s attacks on the vaccine advisory committee are just the latest in the Trump administration’s attacks on public health and medical research. A group of 60 current employees of the National Institutes of Health recently sent a letter to RFK Jr., NIH director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, and members of Congress protesting the cuts. There letter was signed by 340 current and recently fired NIH employees. It pointed out that 2,100 research grants had been terminated since Trump took office, saying the terminations “throw away years of hard work” and put patient health at risk, and that clinical trials “are being halted without regard to participant safety.”
The Trump administration, including RFK Jr., are seizing upon popular anti-scientific sentiments and vaccine hesitancy to justify cutting federal funding for medical and public health research. Instead of using science to improve patient outcomes and prevent disease, they’re taking society backward in order to provide tax cuts to the wealthy and the big corporations.
Jun 23, 2025
Donald Trump recently imposed 50% tariffs on foreign steel. Trump justified these tariffs by claiming that a flood of cheap imported steel had destroyed the U.S. steel industry and workers’ jobs.
U.S. union officials and politicians like Bernie Sanders say the same thing.
In fact, nothing can be further from the truth. U.S. steel mills still produce three-quarters of the steel used domestically. It is a major and technologically advanced producer of high strength steels and certain specialty grades. The U.S. is also one of the biggest exporters of steel in the world.
No, imported steel didn’t destroy U.S. steel workers’ jobs. The steel companies operating in the U.S. did. Today one steel worker produces as much steel as 10 steel workers produced in the 1970s. The main reason for this is that the way steel is produced has changed dramatically. Old integrated steel mills have been replaced by mini mills that use electric arc furnaces. In response, the steel companies didn’t just slash jobs, they abandoned the industrial heartland in the Midwest, laying waste to its economy and population, and then opened up new steel mills in different regions of the country, usually the South.
This is not the first time that Trump introduced tariffs on steel, claiming that they would bring steel worker jobs back to the U.S. He introduced tariffs on steel in 2018, during his first term. And when Biden became president, he kept those tariffs. But after the tariffs were imposed all that happened was that the steel companies operating in the U.S. raised their prices. For them, big tariff increases were an opportunity to greatly increase their profits, a profit bonanza.
There was no increase in steel production or steel jobs. But a year later, 75,000 manufacturing jobs had been lost. Steel is an intermediate product used in the production of other things, and the price increase in steel caused a drop in demand and cutbacks in production and jobs.
Those tariffs were not aimed at protecting jobs or bringing jobs back, as Trump says. They were aimed at increasing the profits and wealth of the U.S. capitalist class in a worsening and more violent trade war. In these trade wars it is the workers in the U.S. and the rest of the world who pay the price through much higher prices, greater unemployment and more cuts in government programs and services in the immediate future. Not to speak of sacrificing their lives and the lives of their children when trade wars lead to real shooting wars.
Jun 23, 2025
What follows is the editorial that appeared on the front of all SPARK’s workplace newsletters, during the week of June 15, 2025.
In the early morning hours on Friday, June 13, Israel launched a surprise missile and drone attack on Iran, hitting dozens of military and nuclear research sites. Over 140 people were reported killed, including several senior military officials and nuclear scientists. By the end of the day Friday, Iran had retaliated, launching missiles at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, killing over a dozen people. The attacks between the two countries continued into Sunday.
Israel’s stated intention was to damage Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities and slow down its progress toward building a nuclear bomb. Iran has stated that its nuclear program is only for civilian uses.
Iran and the U.S. had been in talks about its nuclear programs; these talks were set to resume Sunday but have now been called off. This seems to have been part of Israel’s intentions too—to halt those negotiations. One of the Iranian officials killed was overseeing the talks with the U.S.
Trump seems to have been put into a difficult situation by Netanyahu. Just on Thursday, Trump urged Netanyahu not to attack Iran, saying, “I don’t want them going in because that would blow (negotiations) up.” But after the attack, and after Secretary of State Marco Rubio put out a statement saying Israel had acted unilaterally and the U.S. had not played a role, Trump pivoted. He blamed Iran for the attack, saying, “I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal” to stop it from enriching uranium, “but ... they just couldn’t get it done.” Trump also wanted to make clear that he was not surprised by the attack, that he had been fully in the loop. He’s got to be the one in control, even if he’s not.
In any case, Israel did tell the U.S. about its plans ahead of time. The U.S. started removing officials from the region on Wednesday, so they clearly anticipated that something was going to happen.
As it stands now, Iran certainly doesn’t believe that Israel would have carried out this attack without the U.S.’s knowledge and approval, if not outright support. Iran has said that any further talks would be “meaningless” after these attacks. It was, after all, caught by surprise by these attacks precisely because the U.S. was offering talks.
It’s possible that this exchange will be limited for now. But there is a very real possibility that Israel will continue its attacks, that Iran will continue its counterattacks, and that the U.S. will get drawn in more directly militarily. Israel says it won’t stop until Iran’s nuclear capabilities are completely eradicated, but Israel doesn’t have the ability by itself to do that; Iran’s nuclear facilities are deep underground, so Israel would need U.S. help if it really plans to do that. And what might begin as air strikes can quickly move to a ground war.
And any escalation of a war between Israel and Iran threatens not only to pull the U.S. in, but also other countries in the region, as well as major powers beyond. The U.S. has already signaled its intention to send more troops and ships to the region, on top of the bases it already has there.
This is the danger under capitalism and imperialism, where war is always just a step away. Imperialist countries like the U.S. need military might to inflict their control and will on the world. It is the logic of a system that requires major military force; a system that pours billions of dollars into that military force. It is the logic of a system that uses Israel as its proxy in the region to maintain that control, arming Israel to the teeth to do that job.
The entire situation in the Middle East, including the conflicts there, and Israel’s role, is imperialism’s creation. And so long as imperialism is around, the danger of war, and of a wider war, even a world war, always looms.
Jun 23, 2025
Today’s electronic technology is made possible by the effectiveness and tiny size of things called “rare earth magnets.”
For example, there might be a dozen of these cheap magnets in a luxury vehicle seat, allowing the seat to adjust multiple ways.
“Rare” earth material is all around the world. But it is China that refines and processes 90% of it. Refining creates toxic pollution. The work got sent to China.
Recently the amount of rare earth magnets sold by China to U.S. buyers was cut way back. It has been a bargaining chip in the tariff negotiations going on between the U.S. and China. Ford’s CEO said last week the company is struggling to find enough supplies of rare earth magnets. “It’s day to day…. We have had to shut down factories.”
This supply issue is out there and could have an impact on U.S. auto production.
Jun 23, 2025
Juneteenth, or June 19, goes back to June 19, 1865, when Union troops came to Texas and freed the last of the people who had been enslaved at the end of the Civil War. To celebrate the end of slavery, the freedmen and women in Texas organized their own celebration the following year, June 19, 1866. This is how Juneteenth got started. Ever since then, Juneteenth has been celebrated in parts of the black community.
Juneteenth was never an official holiday for any company or government body—until 2020. In 2020, there were massive protests after the racist murder of George Floyd. Several million people came into the streets in hundreds of cities and even in many small towns.
After those protests, politicians from both parties, looking for political advantage, began to pass laws making Juneteenth an official holiday. Many corporations, like Ford, followed suit.
These politicians and corporate bosses tried to claim credit for making Juneteenth an official holiday. But the Juneteenth holiday rightfully belongs to all those people who kept alive the Juneteenth celebration for over 150 years. And it belongs to those millions of people who came out into the streets to protest.
Jun 23, 2025
A new law in Maryland makes it a little easier for people who have served a sentence for a criminal conviction to have their case removed from public court records or expunged. Last year over 54,000 people filed for expungement. But more than two in five are denied because of a technicality or unrelated legal problems. A legal aid group estimates only two percent of eligible people have gotten their records expunged.
It’s much harder to get a decent job or housing if prospective employers or landlords can see a person has served time. This difficulty is estimated to cost workers in the state almost one and a half billion dollars a year.
As many as one in four working-age residents have a criminal record, or one and a half million people. This in a society where poor and working-class people are radically over-represented and incarcerated in the prison system.
Every year around 15,000 Marylanders are released from prison. And a person might have to wait up to 15 years before filing for expungement, depending on the charge.
Jun 23, 2025
On January 10, 2024, 22-year-old Cole Schmidtknecht, at a Walgreens counter in Appleton, Wisconsin, asked for a refill of the inhaler prescribed by his doctor to prevent asthma attacks. The pharmacy informed him that his UnitedHealthcare insurance no longer covers his medication. Previously, Cole used to pay between $35 and $67 at the same counter during the deductible phase of his insurance plan. Walgreens told him that the current price of his medicine is $540 if he wishes to purchase it.
Stunned, Cole left the pharmacy with a rescue inhaler for quick relief from mild asthma attacks once they start, not with the inhaler he actually needed to prevent asthma attacks from happening. Cole, who works as a truck center employee with self-insurance, could not afford this sky-high out-of-pocket cost.
Five days later, Cole had a severe asthma attack, stopped breathing, and collapsed. He never regained consciousness and died. The empty emergency inhaler was found next to him.
Neither Walgreens nor UnitedHealthcare notified Cole’s doctor about this significant price change imposed by these companies through their covert overnight decisions.
Decisions by so-called pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which many of us don’t know, are responsible for the spike in prices of medications like Cole’s inhaler, on top of those decisions made by drug manufacturers. PBMs are essentially middlemen between drug manufacturers, pharmacies, and insurers, controlling the drug supply chain. Without PBMs, pharmacies cannot purchase drugs directly from drug manufacturers and supply them to patients.
PBMs secure price discounts through rebates from drug manufacturers. But these discounts never trickle down to patients. Instead, PBMs pocket these rebates. Since higher drug prices and higher rebates allow such drugs to inflate their profits, PBMs switch from one less profitable drug to another, more profitable drug, overnight. That is precisely what happened to Cole’s asthma medication.
Because PBMs became enormous profit centers over time through such drug price manipulations, the health insurance companies acquired them. Today, three massive corporations—CVS Health (with its PBM, Caremark), Cigna (with its PBM, Express Scripts), and UnitedHealth Group (with its PBM, Optum Rx)—control 80% of the drug supply chain.
As a result, these middlemen have eventually become more profitable setups than those selling insurance or drugs. CVS’s Caremark PBM division generates more revenue than CVS’s nearly 10,000 retail stores. Cigna’s Express Scripts PBM division is far bigger and more profitable than its insurance operations. These companies create billions of dollars of profits out of this thin-air scheme by doing nothing but manipulating the drug prices.
As Cole’s father, Bill Schmidtknecht, said, “It’s insane that it’s happening in America. It’s not broken. It’s designed to work this way. It’s just hurting us.”
This young worker, Cole Schmidtknecht, would be alive today if the healthcare system were not driven solely by profit.
Jun 23, 2025
This film is loosely based on actual events at Wounded Knee in 1973 and events at other Native American reservations. It shows organized protest against the U.S. government which was using the power of the state to force Native Americans to give up their rights to their land and to strip mine the land for uranium. The mines were polluting the water and causing sickness and death. You see ordinary people forced to become active and to fight for their community.
The film is particularity relevant today. Current politicians want to sell off millions of acres of federal land to private developers so that they can strip the land of their oil or mineral wealth.
This film focuses on a family in Iran during the “Women Life Freedom” movement in Iran. The film was made secretly and smuggled out of Iran. It contains footage of these protests: women throwing off their hijabs and running battles in the streets.
The father of the family depicted in the movie is a recently promoted functionary of the Iranian state who has the power of life and death over the accused. His wife and two daughters become slowly aware of the role of the state and come to rebel against it.
The film seems to say if people just become aware, society will change. However, only the working class can seize control and overturn the state and begin the battle for a new world.