Reposted below is the WSWS Editorial Board Statement published on wsws.org here on July 24, 2025.
Palestinians carry boxes containing food and humanitarian aid packages delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, May 27, 2025 [AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana]
Every day brings new reports of the genocidal violence the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are unleashing on the defenseless Palestinian population. With food distribution to Gaza reduced to a trickle, dozens of Palestinians are dying of hunger each day, and more than 1,000 have been shot by IDF forces while trying to reach aid distribution points.
In Deir al-Balah, raided by Israel on Sunday, Palestinians returning to their homes are met with scenes of devastationââcomplete destruction,â as one resident described it in comments to CNN. âThere is nothing that indicates a source of life.â
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that the people of Gaza are confronting âmass starvation âĻ a large proportion of the population of Gaza is starving.â
While the Israeli government is carrying out these atrocities, the United States and the major European imperialist powers are directly complicit. For nearly two years, they have armed and financed Israel as it wages genocide in Gaza, criminalized domestic opposition to the slaughter, and politically justified this historic crimeâone that ranks alongside the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II.
A coalition of European powers and other close allies of US imperialism issued a cynical statement Monday trying to wash themselves of responsibility.
In the statement, Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, along with a number of smaller powers now acknowledge Israelâs undeniable resort to mass murder. Yet they remain steadfast in their support for the Zionist regime. Refusing to call the Gaza war a genocide, they offer only vague euphemisms while fully endorsing the policies of Washington, which alongside Berlin, is the main provider of arms to Israel.
They state, âThe Israeli governmentâs aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity. We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food. It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.â Calling for a âpermanent ceasefire,â they conclude, âWe reaffirm our complete support to the efforts of the US âĻ to achieve this.â
But Washington is not seeking peace, any more than Israel is focused on delivering aid to Gaza. For nearly two years, the United States has shipped bombs, artillery, drones and other weapons used by Israel to target hospitals, refugee camps, medics and starving women and children. From the outset, top Israeli officials openly declared their genocidal aims, referring to Palestinians as âhuman animalsâ and invoking the Biblical command to exterminate the âseed of Amalek.â
Six months ago, Trump pledged that Washington would âtake overâ Gaza, expel the Palestinians, âlevel it outâ and turn it into a beach resort, the âRiviera of the Middle East.â Now, Israeli officials are moving to implement this plan, which has underpinned their policy from the beginning. On Tuesday, in the Knesset, fascist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Israel to âconquer and settle Gaza,â declaring, âWe have strong support from President Trump to turn Gaza into a prosperous region, a coastal city with settlement and employment.â
The statement from the European imperialist powers refrains from labeling the Israeli war a genocide and ethnic cleansing, but they are well aware that this is what is taking place. Indeed, their statement declares: âProposals to remove the Palestinian population into a âhumanitarian cityâ are completely unacceptable. Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law.â Nonetheless, they cynically embrace US policy under the banner of peace.
The imperialist powers support Israelâs genocide because it is in line with their geopolitical interests. If Israelâs actions conflicted with those interests, they would be halted immediately. As German Chancellor Friedrich Merz bluntly admitted, âIsrael is doing the dirty work for all of us.â Backed and armed by the United States, Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Canada and Australia, the Zionist regime functions as a proxy for imperialist domination of the oil-rich Middle East.
Mass and growing opposition to Israelâs crimes exist throughout the world. What is lacking is a clear program and perspective. The International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties insist that the genocide will not be stopped through appeals to the very capitalist governments carrying out and enabling the genocide. What is urgently required, and what has not yet occurred, is the independent eruption of the working class onto the political stage.
We propose that workers and young people throughout the world raise definite demands, including:
An immediate halt of shipment of all weapons to Israel. Since the beginning of the genocide, it is estimated that Israel has received some $25 billion in weapons and other assistance. The vast majority of bombs dropped on Palestinian homes has been provided by the United States and the European imperialist powers.
The boycott of all trade and other economic activity with Israel. The ability of the Israeli state to carry out the genocide must be halted by crippling its economic foundations. A recent comment in the Financial Times noted that since October 2023, Israelâs stock market has been the âbest-performing in the world,â with an influx of foreign capital fueling the wealth of the ruling elite and financing the Zionist regimeâs ability to murder Palestinians.
US, European and other corporations assisting Israel in carrying out the genocide must be indicted and prosecuted. The ruling class internationally is arming Israel behind the backs of the population and reaping vast profits by providing the IDF weapons, AI and surveillance infrastructure, just as corporations like IG Farben profited from making Zyklon B gas for the gas chambers the Nazis used to kill Jews. Washington retaliated against UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albaneseâs denunciation of this âeconomy of genocideâ by revoking her visa and freezing her bank accounts.
The arrest of Israeli officials for war crimes. International arrest warrants have already been drawn up against many Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but are ignored by the imperialist powers. Moreover, serving in the IDF are many citizens of the US and European countries. They should be subject to arrest and prosecution if it is determined that they in any way contributed to the genocide.
The end of repression of the opposition to the Gaza genocide. Capitalist governments, including those that signed this weekâs statement, have relentlessly criminalized opposition to the genocide. They have carried out mass arrests against organizations criticizing it, launched bloody police assaults on pro-Gaza protests, and prosecuted defenders of Gaza on bogus terrorism or antisemitism charges. Workers and youth must fight to defend those who come out in defense of Gaza, for charges against them to be dropped and to end the repression of their activities.
These demands will not be achieved through appeals to the governments and institutions responsible for the genocide. It requires the intervention of the international working class through strikes, walkouts and other forms of independent action. This means organizing outside the stranglehold of the trade union apparatus, which in every country has done nothing to stop the slaughter in Gaza.
The struggle must unify workers across all bordersâPalestinian, Israeli, American, European and beyondâin a common fight against imperialist war, genocide and the capitalist system that produces them. This includes Israeli workers, who must reject the Zionist regime and its crimes. There are significant layers of the Israeli population who are horrified by the actions of their government. In earlier decades, the Israeli state honored non-Jews who resisted the Nazis as ârighteous among the nations.â Today, Israelis who recognize the criminal character of the genocide must speak out and take action.
The fight against the genocide in Gaza is inseparable from the fight against the expanding global imperialist war, of which it is a component part. The aim of the imperialist powers to create a ânew Middle Eastâ under their domination is inseparable from their broader war plans against Russia and China.
The World Socialist Web Site, the International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties call for an end to the Gaza genocide through the building of a new international anti-war movement. This movement must be grounded in the working class and based on a revolutionary socialist program. Its goal must be to abolish the capitalist profit system, which is the root cause of war.
Reposted below is the article published on wsws.org here on July 11, 2025.
President Donald Trump meets with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky at Trump Tower, Sept. 27, 2024, in New York. [AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson]
In a complete about-face from the position his administration declared last week, United States President Donald Trump announced on Monday that his government would continue to send weapons to Kiev in order to fuel the ongoing proxy war against Russia that has killed hundreds of thousands in its over three-year history.
âWeâre gonna send some more weapons we have to them, they have to be able to defend themselves, theyâre getting hit very hard now,â Trump told reporters during a meeting of US and Israeli officials at the White House.
Later that day, the Pentagon released its own statement confirming more war materiel would be sent to Ukraine, likewise contradicting its previous statements that aid had been paused.
âAt President Trumpâs direction, the Department of Defense is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops,â it stated.
While initial reports from Politico cited Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby as the Trump official responsible for the weapons halt last week, shortly thereafter NBC News named Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as the individual who made the decision, as part of a âcapability review,â to unilaterally halt shipments to Ukraine starting on July 2.
According to the Washington Post, included in the items being held back from Ukraine were over two dozen Patriot air defense missiles, over two dozen Stinger air defense systems, precision artillery rounds, Hellfire missiles, drones and more than 90 AIM air-to-air missiles that Ukraine launches from F-16 fighter jets. These were reportedly already in Poland and being prepped for delivery to Ukraine when the order to cease was declared.
The move, which was roundly criticized by the Ukrainian government, was later confirmed by both the Pentagon and White House, with Trumpâs press secretary stating that the decision âwas made to put Americaâs interests first following a (U.S. Defense Department) review of our nationâs military support and assistance to other countries across the globe.â
As has become typical of his crisis-plagued, criminal presidency, Trump later performed an about-face while speaking to a NY Times reporter last Friday.
âWhy did you pause weapons shipments to Ukraine?â the journalist asked Trump as he was boarding Air Force One.
âWe havenât,â Trump replied, flatly contradicting multiple previous statements from his own government. âWeâre giving weapons.â
Trumpâs 180-degree foreign policy turn is being publicly celebrated by the right-wing dictatorial government of President Volodymyr Zelensky, following a disastrous public meeting at the White House between the two presidents, who was just months ago was accusing Trump of living in a Russian âdisinformation space.â
On Tuesday, Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyâs closest presidential advisor, vociferously hailed Trump as the âonly leaderâ who can pressure Russia to end the war on Ukrainian terms in an interview with the NY Post.
âI always knew that the two presidents share a lot in common. They have many of the things that they see the same wayâthey just need to talk more,â he said. âThere was a brilliant meeting in the Vatican, and then several phone calls, and then meeting in The Hague, and so all that is the work to understand each other more deeply.
âAnd you know, certain events had to unfold, certain conversations had to happenâincluding conversations with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin.â
Yermakâs glowing description of Trump is a tacit admission that both the war and the Zelensky government itself are highly dependent on the continuation of US military and financial aid.
Despite having been allocated $182.8 billion in US support since the beginning of the full-scale war in February 2022, the Ukrainian government continues to be totally dependent on foreign aid to function.
Speaking Wednesday at the 2025 Ukraine Recovery Conference, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal underlined the critical financial situation of the country.
âThe total financial resource for defence and security in 2025 will amount to nearly US$50 billion. That is 26% of GDP,â the prime minister stated.
The weapons procurement budget is also at a record-high $16.4 billion, while the stateâs own revenue is projected to be just $48.5 billion.
âThus, external financing is critically important for us, as it allows Ukraine to allocate its own resources directed at defending our country,â Shmyhal said.
Shmyhal also noted that Ukraine has already secured $22 billion in foreign aid for 2025. But it needs more for next year.
âMeanwhile, 2026 remains a challenge. Our external financing needs will stay above $40 billion. The key task is to develop mechanisms and instruments that will make it possible to raise these funds.â
As Trump has demonstrated, despite his campaign promises to end the war in Ukraine in â24 hours,â he is just as committed to war as his predecessors, as long as it maximizes the interests of US capitalism.
Reposted below is the article published on wsws.org here on July 04, 2025.
The House of Representatives gave final approval to President Trumpâs tax and spending bill Thursday, with a 218-214 vote that fell nearly along party lines. Republicans backed the legislation by 218-2 and all 212 Democrats opposed it.
The bill cuts taxes for the wealthy by $3 trillion, slashes more than $1 trillion from social spending on Medicaid and food stamps and pours $300 billion more into military violence abroad and domestic repression, particularly against immigrants.
Trump plans to sign the legislation Friday morning in a fascist-style ceremony drenched in Fourth of July hoopla, topped off with a flyover by B-2 bombers, the same warplanes that he ordered to attack Iran barely 10 days ago.
The bill was unchanged from the version passed by the Senate two days before, despite the clamor from the fascistic House Freedom Caucus that it did not sufficiently cut the federal deficit, while more than a dozen Republican âmoderatesâ deplored the cuts, particularly in Medicaid, as too large.
In the end, however, nearly every Republican fell in line with the dictates of the White House, with Trump threatening to purge anyone who voted against his principal legislative initiative by supporting primary challengers against them. Underlying the political bullying was the deluge of online threats against anyone who might oppose the bill, including threats of violence.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, addressing the House just before the vote, delivered an anti-communist tirade in which he declared that the United States was the first country to be founded on religious principles, pointing to the slogan âIn God We Trustâ embossed on the wall of the chamber (put up not by the Founding Fathers but by the McCarthyite witch-hunters of the 1950s and early 1960s).
As the WSWS explained when the bill passed the Senate:
The bill is one of the largest transfers of wealth from workers and the poor to the oligarchy in US history. It calls for $930 billion in cuts to the Medicaid program, which, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will deprive 11.8 million low-income and disabled workers of medical care.
It also includes $285 billion in food stamp cuts, a 20 percent reduction in a program on which 40 million Americans rely to feed themselves and their families. Nearly 11 million people, including 4 million children, could lose food assistance.
While the Democratic Party claimed to oppose the bill and every Democrat in the House and Senate voted against it, there was no serious effort by the party leadership to mobilize popular opposition.
The Democrats did not call a single protest in Washington or in any way alert the American population to the onslaught against their living standards and right to access healthcare services that this legislation authorizes. Instead, they engaged in a handful of futile gestures on Capitol Hill.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries delivered an eight-hour and 32-minute âspeechâ opposing the Trump bill, breaking the previous record for such a performance, but this only delayed passage in the House until Thursday afternoon. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer did even less, making a parliamentary point of order that led to a change in the name of the bill, which the Republicans wished to call the âOne Big Beautiful Bill Act,â in tribute to Trumpâs sloganeering.
The real attitude of these gentlemen to the fascist in the White House was demonstrated in the weeks leading up to the passage of the tax and spending bill.
In the Senate, Schumer intervened to break a parliamentary deadlock over a so-called Continuing Resolution, legislation required to provide funds to keep the government running. He led a group of Democrats to give the Republicans a 60-vote majority needed for passage.
In the House, Jeffries mobilized a majority of the Democratic caucus to vote against a resolution to impeach Trump for ordering air strikes on Iran without seeking congressional authorization, let alone the constitutionally required declaration of war.
If the congressional arithmetic were reversed, with Democrats holding a narrow majority in each house over the Republicans, the Democrats would not even have attempted to push through their supposed priorities over Republican opposition.
It should be recalled, for example, that the Biden administration was unable to enact either an increase in the federal minimum wage, significant debt forgiveness for college student loans, or measures to curb police violence after the nationwide protests against the police murder of George Floyd, because one or two right-wing Democratic senators blocked the legislation.
The spinelessness of the Democratic Party cannot by itself explain the passage of this monstrous legislation. The Democrats were responding to their real constituencies, Wall Street and the military-intelligence apparatus, and not to the working people whom they claim to defend.
The corporate oligarchs wanted the Trump tax cuts, enacted in 2017 and set to expire at the end of this year, made permanent. The legislation guarantees the 21 percent corporate tax rate and includes a treasure chest of other pro-corporate provisions that allow giant companies and billionaires to pay taxes at lower rates than factory workers and school teachers.
There is considerable discontent on Wall Street that the tax cuts will be financed largely through borrowing, since the spending cuts are to be phased in over a 10-year period and in any case do not come close to the $4 trillion windfall for the wealthy. But it is well understood that the cuts in Medicaid and food stamps are only a down payment, and that even more savage cuts are being prepared in future years, targeting Social Security and Medicare, the two largest social spending programs.
As to the military-police aspects of the legislation, roughly equal sums of about $150 billion each are provided for the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS funds will go to finish building the wall on the US-Mexico border begun during Trumpâs first term, and to build a network of concentration camps to detain the millions of immigrants Trump and his fascist aides Stephen Miller and Tom Homan plan to round up and expel.
The Pentagon funds will be used at least in part to begin work on Trumpâs proposed anti-missile program. This is not a âdefensiveâ measure but a direct preparation for nuclear war, since it would encourage a US nuclear attack on a foreign antagonist, such as Russia or China, in the illusion that the US would survive a retaliatory strike.
The Democrats have said virtually nothing about either measure, because they support the massive build-up of both the US military machine and the apparatus of domestic repression directed against immigrants and the working class as a whole. They have criticized Trump only for his most overtly fascistic methods of attacking immigrants, and for his shifting the focus of US foreign policy away from the war against Russia in Ukraine and towards the Middle East and China.
There are a raft of anti-democratic measures incorporated into the 950-page bill, which the WSWS will analyze in the coming days. One provision stands out immediately: The bill authorizes the Trump administration to terminate all federal funding for healthcare services through Planned Parenthood clinics. That is a longstanding demand of the fascist right, which seeks to bankrupt Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortion services, by cutting off funding for its non-abortion healthcare operations as well.
Reposted below is the perspective published on wsws.org here on July 01, 2025
A worker carries a sheet of newly printed U.S. dollar bills at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s Western Currency Facility in Fort Worth, Texas, Dec. 8, 2022. [AP Photo/LM Otero]
The US dollar has had its worst start for the year since 1973, in the wake of President Nixonâs August 1971 decision to remove its gold backing and abrogate the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944, which had been a central plank of the post-war monetary order established after the chaos of the 1930s.
In the first six months of the year, it has fallen by more than 10 percent against a basket of six major currencies, in a sign of a loss of confidence in its status as the dominant currency and a safe haven in periods of financial turbulence and stress.
The dollar had been under downward pressure from the beginning of the year, with a turning point in its slide coming after April 2, when Trump announced the imposition of massive âreciprocal tariffsâ on a range of countries.
The upending of the post-war international trading system signified by this decision set off financial turbulence, with a significant fall in the US bond market sending yields (interest rates) higher.
But instead of there being a move into the dollar, considered to be the ânormalâ response, there was a dollar selloff, sending its value in currency markets down as the prevailing theme was âsell America.â
This downward movement has continued despite Trumpâs decision on April 9 for a 90-day pause in initiating the tariff hikes to allow negotiations to take place. Trump was responding to a selloff in the bond markets, which he said had started to get a little âyippy.â
In the near three-month period since then, no agreements have been announced, except for a deal with the UK, and nervousness is returning with the July 9 deadline for the end of the pause approaching. The concern is not only on the blanket reciprocal tariffs, but involves other measures announced by Trump, in particular, the tariff hikes on autos, which are directed against Japan and Germany.
Japan has been engaged in a series of discussions with the Trump administration over the tariff hikes, which threaten to cost its car industry tens of billions of dollars, but no agreement has been reached.
In comments to the Financial Times on the dollarâs slide, after it dropped by a further 0.5 percent yesterday, a foreign exchange strategist at the financial firm ING, Francesco Pesole, pointed to some of the reasons.
âThe dollar has become the whipping boy of Trump 2.0âs erratic policies,â he said, citing the tariff war, the growth of US debt, and the continued attacks on the independence of the US Federal Reserve.
Trump has labeled Fed Chair Jerome Powell a ânumskullâ and a âmoronâ for his refusal to cut interest rate cuts in line with his demand that the Fed rate be reduced to as low as 1 or 2 percent from its present level of 4.5 percent.
The turbulence resulting from Trumpâs agenda and the increase in the debt flowing from his tax-cutting budget, which could see as much as $3.2 trillion added to the US debt mountain of $36 trillion, were cited in comments by economists in a poll conducted by the FT.
In its report on the poll, it said that Trumpâs âbreathtaking fiscal policy excess,â together with âattacks on the Federal Reserveâs independence, risk diminishing the USâs status as the ultimate safe haven for foreign investors.â
A comment by Saroj Bhattarai of the University of Texas at Austin summed up the prevailing sentiment.
âThe safe-haven assets appear to be [the] Swiss Franc and gold. In fact, [the] US looks like an emerging market, whereby policy uncertainty leads to rising risk premia that drive long-term yields up and the currency value down.â
Citing what took place after April 2, dubbed by Trump as âliberation day,â Evi Papa, an economist at a major Madrid University, said: âUS Treasury [bonds] might not be a safe asset anymore.â
Lack of confidence in the US dollar is driving the price of gold to new highs â it has risen by around 25 percent this year and at one point hit $3,500 per ounce, 100 times its price of $35 when Nixon removed the gold backing from the US dollar. One of the drivers of the rise is increased buying by central banks.
The Taxpayers Association of Europe (TAE) has even sent letters to the finance ministries and central banks of Italy and Germany, urging that their gold held in the Fedâs gold vault in Manhattan be moved out.
TAE President Michael Jäger told the FT: âWe are very concerned about Trump tampering with the Federal Reserve Bankâs independence.â
Those fears are not misplaced when it is recalled that the removal of the gold backing from the US dollar in 1971 was simply announced on Sunday night television without any discussion with other powers.
As the dollar slide continues amid mounting debt, there is a real prospect that the Trump administration could act unilaterally at any stage.
One idea circulating in the economic circles of the Trump regime is that US Treasury bonds could be turned into perpetual bonds, that is, while they would continue to pay interest, the principal would never be repaid â an action that would be regarded as a default by the US on its debt.
This was rejected by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent back in April, but the fact that he had to quash it, at least for the present, is an indication of the kind of measures being discussed as the debt crisis deepens.
While the actions of the Trump administration are the proximate cause of the dollar decline, they are themselves the outcome of the historic crisis of US imperialism, rooted in its long-term economic decline.
When global capitalism was restabilized after the war, not least by the Bretton Woods Agreement, it was the industrial powerhouse of the world. It used that power to establish economic order after the chaos of the 1930s.
This was not a product of the benevolence of the US. It was based on the recognition that unless this were done, then the world, and the US, would return to the conditions of the Depression, bringing with it the prospect of social revolution.
But the revival of the world economy steadily undermined the dominant position of the US in world trade, leading to balance of payments and trade deficits, which meant it could no longer redeem dollars for gold.
Following the Nixon decision, the dollar retained its position as the global currency. But it did so on new foundations. It was a fiat currency, no longer backed by value in the form of gold, but by the power of the US state and its financial markets.
However, the rise of finance, which this entailed, set in motion processes that have led to the present crisis. Over the past 50 years, the US has become the center of financial parasitism and speculation, resulting in a series of financial storms â the October 1987 stock market crash, the collapse of the dotcom bubble in 2001, the crash of 2008, and the Treasury market freeze of March 2020, to name some of the more prominent.
Throughout this period, there has been an escalation of government debt, not least because of the increase in military spending and massive corporate bailouts. This is reflected in the growth of the Treasury market, where government debt is bought and sold, from around $5 trillion in 2008 to $29 trillion today.
The rise of parasitism and speculation as the chief driver of profit accumulation, leading to the rise of an oligarchy based on finance capital, is indicated by the fact that just 15 percent of financial market transactions are involved in the development of new investments, with 85 percent based on dealings in financial assets.
Finance capital cannot continue to endlessly accumulate, seemingly creating profit out of thin air, through debt. All financial assets, shares, debt, and the various other arcane mechanisms are, in the final analysis, a claim on the surplus value extracted from the working class.
Consequently, there is no peaceful solution to the mounting crisis within the framework of the capitalist order. For the US, this means the intensification of war, on the economic and military front, as it seeks to batter down its rivals, foes like China, as well as erstwhile allies in Europe, coupled with a war against the working class at home, enforced by a dictatorial regime.
Nor is there the prospect of a so-called multipolar world where currencies coexist and peacefully compete, as is being advanced by China and increasingly by Europe. That road is a return to the economic conflicts of the 1930s, which led to World War II. This is why, in the midst of deepening economic turmoil, governments around the world are arming and rearming.
The dollar-debt crisis is rooted not simply in the personality and actions of Trump â he is only the most malignant expression of the historic bankruptcy of the capitalist system as a whole.
It places before the working class the necessity to end this system of war, economic crisis, deprivation, fascistic and authoritarian regimes in the political struggle for international socialism and the building of the world party of socialist revolution, the International Committee of the Fourth International, to lead it.
We repost below the World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board statement published on wsws.org here on June 23, 2025
A B-2 stealth bomber conducts a flyover on the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, July 4, 2020, in Washington. [AP Photo/Alex Brandon]
June 22, 2025 is a day that will live in infamy. In a massive and unprovoked assault, the United States launched a sneak attack on Iran, dropping the most powerful non-nuclear bunker-buster bombs ever used in combat on Iranian nuclear energy facilities. This act of aggression is the continuation and escalation of the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza, and threatens to engulf the entire Middle East and set the world on fire.
Codenamed âOperation Midnight Hammer,â the assault involved more than 125 aircraft, including at least eight B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, backed by fighter jets, refueling tankers and surveillance aircraft, in what was the largest B-2 strike operation in US history.
The centerpiece of the attack was the deployment of the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), a 13.6-ton bunker-busting bombâthe most powerful non-nuclear weapon of its kind ever used. Twelve MOPs were dropped on the heavily fortified Fordow uranium enrichment site, and two more on Natanz. These were accompanied by numerous 2,900-pound Tomahawk missiles, which rained down on both facilities as well as the Isfahan research complex.
US President Donald Trump justified his attack in a four-minute homicidal, lying rant, delivered Saturday night. Announcing that US forces had struck three nuclear facilities, he claimed they were part of a âhorribly destructive enterpriseâ which was supposedly necessary to âstop the nuclear threatâ posed by Iran.
In fact, these sites are part of Iranâs civilian nuclear energy program, developed in accordance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and subject to international inspection. For years, the United Statesâ own intelligence agencies have assessed that Iran was not actively pursuing nuclear weapons. But in the tradition of the Bush administrationâs lies about Iraqâs âweapons of mass destruction,â Trump once again invoked fabricated threats to justify extraordinarily reckless acts of unprovoked aggression.
Trump boasted of the âspectacular military successâ of the attack, which he intended to serve as a message to the entire region, declaring that âIran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace.â
The reference to Iran as the âbully of the Middle Eastâ turns reality on its head. For over a third of a century, US imperialism has been at war and carried out regime change operations throughout the region, including in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Yemen. Over the past two years, the Israeli government has waged a genocidal war in Gaza with continuous US support, slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent civilians. This has been merely a dress rehearsal for a broader campaign of mass murder.
Having just launched an unprovoked military strike against a sovereign nation in flagrant violation of international law, Trump now demands âpeaceâ! By this, he means âunconditional surrender,â as he demanded last weekâthat is, the turning over of the country to direct imperialist dominance. On Sunday, Trump explicitly called for âregime changeâ in Iran, following his threat last week to assassinate Ayatollah Khamenei.
Trump declared, âFor 40 yearsââsince the overthrow of the US-backed ShahââIran has been saying, âDeath to America, death to Israel,ââ and proclaimed that âhundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East âĻ have died as a direct result of their hate.â The carnage Trump blames on Iran is in fact the outcome of successive US wars and interventions, under Democrats and Republicans, that have devastated entire societies. It is not Iran that has inflicted âhundreds of thousandsâ of deathsâit is the United States.
The strikes were directly coordinated with the fascist Israeli government, which is continuing to launch missile attacks on Iran. As Trump stated, âWe worked as a team as perhaps no team has worked before.â Just prior to Trumpâs remarks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement hailing the US airstrikes and thanking Trump, declaring that the two were pursuing a policy of âPeace through strength: First comes strength, then comes peace.â In other words, slaughter and terror must precede submission.
Trump concluded with a naked threat of further violence: âThere will be either peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran. âĻ Remember, there are many targets left.â The logical next step in this campaign of destruction is the use of tactical nuclear weaponsâan option the Trump administration has repeatedly declared is ânot off the table.â
Saturdayâs attack makes clear that there are no red lines for American imperialism, which will stop at nothing. Its criminality knows no limits. No government has so openly and flagrantly violated international law since the Nazi regime.
The bombing of Iran is a central component of an escalating global war. It is not a question of warning of the danger of a new world warâit has already begun. American imperialism is seeking to resolve its deepening internal social and political crisis through military aggression. Having targeted Iran, the logic of imperialist war is leading inevitably to confrontation with China. Regime change in Iran is aimed at securing unchallenged control over the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea and the broader Eurasian landmassâregions rich in oil, gas and critical trade routes.
Trump hailed the strikes as a âspectacular military success,â but in reality, he has embarked on a catastrophic and utterly reckless course of action. Whatever short-term calculations were made by the White House and Pentagon, they have now launched a war whose consequences they cannot control. They have sown the wind and will reap the whirlwind. As with the war against Iraq launched in 2003, American imperialism has a rendezvous with disaster, but on a far larger scale.
It remains to be seen how Iran will respond, as well as its close allies, Russia and China. Iranâs parliament has moved to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which a significant share of the worldâs oil supply passesâan action that will send global energy markets into turmoil and could trigger a global recession. For years, the passivity of the Iranian bourgeois governmentâmarked by appeals for negotiations and the avoidance of direct confrontationâhas emboldened US imperialism.
Whatever the immediate response of Iran, Russia and China, however, the decisive issue is the reaction of the international working class. The most significant and far-reaching impact of Saturdayâs attack will be on the consciousness of billions of people throughout the world. This act of imperialist aggression is already provoking mass outrage, expressed on all social media platforms and through initial protests that took place throughout the US on Sunday.
The war on Iran follows nearly two years of expanding global opposition to the genocide in Gaza. It exposes beyond any doubt the thoroughly criminal character of American foreign policy. The United States is increasingly seen by billions of workers throughout the world as a criminal government that operates outside of all legal restraint. The myth that American imperialism defends âfreedomâ or âdemocracyâ lies forever in the past.
The war will pour gasoline on the already raging social and political crises in the United States, across Europe and around the world. It is the action of a regime ruled by and for the financial oligarchy. As it bombs and murders abroad, the Trump administration is dismantling democratic rights at home and erecting a political dictatorship. The Democratic Party, the so-called opposition, is paralyzed and complicitâparalyzed by its fear of the working class and complicit in the aims of imperialism.
Mass opposition is emerging. Just one week before the bombing of Iran, millions participated in the largest anti-government demonstrations in American history. The question is not whether opposition exists, but how it can be organized, directed and armed with a political perspective. The immense anger and revulsion provoked by the bombing must be transformed into a conscious political movement of the working class, linking the fight against war and dictatorship to the struggle against capitalism.
The working class is the social force that must be mobilized to stop imperialist barbarism. The criminal war being waged against Iran is not an aberration, but the product of the entire capitalist system. It must be halted through the unified global struggle of the working class, organized across all national boundaries.
The International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties call for an immediate end to the US-Israeli war against Iran and the dismantling of the entire imperialist war machine. We urge workers and youth to organize protests, walkouts and strikes in every country.
Imperialism is plunging the world into barbarism and criminality. It is not a matter of reforming a bankrupt system, but of overthrowing it through the conscious and organized struggle of the working class for power. The alternative to war and dictatorship is socialism. What is needed is the building of a new revolutionary leadership to lead this movement forward, and to make socialismâthe democratic control of the economy by the working class in the interests of all humanityâthe guiding principle of a new social order.
We repost below the World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board statement published on wsws.org here on June 21, 2025
Smoke rises from an oil storage facility after it appeared to have been struck by an Israeli strike on Saturday, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 16, 2025. [AP Photo/Vahid Salemi]
American imperialism and its Israeli proxy continue to escalate their illegal, unprovoked war of aggression against Iran, with US nuclear-capable B-52s and aircraft carrier battle groups readying to launch an imminent attack.
Nearly a quarter century after the United States invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, the American ruling class is once more preparing to launch a criminal war, this time against a vast country with a population more than three times larger than Iraq.
Through war, the would-be dictator Donald Trump and the financial oligarchy that rules via the Republican and Democratic parties hope to:
Reimpose the shackles of neo-colonial subjugation on Iran, 45 years after the Iranian people toppled the monarchical dictatorship of the US-installed Shah.
Secure unbridled US imperialist control over the worldâs principal oil-exporting region and key global ocean trade routes, so as to prepare for war with Washingtonâs principal strategic adversaries, China and Russia.
Stave off economic crisis and financial collapse through plunder.
Divert attention from a massive domestic crisis and mounting social opposition.
The consequences of this reckless gamble will be catastrophic for the Iranian people, the Middle East and the entire world.
For all its massively armed gangsterism, deceit and treachery, the outcome of this war will be no lessâand probably moreâdisastrous than the âwars of choiceâ that US imperialism waged in Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam and Korea.
The political establishments in the US and other imperialist centers, on the other hand, are in full war propaganda mode. Iran is vilified as a âterror stateâ and an âexistentialâ threat to the Israeli and American people.
But who will take any of this seriously after decades of lies and criminalityâafter being bombarded with claims that Iraq possessed âweapons of mass destructionâ and endless apologias for Israel as it bombs hospitals and slaughters people queuing for food in its drive to kill and expel the Gaza Palestinians?
Twenty-two years ago, at the launch of the Pentagonâs âshock and aweâ invasionâ of Iraq, World Socialist Web Site Chairman David North wrote, âWhatever the outcome of the initial stages of the conflict that has begun, American imperialism has a rendezvous with disaster. It cannot conquer the world. It cannot reimpose colonial shackles upon the masses of the Middle East.â
US imperialism is going to war not just against the 90 million people of Iran but against the entire world. On Friday, millions took to the streets of Iran and other countries in the Middle East to voice their opposition to the illegal US-Israeli assault.
Throughout the world, people understand that the Trump administration is preparing to launch a war of aggression in alliance with Israel, whose genocidal assault on Gaza has made it the most despised state in the world.
In the US, there is a growing mass movement against Trump, with 10-15 million people joining the June 14 âNo Kingsâ protests. Moreover, a Washington Post poll found that the Americans it surveyed oppose US involvement in a war against Iran by a nearly two-to-one margin. Â
The working class, as the classical Marxists explained, must evaluate its attitude toward any war by examining the social interests involved.
The US-Israeli war on Iran is an imperialist war. It is being waged on a historically oppressed country. The dominant factor in its political history has been a century-long struggle for emancipation from first British and then American imperialism.
Moreover, the war is part of an interconnected chain of military operations spanning decades. The same governments, organizations and media outlets now backing Israelâs onslaught on Iran were the most strident in supporting the war against Russia, provoked by the imperialist powers and justified on the basis of Russiaâs invasion of Ukraine.
Over the past 35 years, US imperialism has sought to reverse the consequences of the wave of anti-colonial and social revolutions of the 20th century and to counter the erosion of its global hegemony through ever-expanding militarism and aggression.
The World Socialist Web Site, the International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties stand unequivocally for the defeat of US imperialism and its Israeli proxy.
Iran is a capitalist country, led by a reactionary bourgeois nationalist regime. Rising to power on the basis of the 1979 Revolution, its greatest fear is the working class. Faced with mounting US threats over the past two decades, the Iranian bourgeoisie has combined repeated efforts to reach an accommodation with Washington with a drive to eliminate what remains of the social concessions made in the immediate aftermath of the popular explosion that overthrew the Shah.
The International Committee of the Fourth International opposes the bourgeois government in Iran. But its attitude to the imminent war is determined by the fact that Iran, a historically oppressed country, is threatened with subjugation and annihilation by an alliance of imperialist powers. The Iranian resistance to the imperialist onslaught is entirely legitimate and politically progressive.
Those who argue that the reactionary character of the Iranian government negates the right of Iran to defend itself are giving âleftâ cover to the imperialist war drive.
As Leon Trotsky wrote in 1937, shortly after Japanese imperialism launched its war of conquest against China, when an oppressed country comes under imperialist attack, the duty of socialists is to defend it irrespective of the reactionary character of its government. Answering those who refused to defend China because it was then led by Chiang Kai-shek and the bourgeois nationalist Kuomintang, which strangled the 1925-27 anti-imperialist revolution and massacred tens of thousands of revolutionary-minded workers, Trotsky explained:
China is a semicolonial country which Japan is transforming, under our very eyes, into a colonial country. Japanâs struggle is imperialist and reactionary. Chinaâs struggle is emancipatory and progressive. âĻ
Japan and China are not on the same historical plane. The victory of Japan will signify the enslavement of China, the end of her economic and social development, and the terrible strengthening of Japanese imperialism. The victory of China will signify, on the contrary, the social revolution in Japan and the free development, that is to say unhindered by external oppression, of the class struggle in China.
The working class in Iran and globally must oppose the US-Israeli onslaught, but they must do so through their own class struggle methods. This means developing a global working class counteroffensive that ties the fight against imperialist war and the ever-widening assault on the social and democratic rights of the working class to the fight against capitalism. This requires the struggle for the building of sections of the ICFI in Iran, throughout the Middle East and internationally.
In conventional military terms, the US-Israeli attackers have a vast preponderance of destructive power. But as the history of revolutions and colonial wars has repeatedly shown, military might, although significant, is only one factor.Â
The principal vulnerability of imperialism lies in the massive and rapidly expanding potential for social opposition that exists in the Middle East, throughout Asia, Africa and in the growing resistance of workers in the imperialist centers.
It is this force that constitutes the decisive answer to imperialist aggression and the expanding global war and that must be mobilized. This can only be done in implacable opposition to all the rival bourgeoisies, their governments and political representatives.
In the US, all factions of the Democratic Party and its chief media voice, the New York Times, are supporting a war that has been organized by a president they themselves admit is systematically violating the Constitution and seeking to establish a presidential dictatorship.
Trump is waging war on two fronts: abroad against Iran, and at home against democratic rights and the working class. These are two sides of the same process. A war with Iran will inevitably be accompanied by an escalation of political repression and social austerity. With the war budget already over $1 trillion, the working class will be forced to foot the bill.
Trumpâs anti-Constitutional drive to establish a presidential dictatorship within the United States and the launching of an illegal war against Iran are interconnected elements of a criminal government. The interaction of these elements threatens the US and the world with a catastrophe. If there is any country that is in desperate need of a regime change, it is the United States.
The same basic processes are present in Europe. The talks held by the European imperialist powers with Iranâs foreign minister in Vienna Friday were a fraud, aimed at browbeating Tehran into surrender. Any reservations they have about Trumpâs rush to war concern their own predatory interests: that they could be burned in the inferno Trump and Netanyahu have set alight; that all-out war in the Middle East will divert US war materiel from Ukraine; and that they are at risk of being cut out by Washington of the spoils of imperialist conquest and plunder.
The Chinese and Russian capitalist regimes, basing themselves on the most pragmatic, short-term calculations and clinging to the hope that they can reach some accommodation with Trump and US imperialism, have taken no action to oppose the onslaught on Iran.
As for the Iranian regime, its conduct before and during the war has only underscored that the national bourgeoisie is incapable of waging a struggle against imperialism. Even now after Trump has demanded âunconditional surrender,â it persists in making appeals to the would-be fascist dictator, while pleading for the European imperialist gangsters to intervene on its behalf.
This war, like World War I and World War II, arises out of the fundamental contradictions of capitalism: between a globally integrated economy and the outmoded nation-state system, and between private ownership of the means of production and the social character of modern economic life.
The International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties call for mass opposition to the Trump administrationâs plans to launch a direct war against Iran. We call for protests, demonstrations and walkouts to oppose this act of imperialist aggression.
Only the international working class, armed with a revolutionary socialist program, can put an end to imperialist war and the capitalist system that breeds it. The ICFI insists that the fight against war must be fused with the fight for workersâ power and the socialist reorganization of global economic life.
We repost below the World Socialist Web Site statement published on wsws.org here on June 13, 2025
Damages are seen in a building after an explosion in a residence compound after Israel attacked Iran’s capital Tehran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) [AP Photo]
On Thursday evening, under the cover of darkness, Israel launched a massive air and missile assault on Iran, striking air defenses, nuclear facilities, key military personnel and command centers.
At least 78 people were killed and over 300 injured in the largest attack on Iran since the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. Israel assassinated six nuclear scientists and 20 high-ranking military personnel, including the Chief of Staff of Iranâs military and the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The World Socialist Web Site unequivocally condemns Israelâs illegal and unprovoked assault on Iran as a brazen act of imperialist aggression. The increasingly unhinged Israeli regimeâalready carrying out a genocide against 2 million people in Gazaâhas now deliberately provoked war with a country 10 times its size, threatening catastrophic consequences for the entire region.
Israelâs claim that it acted in âself-defenseâ against an alleged Iranian nuclear program is an absurd and transparent fraud. It is well known that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, acquired in violation of international law.
Prior to the assault, Iran was engaged in negotiations with the White House over its nuclear program. In the days leading up to the strike, every major imperialist governmentâincluding the United Statesâmade statements saying they opposed an Israeli attack on Iran, calling instead for a negotiated settlement.
The United States even went so far as to announce a new round of talks with Iran on Sunday just hours before Israel, with US foreknowledge and complicity, began raining missiles down on Tehran. Within the span of 24 hours, the White House went from vocally proclaiming it opposed an Israeli attack on Iran to publicly gloating about it.
Asked by the Wall Street Journal Friday whether the US got a âheads-upâ of the attacks, US President Donald Trump replied, âHeads-up? It wasnât a heads-up. It was, we know whatâs going on.â
In reality, the so-called ânegotiationsâ were a treacherous charade, designed to provide Israel with the opportunity to kill Iranâs military leaders in their homes. Among those targeted and killed in Israelâs Thursday night attack was top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Shamkhani.
Citing US and Israeli officials, Axios reported Friday that âTrump and his aides were only pretending to oppose an Israeli attack in publicâand didnât express opposition in private. âWe had a clear U.S. green light,â one claimed. The goal, they say, was to convince Iran that no attack was imminent and make sure Iranians on Israelâs target list wouldnât move to new locations.â
The fact that Iran allowed a significant portion of its leadership to be killedâapparently while they were in civilian dwellings vulnerable to missile strikes, even as the American press openly telegraphed an Israeli attackâis a devastating exposure of the Iranian regimeâs strategic bankruptcy. The regime placed immense confidence in the good faith of the Trump administration. Ignoring and forgetting all that has happened, including Trumpâs authorization of the murder of General Suleimani in January 2020, the Iranian leaders were convinced that the United States would restrain Israel while negotiations were pending. They fell for a simple trick, like a child taking candy from a stranger.
But there are politics behind the Iranian regimeâs astonishing naivete. Terrified of its own working class, the Iranian capitalist elite is desperately seeking an agreement with the imperialist powers, who have demonstrated their full commitment to Iranâs destruction and subjugation.
Israelâs attack on Iran has also exposed where the European imperialist powers really stand, despite their recent criticisms of aspects of the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The German government announced that Netanyahu had informed Chancellor Merz of the planned assault. Both the French and German governments issued statements affirming Israelâs âright to defend itselfâ and condemning retaliatory strikes by Iran.
The attack on Iran is the direct outcome of the longstanding US-Israeli drive to create a ânew Middle Eastâ under imperialist domination, intensified in the wake of the events of October 7, 2023. It was made possible by the immense political, military and intelligence support Israel has received from the United States for decades, under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
The Pentagon and Israeli military have long planned and war-gamed an assault on Iran and its nuclear programâan attack that Trump has repeatedly vowed to authorize.
US imperialism has never accepted the outcome of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which overthrew the dictatorship of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a key American ally in the Middle East. Washington backed Iraq in its brutal war against Iran throughout the 1980s. Even as it turned on Iraqâwaging war in 1990â91 and invading in 2003âthe installation of a US-aligned regime in Tehran remained a central objective.
Today, Iran is grouped with Russia, China, and North Korea as a major obstacle to US global hegemonyâone that Washington is determined to eliminate at any cost.
The ultimate aim of this assault is the imperialist domination of the Middle Eastâthe worldâs most important oil-exporting region and home to critical trade routes and strategic chokepoints, including the Persian Gulf. By subjugating Iran, a key ally of both Russia and China, the United States aims to strengthen its global position in preparation for direct confrontation with its principal strategic rivals.
History has shown that imperialist wars lead to unforeseen and catastrophic consequences. Just as the US invasion of Iraq unleashed a regional disaster, so too will Israelâs assault on Iran. The people of the Middle East will not remain passive as their countries are turned into battlegrounds for imperialist domination.
The international working class must respond by building a conscious movement against imperialist war and the capitalist system that gives rise to it.
The World Socialist Web Site calls for the defense of Iran from imperialist violence and subjugation. But this can not be waged through the support of any bourgeois government. It requires the independent mobilization of the working class of the Middle East and the whole world, in opposition to all ethnic, racial and religious divisions, on the basis of a revolutionary socialist program.
