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On Saturday the Socialist Equality Party campaigned in Holborn and St Pancras with a stall on Camden Road. Tom Scripps, 28, is challenging Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and is the only candidate advancing asocialist programmefor workers and young people againstcapitalism and war.

Hundreds of copies of the SEPelection manifesto were distributed outside Sainsburys and near Aldi on Camden High Street. The SEP is fielding Scripps in London and 25-year-old Darren Paxton in Inverness to build a socialist anti-war movement based on the international working class.

The SEPs election statement alerts the working class to NATOplans to escalate their proxy-war in Ukraine into a direct military confrontation with Russia: The SEP is using this election to break the conspiracy of silence maintained by the capitalist media, the major parties, the trade unions and what passes for the left over the acute dangers facing the working class. We intend to build a socialist alternative.

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Dozens of workers, youth and retireesstopped and spoke with SEP campaigners. The stall, with its large placards denouncing Labours support for the Gaza genocide and NATOs proxy-war in Ukraine, attracted interest throughout the day, despite heavy rain at times.

Mali, a self-employed worker, pointed to the SEPs election manifesto and said, The first thing I agreed with when I saw you was no to the Gaza war and build an anti-war movement. That is why I am supporting Tom. I dont know his background, but I believe in those words. I believe in justice in the world, and peace in the world.

The people who are dying in Gaza and Ukraine are the same people. The Americans are pushing the western countries into war. I agree there is a connection to the war in Gaza and Ukraine.

Mali has attended all the mass protests in London against Israels slaughter in Gaza. He linked Britains support for genocide to thecriminalisation of protest and free speech: Democratic rights includes the right to say what you want. These protests are not antisemitic as they are saying. If you look at many of the normal Israeli peopleIm not talking about the Netanyahu government, but the peoplethey are against the war. They dont want anything to do with genocide.

I agree that Starmer is just as much a war criminal. I dont know any more of any difference between the Labour and Conservative parties.

Mali took some of the manifestos to share with his family and friends.

A young workertoldSEP campaigners, I have been to all the marches on Gaza, and I was shocked, shocked when Keir Starmer, my MP, agreed that Israel had the right to stop Palestinians receiving water and food. Starmer is a lawyer and knows human rights, and he has broken humanitarian rights so much.

He led what was in effect a coup against Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour Party yet Corbyn being nice is also his biggest downfall. He would not fight them.

I work seven days a week with only a morning off. I am for the whole political set-up to be swept away and replaced with a socialist society where what is needed is given. I am interested in this campaign.

Hawie, a musician from Camden, took a copy of the SEPs election manifesto and told an SEP volunteer: I havent heard that take before, about the mobilisation toward war with Russia. Im following lefty discussion all over the place, on Twitter, YouTube discussion, I havent heard anything like that before.

There seems to be a lot of talk around allowing Ukraine to strike territory inside Russia, and possibly other countries such as Poland, so everythings moving toward escalation. Ill have a look at your website certainly. I wasnt planning to vote Labour, and I was thinking that Feinstein was a good alternative, but maybe Ill think again.

Hawiehad supported Corbyn as leader of the Labour Partyin 2015: I was pleased that someone seemed to be steering the Labour Party back in the direction worthy of its name, closer to its origins coming out of the labour movement. He described Starmers Stalinist tactics in purging thousands of left-wing members from the party. But he was also critical of Corbyn for leaning into that and refusing to challenge his attackers. He should never have given in to the Labour Party.

The campaign team encountered widespread opposition to the Gaza genocide, but there was little awareness of NATOs push for direct military confrontation against Russia. Several young people expressed surprise at the Zelensky regimes imprisonment of our comrade, the Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk for opposing the war.

I thought Zelensky was in favour ofdemocracy, a youth said in surprise, after an SEP member explained his role incancelling elections, arresting youth for resisting the draft, imprisoning left-wing opponents, banning strikes and promoting fascist wartime leaders such as Stepan Bandera, who played a leading role in the Holocaust.

He took a leaflet and expressedsupport for Bogdans struggle for the unity of Russian and Ukrainian workers against the war.

Outside Aldi, an SEP member was confronted by an angry member of the public who mistook us for the Labour Party. He demanded to know why Labour had supported members of Ukrainesfascist Azov battalion being invited into the UK parliament.

An SEP campaigner quickly explained our opposition to the Labour Party, but said he was right to be alarmed over Labourspromotion of fascists. He took a manifesto and said he would read it with interest.

Outside Sainsburys the SEP encountered volunteers campaigning for Independent Andrew Feinstein and handing out flyers. One of their campaign managers approached us and accused the SEP of splitting the left vote before walking off.

Feinsteins election flyer and website does not mention the word socialist, while the Gaza genocide is referencedjust once, as a call for divestment by Camden Council.

While Feinstein is runningas an Independent, he represents the Collective group formed last month by supporters of Jeremy Corbyn and self-billed as the first organised mass movement of the left outside ofthe Labour Party.

Until recently a member of the Labour Party,Feinsteinholds up as his model Corbyns leadership of the Labour Party and bases his programme on the five demands of Corbyns Peace and Justice Project: a pay rise for all, green new deal with public ownership, housing for all, tax the rich to save the NHS and welcome refugees in a world free from war.

Election leaflets produced by Feinstein in the constituency promote a crass anti-political party localism and municipal politics, with statements such as, An Independent candidate serves only local people, not political party agendas and I want Camden to thrive again.

Such a perspective conceals the implications of imperialist genocide and war, austerity and the rise of the far-rightprocesses rooted in the breakdown of world capitalism, radicalising millions of workers and young people around the world and demanding a political solution fought for by a socialist party.

LikeCorbyns election platform in neighbouring Islington North, Feinsteins campaign is calibrated to appeal to popular hostility toward Labours right-wing programme, while blocking a socialist and revolutionary challenge to capitalism by the working class.

His sole reference to Starmer is not that he supports genocide and should be tried as a war criminal, but that he views residents as a stepping stone to power. Feinstein concludes, We deserve an MP who is active locally and shares our moral values.

The SEP is intervening in the British general elections to politically educate the working class and youth in the struggle against war and for socialism, in direct opposition to the pro-capitalist politics of Andrew Feinstein and the Corbynite left. We urge workers and youth everywhere to read our election manifesto andjoin the SEPs campaign.

WSWS Review

What is the pseudo-left?

This review examines the response of pseudo-left political tendencies internationally to the major world political events of the past decade.

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Socialist Equality Party election campaign wins support in Holborn and St Pancras, London - WSWS

A fight for black priorities is playing out right here in New York with national implications.

As socialist Squad Rep. Jamaal Bowman tries to fend off a Democratic challenger in the June 25 primary, its become clear he is increasingly out of step with his black constituents in The Bronx and Westchester.

I know because Ive asked them.

My group, the National Black Empowerment Action Fund, recently commissioned a poll of hundreds of black residents in Bowmans district.

We found a huge divide between those voters concerns and Bowmans priorities in Congress.

When asked about the issues they care about most, black voters primarily pointed to quality of life jobs and economic development (27%), crime and public safety (25%), inflation and the cost of living (18%) and housing (16%).

Meanwhile, in his public statements Bowman appears squarely focused on the conflict in Gaza, even though only 3% of black people in the district cite that as a leading concern.

As a 20-year veteran of black politics in America, Ive seen time and time again a general misunderstanding of what black voters want: quality public education for our kids, secure neighborhoods free of guns and gangs, investment in our communities and access to the American dream.

Taken together, in todays polarized, politicized environment, the average black voters stance might be defined as moderate putting safe streets, good schools and good jobs first.

Socialism and extremism dont make the cut. Black people arent socialists. Full stop.

And thats exactly why, if Bowmans challenge is any bellwether, he and his allies in the so-called Squad may be falling out of favor, fast, in black communities.

Whats more, our poll confirmed that the more that black voters learned about their congressmans extreme record on their most important issues, the further out of favor he fell.

It revealed two important facts: One, Bowman is not focused on the common-sense problems his black constituents care about and, two, his extreme record in Congress has not been presented adequately to the black community.

We are having this exact conversation across The Bronx and Westchester and in majority-black districts across the country.

Our poll found that jobs, affordability and the economy were the top issues for black families in the district, parts of which are well-off while some have been sorely underserved.

Given that, Bowmans constituents were shocked to learn he voted against an economic development bill prioritized by black congressional leaders and President Biden that steered jobs, investments and federal dollars to our communities.

Public safety was among the most important issues, and portions of the district have a persistent crime problem.

Yet Bowman doesnt just want to defund the police. Hes a member of the radical Democratic Socialists of America, which advocates for eliminating policing altogether.

Nearly all those we spoke to want a representative focused on safe neighborhoods. Residents agreed that public safety is the bedrock of a thriving black community and were troubled about Bowmans lack of commitment to solving the problem.

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Bowmans district has no shortage of struggling district schools, and its charter schools have long waitlists.

Black constituents want the ability to choose the best public-school option for their kids, so youd think their congressman himself a former educator would support parent choice in education.

But no: Hes railed against charter schools and alternative public-school options for his entire political career, placing him distinctly at odds with local parents.

Taken together, dissatisfaction with his representation on these issues point to real trouble not just for Bowman, but the Squad as a whole, who share his radical, out-of-the-mainstream positions.

And, despite what Squad members like Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) constantly assert, their challenge comes not from white voters, shadowy conservatives or nefarious actors, but from right here in the heart of the black community.

Recently, I attended a forum with Rep. Bowman in White Plains hosted by local NAACP chapters.

The audience was respectful, but the community response to what they heard seemed tepid.

For every question, the congressman didnt talk about his record or propose fixes, but reflexively pointed to racism as the culprit for every problem.

I know full well that this country has a long way to go on racial issues. Its why Ive founded multiple organizations dedicated to black empowerment.

But I also know this: If you are sent to Congress to represent us, you must focus on and clearly work to solve the problems we care about.

Black voters are getting tired of the rhetoric.

Its time our representatives put our priorities first, not an extremist agenda that fails to solve any problems.

If they dont, the consequences may be theirs to bear.

Darius Jones is the co-founder of the National Black Empowerment Action Fund.

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Black voters at odds with Jamaal Bowman could help sink him - New York Post

Today, hundreds of thousands of people will march against the far right in cities across France, after President Emmanuel Macron reacted to far-right parties gains in the June 9 European elections by dissolving the French parliament and calling snap elections for June 30 and July 7. There is mounting concern among workers and youth over the growth of the neofascist National Rally (RN).

Immediately after the election was announced, Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the France Unbowed (LFI) party, announced the creation of a New Popular Front. This is a political trap for those seeking to halt the rise of the far right and police-state militarism. It aims to block a struggle for socialism by subordinating workers to a debilitating alliance with parties of capitalist government like the bourgeois Socialist Party (PS), the Stalinist French Communist Party (PCF) and the Greens. These corrupt parties can only lead their followers to disaster.

Speaking of his alliance with the PS and PCF, Mlenchon said on June 10:

We spoke today to confront the countrys historic situation after the results of the European elections and the dissolution of the National Assembly. We call for the constitution of a new popular front gathering in an unprecedented form all the humanist, trade union, nongovernmental and citizens left forces.

For the first time since the fall of the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy regime in 1944, the far right is poised to form a government in France. It is moving ever closer to power, moreover, as the NATO powers back genocide in Gaza and unleash their first war against Russia since the Nazi war of annihilation against the Soviet Union.

Macron has called these elections with the first round just before and the second round just after the July 4 snap elections in Britain, and before a July 9 NATO war summit in Washington. This summit will discuss plans by Macron and other officials to escalate the NATO war with Russia in Ukraine. These plans are opposed by 70 percent of the population in France and 80 percent in Germany. Macron aims to use the snap elections to prepare the ruling establishment to wage war on working class opposition at home so it can wage imperialist war abroad.

Mlenchon pledges that his Popular Front coalition will now advance a program that makes a clean break, listing measures to be taken during the first 100 days of the Popular Front government. He adds, Our goal is to govern to respond to democratic, ecological and social emergencies and for peace.

But Mlenchons Popular Front is not a force for peace and democracy. Its perspective is a government standing on capitalist property relations, defending the interests of French imperialism. It ties workers and youth to the pro-austerity PS, which supports war with Russia under the guise of aid to Ukraine, and whose record of back-channel ties to the far right dates to its foundation in 1971 by the former Nazi-collaborationist Franois Mitterrand.

The term Popular Front is associated with the worst betrayals of the working class. In the 1930s, it supported Stalinist slanders against Trotsky in the Moscow Trials and blocked a struggle of the working class for power and for socialism during the 1936 French general strike. The liberal and social-democratic parliamentarians of the French Popular Front ultimately in their majority voted dictatorial powers to Vichy leader Philippe Ptain in 1940.

The first challenge in fighting the resurgence of the far right is to explain how it came to pass. How is it that, in what was long considered one of Europes most left-wing countries, in which a mass movement of armed resistance to Vichy developed in the working class, that the political heirs of Vichy are poised to take power?

It is not that mass fascist paramilitary organizations like the Nazi Brown Shirts or the French Milice have emerged. But unlike fascist leaders of Hitlers era, who had to fight mass communist parties in the working class, the far right today does not need such militias to grow. It gains strength firstly from the imperialist bourgeoisies relentless pursuit of war, austerity, and social inequality, to which the neofascists give the most determined expression.

Moreover, the neofascists feed off the bitterness and confusion produced among workers and middle-class people by decades of betrayals by social democracy, Stalinism and descendants of renegades from Trotskyism.

Mlenchons claim that his Popular Fronts policies are new is perhaps his greatest lie of all: It is repeating what Mlenchon has done for a half-century.

He began in Pierre Lamberts Organisation communiste internationaliste (OCI) as the OCI broke with the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), the leadership of the world Trotskyist movement. The OCI rejected Trotskyism to instead support the Union of the Left between the PCF and the PS. Mlenchon himself joined the PS in 1976.

After Mitterrand took power in 1981 and swiftly abandoned his election promises and instead imposed austerity, Mlenchon became a senator. He worked closely with Mitterrand as the PS government joined the US-led war in Iraq in 1990-1991 and helped form the pro-business European Union. After Mitterrand died, Mlenchon was a PS minister in the 1997-2002 pro-austerity Plural Left government.

In the 21st century, after the disintegration of the PCFs mass working class base amid the Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union, he became a leading promoter of the populist theories of middle-class anti-Marxists. In his 2014 The Era of the People, he wrote that the people takes the place that the revolutionary working class once occupied in the politics of the left. Calling to get beyond socialism, he advocated a peoples revolution, stressing it is not the old socialist revolution.

These anti-worker, anti-socialist and anti-Trotskyist arguments must be rejected. Threats of war and neofascist rule irrefutably show that capitalism is in a mortal crisis. The way forward is for the European and international working class to revive its connections to the heritage of the October Revolution. Workers must take control of world economy and industry from the war-mad capitalist aristocracy before it mounts a military escalation that could trigger a nuclear conflagration.

The far rights rise indicates not the impossibility, but the urgency of the struggle for socialism. Trotsky made this point about the danger of the growth of support for fascism in the mass peasantry of France in the 1930s.

In Whither France, as he fought to found the Fourth International against the Popular Front between Stalinists, social democrats and liberals, he wrote:

It is false, thrice false, to affirm that the present petty bourgeoisie is not going to the working-class parties because it fears extreme measures. Quite the contrary. The lower petty bourgeoisie, its great masses, only see in the working-class parties parliamentary machines. They do not believe in their strength, nor in their capacity to struggle, nor in their readiness this time to conduct the struggle to the end.

Todays rising far-right vote, mainly among rural workers and workers in areas deindustrialized by successive PS governments, does not mean these workers oppose class struggle. Many have joined explosive movements like the 2018-2019 yellow vest protests against social inequality. However, they can only be won from the far right based on a determined, Trotskyist struggle against NATO, Macron and the corrupt bureaucracies of todays Popular Front.

The Parti de lgalit socialiste (PES), the French section of the ICFI, advocates the broadest protests and strikes against fascism and imperialist war. Military escalation and austerity will bring Macron and NATO into collision with the workers in France and internationally. But to prosecute this struggle, it is necessary to build rank-and-file organizations of struggle in the working class, opposing fascism and war in an international movement for socialism.

The World Socialist Web Site is the voice of the working class and the leadership of the international socialist movement. We rely entirely on the support of our readers. Please donate today!

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After Macron's snap election call, which way forward against neofascism and war? - WSWS

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) is standing candidates in the British general election to build a socialist anti-war movement, based on the working class.

Millions of workers and young people in the UK hate the Conservatives and Labour for their backing and arming of the Israeli state as it commits genocide, killing more than 38,000 Palestinians in Gaza, and they want an alternative.

What is not as well understood is that Britain, the United States, and other imperialist powers are taking actions in Ukraine that could result in a nuclear catastrophe threatening to destroy all life on earth. The global capitalist system, whose insoluble global crisis is the underlying cause of genocide and war, is descending into barbarism.

The SEP is using this election to break the conspiracy of silence maintained by the capitalist media, the major parties, the trade unions and what passes for the left over the acute dangers facing the working class. We intend to build a socialist alternative.

Mass opposition to Israels genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza must become the spearhead of a political struggle against the broader war aims of the UK, the United States and the other NATO imperialist powers. Their support for Israels mass murder and ethnic cleansing is bound up with plans for a new military carve-up of the world and its resources, centred on advanced preparations for war with Russia, Iran, and China.

Building a new anti-war movement demands an irrevocable break with the Labour Party.

Sir Keir Starmer wants to form a government that continues the Conservative Partys support for the Gaza genocide and the UKs leading role in the US-led war with Russia. Labour backs sending NATO troops to Ukraine and missile strikes on Russian soil with NATO-supplied weapons that could drag the UK, Europe and the world into war. It is committed to strengthening Britains nuclear weapons programme, backed by Starmers pledge that he will use them.

War on this scale demands an escalation of the savage austerity that has already left young people and working-class families struggling to survive. The ruling class is demanding an end to the peace dividend, which means a final death blow must be delivered to the National Health Service, social care, and all essential services to pay for war.

This is accompanied by a whipping up of nationalism and anti-immigrant xenophobia over the need for strong borders that is fuelling the rise of the far-right. A combined frontal assault on democratic rights has already begun with the campaign to criminalise protests over Gaza using lying accusations of antisemitism.

That is why the SEP is standing its Assistant National Secretary Tom Scripps against Starmer in Holborn and St Pancras. A vote for Starmer and Labour is a vote for austerity, repression, genocide and war! A vote for Scripps and the SEP is a vote for equality, peace and socialism!

In Scotland, Darren Paxton is standing in Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the snap general election to create the political framework for a new stage in a European-wide war that demands a major confrontation with the working class and young people.

Mass demonstrations against the horrific crimes being carried out in Gaza by Netanyahus far-right government, backed by Britain, the US, and other major powers, have mobilised millions. The ruling class fears an even larger eruption of opposition as the Israeli government expands its military campaign and as the full consequences of the NATO war with Russia become clear.

Sunak declared the main issue determining the election must be national security, citing the need to combat an axis of authoritarian states like Russia, Iran, North Korea and China. He claimed these global tensions were being exploited by extremists who seek to undermine our values, before denouncing anti-genocide protests as antisemitic.

These statements make clear that the task of the next government will be to drive forward the war plans of British imperialism over any resistance mounted by workers and students. This is confirmed by the announcement of a snap general election in France, where President Emmanuel Macron has responded to the rise of the far-right by seeking to create some form of national unity government to wage the war on Russia for which he has become the main advocate.

In the Middle East, as the death toll mounts in Gaza, Israeli aggression against Hezbollah in Lebanon is being ramped up and missile and drone strikes have been exchanged between Israel and Iran.

In Ukraine, agreeing to Kiev striking Russian territory with NATO-supplied long-range missiles accompanies plans to send soldiers from NATO countries to fight on the frontline and imposing conscription to supply fresh cannon fodder. NATO has established military corridors in Europe to allow for the rapid deployment to the east of hundreds of thousands of troops.

There is nothing remotely progressive about the Special Military Operation launched by President Vladimir Putin in the interests of the Russian capitalist oligarchs who rose to power on the basis of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the privatisation and plundering of the state assets nationalised in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution. Based on its bankrupt Great Russian nationalist perspective, the Putin government is driven to ever more reckless and provocative military escalations of its own, including threats to use nuclear weapons.

But opposition to Russias invasion must not translate into support for NATO imperialism, which deliberately created the conditions for the Kremlins reactionary responsethrough the constant eastward expansion of the military alliance towards Russia since 1990 and then the seizing of political control of Ukraine through the pro-western coup engineered in 2014.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, portrayed as a champion of democracy, is as much a right-wing stooge of the imperialist powers as Netanyahu. He heads a regime of virulent nationalists and outright fascists, which ruthlessly suppresses strikes, free speech and political opposition to the war as it rounds up its citizens and sends them to die.

Amid mounting opposition to the war and resistance to the draft, the Zelensky government has arrested our comrade, the Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk, on fraudulent charges of serving the interests of Russia. Bogdan is an intransigent opponent of the capitalist Putin regime and its invasion of Ukraine, fighting for the unity of Ukrainian and Russian workers and youth against war.

His fate mirrors that of Julian Assange, detained and imprisoned for 14 years by the UK and facing extradition to the US and a possible 175-year sentence for exposing war crimes.

By waging war against Russia, and ultimately Iran and China, NATO hopes to collapse their governments and implement regime change that gives them direct control of essential natural resources. This reckless escalation risks nuclear war, but the imperialist powers are willing to take this risk because they see no other way out of the desperate situation they facedrained of all legitimacy and ruling over impoverished and restive populations.

The ruling elites in the UK and internationally calculate that war abroad will create conditions for the suppression of democratic rights in the name of war-time national unity. This includes plans to ban strikes and protests that reflect fear of a broader movement in the working class, which will be forced to pay for the war with their lives and the destruction of social programmes.

Starmer and other Labour leaders are hated for backing mass murder and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, based on their sickening invocation of Israels right to self-defence. But Starmers party of Zionism is also the party of NATO. And what is being concealed from the public gaze is the active and advanced preparation for a Labour government to drag Britain into a war that would see the atrocities of Gaza multiplied a thousand-fold.

Starmer responded to Sunaks snap general election statement with his own call to place Britain on a war-footing. The post-war era is over, he declared. This Labour Party is totally committed to the security of our nation. To our armed forces. And, importantly, to our nuclear deterrent.

He boasted that Labour will build four new nuclear submarines and promised world leaders from the US, Europe and the Middle East his government would always meet our international obligations.

This is why Washington and other imperialist capitals, the British Armed Forces and the City of London stand behind a Labour government. Starmers first act as prime minister would be to attend a NATO summit in Washington D.C. on July 9 to discuss waging war against Russia.

The Socialist Equality Party rejects the lie that a vote for Labour is for a lesser evil than the Tories. They represent a single party of war, with Labour boasting of having a better policy to crack down on migration and promising to form the most business friendly government in history.

Starmers pitch to the ruling class is that he can rely on his allies in the trade union bureaucracy to police and betray the working class and impose the dictates of the major corporations and banks. He can cite as proof the role played by the union bureaucracy in sabotaging the 2022-23 strike wave that at one point encompassed two million workers.

The SEP rejects calls to sink political differences to bring about one big Gaza protest vote. The promise by the Stop the War Coalition and various pseudo-left groups of No Ceasefire, No Vote means supporting some protest candidates while calling for a vote for Labour everywhere else. It ends with the formation of a government that will continue backing Israel and waging NATOs wars. The Labour lefts such as John McDonnell and Diane Abbott are all dutifully campaigning for such a government.

Jeremy Corbyn is standing as an independent in Islington North, but only because he was booted out of the Labour Party. Even now he makes no direct criticism of its support for mass murder and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, NATOs war against Russia in Ukraine or anything else. He has carefully crafted his campaign so as not to clash with Labour except within the boundaries of Islington North, and has made no call for anyone else to leave the party and build a new one.

The only reason Starmer is poised to enter 10 Downing Street is that Corbyn and his backers, elected by a landslide to lead the Labour Party in 2015, faced down demands from workers and youth to drive out the Blairites. Corbyn capitulated on all fundamental issues, including NATO membership and nuclear weapons, and then politely handed the party over to Starmer. The refusal to fight the lie of left antisemitism laid the basis for mass expulsions and now the grotesque depiction of Gaza protests, also attended by hundreds of Jews, as hate marches.

George Galloways Workers Party of Britain offers no alternative. Advanced as a return to traditional Labour values, its nationalist and pro-capitalist programme includes a clampdown on migration targeting refugees, and has become a political home to Asian businessmen, opportunist officials of the Labour, Tory, Liberal Democrats, and worse.

In Scotland, the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, but unconditionally supports NATO and the war against Russia in Ukraine. Outside of their divisive proposal for an independent capitalist Scotland, the SNP is virtually indistinguishable from Starmers Labour Party of war.

The Socialist Equality Party states plainly to workers, especially the young generation: The building of a new and genuinely socialist leadership must begin now. We advance the socialist and internationalist programme on which this new leadership must be built.

The SEP is the British section of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), the world party of socialist revolution, founded by Leon Trotsky in a fight against the Stalinist bureaucracy and its crimes.

The danger of a new world war arises out of the fundamental contradictions of the capitalist systembetween the development of a global economy and its division into antagonistic nation states, in which the private ownership of the means of production is rooted. This is what drives the US, Britain and other imperialist powers as they seek unchallenged domination of the world.

The international working class is the only social force that can stop this global eruption of war. In its June 2 statement, Stop the US-NATO escalation toward nuclear war! Unite the international working class against imperialist war and genocide! the ICFI explains:

The same contradictions driving imperialism to the brink of nuclear war provide the objective basis for social revolution. The international working class is a massive social force, whose interests collide with capitalist exploitation and imperialist barbarism There is only one way that the spiral toward disaster can be avoided, and that is through the intervention of the working class to force an end to this war.

The SEP fights for the formation of a mass movement against genocide and war based on these four essential principles:

1. A movement against genocide and war must be based in the working class. It is the working class that will fight and die in war, and it is the working class that will be forced to pay for it. The same capitalist crisis that produces war also produces the basis for ending war, in the form of growing struggles against inequality, poverty and the attack on wages, jobs, healthcare, education and all the social rights of the working class.

2. It must be completely independent of and hostile to all political parties and organisations of the capitalist class, the Labour Party above all.

3. It must be international, uniting workers in every country and on every continent on the basis of their common class interests. The escalating global war, like World War I and World War II, arises out of the contradictions of the world capitalist system. A new global conflagration can only be averted through the mobilisation of the world working class, which produces all of societys wealth and therefore has the social and economic power to oppose the conspiracies of the capitalist ruling elites.

4. It must be anti-capitalist and socialist, since there can be no serious struggle against war except in the fight to end the dictatorship of finance capital and the economic system that is the fundamental cause of war.

To mobilise the immense social power of the working class against the capitalist class and its representatives means overcoming the gap between the advanced stage of the global crisis and the present level of mass political consciousness. This is only possible through the building of a Marxist-Trotskyist leadership and the revolutionary renewal of the international workers movement based on socialist policies.

The SEP is dedicated to this historic task. We fight alongside our sister parties for the unity of workers in Russia, Ukraine, and all of the former Soviet Union with their brothers and sisters in Europe, Asia, and America against war and for socialism. We appeal to all workers and youth to join the SEP and take their place in this struggle.

Promoted by Stuart Nolan, Box 338, 254 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9JY, on behalf of Tom Scripps, Box 338, 254 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9JY

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No to Gaza genocide and NATO war against Russia! Fight for a socialist alternative to Starmer's Labour Party! Build a ... - WSWS

Growing numbers of workers and young people in Australia and the broader region are joining the campaign to free imprisoned Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk.

Arrested on April 25 on bogus charges of treason and frame-up allegations of aiding Russia, Bogdan is in reality a courageous fighter for the interests of the working class. That includes opposing the US-NATO war against Russia from the standpoint of uniting Ukrainian and Russian workers against all the governments involved.

We urge all readers to support the campaign and demand Bogdans immediate release.

****

Scott, a New Zealand teacher living in Japan

Free Bogdan Syrotiuk! Ukraine has blocked access to the WSWS, a telling move by the fascist Zelensky regime that has fabricated high treason charges against Bogdan to silence opposition to their war. As the capitalist ruling class continues to use the working class as their pawns in war and in pursuit of corporate profits, the threat of nuclear war continues to grow. We must continue fighting against the capitalist ruling class and fighting for the immediate release of Bogdan.

Igor, a youth worker and actor from Melbourne

A student from Monash University in Melbourne

The arrest and detention of Bogdan Syrotiuk by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) starkly illustrate the fascist tendencies entrenched in the Zelensky regime. This blatant frame-up, rife with lies and political absurdities, aims to suppress and criminalise genuine socialist opposition. Bogdan Syrotiuk, a committed leader of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists (YGBL), is being falsely accused of high treasona charge devoid of any factual basis and rooted solely in his Marxist principles and opposition to the imperialist war in Ukraine.

The SBUs accusations, built on dubious documents, attempt to paint the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) and the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) as instruments of Russian propaganda. This narrative is not only false but strategically constructed to delegitimise the socialist critique of both Ukrainian and Russian capitalist regimes. The ICFIs stance against the US-NATO provocations and the Putin regimes invasion of Ukraine stems from a profound understanding of the global capitalist crisis and the reactionary nature of nationalist wars. Only by fostering socialist revolution and the unity of the working class across national borders can we turn our backs on the state of endless war that serves bourgeois interests.

Historically, the bourgeois state has always employed repressive measures to silence revolutionary voices. The SBU's actions echo the suppression of previous socialist movements through brutal state repression. The arrest of Bogdan Syrotiuk marks a continuation of this reactionary tradition, aiming to dismantle any organized resistance to capitalist exploitation and war. The ICFI and WSWS, challenging the dominant Western narrative, have become prime targets for a capitalist class increasingly desperate to maintain its grip on power amidst growing economic and geopolitical crises.

In this context, the working class must rally to defend Bogdan Syrotiuk and all those who resist imperialist wars and capitalist oppression, regardless of whether these forces of oppression originate from Western or Russian bourgeois interests. The struggle for his release is intrinsically linked to the broader fight for socialism and the liberation of humanity from the chains of exploitation. It is imperative to mobilise global solidarity to expose and resist these fascistic tactics, ensuring the voices of the oppressed are not silenced.

The defence of democratic rights and the fight for socialism are connected, and the case of Bogdan Syrotiuk underscores the urgent need for revolutionary internationalism in the face of escalating imperialist barbarism. As Rosa Luxemburg famously stated, humanity faces a stark choice: Socialism or barbarism.

Jenny, a retired worker in Sydney

I condemn the arrest of Bogdan Syrotiuk who, prior to his arrest, exercised his democratic right to alert the Ukrainian and Russian working class that their allegiance lay with their class brothers and sisters, not the warmongering oligarchs of their respective countries. He must immediately be released and restored to his family and friends.

The program of uniting the international working class against imperialist war and for the overthrow of capitalism terrifies the leaders of Ukraine and Russia because it is their working-class men and women that they are mercilessly sending into battle against each other. What would Putin and Zelensky do if their soldiers downed arms? They are so sensitive to political currents which are increasingly anti-war, that Bogdan, aligned with the Fourth international founded by Leon Trotsky who led the momentous Russian Revolution of 1917, had to be silenced. They silenced him by locking him up, proving, contrary to the bugles of imperialism which claim Ukraine is fighting this war in the name of democracy, there is no democracy in Ukraine. Fascism is alive and well in the Zelensky regime.

Bogdan is a courageous and principled young man who consciously advocated socialist internationalism. He worked to clarify the Ukrainian war and other critical geopolitical issues to the Ukrainian and Russian workers. He did this in the middle of a vicious and ongoing trench and bombing war resembling a WWI hellscape. With serious health issues, it is imperative he be released from that Ukrainian prison post-haste! I encourage everyone to join the #FreeBogdan campaign.

Linda, a Sydney artist

The accusation by the Ukrainian government that Bogdan Syrotiuk and the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) are working for Putin is patently absurd given the WSWS's well-documented and vehement opposition to both Putin and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The WSWS, affiliated with the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), has consistently denounced the Russian military intervention, condemning it as a reactionary move that exacerbates the plight of the working class.

WSWS has repeatedly highlighted the reactionary nature of Putins regime, critiquing it for safeguarding the interests of the Russian oligarchy at the expense of the working class. This principled stance is in direct contradiction to the claims made by the Ukrainian government, which attempts to portray Syrotiuk and the WSWS as Kremlin propagandists, a narrative that collapses under the weight of the WSWS's clear and unwavering opposition to Russian nationalism and imperialism.

Moreover, the Ukrainian governments recent updates to its exemptions from the European Convention on Human Rights, justified by the ongoing war, further underscore the authoritarian context in which these accusations are made. These exemptions, which erode basic democratic rights, reflect a broader strategy to suppress dissent and opposition, making the persecution of Syrotiuk part of a larger pattern of repressive measures aimed at silencing socialist and anti-war voices.

See original here:
Statements from Japan and Australia demand freedom for Bogdan Syrotiuk - WSWS