This issue again focuses on international issues connected with the major changes that are underway in the world at the moment- the changing relations of US imperialism with the former ‘Communist’ bloc and the oppressed peoples of the Global South. This finds primary expression in both the resurgent genocide in the Gaza Strip and Palestine generally, and with the crisis of NATO as revealed by Trump’s election and the falling out between the US and Europe over Ukraine. The lead article addresses the genocide in Palestine and the genocidal attacks in Syria by Western/Zionist-armed and -funded jihadists against ethnic/religious groups considered to be supportive of the ‘Axis of Resistance’ that defends the Palestinians. We note that with Trump’s presidency, even the credible pretence that US imperialism can be pressured to rein in Israel has come to an end – it is now clear to all that to defeat the genocide it will be necessary for Israel and US imperialism to be defeated by the masses and/or armed anti-imperialist opponents. That is now posed point blank.
At the same time, the Ukraine issue has led to be most overt clash between European and US imperialism in history, with the Trump administration visibly backing away from NATO, and the British, French and German bourgeoisie’s posturing ferociously about how they will supposedly fill the gap and continue the war in Ukraine. Their attempt at rearmament – with conscription mooted – for war with Russia is irrational, preposterous and economically ruinous for the European working class, who are likely to revolt against a new wave to severe austerity which we are already seeing in Britain with numerous benefit cuts that are literally being undertaken to fund Ukrainian Nazis, as well as military aid to Zionism. The lead article addresses all this and more.
The back page article is about the attacks on democratic rights from the Starmer regime that is simply the result of its criminal support for the genocide in Palestine. It cannot reply to the facts about the slaughter of the Palestinian population that are widely known and despised, despite the severe self-censorship of the Zionised British media. So it is persecuting journalists and activists – there is a long list. This article addresses this at length.
We have several other important articles in this issue, including articles translated from our Latin American co-thinkers, on the recent German Elections, which saw the collapse of the ‘Traffic Light’ coalition of the Social-Democrats, Liberals and Greens, mainly the result of Germany’s major economic decline caused by the fervent support of this bourgeois coalition for the imperialist proxy war in Ukraine.
We have also a thoughtful article on Deepseek, the Chinese AI bot, and its advanced nature which was a major shock to US imperialism’s complacent assumption that it was ahead of China in hi-tech development. This has been falsified by events and constitutes yet another major blow to US hegemony.
We have an article from our co-thinkers in Argentina on the attacks on pensioners, and the repression against them, by the reactionary government of Javier Milei, a confrontation that looks like the harbinger of much larger struggles erupting against this far right regime.
And finally, we republish the Open Letter of the Partisan Defence Committee (PDC) in defence of Lucy Letby, the Cheshire nurse who was jailed for many alleged murders of newborn, premature babies at a hospital in Cheshire. It is now becoming increasingly clear that the evidence against her does not stand up, and that she was herself a scapegoat for numerous failings of the underfunded, grossly neglected NHS, which neoliberal governments, Tory and Labour, have been involved in stealth wrecking operations against for decades. We commend the PDC, which is a class-struggle defence organisation initiated by the Spartacist League, for raising this issue and campaigning about it.
