/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

Railroad companies request Trump administration dismantle two-person crew regulations
Class I rail companies are requesting that the Trump administration end federal regulations requiring the use of two-person train crews, according to a report by Freight Waves. The request comes after a call from the Department of Transportation on April 3 for businesses to provide comments on deregulation, a central issue for the Trump administration which is dismantling whole departments and cutting hundreds of thousands of federal jobs.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/05/13/ojsy-m13.html

Microsoft to lay off 6,000 workers despite streak of profitable quarters
The tech giant didn’t disclose the total amount of lost jobs, but it will amount to about 6,000 people. Microsoft employed 228,000 full-time workers as of last June, the last time it reported its annual headcount. About 55% of those workers were in the US.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/13/microsoft-layoffs

60,000 people set to prematurely lose federal housing assistance
Congress has the authority to provide additional funding to maintain the emergency housing voucher program, Johnson said, and some Democratic lawmakers are lobbying for the cause. But she said it’s unlikely that the Republican-controlled Congress will approve more funds.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/05/13/covid-federal-housing-vouchers-end/
https://archive.ph/DTnB0

US farm agency restores some climate-related webpages after farmer lawsuit
The U.S. Department of Agriculture restored on Tuesday some climate change-related webpages that the agency had deleted since President Donald Trump's inauguration, after being sued by farm and environmental groups, one of the groups said.
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Here to fight, here to stay: The Red Scar Mill strike
This year marks the 60th anniversary of Britain’s first migrant-led strike: an inspiring yet relatively forgotten – but all the more inspiring – three-week event that took place at the Preston Courtauld’s Red Scar Mill in the North West of England. The Lancashire Evening Post expressed the sentiments of the ruling class at the time: “The news of the strike has travelled around the world…Preston has become infamous as the centre of futile struggle, which could inflame feelings where whites and coloured coincide.” Without precedent, the migrant workers independently and determinedly fought back against the attacks on their wages and conditions by factory owners Courtaulds – one of the four major monopolies in man-made fibre in Europe. In attempting to organise themselves, the migrant-worker strikers faced racism not only from the bosses, but also from within the union itself.
https://communist.red/here-to-fight-here-to-stay-the-red-scar-mill-strike/

“We are preparing for a scenario of greater crisis and class struggle”: Interview with a Revolutionary Socialist in Bolivia
In the world division of labor, there are no transnational “partners” or “good” imperialists, as many progressive governments claim. But the means of pressure applied to dependent countries, such as Bolivia, change according to the political turns in Washington. Trump made it clear in 2019 that his administration had no problem openly supporting military coups to ensure control over Bolivia’s resources; according to reports in The Intercept, the administration was willing to carry out a second coup in 2020 to avoid the transition to the Arce government after the October elections. This means that the next years will be marked by a growing regional tension between the United States, which seeks to retake control over what it considers its “backyard,” and the Latin American region, which is being jolted by interesting processes of mobilization and resistance.
https://www.leftvoice.org/we-are-preparing-for-a-scenario-of-greater-crisis-and-class-struggle-intPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

Nice Grayzone interview with Mohammed Marandi in Iran yesterday.

Warrantless Spying Report Signals Expansion of Domestic Surveillance
The report, which discloses surveillance actions undertaken during the last year of the Biden administration, details a marked uptick in querying of terms associated with U.S. persons, a decrease in the number of persons queried by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and most notably, an expansion of the 702 authority to include the war on drugs.
https://prospect.org/civil-rights/2025-05-12-warrantless-spying-report-signals-expansion-of-domestic-surveillance/

Tlaib Backs Primary Challenger McKinney Over Democratic Incumbent Thanedar
Tlaib (D-Mich.) endorsed 32-year-old state Rep. Donavan McKinney (D-11), who last month announced he is seeking to oust pharmaceutical magnate-turned Congressman Shri Thanedar, who has represented Michigan's 13th Congressional District since 2023.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/donavan-mckinney

Trump signs executive order to bring down prescription drug prices
The US leader also seemed to say that US pharmaceutical companies were not ultimately to blame for the difference in prices. Trump instead framed those high prices in the familiar terms of a trade imbalance with partners such as the European Union and said the US has been “subsidising” lower drug prices in other nations.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/12/trump-signs-executive-order-to-bring-down-prescription-drug-prices
https://archive.ph/3xXvF

Trump administration welcomed white Afrikaans while ending Afghan protections
Over 9,000 Afghans could face deportation after the Department of Homeland Security announced the revocation of their temporary protected status on Monday. DHS said last month that it would not renew TPS status for Afghanistan refugees, but said Monday that termination is slated for July 12. Permitting Afghans to remain tempoPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

Germany’s New Chancellor Is a Man Without Qualities
There is a telling rumor in Berlin political circles. Upon his appointment as leader of Germany’s Christian Democrats (CDU) in 2022, Friedrich Merz was gifted a copy of Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) by his conservative colleague Wolfgang Schäuble, the veteran former finance minister and then president of the German parliament. A dismayed Merz is said to have handed back the book shortly after, exclaiming: “But this is a novel — what am I supposed to do with this?” The novel in question, narrated by the last aristocratic ruler of a remote island principate in Sicily, revolves around the old social order’s attempt to contend with the threat of rapid political change, encapsulated by its most famous phrase: “If we want things to remain as they are, things will have to change.” On the surface, this isn’t too dissimilar from the situation in which Merz finds himself. The new German chancellor, sworn in on Tuesday after a shaky confirmation vote in parliament, was once dubbed “the prince of neoliberalism” and is very much an unreconstructed representative of a system whose time has come.
https://jacobin.com/2025/05/germany-merz-chancellor-cdu-neoliberalism

In May Immortals Week: The Main Thing On The Path Of Fhe Immortals is Organization And The Struggle! — DKP/BÖG
The struggle for revolution and socialism has always been carried to the present day by paying a great price in the lands we live in. It is not possible to be revolutionary without paying a price in the geography we live in. We are also representatives of a political tradition that has paid a great price for the freedom struggle of the working class and the oppressed based on the needs of the class struggle. Our Party Founding Leader, Commander and Teacher Ulaş Bayraktaroğlu, who played a great role in bringing us to this day, was immortalized on May 9, 2017. Our immortals will always continue to lead and guide us in our march to the future. On this occasion, we consider it our duty to state once again that we will walk with the most determination in the revolutionary march opened by our immortals in the person of our Commander, Leader and Teacher Comrade Ulaş Bayraktaroğlu (Mehmet Kurnaz), which is the beginning of the Immortals Week.
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>>488505
This says:
<Grand-wizard Trump's incantation of magic words made the economy disappear.
Makes you wonder whether it actually existed in the first place.

They're saying it's the worst day in the market since June 2020

>The 'Buy Now Pay Later' Trap, Explained
it's over for consumers..

I was gonna ask "so was this just an op to destroy Syria?" but that (presumably?) wouldn't make sense since they formed in 1984…

darn

now what

is this like ireland?

>>489487
Yeah makes you think, i mean it probably played some role.

>>489484
Not entirely. They tried to balance USA, Russia, Turkey and Syria. When Syria caved and the Russians scaled down their activities in that region, their scheme went out of whack and they got knocked over hard.

California State University students wage hunger strike against Gaza genocide
On May 5, 25 students from San Francisco State, Sacramento State, Long Beach State, and San Jose State universities in California launched a hunger strike under the banner of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), to oppose mass starvation as part of the genocide in Gaza. “We refuse to be complicit in the Israeli occupation’s siege on Gaza, which has left countless Palestinians suffering from malnourishment, disease, and death,” they declared in a statement.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/05/12/zbwd-m12.html

FEMA cuts emergency training under Trump as hurricane season looms
- The U.S. federal disaster agency FEMA has sharply reduced training for state and local emergency managers ahead of the start of the hurricane season on June 1, according to current and former officials, memos seen by Reuters, and three sources familiar with the situation.
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/fema-cuts-emergency-training-hurricane-season-looms-2025-05-11/

US House tax committee unveils partial tax plan to achieve Trump agenda
The 28-page proposal by the House Ways and Means Committee would increase the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,500 through 2028 and to $2,000 after, and adds a requirement for recipients to have a Social Security number and reduces some taxes for multinational companies and unincorporated businesses.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-tax-committee-unveils-partial-tax-plan-achieve-trump-agenda-2025-05-10/

Michigan father and green card holder spent nearly two months in ICE detention
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent pulled him aside at the Detroit Metro Airport and asked him about a 2018 charge for using marijuana. Unable to recall the specifics of the incident, the officer confiscated Oberoi’s green card and told him to come back with the police report.
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CP of Bangladesh, CPB expresses concern over India-Pakistan military tensions
CPB President Md. Shah Alam and General Secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince said in this statement that the reactionary bourgeois ruling classes of both India and Pakistan are responsible for this horrific rise in religious extremism and terrorism. They create or incite these terrorist incidents for their own narrow political interests. The brutal killings and terrorism in Pahelgam are no exception to this. CPB always upholds its strong position against religious extremism and terrorism.
http://www.solidnet.org/article/CP-of-Bangladesh-CPB-expresses-concern-over-India-Pakistan-military-tensions/

CPI(M) in the All Party Meeting
In the context of the government reporting that the ‘intended objectives of the Operation are achieved’, Brittas pointed out that given the past experience, it is doubtful, if such military action will be able to target and eliminate terrorist groups. He emphasized that the government should continue pursuing diplomatic actions and build international pressure to bring the terrorists to book. It should see that the situation does not escalate. He urged the government to ensure the protection of the people in the border areas and also to provide all required assistance to those who are affected by the situation. He asked the government to place all the facts before the people and counter the spread of all kinds of misinformation.
https://peoplesdemocracy.in/2025/0511_pd/cpim-all-party-meeting

The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin Chapter 5: Food
If the coming Revolution is to be a Social Revolution, it will be distinguished from all former uprisings not only by its aim, but also by its methods. To attain a new end, new means are required. The three great popular movements which we have seen in France during the last hundred years differ from each other in many ways, but they have one common feature. In each case the people strove to overturn the old regime, and spent their heart’s blood for the cause. Then, after having borne the brunt of the battle, they sank again into obscurPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

>Thousands march against immigration in Warsaw
I thought this was about stopping people from leaving Poland and going to Western Europe

>>489428
Jesus Christ is the Communist Party of India actually cheering on an attack against a nuclear power? Good luck establishing communism when India is a radioactive wasteland, you stupid fucks.

>>489428
>>489435
There's many Communist parties in India

But why the dislike for Posadism?

>>489440
>Um, actually, the Japanese invasion of China was based because it accelerated the spread of class consciousness between the Chinese proles
Mao is just Stalinist Bordiga, change my mind.

>>489435
>is the Communist Party of India actually cheering on
Yeah that part did seem a bit odd.

However it does appear that the hole thing wasn't that big a deal afterall. Maybe the CPI knew this was just a medium whoop.

>>489444
>change my mind.
We have to call him a Staliga-ist. That's just weird.

Kyle Kulinski chimes in

Was this legitimately over water resources or is Israel somehow involved again?

>>489396
Wow you got him pegged

Truce reported (and broken?)

COVID lockdowns/vaccines are the worst takes in recent memory.

>>489147
>Frankly police shitty behavior is massively overblown
You have to be sheltered as fuck to think this. They actively look for stupidity and sociopathy when hiring cops.

>>489417
>Jordan Neely
Spartacist League of all people had an excellent position on this where they strongly defended the right of proletarians to self defense.

>>489418
WM3 are 100% guilty, the evidence against them was pretty much overwhelming and they had detailed knowledge of the crime scene before police even knew about aspects of it. They also bragged about doing it before being arrested, or the crime even found.
Yes, not much physical evidence was left, but the rest of the evidence against them was just absurdly overwhelming. A lot of the "They are innocent" arguments are super "Netflix documentary" levels of weak as well, like "Jessie is too slow and retarded to commit such a crime his autism score tests prove it", yet Jessie's I.Q. score is literally higher than the average African American I.Q. score lmao or that how did Damien know where to do the crime of a town he was unfamiliar with since he didn't live in it? When he lived literally just like 2 miles away from it down the road.
Jessie is really a pretty good slam dunk that they are guilty as well, as he actually somewhat seemingly felt about about it and immediately started begging for forgiveness to friends before even being arrested, in Jail, he constantly confessed to cell mates and other innmates, and the top "WM3 are 100% innocent" activist, after meeting Jessie in a private meeting to help get them out of jail, broke off all contact with him and the WM3, and changed her position to they absolutely did it and are 100% guilty.
This isn't even touching on Damien, who was a clear serial killer in the making. Literal teen Animal torturing, blood drinking, cannibal, demon worshipping Satanist, violent ASPD sociopath. He is so absurd it's basically a parody of a serial killer. Ironically, this is why people also argue they are innocent, that Damien is such an edgelord, that this was just "attacking Goths and Satanic Panic" when the reality was, Damien was just a Cluster B unstable violent sociopath and had been one since childhood.
Yet most of the Left are "they are still innocent duuur". It's a very similar case with the CP5. Where the evidence against them is overwhelming (they had mentioned "Ray" (Rayes) being at the scene with them years before he was a police suspect) but they "got off" (Vacated, never exonerated) due to technicalities.
Either way in general, the left has a bizarre love in with Lumpens. If anything, It feels that the current western Left seem to side with Lumpens far more with Proles.

>>489417
>Left needs to stop cocksucking Lumpens.
Sure. But conservatards need to stop constantly shitting on lumpens as well. They are people too who are also vulnerable to false consciousness.

>>489136
>Local park was beautiful, now black, arab people show up the park is completely trashed within 2 hours.
<Those DAMN NI🅱️🅱️ERS, man. Those MOTHERFUCKING NI🅱️🅱️ERS, man. DISCUSTING BLACK CREATURES, GET OUT OF MY SIGHT.
You're doing a poor job at hiding your blatant racism, anon.

>>489132
"the left"

GOP centrists revolt against steep cuts to Medicaid and other programs in Trump’s tax breaks bill
So far, GOP leaders have signaled they are walking away from some, but not all, of the steep Medicaid cuts. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said the proposals could result in millions of people losing their coverage. Instead, what appears to still be on the table are tougher work requirements for those receiving Medicaid and food stamp assistance and more frequent eligibility tests for beneficiaries.
https://apnews.com/article/tax-cuts-medicaid-cuts-food-stamps-tariffs-9adf4640c67535117c71165b106f6379

Student protester Mohsen Mahdawi unveils legal defence fund for immigrants
Though released on bail, Mahdawi continues to face deportation proceedings. He reflected on his time behind bars at a news conference where he and state officials announced the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund. “ I was unjustly kidnapped or detained, if you want to go by the legal term,” Mahdawi said with a wry smile.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/8/student-protester-mohsen-mahdawi-unveils-legal-defence-fund-for-immigrants
https://archive.ph/LUvWf

Sen. John Fetterman raises alarms with outburst at meeting with union officials, AP sources say
Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was meeting last week with representatives from a teachers union in his home state when things quickly devolved. Before long, Fetterman began repeating himself, shouting and questioning why “everybody is mad at me,” “why does everyone hate me, what did I ever do” and slamming his hands on a desk, according to one person who was briefed on what occurred. As the meeting deteriorated, a staff member moved to end it and ushered the visitors into the hallway, where she broke down crying.
https://apnews.com/article/john-fetterman-Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

Palestine solidarity is now breaking the political consensus and isolating Labour
LABOUR’S Gaza shame deepens by the day. While Keir Starmer calls Israel’s continuing assault on the Palestinian people “intolerable” he nevertheless continues to not just tolerate, but to actively enable the genocidal aggression. Even one of the few half-steps Labour has taken since coming into office, the suspension of some arms licences for export to Israel, is now called into question. It appears that munitions for Israel’s war have been supplied regardless. Week after week, hapless Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer is sent to the Commons to cover for Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy, himself a study in venal complicity.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/palestine-solidarity-now-breaking-political-consensus-and-isolating-labour

Ireland: class struggle not broad fronts will beat the far right
On Saturday 26 April, a large demonstration led by the far right marched through Dublin’s North Inner City. The turnout was significant: estimates range from 5,000 to as many as 10,000. In fact, this was four or five times larger than the previous biggest far-right led mobilisation. On the other side of the Gardaí fence, the counter-protest organised by United Against Racism (UAR) also gathered more than counter-protests in the past. But still, we were outnumbered. Every honest socialist, communist and trade unionist – anyone indeed understanding the dangers the far right poses to the workers’ movement – will have undoubtedly asked themselves: how is it possible that these reactionaries can outnumber us in the streets of Dublin? This article is intended as a comradely contribution to what we believe is a necessary and urgent discussion in the wake of last weekend’s events. A discussion about our tactics in the fight against the far right.
https://marxist.com/ireland-class-struggle-not-broad-fronts-will-beat-the-far-right.htm

Europe’s Liberation 80 Years On: France
Firsthand accounts of the wartime Nazi occupation of France stress the messy, haphazard nPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

US charges NY man with hate crimes over Columbia protests
Bazrouk's case appears to be the first time the DOJ has brought federal hate crime charges related to the recent Columbia protests. A DOJ spokesperson could not confirm that information. The assaults allegedly all took place in Manhattan, at an April 2024 protest outside the New York Stock Exchange, a December 2024 protest outside Columbia University, and a January 2025 protest near Gramercy Park.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-charges-ny-man-with-hate-crimes-over-columbia-protests-2025-05-08/

Pro-Palestinian protesters take over room in library at Columbia; dozens in custody
A spokesperson for the university said they were dealing with a disruption in Reading Room 301 of Butler Library after demonstrators entered around 3:15 p.m. Acting President Claire Shipman said the individuals have still refused to identify themselves and leave the building, and says the university has "requested the presence of the NYPD" to assist in securing the building.
https://abc7ny.com/post/columbia-protest-pro-palestinian-protesters-disrupt-university-no-word-arrests/16350773/

US court says student activist Rumeysa Ozturk must be sent to Vermont
That ruling marked a rejection of a Trump administration appeal to delay the transfer and keep Ozturk in Louisiana, where she has been held in an immigration detention centre since late March. … Separately, in Newark, New Jersey, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to deliver specifics about its rationale for describing Khalil, a leader in Columbia University’s student protests, as a threat to US foreign policy.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/7/us-court-says-student-activist-rumeysa-ozturk-must-be-sent-to-vermont
https://archive.ph/dItsg

Republicans to Pay for Trump Tax CPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

The United States Has Overused Its Sanctions Weapon Review of Chokepoints: How the Global Economy Became a Weapon of War by Edward Fishman (Elliott & Thompson, 2025)
Today we are accustomed to the use of economic sanctions as central tools of foreign policy. Many people may be surprised to discover, however, that this is actually a rather recent development. Sanctions used to be akin to a slap on the wrist — they would be used to target foreign leaders and their inner circles, making it harder for them to moor their yachts in the Mediterranean or purchase mansions in London. Now, of course, sanctions are among states’ most powerful weapons for waging economic warfare. In a new book, Chokepoints: How the Global Economy Became a Weapon of War, Edward Fishman describes how sanctions have been transformed over the past several decades. Fishman has worked in the State Department, the Department of Defense, and the Treasury, where he spent several years in the Terrorism and Financial Intelligence team designing sanctions on states like Iran. Chokepoints is accordingly an insider’s account of how the United States developed an armory of powerful sanctions based on its control over the world’s financial system — and how the overuse of these tools ended up undermining their effectiveness, ultimately compromising US hegemony itself.
https://jacobin.com/2025/05/us-foreign-policy-sanctions-weapon

Celebrate VE Day, and remember the lessons of the anti-fascist war
POLITICIANS use Victory in Europe Day, the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender, as an excuse for militarist bombast. We must not let this pass. May 8 1945 marks the 80th anniversary of the victory over fascism. Communist Party of Great Britain leader Harry Pollitt called it “the greatest victory of all time.” What may have begun as an inter-imperialist war had become by 1945 a people’s war, mobilising the whole working class in the effort to defeat the most murderous regime in history, Nazi Germany. It was an internationalist war, the heroism of the armies that fought the Nazis equalled by that of the partisans and resistance fighters who fought and died across occupied Europe. The anti-fascist coalition gave birth to the United Nations — to join which, originally, countries needed to declare war on Nazi Germany — and,Post too long. Click here to view the full text.