Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified alongside General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday to demand $67 billion in emergency funding for the Iran war.

Held amid mounting casualties, the hearing revealed the deepening crisis of American imperialism in Iran, where it faces a military debacle to which the Trump administration has responded with renewed bombing and the active discussion of deploying ground troops and using nuclear weapons.

Hegseth, admitting that the cost of the war had surged to $37.5 billion, conducted himself as a belligerent bully. “Shame on you and others who call this a quagmire and a failure!” he raged.

In the face of growing popular opposition, the Democrats made every effort to show that they are a loyal opposition, accusing the administration of incompetence in the prosecution of the interests of American imperialism.

The most significant statement came from Democratic Michigan Senator Gary Peters, who called Hegseth a “failure” and declared, “You don’t have a strategy. You don’t have a long-term plan to actually win this war. Win the war!”

Peters continued, “The men and women are going to be able to do it, but they need to have leadership. When will you show leadership?”

Hi everyone !

I wanted to know if you could recommand some novels about the history of a country or story of a militant with a communist approach ? I'm on holidays and would like to a book that's more easy to read\captivating but that still makes me learn :)

Thanks !

The IWA-RFC calls on UAW members and workers in every industry, in the US and internationally, to take up the defense of Lehman as their own cause. As Lehman stated: “This threat is not aimed at me alone. It is an act of intimidation directed against the entire rank-and-file opposition.”

The IWA-RFC also calls on all left-wing and progressive organizations to categorically denounce this threat.

Register your opposition to this incitement to violence! Email the UAW at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) to demand that it publicly repudiate the threat against Lehman, with a copy to the Will Lehman campaign at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).

A high-ranking official of the United Auto Workers apparatus and supporter of UAW President Shawn Fain has posted a death threat against me.

On July 16, Raymond L. Jensen Jr., until recently the assistant director of UAW Region 9—my own region—posted a comment on my public Facebook page in direct response to an article on my campaign statement on the federal criminal investigation into Fain. Jensen’s comment consisted of an AI-generated image depicting me bound with rope and gagged, blood running from my mouth, with a masked man aiming an automatic rifle at my back.

According to the union’s LM-2 filing with the Department of Labor, Jensen’s total compensation in 2025 was approximately $202,000, five times the income of many of the workers whose dues pay his salary. His Facebook profile prominently displays an “I Support Shawn Fain” campaign badge, and his page is filled with statements promoting Fain’s re-election and photographs of Jensen at Black Lake, the union’s resort and conference center in northern Michigan, maintained with the dues of the membership.

In response, my attorney, Eric Lee, has sent a letter to Glen McGorty, counsel for the court-appointed monitor overseeing the UAW, demanding an immediate investigation, the suspension of Jensen without pay, a public repudiation of the threat by the UAW, and referral of the matter to the Department of Labor and federal law enforcement. I have published the full letter here.

“When a highly paid functionary of the incumbent administration, publicly identified with the president’s re-election campaign, posts an image of the opposition candidate gagged, bleeding, and under the gun,” the letter states, “the message transmitted to the UAW membership is unmistakable: extreme violence against Will Lehman is encouraged and enjoys the sanction of the union leadership.”

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Jensen posted the image in response to my statement on the Department of Justice investigation into Fain, in which a federal grand jury has been convened and the UAW monitor subpoenaed. As the letter notes, the monitor’s office has itself determined that Fain and the entrenched UAW leadership have perpetrated what it called a toxic climate of retribution, and that Fain personally threatened to “slit throats” of his opponents.

I have previously filed complaints of harassment and interference with the monitor’s office, which are the subject of a meeting scheduled for July 23. Those complaints, the letter states, “were not seriously investigated. From this inaction, the UAW leadership drew the conclusion that it could threaten Mr. Lehman with impunity. Mr. Jensen evidently shared that confidence.”

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I will not be intimidated, and this campaign will not be stopped. But this threat is not aimed at me alone. It is an act of intimidation directed against the entire rank-and-file opposition that is developing throughout the UAW. The image of a bound and gagged candidate is meant to teach the membership a lesson: this is what happens to those who oppose the apparatus. If a threat of this character can be made openly, by a highly paid official, against a candidate for the union’s highest office, then no worker who challenges the bureaucracy in their own local is safe.

That is why this cannot be treated as my fight alone, and why the response must come from the rank and file itself. I call on all workers to oppose this act of intimidation: to defend the right of every UAW member to campaign and speak free of threats, to demand the investigation and removal of those responsible, and to circulate this statement in every plant and workplace.

Above all, I call on workers to take up the fight this campaign advances—the building of rank-and-file committees in every plant, independent of the apparatus, and the transfer of power to the shop floor. The apparatus resorts to intimidation because it fears you. The answer is not to retreat, but to organize.

The address opened with a torrent of self-glorification—the United States “the hottest country in the world,” the markets at their highest “of all time,” the border sealed, crime at a 125-year low, “we won in Venezuela,” “winning big in Iran.” This parallel universe is itself a symptom of a regime losing its grip on reality and on events.

The whole performance smacked of a desperation that is well founded. Geopolitically, American imperialism has failed to achieve a single one of its aims in the war on Iran, which it is now escalating—driving up oil prices and inflation, threatening a collapse of overvalued financial markets and adding to an already unsustainable national debt.

Economically, the administration presides over social inequality without precedent, even as fresh reports appear by the day of the looting of society by Trump, his family and his inner circle: more than $1.4 billion pocketed from cryptocurrency ventures in a single year, while small investors drawn in lost billions.

Jacobin cites recent DSA election victories to argue, in the form of friendly advice, that the Democratic Party establishment and trade union bureaucracy should not be distracted by the supposed “socialism” of the DSA. For their own good, they must instead embrace the DSA and accept the organization’s offer to lend them a “left” cover.

July 17 marked the ninetieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The coup was a decisive event in the Spanish Revolution (1931-39). The defeat of the revolution was a seminal experience of the 20th century whose lessons are critical for the class struggle in the 21st century.

In its 2025 report, presented on 30 June, the Verfassungsschutz—Germany’s domestic intelligence service, formally known as the Office for the Protection of the Constitution—no longer lists the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) as a so-called “left-wing extremist” organisation. The removal shows that there was no legal basis whatsoever for the party’s earlier designation. It was a campaign against socialist perspectives that was purely politically motivated.

The Verfassungsschutz had first listed the SGP as “left-wing extremist” in its 2018 report. At the time, it justified this on the grounds that the SGP’s activism was directed “against the existing state and social order, invariably slandered as ‘capitalism,’ against the EU, supposed nationalism, imperialism and militarism, as well as against Social Democracy, the trade unions, and the Left Party.” 

In doing so, the intelligence service expressly confirmed that the SGP pursues its goals by legal means—that it “attempts to gain public attention for its political ideas through participation in elections and through lecture events.” From the very beginning, the surveillance was therefore based exclusively on the party’s political ideas, not on any unlawful conduct.

The SGP subsequently brought legal proceedings before the Berlin Administrative Court. The Verfassungsschutz and federal interior ministry responded with a 56-page submission that contained no legal argumentation but rather presented a furious polemic against Marxism and every form of socialist, left-wing and progressive thought. 

In its defence of the Verfassungsschutz, the federal government declared that even the “advocacy of a democratic, egalitarian and socialist society” was unconstitutional. Positive references to Marx, Engels and Lenin, “thinking in class categories,” “agitation against so-called ‘imperialism’ and ‘militarism’” and the rejection of the European Union were also deemed unconstitutional. Even the dissemination of Marxist literature—including the writings of David North, the chairman of the international editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site—was cited by the ministry as evidence of the SGP’s alleged extremism.

With this argumentation, the government directly invoked the tradition of Bismarck’s Anti-Socialist Laws of 1878, which were directed against every organisation in which “social democratic, socialist or communist activities aimed at overthrowing the existing state or social order manifest themselves in a manner endangering public peace, in particular the harmony of the classes of the population.”

The SGP demonstrated how the Anti-Socialist Laws and Gesinnungsstrafrecht (criminal law based on intent or convictions, i.e. “thought-crimes”) were being revived. This represented the traditions of a “thought-police” which was taken to its extreme by the Nazis, in which defendants were convicted solely on the basis of their political convictions and not for any actual crimes committed.

...

The legal action and campaign waged by the SGP are therefore of great significance. We have exposed the line of argumentation that has been developed here and which is now being deployed against all left-wing and anti-militarist forces—against Junge Welt, against the IYSSE, against climate activists from “Ende Gelände” (“Game Over”), against anyone who dares to name the prevailing pro-war policies and rising social inequality by their proper names.

This attack on fundamental democratic rights is directly linked with the escalation of a pro-war policy and the fabulous enrichment of the billionaires. The militarisation of the whole of society and its total subordination to the profit interests of the rich are incompatible with democracy. That is why the state apparatus is being built up and directed against anyone who opposes capitalism and war.

The SGP will continue and intensify its struggle against the intelligence services and for democratic rights. The Verfassungsschutz, which is riddled with right-wing extremist networks and whose previously long-serving president is now himself classified as a right-wing extremist, must be dissolved immediately. The removal of the SGP from the Verfassungsschutz report is no cause for the all-clear. The struggle against the revival of the Anti-Socialist Laws and of thought-crimes continues.

Therefore, sign the petition against the surveillance of the SGP and become a member of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei!

The mass movement in Azad Kashmir is one of the most significant working-class and poor-peasant uprisings in the region in years. 100,000 people at sit-ins. A complete strike across the region. At least four killed by state security forces, and the masses are still out. This is real class force in motion.

The RCI (formerly IMT, Marxist.com, etc.) has published an article under their American branch (RCA) calling on the Awami Action Committee to "declare itself the government" and establish an "Awami Inqalabi Government." Their slogan is "All power to the committees!" and their strategy boils down to: the movement should take up arms against the oppressive regime.

This sounds radical. It is not. It is the classic formula of substitutionism — demanding that the existing bourgeois and petty-bourgeois leadership do the revolution on behalf of the working class, rather than building the independent political mobilization of the working class to take power for itself.

Let me be concrete. Here is what a revolutionary program for the Kashmir movement would actually look like — and why the RCI's "take up arms" line is a substitute for a real strategy.

1. Democratize the Movement: Elected, Recallable Delegates

The Awami Action Committee is a coalition of political and religious notables. It was not elected by the masses in the streets. It negotiates behind closed doors. It decides when to escalate and when to stand down.

The RCI leadership says: "Declare yourselves the government!" But a government of whom? Appointed by whom? Accountable to whom?

A revolutionary demand would be: transform every local protest committee into a genuinely democratic organ. Delegates elected by the assembled masses. Subject to immediate recall. All negotiations, tactics, and decisions ratified by the general assembly. No deals behind closed doors.

This is not a procedural nicety. It is the practical weapon against betrayal. A leadership that can be recalled at any moment cannot so easily sell out, because the masses have the organizational means to remove it. The RCI's strategy — demanding the existing leadership take power — leaves the masses defenseless when that leadership inevitably negotiates a sellout.

2. Break the National Containment: Expand to the Pakistani Working Class

The AAC wants to keep the movement within Azad Kashmir. It wants to negotiate with Islamabad as Kashmiris, not as workers. This is the nationalist trap.

The IMF austerity that has driven people into the streets in Rawlakot is the same IMF austerity immiserating workers in Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad. The state shooting protesters in Kashmir is the same state repressing trade unionists and peasants across Pakistan.

The concrete proposal: elected delegations from the Kashmir committees to the working-class districts of Pakistan's cities. To the factories. To the transport workers. Not asking for charity — proposing common action. A general strike across Pakistan and Azad Kashmir against the IMF dictates. Coordinated defense against state repression.

The AAC will oppose this. It will say the struggle is Kashmiri, not Pakistani. Good. That is the test. The advanced workers will see that their leadership is preventing the unity that could make the movement victorious.

The RCA’s article says nothing about this. It treats the movement as a Kashmiri national struggle, not as part of the class struggle across the subcontinent.

3. Arm the Movement — Democratically

The state has killed people. It will kill more. The demand must be: form workers' defense guards, elected by the committees and accountable to them. Not vigilantes. Not armed gangs. Organized, disciplined, democratic self-defense.

The RCI leadership says "take up arms." But arms in whose hands? Under whose control? For what purpose? "Take up arms" without democratic control means armed bands loyal to bourgeois faction leaders — the classic formula for warlordism, not revolution.

The Bolsheviks didn't just say "arm the workers." They built the Red Guards as organs of the soviets, democratically controlled and politically educated. That is the difference between revolutionary arming, and adventurism.

4. Expropriate the Hoarders and Landlords

The movement is against price rises. Who controls the prices? The big merchants, the hoarders, the monopolies. Who controls the land? The feudal landlords.

The committees should not merely demand that the government lower prices — the government is the enemy. The committees should organize the direct seizure of hoarded goods, the occupation of uncultivated landlord estates, the distribution of food and land under democratic control of the committees.

This transforms the movement from a protest against state policy into an assault on the class structure of Pakistani capitalism. It forces every participant to choose: are we begging the state for relief, or are we taking what we need from those who have stolen it?

The RCI's "declare yourselves the government" skips over this entirely. It substitutes a political declaration for the concrete expropriation of the exploiters.

5. Fraternal Appeals to the Indian Working Class

The Kashmir conflict is the sharpest weapon the Indian and Pakistani ruling classes possess to divide workers along communal and national lines. Modi's Hindu nationalism and the Pakistani military's Islamism are two faces of the same counterrevolutionary project.

The Kashmir committees should issue fraternal appeals to Indian workers — to the workers of Indian-administered Kashmir, to the trade unions of India, to the students and farmers who have fought Modi. Send delegations. Issue joint statements. Coordinate action.

The AAC will recoil. "We cannot appeal to the enemy."

The revolutionary response: the enemy is not the Indian worker. The enemy is the Indian bourgeoisie and the Pakistani bourgeoisie, both of whom profit from this conflict. The Indian worker is our brother.

The RCA's article mentions a "Socialist Federation of the Indian Subcontinent" as a decorative flourish at the end. But it proposes no concrete steps toward international unity. Its entire strategic logic — tailing a bourgeois-led Kashmiri nationalist movement — contradicts the internationalism it invokes.

6. Prepare for Betrayal — Openly, Now

The AAC will negotiate. It is already negotiating. It will accept some package of concessions and call off the movement. The masses will be told: we have won, go home.

Revolutionaries must say openly, before the betrayal occurs: any negotiation conducted behind closed doors is a betrayal. Any agreement not ratified by the general assembly of elected delegates is illegitimate.

The AAC leaders must present their proposals to the masses, in public, and the masses must decide.
When the AAC inevitably negotiates a sellout and tries to impose it without ratification, the revolutionaries who warned about this in advance will be proven right. That is how the advanced workers are won — not by abstract propaganda, but by the verification of the revolutionary analysis through the experience of the struggle itself.

The RCI cannot do this, because its strategy depends on trusting the AAC to go further. It cannot warn against betrayal because its entire line is: "We demand that you, the existing leadership, take power." If the leadership betrays, the RCI has no alternative to offer — because it never built one.

The Party Question

All of this converges on a single point: the movement needs a revolutionary leadership. The AAC is not that leadership. The RCI is not providing it — it is tailing the existing leadership and demanding it go further. That is the classic formula of Pabloite substitutionism, and it has failed everywhere it has been tried, from Chavez's Venezuela to SYRIZA in Greece.

A revolutionary organization, however small, that advances the concrete program outlined above can have a decisive impact. Not by commanding the masses from above, but by fighting within the movement for a clear political line. By warning the advanced workers what the AAC will do before it does it. By providing an alternative at every turning point. By being proven right through events. And by systematically recruiting the workers who learn through struggle that the revolutionary analysis is correct.

This is how the party is built. Not by waiting until it is "large enough." Not by demanding that bourgeois leaders do the revolution for us. But by intervening now, with a concrete program, and winning the most advanced elements through the experience of the struggle itself.

"Take up arms" is not a strategy. It is a phrase. The working class of Kashmir and Pakistan deserves more than phrases. It deserves a program.

The defense of democratic rights falls to the working class, and it cannot be separated from the fight against war. Both dictatorship and war arise from the same source: a capitalist oligarchy that can no longer rule by democratic means or maintain its world position by peaceful means. The struggle against ICE terror and against the war on Iran must be unified in an independent movement of the working class, in the United States and internationally, directed against the capitalist system itself.