Hundreds of thousands demand strike action in the US
1 October 2018
The American news media and political establishment are singularly obsessed with the degrading spectacle surrounding the Senate confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The issue is dominating every newspaper and broadcast channel and was the sole subject on the Sunday morning network news shows.
A fundamental aim of the Democrats’ focus on the sexual allegations against Kavanaugh, as the WSWS has explained, is to hijack popular opposition to the Trump administration and subordinate it to the Democrats’ own reactionary agenda of war, censorship and social inequality. This requires the endless promotion of the lie that race and gender, not class, are the central divisions in American society.
The goal is to somehow divert attention from and cover up social and political reality, which is characterized above all by the growth of class tensions and conflict, in the US and around the world. A decade after the crash of 2008, which was used by the ruling class in the US and internationally to carry out a historic transfer of wealth from the working class to the rich, workers are engaging in a series of strikes and mass protests over basic class issues.
Last week, major cities in Argentina were brought to a standstill as workers launched their fourth general strike against the right-wing government of Mauricio Macri and austerity measures demanded by the IMF. On Thursday and Friday, thousands of pilots and cabin crew in six European countries carried out a coordinated 24-hour strike against Ryanair. Over 30,000 workers in Finland are scheduled to strike Tuesday to oppose government plans to facilitate the layoff of workers.
Workers in Nigeria conducted a four-day strike ending Sunday, which shut…