While George W. Bush’s attempt at privatizing Social Security famously failed, private industry has largely been successful at shifting their group pension plans into individual private accounts. These individual accounts are almost always invested in the volatile stock market.

The Workers International League will be holding a day-long Marxist School at Mayday Books in the West Bank in Minneapolis on December 13, 2009. It is free and open to the public. Come for the whole day or pick the sessions you are most interested in or able to attend.

Starting with issue 50 Socialist Appeal has gone full color. On this occasion we have received dozens of congratulatory greetings from around the world. Issue 51 is now available. Subscribe today!

Off-year elections were held in a number of places around the country on November 3, 2009. We are publishing here a balance sheet by a comrade of Socialist Appeal in the USA.

Cynicism is a very useful tool for those in power. Although it inherently expresses a sense of dissatisfaction, it offers nothing as a way out. The charade of the two-party system has done a lot of damage to American workers’ perception of politics in general, and created a situation where cynicism and apparent apathy is widespread. What is needed in the US is a party that represents working people. Such a party would go far in combatting the cynical and apathetic attitudes of many toward politics, as there would finally be a force led by workers in the interests of workers.

Michael Moore’s new film exposes capitalism for what it is: a system based on the ruthless exploitation of the many by the few, who shamelessly loot people’s lifelong savings, the public treasury, and kick millions out of their homes. By the end of the film, capitalism stands roundly condemned, however, Mike is less clear as to what he is actually for. The Workers International League thinks it is important to state what is: capitalism is the problem, and socialism is the solution.

According to a much publicized study by University of California-Berkeley economist Emanuel Saez, the income gap in the USA between the rich and poor is at its greatest level since 1917.

In the USA for decades millions have suffered illness and death in the richest country on earth for lack of basic medical care. This is a key issue for US workers and now that Obama has attempted the most modest of reforms, all the pent up contradictions are bursting to surface. We see the hysteria of the reactionary right against Obama’s so-called “socialism,” while millions of bewildered but increasingly frustrated Americans want a real solution now. here we provide the text of a flyer produced by the WIL in the USA.

Many US workers who voted for the Democrats because they hoped they would bring about reforms are already disappointed as the Democrats basically continue Bush’s policies, with a few cosmetic changes. Many workers would like there to be an alternative to the political parties of big business. That is why the unions need to break with the Democrats and build a mass labor party.

During his election campaign, President Barack Obama promised to be all things to all people. After eight years of Bush and Cheney, Americans desperately wanted to believe that real change was coming.

Every year, workers across the United States celebrate Labor Day on the first Monday of September. It is seen as a marker of the end of Summer, the start of football season, and the return to school for millions of students. But what is the origin of this holiday? What is its relation to the internationally celebrated Labor Day on May 1st?

On Wednesday, July 15th the United States Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted 13-10 to approve the Affordable Health Choices Act (AHCA). Sadly this is yet another occasion which demands we take a very close look at the fine print.

When Barack Obama was still a candidate in the Democratic primaries, he promised a new era if he were elected. Among his promises for “change,” he said his future administration would be one of the most transparent in history: “an unprecedented level of openness in government.” Well, we’re still waiting, and will most likely be left waiting for a very, very long time.

US foreign policy is dictated by its role as an imperialist power. Some of the most glaring cracks are opening in the Middle East. Obama is being forced by the objective conditions to change the specific approach of US imperialism without changing the general course whatsoever.

California is facing the worst budget crisis since the Great Depression. The “Governator” is now threatening to order 200,000 state workers to take a third furlough day off per month without pay. The state is going to cut aid to county and local governments, causing them to layoff employees, cut services and raise taxes on working people.

With the much ballyhooed “first 100” days of Barack Obama’s Presidency long past, we are starting to see signs of disillusionment from many of his more vocal supporters. Obama, the man who was supposed to usher in a new era of “change,” is now increasingly being seen as “more of the same.”

For decades, the mantra “Capitalism = good” and “Socialism = bad” was driven into our heads. But even the most sophisticated apparatus for influencing public opinion – the mainstream media – cannot mold opinion as powerfully as experience itself. From the dizzying heights of the boom to the economic implosion of the last 10 months, dramatic events are shaking up and transforming the way Americans look at the world around them.

Over the last few decades we have seen the official unemployment figures massaged and fiddled time and time again in order to make them seem more 'acceptable' in the official reports and, of course, the newspapers. Michael Roberts has a look at the real rate of unemployment in the US.

The Workers' International League held its first National Marxist School over the weekend of June 13th and 14th. As part of the School, a public event was organized jointly with Hands Off Venezuela, to discuss the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution and the lessons for Latin America.

Despite what Obama calls a “glimmer of hope,” the economic crisis continues to unfold and reduce living standards everywhere. This is bad enough news for working people in general, but how do things fare for Black Americans. Has Obama been the “change” that so many hoped for?