The candidates

of the Socialist Equality Party’s 2024 election campaign

Joseph Kishore

Joseph Kishore

Joseph Kishore, active in the socialist movement for a quarter century, has been national secretary of the SEP since 2008.

He has played a central role in the development of the SEP’s program and its interventions in the struggles of the working class.

A selection of Joe’s lectures and writings are listed below.

Selection of writings

Jerry White

Jerry White

Jerry White is the Labor Editor of the World Socialist Web Site. He joined the Workers League – the predecessor organization of the Socialist Equality Party – in 1979.

During his many years in the Trotskyist movement, Jerry has covered and intervened in countless struggles of the working class. He has also represented the Socialist Equality Party in earlier national elections, most recently as its presidential candidate in 2016.

Some of Jerry's most critical lectures and writings are compiled below.

Selection of writings

Speeches and writings by Joe Kishore

SEP (US) National Secretary Joseph Kishore addressing the Centenary of Trotskyism meeting in Colombo on 10 December 2023

Imperialism, the genocide in Gaza, and the world struggle for socialism

Socialist Equality Party (US) National Secretary Joseph Kishore delivered the following report to a meeting titled “Leon Trotsky and the Struggle for Socialism in the 21st Century” in Colombo on December 10.

Joseph Kishore speaks at Thursday's rally at Wayne State University.

Mobilize the working class to stop the genocide in Gaza!

This speech was delivered by Socialist Equality Party (US) National Secretary Joseph Kishore Thursday at Wayne State University during a rally jointly sponsored by the International Youth and Students for Social Equality and Students for Justice in Palestine.

The Origins of Pabloite Revisionism, the Split Within the Fourth International and the Founding of the International Committee

This lecture was delivered by Joseph Kishore, the national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (US), to the SEP (US) International Summer School, held between July 30 and August 4, 2023.

The American ruling class confronts its most powerful antagonist at home: The working class

This speech was delivered by Joseph Kishore at the International May Day Online Rally 2023.

Perspectives for the coming revolution in America: Race, class and the fight for socialism

This is an edited version of a report delivered by Socialist Equality Party National Secretary Joseph Kishore to meetings in Michigan and California on the New York Times’ “1619 Project.”

Meeting at the Putilov factory during the February Revolution

Spontaneity and Consciousness in The February Revolution

This is an edited version of a lecture delivered live on April 22, 2017 by Joseph Kishore, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (US). The audio and slides for the lecture are embedded in the text. To register for the lecture series, visit wsws.org/1917.

Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 9, 2023.

One hundred days of the imperialist-Zionist genocide in Gaza

The genocide in Gaza has exposed not only the criminality and fascistic character of the Israeli government, but the active support and complicity of the imperialist powers, above all the United States.

Cornel West speaking at Arizona State University, January 2018.

Cornel West’s campaign for US president: A pragmatic and bankrupt muddle

West’s moralistic rhetoric, pragmatic maneuvering and a healthy dose of showmanship add up, when all is accounted for, to a vast pragmatic muddle.

Tankmen from the neo-Nazi Azov Brigade fire from a T-64BV on Russian forces.

The Ukrainian “counter-offensive”: A new stage in the US-NATO war against Russia

The operations in Ukraine are only one part of an expanding and ever more open war between NATO and Russia.

Angela McArdle at the Rage Against the War Machine rally, February 19, 2023

The “Rage Against the War Machine” rally: A reactionary political freak show

The main theme of the fraudulent and poorly attended rally was the repudiation of the political distinction between left-wing and right-wing politics, and unity with fascists.

Metalsa workers in Elizabethtown, Kentucky show their support for Will Lehman

The Will Lehman campaign marks a new stage in the development of the class struggle

The UAW apparatus opposed a 30 day extension of the election deadline because it assumed, correctly, that it would result in a substantial increase in the opposition vote, and that many of those votes would be for the socialist candidate, Will Lehman.

Chicago Ford workers showing support for Will Lehman for UAW President in July 2022

A socialist campaign in the UAW presidential elections

The World Socialist Web Site has endorsed William Lehman for UAW president, which marks a new point of departure for the development of a rank-and-file rebellion of workers and the fight for a socialist and internationalist program.

University of Michigan academic workers struck in September 2020 to prevent their exposure to COVID-19

The collapse of the “mitigation” strategy exposes the class issues in the fight against the pandemic

The significance of the dismantling of mitigation measures throughout the world is that it expresses, in the form of pandemic policy, the lining up of class forces.

Democratic Socialists of America flag at an anti-police violence protest in Austin, Texas, May 2020.

The DSA Convention 2021: The banality of pseudo-left Democratic Party politics

The biennial convention of the Democratic Socialists of America avoided any significant discussion of the monumental issues confronting workers and youth.

John Trumball’s painting Declaration of Independence

The Fourth of July in the United States, six months after the January 6 fascistic insurrection

The noxious product of social inequality and war creates the objective conditions for dictatorship. The defense of democratic rights, not only in the US but internationally, depends on the independent mobilization of the working class for socialism.

President Joe Biden in front of the White House, April 2021.

Half a million dead in the US from coronavirus pandemic: Catastrophe, crime and historical turning point

The catastrophic loss of life in the US is the outcome of deliberate decisions made by the ruling class and its political representatives to prioritize profit over lives.

Chilean Protests 2019 in Puerto Montt (North Patagonia)

The decade of socialist revolution begins

The 2010s were years of intensifying capitalist crisis, which set into motion a global resurgence of class conflict. The 2020s will witness the immense growth of the international movement of the working class for socialism.

Democratic Socialists of America jacket at a Bernie Sanders rally,

The Democratic Party politics of the “Democratic Socialists of America”

Under conditions of a growing political radicalization of workers and youth, the DSA serves as a principal block to the development of a genuine socialist movement.

Bhaskar Sunkara.

Jacobin editor Bhaskar Sunkara makes a fool of himself

Anyone under the impression that Bhaskar Sunkara, Jacobin or the Democratic Socialists of America have anything to do with socialism should listen to an interview with Sunkara published by the New York Times on Thursday.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk discovers Das Kapital

In a tweet Monday afternoon, Tesla CEO Elon Musk provided his summary of Marx’s great work on capitalist political economy: “Das Kapital in a nutshell,” Musk wrote, is “Gib me dat for free.”

Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders draws his campaign to an end: The political lessons

For the second time in four years, Sanders has diverted popular hostility to the capitalist system back within the framework of the corporate-controlled two-party system.

2023: The global capitalist crisis and the growing offensive of the international working class

In 2022 the accumulating pressure of these intersecting elements of the world capitalist crisis attained the equivalent of critical mass: that is, they have reached the point where the dynamic of crisis has passed beyond the ability of governments to control the movement toward a social cataclysm.

Vladimir Lenin

100 years since the death of Vladimir Lenin

Lenin was a theoretical and political genius who founded the Bolshevik Party and led a revolution that not only transformed Russia and created the Soviet Union, but gave an immense impulse to all the revolutionary political struggles of the 20th century.

Hiroshima, Japan November 1945.

The decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

President Barack Obama visits Hiroshima today, but will make no apology for the US dropping of the atomic bomb on the city. The WSWS is republishing an essay that first appeared on the 60th anniversary of that horrible crime.

Writings by Jerry White

UPS trucks outside the Olympic Hub in Los Angeles, California.

UPS cuts 12,000 jobs: The ruling class accelerates its policy of mass unemployment

The logistics giant's mass layoffs, which will go into effect in the first half of this year, are part of an accelerating and global wave of job-cutting in auto, technology and other industries.

UAW President Shawn Fain speaking at the Martin Luther King Day event in Detroit

CNN Business names UAW President Shawn Fain “labor leader of the year” after sellout at Big Three

Fain is being honored for services he has rendered to the American ruling class and the Biden administration.

Autoworkers on shift change at Warren Truck

UAW announces ratification of sellout contracts at the Big Three: The way forward for autoworkers

Despite the claims by UAW President Fain and the Biden administration that the contracts are “historic,” there was widespread opposition among workers, which will only grow in the weeks and months ahead.

Striking workers at the Clarios plant on May 14, 2023

The Clarios strike and its lessons for the working class

The Holland, Ohio workers fought a 40-day strike against the world’s largest auto battery maker and the treachery of the United Auto Workers bureaucracy.

UAW President Shawn Fain speaks at Detroit Labor Day September 4, 2023

Shawn Fain: A longtime cog in the UAW bureaucracy’s machine

Fain has no fundamental differences with Curry. He has spent 20 years climbing up the ladder of the UAW apparatus, including the last 10 years as a top staffer at the union’s national headquarters in Detroit.

Family of Detroit autoworker who died of COVID-19 demands answers

In this video testimony, Catherine Pace’s family describes the working conditions which led to her death and the deaths of countless other autoworkers during the still-raging pandemic.

Chevron gas station sign with gasoline prices, November 2022, Los Angeles.

A working class program to fight inflation

The sharp rise in the cost of food, fuel, housing and other basic necessities is exacting an enormous toll on workers in the United States and around the world, threatening millions with destitution.

President Joe Biden speaks in Wisconsin.

United Steelworkers president met with Biden to enforce sellout, block oil strike and back war drive against Russia

Last Friday, the day after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the United Steelworkers union (USW) suddenly announced it had reached a tentative agreement for a new labor agreement to prevent a strike by 30,000 oil refinery and petrochemical workers.

Democratic National Committee Maryland election eve rally with President Joe Biden.

Biden’s task force on unionization: A corporatist agenda for austerity and war

The task force proposals are all aimed at the strengthening of a labor police force, comprised of upper-middle class executives, to enforce the dictates of the ruling class.

Stellantis workers at Warren Truck Assembly plant hold signs to support the strike of Volvo workers in Dublin, Virginia, June 16, 2021 (WSWS Photo)

The significance of the Volvo Truck workers’ rebellion in Virginia

The rebuke to the United Auto Workers is one of a series of unmistakable signs of rising working-class militancy in the US and internationally.

Randi Weingarten speaking at a Chicago Teachers Union rally in May 2019

With anger mounting over pandemic response, unions make pitch to save American capitalism

In a joint comment published by USA Today, the leaders of four major unions urge corporate America to use their services to “restore profits and economic growth.”

Amazon workers protesting in Minnesota.

Support the striking Instacart, Amazon and Whole Foods workers!

With their work becoming ever more essential, grocery and delivery workers are fighting to protect themselves and those they serve from the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Pittsburgh sanitation workers refused to take out their trucks (Source: Facebook)

Strikes, protests spread as US workers demand protection from COVID-19

Even as Trump rushes to resume full production, tens of thousands of workers in the US and around the world are refusing to die for the sake of corporate profits.

The global struggle of teachers

Throughout the world, teachers have come to the forefront of the struggle against decades of austerity and levels of social inequality not seen since the 1920s.

New Jersey teachers on strike.

Teachers unions intensify efforts to suppress growing class struggle in the US

A recent article by a former top executive at the American Federation of Teachers argues that the unions exist to “maintain labor peace” and “tamp down rank-and-file gripes and discord.”

Shemeeka and Bernard Hennings Jr.

The parents of Jacoby Hennings demand to know why their son died

Nearly four months later, the circumstances surrounding the violent death of the 21-year-old temporary part-time worker remain unexplained.

Grenfell Tower fire

The human cost of capitalism: The Grenfell fire and the poisoning of Flint, Michigan

In both London and Flint—and cities throughout the globe—modern-day capitalism is condemning the working class to impossible conditions and an early grave.

Randi Weingarten and the White House with then Vice President Joe Biden in 2011.

What was US teachers union president Randi Weingarten doing in Kiev?

The president of the American Federation of Teachers traveled to Kiev to praise the Western-backed regime installed through a fascist-led coup.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder announces end to the Detroit bankruptcy proceedings on December 10, 2014, with City Councilman Gabe Leland, outgoing Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr and Mayor Mike Duggan behind him

The Detroit bankruptcy ruling: A new chapter in the class war against workers

The federal bankruptcy judge’s ruling sets a precedent to use the pretext of a “financial emergency” to suspend democratic rights and impose unpopular measures on the working class.

Bus strikers demonstration in New York City

Lessons of the New York City school bus strike

This struggle in the nation’s most populous city and center of finance capital revealed the class dynamic being played out all over the US and the world.

Thousands protest against Gov. Scott Walker's anti-worker legislation, February 2011.

The Wisconsin struggle and collective bargaining

In the course of the struggle in Wisconsin, the trade unions are focusing on the right to “collective bargaining,” even as they openly declare their willingness to accept all the concessions demanded by the Wisconsin governor.

President Barack Obamaa, flanked by Paul Volcker, left, and General Electric Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt, right, comments during the Economic Recovery Advisory Board meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

Socialism and the defense of public education

The Obama administration is spearheading an unprecedented assault on public education in the United States.

Exterior of Janesville, Wisconsin GM Assembly Plant, May 2009. 3,000 jobs are being wiped out by the plants closure.

UAW, Inc.

The transformation of the United Auto Workers into a business entity is the culmination of decades of betrayals and degeneration in which the UAW apparatus developed material interests separate from, and hostile to, the “members” it claimed to represent.

From left to right: Bob King, UAW Vice President; Ron Gettelfinger, UAW President; Bill Ford, Executive Chairman, Ford Motor Company; and Alan Mulally, President and CEO, Ford Motor Company.

A pat on the head from the Detroit News

The United Auto Workers is getting good marks from the business establishment and the media in Detroit for its performance in the aftermath of Monday's fatal explosion at the Ford Rouge plant. The Detroit News business writer Jon Pepper went out of his way to give the union officials a pat on the head in his column Wednesday, entitled "UAW applauds Ford as company shows workers it really cares."

Armed miners

100 years since the Battle of Blair Mountain

Between August 25 and September 2, 1921, as many as 20,000 coal miners in southern West Virginia waged armed combat against a private army employed by the coal companies.

Left: PATCO strikers from the New York City area march during the first days of the strike in East Meadow, Long Island, Right: Chicago Ford workers supporting Volvo strikers

From PATCO to Volvo: The resurgence of the class struggle and the tasks of the Socialist Equality Party

This lecture was delivered at the Socialist Equality Party (US) 2021 summer school, held August 1 through August 6, by Jerry White, labor editor of the World Socialist Web Site.

Strikers guarding window entrance to Fisher body plant number three, Flint, Michigan, 1937.

Eighty-two years since the victory of the Flint sit-down strike

With 48,000 GM workers engaged in the longest nationwide auto strike in nearly a half century, it is valuable to study the heroic struggle by GM workers during the 1936-37 sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan.

Trotskyism and the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934

A recent book by historian Bryan Palmer chronicles the role of American Trotskyists in leading one of the most important strikes in US history.

Jerry White

The Social and Historical Context of the Detroit Bankruptcy

This report was presented to the February 15 Workers Inquiry by Jerry White, a writer for the World Socialist Web Site and the Socialist Equality Party’s candidate in the 2012 US presidential election.

Detroit Industry, South Wall, Detroit Industry of the Arts, by Diego Rivera.

Diego Rivera’s “Battle of Detroit”

The production of Rivera’s murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts, begun just months after the massacre of protesting workers near Ford’s River Rouge industrial complex, was a major political event.

Lane Kirkland

Former AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland dies: a Cold War anti-communist and servant of big business

Lane Kirkland, the president of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) from 1979 to 1995, died of lung cancer August 14 at the age of 77.

Secretary Elaine Chao and President Jimmy Hoffa Jr. in 2002.

The shakeup in the Teamsters -- its significance for the working class

Nearly six months after a US district judge disqualified Teamsters President Ron Carey from seeking reelection, a government-appointed election monitor has cleared the way for his chief rival, James P. Hoffa, the son of the late union president Jimmy Hoffa, to run for the post. The new election is expected to be held this September.

Death on the Picket Line: The Story of John McCoy, by Jerry White.

Death on the Picket Line: The Story of John McCoy

Mehring Books is pleased to offer Death on the Picket Line: The Story of John McCoy at a special discounted price. Published in 1990, this 68-page illustrated, perfect-bound pamphlet provides valuable background on the historic struggles of coal miners in the United States.

UAW President Shawn Fain and Joe Biden share a platform in Belvidere, Illiniois, November 9, 2023

The UAW apparatus backs the war criminal in the White House

With its endorsement, the UAW bureaucracy is locking arms with the widely-hated war criminal in the White House who is coordinating Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Holocaust Survivor Rene Lichtman: “Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza. We’ve got to fight back.”

Rene Lichtman, born 1937, is a "hidden child" Holocaust survivor who opposes the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Helen Halyard speaks at Jerry White’s 50th birthday celebration, September, 2009.

Comrade Helen Halyard “believed deeply in the revolutionary future of the international working class”

We are publishing here the tribute to Helen Halyard written by Jerry White, the labor editor of the World Socialist Web Site and a leading member of the Trotskyist movement in the US and internationally for more than four decades.

Ohio Security Force III% militia near the Ohio Statehouse during a neo-Confederate demonstration.

The betrayals of the UAW and the rise of right-wing militias in Michigan

Decades of union collaboration in the destruction of jobs and promotion of economic nationalism have created conditions for the extreme right to recruit and find support.

Surface coal mining in Wyoming.

Trump, the coal miners and the environment

Stripped of the demagogy and lies, the line of the Trump administration amounts to the proposition that miners must place their full trust and confidence in the benevolence of the coal bosses.

Immanuel Ness

A conversation with Professor Immanuel Ness on the Maruti Suzuki workers

Brooklyn College Professor Immanuel Ness, who has written extensively on the class struggle in India, was part of a team that investigated the persecution of the Maruti Suzuki workers.

Jerry White with coal miners in West Virginia.

Video: West Virginia coal miners discuss social crisis with SEP presidential candidate Jerry White

Southern West Virginia, which holds a special place in the history of the class struggle in the US, is today mired in depression-like conditions.

Protesters marching in Ferguson, August 15, 2014.

From Detroit to Ferguson: The brutal face of American capitalism

If Detroit is the epicenter of social counterrevolution in America, Ferguson revealed the repressive measures the ruling class is prepared to use against all opposition to its policies.

Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood where last month's riots erupted.

The Cincinnati riots and the class divide in America

Over the next several weeks the World Socialist Web Site will post a series of articles examining the economic, social and political roots of the riots that erupted in Cincinnati, Ohio in April. Below we are publishing an introduction to the series and the first part.

Protestors at Palm Beach County recount during 2000 election aftermath.

Florida’s legacy of voter disenfranchisement

The disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of Florida voters in the 2000 presidential election evoked deep-felt anger, especially among African Americans who only a few decades ago had to fight to win the right to vote in Florida and other Southern states.

Ralph Nader while running for president 1999.

For what social forces does Ralph Nader speak?

In recent weeks US Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader has spoken before large rallies in Portland, Minneapolis, New York City, Oakland and other cities. His public speeches have drawn considerable numbers of college students concerned about social inequality, corporate domination of the political system and environmental problems. This reporter covered one campaign stop at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

John Resenbrink in 2014.

Extolling the politics of expediency: an interview with US Green Party leaders

On June 23-25, the US Green Party held its national convention in Denver, Colorado and chose Ralph Nader as its presidential candidate for the 2000 elections. This reporter covered the convention for the World Socialist Web Site.