David North, the national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party (US) and chairman of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site, made a video announcing the global online rally to commemorate May Day 2024. The WSWS is publishing the text of that announcement as today’s Perspective.
On Saturday, May 4, the International Committee of the Fourth International will hold an online rally to celebrate May Day. This year’s rally is of exceptional importance.
The Biden administration, supported by a bipartisan two-party alliance of corporate-controlled warmongers and in alliance with all the major imperialist powers, is escalating relentlessly towards a third world war.
Frequently in US history, presidential elections have set the stage for war. Woodrow Wilson ran as the peace candidate in 1916 and entered World War I just one month after his inauguration in 1917. The US entered World War II one year after the 1940 election.
John F. Kennedy, inaugurated as president in January 1961, launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba three months later. Lyndon Johnson, the “peace candidate” in 1964, began bombing North Vietnam in February 1965 and deployed the first 100,000 US soldiers in July.
Richard Nixon, claiming as a candidate in 1968 that he had a “plan for peace,” further escalated the Vietnam War in 1969 and invaded Cambodia in 1970. The first President Bush, elected in 1988, invaded Panama in 1989 and began preparations for the first Gulf War in August 1990.
Bush II, after coming to office in the stolen election of 2000, utilized September 11 as a pretext to launch the long-planned invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the second war against Iraq in 2003.
With the 2024 election only six months away, these historical experiences are of immediate relevance.
A third world war is not a distant possibility. The opening stages of this war are already underway. This is the significance of this week’s bipartisan allocation of additional tens of billions for global military operations against Russia, China and Iran.
Moreover, it has now been reported that the Biden administration has crossed yet another “red line,” secretly providing Kiev with long-range missiles that can strike targets well within Russia. There are no limits to the US escalation of its de facto war against Russia.
In advance of the election, one can assume that a “secret” decision has already been taken to deploy US and NATO combat forces within Ukraine. The only question is whether the direct intervention of the US in the war with American and NATO troops, aircraft and warships will begin before or after the November election.
An unmistakable sign of the preparations for a world war is the violent reaction of the federal, state and local governments to the anti-genocide protests by students, using the lying claim of campus “antisemitism.” It is only the first stage of massive government repression directed against all domestic anti-war opposition. War overseas means war at home.
The immense danger of a catastrophic escalation to a world war, which would inevitably lead to the use of nuclear weapons, requires a serious and far-sighted political strategy.
The presidential campaign of the Socialist Equality Party’s candidate, Joseph Kishore, is centered on the building of a powerful working class political movement within the United States and internationally against imperialist war. Opposition to world war is, of necessity, a fight against world capitalism.
Appeals to the cabal of Democratic and Republican warmongers—or to imperialist governments in Europe—will achieve nothing.
At the upcoming May 4 rally, speakers from the International Committee from throughout the world will advance a strategy and program for the building of a global movement against war.
Make sure to attend. Register today!