A STATEMENT BY THE NEWS LINE EDITORIAL BOARD
THE News Line Editorial Board sends its May Day greetings to the working class, youth and the masses throughout the world who are rising up in revolutionary confrontation against a bankrupt capitalist system which is in its death agony, gripped by the greatest economic and political crisis in its history.
On May Day 2026 the immediate issue is for the working class to resolve this crisis by overthrowing capitalism and advancing humanity from the war on two fronts being waged by a bankrupt system that seeks to survive through war to ‘reorder the world’ and class war at home to make the working class pay.
In an attempt to regain mastery of the Middle East region for exploitation of its oil wealth US president Donald Trump, along with the Israeli regime, launched an unprovoked war on Iran in the belief that the country could be bombed into submitting to the dictatorship of American imperialism.
This failed spectacularly and far from being defeated, the Iranians struck back against US bases and assets in the region along with closing the vital strategic Strait of Hormuz, choking off the world’s supply of oil, gas and minerals vital for food production.
This week, a spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Defence, Reza Talaei-Nik, said: ‘The United States is no longer in a position to dictate its policies to independent nations,’ exposing the weakness of US imperialism.
He went on to say that the entire world now recognises the US and Israeli regime as ‘symbols of state terrorism’.
Not just ‘symbols’ of state terrorism but US imperialism is the driving force for all the atrocities committed around the world.
From genocide in Gaza to the missile attacks on Iran that killed leading Iranian leaders, along with nearly 180 schoolgirls aged 7 to 12, in a failed attempt to decapitate the Iranian government and carry out regime change, the bloody hands of US imperialism have been exposed before the world.
We send our warmest greetings on May Day to the Iranian and Palestinian people whose refusal to bow down has exploded the myth of US and Israeli military superiority.
The working class across the UK, Europe and the US have shown their overwhelming support for the right of nations and people to stand against their imperialist oppressors, recognising that this is a fight against a common enemy – a capitalist system that can only offer a future of wars and poverty at home.
Trump’s war in the Middle East, in a failed attempt to re-assert US domination, has massively exacerbated the world economic crisis.
The surge in the price of oil has caused panic amongst economists and leading international bodies, including the International Monetary Fund.
Two weeks ago, the IMF warned that any escalation of the war on Iran would trigger a global recession.
Yesterday, an increasingly desperate Trump sent global oil prices soaring above $126 a barrel after he warned that the illegal US blockade of Iranian ports could last for months.
The fact remains that US imperialism is fighting for its life, as its military and economic dominance over the world has been shattered.
All the ‘peace’ initiatives and pauses both in Gaza and with Iran have been nothing but a cover for Trump to try and come up with another futile attempt to crush the resistance.
Capitalism has hit the end of the road and can only cling on today through never-ending wars abroad and war against the working class at home to impose the economic collapse on the backs of workers and youth.
This has caused the emergence of a powerful movement amongst workers determined not to sit back and allow their lives to be shattered to keep a handful of multi-billionaire capitalists in profit.
The working class and youth in the US are rapidly emerging as a powerful movement prepared to take on the would-be ‘dictator’ Trump and the American capitalist ruling class.
Over 8 million demonstrated in March on the third ‘No Kings’ demonstrations across the US opposing the war on Iran, immigration enforcement and the spiralling cost of living.
Trump’s personal popularity ratings have plunged to an all-time low, as even his MAGA base of supporters turn on him.
Across the UK and Europe, workers are similarly demanding action as the world crisis rapidly develops into a historic recession far deeper than that of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
This economic crisis has been accompanied by a political crisis that has upended the bourgeois political system as governments face a working class that will not allow itself to be driven into the ground by a capitalist system that has reached the end of the road and can provide no future for workers or youth except mass poverty and wars.
The UK, the weakest of the ‘advanced’ world economies will be the hardest hit by the world recession thanks to its reliance on oil and gas imports.
Even before Trump ramped up his blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, it was predicted that a quarter of a million workers in the UK would lose their jobs by the middle of next year pushing UK unemployment to over two million.
At the same time, the energy costs for households in the UK will increase by up to £300 a year, while food prices are set to soar as the full effect of the closure of the strait starts to filter through, with existing supplies of oil, gas and fertilisers running out.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is in a massive political crisis as workers in their millions turn their backs on a Labour government that has proved to be no different than previous Tory governments in demanding sacrifices from the working class to keep bankrupt British capitalism from collapsing.
Labour is splitting apart and facing a predicted wipe out in the forthcoming local elections.
The working class internationally have the power to put an end to capitalism, that in its final imperialist stage can only offer a future of wars abroad and class war at home to dump its crisis on the backs of workers and their families.
Our demand this May Day is for the working class internationally to force its trade union leaders to end their silence and take action by calling general strikes to bring down their capitalist governments and bring in workers governments.
Workers governments will expropriate the bankers and bosses and advance society to a socialist society.
A socialist society that is free from imperialist wars and where the productive forces are organised for the benefit of the people of the world, not for the profit of bloated capitalists.
The urgent task today is to build up the WRP and Young Socialists to provide the leadership required for the victory of the British Socialists Revolution.
We will urgently build sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International in every country to lead the struggle for the victory of the World Socialist Revolution, consigning capitalism to the dustbin of history where it firmly belongs.
There is not a moment to lose! On this great May Day – International Workers Day – Forward to the victory of the British and World Socialist revolutions!
