The “Ice Bucket Challenge” has gone certifiably viral. Countless videos showing people dousing themselves with buckets of ice water in the name of charity have flooded social media. But what does it all mean? Is “raising awareness” enough? We publish here an article by John Peterson of Socialist Appeal USA, who asks: how do we really create a world free of illness and suffering?

The shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown has let loose the pent-up anger and frustration of ​b​lack youth in the otherwise quiet working class St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. The US National Guard have now been called in to quell the protests. These events above all show that huge pressures are building up in US society, just one scratch below the surface. We publish here an analysis from Socialist Appeal USA.

Having created a crisis in the Middle East due to their invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Obama administration is once again backing bombing in Iraq. Under the guise of averting a “humanitarian disaster”, US imperialism is again intervening in the Middle East. But the workers and youth in the region should trust in no one but themselves.