The German government’s Citizen’s Income: Hartz IV poverty gets a new name
Germany’s new “Citizen’s Income” will only increase the abject poverty of the current 5.3 million recipients of Hartz IV social security payments.
•Carola Kleinert
Latest articles
Australian university union removes dissenting members from online forum
This brazen attack on workers’ democracy is a warning of the ruthless methods that the NTEU will use against all workers as it seeks to enforce wage-cutting deals at universities across the country.
•Jack Turner
Sri Lankan president threatens to crush anti-government struggles
The opposition SJB and JVP, along with the pseudo-lefts and the trade unions, have downplayed Wikremasinghe’s threats in order to disarm the working class.
•Saman Gunadasa
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.
•Joseph Kishore, David North
Australian government report covers up agenda behind ex-PM’s secret ministries
The report explains nothing about the obvious question: why did Morrison and the political establishment resort to extra-parliamentary forms of rule as soon as the global COVID-19 pandemic erupted?
•Mike Head
Workers express outrage after federal judge rejects Will Lehman’s request for 30-day extension of UAW ballot deadline
The decision by Judge Lawson brushed aside the fact that barely 10 percent of UAW members had cast ballots by the cutoff date, accepting the lying claims of the union and federal Monitor that the election was conducted fairly.
•Shannon Jones
Australian Education Union campaigns for Labor government in state election, following imposition of sellout industrial agreement
The Labor Party has been in power in Victoria for 19 of the past 23 years, and its “demonstrated track record” is one of systematic underfunding of public schools, imposing real wage cuts and higher workloads on teaching staff, and promoting the publicly-subsidised private school system.
•Sue Phillips
Australia: NSW nurses speak on crisis in healthcare at fourth state-wide strike
“The Union has had 28 years of my fees for basically nothing. We need a plan and discussion on what needs to be done.”
•Our reporters
Public meeting sponsored by Railroad Workers Rank-and-File Committee discusses rank-and-file strategy in advance of December 9 strike deadline
The potential for a united struggle involving railroaders and other key sections of the working class was the main theme of the meeting.
•Alex Findijs
Dockworkers strike at the Port of Mobile after federal mediation collapses
Workers were originally set to strike on October 21 until the union agreed to federal mediation less than 24 hours before the October 20 deadline. But those talks were later canceled, and the membership voted to strike at a “special meeting” held on November 18.
•J. L’Heureau
China tallies three consecutive days of record COVID-19 infections
The highest daily number of COVID-19 cases was reported in China yesterday as health authorities implement only limited measures to contain the growing outbreak.
•Benjamin Mateus
Turkey continues bombing Kurdish forces in Syria, threatens ground invasion
A ground offensive in the region, where US, Russian, Iranian and Syrian forces are in close proximity, could trigger a major regional or global conflict.
•Ulaş Ateşçi
Germany’s Left Party on a war course: Leading members advocate arms deliveries to Ukraine
In an interview published Monday by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Left Party leader Bodo Ramelow spoke out vehemently in favour of more German arms deliveries to Ukraine and rejected any negotiated solution with Russia.
•Johannes Stern
Public inquiry reveals broad support for far-right “Freedom” Convoy among Canada’s police, military and intelligence services
Multiple witnesses have told the public inquiry into the first-ever use of the Emergencies Act that organizers of the far-right Convoy received “a constant stream of leaks” from active-duty police and CSIS officers.
•James Clayton
Art and despair: Tess Gunty’s The Rabbit Hutch wins National Book Award
Gunty’s novel stands out as a smart, funny and humane alternative that recognizes to a degree the importance of class and environment on the formation of character.
•James McDonald
UK strike wave escalates as over 200,000 walk out this week
The strike wave in the UK is part of an upsurge of struggle throughout Europe and internationally including a one-day national walkout by public sector workers in Portugal last week and stoppages by oil refineries workers in France and the Netherlands.
•Robert Stevens
Over 100,000 education workers strike UK universities, schools
The strikes are the largest in history of higher education, with workers out at every UK institution.
•our reporters
UK postal workers strike as Royal Mail submits final offer demanding savage attacks
The CWU leadership defied an outpouring of opposition from the rank and file over the cancellation of eight days of strike action earlier this month to promote talks at ACAS.
•Tony Robson
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and New Zealand
India: Power utility workers protest against privatisation; Swiggy food delivery still on strike in Kerala; Australia: Qantas short-haul cabin crew vote to strike for pay increase; Auckland University staff work-to-rule
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Australia: Union prepares sell-out deal with New South Wales government as nurses strike
The determination of nurses to fight is running up against a union bureaucracy that is doing everything possible to wrap up the dispute and ram through a sell-out deal.
•Max Boddy
25 years since the death of Jean Brust
November 24 is the 25th anniversary of the death of Jean Brust (1921-1997), a founding member of the Workers League, the predecessor of the Socialist Equality Party in the United States, and a leading figure in the world Trotskyist movement.
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Australia: More than 800 rail freight drivers locked out by Pacific National
The lockout, following Svitzer’s manoeuvre last week, is a further indication that the basic rights of workers to oppose attacks on their pay and conditions are under assault from all sections of the ruling class.
•Martin Scott
The FIFA World Cup in Qatar: geopolitics, money and double standards
With the World Cup in Qatar, the domination of commercial and power interests over sport has reached a new stage.
•Peter Schwarz
New York City EMS worker speaks to Global Workers’ Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic
A paramedic with 10 years experience discusses the city’s negligent response to the pandemic and the consequences that it has had for his colleagues’ mental and physical health.
•Erik Schreiber
Australians Against COVID to hold protest vigil over “let it rip” policies
This Sunday's protest outside the federal parliament by Australians Against COVID, and its online social media day of action, is an important and politically significant event and should be supported by the widest numbers of workers, students and youth.
•Richard Phillips
Australia: Victorian election highlights crisis of two-party system amid business austerity demands
Whatever the final result, the turnaround in the Victorian election campaign is underscoring the historic crisis of the Labor Party, the principal prop of Australian capitalist rule.
•Oscar Grenfell
Top Quebec union leader opposes reinstatement of mask mandate in schools
Even as school absences are at record levels due to a tsunami of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses, the president of the CSQ, Quebec’s third largest labor federation and biggest teachers’ union, is vehemently opposing any reintroduction of mask mandates in the province’s schools.
•Hugo Maltais
Indonesia suffers devastating earthquake
It is the deadliest earthquake since 2018 in the disaster-prone country. The death toll is more than 270 with 40 still missing and over 2,000 people injured.
•Robert Campion
Trump suffers series of legal blows on taxes, Mar-a-Lago raid
The Supreme Court blocked the ex-president’s effort to withhold his tax returns from a House committee.
•Patrick Martin
Biden administration announces extension of pause in student loan payments
The Department of Education wrote to applicants for debt relief: “We will discharge your approved debt if and when we prevail in court.”
•Chase Lawrence
Why the Left Party fears a repeat of the Berlin state elections
The policy of war and social devastation, which is also supported by the Left Party, is incompatible with democratic popular participation.
•Christoph Vandreier, Ulrich Rippert
Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
Around 365,000 public sector workers in Portugal hold one-day national pay strike; UK rail dispute continues with more strike days announced, as postal and university lecturers walk out over pay, jobs and conditions; South Africa’s public sector holds one-day pay strike in all provinces but Western Cape where unions cancel strike and oppose unity with striking taxi drivers
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The political crisis in Brazil and the fight for the revolutionary party
These remarks were delivered by Tomas Castanheira to the Sixth National Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia), held from September 24 to 27, 2022.
•Tomas Castanheira
Sir Keir Starmer spouts anti-immigration rhetoric, offers “productivity” partnership between Labour, business and trade unions
UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s speech before the annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry shifted the party’s stance on immigration even further to the right.
•Robert Stevens
NUS President Shaima Dallali sacked on bogus allegations of anti-Semitism—Oppose the witch-hunt!
The fraudulent campaign against “left-wing anti-Semitism” undermines the ability of the working class and youth to conduct a struggle against fascism and anti-Semitism where it really exists.
•International Youth and Students for Social Equality (UK)
What do Americans have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving?
Daily mass shootings, skyrocketing inflation, unending pandemics and the threat of nuclear war is what capitalism has to offer workers and their families in 2022.
•Jacob Crosse
After Ukrainian missile strike on Poland, NATO surges weapons to Eastern Europe
While the US and other NATO members rejected the claim by Ukraine that last week’s missile strike was launched by Russia, NATO allies have continued to deploy weapons to Ukraine and surrounding countries.
•Andre Damon
Australia: West Australian nurses to strike for 24 hours, defying industrial court and Labor government
The strike follows an overwhelming rejection, by 84 percent of nurses, of the state Labor government’s offer of a 3 percent wage “increase” and a nurse-to-patient ratio model that would not be implemented for another two years.
•Clare Bruderlin
Republicans escalate anti-immigrant agitation following midterm elections
In his first trip outside of Washington D.C. following the midterm elections, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy led a delegation of Republican lawmakers to the US-Mexican border in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday to demand the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and threaten to impeach him for the supposed “collapse” of border security.
•Trévon Austin
A judicial travesty: Federal judge sides with UAW apparatus, denies Will Lehman’s request for extension of ballot deadline
US District Court judge David M. Lawson sided with the United Auto Workers and the court-appointed Monitor, denying Lehman’s effort to extend the ballot deadline to ensure the right to vote for all workers.
•Joseph Kishore
Anger erupts among workers at Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou, China
“Foxconn is trash, they’re garbage, they’ve used military force to suppress the workers, many staff members got injured, and the Zhengzhou government is colluding with them in bullying ordinary workers.”
•Peter Symonds
Sri Lankan unions shut down government press workers’ strike
The Government Press plant is one of many state-owned enterprises being targeted for privatisation and associated attacks on wages, conditions and jobs.
•Lakshman Fernando and W.A. Sunil
“You stand in the front rank of the struggle for the future”: Autoworker calls for joint action with railroaders fighting for national strike
This statement was delivered by an autoworker at a public meeting Wednesday sponsored by the Railroad Workers Rank-and-File Committee.
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Thanksgiving in America: The voices of the hungry on the holiday
WSWS reporters spoke with workers and youth who visited food pantries, as well as administrators of the programs, on the eve of the annual Thanksgiving holiday.
•Our reporters
Australia: Food manufacturing workers in Melbourne begin indefinite strike at Pampas
The United Workers Union is isolating the strikers while putting forward pay demands that would represent a real wage cut.
•John Wilson, Martin Scott
South Korean truckers strike amid growing worker anger
In the unfolding struggles workers confront not just the government, but the opposition Democrats and trade unions, which are seeking to block the emergence of a broader movement.
•Ben McGrath
Enormous debt crisis looms amid Australian state election campaign
State debt is the highest in country, and is projected to reach $165.4 billion in 2026, more than the combined debt of New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania.
•John Wilson
The strain on pediatric hospitals from a triple epidemic of RSV, COVID and the flu continues unabated
Pediatric hospitals across the US are facing the continued strain caused by respiratory illnesses driving families to emergency departments seeking medical attention.
•Benjamin Mateus
Eight billion people on Earth: A milestone for humanity
It is capitalism, not the increase in human population, that is the cause of economic upheaval and environmental crisis.
•Benjamin Mateus and Patrick Martin
Why Ontario Premier Ford wouldn't testify at public inquiry on use of Emergencies Act against far-right “Freedom” Convoy
Ford flouted a subpoena ordering him to appear before the inquiry so as to prevent any scrutiny of the support that he and a substantial section of Canada’s ruling elite provided the far-right Convoy.
•James Clayton, Roger Jordan
CUPE leadership unites to ram through sellout for Ontario education workers as rank-and-file calls for “no” vote, relaunch of strike
School support staff, who earn on average the poverty wage of $39,000 per year, confront on the one hand the ruthless attack of the hard-right Ford government on their wages and working conditions, and on the other the complicity of the entire trade union bureaucracy in enforcing another round of massive concessions.
•Roger Jordan
Candidates in Detroit Federation of Teachers elections offer no way forward for educators
The union elections provide an opportunity to review the record of the union and its pseudo-left allies.
•Nancy Hanover
Germany’s Documenta 15 art exhibition: An inspiring display sullied by malicious accusations of anti-Semitism
The toxic debate revolving accusations of “anti-Semitism” levelled at the Indonesian curatorial team Ruangrupa continues unabated.
•Sybille Fuchs, Franci Vier
Facing far-right coup plot in Brazil, Lula curries favor with imperialism at COP27
Hostile to any political struggle by the working class, Lula and the Workers Party seek to bolster their grip on power with the support of the imperialist powers.
•Miguel Andrade
Final video of Will Lehman’s UAW election campaign translated into nine languages
The video is now subtitled in French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Sinhala, Spanish and Tamil.
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Will Lehman speaks to University of California strikers as rank-and-file rebellion grows against UAW bureaucracy
Will Lehman spoke with striking academic workers the day after UAW bargainers dropped their most important demands.
•Adam Mclean
Imperialist powers ratchet up pressure on Tehran as Iranian protests continue
Protests have been fueled by popular anger over the country’s terrible social and economic conditions; Washington, London, Paris, Ottawa, Berlin and the other major powers have seized on them in pursuit of their geostrategic interests
•Jean Shaoul
Scottish teachers to strike over derisory pay offer
Educational Institute of Scotland members could be joined later by members of the Association of Headteachers and Deputies in Scotland and the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association in taking strike action.
•Tom Pearce
UK postal workers renew strikes against Royal Mail for decent pay and against restructuring
The CWU’s counter proposal to Royal Mail accepts the company’s “pay for change” criteria, with pay linked to productivity strings.
•Tony Robson
President Biden intervenes in rail talks in last-ditch effort to head off national strike
Biden has tried to prevent a strike and impose a sellout through the veneer of “collective bargaining” with the corrupt union apparatus, while holding the threat of congressional intervention in reserve.
•Tom Hall
Harris visits Philippines President Marcos: Human rights hypocrisy and war mongering
In her visit to the Philippines, Harris carried with her both the arrogant demands of US imperialism and its human rights pretensions. The most critical of Washington’s demands was an additional five locations throughout the country for use as US military bases.
•John Malvar
Trump-endorsed Republicans in Arizona refuse to concede, threaten violence
The same right-wing forces in Arizona that backed Trump’s failed coup and his stolen election narrative are inciting violence against election officials more than a week after all but one of the major races has been decided.
•Jacob Crosse
Verdict in neo-Nazi trial maintains the fairy tale of a lone perpetrator
The Frankfurt Regional Court has sentenced the 54-year-old fascist Alexander M. to five years and 10 months imprisonment. However, the far-right networks, which reach deep inside the state, remain in the dark.
•Marianne Arens
Workers Struggles: The Americas
Transport workers held a protest in front of Peru’s transport ministry last week while employees of Argentina’s agricultural technology institute employees staged a walkout November 17 to demand salary increases.
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Videos appear to document execution of Russian POWs by Ukrainian armed forces
The widespread release of videos depicting unequivocal war crimes by Ukrainian forces is a clear provocation intended to drag out Kiev's proxy war with Russia.
•Jason Melanovski
Federal judge hears Will Lehman’s lawsuit demanding extension of UAW election
Lehman is requesting that the judge order a one-month extension of UAW election deadlines and additional measures to ensure that all workers in the UAW have the right to vote.
•Joseph Kishore
German states abolish isolation requirements for coronavirus patients
The abolition of the isolation requirement is a political crime that gives free rein to the coronavirus. Millions will be infected with the virus and suffer long-term consequences, become seriously ill, end up in hospital or even die.
•Tamino Dreisam
Germany’s “Citizen’s Income” will reinforce poverty levels
The government, together with all the opposition parties know the much touted citizen's income provides barely enough to survive.
•Carola Kleinert
Pennsylvania House Republicans impeach Philadelphia’s Democratic district attorney
The witch hunt against Krasner, based on exaggerated claims of a massive crime wave in Philadelphia facilitated by the “radical left” Democrats, is part of the Republicans’ ongoing transformation into a fascistic party in the aftermath of the US midterm elections.
•Douglas Lyons
Australia: CFPE and Health Workers Rank-and-File Committee hold successful, well-attended public meeting
The meeting, attended by over 150 workers from 6 countries, elaborated a political perspective for health workers, educators, and other sections of the working class to fight the homicidal “let it rip” COVID policies.
•Our reporters
Chinese government’s new COVID policy causes public concern as infections rise
Despite widespread public perception that the new policy has failed, the current official explanation is that local governments are making policy adjustments based on the “Twenty Articles.”
•Jerry Zhang
Vote no to the Australian university union’s sellout at Western Sydney University
The NTEU’s supposed “historic win” dovetails with the Labor government’s wage-cutting and restructuring demands, and the claim of securing full-time jobs for casual teachers is a sham.
•Committee for Public Education
Union imposes job cuts and outsourcing at Mercedes-Benz Brazil
The SMABC fraudulently presented a Voluntary Layoff Plan as a “victory” and reported the approval of the cuts as the “agreement that guarantees the future of the São Bernardo plant.”
•Eduardo Parati
Australian state election sees bogus spending promises in face of escalating health crisis
Whichever capitalist party takes office after the Victorian election will intensify the decades-long assault on public healthcare.
•Paul Bartizan
New Zealand’s far-right terrorist Brenton Tarrant to appeal conviction
The Ardern government remains determined, above all, to suppress public discussion of the far-right political roots of the March 15, 2019 terror attack, in which 51 people were killed at two mosques in Christchurch.
•Tom Peters
US continues to inflame tensions on Korean Peninsula
Washington is attempting to place blame on Beijing and Moscow for North Korea’s recent missile launches accusing the two of failing to uphold the so-called “rule of law” around the world.
•Ben McGrath
Many UK excess deaths likely caused by COVID reinfections
COVID cases and deaths are being allowed to pile up even as real-world data confirms fears that every COVID reinfection causes cumulative damage and significantly increases the risk of hospitalization, long-term complications and death.
•Robert Stevens
Railroad Workers Rank-and-File Committee announces Wednesday public meeting: “The way forward after conductors reject White House contract”
With the vote, the next stage of the fight begins. Under conditions where the rail carriers have refused to give up anything for three years, there is no avenue left for railroaders to win their demands except by launching a powerful national strike to bring the carriers to their knees.
•The Railroad Workers Rank-and-File Committee
UC academic workers: Build a rank-and-file strike committee to prevent a sellout by the UAW bureaucracy!
Mack Trucks worker and socialist candidate for UAW president issued the following statement to 48,000 striking academic workers at the University of California.
•Will Lehman
Beijing reports three COVID-19 deaths as cases continue to surge across China
The Chinese ruling class is clearly stuck in a quandary, in which they are being economically compelled to lift Zero-COVID measures while knowing full well that the ensuing public health crisis could itself cause disastrous economic ramifications.
•Evan Blake
COP27 summit does nothing to address climate change
One can only imagine what next year’s COP28 will yield, being held in the United Arab Emirates, where oil exports make up 30 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
•Bryan Dyne
New School makes “final offer” to striking part-time faculty in New York City
The New School in New York City has delivered an ultimatum to 1,600 striking academic workers, offering a contract that will lower wages and fail to meet basic demands of the strikers.
•Sandy English
“Somebody needs to stand up to all this”: Workers back Will Lehman’s lawsuit demanding extension of vote deadline in UAW election
As a federal judge prepares to rule on a lawsuit defending the right to vote, autoworkers voiced their support for the stand being taken by Mack Trucks worker Will Lehman.
•WSWS reporting team
Australia: The way forward for striking New South Wales nurses
The Health Workers Rank-and-File Committee stands full square behind striking nurses. But we warn that another limited, union-controlled stoppage will resolve nothing.
•Health Workers Rank-and-File Committee
Colorado mass murderer is grandson of coup-supporting Republican California assembly member
The man responsible for Saturday’s mass murder in Colorado Springs is the grandson of outgoing Republican California assembly member Randy Voepel, multiple news outlets confirmed Monday morning.
•Jacob Crosse
Sri Lankan police brutally attack student protest demanding the release of political prisoners
The fight against the repressive Wickremesinghe government is a political struggle against the capitalist system itself, which is in deep crisis.
•Sakuna Jayawardena
Watch SEP online memorial meeting: A Tribute to Regina Lohr – Australian Trotskyist
The SEP held an online memorial meeting to pay tribute to the life of Regina Lohr, who passed away on October 10 at the age of 66.
•Socialist Equality Party (Australia)
Australian government protects LNG producers even as gas prices soar
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers have made vague suggestions of trying to regulate the industry or modify the petroleum resource rent tax, which touches only a tiny fraction of the super-profits.
•Terry Cook
Spanish Morenoites cover for Podemos war budget
The Morenoite CRT promotes illusions that the pro-war Podemos party will suddenly turn to the left and oppose war, even as it aggressively pursues NATO’s war on Russia in Ukraine.
•Alejandro López
Two arrested in New York City for allegedly planning an anti-Semitic attack
This latest incident is part of a rising trend in violence fomented by the ruling class.
•Philip Guelpa
Democrat Karen Bass will quickly dash voter expectations after election as Los Angeles mayor
After her victory in the Los Angeles mayoral election last week, the 69-year-old Bass, a decades-long fixture of the Democratic party both at the regional and national level, has been glorified as a “transformational” figure, merely because she is a black woman and regardless of her policies.
•Dan Conway
US railroaders’ vote against contract sets stage for conflict with capitalist state, union bureaucracy
Workers delivered a major blow to the authority of the White House, which brokered the deal, and are determined not to back down from their demands.
•Tom Hall
Hospitals across the US experience an alarming surge of respiratory viruses
More than three-quarters of the nation’s pediatric beds were occupied as of November 7 and the number of ICU beds for the sickest children are at or above capacity, as greater numbers of children are being hospitalized.
•Liz Cabrera
Australian pseudo-left Victorian Socialists in state election campaign—a pro-imperialist group sets sights on parliament
In response to an historic fall in support for Labor and the Liberals, the Victorian Socialists is hoping to join the political establishment as its “left” flank.
•Socialist Equality Party (Australia)
Renault-Nissan workers in Chennai form India's first rank-and-file autoworkers’ committee
This is the founding statement issued by the newly-formed Renault-Nissan autoworkers Rank-and-File Committee at the global auto giant’s car assembly plant on the outskirts of Chennai, India.
•Renault-Nissan Workers Rank-and-File Committee-Chennai
SGP election campaign in Berlin: “We are turning the election into a referendum against the war!”
Since the State Constitutional Court decided on Wednesday to repeat the Berlin state election on February 12, the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) has been campaigning vigorously.
•Our reporters
Van Gogh in America at the Detroit Institute of Arts
Seventy-four extraordinary works are on display during an exclusive exhibition in Detroit.
•J. Cooper
Brazil faces new COVID-19 wave amid sabotage of child vaccinations
The deliberate delay of child vaccinations is one of the cruelest expressions of the Bolsonaro government’s “herd immunity” policy. Since the beginning of the pandemic, some 2,000 children aged five and under have died from COVID-19 in Brazil.
•Guilherme Ferreira
Thousands attend UK March With Midwives demonstrations
World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke to midwives protesting in Manchester and Leeds.
•our reporters
Largest US rail union rejects White House-brokered tentative agreement, setting stage for historic strike
Terrified at the prospect of a nationwide rail strike, in a statement Monday morning, SMART-TD president Jeremy Ferguson pleaded for the carriers to come to a settlement.
•Jacob Crosse
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