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Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)

3 January 2009

US blocks cease-fire, gives Israel carte blanche to continue killing in Gaza

By Barry Grey, 3 January 2009

As the Israeli devastation of Gaza enters its second week and signs point to an imminent ground invasion of the Palestinian territory, the US government is working to block diplomatic initiatives for a cease-fire in order to give Israel a free hand to intensify its assault on the defenseless population.

US and global manufacturing collapsing

By Joe Kishore, 3 January 2009

Manufacturing in the US is collapsing, with a key index falling to its lowest level in 20 years on Friday. Other figures released yesterday show a downturn in production throughout the world.

Russia cuts off Ukrainian gas supply
Energy conflict threatens EU shortages

By Niall Green, 3 January 2009

The Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom turned off all gas supplies to Ukraine, threatening supplies to the European Union.

Bangladesh: Awami League wins election landslide after military regime relinquishes power

By Wimal Perera, 3 January 2009

An alliance led by the Awami League won national elections in Bangladesh on Monday with a landslide victory that expressed widespread popular opposition to the military-backed regime that has held power since early 2007.

Six die in New Year’s Day house fire in Washington DC

By Kate Randall, 3 January 2009

Six people died in a New Year’s Day house fire in Washington DC. Authorities suspect “a catastrophic electrical failure” as the cause of the blaze.

New in German

Toyota beleuchtet globale Autokrise

Von Peter Symonds, 3. Januar 2009

Toyota gab am Montag bekannt, dass für das laufende Jahr mit einem operativen Verlust zu rechnen sei. Dieser erste Verlust in fünfzig Jahren hat nicht nur in Japan Schockwellen durch die Autoindustrie gesandt, sondern auch weltweit.

Die historischen und internationalen Grundlagen der Socialist Equality Party
Teil 10

3. Januar 2009

"Das Programm der SEP hat prinzipiellen, nicht konjunkturellen oder pragmatischen Charakter. Es gründet sich auf eine Analyse der Krise des Weltkapitalismus und beinhaltet die strategischen Erfahrungen der Arbeiterklasse und der internationalen sozialistischen Bewegung."

Perspective

Cuba marks 50th anniversary of revolution in shadow of world crisis

3 January 2009

Cuba marked the 50th anniversary of the revolution that brought Castro to power with subdued celebrations. Havana sees the deepening world capitalist crisis not as a harbinger of international revolutionary struggle, but as a threat to Cuba’s unstable economy.

Earlier Perspectives »

Polemics

Steiner, Brenner and Neo-Marxism: The Marcusean Component

By Adam Haig, 2 January 2009

As a supporter of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) who has been following the political and philosophical charges of Alex Steiner and Frank Brenner, the author of this paper is interested in addressing their embrace of critical theorist Herbert Marcuse.

Book Review

The decline of Austrian social democracy
Norbert Leser’s The Decline of the Eagle

By Markus Salzmann, 3 January 2009

Leser’s new book patently fails to examine why, under conditions of globalization, the social reformist program of the SPÖ has failed. Instead, he explains the decline of the party on the basis of purely subjective factors.

Arts Review

Doubt: Nothing ‘beautiful’ about this ‘question’

By David Walsh, 3 January 2009

Doubt takes place in the Bronx, New York in 1964. A conflict emerges at a Catholic school between a relatively young and ‘progressive’ parish priest, Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and a battle-ax of a nun, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep).

Jazz great Freddie Hubbard dies at 70

By John Andrews, 3 January 2009

Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard exploded onto the 1958 New York jazz scene at the age of 20. Over the next decade, he blew fiery “hard bop” with virtually all the greatest East Coast musicians and appeared on innumerable classic albums.