World Socialist Web Site

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

13 November 2009

US-China tensions overshadow Obama’s trip to Asia

By Peter Symonds, 13 November 2009

US President Barack Obama arrives today in Tokyo at the start of his first trip to Asia. While he will also stop off in South Korea and the APEC summit in Singapore, the central focus of the tour is China and the underlying economic and strategic rivalry between Beijing and Washington.

Abbas threatens resignation and collapse of the Palestinian Authority

By Chris Marsden, 13 November 2009

President Mahmoud Abbas’s threat to resign is a desperate gamble made necessary by the Obama administration’s undermining of its leading Palestinian ally.

Former US diplomat Peter Galbraith grabs hundreds of millions in Iraqi oil money

By Alex Lantier, 13 November 2009

Peter Galbraith stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraqi oil money by cashing in on his links to the Kurdish regional leadership in Iraq.

Obama announces fraudulent “jobs” summit

By Jerry White, 13 November 2009

Under increasing criticism over his inaction to address the mounting jobs crisis, President Obama announced Thursday that he would hold a White House forum on jobs and economic growth in December.

Almost 200 million children undernourished in poor countries

By James Brewer, 13 November 2009

There are currently 195 million children under the age of five in underdeveloped countries whose growth is stunted due to chronic malnutrition, according to a UN agency.

Australia-Sri Lanka deal for joint crackdown on Tamil asylum seekers

By Richard Phillips, 13 November 2009

By reaching a deal with Colombo—that is, with the regime responsible for the oppression of Tamils—the Australian Labor government is legitimising its police state measures and nullifying the basic right of all people to seek asylum under international law.

Trial by media in Australian terrorism case

By Mike Head, 13 November 2009

Despite objections by defence lawyers, highly-prejudicial and untested prosecution evidence was released to the media in Australia’s latest large-scale terrorist trial.

New in French

Vingt ans depuis la chute du Mur de Berlin
Déclaration du Bund Sozialistischer Arbeiter, 18 octobre 1989 – Première partie

13 novembre 2009

La déclaration ci-dessous du Comité central du Bund Sozialistischer Arbeiter, le prédécesseur du Partei für Soziale Gleichheit (Parti de l’Egalité sociale d’Allemagne), fut publiée le 18 octobre 1989. Aujourd’hui nous en affichons la première de ses trois parties.

New in German

Opel, General Motors und die deutsch-amerikanischen Beziehungen

Von Peter Schwarz, 13. November 2009

Steigt man von den Höhen salbungsvoller Worte in die Niederungen ökonomischer und politischer Interessen hinab, erweisen sich die deutsch-amerikanischen Beziehungen als höchst angespannt.

Regierungserklärung im Bundestag
Merkel folgt FDP und Wirtschaftsverbänden

Von Dietmar Henning, 13. November 2009

In der ersten Regierungserklärung nach ihrer Wiederwahl hat Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU) einen scharfen Rechtsschwenk vollzogen. Sie hat dem Druck von FDP, CDU-Wirtschaftsflügel und Wirtschaftsverbänden nachgegeben und deren Forderungen in ihrer Regierungserklärung aufgenommen.

Obama und die Arbeitslosigkeit

Von Jerry White, 13. November 2009

Die offizielle Arbeitslosenrate stieg im Oktober auf 10,2 Prozent, den höchsten Wert seit 1983. Aber auch angesichts einer Rekordsteigerung der Arbeitslosigkeit verharrt die Obama-Regierung in ihrem kalten Desinteresse am Schicksal von Millionen Arbeitslosen und ihrer Familien.

Die politisch-finanziellen Skandale in Frankreich

Von Alex Lantier, 13. November 2009

Mit der Anklage gegen den ehemaligen französischen Präsidenten Jacques Chirac entwickeln sich die politischen Finanzskandale zu einer ausgewachsenen Regierungskrise.

Perspective

US, British media transform tragedies into war propaganda

13 November 2009

On both sides of the Atlantic, the media has been enlisted in a cynical campaign to transform tragedies that are the product of the war in Afghanistan into justifications for the war’s escalation.

Earlier Perspectives »

Book Review

In The Service of Historical Falsification
A Review of Robert Service’s Trotsky: A Biography

By David North, 11 November 2009

In this review, David North, chairman of the international editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site, responds to the latest attack on and falsification of the life of Leon Trotsky.

Socialist Equality Party

Public Meeting in New York City
Historians in the service of the Big Lie:
An examination of Robert Service’s new biography of Leon Trotsky

This public lecture on November 15 in New York will be given by David North, chairman of the international editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site and national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party.

Public Meeting in London
Historians in the service of the Big Lie
An examination of Robert Service’s new biography of Leon Trotsky

This important public meeting will be held on December 13 at the Friends Meeting House in London.

Commentary

Australian Pabloites prepare NPA-style dissolution

By Laura Tiernan, 12 November 2009

The Democratic Socialist Perspective will dissolve itself into the ailing Socialist Alliance electoral front in January 2010. Modelled closely on France’s New Anti-capitalist Party, the DSP is making a pitch for allies in official bourgeois politics, above all the Greens.

The fall of the Berlin Wall

9 November 2009

The contradiction between the official celebrations and the lack of public enthusiasm over the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall speaks volumes about the real significance of the events of November 1989.

Workers Struggles

Workers Struggles: Europe & Africa

13 November 2009

The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.

Correspondence

Veterans Day 2009: a letter

13 November 2009

A reader sent this letter to the World Socialist Web Site on the occasion of Veterans Day 2009.

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Pinochet imposes state of siege on Chile

This week in 1984, Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet unleashes the military on working class neighborhoods in Santiago, arresting thousands, and shutting down opposition media. The actions followed the president’s declaration of a national state of siege on November 6.

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Iraqi prime minister touts nationalist measures

In a nationwide radio speech delivered on November 14, 1959, Iraqi Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim declares that his nation has been made "rich" by what he describes as its rejection of western imperialism. It is his first speech since being wounded in an assassination attempt a month earlier.

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Doumergue’s “Cabinet of Truce” collapses in France

The conservative national unity government under Gaston Doumergue collapses on November 8, 1934, after only eight months.

Doumergue was installed in office in the wake of the February 6, 1934 fascist riots in the Place de la Concorde, and days before the general strike of February 12.

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Coal mine disaster in Cherry, Illinois, claims the lives of 259

Cherry Mine The familiar sound of the mine siren brings the women and children of little Cherry, Illinois, to the mine head on November 13. Whose father, husband, or brother has died or been maimed today?