World Socialist Web Site

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

14 November 2009

After years of detention and torture
Ten Guantánamo prisoners to face US trial

By Patrick Martin, 14 November 2009

US Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday that ten of the prisoners now held in the Guantánamo Bay detention camp would be transferred to US locations and placed on trial on terrorism charges.

As vaccination shortage continues, US swine flu deaths mount

By Tom Eley, 14 November 2009

The US Centers for Disease Control now estimates that 4,000 Americans, the vast majority under the age of 64, have died as a result of the H1N1 virus.

Foreclosures rise, consumer sentiment falls in US

By Joe Kishore, 14 November 2009

Recently released data show a sharp increase in home foreclosures in the US from a year ago, while falling wages and job cuts take their toll on consumer spending.

Germany: Chancellor Merkel follows the lead of employers and the FDP

By Dietmar Henning, 14 November 2009

In her first government statement following re-election as German chancellor, Angela Merkel has made a sharp turn to the right. She has given way to pressure from the pro-market FDP, the big business wing in the CDU and the employers’ associations, adopting their demands in her remarks.

Iraqi election law passed after protracted delay

By James Cogan, 14 November 2009

National elections in Iraq have been scheduled for January 18 following the passing of electoral legislation in the parliament last Sunday. Legislators were under intense pressure from Washington to end a protracted impasse over the law that threatened to derail the poll.

India: Union calls off militant Rico strike

By Deepal Jayasekera, 14 November 2009

A strike by more than 3,000 workers in India’s principal auto parts producing center came to an end last week, only hours before tens of thousands of workers were to walk off the job in a show of support.

Detroit job fair draws thousands

By Naomi Spencer, 14 November 2009

Thousands of Detroit area residents lined up downtown Friday at a jobs fair, waiting in long lines to apply for some 400 positions.

Video: Attendees complain of lack of real jobs at fair

New in German

Ein Brief und eine Antwort zu Theodor Adorno

Von Stefan Steinberg, 14. November 2009

Den folgenden Brief erhielten wir als Reaktion auf den Artikel " Philosoph Peter Sloterdijk verteidigt Sarrazins rassistische Ausfälle" (wsws, 28. Oktober 2009). Die Antwort stammt vom Autor des Artikels, Stefan Steinberg.

Spannungen zwischen USA und China überschatten Obamas Asienreise

Von Peter Symonds, 14. November 2009

Auf seiner ersten Asienreise besucht US-Präsident Obama Japan, Südkorea und Singapur, doch im Zentrum steht sein China-Besuch. Zwischen Peking und Washington gibt es erhebliche wirtschaftliche und strategische Rivalitäten.

New in French

Un sondage de la BBC révèle une désaffection généralisée à l’égard du capitalisme

Par Julie Hyland, 14 novembre 2009

Un sondage international mené par la British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) révèle une désaffection généralisée à l’égard du libre marché capitaliste, y compris une importante opposition au capitalisme lui-même.

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

14 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 deuxième de ses trois parties. La 1ère partie a été mise en ligne le 13 novembre.

Perspective

Opel, General Motors and German-American relations

14 November 2009

Twenty years after the end of the Cold War, US-German relations are increasingly dominated by economic and political conflicts, as underscored by the disputes surrounding the auto maker Opel.

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

These public lectures on November 15 in New York and December 13 in London 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.

Commentary

Britain: Socialist Workers Party colludes in postal strike sellout

By Tony Robson, 14 November 2009

Among the 17 members of the executive of the Communication Workers Union who voted unanimously to call off the postal strikes scheduled for November 6 and 9 is union president and Socialist Workers Party member Jane Loftus.

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.

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.

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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?

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Workers Struggles

Sri Lanka: “Independent” public sector unions kowtow to Rajapakse

By W. A. Sunil, 14 November 2009

The “independent” PSSRTUC union leaders objectively line up with the Rajapakse government in helping to suppress any struggle by the working class over deteriorating pay and conditions.