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

4 February 2010

One in eight Americans needs emergency food assistance

By Hiram Lee, 4 February 2010

A new report on hunger in the United States paints a devastating portrait of social misery confronted by the working class. One in eight Americans now requires assistance from emergency hunger relief organizations.

Haiti: Three weeks after earthquake, angry protests over aid delays

By Bill Van Auken, 4 February 2010

Three weeks after the January 12 earthquake leveled most of Port-au-Prince and claimed the lives of over 200,000 people, anger in Haiti over the slow pace of relief and the impotence of President Rene Preval’s government has erupted into protests.

Strikes as Greece imposes EU-backed austerity programme

By John Vassilopoulos, 4 February 2010

Strikes have broken out in opposition to the austerity measures being imposed by the Greek government.

Sri Lanka: Post-election witch-hunt extends into workplaces

By our correspondents, 4 February 2010

Pro-government management, union officials and thugs have extended President Mahinda Rajapakse’s post-election campaign of intimidation and violence to a number of workplaces.

AIG pays out $100 million in bonuses

By Tom Eley, 4 February 2010

On Wednesday, the insurance giant AIG paid out an estimated $100 million in year-end bonuses to traders in its financial products unit, part of a $195 million pool to be awarded by March—a total larger than last year’s payments to the same group of derivative traders.

French government backs US occupation of earthquake-stricken Haiti

By Antoine Lerougetel, 4 February 2010

After the January 12 earthquake that devastated Haiti, the French government has moved to quell political opposition in Europe to the US military occupation of Haiti.

Northern Ireland: Still searching for agreement in talks over policing

By Steve James and Chris Marsden, 4 February 2010

Agreement to the transfer of justice and policing responsibilities in Northern Ireland to the power-sharing assembly at Stormont stalled this week due to widespread opposition within the Democratic Unionist Party.

GM: More Opel factories in Europe threatened with closure

By Dietmar Henning, 4 February 2010

Following the closure of the Opel factory in Antwerp, Belgium, further European factories face closure—in particular, the Bochum factory in Germany.

Australia: Labor’s My School web site launches new attack on public education

By Erika Zimmer, 4 February 2010

The Rudd government’s new My School web site, publicly ranking schools according to standardised tests, will accelerate the shift toward a market-based, fee-paying model of education.

Utility shutoffs responsible for another death in Detroit

By Lawrence Porter, 4 February 2010

A house fire after a utility shutoff claimed another victim, the latest in a series of tragic and entirely preventable deaths in the poorest large city in the US.

Major symphony orchestras in US face funding crisis

By Shannon Jones, 4 February 2010

Major symphony orchestras are facing a funding crisis as the recession deepens. Ticket sales are falling, while support from corporate sponsors is being cut back.

New in German

Die Verschwörung von Kundus

Von Ulrich Rippert, 4. Februar 2010

Nach sechsmonatigen Beratungen forderte eine parlamentarische Kommission in Frankreich am 26. Januar ein Gesetz, das das Tragen der Burka oder der Nikab in allen staatlichen Einrichtungen verbietet.

GM Europe: Die Schließung des Werks in Antwerpen ist erst der Anfang
Werk Bochum von Schließung bedroht

Von Dietmar Henning, 4. Februar 2010

Die Politik der Opel-Betriebsräte und der Gewerkschaft IG Metall droht, die schrittweise Schließung einzelner Werke zuzulassen. Auch die Insolvenz und damit die Vernichtung aller fast 50.000 Arbeitsplätze von GM Europe ist möglich.

Tony Blair und die "Frage nach 2010"

Von Ann Talbot, 4. Februar 2010

"Manchmal ist es wichtig, nicht nach dem März 2003 zu fragen, sondern nach dem Jahr 2010." (Tony Blair)

Frankreich: Parlamentskommission spricht sich für Verbot der Burka aus

Von Kumaran Ira, 4. Februar 2010

Nach sechsmonatigen Beratungen forderte eine parlamentarische Kommission in Frankreich am 26. Januar ein Gesetz, das das Tragen der Burka oder der Nikab in allen staatlichen Einrichtungen verbietet.

New in French

Egor Gaidar (1956-2009) : l'architecte de la restauration capitaliste en Russie

Par Vladimir Volkov et Andrea Peters, 4 février 2010

Il y a un mois, Egor Gaidar, personnalité majeure de la restauration du capitalisme en Russie est mort d'une crise cardiaque. La politique qu'il a mise en place a eu un effet désastreux sur le pays et entraîné une augmentation immense des inégalités sociales.

Perspective

Bankers defiant at Davos World Economic Forum

4 February 2010

Two years on from the biggest financial crisis to strike world capitalism since the 1930s, leading international bankers made clear at last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that they will resist any attempts to rein in their speculative practices.

Earlier Perspectives »

Socialist Equality Party

Successful launch of In Defence of Leon Trotsky at Sydney’s Gleebooks

By our correspondent, 4 February 2010

An appreciative audience of 150 filled the upstairs auditorium of Sydney’s Gleebooks bookstore last night to hear David North launch his In Defence of Leon Trotsky: A Reply to the Falsifications of Robert Service.

WSWS chairman David North addresses Sydney book launch
In defence of Trotsky’s “immense and enduring historical significance”

4 February 2010

David North, the chairman of the WSWS International Editorial Board and national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party (US) spoke at the launching of his book, In Defence of Leon Trotsky: A Reply to the Falsifications of Robert Service, at Sydney’s Gleebooks bookstore last night.

Sri Lankan SEP replies to the United Socialist Party

By Wije Dias, 4 February 2010

While the USP boasts that its “united front” with the right-wing UNP defended democratic rights, the SEP insists that the USP’s class collaboration undermined the ability of workers to defend their rights through independent action.

An Emergency Conference on the Social Crisis and War

As the second decade of the 21st Century begins, humanity is confronted with the worst economic and social crisis since the 1930s and unending war that threatens to spark a new global conflict. The SEP, WSWS and ISSE are calling this critical public conference April 17-18 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to discuss the political basis to organize the working class to fight back.

Perspective and tasks of the Socialist Equality Party in 2010

By David North and Joseph Kishore, 1 February 2010

The following is an amended version of a report submitted to a national aggregate meeting of the Socialist Equality Party in Ann Arbor, Michigan on January 9, 2010. David North is the national chairman of the SEP. Joseph Kishore is the national secretary of the SEP.

Mehring Books

Newly available at Mehring Books
Pamphlet on Haitian history available in French

4 February 2010

Mehring Books is pleased to announce the availability in French of a pamphlet that reviews the record of imperialist oppression in Haiti.

January edition of WSWS Perspectives journal now available
10 percent off at Mehring Books with a one-year subscription

1 February 2010

The January edition of WSWS Perspectives—a monthly chronicle of the Perspectives articles posted on the World Socialist Web Site—is now available from Mehring Books.

Commentary

Amid media blackout
Congressional hearing reveals US intelligence agencies shielded Flight 253 bomber

By Alex Lantier, 3 February 2010

A hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security revealed that US intelligence agencies stopped the State Department from revoking the US visa of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, allowing him to board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to Detroit.

Obama’s budget reveals the bankruptcy of American capitalism

3 February 2010

There is one overriding message in the budget proposal released by the Obama administration Monday: American capitalism is in decline and faces national bankruptcy.

Arts Review

J.D. Salinger (1919-2010): An appreciation

By James Brookfield, 2 February 2010

American author J.D. Salinger, best known for his 1951 classic The Catcher in the Rye, died Wednesday, January 27. He was 91.

25 years
50 years
75 years
100 years

25 years ago: Australia, New Zealand rebuke US nuclear policy

Responding to mass popular hostility toward the Reagan administration's rapid nuclear build-up, the governments of Australia and New Zealand this week in 1985 delivered separate rebukes to US military planning, rattling the South Pacific military alliance—the Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty, or ANZUS.

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50 years ago: African-American students stage Woolworth’s sit-in

On February 1, 1960, four students of the all-black Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina staged a sit-in at a Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina. Woolworth's many stores, like most public spaces in the US South, were segregated, providing no seats for black customers at their service counters.

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75 years ago: Mexico voids British oil contract

The Mexican government on February 4 repudiated all concessions to the Eagle Oil Company, a British firm, on the grounds that they were illegal and against national interests.

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100 years ago: France joins naval race as European tensions mount

The French cabinet on February 7, 1910 announced plans for a major naval expansion. France would appropriate $28,000,000 over the next decade to establish a fleet numbering nearly 200 vessels.