8 February 2010

Portugal: Public sector workers protest pay freeze

By Paul Mitchell, 8 February 2010

Last Friday, tens of thousands of Portugal’s public sector workers demonstrated in Lisbon against a planned wage freeze.

Obama budget threatens funding for poor school districts

By Kate Randall, 8 February 2010

The Obama administration’s 2011 budget proposal contains sweeping changes to funding for primary and secondary education, in particular altering the distribution of funds for poor and working class school districts.

Spanish Communist Party seeks to re-found United Left

By Alejandro López and Paul Mitchell, 8 February 2010

The Spanish Communist Party (PCE) is seeking to re-found the crisis-ridden United Left (Izquierda Unida), which it set up in 1986.

Sri Lankan government purges the military

By Sarath Kumara, 8 February 2010

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse is purging the military and police hierarchies of supporters of his rival, General Sarath Fonseka.

US-China tensions continue over Google

By John Chan, 8 February 2010

The Obama administration is using Google’s hacking and censorship allegations as part of a broader push to intensify pressure on Beijing.

Russian economic crisis fuels political tensions

By Andrea Peters, 8 February 2010

The Russian economy declined dramatically over the course of 2009, according to recently released data from the federal statistics service.

US youth unemployment soars

By Nancy Hanover, 8 February 2010

Even prior to the current economic crisis, today’s young adults were on average poorer and more in debt than their parents. Since the economic meltdown began in 2008, however, conditions facing young people have taken a sharp turn for the worse.

New in Russian

Успешная презентация книги В защиту Льва Троцкого в книжном магазине Gleebooks в Сиднее

От нашего корреспондента, 8 февраля 2010 г.

Более 150 человек собралось в книжном магазине Gleebooks ("Глибукс") в Сиднее 3 февраля этого года для того, чтобы присутствовать на презентации работы Дэвида Норта В защиту Льва Троцкого: Ответ на фальсификации Роберта Сервиса (In Defence of Leon Trotsky: A Reply to the Falsifications of Robert Service), опубликованной издательством Mehring Books.

New in French

France : la mission parlementaire prône l'interdiction de la burqa

Par //Kumaran Ira, 8 février 2010

Après avoir délibéré pendant six mois, la mission parlementaire sur la burqa chargée d'enquêter sur une interdiction de la burqa, ou du niqab, a rendu son rapport qui recommande le vote d'une loi qui rende illégal le port du vêtement dans toute administration gérée par l'Etat.

Conflits politiques internes au Sri Lanka : la rivalité entre les Etats-Unis et la Chine

Par Peter Symonds, 8 février 2010

Dans la foulée de l’élection présidentielle de mardi, Colombo est devenu un véritable foyer d’intrigue et de rumeurs. Loin de mettre un terme à la bagarre électorale, l’élection a pavé la voie à une instabilité croissante.

Perspective

After the defeat in Massachusetts, Democrats lurch to the right

8 February 2010

In the three weeks since the special election to the US Senate in Massachusetts, the party which controls the White House and has huge majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives has bowed and scraped before the minority Republican Party.

Earlier Perspectives »

Socialist Equality Party

Sri Lankan SEP establishes trilingual web site

5 February 2010

The SEP has converted its presidential election web site into a permanent party site in the country’s three main languages—English, Sinhala and Tamil.

This Week in History: February 1 - February 7

25 years ago: Dissident Kim Dae-jung roughed up on return to South Korea

With parliamentary elections approaching, South Korea's leading dissident, Kim Dae-jung, and an entourage of 30 American supporters—including two US Congressmen—were roughed up on their arrival at Seoul's airport. Kim was immediately placed under house arrest. Members of the American delegation said that Kim was beaten and that they too were manhandled by dozens of plainclothes police. The South Korean government had banned all media from the area.


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50 years ago: France tests first atomic bomb

On February 13, 1960, France detonated a 70 kiloton nuclear bomb in the atmosphere over Algeria's southern Sahara, not far from Mali and Mauritania. "Gerboise bleue," as Paris dubbed the explosion, announced France had joined the US, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom as a nuclear-armed state.

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75 years ago: Italy mobilizes troops in ongoing conflict with Ethiopia

Italian dictator Benito Mussolini this week in 1935 dispatched two divisions, numbering up to 35,000 soldiers, accompanied by heavy artillery and at least 50 planes to the border area between Ethiopia and Italian-Somalia. Three warships were also stationed off the Horn of Africa in preparation for a full scale invasion of one of the last two independent African states.

More »

100 years ago: German police crush workers' demonstrations

The Socialist Party of Germany (SPD) held hundreds of rallies across Germany on February 13, 1910, to protest against the perpetuation of the Prussian three-class franchise, which stipulated that the wealthiest voters would have out-sized representation in the Reichstag, the German parliament.

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Workers Struggles

Anger toward UAW erupts at California auto workers meeting

By Tom Eley, 6 February 2010

Outrage among workers at the NUMMI plant in Fremont, California, toward the United Auto Workers exploded at a January 24 meeting discussing the slated closure of the factory, which will cost some 5,000 jobs.

Commentary

US to launch Fallujah-style attack in Afghanistan

6 February 2010

As US and British troops prepare to attack the town of Marjah in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, military commanders and the media are openly comparing the operation to the siege of Fallujah, one of the bloodiest war crimes of the Iraq war.

What’s at stake in the Canadian intervention in Afghanistan?

By Richard Dufour, 6 February 2010

The Harper government’s suspension of parliament, an act carried out to try to hide the brutal reality of the Canadian Armed Forces’ “Afghan Mission,” underscores the close connection between the growth of militarism and the threat to the democratic rights.

Sovereign debt fears signal new stage of global crisis

By Barry Grey, 6 February 2010

Stock markets in Europe and Asia fell sharply Friday in the second day of a near-panic selloff fueled by fears that the debt crisis facing weaker European economies will throw the world economy into a “double-dip” recession.

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