World Socialist Web Site

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

5 March 2010

US presses for new UN sanctions against Iran

By Peter Symonds, 5 March 2010

The US-led push for tougher sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program intensified this week with the circulation of a draft UN Security Council resolution to Russia and China.

Portuguese public sector workers in 24-hour national strike

By Julie Hyland, 5 March 2010

A 24-hour strike by Portugal’s 500,000 public sector workers Thursday caused widespread disruption.

Deadly house fires in Detroit: Who is responsible?

By Tom Eley, 5 March 2010

Fires in Detroit-area homes with suspended utilities have claimed the lives of a number of people in recent months. Fault does not rest with the victims.

Students and staff protest against education cuts in US

By a WSWS reporting team, 5 March 2010

Tens of thousands of students, teachers and workers participated in protests Thursday against cuts in education across the US. Many of the largest protests occurred in California.

Sri Lanka: A reactionary alliance between the JVP and Fonseka

By Vilani Peiris, SEP candidate for Colombo
5 March 2010

The campaign for Sri Lanka’s parliamentary election next month has thrown up an odd political marriage of convenience—between the JVP and the country’s former top general Sarath Fonseka.

India’s budget: Concessions to business, new burdens for workers

By Deepal Jayasekera, 5 March 2010

India’s budget included a raft of tax concessions and “reform” measures demanded by native and foreign big business. It also imposed punishing price increases on petroleum products and fertilizer for workers, and a real reduction in social spending.

AFL-CIO pledges all-out backing for Democrats in 2010 elections

By Patrick Martin, 5 March 2010

The AFL-CIO Executive Council announced this week that the union federation would provide even more financial and organizational support for Democratic Party candidates this year than in 2008, despite the anti-working-class record of the Obama administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress.

Germany: Public service union agrees to sellout contract

By Dietmar Henning, 5 March 2010

The German public service trade union Verdi has agreed to a contract for public service workers, aimed at giving political backing to the German government for the next two years.

New in German

Die Ukraine und das Ende der "Orangenen Revolution"

Von Niall Green, 5. März 2010

Viktor Juschtschenkos Niederlage bei der ukrainischen Präsidentschaftswahl und die Wahl von Viktor Janukowitsch markieren das unrühmliche Ende der "Orangenen Revolution" von 2004.

Die Bedeutung der Landtagswahl in Nordrhein-Westfalen

Von Ulrich Rippert, 5. März 2010

Die NRW-Wahl entscheidet nicht nur über die Stimmenverteilung im Düsseldorfer Landtag und die Zusammensetzung der Landesregierung in der Rhein-Metropole, sie hat auch große bundespolitische Bedeutung.

Griechenland: Papandreou gibt schärfere Kürzungen bekannt

Von Stefan Steinberg, 5. März 2010

Das Kürzungspaket der griechischen Regierung vom Mittwoch wird weitgehende Folgen für den Lebensstandard der großen Mehrheit der Bevölkerung haben.

Vattenfall-Beschäftigte demonstrieren gegen Arbeitsplatzvernichtung und Lohnsenkung

Von Verena Nees, 5. März 2010

Vattenfall, einer der größten fünf Energiekonzernen Europas, will trotz hoher Gewinne massiv an den Personalkosten sparen.

Der Bolschewismus und die Künstler der Avantgarde

Von David Walsh, 5. März 2010

Die Große Utopie: Die russische und sowjetische Avantgarde, 1915-1932 im Guggenheim Museum in New York City, Frankfurt/M und anderen Großstädten der Welt war ein bedeutsames Ereignis. David Walsh schrieb darüber eine Artikelserie im Bulletin, einer Vorgängerpublikation der WSWS, die wir ab heute neu veröffentlichen.

Der Mehring Verlag auf der Leipziger Buchmesse

Von unserem Korrespondenten, 5. März 2010

Der Mehring Verlag wird in diesem Jahr mit einer Reihe von Neuerscheinungen auf der Leipziger Buchmesse vertreten sein.

New in Spanish

España: La Falange fascista podrá participar en proceso legal abierto contra juez Baltasar Garzón

Por Vicky Short, 5 Marzo 2010

El Tribunal Supremo español dictaminó que el partido fascista, la Falange, puede unirse a una acusación particular contra el juez Baltasar Garzón por sus intentos de investigar los crímenes de la dictadura de Franco.

Después del terremoto y tsunamis
Masiva movilización militar en Chile

Por Patrick Martin, 5 Marzo 2010

La Presidenta Michelle Bachelet mandó 7.000 soldados más a las dos provincias más afectadas por el terremoto del sábado.

Perspective

The European strikes and the trade unions

5 March 2010

The response of the trade unions in all countries to the wave of strikes and protests across Europe has been to isolate and suppress the workers’ resistance to austerity measures, block the development of a European-wide movement, and close ranks with their respective governments and the European financial elite.

Earlier Perspectives »

SEP (Australia) Founding Congress

Documents of the SEP Founding Congress
The Historical and International Foundations of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia)—Part 6

5 March 2010

The World Socialist Web Site continues publication of The Historical and International Foundations of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia). The document was adopted unanimously at the party’s founding congress in Sydney on January 21–25.

Sri Lankan SEP Election Campaign

SEP stands in Sri Lankan parliamentary election

By the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka), 2 March 2010

The SEP is contesting the parliamentary election on April 8 to mobilise the working class on the basis of a socialist program against the deepening assault on living standards and democratic rights.

SEP public meeting in Colombo to launch election campaign

2 March 2010

The Sri Lankan SEP will launch its campaign for the April 8 parliamentary election at a public meeting at the Public Library Auditorium in Colombo on March 5 at 4 p.m.

Dexter Avenue Fire Inquiry

Video: Interviews with neighbors of Bangor Street fire victims

4 March 2010

On the evening of March 2, a fire raged through a West side Detroit home, killing three of the seven children living there. DTE had shut off the gas and electricity only hours earlier.

Video: Sister of fire victims speaks on utility shutoffs

2 March 2010

The Citizens Inquiry into the Dexter Avenue fire of January 5 has begun interviews with relatives, neighbors and Detroit residents. We begin with an interview with Charlotte Nash, the sister of two of the victims.

Commentary

Class and justice in America: The Supreme Court and Enron felon Jeffrey Skilling

By Barry Grey, 5 March 2010

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Skilling’s appeal of his 2006 conviction for fraud and conspiracy in connection with the December 2001 collapse of the energy giant Enron.

Obama’s assault on public education

4 March 2010

President Obama’s public support for the mass firing of teachers at a Rhode Island high school is a declaration of war on all teachers and on the working class as a whole. No US president has so openly supported the mass victimization of workers since Ronald Reagan fired the PATCO air traffic controllers in 1981.

International Students for Social Equality

For a working class movement to defend education!

Statement of the International Students for Social Equality,
4 March 2010

This statement was distributed at rallies on March 4th throughout the US in opposition to attacks on public education. Click here for a pdf version to download and distribute in your area.

Arts Review

A further comment on Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer

By David Walsh, 5 March 2010

The Ghost Writer centers on a British writer who makes his living writing about other people’s lives in their name. He is hired by a major US publishing firm to work up the memoirs of a former British prime minister.

Obituary

Former British Labour Party leader Michael Foot dies

By Chris Marsden, 4 March 2010

Former Labour Party leader Michael Foot died yesterday. His political legacy is best measured by the fact that the working class, in a political sense, is far weaker today than it was at the time of his birth 96 years ago.

Workers Struggles

Australia: Construction unions to pay record $1.3 million fine

By Patrick O’Connor, 5 March 2010

Unions have agreed to pay a $1.3 million fine for alleged breaches of industrial laws during a dispute at Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge construction project last year.

Canada: Sudbury miners’ strike enters eighth month

By Carl Bronski, 5 March 2010

Vale Inco anticipates that its steadily escalating scabbing operation at the giant Sudbury mining complex and the growing impoverishment of the thousands of striking workers will induce the union to acquiesce to its concession demands.

Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa

5 March 2010

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

Investigative Report

The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care study: Shoddy science in support of health care cuts

By Joanne Laurier, 2 March 2010

The Obama White House and its media backers defend the administration’s cost-cutting health care overhaul, with all its dire implications for broad layers of the population, with the claim that the scheme is based on objective scientific research.

An interview with Dr. Richard Cooper, critic of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care research

By Joanne Laurier, 2 March 2010

Interview with Dr. Michael Ong: A response to the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care

By Joanne Laurier, 2 March 2010

25 years
50 years
75 years
100 years

25 years ago: British miners’ strike ends

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on March 5, 1985 called an official end to the year-long strike against the Thatcher governments’ attempts to reorganize the coal industry at the expense of its workers. The defeat of the miners’ strike, which the Tory government had provoked, paved the way for a ruling class offensive against the wages and conditions of the entire working class.

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50 years ago: Munitions ship explodes in Havana’s harbor

On March 4, 1960, a French ship, Le Coubre, carrying 76 tons of Belgian weapons to Cuba’s militia, blew up in Havana’s harbor, killing dozens of workers. A half an hour later, a second explosion occurred, killing many more who had come to provide assistance to the wounded.

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75 years ago: Attempted coup in Greece

On March 1, 1935, supporters within the Greek military of former Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos launched a coup attempt against the government of Panagis Tsaldaris’s right-wing People’s Party. The Venizelist coup was led by General Nikolaos Plastiras, who had played a leading role in the coup against King Constantine I in 1922 and opposed the royalist sympathies of the People’s Party.

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100 years ago: Philadelphia general strike

On March 5, 1910, a general strike broke out in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania over the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company’s refusal to meet demands of striking streetcar workers organized in the Amalgamated Association of Street Car and Electric Railway Men of America. The general strike was “so titanic that it attracted the attention of all vested interests in this country and abroad,” according to the Public Ledger.