World Socialist Web Site

wsws.org

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

6 March 2010

Amid angry protests in Greece
Papandreou pledges to impose austerity plan in meeting with Merkel

By Ulrich Rippert, 6 March 2010

On Friday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin and assured her that his government would impose the austerity measures demanded by the European banks and the European Union.

US payrolls shrank by 36,000 in February

By Barry Grey, 6 March 2010

The Labor Department’s employment report for February, released Friday, showed that the US economy is continuing to shed jobs and wages are continuing to decline.

Thousands rally in San Diego, California against education cuts

By a WSWS reporting team, 6 March 2010

Students and workers held large demonstrations in San Diego, California, as part of protests throughout the state and country on March 4.

Video: ISSE members speak at San Diego rallies

Members of the International Students for Social Equality spoke in opposition to the Democratic and Republican parties and called for a socialist movement to defend public education at the March 4 demonstrations in San Diego, California.

Pakistan: Zardari and his PPP-led government weakened by clash with judiciary

By Sampath Perera, 6 March 2010

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and the country’s Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition government have suffered a further blow to their power and prestige as the result of a clash with the Supreme Court over judicial appointments.

Irish unions seek new partnership with government and employers

By Steve James, 6 March 2010

The Irish trade unions bear primary responsibility for the successful imposition of austerity measures against workers after the world financial crisis overwhelmed the country’s financial sector in late 2008.

Cover-up exposed in post-Katrina police killings

By Patrick Martin, 6 March 2010

A New Orleans police supervisor pled guilty February 24 in a federal court to charges of conspiracy to cover up the police shooting of six unarmed people a few days after Hurricane Katrina struck the city.

Australia: Rudd government unveils plan to cut health spending

By Mike Head, 6 March 2010

Despite being presented as an historic “reform,” the plan has nothing to do with resolving the worsening crisis in the chronically under-funded health system.

Britain: Railworker Graham McMillan imprisoned

By Paul Barnes, 6 March 2010

The imprisoning of Network Rail worker Graham McMillan for two years is an act of cruel and callous indifference towards someone who is clearly suffering from mental difficulties brought on by a series of personal traumas.

New in German

Papandreou in Berlin

Von Ulrich Rippert, 6. März 2010

Bundeskanzlerin Merkel hat ihrem griechischen Amtskollegen politische Unterstützung bei seinen Angriffen auf die griechische Bevölkerung zugesagt.

Niederlande: Rassist Geert Wilders legt bei Kommunalwahlen zu

Von Dietmar Henning, 6. März 2010

Wilders Erfolg hat zwei Gründe: Erstens die tiefe Kluft zwischen sämtlichen etablierten Parteien und der Masse der Bevölkerung. Und zweitens ist die PVV eine Schöpfung der Medien, die von Teilen der herrschenden Elite gezielt gefördert und aufgebaut wird.

Frankreich: Arbeiter von Total in Dünkirchen setzen Streik fort

Von Antoine Lerougetel, 6. März 2010

Die Arbeiter von Total in Dünkirchen stimmten am 25. Februar für die Fortsetzung ihres Streiks und der Besetzung der Total-Raffinerie, obwohl die CGT den nationalen Streik gegen Total am Vortag abgerochen hatte.

60. Berlinale - Teil 4
Kanikosen : ein "proletarischer japanischer Roman" - modernisiert

Von Stefan Steinberg, 6. März 2010

Dies ist der vierte Teil einer Serie über die jüngsten Internationalen Filmfestspiele in Berlin, die vom 11. bis 21. Februar stattfanden.

Der Bolschewismus und die Künstler der Avantgarde - Teil 2

Von David Walsh, 6. 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 neu veröffentlichen.

New in Spanish

La liga internacional de criminales de guerra

Por Chris Marsden, 6 Marzo 2010

La emisión en diciembre pasado de una orden judicial de arresto para Tzipi Livni, la otrora ministra del exterior Israelí y actual líder de la oposición, es nada menos que el último evento en confirmar la existencia de una institución internacional jurídica que considera que Israel debería ser procesado por crímenes de guerra por su trato de la población Palestina.

New in French

Le déploiement militaire en Afghanistan fait tomber le gouvernement hollandais

Par Stefan Steinberg, 6 mars 2010

La chute du gouvernement hollandais représente un sérieux coup porté à la stratégie militaire du gouvernement américain en Afghanistan.

Une violente tempête fait 52 morts en France

Par Antoine Lerougetel, 5 mars 2010

La violente tempête qui durant le week-end a fait des ravages partout en Europe de l’Ouest a causé les plus gros dégâts en France en portant mardi le bilan à 52 morts.

France : Les syndicats mettent fin à la grève des contrôleurs aériens

Par Pierre Mabut, 5 mars 2010

Les contrôleurs aériens ont repris le travail samedi matin dans les aéroports français après que leurs syndicats aient décidé, sur la base de garanties sans valeur, de ne pas poursuivre leur grève de quatre jours pour la défense de l’emploi et du statut de fonctionnaires.

Perspective

Finance capital and the Greek debt crisis

6 March 2010

In addition to destabilizing entire currencies and states, the speculative activities of the banks are creating new financial bubbles and future crises that threaten to explode and overshadow the breakdown of 2008.

Earlier Perspectives »

Dexter Avenue Fire Inquiry

State attempts to victimize mother of fire victims
Sylvia Young says she pled with Detroit utility to keep heat on

By Jerry White, 6 March 2010

Michigan state has filed a negligence case against Sylvia Young, the 30-year-old mother who lost three children in a Detroit house fire. Young told the World Socialist Web Site that she pled with an employee from DTE Energy not to shut off electricity and gas service hours before the fire.

Video: Neighbors of fire victims condemn utility shutoffs

6 March 2010

Two days after a fire that took the lives of three young children in Detroit, Michigan neighbors spoke to the WSWS about the tragedy.

The role of the government in Detroit’s deadly house fires

By Andrea Peters, 6 March 2010

The city of Detroit and the state of Michigan share responsibility for the house fire that took the lives of three children on Tuesday.

Woman severely injured in Detroit house fire

By Lawrence Porter, 6 March 2010

As anger over utility shutoffs in Detroit grows, yet another fire on Friday left one person severely injured. The house had been without utilities for years.

SEP (Australia) Founding Congress

Documents of the SEP Founding Congress
The Historical and International Foundations of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia)—Part 7

6 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

Sri Lanka: End the state of emergency!

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

The SEP warns that the emergency powers will be used to suppress the opposition of workers and the rural poor to the austerity measures the government will impose after the April 8 parliamentary election.

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.

Arts Review

60th Berlin International Film Festival—Part 4
This year’s German films: In general, a more serious tone

By Bernd Reinhardt, 6 March 2010

A number of trends currently find expression in German cinema. On the whole, this year’s feature and documentary films on view at the Berlinale adopted a more serious tone.

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.

Workers Struggles

Boeing Australia to close Sydney plant and axe 350 jobs

By Richard Phillips, 6 March 2010

Boeing Australia has announced that it will shut its Milperra plant in Sydney, ending 70 years of aeronautical production at the facility. The closure is in line with job destruction internationally by the giant US corporation.

Australia: Unions push through sell-out deal at Pluto

By Terry Cook, 6 March 2010

Construction unions have shut down industrial action by workers at Woodside Petroleum’s $12 billion Pluto gas project in north-western Australia.

Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia & the Pacific

6 March 2010

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

Commentary

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.

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.

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.

More »

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.

More »

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.

More »

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.