World Socialist Web Site

wsws.org

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

22 July 2010

Afghan conference endorses indefinite occupation

By Bill Van Auken, 22 July 2010

The foreign ministers conference in Kabul endorsed President Hamid Karzai's 2014 target for Afghan forces to assume the lead responsibility for the country's security, while acknowledging that the foreign occupation will continue indefinitely.

Cameron negotiates BP-Libya minefield in Washington

By Julie Hyland, 22 July 2010

Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s first official visit to Washington was trailed in the British media as signalling a more “pragmatic” approach to the transatlantic “special relationship.”

China: Protracted strike at Honda parts supplier

By John Chan, 22 July 2010

A bitter dispute at a Honda parts supplier in the southern city of Foshan is another sign of ongoing labour unrest in China.

SEP (Australia) Election Campaign

SEP candidate addresses rally at University of New South Wales
“This fight is first and foremost a political struggle against the Gillard government”

By Oliver Campbell, 22 July 2010

Zac Hambides, the SEP candidate for Kingsford-Smith, advanced the need for a political struggle against the Gillard Labor government at a demonstration of University of NSW students on Tuesday.

Open letter exposes attempted political censorship at UNSW rally

By Zac Hambides, 22 July 2010

Zac Hambides issued an open letter condemning a bid by the Student Representative Council to bar him from speaking at a student rally at Sydney’s University of NSW.

The Shirley Sherrod firing: Once again, the Obama administration cowers before ultra-right

By David Walsh, 22 July 2010

The firing of US Department of Agriculture (USDA) employee Shirley Sherrod by the Obama administration, on the basis of false allegations of racism, was one more shameful and cowardly concession to the extreme right.

Zardari’s visit strengthens Pakistan-China relations

By Vilani Peiris, 22 July 2010

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s recent visit to China points to growing rivalry between the major powers. China sees Pakistan as its main ally in South Asia, while the US wants to keep Islamabad under its sway, supporting the war in Afghanistan.

BP oil disaster

Public health crisis looms in Gulf

By Tom Eley and Dwight Stoll, 22 July 2010

Experts warn of a long-term public health crisis on the US Gulf Coast as a result of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Full coverage of the Gulf oil disaster »

Spain: Unions force pay cut on Madrid Metro workers

By Paul Mitchell, 22 July 2010

Unions on the Madrid Metro have forced a pay cut and other concessions on workers who have been involved in militant strike action against plans to cut salaries by five percent.

Sri Lankan protest reveals discontent over wages

By Vilani Peiris, 22 July 2010

Amid growing unrest, NSSP union organisers have demonstrated their determination to block any independent political struggle against the government, which has suppressed real wages for the past four years.

Government resignation deepens crisis of Swiss democracy

By Marianne Arens and Leandro Poroli, 22 July 2010

The resignation of Moritz Leuenberger of the Socialist Party (SP) from the government signifies a major political upheaval in Switzerland.

New in French

Des tensions commerciales menacent les Etats-Unis et la Chine

Par John Chan, 22 juillet 2010

Deux récentes déclarations faites par les gouvernements chinois et américain viennent souligner le développement des tensions économiques entre eux.

New in Spanish

Una mentira desenmascarada

Por Jerry White, 22 Julio 2010

Cuatro meses luego del Congreso de Estados Unidos adoptar como ley la legislación que Obama había propuesto en cuanto al seguro médico—elogiada por todos los ámbitos liberales del país como la reforma social más progresista desde la década de los 1960—las insinuaciones reaccionarias de la medida comienzan a mostrar su verdadera cara.

New in German

SEP stellt Kandidaten für eine sozialistische Alternative auf
Premierministerin Gillard ruft vorgezogene Neuwahlen aus

Von Mike Head, 22. Juli 2010

Die neue Premierministerin Julia Gillard hat für den 21. August Neuwahlen angesetzt. Die SEP stellt bei der Parlamentswahl Kandidaten auf.

Bulgarien: Europas Wirtschaft fordert härtere Reformen

Von Markus Salzmann, 22. Juli 2010

Die rechte Regierung in Bulgarien unter Premierminister Bojko Borissow von der Partei "Bürger für eine europäische Entwicklung Bulgariens" (GERB) ist seit einem Jahr im Amt. Jetzt wächst in Europa die Kritik und die Forderungen nach tief greifenden Reformen, d.h. sozialen Angriffen, werden lauter.

Massenfestnahmen in der srilankischen Hauptstadt: Eine scharfe Warnung für die Arbeiterklasse

Von der Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka), 22. Juli 2010

Die kürzliche Unterdrückung verarmter Slumbewohner in Colombo ist eine scharfe Warnung vor den Polizeistaatsmethoden in Rajapakses "Wirtschaftskrieg".

Other Languages

Perspective

From stimulus to austerity: An international class-war policy

22 July 2010

The past several months have witnessed a shift in social policy by the international bourgeoisie even further to the right, marked by a turn from economic stimulus policies to brutal austerity measures.

Earlier Perspectives »

Social Crisis in Appalachia

The social crisis in Appalachia
Part 1: Deprivation and inequality in the coalfields

By Naomi Spencer, 22 July 2010

This article is the first of a series on the history, economy, social and environmental conditions in the Appalachian coalfields of the United States.

“Everything is for the rich people, and the poor people are just hurting”
Harlan, Kentucky resident speaks to the WSWS

By a WSWS reporting team, 22 July 2010

The first in a series, the WSWS interviews a resident of Harlan, Kentucky on conditions of life in the coalfields.

Socialist Equality Party (Australia) Election Campaign

Australia: Election slogans spark wave of disgust

21 July 2010

Less than a week into the Australian federal election campaign, the hollowed out and atrophied character of the entire system of bourgeois parliamentary democracy is being increasingly exposed.

SEP candidate calls for political struggle against Labor’s anti-strike laws

By Noel Holt, 21 July 2010

Noel Holt, the Socialist Equality Party candidate for Newcastle in the August 21 Australian federal election, released the following copy of the remarks that he planned to make at a construction workers rally in Sydney.

Unions deflect anger over Labor’s prosecution of South Australian construction worker

SEP candidate speaks at academics’ union forum
A revealing political line-up in Australian election campaign

By Oliver Campbell, 20 July 2010

An election forum demonstrates the efforts of the Labor Party, unions, Greens and pseudo “left” groups to suppress all discussion of the global economic crisis and the corporate-backed coup that installed Julia Gillard as prime minister.

Australia: Socialist Equality Party announces its 2010 election candidates

By the Socialist Equality Party (Australia), 19 July 2010

The Socialist Equality Party announces its candidates for the 2010 Australian federal election, to be held on August 21.

Full coverage of the SEP (Australia) election campaign »

Workers Struggles

Australia: Xstrata launches new provocations against Tahmoor miners

By Zac Hambides, SEP candidate for Kingsford-Smith, 22 July 2010

Mining giant Xstrata has refused to allow more than 270 workers who went on strike for seven days last week to return to work at its Tahmoor mine in the New South Wales southern highlands.

Illinois construction workers end three-week strike

By Matthew Brennan, 22 July 2010

Some 15,000 construction workers in Chicago voted to accept a contract pushed on them by their unions, bringing to a close a three-week strike.

Commentary

Police killing in Oakland, California
The Oscar Grant verdict: some political lessons

By Kevin Kearney, 21 July 2010

The July 8 jury verdict of involuntary manslaughter (accidental killing) for police officer Johannes Mehserle is a travesty of justice.

A lie exposed

20 July 2010

Four months after the passage of Obama’s health care plan, the reactionary implications of the measure are emerging ever more clearly.

Socialist Equality Party

SEP public meeting on US Gulf coast
The Gulf oil disaster and capitalism

21 July 2010

The SEP will hold public meetings in the US Gulf Coast states of Louisiana and Alabama in early August to discuss the causes and consequences of the BP oil spill disaster.

SEP candidate D’Artagnan Collier files petitions for Michigan state election

Committee Against Utility Shutoffs (CAUS)

Over 160,000 Michigan utility shutoffs from January to May 2010

By Lawrence Porter, 21 July 2010

Recent figures confirm the continuation of the inhuman policy of utility shutoffs in the state of Michigan.

Detroit house fires kill two, injure one

Visit the CAUS web site »

Correspondence

An exchange with a reader on “Liberal television host Rachel Maddow solidarizes herself with US military in Afghanistan”

By David Walsh, 20 July 2010

The WSWS responds to a reader about television host Rachel Maddow’s attitude toward the war in Afghanistan.

Arts Review

Sydney Film Festival 2010—Part 5: Corruption, war in the Middle East, poverty in the US and other issues

By Richard Phillips, 19 July 2010

A diverse group of dramas from Haiti, the US, Britain and the Middle East.

Science

Scientists directly image an extra-solar planet's orbit around a young star

By Bryan Dyne, 19 July 2010

For the first time in the history of the search for planets outside the solar system, astronomers have observed a planet going from one side of its parent star to the other.

25 years
50 years
75 years
100 years

25 years ago: South Africa in revolt

South African President P.W. Botha declared a state of emergency this week in 1985 in response to mass protests, strikes, and riots among the nation’s black workers and poor. It was the largest rebellion since the upsurge that was drowned in blood in the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960.

More »

50 years ago: Madam Bandaranaike becomes PM of Ceylon

Sirimavo Bandaranaike was appointed prime minister of Ceylon on July 21, 1960, after national elections in which the LSSP (Lanka Sama Samaja Party), which had abandoned the perspective of Trotskyism, refused to oppose her nationalist grouping, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), or its electoral partner, the Stalinist Communist Party.

75 years ago: The lynching of Rubin Stacy

On July 19, 1935, a 37-year old African-American tenant farmer named Rubin Stacy was lynched in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. According to initial reports of Stacy’s murder, a mob of masked, white men took Stacy from the custody of six sheriff’s deputies who were transporting him to the Dade County jail in Miami.

More »

100 years ago: Massive suffragette demonstration in London

Tens of thousands of “suffragettes”—advocates of women’s right to vote—marched on London’s Hyde Park on July 23, 1910. Speakers addressed the demonstration from 40 different platforms in Hyde Park, where two separate marches had earlier converged, one originating from the Thames embankment and the other starting off from Holland Park.

More »

Gulf Oil Crisis

Video series: The human toll of the BP blowout

The BP blowout has devastated the economy, environment and health of the entire Gulf region. WSWS reporters C. W. Rogers and Andre Damon interviewed residents, small businessmen and environmental and health experts on the Gulf coast and compiled this video report.

Full coverage of the Gulf oil disaster »

•••••