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

24 July 2010

US naval exercise heightens tensions in Asia

By John Chan, 24 July 2010

The war games involve around 20 South Korean and US warships, including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington, 200 aircraft and 8,000 military personnel.

BP oil disaster

Most oil industry lobbyists in US worked for government

By Josué Olmos, 24 July 2010

Data from the Center for Responsive Politics show the extensive influential reach of BP and the oil industry through their lobbyists and campaign contributions. There is no clear line of division between the US government and the oil industry.

Full coverage of the Gulf oil disaster »

Venezuela breaks with Colombia over guerrilla accusations

By Bill Van Auken, 24 July 2010

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez broke off diplomatic relations with neighboring Colombia over charges by that country’s government that Caracas has sheltered FARC guerrillas.

Germany’s ex-defence minister warns of a “cold military putsch”

By Johannes Stern, 24 July 2010

A proposed reform of the German Armed Forces will increase the powers of the military over society as a whole.

Sri Lankan government pushes university privatisation

By Kapila Fernando, 24 July 2010

The growth of private education will be paralleled by the continuing rundown of public education creating a two class system—quality institutions for those who can afford to pay, and rundown, overcrowded and underfunded institutions for the rest.

Britain: Local authorities face devastating cuts and rationalisation

By Stephen Alexander, 24 July 2010

A report by the New Local Government Network has warned that local authorities could lose at least a third of central government funding over the life of the current parliament.

Ontario Liberals push wage freeze scheme

By Carl Bronski, 24 July 2010

Ontario Liberal Finance Minister Dwight Duncan summoned provincial public service union leaders to a meeting this week to demand that the labour bureaucrats acquiesce to an across-the-board wage freeze for some 710,000 unionized workers.

New in French

Australie : Les slogans électoraux provoquent une vague de dégoût

Par Nick Beams, 24 juillet 2010

Moins d'une semaine après le début de la campagne électorale fédérale australienne, le caractère creux et atrophié de tout le système de démocratie parlementaire bourgeoise est de plus en plus mis à nu.

New in German

Merkel in China

Von Stefan Steinberg und Alex Lantier, 24. Juli 2010

Mit ihrem Chinabesuch distanzierte sich Angela Merkel weiter vom bisherigen Hauptverbündeten Berlins, den USA. Begleitet wurde sie unter anderem von DGB-Chef Sommer und André Brie von der Linkspartei.

Strukturreform der Bundeswehr
Ex-Verteidigungsstaatssekretär warnt vor "kaltem Militärputsch"

Von Johannes Stern, 24. Juli 2010

Die Position des Generalinspekteurs der Bundeswehr soll deutlich gestärkt werden. Die Kommandostrukturen der Armeeführung werden zentralisiert und der ranghöchste Soldat der Bundeswehr wieder Generalstabschef genannt werden.

Bundesverfassungsgericht urteilt zu Militäreinsatz in Heiligendamm 2007
Aushöhlung demokratischer Rechte

Von Andreas Kunstmann, 24. Juli 2010

Das Parlament kann gegen verfassungswidrige Einsätze der Bundeswehr im Innern nicht gerichtlich vorgehen. Dies hat das Bundesverfassungsgericht entschieden.

Russische Regierung plant drastische Haushaltskürzungen

Von Andrea Peters, 24. Juli 2010

Die russische Regierung hat in den vergangenen Wochen angekündigt, das staatliche Haushaltsdefizit bis 2013 um die Hälfte zu reduzieren - eine Maßnahme, die drastische Einschnitte bei den Staatsausgaben bedeutet.

Other Languages

Perspective

British deputy prime minister admits Iraq war was illegal

24 July 2010

The statement by British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg that the Iraq war was “illegal” leads to only one conclusion—that former Prime Minister Tony Blair and many others must immediately be arraigned on war crimes charges.

Earlier Perspectives »

Socialist Equality Party (Australia) Election Campaign

Australian PM Gillard’s climate change speech—another admission of bankruptcy on the environment

By Patrick O’Connor, SEP candidate for the Senate in Victoria , 24 July 2010

Labor Prime Minister Gillard’s speech on climate change was a conscious fraud, combining lies on the science of global warming with new sound-bite driven measures pitched towards business which do nothing to adequately address the environmental crisis.

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.

Full coverage of the SEP (Australia) election campaign »

Investigative Report

The social crisis in Appalachia
Part 2: An epidemic of ill health among the poor

By Naomi Spencer, 24 July 2010

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

“When your kids go hungry—you’re going to find a way to get some money”
Homeless in Harlan, Kentucky

By a WSWS reporting team, 22 July 2010

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

Commentary

The consequences of a US war crime
Cancer rate in Fallujah worse than Hiroshima

By Tom Eley, 23 July 2010

Five and a half years after an assault by the US military, the Iraqi city of Fallujah is experiencing higher rates of cancer, leukemia, and infant mortality than those recorded among survivors in Japanese cities targeted for nuclear incineration in 1945.

Merkel’s trip to China

23 July 2010

With US commercial and financial power on the wane, German imperialism is increasingly looking east in order to satisfy its demand for markets, energy and finance. This is the significance of chancellor Merkel’s latest trip to China and Russia.

Workers Struggles

Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific

24 July 2010

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

Committee Against Utility Shutoffs (CAUS)

Michigan governor signs law witch-hunting workers for “energy theft”

Statement of the Committee Against Utility Shutoffs (CAUS), 23 July 2010

The Committee Against Utility Shutoffs (CAUS) condemns legislation signed into law by Michigan’s Democratic governor, Jennifer Granholm, sanctioning a crackdown on poor residents in Detroit and other cities for alleged “energy theft.”

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.

Visit the CAUS web site »

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.

Arts Review

Sydney Film Festival 2010—Part 6: Two classics and one that might have been

By Ismet Redzovic and Richard Phillips, 23 July 2010

This year’s festival screened new prints of A Woman Under the Influence and The Last Days of Chez Nous, as well as a new documentary, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno.

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.

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