Europe
France: Sarkozy escalates anti-immigrant campaign
By Pierre Mabut and Antoine Lerougetel, October 31, 2009
France’s minister of immigration and national identity, Eric Besson, has called for a nationwide debate on “national identity” following a month of unprecedented assaults on migrants and refugee...
Workers Struggles: Europe & Africa
October 30, 2009
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Britain: Three days of post strikes under way
By our reporters, October 30, 2009
Yesterday saw the start of three more days of postal strikes after days of talks failed to broker a deal.
Opel’s future once again up for grabs
By Dietmar Henning, October 30, 2009
Although the new German government has barely taken office, all the deals struck between the trade unions, General Motors and the consortium from the Canadian-Austrian automotive supplier Magna and th...
Britain: Deepening recession fuels concern over corporate bonuses and bailouts
By Julie Hyland, October 30, 2009
Disagreements over the Brown government’s policy on the global economic crisis have become more vocal after figures showed that the UK economy shrank by 0.4 percent from July to September.
Ukrainian economy suffers sharp fall in 2009
By Niall Green, October 29, 2009
Five years after the “Orange Revolution,” the Ukrainian economy is in the deepest crisis since the post-Soviet economic and social implosion of the 1990s.
Britain: Protests and political campaigning redefined as “domestic extremism”
By Robert Stevens, October 29, 2009
A central feature of the assault on democratic rights in Britain, carried out by the Labour government in the name of the “war on terror,” is its effort to criminalise political activity.
Education spending targeted by all parties in Germany
By Johannes Stern, October 29, 2009
The new German government coalition’s attack on education draws on the devastating work already carried out by the Social Democratic Party, the Greens and the Left Party.
Germany: A government of social confrontation
By Ulrich Rippert, October 28, 2009
All of the parties represented in the new German coalition government are agreed that the burden of the economic crisis and the ballooning state debt is to be placed upon the backs of the general popu...
US formally requests extradition of filmmaker Roman Polanski
By Hiram Lee, October 27, 2009
The United States has formally requested that filmmaker Roman Polanski be extradited from Switzerland. New details of the Swiss government’s role in Polanski’s arrest have now come to light.
Romania: Boc government resigns after no-confidence vote
By Marcus Salzmann, October 27, 2009
Five weeks prior to scheduled presidential elections, the Romanian government led by the Democratic Liberal Party prime minister, Emil Boc, has collapsed following a vote of no-confidence in parliamen...
German building cleaners strike against wage cutting
By Ludwig Weller, October 26, 2009
On Thursday of last week 96.7 percent of union members active in the building cleaning branch voted in favor of the first national strike in the history of the industry. The response of the union, how...
