The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) conducted a Radio National interview with David North, WSWS international editorial board chairman, on May 14. A transcript of the lengthy interview, which was conducted by Lyn Gallacher from the “BookTalk” program, can be accessed from Radio National’s web site at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/booktalk/stories/s1363917.htm.

North gave the “BookTalk” interview during a visit to Australia last February to promote his recently published book The Crisis of American Democracy: the Presidential Elections of 2000 and 2004.

North discusses with Gallacher the central thesis of The Crisis of American Democracy, that behind the breakdown of democracy in the US lies the deterioration of the global economic position of American capitalism and the development of unprecedented levels of wealth concentration and social inequality. The turn to aggressive militarism abroad and the vast expansion of police state measures during the past three years arise, he maintains, not from the so-called “terrorist threat,” but from the extreme sharpening of social and class tensions within American society itself.

Copies of The Crisis of American Democracy can be purchased online in the US for US$19.95 per issue, at sales@mehringbooks.co.uk in the UK and Europe for £8.99 per issue and mehring@ozemail.com.au in Australia and Asia for A$19.95 per issue plus postage and handling ($5 in Australia and the US, £2 in Britain—international rates extra).