Perspectives
Argentina’s General Videla and the “war on terror”
By Bill Van Auken, 22 May 2013
Gen. Jorge Videla was undoubtedly mourned within military and intelligence circles as a pioneer in the “war on terror.”
Financial bubbles creating conditions for new crash
By Nick Beams, 21 May 2013
The very measures put in place to avert a crisis are creating the conditions for a new financial meltdown.
The decomposition of American democracy
By Tom Carter, 20 May 2013
Testimony by a senior Pentagon official before the Senate and Obama’s press conference, both of which occurred on May 16, are stunning expressions of the deeply antidemocratic outlook of the political, military and intelligence establishment and the disintegration of American democracy.
The betrayal of the Greek teachers’ strike
By Chris Marsden, 18 May 2013
The decision by leaders of the OLME teachers union to abandon an agreed strike in the face of civil mobilisation orders has delivered a serious blow to the entire Greek working class.
The AP spying scandal and the crisis of American democracy
By Joseph Kishore, 17 May 2013
The Obama administration’s secret seizure of the phone records of Associated Press reporters is the latest attack on core democratic rights in the United States.
Benghazi and the deepening crisis of the Obama administration
By Bill Van Auken, 16 May 2013
The controversy over last year’s assault on US facilities in Benghazi, Libya has been revived, even as the real issues underlying it remain hidden.
Detroit’s emergency manager throws down the gauntlet
By Joseph Kishore, 15 May 2013
Detroit is on the front lines of a national and international strategy of the corporate and financial elite, in which increasingly dictatorial methods are being employed to force through deeply unpopular measures.
The criminalization of political dissent in America
By Tom Carter, 14 May 2013
Last week, Massachusetts high school student Cameron D’Ambrosio was arrested and charged under “terrorism” laws merely for posting lyrics on Facebook that make reference to the Boston Marathon bombings.
Capitalism and the crisis facing young people
By Andre Damon, 13 May 2013
Perhaps more than any other section of society, young people have been made to bear the brunt of the crisis that erupted in 2008.
The political fraud of the Pakistani elections
By Sampath Perera, 11 May 2013
The ruling elite seeks to use the elections to lend a veneer of “democracy” to a neocolonial regime presiding over a society in a state of economic and political collapse.
Australia’s Defence White Paper and the US “pivot” to Asia
By James Cogan, 10 May 2013
US imperialism is determined to prevent China’s economic expansion from enabling Beijing to supplant Washington as the dominant power in Asia.
The 15,000 Dow
By Barry Grey, 9 May 2013
In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the Dow has gained over 8,500 points, surging nearly 130 percent since it bottomed out in March of 2009.
Global corporations and the Bangladesh building collapse
By Peter Symonds, 8 May 2013
The world’s retailing giants are engaged in a cynical PR exercise to distance themselves from the tragedy that has taken the lives of more than 700 people.
Europe on the eve of mass working class struggles
By Ulrich Rippert, 7 May 2013
Against the background of the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s, the European Union is showing its true face—that of a dictatorship of finance capital.
The Israeli strikes on Syria
By Alex Lantier, 6 May 2013
The Israeli strikes in Syria are unprovoked and illegal acts of war, abetted by Washington and its European allies as part of their escalating campaign against Syria.
The social crisis in America
By Andre Damon, 4 May 2013
The official silence on the growth of poverty and social misery stands in stark contrast to the daily struggle of the majority of the US population just to make ends meet.
The failure of capitalism
By Nick Beams, 3 May 2013
The collapse of the European economy points to the bankruptcy of the capitalist economic order.
International law and the US war drive in Syria
By Joseph Kishore, 2 May 2013
The fundamental issue involved in Washington’s intervention in Syria is not the nature of the Assad government, but the nature of US imperialism.
What the CIA’s cash has bought for Afghanistan
By Bill Van Auken, 1 May 2013
The report that the CIA regularly hands over sacks of cash to Afghanistan’s President Karzai is only the latest episode in Afghanistan’s long and tragic encounter with US imperialism.
Braying for war against Syria
By Bill Van Auken, 30 April 2013
A campaign of lies and propaganda about the alleged use of chemical weapons is steadily escalating in preparation for a US war against Syria.
A Grand Coalition for austerity in Italy
By Chris Marsden, 29 April 2013
The formation of a Grand Coalition government in Italy shows the degree to which the global financial oligarchy dominates political life.
The Bangladesh factory collapse and the drive for profit
By K. Ratnayake, 27 April 2013
The tragedy is one of the world’s worst industrial disasters, but it will not be the last, as global corporations sacrifice workers’ safety to the requirements of profit.
Washington’s threat to invade Syria
By Bill Van Auken, 26 April 2013
US allegations of chemical weapons use by government forces have brought Washington to the brink of war with Syria.
Political issues in the teachers’ lockout in Denmark
By Christoph Dreier, 25 April 2013
The lockout of tens of thousands of Danish teachers by the state marks a new stage in the class struggle in Europe.
The Boston bombings and the roots of terror
By Bill Van Auken, 24 April 2013
Of all the possible explanations for the bombings in Boston, the least plausible is the official claim that the main suspect in the case had fallen beneath the FBI’s radar.
A tale of two cities
By Barry Grey, 23 April 2013
The Boston bombings continue to dominate the American media, while the Texas fertilizer plant explosion has virtually dropped out of the news.
American democracy in shambles
By Barry Grey, 22 April 2013
With the imposition of a state of siege in Boston, a historical threshold has been crossed.
Texas plant explosion highlights gutting of health and safety rules
By Andre Damon, 20 April 2013
Occupational Safety and Health Administration records show that the last time the agency inspected the plant was 28 years ago.
Obama comes to Boston
By Bill Van Auken, 19 April 2013
In this, his fifth speech in the wake of an incident of mass violence in America, Obama followed what is by now a tired template, invoking scripture, blaming evil and explaining nothing.
Thatcher’s funeral: Pomp in the service of political reaction
By Chris Marsden and Julie Hyland, 18 April 2013
The sole reason that a lavish funeral could be held for former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the most hated political figure in contemporary British history, was the absence of an outlet for oppositional sentiment.
Another bumper year for hedge fund billionaires
By Andre Damon, 17 April 2013
Amid mass unemployment, swelling poverty rates and falling wages, Wall Street hedge fund operators once again raked in astronomical pay packages last year.
Moscow calls Obama’s human rights bluff
By Bill Van Auken, 16 April 2013
If ever there was a case of the pot calling the kettle black, the Obama administration’s indicting of Moscow for human rights violations is it.
The great unmentionable: Mass unemployment in America
By Andre Damon, 15 April 2013
There is no reflection in what passes for the “news” or the discussions that dominate the political establishment of the concerns of the broad masses of the population.
Japan’s monetary boost to escalate currency wars
By Nick Beams, 13 April 2013
The Bank of Japan’s “quantitative easing” policy will both fuel the deepening global economic crisis and stimulate further attacks on the Japanese working class.
Obama’s budget
By Joseph Kishore, 12 April 2013
The budget released by the Obama administration on Wednesday marks a significant escalation of the assault on Social Security and Medicare, the most important federal retirement and health care programs in the United States.
The Cypriot bailout marks a new stage in the euro crisis
By Christoph Dreier, 11 April 2013
Fifty-five years after the founding of the European Economic Community, the project of unifying Europe on a capitalist basis has been irrevocably shattered by the global economic crisis.
The brutal face of neocolonialism in Afghanistan
By Bill Van Auken, 10 April 2013
The attempt to exploit the death of a young State Department official to cast the Afghanistan war as an exercise in US altruism is belied by the continuing murder and oppression inflicted upon the civilian population.
Thatcher’s legacy
By Julie Hyland and Chris Marsden, 9 April 2013
Most working people will have greeted the announcement of her demise with cold indifference, contempt, and, in some cases, celebration.
Obama’s second term: a new stage in the social counterrevolution
By Andre Damon, 8 April 2013
In the first three months of his second term in office, Barack Obama has presided over an assault on the social rights of the US working class unparalleled in its scope and ferocity.
Obama attacks Medicare and Social Security
By Kate Randall, 6 April 2013
The new Obama budget will cut hundreds of billions of dollars from vital programs on which millions of retired and disabled people depend.
Obama’s “playbook” and the threat of nuclear war in Asia
By Peter Symonds, 5 April 2013
The US has deliberately inflamed the Korean peninsula, one of Asia’s most dangerous flash points, and heightened the danger of war.
Class war in Europe
By Julie Hyland, 4 April 2013
The punitive measures imposed on Cyprus mark a qualitative deepening of the European bourgeoisie’s class war offensive.
The terrible cost of Washington’s wars
By Bill Van Auken, 3 April 2013
The report that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will end up costing as much as $6 trillion is another indication of the terrible price paid by working people the world over for the crimes of imperialism.
Three years since West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch mine disaster
Sequester cuts pose new threat to US mine safety
By Kate Randall, 2 April 2013
Three years after the West Virginia tragedy, cuts threaten to further undermine mine safety, inevitably leading to more deaths.
The drive to dismantle Medicare
By Andre Damon, 1 April 2013
Following the imposition of $1.2 trillion in sequester spending cuts, Obama and the Republicans are turning their attention to slashing and ultimately dismantling Medicare, the government health insurance program for the elderly in the United States.
Stock markets and food stamps at record highs
The two sides of the US economic “recovery”
By Kate Randall, 30 March 2013
The growth of social inequality since the 2008 financial crash is the product of definite policies pursued first under Bush and then under the Obama administration.
The European Union’s looting of Cyprus
By Julie Hyland, 29 March 2013
The working class of Cyprus faces mass poverty and a doubling of unemployment as the result of the bailout imposed on the small Mediterranean island.
The trade unions and Michigan’s “right to work” law
By Joseph Kishore, 28 March 2013
The actions taken by the trade unions in response to the passage of Michigan’s reactionary “right to work” law expose the anti-working class character of these organizations.
US sequester cuts and the fraud of “political gridlock”
By Andre Damon, 27 March 2013
The Democrats’ passage of a bill that makes the US sequester cuts permanent this year underscores their support for slashing social spending.
The CIA war against Syria
By Johannes Stern, 26 March 2013
US president Barack Obama’s so called “peace” trip to Israel last week made clear that, on the tenth anniversary of its criminal invasion of Iraq, US imperialism is intensifying its bloody intervention in the Middle East.
The attack on public education in Chicago
By Alexander Fangmann, 25 March 2013
The announcement of plans to shut down 61 schools in Chicago, Illinois marks a new stage in the social counterrevolution in America.
Behind the failed political coup against Australian PM
By Peter Symonds, 23 March 2013
The current political crisis of the Labor Party is intimately bound up with the worsening global economic crisis and rising geo-political tensions.
US corporate executives cash in
By Andre Damon, 22 March 2013
As the US government prepares to furlough one million federal workers and slash tens of billions in social spending, corporate executives in the United States are taking some of the highest payouts in history.
Hands off Syria!
By Bill Van Auken, 21 March 2013
Ten years after the launching of a criminal war against Iraq, Washington is once again preparing military aggression in the Middle East.
The American media, ten years after the Iraq war
By Alex Lantier, 20 March 2013
Multiple car bomb attacks hit Shiite targets across Iraq yesterday, on the tenth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, killing 65 and wounding at least 200.
The Iraq War ten years on: A turning point for US imperialism
By Bill Van Auken and David North, 19 March 2013
This was a war of staggering criminality in both its planning and execution. It was a premeditated act of aggression launched on the basis of lies.
JPMorgan and the criminalization of the US ruling class
By Barry Grey, 18 March 2013
The financial malefactors have been rewarded with ever greater public funds to subsidize record profits, executive bonuses and stock prices
The “Dirty War” Pope
By Bill Van Auken, 16 March 2013
Placed on the papal throne is a man directly implicated in one of the greatest crimes of the post-World War II era—Argentina’s “Dirty War.”
A financial dictator for Detroit
By Joseph Kishore, 15 March 2013
The new financial manager, bankruptcy lawyer Kevyn Orr, will have vast powers and one essential task: to escalate the attack on the working class.
US budget debate targets Social Security and Medicare
By Andre Damon, 14 March 2013
While the media is once again seeking to create the appearance of deep and fundamental conflicts—with endless talk of congressional “gridlock” and the “partisan divide”—there has never been greater bipartisan agreement on basic policy.
The right-wing threat in Greece
By Cristoph Dreier, 13 March 2013
Some 68 years after the end of Nazi rule in Europe, fascistic organizations are again part of official politics, and entire ethnic groups are deported and humiliated.
Too big to jail
By Joseph Kishore, 12 March 2013
At a Senate Judiciary Committee last week, US Attorney General Eric Holder declared that major financial institutions engaged in criminal activity are too big to prosecute.
The New York Times defends drone murder
By Patrick Martin, 11 March 2013
A front-page article in the Times detailing the assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki reveals both the criminal character of the killing and the liberal establishment’s contempt for democratic rights.
Police murder in South Africa
By Chris Marsden, 9 March 2013
Nine South African police officers have been charged with the murder of taxi driver Mido Macia.
Hugo Chavez and socialism
By Bill Van Auken, 8 March 2013
Chavez’s nationalist rhetoric and diversion of oil revenues to social assistance programs earned him the hatred of both Washington and a fascistic ruling class layer in Venezuela, but did not represent a path to socialism.
The collapse of Detroit: An indictment of American capitalism
By Jerry White, 7 March 2013
Wall Street’s financial elite celebrated a new record Dow Jones Industrial Average this week, even as the city of Detroit plunged towards bankruptcy.
The stock market bonanza
By Barry Grey, 6 March 2013
Wall Street’s record highs are a measure of the scale of the theft of social resources carried out by the very parasites responsible for the 2008 financial crash.
Japanese PM prepares for war
By Peter Symonds, 5 March 2013
Abe’s remarks are an unmistakeable declaration that he will, if necessary, go to war with China over disputed islands in the East China Sea.
The financial aristocracy and the growth of working class struggle
By Andre Damon and Joseph Kishore, 4 March 2013
While social services are being slashed throughout the United States, the financial aristocracy is piling up ever greater personal wealth.
Sequester cuts: A new stage in the assault on the US working class
By Andre Damon and Barry Grey, 2 March 2013
The across-the-board cuts in health care, housing, education, public transit, jobless benefits, nutrition assistance and other vital services establish a new base line for even deeper cuts to come.
Washington escalates Syrian bloodbath
By Bill Van Auken, 1 March 2013
The decision announced by the new US secretary of state, John Kerry, to directly aid armed militias marks a major escalation of the US-backed bloodletting in Syria.
The Italian election: A political watershed
By Peter Schwarz, 28 February 2013
The Italian general election last weekend is a watershed event in the political development of Europe.
Workers rebel against right-wing unions
By Jerry White, 27 February 2013
As the struggle of workers begins to erupt outside of the framework of the unions, the growth of militancy is accompanied by a growing receptivity to the perspective of socialism.
US troops to Niger: A new stage in the scramble for Africa
By Bill Van Auken, 26 February 2013
With the deployment of US troops and drones to Niger, a new stage in the imperialist recolonization of Africa is now in progress.
Sequester to spearhead historic assault on US social programs
By Andre Damon, 25 February 2013
Whatever the outcome of the political theatrics in advance of the March 1 deadline, the sequester crisis marks a new stage in the ruling class assault on the social conditions of working people in America.
US preparations for cyber war against China
By Peter Symonds, 23 February 2013
The demonisation of China as a global cyber threat follows a well-established modus operandi: it is to establish the pretext for new US acts of aggression.
The corporate buyout surge and economic parasitism
By Andre Damon and Barry Grey, 22 February 2013
These financial manipulations are the means by which the ruling class redistributes wealth from the bottom to the top of society.
The return of German imperialism
By Johannes Stern, 21 February 2013
Germany is making intensive preparations to wage new wars to secure resources.
Ten years since the global protests against war in Iraq
By Joseph Kishore, 20 February 2013
On the weekend of February 15-16, 2003, some 10 million people participated in coordinated anti-war protests in major cities of the world.
Brennan refuses to rule out drone assassinations within the US
By Tom Carter and Barry Grey, 19 February 2013
As Brennan’s written responses to the Senate Intelligence Committee underscore, behind the threadbare trappings of parliamentary democracy, the scaffolding of an American police state is well advanced.
Lessons of the New York City school bus strike
By Jerry White, 18 February 2013
This struggle in the nation’s most populous city and center of finance capital revealed the class dynamic being played out all over the US and the world.
Inequality and American democracy
By Joseph Kishore, 16 February 2013
The latest figures on inequality in the US expose the vast transfer of wealth that has occurred during the first years of the “economic recovery.”
Currency wars hang over G20 meeting
By Nick Beams, 15 February 2013
The meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers in Moscow over the next two days is being held amid a deep contradiction in the global capitalist economy.
Fifteen Years of the World Socialist Web Site: 1998-2013
14 February 2013
The 15th anniversary of the WSWS is a milestone of immense significance for the international socialist movement. Over the course of a decade-and-a-half, the WSWS has provided, with unequalled accuracy and insight, a daily analysis of political and cultural events.
The New York bus strike and the defense of public education
By Andre Damon, 13 February 2013
The assault on New York City school bus workers by Mayor Michael Bloomberg is part of a nation-wide campaign to dismantle public education.
The danger of war in Asia
By Peter Symonds, 12 February 2013
Parallels are being drawn between the tense maritime disputes in Asia and the fierce rivalry in the Balkans a century ago that sparked World War I.
Class tensions in Europe at the breaking point
By Peter Schwarz, 11 February 2013
European governments are responding to social opposition with strike bans and methods of state violence traditionally associated with dictatorships.
The US drone assassination program and the threat of dictatorship
By Bill Van Auken, 9 February 2013
Thursday’s confirmation hearing for John Brennan, Obama’s nominee for CIA director, provided a spectacle of the disintegration of democratic rights in the United States.
Bank scandals and the case for public ownership
By Nick Beams, 8 February 2013
Calls for greater regulation of the banks ignore the incestuous relationships between the finance houses and the regulators that are supposed to be overseeing them.
The police state implications of Obama’s assassination program
By Joseph Kishore, 7 February 2013
The Obama administration’s “white paper” on the assassination of US citizens must be taken as a dire warning to the working class. The American ruling class, steeped in lawlessness and violence, is moving toward dictatorship.
Obama’s contraception climb-down and the separation of church and state
By Tom Carter, 6 February 2013
President Obama’s repeated cave-ins to religious organizations on the issue of birth control underscore the rightward evolution of American liberalism and its abandonment of core democratic principles.
Biden in Munich: The ugly face of imperialism
By Bill Van Auken, 5 February 2013
Setting the tone for this year’s Munich Security Conference, marked by unabashed neo-colonialism, the American vice president signaled that US imperialism is gearing up for battle in every corner of the planet.
White House zeros in on Medicare
By Patrick Martin, 4 February 2013
Both President Obama and a top economic adviser said this week that the administration would propose significant cuts in Medicare.
Eighty years since Hitler’s coming to power
By Peter Schwarz, 2 February 2013
Leon Trotsky drew far-reaching conclusions from the disastrous defeat of the German working class in 1933.
The stock market bubble
By Andre Damon, 1 February 2013
In the fifth year of the economic depression, and amid signs of the worst global slowdown since 2008, world stock markets are booming the fastest since the late 1990s.
New York City school bus strike at the crossroads
By Socialist Equality Party, 31 January 2013
The struggle has revealed the basic class divisions in America.
For workers’ power in Egypt!
By Johannes Stern and Joseph Kishore, 30 January 2013
As the second anniversary of the overthrow of dictator Hosni Mubarak approaches, the Egyptian working class is again being driven into revolutionary struggle.
Political lessons of the Athens subway strike
By Christoph Dreier, 29 January 2013
The invocation of emergency powers and use of state violence to smash the Athens subway strike has shattered all claims that it is possible to shift the policy of the state by mass pressure from below.
The fight to defend Britain’s National Health Service
By Chris Marsden, 28 January 2013
The NHS is hated by the ruling class as a symbol of everything they were forced to grant the working class in Britain in the post-war period.
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