World Socialist Web Site

 

Archive: 05/2008

The archive below lists all articles that have been posted on the World Socialist Web Site by date. To visit the archive for other months, return to the Archive Monthly Index.

May 1, 2008

• Letters from our readers
• US Federal Reserve cuts interest rates as housing slump, recession deepen
• France: Thousands of high school students protest cuts in education
• Australia: Haneef “terrorism” inquiry to be conducted behind closed doors
• A barrage of US threats against Iran
• Obama repudiates Reverend Wright in bid for support from the political establishment
• Pakistan’s new coalition government close to breakup
• France: CGT union betrays port workers’ strike
• Somalia: Scores dead as Ethiopian troops push further into Mogadishu

May 2, 2008

• US dockworkers’ union holds eight-hour work stoppage to protest Iraq war
• East Timor: Plot thickens as leader of alleged “coup” attempt surrenders
• Agricultural corporations boast huge profits in midst of food crisis
• New French labour law attacks workers’ rights
• WSWS interviews victimized North Carolina Freightliner workers
• Five years after “mission accomplished,” sharp rise in Iraqi and US casualties
• Japan: By-election defeat points to growing crisis of Fukuda government
• France: Undocumented immigrants strike wins support
• Health care strikes in Scandinavia
• San Diego State University ISSE to show Tsar to Lenin
• Workers Struggles: Europe & Africa

May 3, 2008

• UAW preparing agreement to slash American Axle workers’ wages, close plants
• Another political show trial in Baghdad: Tariq Aziz charged with genocide
• Letters from our readers
• The California budget and the crisis of public education
• US payrolls shrank by 20,000 jobs in April
  Net job loss in 2008 at 260,000
• Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
• London Olympics terror threat used to vastly increase surveillance powers
• Tens of thousands march against immigration raids in the US
• Former fascist elected mayor of Rome

May 5, 2008

• Democratic candidates agree on expanded US military aggression in the Middle East
• France: Government, unions prepare large-scale pension cut
• Journalist released from Guantánamo details abuse
• Montreal: Establishment calls for increased police powers after mini-riot
• Hospital struck as US military tightens siege of Baghdad’s Sadr City
• Australia: NSW Labor Premier prepares to privatise electricity despite party conference defeat
• Democrats win Republican House seat in Louisiana special election
• Turkey: May Day demonstration in Istanbul brutally suppressed

May 6, 2008

• Letters from our readers
• Bush, Democrats seek to fund Iraq war into next administration
• Former German president urges no let-up in right-wing agenda
• Former prosecutor testifies that Guantánamo military commissions are show trials
• Undocumented workers occupy CGT union hall in Paris
• Leatherheads: A failed comedy, and a talent at war with itself
• Lawyer speaks to WSWS: “David Hicks was a pawn in a political process”
• New York Times exposé on immigrant deaths in custody
• Australia: Unions use anti-privatisation rally as leverage for negotiations with Labor government
• SEP/ISSE holds May Day meeting in Colombo
• Workers Struggles: The Americas

May 7, 2008

• Fighting intensifies across Afghanistan
• A new Asian disaster: Cyclone kills tens of thousands in Burma
• Bush administration moves to exploit Burma cyclone disaster
• The EU strengthens “Fortress Europe” against migration due to climate change
• Britain: Labour’s electoral meltdown continues to worsen
• Georgia inmate put to death, ending seven-month halt to US executions
• Hungarian ruling coalition collapses
• Mexico: Election dispute threatens breakup of PRD
• US Navy resurrects Fourth Fleet to police Latin America
• Obama builds lead over Clinton after North Carolina, Indiana primaries

May 8, 2008

• Wage-cutting in the US auto parts industry: The background to the American Axle strike
• Death toll in Burma rises, as major powers press to intervene
• Major train crash causes anger in China
• Letters from our readers
• Australia: NSW Labor MPs unanimously endorse premier’s defiance of anti-privatisation vote
• Deep unease as Israel celebrates its 60th anniversary
• SEP meeting in New York City
  The world crisis and the 2008 elections: a socialist perspective
• Guantánamo judge rules Omar Khadr, arrested at 15, can be tried as war criminal
• Amnesty International denounces war crimes by US-backed forces in Somalia
• The Price of Sugar: Horrifying conditions exposed—and a legal counterattack
• Verdi agrees to sell-out in Berlin transport workers strike
  Vote no on the deal!

May 9, 2008

• Bush speech on Latin America—defense of a failed policy
• SEP/ISSE public meetings in Germany
  1968: The lessons for today
• Battle for Haditha: A remarkable film about the Iraq war
• House of Representatives passes Democratic home mortgage bill backed by the Fed and banking industry
• Lebanon on brink of civil war
• Mildred Loving, civil rights-era pioneer, dies at 68
• Qantas chief threatens “showdown" with workers over pay
• Sri Lanka: Election charade in eastern province
• Toronto Transit workers threatened with loss of right to strike
• US congressional hearings expose stonewalling on veteran suicide data
• Workers Struggles: Europe & Africa

May 10, 2008

• Australia: Teachers’ union moves to shut down industrial campaign
• GM offers $200 million in bid to end American Axle strike
• Britain: Welfare Reform Act to force sick and vulnerable into work
• Why the propaganda campaign for international intervention in Burma?
• Unprecedented opposition to CAW’s concession-filled deal with Ford Canada
• Tensions rise in Democratic contest as Obama nears nomination
• Russia and Georgia on the brink of armed conflict over Abkhazia
• Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
• Germany: Verdi blocks postal strike
• San Francisco International Film Festival 2008
  Part 1: Some interesting films from newer directors

May 12, 2008

• Cyclone disaster worsens in Burma
• Letters from our readers
• US environmental regulatory official forced out after dispute with Dow Chemical
• Iraq: Agreement struck to end fighting in Sadr City
• ISSE meeting in Delaware: The financial crisis and the threat of another Great Depression
• Lebanon: Hezbollah makes show of strength against Siniora government
• Mary Tillman denounces cover-up of son’s “friendly fire” killing in Afghanistan

May 13, 2008

• American Axle threatens additional plant closure
  UAW president says union will accept massive concessions
• Massive earthquake in China kills at least 10,000
• Congressional Democrats plan three-stage charade to pass Iraq war funds
• Germany: From union boss to company executive—the case of Norbert Hansen
• Malaysia’s ruling coalition rattled after election debacle
• New Zealand student debt levels reach $10 billion mark
• More than 20 killed as tornadoes strike the southern US
• US congressional probe charges
  Utah mine officials lied to federal agency before Crandall Canyon disaster
• Workers Struggles: The Americas
• Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai agrees to second round of elections

May 14, 2008

• Australia: Rudd Labor’s budget delivers for business and the wealthy
• In midst of early contract talks
  GM Canada announces closure of last Windsor plant
• Death toll, economic consequences mount from China earthquake
• Defend public education against Sarkozy’s cuts!
• US: Nearly 400 immigrant workers arrested in slaughterhouse raid
• Britain’s rich get richer even as recession begins to bite
• San Francisco International Film Festival 2008
  Part 2: Dramas about poverty and war
• The tsunami in Sri Lanka: A case study in US humanitarian missions

May 15, 2008

• UAW president’s radio comments underscore union-management gang-up against American Axle strikers
• My Blueberry Nights: Not very much there, but was there ever?
• Bush Middle East trip highlights crisis of US policy
• As death toll climbs, Chinese earthquake exposes deep social divide
• Colombian extraditions aimed at covering up Uribe’s death squad ties
• Clinton wins West Virginia primary but Obama nears nomination
• East Timor: Rice rations for internal refugees cut off
• Judge cites conflict of interest in removing official from military commission
  Five charges approved and one rejected in 9/11 show trials
• Republicans lose Mississippi House seat despite anti-Obama campaign
• Systematic discrimination faces Palestinian refugees in Lebanon
• Britain: How the Socialist Workers Party rooted for Livingstone and Labour
• Turkish government pledges new attacks on workers
• Berlin transport workers’ strike
  The WSWS editorial board replies to a Verdi shop steward

May 16, 2008

• Canada: CAW tries to stampede GM and Chrysler workers into making huge concessions
• US workers paying the price for Wall Street’s debacle
• India’s Stalinists mount innocuous protests as masses confront spiraling food prices
• Israel’s crisis and the historic contradictions of Zionism
• Italy: Berlusconi’s new government promotes xenophobia
• Chinese president visits Japan: Tensions remain beneath talk of warmer ties
• Australia: $50,000 for a kidney? Doctor’s proposal highlights desperate health, social crisis
• Bush backs Israel as Palestinians mark 60 years of exile and oppression
• Empty rhetoric from Obama on American Axle strike
• San Francisco International Film Festival 2008
  Part 3: Not genuinely “close to life”
• Turkish youth hit hardest by unemployment
• Workers Struggles: Europe & Africa

May 17, 2008

• Berlin transport workers vote on contract
  How should workers proceed?
• Berlin transport strike: Workers write to the WSWS about Verdi sell-out
• Britain: Labour’s “re-launch” stymied by worsening economic forecast
• Death toll hits 78,000 in Burma as pressure mounts for international intervention
• China quake rescue operations face rising toll, strained public services
• Calling Pelosi’s bluff, Republicans temporarily block war-funding bill
• Letters from our readers
• France: One million strike in defence of education and social services
• Major Greek unions strike to protest privatization
• Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
• Australia: Peak union body calls off Qantas stoppages

May 18, 2008

• American Axle strikers denounce UAW sellout contract

May 19, 2008

• CIA death squads killing with “impunity” in Afghanistan
• Anger in Detroit over UAW sellout at American Axle
• “Appeasement” clash gives foretaste of McCain-Obama contest
• Detroit American Axle Workers Speak on UAW Sellout
• China’s earthquake: The most destructive in modern history
• Deal for Newsday reflects concentration of ownership in US newspaper industry
• Backroom deals by US service unions strip workers of rights
  SEIU/UNITE HERE assume role of labor contractors
• Serbia: Pro-Western president attempts to form a government
• But who, after all, was Victor Serge?
• Further job cuts at German-based Siemens
• Sri Lankan government installs paramilitary leader as chief minister in the East

May 20, 2008

• Australia: Demand mass meetings to reject Victorian teachers’ union sell-out!
• The New York Times and Washington’s new prison in Afghanistan
• Over 500 juveniles held by US in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Letters from our readers
• Australia: Haneef documents point to Howard cabinet’s role in witch-hunt
• India: BJP seizes on Jaipur bombing to promote communalism and social reaction
• Global survey reveals growing anger over social inequality
• US soldier in Iraq disciplined for using Koran as target practice
• France: LCR backs the CGT against undocumented workers
• Britain: ISSE addresses students during week of debates at the University of Sussex
• Workers Struggles: The Americas

May 21, 2008

• US and Israel refuse to attend international conference on cluster bomb ban
• Letters on the American Axle strike
• Australia: NSW teachers strike but union prepares to deliver staffing changes
• German parliamentary deputies award themselves hefty pay rise
• Senate committee passes pro-business housing bill amidst foreclosure crisis
• Israeli press reports US pledge of war on Iran—is Bush preparing an October Surprise?
• Iraq: Mass detentions in Mosul as troops move into Sadr City
• Rising death toll, popular anger in China quake
• Violent attacks on immigrants in South Africa
• Britain: University students face worsening conditions, rising debt
• ISSE meeting at University of New South Wales
  Forty years since May-June 1968: The lessons for today

May 22, 2008

• On eve of vote at largest Detroit local
  UAW pushes through sellout at smaller American Axle plants
• Obama gains majority of elected Democratic Party delegates
• Despite evidence of mental retardation, Mississippi executes inmate by lethal injection
• Credit crisis hits Iceland
• US Congress proposes allowing antitrust suits against OPEC
• Canada: Report whitewashes federal police’s intervention in 2006 elections
• FBI agents created “war crimes file” documenting US torture
• The Visitor: “Human” or “political”?
• NT intervention extended:
  Australian Labor budget punishes society’s most disadvantaged

May 23, 2008

• Detroit American Axle workers speak out against UAW betrayal
• Berlusconi government incites racist pogroms
• Chinese leaders respond to anger over shoddy buildings and lack of help
• Letters from our readers
• FBI files indict Bush, Cheney and Co. as war criminals
• Sydney hospital nurses impose work bans: not enough beds for the mentally ill
• As Senate approves new war funding, US massacres Iraqi civilians
• ISSE meeting at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
  Forty years since May-June 1968: The lessons for today
• Actors and Hollywood studios, networks far apart in negotiations
• Workers Struggles: Europe & Africa

May 24, 2008

• Australia: Details of the proposed AEU-Victorian government sell-out teachers’ agreement
• Britain: Conservative victory in Crewe and Nantwich as Labour disintegrates
• Russia, China denounce US missile shield at summit meeting
• Australia: NSW Labor government presses ahead with electricity privatisation
• French workers’ protests say ‘No!’ to pension reform
• Government wealth distribution report
  Germany: The growing gulf between rich and poor
• ISSE meetings in Sydney and Melbourne
  Forty years since May-June 1968: The lessons for today
• Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
• US Secretary of State Rice defends torture at Google event
• Texas towns sue Homeland Security over border wall plans

May 26, 2008

• Criminal investigation of Halliburton’s Nigerian operation widens
  Evidence of corruption during Cheney’s tenure
• Chinese earthquake threatens wider economic dislocation
• Britain: House repossessions rising sharply
• Aftermath of US slaughterhouse raid: Fear and repression grip Iowa town
• Iron Man: Just what sort of hero is this?
• Australia: Labor government backs witch-hunting of photographer Bill Henson
• Israel and Syria announce negotiations amid ongoing US-Israeli threats to Iran

May 27, 2008

• Belgium: Leterme government lurches from crisis to crisis
• Burma aid conference: Demands and ultimatums, but little money for the cyclone victims
• France: Fishermen strike against rising energy prices
• True to form, the Goodmans provide a fig leaf for the Democrats in Standing Up to the Madness
• US military attempts to reignite fighting with Mahdi Army
• French media lay out the red carpet for Olivier Besancenot
• Washington ratchets up pressure on Pakistan’s new government
• Australia: Escalating hostility among Victorian teachers to government-union deal

May 28, 2008

• The politics of provocation: Clinton, Obama and the American media
• Large majority vote against deal following Berlin transport strike
• Letters from our readers
• Army chief sworn in as Lebanon’s new president
• 1968: The general strike and the student revolt in France
  Part 1-A revolutionary situation develops
• Australia: NSW teachers strike against attacks on jobs and conditions
• The slaying of Mark Saunders: An escalation of Britain’s “shoot to kill” policy
• Sri Lankan journalists protest against abduction and torture of colleague
• Latin America: What are the real interests behind the creation of the Union of South American Nations?
• Workers Struggles: The Americas

May 29, 2008

• Low pay leads to poverty in British Army
• Military contractor Blackwater files suit to push through new California facility
• Ex-Bush spokesman: White House fed war propaganda to a “complicit” media
• Bush administration uses IAEA report to make new demands and threats to Iran
• Iran: Inflation, privatization intensify working class struggles
• 1968: The general strike and student revolt in France
  Part 2—The betrayal of the PCF and CGT
• Sharp increase in mental illness among US troops during 2007
• San Francisco International Film Festival 2008
  Part 4: Other stories, varying degrees of success
• The genealogy of torture
  Torture and Democracy by Darius Rejali
• Turkey: Conflict escalates between government and judiciary
• Spiralling prices in Vietnam provoke fears of social unrest

May 30, 2008

• Fallout from McClellan book: The Iraq war’s “complicit enablers,” then and now
• Dow Chemical announces massive price increase
• Tensions mount in the grand coalition
  German Social Democrats put forward their own presidential candidate
• Australian photographer Bill Henson—scapegoat for a wider assault on democratic rights
• Britain: An interview with the manager of Hicham Yezza’s defence campaign
  “The Home Office acts like a faceless machine”
• Canada complicit in illegal detention and torture of Omar Khadr
• Phoenix spacecraft lands near Mars polar icecap
• End of Nepalese monarchy sets stage for new period of political instability
• American filmmaker Sydney Pollack (1934-2008)
• Why have the findings of the Solomon Islands Commission of Inquiry into the 2006 riots not been released?
• Workers Struggles: Europe & Africa
• Britain: Oppose deportation of Hicham Yezza

May 31, 2008

• US: AFTRA capitulates to the studios and networks, the pressure is on SAG
• Chinese earthquake victims face continuing hardship and new threats
• Letters from our readers
• New York construction workers killed and injured in another high-rise accident
• Australia: Unions call off rallies against NSW electricity privatisation
• US academic Norman Finkelstein denied entry to Israel
• French government prepares new cuts in unemployment compensation
• Thousands of Iraqis protest agreement for indefinite US occupation
• Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
• German Left Party holds its first congress