Britain's Conservatives spout racist law and order rhetoric
Britain's Conservative Party leader William Hague has set out his stall for the General Election—expected early next year—with an open appeal to racial prejudice and demands for more aggressive law and...
View ArticleHayes-Tilden dispute of 1876 foreshadowed eruption of class conflict
One hundred twenty-four years ago another disputed presidential election took place under conditions of sharp social polarization in the United States. The presidential contest of 1876 between Democrat...
View ArticleDetroit police gun down another mentally ill man
A mentally ill Detroit resident, 22-year-old Sharrone Mathews, was shot dead by police early on the morning of December 13. Nearly a dozen officers fired 80 rounds of ammunition at the young man who...
View ArticleAustralian government to abolish welfare entitlements
In one of its final acts for the year, the Australian government handed down a “directional statement” on December 14 that abolishes the social welfare payments system as it has existed since World War...
View ArticleUS Congress, Clinton shelve aid to low-paid and immigrant workers
The first victims of the stolen US presidential election are the most oppressed sections of the American working class. Acting only three days after the Supreme Court awarded the presidency to George...
View ArticleSri Lankan government and LTTE inch closer to negotiations
Under pressure from the major powers, the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are inching toward talks aimed at ending the civil war that has engulfed the island for...
View ArticleFamily ties, political bias linked US Supreme Court justices to Bush camp
It is a well-known fact that the five Supreme Court justices who threw the presidential election to George W. Bush in their ruling December 12 were appointed by Republican presidents—three by Ronald...
View ArticleAustralian power workers reject union attempt to impose job cuts
Power workers at Yallourn Energy in Victoria's La Trobe Valley have defied their union leadership and voted down a new three-year workplace agreement in a secret ballot conducted over three days. The...
View ArticleTurks mount protests in London
Demonstrators protesting the brutal killing of dozens of political prisoners by Turkey's security forces earlier this week occupied the London Eye—the English capital's big wheel attraction—on...
View ArticleNew York City police seek new restrictions on public protests
The New York City Police Department has proposed changes in the rules governing parades, rallies and protests. They amount to an attempt by the administration of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to further...
View ArticleTurkish state suppresses prison revolts
Brandishing rifles and waving the Turkish flag, thousands of right-wing policemen have demonstrated over the past days for the release of their colleagues in the prison service who have been convicted...
View ArticleRwanda on the offensive in Congo War
Rwandan troops and rebel forces of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) have routed government troops of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The RCD has taken over the towns of Peta and Pweto in...
View ArticleWorkers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
Union leaders close down postal strike in India
View ArticleBritain: Children targeted by police investigating ten-year-old's death
A 15 year old boy from Camberwell, South London was arrested on December 21 in connection with the death of 10 year old Damilola Taylor on November 27. The boy was arrested during a pre-dawn raid at...
View ArticleWall Street Journal targets Jesse Jackson: opening salvo in an attack on...
Within the establishment press the Wall Street Journal serves as a mouthpiece for the most right-wing elements of the Republican Party and American ruling circles in general. Thus the appearance of an...
View ArticleMiddle East negotiations in Washington amidst continuing violence
Expectations are high that some form of agreement will emerge from four days of talks between Israel and Palestine in Washington.
View ArticleAustralian welfare agencies unable to meet Christmas need for assistance
In the lead-up to Christmas, many Australian charities have reported that the demand for their services has never been greater. By Christmas Day, tens of thousands of needy individuals and families are...
View ArticleThe US media: a critical component of the conspiracy against democratic...
This is the fifth in a series of articles on the ideological and political role of the American media. Part one appeared on December 5, part two on December 7, part three on December 16 and part four...
View ArticleWorld Bank and donor countries set the agenda for Sri Lankan government
A two-day meeting of the Sri Lankan donor countries organised by the World Bank in Paris on December 18-19 has insisted that the Peoples Alliance (PA) government take steps to end the country's war,...
View ArticlePinochet's legal victories may see him escape trial
Chile's former dictator Augusto Pinochet has won a series of legal victories over the past week that may bring an end to the most prominent of the 190 criminal lawsuits filed against him since 1998.
View ArticleUS mayors report increasing hunger and homelessness in American cities
A report issued this month by the United States Conference of Mayors concludes that requests for emergency food assistance and emergency shelter increased dramatically in American cities in the year 2000.
View ArticleThe Bohemian Grove club: America's ruling elite at work and play
The World Socialist Web Site has noted the political and personal bonds linking members of the US Supreme Court with the incoming Republican administration (see: “Family ties, political bias linked US...
View ArticleChristmas night fire kills 311 in central China
A Christmas night inferno in a four-storey building has claimed at least 311 lives in Luoyang, the capital of the central Chinese province of Henan. More than 50 other victims are being treated in...
View ArticleTurner Prize award to Wolfgang Tillmans hailed as shift in focus
This year's £20,000 Turner Prize for Art was awarded for the first time to a photographer—the 34-year old, German-born artist Wolfgang Tillmans.
View ArticleThe political crisis in the US: its implications for Europe and the world
Below we publish the English translation of the editorial of the January 2001 edition of Gleichheit, the journal of the Partei für Soziale Gleichheit (Socialist Equality Party of Germany).
View ArticleElectrical utilities hold California hostage
On December 22 the California State Public Utilities Commission (PUC) announced it would raise electricity rates on January 4, in response to ultimatums from Edison, the giant electric utility that...
View ArticleRetrial underway in the case of the "Hsichih Trio"
The retrial of three men facing execution over a 1991 murder case has been underway in Taiwan since November 16. Su Chien-ho, Liu Bin-lang and Chuang Lin-hsun, known in Taiwan as the “Hsichih Trio,”...
View ArticleTerence Davies' The House of Mirth: a comment and a press conference with the...
We re-post below a review of The House of Mirth , directed by Terence Davies, based on the novel by American author Edith Wharton, which has just opened in the US. The comment by David Walsh,...
View ArticleOne critic's picks for top jazz and blues albums of 2000
Michael G. Nastos hosts “Evening Jazz & Blues” weeknights on WEMU-FM, 89.1, in Ypsilanti, Michigan, as he has for 22 of his 30 years in radio. He has written for the Alchemist , the All Music Guide...
View ArticleBritain: Labour Home Secretary supports reinstatement of racist policeman
A London police constable sacked for calling a 14-year-old suspect a "black bastard" was reinstated December 21 by a Home Office disciplinary appeals tribunal.
View ArticleIsraeli-Palestinian negotiations stalled
On Wednesday December 27, the planned summit between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss US proposals to resolve the...
View ArticleTwo stowaways fall to their deaths from British planes
Two men died over the Christmas holidays after apparently falling from two different aeroplanes above Gatwick airport, near London. The two men are believed to be immigrants attempting to stowaway on...
View ArticleGeorge W. Bush: president-elect or president-select?
Since Al Gore's December 13 concession speech, Texas Governor George W. Bush has been given the title president-elect. This is the term traditionally accorded to the individual who is elected by the...
View ArticleAustralian government refuses to search for missing refugees
More than two weeks after Australia's Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock announced that two boats carrying up to 163 refugees to Australia from Indonesia may have sunk, it is still not clear how many,...
View ArticleOpen appeals to chauvinism divide the Parti Québécois
The Parti Québécois, the indépendantiste party which forms Quebec's provincial government, is going through a crisis that reveals its profound contradictions and portends a turn of the Quebec...
View ArticleSouth Korean police storm bank workers' occupation
South Korean union leaders called off a week-long strike by employees of the Kookmin and Housing & Commercial banks on December 28, the day after 8,000 riot police stormed a training centre being...
View ArticleUS economy on the way to recession
Less than three months ago the International Monetary Fund gave the following assessment for the US and world economy.
View ArticleChinese authorities commit workers' leader to psychiatric hospital to halt...
In a transparent attempt to stamp out a protracted protest by workers at the Fuming County Silk Factory in China's eastern Jiangsu province, management and public security officials arrested one of the...
View ArticleAustralia's Centenary of Federation inspires little public enthusiasm
January 1, 2001 is the centenary of the proclamation of the Commonwealth of Australia—then a federation of six British colonies. Considerable efforts have been made in recent months by federal and...
View ArticleUS targets Venezuela: Bush plans aggressive policy in Latin America
The incoming Republican Party administration in Washington plans to take a tougher and more aggressive line in Latin America, targeting nationalists regarded as opponents of American economic and...
View ArticleUS economy on the way to recession
Less than three months ago the International Monetary Fund gave the following assessment for the US and world economy.
View ArticleBritain's Labour government kowtows to fox hunting lobby
Britain's pro-fox hunting lobby staged a show of strength on December 26, the traditional Boxing Day holiday. Press reports claimed that some 300,000 people around the country showed up for fox hunts...
View ArticleDavid Walsh chooses his favorite films of 2000
I thought this was a particularly poor year for American films, perhaps European as well. The strongest films continue to come from Asia. But film and art in general need a new aesthetic and social...
View ArticleJudge bends law to toss out convictions of Los Angeles police
A Los Angeles trial judge has overturned the criminal convictions of three Los Angeles anti-gang officers. The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office must now decide whether to appeal the ruling, retry...
View ArticleWorkers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
Korean communications union ends strike
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