Author's posts
Feb 27 2009
‘We need to fight every job cut’
Original article, subtitled Sacked Cowley worker speaks out warning others not to waste the mood to resist, via SocialistWorker Online (UK):
“If our unions fight back when bosses announce redundancies, then we’ve got a chance to save jobs. But if we’re told to quietly walk away, then we’re all done for.”
Feb 26 2009
Marx becomes a Marxist
Original article, subheaded Karl Marx developed his ideas in an era of when young people were dedicating their lives to a struggle for new rights and freedoms. Brian Jones examines Marx’s revolutionary ideas in this second of three articles, via socialistworker.org:
HOW DID Karl Marx become a Marxist? Marx developed his idea not just through study–although he was a voracious reader (really, the word “voracious” doesn’t begin to touch it). Marx’s Marxism is really the theoretical product of his practical efforts to build a movement for radical change, and his observations of struggles taking place around him.
Feb 25 2009
Byrd: Obama in power grab
Original article via the Politico: http://www.politico.com/news/s…
Feb 21 2009
When Science Fiction Meets Marxism
Original article, by Christos Kefalis and subtitled John Carpenter’s “They Live“, via dissidentvoice.org:
Science fiction has been frequently utilized in embellishing the capitalist system. Suffice it to mention movies like Superman and Exterminator, which, under a seemingly innocent story, cover a barely hidden apology of its dominant values. In the history of the seventh art there exist, however, opposing examples where the symbolism of the imaginary is used for aims of social criticism. One of the most outstanding is undoubtedly offered by John’s Carpenter’s They Live. Although it appeared about 20 years ago, in 1988, the movie remains timely and relevant as one of the most devastating and sharp criticisms of American imperialism ever made. And it also reads as prophesy of what later crystallized to be the embodiment of its most brutal features, the corrupt and cynical Bush administration, now leaving the scene.
Feb 21 2009
The reactionary politics of economic nationalism
Original article, by Ulrich Rippert subheaded German union seeks to divide European and North American GM workers, via World Socialist Web Site:
On Tuesday, General Motors announced plans to cut its workforce world-wide by 47,000, with 26,000 jobs to be slashed in Europe alone. The main German engineering union, IG Metall, and its shop stewards organized in works councils at GM’s German subsidiary Opel, reacted to the announcement by rejecting any joint struggle by GM workers in Europe and North America.
Feb 19 2009
Record slump in Japan: a sign of deepening global recession
Original article, by Peter Symonds, via World Socialist Web Site:
A dramatic slump in the Japanese economy in late 2008 is another ominous sign that the global economic crisis is continuing to snowball, with no end in sight. Economic data released on Monday revealed that the world’s second largest economy contracted at an annualised rate of 12.7 percent for the final quarter of 2008-the third straight quarterly fall and the steepest decline since 1974. Deutsche Bank in Tokyo bluntly predicted a “severe depression” in Japan, lasting at least until late 2010.
Feb 18 2009
It’s one law for them… and another law for us
Compare the treatment of a disgraced banker like Andy Hornby with BMW workers like Roger Freitis, sacked at an hour’s notice
Disgraced bank boss Andy Hornby
Wrecked the HBOS banking group but pocketed
£1.3 million in bonuses
Left the bank with a £2.4 million pension pot
Now a ‘consultant’ with Lloyds TSB and scraping by on £66,000 a
month
Former BMW worker Roger Freitis
Worked for BMW on a temporary
contract for two years but sacked with an hour’s notice
Helped to make his
firm £3.4 billion in profits in 2007
Now on the dole with a child and
mortgage
The following should be read alongside this article:» Bankers’ ‘sorry’ just isn’t good enough
»Fury as Cowley workers sacked with hour’s notice
» Derek Simpson and the ‘British Jobs’ slogan danger
» Union fight derailed by reliance on Gordon Brown
» Agency staff: Labour blocked workers’ rights
© Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.
Feb 17 2009
Britain: Police will not be prosecuted for Jean Charles de Menezes killing
Original article, by Paul Bond, via World Socialist Web Site:
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced Friday that no police officer would face trial for the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes. The CPS had reviewed the case following the open verdict given in December by an inquest jury, who rejected the police account of events. De Menezes’s family has announced that they will sue Scotland Yard for damages.
Feb 16 2009
Obama administration seeks to block lawsuit over illegal wiretapping
Original article, By John Burton and Marge Holland, via World Socialist Web Site:
For the second time in less than a week, lawyers from the Justice Department headed by Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder have embraced the Bush administration’s pseudo-legal argument that the “state secrets” doctrine bars civil lawsuits challenging the methods used in its so-called “war on terror.”
Feb 15 2009
Revolt is in the air
Original article, subtitled The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression is throwing countries across Europe into turmoil–and spurring struggles unseen in years. Eric Ruder looks at what the future may hold, via socialistworker.org:
THE FINANCIAL turmoil that began in the summer of 2007 in the U.S. is spreading around the globe with frightening speed and devastating consequences for working people.