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Clinton claims Democratic nomination after winning four of six final states

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Clinton’s victory speech on Tuesday night centered on the supposedly historic character of her campaign as the first woman to be the nominee of the Democratic or Republican parties.

California primary voters speak on social inequality, war

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Voters went to polls on Tuesday in the final six primary contests of the 2016 election cycle, with the exception of the District of Columbia, which will vote next week.

Markets applaud speech by Fed Chair Yellen signaling delay in rate hikes

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The response of markets to signs of economic distress and signals that the Fed will keep cheap credit flowing was typical of the period since the financial crash—relief and exultation.

UK: Tata Steel completes sale of Long Division plant to Greybull

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Steel workers jobs will be axed and wages, pensions and working conditions undermined with the full compliance of the unions, who will police the shop floor.

Left Party defends austerity in Berlin

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Between 2001 and 2011, the Social Democrat-Left Party coalition imposed the most severe austerity measures in Berlin’s post-war history.

Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines supports state burial for Ferdinand Marcos

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The CPP is entering an alliance with incoming President Rodrigo Duterte and, in doing so, its leader Joma Sison has endorsed the state burial of the dictator Marcos.

Papua New Guinea police shoot protesting students, killing four

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

About 2,000 students and staff are currently being held by police at the University of Technology in Lae, the country’s second largest city.

Australia’s increasing suicide rate linked to social crisis

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The recent report draws a connection between deteriorating economic conditions and the 22 percent increase in suicide between 2004 and 2014.

Minnesota nurses reject health care concessions, authorize strike

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

On Monday, 5,000 nurses at Allina Health in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota overwhelming rejected the hospital chain’s demands for health care concessions and voted to strike.

Fallujah: A symbol of US war crimes

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The humanitarian disaster that is unfolding in Fallujah is the product of the US-led invasion in 2003 and Washington’s deliberate stoking of sectarian conflict in the face of determined Iraqi resistance.

The media drive to shut down the Sanders campaign

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The media and the Democratic Party establishment are acting preemptively to crown Hillary Clinton as the presumptive presidential nominee.

UK: Why are the Socialist Workers Party and the Greens debating the merits of the European Union?

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The stated defence by the Green Party and the Socialist Workers Party of “open borders” and the rights of migrants is a charade.

Love & Friendship: An early Jane Austen work adapted

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

In England in 1790, Lady Susan Vernon, widowed and penniless, schemes to reverse her fortunes.

Australia: The promotion of Senator Jacqui Lambie

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Lambie has sought to fashion another right-wing populist formation to divert the mounting social and class tensions.

New Panama Papers revelations highlight use of tax havens by wealthy US clients

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The law firm Mossack Fonseca, the subject of the Panama Papers leak, helped wealthy US clients avoid taxes through private foundations, bogus charities and shell companies.

Mexico state and municipal elections deal blow to ruling party

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The entire ruling structure has been discredited by endemic corruption, state and drug cartel violence, a stagnant economy and the escalating assault on the working class.

Clinton campaign, media rush to declare Clinton the Democratic nominee

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The rush to declare Clinton the presumptive nominee is a measure not of political strength on the part of the Clinton campaign, but rather immense weakness and crisis.

US confronts China over trade, investment in Beijing talks

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew set the tone for the annual dialogue with imperious demands that China slash overcapacity in steel and aluminium.

Canada’s ruling elite uses diplomatic flap to caution Trudeau over China

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Canada’s media and opposition parties seized on the Chinese foreign minister’s dressing down of a Canadian journalist to press for a harder line against Beijing.

The assassination of Mullah Akhtar Mansour: Washington plays with fire in Eurasia’s geopolitical tinderbox—Part Two

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Last month’s assassination of the Taliban’s political leader by a squadron of US military drones that had invaded Pakistan has intensified explosive geopolitical conflicts in the Eurasian heartland.

Sri Lankan armoury explosion forces thousands to flee

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Hundreds of homes have been destroyed in the highly-populated villages around the Salawa military complex, near the capital, Colombo.

Two UAW officials injured in shooting near Ford Chicago Assembly Plant

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Two United Auto Workers officials were shot in a dispute Friday night following the announcement of the union’s local election results.

Maoists take cabinet positions in Philippine government

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The Maoist officials in the Duterte administration will be directly responsible for carrying out the suppression of the working class.

Mental health crisis mounts in Illinois amid budget impasse

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

An 11-month budget impasse and funding cuts threaten basic mental health provision in Illinois.

One in seven children in Germany relies on social welfare

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Almost a decade and a half after the “Agenda 2010” reforms, more than 1.5 million children under the age of 15 rely on Hartz IV welfare.

The case for an active boycott of the Brexit referendum

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The struggle for a socialist Britain within a United Socialist States of Europe is a burning necessity for workers who, in every country, face the same class enemy and the same problems of austerity and war.

UK: The political fraud of the Another Europe is Possible campaign

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The campaign makes no mention of the Cameron government’s austerity agenda that has seen millions of jobs destroyed, wages cut, welfare slashed to the bone and migrants denied entry to the UK.

SEP holds election meetings in Sydney and Melbourne

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

At both meetings, workers and young people discussed the socialist alternative to war, austerity and the assault on democratic rights.

Night without end: Don DeLillo’s Zero K

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

American author Don DeLillo’s 17th novel is a dark story about the determination of a small group of wealthy individuals to have their bodies cryogenically preserved.

Part Five: The TWU and MUA “training funds” and the CFMEU’s “drug and alcohol committee”

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Millions of dollars flow into trade union coffers via arrangements between their various “funds,” “organisations” and “committees,” and the major employers.

Workers Struggles: The Americas

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.

NATO launches largest anti-Russian war game since Cold War

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Over 30,000 soldiers are participating in war games in Poland, based on a scenario in which war erupts between the NATO military alliance and Russia.

Washington and Beijing draw battle lines over South China Sea

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter threatened that China “could end up erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation.”

Hundreds more refugees die in the Mediterranean

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Within eight days, many more than 1,200 refugees have drowned during their voyage to Europe.

UK Labour leader Corbyn stakes his future on vote to remain in EU

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Corbyn is towing the line dictated by the dominant sections of British imperialism, which see membership of the EU as essential for securing Britain’s economic interests.

San Diego transit strike called off after agreement announced

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Terms of the new contract covering workers at First Transit have not been made available by either the company or the union.

Anohni speaks on war, inequality and Obama

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The World Socialist Web Site spoke to Anohni about her new album.

Zika virus causes first mainland US case of microcephaly

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The Zika virus continues to spread, particularly in areas of concentrated poverty, as researchers struggle to predict its potential impact.

Australian economic growth data masks slump and inequality

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

While output rose, disposable income has now fallen for two years, indicating declining living standards.

Investigation reveals signs of nationwide US water crisis

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

As many as 33 major US cities were found to have engaged in deceptive water testing procedures to hide high lead levels in drinking water, according to a Guardian investigation.

The dismantling of public education and Obama’s education legacy

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The past eight years have seen an unprecedented assault on the right to public education spearheaded by the Obama administration and the financial industry.

Australia: Melbourne homeless continue city protest

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Homeless people are defying arrest threats, city council denunciations and a media slander campaign.

German government tightens anti-terror laws

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Throughout Europe, the terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris are being used as a pretext for constructing a police state, just as happened in the US following the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

Verizon workers discuss CWA contract betrayal

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The Communications Workers of America, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the media have unleashed a barrage of propaganda to back the sellout deal

Who will follow the example of Muhammad Ali’s principled stand in our day?

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The former heavyweight boxing champion, who died June 3, made his chief mark on history and popular consciousness by his courageous opposition to the Vietnam War.

Striking rail workers speak out on movement against French labor law

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

WSWS reporters spoke to striking rail workers and students mobilized in solidarity with their strike at railway stations across Paris.

This week in history: June 6-12

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.

Anohni’s Hopelessness: A protest against war, drone bombings and more

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Anohni is the British-born, American transgender singer formerly known as Antony Hegarty who released five albums under the name Antony and the Johnsons.

US economy adds fewest jobs in five years

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The US economy added only 38,000 jobs in May, the fewest since 2010, in another indication of the persistent slump gripping the US economy.

As her poll numbers decline, Clinton appeals to military in San Diego speech

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

On the eve of the California primaries, Hillary Clinton made the case to the military-intelligence apparatus that she is best-suited to defend the interests of the ruling class abroad.

The assassination of Mullah Akhtar Mansour: Washington plays with fire in Eurasia’s geopolitical tinderbox—Part 1

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The US’s May 21 assassination of the Taliban’s political leader was an immense provocation and a grave warning to the international working class.

What is behind the Armenian resolution passed by the German parliament?

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

On Thursday, the German parliament passed a resolution describing the mass murder of up to 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as “genocide.”

A dozen dead, tens of thousands displaced as floods hit Germany and France

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Floods claimed between 12 and 18 lives, according to initial reports, and it is feared that the death toll could climb higher.

Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.

Scotland’s RISE electoral coalition descends into crisis

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

RISE is led by an aspiring middle class layer of academics and commentators seeking to build their careers through the creation of a new Scottish capitalist state

Sri Lankan government exploits flood disaster to evict Colombo’s poor

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The forced removal of slum dwellers is part of the government’s Megapolis project to serve international and local investors.

Portrait of the social crisis in America: Rockford, Illinois

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

After decades of robust industry and manufacturing, the city now faces rising unemployment, poverty and social misery.

Peter Schwarz, secretary of the ICFI, to speak at London public meeting on June 14

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Peter Schwarz will speak on the historical experience of the German workers’ movement, which paid a terrible price for the subordination of the Communist Party of Germany to nationalism in the 1930s.

British pensioners over 75 increasingly likely to live in poverty

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Just under a quarter of single pensioners are living in poverty.

Canadian court rejects indefinite detention of man under anti-democratic Security Certificate

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Under Security Certificates, anyone who is not a citizen can be detained indefinitely on the government’s say-so and with the detainee having no right to see the evidence against them.

Tamil nationalists hail government on Sri Lankan civil war victims’ Memorial Day

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

C. V. Wigneswaran applauded the US-backed Sri Lankan regime, whose top officials oversaw the massacres at the end of the war, for its “good governance.”

Australia’s Nick Xenophon: An “anti-politician” with a nationalist and militarist program

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Xenophon’s party is trying to channel the immense social discontent being produced by massive job losses back into the dead-end of the parliamentary system.

School closed in remote Australian indigenous community

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

None of the underlying causes of the social and economic problems in Aurukun have been addressed in the corporate media.

Economic nationalism and the growing danger of war

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The global economy is increasingly marked by the return of the types of economic nationalism that had such devastating consequences in the 1930s.

Part Three: The trade unions as insurance brokers

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Behind their backs, unions and employers funnel workers’ entitlements for illness, redundancy, injury and death into the unions’ own insurance companies.

The US elections and the criminalization of American politics

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The leading contenders for the Republican and Democratic Parties, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, may both face criminal indictments before the elections.

Economic conflicts threaten global trade war

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The decision by the US International Trade Commission to launch an investigation into 40 Chinese steel producers has far-reaching implications.

CWA-Verizon “agreement in principle” facilitates victimization of workers

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Verizon workers are reporting stepped up harassment from management since the unions shut down the seven-week strike.

Police carry out militarized lockdown of UCLA after murder-suicide

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Multiple police departments, including several SWAT teams as well as the FBI, swarmed the California university in response to reports of a shooting on the campus.

DOJ rules out charges against Minneapolis police officers who killed Jamar Clark

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Federal prosecutors determined that the officers were justified in shooting Clark in the back of the head as he was pinned down to the ground.

Strikes in France elicit support from German workers

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Sympathy from workers and young people, anger and resentment in the media—this is how Germany is reacting to the strikes in France.

German Left Party congress carries out further shift to the right

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Regardless of the standard trite phrases about social justice, the Left Party set a political course at its party congress for participation in government at the federal level.

Sri Lankan president attends G7 “outreach meeting”

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The gathering’s main purpose was to more firmly tie the countries involved in the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia.”

Anti-migrant propaganda dominates UK Brexit referendum

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Both the Remain and Leave campaigns for the June 23 referendum on UK membership of the European Union are pushing anti-migrant measures.

New TamilNet slanders against WSWS: an admission of political bankruptcy

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The Tamil nationalists did not answer the WSWS’s exposure of its slanders that the WSWS supports imperialism and genocide, but accused it of defending the Sri Lankan state.

Part Two: Companies pay union “membership fees”

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

In exchange for implementing their agenda, major employers pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to the unions.

The Strategy of the Intermarium—Part 4

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

This is the final part of a series reviewing the history of the Intermarium, which was developed as a bourgeois nationalist antipode to the United Socialist States of Europe as proposed by Leon Trotsky.

Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.

The dismantling of public education and Obama's education legacy

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The past eight years have seen an unprecedented assault on the right to public education that has been spearheaded by the Obama administration and the financial industry.

HBO’s “Girls”: What should the voice of this generation say?

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Praise for Lena Dunham’s “Girls” generally lauds its “frankness” and “realism” about the unpleasant, even ugly, aspects of life for American youth.

US death rate rose in 2015

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The mortality rate in the United States increased across the board last year, reflecting the impact of mass unemployment, austerity, stagnating wages and benefit cuts.

Lessons of the Verizon strike

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The CWA and IBEW conspired with the Obama administration to prevent a unified struggle of workers against declining real wages and the explosion of social inequality.

Deepening crisis in Democratic Party ahead of California primary

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

There are mounting signs frontrunner Hillary Clinton could lose the crucial primary in the most populous US state, putting her nomination in jeopardy.

More than 2,500 refugees drowned in Mediterranean so far this year

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The number of refugee deaths over the first five months of this year, up 35 percent from 2015, has hit a new record.

Strike wave against labor law spreads in France

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

As the trade union bureaucracy prepares to sell out an escalating strike wave, opposition to the Socialist Party’s “El Khomri” labor reform is mounting in the working class.

Returning Verizon workers face consequences of CWA betrayal

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

With Verizon workers demobilized by the unions, management set out to implement a new regime of harassment by victimizing militant workers for wearing red strike T-shirts.

UK firms use new regulations to cut pay and conditions

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Many of the attacks on wages and conditions began within the food industry, which is heavily reliant on the use of agency workers as cheap labour.