World Socialist Web Site

 

Archive: December 2005

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.

1 December 2005

• Bush, Democrats back protracted war in Iraq
• Staggering death rate for youth in Chicago juvenile justice system
• Film festivals in Cottbus and Neubrandenburg
  Realism and nostalgia
  Part 1—Documentary films
• Republican Congressman pleads guilty in bribe scheme
• Deutsche Telekom to slash 32,000 jobs
• Chemical spill pollutes water supply in north-eastern China
• Socialist Equality Party public meeting
  Australian anti-terror laws: framework of a police state
• Probe exposes criminal methods in Republican right takeover of US Public TV
• Sri Lanka: LTTE Heroes Day speech reveals an organisation in crisis
• The Wall Street Journal and the case of Jose Padilla

2 December 2005

• Italy’s constitutional “reform”: the gravedigger of post-war democracy
• Merck announces 7,000 layoffs—continued attack on jobs and wages in US
• Made in the USA “free press” in Iraq
  US military covertly pays to plant stories in Iraqi media
• Kidnapping, detention, torture: US “renditions” scandal embroils whole of Europe
• New Sri Lankan president confronts same impasse as predecessor
• Australian government insists on sedition clauses in new terrorism legislation
• Repression in southern Thailand provokes recriminations against Thaksin government
• Workers Struggles: Europe & Africa

3 December 2005

• Britain: Two charged under Secrets Act for leaking Bush threat to bomb Al Jazeera
• Film festivals in Cottbus and Neubrandenburg
  Part 2—Feature films
• A grim US milestone: 1,000th execution since 1976
• Ford to close five North American plants, cut 7,500 jobs
• US press echoes consensus in ruling elite to continue slaughter in Iraq
• Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
• Profit-driven Medicare drug plan stirs confusion and anger
• An act of barbarism
  Nguyen Tuong Van executed in Singapore
• Germany: Protests against Samsung factory closure
• Factional infighting in Sri Lankan opposition following electoral defeat

5 December 2005

• Chinese mine disaster kills at least 164
• The rise of the religious right in Australia
  God Under Howard by Marion Maddox
• Britain’s education white paper: A recipe for privatisation and social selection
• France: Anti-terrorism legislation tramples on civil liberties
• Second disaster looming for millions of Kashmir earthquake victims
• Ten Marines killed in Fallujah blast: more carnage in a colonialist war
• Document puts lie to oil executives’ testimony
  Did Big Oil participate in planning invasion of Iraq?

6 December 2005

• Bush uses World AIDS Day to push Christian right agenda
• Week one of Canada’s federal election campaign—posturing, demagogy and reaction
• Germany: Grand coalition leader Merkel sugar-coats program of social cuts
• Australia: James Hardie demands more concessions on asbestos compensation deal
• Democrat denounces opposition to Iraq war
  What is troubling Joe Lieberman?
• India: floods kill hundreds in Tamil Nadu
• Rice defends illegal “renditions,” threatens to reveal European complicity
• India takes a more direct hand in Sri Lankan affairs
• Workers Struggles: The Americas

7 December 2005

• Letters from our readers
• A valuable and compelling antiwar film
• Mass protest in Hong Kong against new chief executive
• Bush, Rice defend US abductions, torture, secret prisons
• Killing of Sri Lankan soldiers heightens tensions on Jaffna peninsula
• Study finds hundreds of toxic chemicals in umbilical cords of newborns
• Venezuelan vote boycott: Washington paves road to intervention

8 December 2005

• Palestinian activist Sami Al-Arian acquitted on charges in Florida
• The Democratic Party and the struggle against the Iraq war
  A reply to a reader
• The fate of hostage Susanne Osthoff and the role of the German government
• Australia: thousands attend funeral for Van Nguyen
• Report outlines plans for corporate plunder of Iraqi oil
• Sri Lankan president installs unstable minority government
• Britain: Former law lord says US “guilty of lawlessness on a truly grand scale”
• US: Verizon to freeze defined-benefit pensions for 50,000 managers

9 December 2005

• Left press in France all but ignores Sarkozy’s Anti-Terrorist Bill
• John McCain in Ann Arbor: a cowardly evasion on US war crimes
• German Chancellor Merkel covers up for illegal CIA practices
• Harold Pinter’s Nobel Prize speech: a brave artist speaks the truth about US imperialism
• Australia: Labor puts profits ahead of children’s health at Port Pirie
• European governments make their peace with Washington on abductions, torture
• Miami airplane shooting: Washington’s “war on terrorism” comes home
• A day in the life of a Sri Lankan tea worker
• Letter on the UAW from a former US auto worker
• Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa

10 December 2005

• Letters from our readers
• Auto union’s complaint: Delphi exec bonuses make it tough to sell wage cuts
• Saddam Hussein hearings: a show trial orchestrated in Washington
• Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
• Eyewitnesses refute official story in fatal shooting of passenger at Miami airport
• Strikebreaking threats as contract deadline nears
  Transit dispute exposes New York City’s class divide
• Australian treasurer steps up ideological offensive against welfare recipients

12 December 2005

• WTO trade talks head for a stalemate
• Spain’s largest trial targets Basque separatist ETA
• Rigoberto Alpizar and Jean Charles de Menezes: Two victims of state “anti-terror” killings
• Explosions rip through British oil depot
• Government and media provocations spark racist violence on Sydney beaches
• Sri Lankan government announces a phoney “pro-poor” budget
• New York City transit workers vote to authorize strike

13 December 2005

• The execution of Stanley Tookie Williams
• As Australian media covers up Howard’s role
  Racial violence continues in Sydney
• Deal to renew USA Patriot Act extends police-state measures
• German Chancellor Merkel’s state visit to Poland: you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours
• Taiwan: ruling party suffers heavy losses in local elections
• Bush aides suppressed challenges to anti-democratic election plans
• Workers’ Struggles: The Americas

14 December 2005

• In wake of racial violence in Sydney
  Australian state government prepares savage attack on democratic rights
• New Delhi presses ahead with plans for an Indian “Suez Canal”
• Iraq elections: a democratic façade for a US puppet state
• Three months after the Katrina disaster: New Orleans left for dead
• Le Parti Québécois chooses André Boisclair as its new leader—a further shift to the right
• An interview with Sigfrido Ranucci, director of The Hidden Massacre
• Britain’s law lords reject use of torture evidence
• Thousands protest outside San Quentin
  Worldwide outrage over execution of Stanley Tookie Williams

15 December 2005

• Chinese police massacre protestors in Guangdong
• Letters from our readers
• Germany: Ex-Chancellor Schröder launches corporate career
• British newspaper alleges Israel is planning a military strike on Iran
• Australian government tries to censor Indonesian film festival
• Pentagon’s domestic spying operations target opponents of Iraq war
• Britain: President of the Royal Society makes outspoken defence of science
• Slovenia: Protests against government reforms

16 December 2005

• Canada: Martin wraps himself in the Maple Leaf after scolding from US envoy
• Letters on the killing of Rigoberto Alpizar
• US ambassador “will remain the critical behind-the-scenes power,” says New York Times
  Iraqi election to rubber-stamp continued US occupation
• New Zealand: new Labour-led government under pressure for more market reform
• Israel: Shimon Peres joins Sharon’s new party
• The political issues confronting New York City transit workers
• Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa

17 December 2005

• Letters from our readers
• Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
• The case of Khalid al-Masri
  German government complicit in the criminal activities of the CIA
• Australian government unveils military restructure and new callout powers
• Document proves European Union agreed to CIA rendition flights
• Sri Lanka: police raids against CWC leaders
• McCain-Bush “anti-torture” measure gives legal cover for continued abuse
• After rejecting MTA’s “final offer”
  New York City transit union calls selective strikes

19 December 2005

• Australia: Unions isolate locked-out Boeing workers
• Bush defends illegal spying on Americans: the specter of presidential dictatorship
• France: New law requires teachers to present a “positive” account of French colonialism
• “Life is good for the wealthy”
  Germany: Social inequality is constantly growing
• US House passes draconian anti-immigrant bill
• New York City transit workers on brink of class confrontation
• WTO talks keep trade round on life support

20 December 2005

• Bush uses lies, fear-mongering to defend war in Iraq, police state measures at home
• Australia: Major companies continue layoffs as economy slows
• Indian government steps into Nepalese political crisis
• Germany: Sacked Opel worker appeals to Industrial Court
• Britain: Facts and myths about Turner’s plans for pensions
• “My film is not a national propaganda tool”
  An interview with Tolga Ornëk, director of Gallipoli: The Front Line Experience
• New York City transit workers defy threats and strike
• Workers Struggles: The Americas

21 December 2005

• With the White House defiant on illegal spying: Why no outcry for Bush’s impeachment?
• Court rules teaching of Intelligent Design unconstitutional in public schools
• After the Iraq election: Washington steps in to shape the next government
• New York transit workers set up picket lines: “Today’s strike is for all working people”
• Britain: Facts and myths about Turner’s plans for pensions
  Part 2
• German Interior Minister Schäuble wants to lock up “dangerous people”
• Sri Lankan military fires on Jaffna university protest
• Australia: Beach suburbs “locked down” in weekend police blitz
• The New York transit strike: A new stage in the class struggle

22 December 2005

• Letters on three months since Hurricane Katrina
• Letters from our readers
• Northern Ireland spy scandal: Questions Sinn Fein must answer
• New York City transit workers defiant
  “Bloomberg and his friends are the thugs, not us”
• New York transit strikers confront escalating attacks
• The class issues behind Australia’s race riots
• India: Dozens killed in second stampede at Chennai flood relief centre
• Time names super-rich trio as 2005 “Persons of the Year”

23 December 2005

• East Asian Summit plagued by tension and rivalry
• US Senate passes budget bill slashing social programs
• Letters on the New York transit strike
• EU budget talks reveal mounting European conflicts
• Behind the media onslaught on the transit workers
• Quebec government adopts draconian law against half-million public sector workers
• The sudden end of the New York transit strike: A preliminary assessment
• Sydney’s racial violence: a warning from Sri Lanka
• Workers Struggles: Europe & Africa
• Christmas in New York
  Billions in bonuses for Wall Street execs, mayor denounces “selfish” transit workers

24 December 2005

• Bush employs “Big Lie” technique to defend illegal spying on Americans
• Marx and democratic rights
  Tony Evans, The Politics of Human Rights: A global perspective
• Worst hospital fire in China since 1949
• India’s foreign policy struggle intensifies
  Natwar Singh forced from cabinet
• New York City transit worker speaks: “They’re churning up the next American revolution”
• Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
• International donor group for Sri Lanka issues menacing threat to LTTE
• New York City transit strike was quashed by the unions
• New York City transit strike was quashed by the unions
• Global criminality
  Syriana, written and directed by Stephen Gaghan

28 December 2005

• The futile pursuit of reformism
  Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich
• California Democratic Party works to prop up Schwarzenegger administration
• Liberal philistinism revisited: Richard Cohen on Syriana
• British court rules Guantánamo detainee David Hicks entitled to UK citizenship
• Latin American mercenaries guarding Baghdad’s Green Zone
• Germany: Court penalises Opel worker
• Signs of social and economic crisis across Pacific Island states
• Spain: Auto unions agree redundancies at SEAT

29 December 2005

• Letters from our readers
• US, UN dismiss claims of electoral fraud in Iraq
• Sri Lankan SEP to commemorate anniversary of Keerthi Balasuriya’s death
• New Orleans police gun down mentally ill man
• Harold Pinter’s artistic achievement
• Maruthamunai: a tsunami-devastated village in Sri Lanka
• One year after the tsunami, Sri Lankan survivors still live in squalour
• Tentative contract a setback for New York City transit workers

30 December 2005

• David Walsh picks his favorite films of 2005
• Pre-election terror and repression in Haiti
• India’s tsunami victims abandoned
• Indonesian court implicates intelligence agency in murder of human rights activist
• Historical and political issues behind Iranian president’s anti-Semitic campaign
• Israel mounts air attacks on Gaza and Lebanon
• Eugene McCarthy, dead at 89, played pivotal role in 1968 political crisis
• Art as humanization
• Workers Struggles: Europe & Africa

31 December 2005

• Canada: Liberal campaign side-swiped by insider-trading allegations
• Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
• Britain: National Health Service faces funding crisis
• New reports expose extensive illegal spying by US government
• Greens vs. Lefts
  Germany: a revealing debate on Sudan military deployment
• One year after the Asian tsunami: an indictment of the profit system