• China’s red aristocracy - World Socialist Web Site

    En Chine, une aristocratie rouge

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/31/chin-d31.html

    China’s red aristocracy
    By John Chan
    31 December 2012

    China’s newly appointed anti-corruption head, Vice Premier Wang Qishan, recently called on party officials to read the classic book by French historian Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and French Revolution. The message was clear. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime, which is widely detested as the representative of China’s super-rich, is in danger of sharing the fate of the French aristocracy.

  • Fear of food scarcity hits US capital, outlying suburbs - World Socialist Web Site

    Sous-alimentation et problème de la faim dans... la banlieue de Washington ?

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/31/dchu-d31.html

    Fear of food scarcity hits US capital, outlying suburbs
    By Nick Barrickman
    31 December 2012

    In the outlying areas surrounding Washington DC, students qualifying for free or subsidized meals face a difficult period ahead while schools prepare for their springtime curriculums, according to a recent report by the Washington Post. The existence of widespread food scarcity in the outlying suburbs of the nation’s capital, some of which reside within some of the wealthiest counties in the US, gives the lie to claims that the DC area is “recession-proof.”

  • Homelessness soars among US Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans - World Socialist Web Site

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/31/vets-d31.html

    Homelessness soars among US Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans
    By Shannon Jones
    31 December 2012

    According to a new government report, the number of US Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who are homeless or at risk for becoming homeless is rising at an alarming rate, more than doubling over the past two years. The US Veterans Administration said that through the end of September 2012, 26,531 veterans were living on the street, at risk of losing their homes, staying in temporary housing or receiving federal vouchers to pay rent. That compares to 10,500 in 2010.

  • Canada’s native peoples protest chronic poverty and government attacks - World Socialist Web Site

    Résistance et révolte des peuples premiers du Canada contre le gouvernement

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/31/cana-d31.html

    Canada’s native peoples protest chronic poverty and government attacks

    By Carl Bronski
    31 December 2012

    The last weeks of 2012 have seen protests by Canada’s impoverished native population snowball.

    As Attawapiskat First Nations Chief Theresa Spence enters her fourth week of a hunger strike aimed at drawing attention to the federal government’s failure to honor native treaty rights, aboriginal peoples across the country continue a series of road and rail blockades, demonstrations, and sympathy hunger strikes in what has become known as the “Idle No More” movement. This mobilization, although initially unassociated with Spence’s protest, has dovetailed with the Chief’s actions and served to highlight recent Conservative government actions aimed at opening up vast swathes of native land for capitalist resource-extraction projects.

  • Anti-Semitic outburst in the Hungarian parliament - World Socialist Web Site

    Poussée de fièvre antisémite en Hongrie

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/31/hung-d31.html

    Anti-Semitic outburst in the Hungarian parliament
    By Markus Salzmann
    31 December 2012

    The latest anti-Semitic outburst by a leading member of the far-right party Jobbik was met with little serious opposition from the side of the governing Fidesz party and marks a further turn to the right in Hungarian politics. Faced with rising social protests against austerity, the government is increasingly relying on fascist forces.

  • IMF demands deeper austerity in Pakistan - World Socialist Web Site

    Le Fonds monétaire internationale, toujours très visionnaire, applique donc toujours les mêmes recettes.

    C’est en effet des mesures d’austérité dont le Pakistan à besoin...

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/29/paki-d29.html

    IMF demands deeper austerity in Pakistan
    By Sampath Perera
    29 December 2012

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) last month warned Pakistan of a looming foreign exchange crisis. The strongly worded statement foresaw a depletion of foreign reserves as in 2008, when the country’s government was forced to seek an emergency bailout.

    The IMF executive board report made clear that further funding will require unprecedented budget cuts and pro-market “reforms” that will lead to further attacks on jobs, working conditions and living standards.

  • UN admits Syria wracked by sectarian civil war - World Socialist Web Site

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/21/syri-d21.html

    UN admits Syria wracked by sectarian civil war
    By Chris Marsden
    21 December 2012

    A United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry has finally admitted that a sectarian civil war is raging in Syria. Its findings are based upon extensive investigations and interviews between September 28 to December 16, 2012.

    They detail massacres and gross violations of human rights that have polarised Syria between the supporters of a Sunni insurgency and those Sunnis and various minority groups that have aligned themselves with the Alawite-led Ba’athist regime out of fear that its downfall will produce a yet more brutal Sunni chauvinist alternative.

    Investigators, headed by Carla del Ponte, the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, have interviewed more than 1,200 victims and refugees.

    Lire aussi

    Syrie, est-il déjà trop tard ? par Alain Gresh @alaingresh
    http://blog.mondediplo.net/2012-12-24-Syrie-est-il-deja-trop-tard

  • Australian refugee lawyer condemns deportations to Sri Lanka - World Socialist Web Site

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/21/refu-d21.html
    21 December 2012

    Since September, the Australian Labor government has forcibly returned more than 650 asylum seekers to Sri Lanka. Alongside members of the persecuted Tamil minority, they include poor Sinhala fishermen from western Sri Lanka.

    These refugees have been deported from Australia in large groups, after being arbitrarily “screened out” of the refugee visa application process. They have been denied the right to apply for asylum, blocked from access to legal advice, then bundled onto planes, sometimes within 48 hours.

  • Obama proposes Social Security cuts - World Socialist Web Site

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/20/pers-d20.html
    20 December 2012

    Fiscal cliff talks get down to business

    The cuts in Social Security and other critical social programs proposed Tuesday by the Obama White House as part of negotiations with House Speaker John Boehner over the so-called “fiscal cliff” mark a watershed in US social policy.

    Obama has publicly proposed to cut future benefits for Social Security recipients, underlining the bipartisan agreement that the working class and the elderly, not Wall Street or the super-rich, must pay for the crisis of American capitalism.

  • Daughter of former South Korean dictator wins presidency - World Socialist Web Site

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/20/kore-d20.html
    By Ben McGrath
    20 December 2012

    Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party emerged as the next South Korean president last night. She edged out her opponent Moon Jae-in of the Democratic United Party (DUP) by 51.6 percent to 48 percent. The voter turnout, at 75.8 percent, while higher than in previous recent elections, reflected widespread alienation, especially among young people, toward the entire political establishment, including the Democrats.

    Park’s election represents a turn to authoritarian forms of rule by the South Korean corporate elite in preparation for confrontation with the working class. She is the eldest daughter of the late military dictator, Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea for most of the 1960s and 1970s. Her father ruthlessly suppressed democratic rights, and all strikes and protests by workers, laying the basis for the rapid growth of the country’s conglomerates, the chaebol.

  • Bangladesh factory fire report blames “sabotage” - World Socialist Web Site

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/20/bang-d20.html
    By Oliver Campbell
    20 December 2012

    According to officials quoted in the media, a Bangladesh government inquiry into the Tazreen garment factory fire last month has identified “sabotage,” combined with negligence by the factory owner, as the causes of the tragedy, which claimed 112 lives and injured another 150 workers. The report was handed to the home secretary on Monday, but has not been publicly released.

    The disaster, which occurred on the night of November 24, was the worst in the long history of factory fires in Bangladesh and provoked angry demonstrations by thousands of sweatshop factory workers. It again highlighted the role of the major international clothing corporations, which exploit Bangladesh’s cheap labour, and the government itself, which permits the factory operators to flout safety standards.

  • Pakistan: Ethnic violence in Karachi deadliest since 1994 - World Socialist Web Site

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/20/kara-d20.html
    By Ali Ismail
    20 December 2012

    Pakistan’s largest city is being ravaged by increasingly bloody ethnic and sectarian violence. While Karachi has been the scene of such violence for decades, the past year has been one of the deadliest in the city’s history. Not a day goes by without reports of target killings or bullet-riddled bodies being discovered in one of the city’s numerous slums. The violence is expected to worsen in the coming months as next year’s national election draws closer.

    According to the Citizens’ Police Liaison Committee, a civic organization that works in partnership with the Karachi police force, violence in the city had claimed 1,938 lives as of late November, the deadliest year since 1994, when the organization first began collecting figures. Police tallies put the number of dead at 1,897 through mid-October. Many more people have been killed since the release of these figures.

  • US Department of Agriculture pushes for weaker rules on poultry industry - World Socialist Web Site

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/20/usda-d20.html
    By James Brewer
    20 December 2012

    The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is preparing to implement new rules for the poultry industry that will mean up to a fivefold increase in production line speeds. The rules will also turn over quality control monitoring currently done by USDA inspectors to employees of the poultry companies, at a cost of 1,000 jobs of federal inspectors. The USDA announced the plan last January with the intention of finalizing it by the end of the year, after a pilot program involving 20 plants.

    Currently, line speeds are limited to 35 chickens per minute. The new rules will allow speeds of up to 175 birds per minute—almost 3 per second. The opportunity for workers to visually inspect the carcasses is effectively eliminated. USDA inspection, which now is maintained at three inspectors per production line, is cut to a single inspector at the end.

  • New Japanese government marks dangerous turn to militarism - World Socialist Web Site

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/19/pers-d19.html
    19 December 2012

    The return of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to power in last Sunday’s election in Japan marks a sea change not only in Japanese, but also in international politics. The nationalism and militarism that pervaded the election campaign signal the determination of the Japanese ruling class to reassert its interests in Asia and globally by every means, including military force.

    LDP leader Shinzo Abe, who will be installed next week as prime minister, has already signalled a hard line response in the territorial dispute with Beijing over the islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Speaking to Japan’s national broadcaster NHK, Abe declared that the Senkakus were part of “Japan’s inherent territory” and warned that “our objective is to stop the challenge” from China.

  • Ten girls die in Afghanistan explosion as US pushes for permanent presence - World Socialist Web Site
    By Bill Van Auken
    18 December 2012
    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/18/afgh-d18.html

    The horror of the protracted US intervention in Afghanistan was driven home again on Monday as at least 10 young Afghan girls, ages nine to eleven, were blown to pieces in what local authorities said was a landmine explosion. Two other girls were badly wounded and reported in critical condition at a local hospital.

    The girls were gathering firewood in eastern Nangarhar province when they accidentally set off a buried mine with an ax. A police spokesman said that the mine was not located near a road or any other evident target, and that another old, unexploded mine was found nearby.

  • Israel considering attack on Syria - World Socialist Web Site

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/18/syri-d18.html
    By Jean Shaoul
    18 December 2012

    L’Iran, la Syrie, la Palestine, ça commence à faire beaucoup pour un si petit pays.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has twice asked Jordan for its support to bomb Syria’s alleged chemical weapons facilities.

    Citing intelligence sources in Israel and Jordan, The Atlantic wrote that, while Israel could attack without Jordanian approval—as it did when it bombed an alleged nuclear installation in September 2007—Tel Aviv was concerned about the repercussions of such an attack for Jordan. One intelligence source said that since “A number of sites are not far from the border, the Jordanians have to be very careful about provoking the regime, and they assume the Syrians would suspect Jordanian complicity in an Israeli attack.”

    According to the report, Israeli drones patrol the skies over the Jordan-Syria border, with both American and Israeli drones keeping watch over suspected Syrian chemical weapons sites. Allegations that the regime of President Bashar al-Assad is preparing to use chemical weapons against its opponents is being used as a pretext for a military operation for regime change in Syria by NATO in order to isolate Iran.

  • New Chinese leader signals further pro-market restructuring - World Socialist Web Site

    Donc, la Chine va devenir encore plus capitaliste !

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/18/tour
    –d18.html
    By John Chan
    18 December 2012

    The new Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary, Xi Jinping, conducted a “southern tour” from December 7 to 11. It was designed to send an unequivocal message that his leadership will impose another round of pro-market restructuring, further opening up the Chinese economy to foreign capital. The tour followed the recent 18th CCP congress, which installed Xi as party leader and adopted an economic agenda in line with the China 2030 report, jointly published with the World Bank in February.

    Xi sought to replicate the “southern tour” of CCP leader Deng Xiaoping in January-February 1992, just weeks after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union. Deng’s tour greatly accelerated the processes of capitalist restoration that he had begun in 1978. With the backing of the military, Deng ended the protracted internal debates that had followed the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and crackdown, and opened up all of China as a cheap labour platform for global corporations. As investment flooded in, tens of millions of workers were laid off as state enterprises were restructured into joint-stock companies or sold to private owners.

  • German union boss becomes head of personnel at ThyssenKrupp -
    World Socialist Web Site

    Je crois que je vais faire syndicaliste comme boulot, tiens !

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/17/igm-d17.html
    By Dietmar Henning
    17 December 2012

    From union official to company boss with a two million euro income: this is the step that will be taken next year by Oliver Burkhard, leader of the IG Metall (IGM) trade union in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). He has been appointed the new head of personnel at the multinational steel producer, ThyssenKrupp.

    Following a meeting of the supervisory board, the corporation announced that the 40-year-old will be taking over from Ralph Labonte. His annual income will then climb to around €2 million, or more than €160,000 a month.

    The director of labour relations, as personnel directors in Germany’s worker-participation companies are called, can only be appointed with the approval of the union and works council representatives on the supervisory board. His position at ThyssenKrupp is therefore determined de facto by IG Metall.