World

  • Amnesty slams Greek police

    International human rights group Amnesty International issued a report on March 30 accusing the Greek police of widespread abuses during the wave of street protests that shook the country late last year. The report claimed police conducted arbitrary arrests, physically abused detainees, and disproportionately targeted immigrants.

  • Iraq techers appeal for support

    The Iraqi Teachers' Union is under attack from the Iraqi government. The government has authorised an official body to take over the union with the pretext of forcing the union to hold elections. It is worth noting that the ITU has already held several national conferences since 2003 and had elected an ITU leadership openly and democratically.

  • Afghanistan: 'Worse than the Taliban'

    Senator Humaira Namati, a member of the upper house of the Afghan parliament, said the new law that has been signed by US-backed President Harzai Karzai was “worse than during the Taliban”, the March 31 British Guardian said.

  • Hugo Chavez: Venezuela and capitalism's crisis

    The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the party led by Chavez that has almost 6 million aspiring members, has also produced a document analysing the global economic crisis and the tasks for revolutionary socialists for discussion in its branches across the country. A translation of the document can be read at the socialist e-journal, Links ().

  • United States: Unemployment jumps

    The unemployment rate jumped to 8.5% in March as the economy shed another 663,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. With the job loss reported for March, and upward revisions of 84,000 for the prior two months, the economy has lost an average of 684,000 jobs per month since November 2008.

  • G20 Summit 'entrusts beef to vultures'

    Bolivian President Evo Morales denounced the decision of the April 2 G20 summit to inject more than US$1 trillion into the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a means of combating the economic crisis, comparing it to leaving a wolf to care for a flock of sheep, according to an April 3 AFP report.

  • Victorian government cuts public sector wages

    The Victorian ALP state government has cynically tried to dress up its attack on public sector workers as an attempt to save jobs. Public sector workers will have their wage rises slashed from 3.25% to 2.5% annually.

  • Filippino military rebel: 'We need system change'

    The article below is by Peter Boyle, the national secretary of the Democratic Socialist Perspective, which is a Marxist tendency in the Socialist Alliance. Boyle attended the founding congress of the new mass-based left-wing Power of the Masses Party (PLM) in Manila in February. He also met with military rebels, some supportive of the PLM, currently in prison for trying to overthrow the corrupt, neoliberal government of President Gloria Arroyo. A longer version of this article can be found at the socialist e-journal Links, http://www.links.org.au.