Archive: February 2015
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.
2 February 2015 (front page)
- Tsipras rushes to reassure EU, banks on Greek debt
- The beheading of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto
- New police unit in New York: The ruling elite prepares for class struggle
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2016 US presidential campaign
Romney pullout gives Bush advantage in Republican money race - Russian central bank cuts interest rate amid growing economic chaos
- US wage and GDP growth decline in the fourth quarter
- Limited strike called at US oil refineries as national contract expires
- US AFRICOM commander calls for “huge” military campaign in West Africa
- Queensland state government defeated in anti-austerity vote
- Australian politics in upheaval after election shock in Queensland
- Queensland voters give voice to disaffection
- UK: Blair government colluded in extraordinary rendition of Libyans
- Thousands march against water charges in Dublin and other Irish cities
- Former German President Richard von Weizsäcker dies
- Canadian prime minister praises troops as military clashes escalate in Iraq
- Peru’s currency falls sharply amidst economic crisis
- Lawsuit challenges use of pepper spray in Birmingham, Alabama schools
- This week in history: February 2-8
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The WSWS needs your support to expand on-the-spot coverage and online videos
A video appeal from WSWS writer Andre Damon
3 February 2015 (front page)
- Egyptian court confirms mass death sentence against 183 political prisoners
- The US arming of Ukraine and the danger of World War III
- Obama’s “pro-middle class” budget: Cut corporate taxes, raise military spending, slash Medicare
- Oil giants take hard line against US workers on strike
- German military experts demand purchase of drones
- Germany’s working poor and the government’s “jobs miracle”
- Podemos leader promotes patriotism at mass rally in Madrid
- Australian PM recommits to war and austerity
- Bangladesh plastics factory fire kills 13 workers
- South Africa: Apartheid-era assassin Eugene De Kock granted parole
- Wisconsin governor proposes largest ever cuts to public university system
- Federal panel calls for slashing tens of billions from veteran benefits
- “Smoking gun” documents prove massive Canadian spy operations
- New Zealand: Labour leader outlines his pro-business agenda
- A guest reviewer: Quiet, now—three photographers (Salgado, Struth, Atget) in New York
- Planetary boundaries—a systems approach to the environmental crisis
- Workers Struggles: The Americas
4 February 2015 (front page)
- ISIS releases video of barbaric execution of Jordanian pilot
- Japanese PM pushes for new military powers
- Financial markets celebrate as Syriza repudiates pledge to write off Greek debt
- The Obama budget: A populist fig leaf for militarism and reaction
- Washington moves toward arming Ukrainian regime
- Mistreatment of detainees and asylum seekers widespread in Europe
- Alternative for Germany attempts to establish equivalent of French National Front
- US oil industry strike enters fourth day as companies resist wage and safety demands
- Obama administration announces cosmetic surveillance “reforms”
- Canada’s Conservatives launch sweeping assault on democratic rights with new anti-terror bill
- US measles outbreak spreads to fourteen states
- S&P agrees to sweetheart settlement on inflated ratings of subprime mortgages
- Australian central bank cuts rates as economic downturn accelerates
5 February 2015 (front page)
- NATO meeting in Brussels heightens danger of war with Russia
- Imperialist hypocrisy over ISIS execution
- European leaders turn against Syriza’s appeals to alter Greek debt payments
- German ruling class demands that austerity, debt payments continue after Greek elections
- Testimony of Moussaoui in civil suit implicates Saudi monarchy as principal sponsor of Al Qaeda
- Deadliest commuter rail crash in New York history kills six
- Chicago mayoral race enters final weeks
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Notes on police violence in America
Video shows Baltimore school cop beating 13-year-old girl with baton - People from wealthy families eight times more likely to graduate college
- Falling oil prices trigger new layoffs, budget cuts in Louisiana and Texas
- US spy bases in Australia central to war plans against China
- Australian High Court rubberstamps detention of refugees at sea
- Former Maldives president mounts challenge to government
- Oil slump triggers North Sea crisis
- Further evidence of deaths due to UK welfare benefits sanctions
- The Humbling: An actor who can no longer act
6 February 2015 (front page)
- German, French leaders fly to Russia amidst warnings of “total war” over Ukraine
- Saudi Arabia, 9/11 and the “war on terror”
- NATO doubles combat forces in Eastern Europe
- Germany demands Greek austerity as Syriza pledges “frenzy of reasonableness”
- European Central Bank tightens its grip on Greece in response to Syriza “debt swap” proposal
- US electronics retailer RadioShack files for bankruptcy
- Office supply giants Staples and Office Depot announce $6.3 billion merger
- US federal court hearing highlights widespread misconduct by prosecutors
- USW rejects new offer by Shell as oil strike enters sixth day
- The GM-UAW profit-sharing fraud
- Mexican government announces budget cuts in response to economic turmoil
- Top US diplomat heaps praise on new Sri Lankan government
- Japanese government pushes to revise US history text
- UK Conservatives set out “English Votes for English Laws”
- Former Australian Labor minister endorses university fee deregulation
- Guantánamo Diary: A book that needs to be read
- Leviathan: A latter-day Job
- Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
7 February 2015 (front page)
- Meeting in Moscow fails to produce agreement as US plots escalation in Ukraine
- Europe on the brink of war
- German chancellor seeks to push Hungary away from Russia
- National Security Strategy document affirms US drive for world domination
- French National Front leader Marine Le Pen addresses Oxford Union
- Australian prime minister faces leadership vote
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As walkout spreads to Indiana, Ohio BP refineries
White House urges USW to strangle oil workers’ strike - Official enthusiasm over January jobs report belied by economic reality
- Political conflict between Argentinian president and intelligence agencies intensifies
- Hong Kong protest falls short of expectations
- Haiti: Martelly to rule by decree
- South Africa: Mpumalanga premier roiled by African National Congress faction fight
- Syriza capitulates to the European Union
- The twentieth century was lived in vain: Leonardo Padura’s The Man Who Loved Dogs
- Socialist Equality Group in Ireland holds first public meeting
- Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
9 February 2015 (front page)
- Oil strike shows growing combativeness of US workers
- US presses for military action against Russia
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“If we all took a stand together we would be stronger”
Striking US oil refinery workers speak out - Munich Security Conference: Threats and provocations against Russia over Ukraine
- Syriza leader issues nationalist appeal in speech to Greek parliament
- Australian prime minister clings to office
- US official admits to UK role in rendition to Diego Garcia
- New Sri Lankan government brings down election budget
- Albuquerque moves to escalate evictions of homeless campers
- Illinois Democrats concoct pseudo-legal justification for cutting public employee pensions
- Snowstorms cripple aging public transit in Boston area
- Leader of German Social Democrats sides with right-wing Pegida movement
- New Zealand First Party attacks foreign students
- This week in history: February 9-15
- German television series Tannbach and German postwar history
10 February 2015 (front page)
- Obama refuses to rule out arming Kiev following talks with Merkel
- The political significance of the US oil workers’ strike
- German media backs confrontation with Russia over Ukraine
- Stock markets fall on fears of Greek exit from euro zone
- Northern Marseille on lock-down after shots fired at police
- Catastrophic fire at Russia’s most important social science library
- Urgent care center replaces shuttered hospital in impoverished Pennsylvania town
- Norfolk police chief apologizes for K9 attack as brutality cases mount
- Shia insurgents disband US-backed Yemeni government
- Canada’s opposition parties acquiesce to government’s draconian “anti-terror” bill
- East Timorese prime minister resigns, “national unity” government formed
- The Abbott government and the deepening political crisis in Australia
- Workers Struggles: The Americas
11 February 2015 (front page)
- HSBC documents reveal criminal conspiracy of banks and governments
- The danger of escalation in Ukraine
- Fighting in Ukraine intensifies ahead of Minsk talks
- Spiegel Online warns of nuclear war
- Oil workers remain determined as USW resumes talks to sell out strike
- A photo slideshow of the US oil workers’ strike
- Syriza prepares to make a deal with the EU
- Mayor announces bulletproof vests for New York City cops
- Upstart AAP staggers BJP and Congress in Delhi Assembly election
- Sri Lankan pseudo-left leader joins top government advisory body
- Sri Lankan pseudo-left leader joins top government advisory body
- Calls to intensify Australian austerity agenda
- Australia: New South Wales police gun down 22-year-old woman
- UK Police Federation votes for all police to be given access to Taser guns
- Former intelligence chief in South Korea jailed
- Spanish government prepares new National Security Law
- Africa subject to billions in illicit capital flight
- Wild and Black or White: Social problems, but the solutions?
12 February 2015 (front page)
- Ceasefire agreement for Eastern Ukraine announced after Minsk summit
- Obama administration seeks blank check for perpetual war
- Leading German newspaper says Russia should be threatened with nuclear war
- German Left Party backs Merkel on Ukraine crisis
- Over 300 migrant workers perish off Italian coast
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As talks are suspended
Ohio BP-Husky workers express support for national oil strike - Talks on Greek bailout terms break down
- Judge in Stockton bankruptcy upholds retiree benefit cuts
- New York Mayor de Blasio announces meager housing goals
- Brooklyn grand jury indicts cop who shot Akai Gurley
- USW isolates militant strike at Toronto Crown Holdings plant
- US closes diplomatic facilities in Yemen
12 February 2014 (front page)
12 February 2015 (front page)
- Australian police carry out another anti-terror raid
- Australia: Homeless people speak on worsening social crisis
- German Karstadt department store plans more layoffs and pay cuts
- NBC suspends news anchor Brian Williams over Iraq war episode
- New York Times takes aim at treatment for peripheral artery disease
13 February 2015 (front page)
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As US oil strike nears end of second week
Port owners lock out West Coast dock workers - The Minsk truce: A hiatus in an escalating war
- Greece’s Syriza government pledges to serve the EU
- IMF announces new $17 billion loan agreement for Ukraine
- Senate approves Ashton Carter as new Pentagon chief
- Interpreter for 9/11 defendants at Guantanamo Bay was a CIA agent
- Study says US jails have become “massive warehouses” for the poor
- Widespread anger over killing of three Muslim students in North Carolina
- Boston, Massachusetts storm-related crisis deepens at MBTA
- Illinois governor prepares attack on state workers
- Two brothers die in Detroit house fire
- Britain’s GCHQ given free rein to continue mass surveillance
- Quebec Liberals aim to level what remains of welfare state
- Political crisis in Jakarta over national police chief
- Sri Lankan plantation union pressures workers to end strike
- Australia: NSW electricity workers face more job losses
- Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
14 February 2015 (front page)
- US and Ukrainian officials seek to torpedo Minsk cease-fire agreement
- The drive to dismantle pensions in the United States
- Ukrainian government moves to stifle dissent as military morale plunges
- German army association demands massive armaments increase
- US threatens military intervention as UN warns of “disintegration” in Yemen
- Fresh talks begin on forcing Greece to accept austerity package
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Notes on police violence in America
Indian grandfather partially paralyzed by Alabama police beating - House fires kill 71 people in the US during the first week of February
- Japanese PM calls for constitutional change in keynote speech
- Siemens unveils another round of job cuts in Germany and worldwide
- Australian PM prejudices rights of terrorist suspects to fair trial
- Australia: Labor forms minority government in Queensland
- British unions recommend health service workers accept another pay cut
- Oil workers on strike denounce poor safety and work conditions at US refineries
- Thirty-five years since the nationwide US refinery strike
- The Water Diviner: Russell Crowe’s contribution to the WWI centenary
- German President Gauck’s human rights imperialism
- Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
16 February 2015 (front page)
- Obama administration intervenes against West Coast dock workers
- The human rights disaster in America
- Harper government to criminalize Canadian Pacific railway strike
- A revealing Financial Times comment on the Greek debt crisis
- Alleged terrorist gunman shot dead in Copenhagen
- Hostilities ease in eastern Ukraine on first day of cease-fire
- New evidence implicates pro-US opposition in Maidan killings during Kiev coup
- France sells 24 Rafale fighter jets to Sisi dictatorship in Egypt
- Rise in value of Swiss franc threatens workers in Eastern Europe with ruin
- Obama’s budget proposal cuts $50 million from immunization funding
- More evidence of US involvement in Sri Lankan regime-change
- US military looks to expand use of Australian bases and ports
- US historians criticize Tokyo’s efforts to whitewash war crimes
- The Two Faces of January: Three Americans joined together by crime
- Pseudo-left embrace Syriza’s alliance with the Independent Greeks
- Seventy years since the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army
- This week in history: February 16-22
- No to war and austerity! Join the International Youth and Students for Social Equality!
17 February 2015 (front page)
- No agreement reached between EU finance ministers and Greece
- US imperialism and the catastrophe in Libya
- Two detained on charges of aiding Copenhagen terror attack
- Citing government threats, Teamsters suppress Canadian Pacific rail strike
- US-NATO war games prepare massive military escalation in West Africa
- Report documents attacks on press freedom in US and Europe
- CIA whistleblower calls for prosecution of officials responsible for torture
- Lawsuits allege Missouri cities run “debtors’ prisons”
- Eleven-year-old Ohio girl charged with murder
- Growing problems for Chinese economy
- New revelations in the 1980 Munich Oktoberfest bombing
- SPD victory in German state election conceals growing gulf between political establishment and population
- Malaysia’s highest court jails opposition leader on trumped-up charge
- South Africa: ANC provincial premier renounces electronic-tolling populism
- US oil strike enters third week with corporations refusing to budge on wages, safety conditions
- Nearly 4,000 blacks were lynched in Jim Crow South, report finds
- Workers Struggles: The Americas
18 February 2015 (front page)
- White House delays immigration order after court ruling
- Minsk cease-fire verging on collapse as fighting continues in east Ukraine
- French government forces through austerity measures without vote in parliament
- Mounting signs of global economic stagnation
- Report points to global spyware operation by US
- Defence establishment complains of Britain’s “irrelevance” in world affairs
- German government to establish Eastern Europe Institute
- UN survey documents Israeli war crimes in Gaza
- Detroit bankruptcy judge approves $178 million in legal and consulting fees
- Oil trains derail and burst into flames in Canada, US
- Sydney siege survivors speak on Australian television
- Sri Lankan police attack estate workers protesting police killing
- European Union gives no quarter in war against Greek workers
- A warning to US oil workers: The United Steelworkers’ record of betrayal
- Hazel Park, Michigan retiree dies of hypothermia after gas shutoff
- Canada: Why is the Globe and Mail denouncing Harper’s latest “anti-terrorism” bill?
19 February 2015 (front page)
- Germany and EU look set to reject Greece’s request for six-month loan extension
- Japanese prime minister pushes to end constitutional limits on the military
- US steps up threats against Russia as Ukrainian troops retreat from Debaltseve
- German government prepares new military doctrine
- Mounting violence against Muslims in America
- Alabama judge asks courts to defy order granting same-sex marriage licenses
- White House outlines policy for deepening intervention in Central America
- Right-wing nationalists regain Croatian presidency
- Study shows inequality much higher in Germany than previously estimated
- Finance capital pushes for Australian economic “restructuring”
- Sri Lankan foreign minister visits US to strengthen ties
- Australia: Sydney residents shocked by police shooting of 22-year-old woman
- Explosion rocks California refinery as oil strike continues
- House fire in Hamtramck, Michigan kills four, including two children
- Report documents growth of extreme poverty in Rochester, New York
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SEP Australia to stand in New South Wales state election
Against war and austerity! For social equality and democratic rights! -
65th Berlin International Film Festival—Part 1
Pulling down the shutters at the Berlinale
20 February 2015 (front page)
- German finance minister demands unconditional surrender from Greece
- Obama’s terror summit: An exercise in hypocrisy, falsification and self-delusion
- Illinois budget to cut $6.7 billion from pensions, health care, social services
- US-backed Kiev regime faces military debacle in east Ukraine war
- US court overturns “terrorism” charge against Australian Guantanamo prisoner
- French government survives confidence vote over austerity law
- Obama, port owners line up against West Coast dockworkers
- Freezing temperatures spell misery and danger to America’s poor
- Up to six million face Obamacare penalties for 2014
- ACLU report documents horror of solitary confinement in US prisons
- Canadian NDP declares willingness to enter coalition with Liberals
- Polish trade unions end miners’ strike
- Australian government launches vicious attack on human rights commissioner
- USW forced to reject another contract offer as oil workers press for national strike
- “Cultural appropriation,” “white privilege” and the attacks on rapper Iggy Azalea
- Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
21 February 2015 (front page)
- Syriza capitulates to the EU
- Guantanamo in America
- US preparing major ground offensive against Iraqi city of Mosul
- US and UK intelligence agencies hacked cell phone encryption keys
- Argentina charges US interference in crisis over prosecutor’s death
- Japan rewrites foreign aid rules to include military assistance
- Record cold weather in the US leads to spate of deadly house fires
- Family of man shot by police in Pasco, Washington demands independent autopsy
- Obama budget cuts target high school counselors
- Refugees deported from the EU, imprisoned in Ukraine
- Germany: Further strike action imminent at Deutsche Bahn
- Unemployment in Australia at 12-year high
- Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis’ mission to save capitalism
- A comment from a reader: The peculiar socialism of Syriza
- Schäuble’s arrogance towards Greece and the class divide in Germany
- The upcoming Academy Awards: Selma, American Sniper and other issues
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65th Berlin International Film Festival—Part 2
Marcel Ophüls’ Memory of Justice and other documentaries - Oil refinery workers denounce USW treachery, call for national strike
- Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
- Oppose political censorship at Griffith University!
23 February 2015 (front page)
- US oil workers strike spreads to more plants in Texas and Louisiana
- The capitulation of Syriza and the lessons for the working class
- Auto workers speak out in support of oil strike
- Obama administration forces five-year agreement on West Coast dockworkers
- European Union leaders hail Syriza austerity agreement
- Turkish troops enter northern Syria
- US expands “secret war” in Afghanistan
- Australian government uses Sydney siege report to ramp up anti-terror laws
- Inmates riot against miserable conditions at south Texas prison
- Cleanup continues after West Virginia oil train explosion
- Massachusetts public transit crisis drags into fourth week
- The Danish roots of the Copenhagen terror attack
- UK steps up militaristic propaganda against Russia
- Canada’s NDP belatedly opposes Conservatives’ draconian “anti-terror” bill
- UN delays war crimes report on Sri Lanka
- Australia: Sydney city council attacks the homeless
- As temperatures drop, overcrowded New York City shelters forced to turn away homeless
- This week in history: February 23-March 1
- Still Alice and Kingsman: The Secret Service—A woman battles disease and a street kid helps save the world …
24 February 2015 (front page)
- Stock markets rise after Greece signs new austerity agreement
- White House economic report calls for cutting corporate taxes
- US oil strike highlights sacrifice of workers’ safety to corporate profit
- Governor, legislature move to pass right-to-work legislation in Wisconsin
- US seizes on video to escalate repression at home and war in Somalia
- Australian PM outlines sweeping new “anti-terror” measures
- Netanyahu exploits Islamist attacks on European Jews
- US federal study predicts ten oil derailments per year
- Virginia bill shields companies producing lethal injection chemicals
- Burmese army clashes with separatist militia near Chinese border
- One fifth of world suicides linked to unemployment
- Pro-European forces threaten Moldova to toe the line
- German constitutional court justifies state use of agents provocateurs
- US slaughter in Afghanistan rages on
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Letter from Greece
A comment on Syriza's “back-flips” over austerity - The theoretical and historical origins of the pseudo-left
- 87th Academy Awards: A more intriguing event than in recent years
- Workers Struggles: The Americas
25 February 2015 (front page)
- Greece’s Syriza government proposes list of social cuts to European Union
- The US oil strike and the international struggles of the working class
- Rightist mayor faces coup charges as Venezuela’s crisis deepens
- United Steelworkers reaffirm support for big business Parti Quebecois
- Striking oil workers from Kentucky, Ohio and Louisiana speak out
- Chicago Police Department operates “black site” interrogation compound
- Conflict over DHS funding masks bipartisan attack on immigrants in US
- Pennsylvania school district to be run for profit
- In leaked recording, Egyptian minister calls for machine-gunning protesters
- The US “pivot to Asia” and the Australian leadership crisis
- Australia: Aurizon workers confront deep assault on conditions
- Sri Lankan president’s visit to India highlights foreign policy shift
- Poland increases military spending
- Irish police clamp down on water charge protesters
- UK retail giant Tesco announces thousands of job losses
- The UAW and the GM share buy-back scheme
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65th Berlin International Film Festival—Part 3
Haiti and Romania: Drama and social life in Murder in Pacot and Why me?
26 February 2015 (front page)
- Child poverty at devastating levels in US cities and states
- Pentagon provocation on Russia’s border
- Half a million children in poverty in Michigan
- Talks remain suspended as US oil workers continue strike
- A photo essay on the US oil workers’ strike
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Letter from Greece
Mounting outrage over Syriza betrayal - German Left Party votes for austerity measures in Greece
- UK joins US, Poland in sending military trainers to Ukraine
- US-Iran negotiations inch toward a nuclear agreement
- Australian prime minister’s leadership continues to unravel
- New Zealand to send troops to Iraq
- Unions demobilize Canadian railway workers
- In testimony before US Congress, Fed chair signals likely delay in interest rate hike
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Amid low voter turnout
Chicago mayor forced into runoff election - Record utility shutoffs in New York
27 February 2015 (front page)
- Record global stock prices reflect growth of financial parasitism
- Chicago’s Abu Ghraib
- Syriza’s parliamentary group supports Greek austerity agreement
- USW blocks way forward for striking oil workers
- Obama Justice Department: No federal charges to be filed in Trayvon Martin slaying
- Three New York men charged in alleged terror plot
- Federal prison regulations violate constitutional rights
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Notes on police violence in America:
Independent autopsy finds Zambrano-Montes was shot twice from behind - Top British politicians caught in cash for access sting
- German trade union approves 1,400 layoffs at Karstadt department store
- Germany and Austria discriminate against Kosovo refugees
- Opposition to Japanese government’s lies on “comfort women”
- Mass layoffs shake India’s IT industry
- East Timorese government promotes new “free trade zone”
- Nick Beams retires as Socialist Equality Party (Australia) national secretary
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65th Berlin International Film Festival—Part 4
Every Thing Will Be Fine from Wim Wenders, Taxi from Jafar Panahi, and other films - Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
28 February 2015 (front page)
- US economy in deflation and slump
- “Jihadi John,” imperialism and ISIS
- German parliament endorses Syriza’s proposed austerity measures
- Governor compares Wisconsin protesters to terrorists
- Judge in Detroit bankruptcy calls for dismantling public employee pensions nationwide
- As US oil strike reaches one month, companies sit on billions in profits
- Clinton Foundation raked in cash from right-wing regimes, corporations
- Missouri Republican candidate, apparent target of anti-Semitic comments, commits suicide
- Canada invokes “jihadi threat” to pursue agenda of war and reaction
- Anti-Muslim actions rise sharply in France after Charlie Hebdo shooting
- Sri Lankan opposition parties seek to bring back Rajapakse
- Two cyclones devastate areas of northern and eastern Australia
- The anti-Marxism of Yanis Varoufakis
- German television documentary on the troika and Greece
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Sell-off: The abolition of your NHS
A revealing exposure of the destruction of health care in the UK - Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
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