This link to the original World Socialist Web Site article. WSWS home page for additional articles from a socialist perspective.
San Francisco school district prepares to lay off 900 workers
By Oliver Richards
27 February 2010
On February 23, the San Francisco Unified School District’s Board of Education voted to notify more than 900 school employees that they could be laid off this year. This is almost double the 500 workers that were notified about layoffs last year. More…
This link to the original article on the World Socialist Web Site. WSWS home page.
Democrats vote to renew Patriot Act
By Bill Van Auken
27 February 2010
With almost no debate, the Democratic leadership in Congress pushed through an unamended extension of the USA Patriot Act’s most notorious provisions, granting sweeping powers to eavesdrop and seize library, Internet and other personal records of US citizens.
The provisions were set to expire by Sunday. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the legislation before then, securing his administration the ability to continue and expand the domestic spying and attacks on basic democratic rights that he and other Democrats had pretended to oppose under the Bush administration. More…
This link to the orginal article on the World Socialist Web Site. WSWS home page link.
This link formats the article as a PDF leaflet. The “Leaflet” print option is located at the top of major WSWS articles to promote mass distribution.
WSWS Perspective
Obama’s health care agenda and the case for a socialist alternative
27 February 2010
Thursday’s televised health care summit in Washington ended without any agreement on the part of congressional Republicans to support Obama’s health care proposals. Whatever the wrangling between the two parties, however, all sections of the political establishment are committed to two basic propositions: (1) It is necessary to cut government spending on health care programs that benefit millions of people; and (2) health care services for millions more must be rationed so as to reduce the costs to the corporate-financial elite.
A socialist solution to the crisis—taking the profit out of heath care—is excluded from the official debate, which is based instead on the premise that people’s health should be subordinated to the accumulation of private wealth. This is what makes all of the intricate and mind-numbing schemes being cooked up by White House advisers and corporate lobbyists so irrational and backward. More…
This link to the original posting on the World Socialist Web Site. Home page of WSWS link here.
Health care summit promotes Obama’s pro-business agenda
By Kate Randall
26 February 2010
A daylong televised summit Thursday ended with no agreement between Congressional Democrats and Republicans on advancing Barack Obama’s health care agenda. The president had convened the meeting in an effort to promote the Democrats’ health care overhaul, embodied most recently in a plan put forward Monday by Obama modeled largely on the health care legislation passed by the Senate. (See “Obama unveils health plan ahead of bipartisan summit” )
There was no agreement to back any form of the Democratic-sponsored legislation by the Republicans present, who reiterated that it should be junked and the process be started anew. These disagreements aside, however, the event served to expose the reality that any “reform” of the US health care system being discussed by those in attendance is a million miles away from the needs of the vast majority of ordinary Americans. More…
This link to the original posting on the World Socialist Web Site. Home page of WSWS link here.
WSWS Perspective
A turning point in Europe
26 February 2010
Wednesday’s general strike in Greece, involving 2 million workers in the public and private sectors, marks a turning point in the political situation throughout Europe. It represents the most significant manifestation of a growing movement of resistance to the attempt by Europe’s governments and corporations to make workers pay for the economic crisis and the multi-billion-euro bailout of the banks. More…
This article posted originally on the World Socialist Web Site. Home page of WSWS.
Search the WSWS: Several terms are linked (underscored) to WSWS articles which provide additional background information for readers. These articles were found by using the “Search” box on the WSWS home page, top right corner. As the WSWS has been on-line daily for over ten years, when you “Search the WSWS” you have access to a powerful educational resource and contemporary historical record of WSWS perspectives. If questions arise out of the text, use the WSWS Search function to research for answers.
UAW holds nationalist rally at NUMMI plant in California
By Kevin Kearney
25 February 2010
On February 12, the United Auto Workers held a rally ostensibly to save NUMMI—the New United Motors and Manufacturing, Inc. plant in Fremont, California, a former joint venture between General Motors and Toyota. In fact, the event was a stunt aimed at channeling opposition to the plant closure in a nationalist, anti-Japanese direction. More…