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	<title>World Socialist Party (US) &#187; Stefan</title>
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	<copyright>Copyright &#xA9; World Socialist Party (US) 2010 </copyright>
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		<title>World Socialist Party (US) &#187; Stefan</title>
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	<itunes:author>World Socialist Party (US)</itunes:author>
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		<title>Russia: Report of a meeting of the anti-Putin opposition</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2012/01/russia-report-of-a-meeting-of-the-anti-putin-opposition/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2012/01/russia-report-of-a-meeting-of-the-anti-putin-opposition/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 07 Jan 2012 01:07:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stefan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[democracy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fascism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[human rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[opposition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2319</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[From Vladimir Sirotin (Moscow), translated with explanatory notes by Stefan Yesterday [January 5, 2012] I was at a sickening meeting of the Organizing Committee for Honest Elections and Against the Putin Regime (or something like that). It was attended by a very ill-assorted bunch of people. Sitting on the platform were Udaltsov, Geidar Jemal, Lev Ponomarev, Ilya Ponomarev, Vladimir Tor, Ivan Mironov, Mr. Krylov and a number of others. (1) The picture looked surreal. The main theme of the overwhelming majority of speakers was that everyone must unite in the fight against Putinism and for honest elections – leftists, liberals and nationalists! This was said quite openly and publicly. “We have here four caucuses: leftists, liberals, Russian nationalists and cultural figures.” Buzgalin spoke briefly. (2) He said that supporters of democracy with social guarantees should unite with supporters of socialism, but it will hardly be possible to cooperate with nationalists. This immediately provoked catcalls from the nationalists present. Very soon he left the meeting. It was constantly said that no part of the anti-Putin coalition should be more opposed to any other part of the coalition than to the Putin regime. Although it was admitted in passing that were it [...]


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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The porn business</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/12/the-porn-business/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/12/the-porn-business/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:43:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stefan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2311</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Chatsworth is a district of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley, well endowed with parkland and sports facilities. It is home to a number of Hollywood film stars. Many famous films and TV series were shot in the area. Chatsworth is also the world center of the porn business, with 200 production companies employing 1,200 – 1,500 performers (and a few thousand other workers). Here too are the offices of the industry’s trade magazine Adult Video News, which sponsors an annual convention in Las Vegas and an award show modelled after the Oscars. Most performers are poorly educated young women aged 18 – 21. They are attracted by the pay, which seems good compared to other jobs open to them. Rates for a scene range from $200 for a blowjob up to $2,000 for a double anal or gang bang. But a lot of the money goes on supporting drug habits. Former porn star Shelley Lubben, who established the Pink Cross Foundation to help performers trying to get out of the business, explains that they need drugs because without them they would be unable to bear the abuse that the work entails: “Guys are punching you in the face. [...]


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		<title>The &#8220;Troubled Teens&#8221; Business</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/11/the-troubled-teens-business/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/11/the-troubled-teens-business/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:55:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stefan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2314</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On the internet I keep running across the same image – the scowling face of a teenage boy, accompanied by the words: Fix Defiant ODD Children. It is an ad for a “Total Transformation Program” that will “empower” you to “stop defiance, backtalk and lying” and “regain control of your child, your family and your life”. ODD, in case you’re wondering, is the “diagnosis” that psychiatrists now pin on disobedient youngsters: Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Until recently no one had ever heard of it. Numerous programs to “fix” disobedient kids are on offer to American parents. Many are residential programs run by private entrepreneurs in “boot camps” and other locked facilities located both inside and outside the US (in Mexico, Jamaica, Costa Rica, etc.). Or you can send your child off on a gruelling “wilderness expedition” in the harsh desert landscape of the Southwest. Force and deception are routinely used to trap children in these programs, which usually entail physical and/or emotional cruelty, inflicted in the name of “tough love”. Abuse and deprivation sometimes result in death – in particular, when complaints of pain and exhaustion are not believed (see, for instance, nospank.net/boot.htm: Torturing Teens for Fun and Profit). In many [...]


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		<title>The Waste of Luxury</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/05/the-waste-of-luxury/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/05/the-waste-of-luxury/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 24 May 2011 18:50:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stefan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2260</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Like hunger and homelessness, the global trade in luxury goods is booming. Turnover fell from $254 billion in 2007 to $228 billion in 2009 – a decline that observers attributed to “luxury shame”. Rich people could still afford all the luxuries they wanted, but apparently they felt a trifle uneasy about flaunting their wealth at a time of crisis. They soon got over their unease. Sales recovered to $257 billion in 2010 and are expected to surge to $276 billion in 2011. “Luxury shame is now over,” declared marketing consultant Claudia d’Arpizio in March. So the long-term trend still points sharply upward. This reflects the continuing polarisation of the distribution of wealth – that is, the process by which the rich get richer and the poor poorer. It also reflects the rapidly growing number of rich people in fast-growing economies like Brazil and China (already the second largest market after the United States). The figures are misleading, in that they refer only to goods purchased over the counter – liqueurs, fashionable apparel, cosmetics, perfumes, jewelry, gold watches, handbags, luggage, etc. They do not include fancy cars, yachts and jets, for instance. Or mansions and penthouse apartments. Estimates based on a [...]


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		<title>The Killing of Bin Laden: Understanding the American Reaction</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/05/the-killing-of-bin-laden-understanding-the-american-reaction/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/05/the-killing-of-bin-laden-understanding-the-american-reaction/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 22 May 2011 18:48:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stefan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2258</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A large majority of Americans – 87 percent, according to one poll – approve of the killing of Bin Laden. Many were visibly overcome by joy when they heard the news, and the subsequent warning by CIA director Leon Panetta that the operation would actually increase the terrorist threat to the US only slightly damped their spirits. Within a few days of the operation, video games were on the market offering simulated experiences of killing Osama – or, in one case, his ghost! If you get killed by him first, never mind: you can just start over again. Sam Sommers, a sociology professor at Tufts University, explained the jubilant reaction as follows: “September 11 shook our belief [that] the world [is] a just and fair place where you get what you deserve. Innocent people died senselessly. Seeing this closing scene, for many people, provides a just ending.” Hence the “sense of relief” expressed by the widow of one 9/11 victim. What can account for this strange belief that the world is a just and fair place? How is it possible not to know that innocent people die senselessly every day? Perhaps it has something to do with religion, which has [...]


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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Japan Meltdown: Another Man-Made Disaster</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/03/japan-meltdown-another-man-made-disaster/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/03/japan-meltdown-another-man-made-disaster/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:29:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stefan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2198</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[No, of course earthquakes and tsunamis are natural phenomena. But it is known where – if not when – they are going to strike. So in principle society could take action to minimise the human impact. It was known that the seabed off the northeastern coast of Honshu (the main island of the Japanese archipelago) is prone to earthquakes. It was known that a sufficiently powerful offshore earthquake would generate a tsunami. So why not leave the endangered coastal area uninhabited? Crammed into the danger zone This earthquake and most of its aftershocks were offshore. However, the next major earthquake may well occur, as long predicted, on land. It is a matter of when, not whether. The area at greatest risk is the southern coastal strip of Honshu that stretches west from Tokyo – a city already devastated by earthquakes in 1891 and 1923. And yet the eastern half of this strip, up to Osaka, covering a mere 6% of Japan’s land area, is the country’s industrial powerhouse, with 45% of its population of 127.5 million. Tokyo and its outlying cities alone contain 30% of the country’s population. Would a rational society cram so many people and resources into the [...]


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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Egypt: The hard road to political democracy</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/02/egypt-the-hard-road-to-political-democracy/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/02/egypt-the-hard-road-to-political-democracy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Mar 2011 04:25:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stefan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mid-East]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2113</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[At the time of going to press, the “revolution of anger” in Egypt seems to be entering a new phase. Tahrir Square has been reopened to traffic and commerce. Massive political demonstrations are over, at least for the time being, but strikes and protests by various groups of workers continue. The employees of the National Bank of Egypt have forced the resignation of its chairman, a Mubarak ally. Ambulance drivers, public transport workers, and even the police are demonstrating for better wages and conditions. Many Egyptians are dissatisfied with what has been achieved so far, and with good reason. Mubarak has gone. But what sort of democrat is the man who took over from him on 31 January – Omar Suleiman, assassin and torturer-in-chief of the dreaded Mukhabarat (General Intelligence Service)? The demand to suspend the emergency law that permits detention without charge has not been met, nor have political prisoners been released. The ruling military council has set no firm timetable for elections and transition to civilian rule. They have made plenty of promises, but who is naïve enough to trust them? To understand what is happening in Egypt, we must first understand the nature of the ruling regime. [...]


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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Meaning of the U.S. Midterm Election Results</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2010/11/the-meaning-of-the-u-s-midterm-election-results/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2010/11/the-meaning-of-the-u-s-midterm-election-results/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Nov 2010 07:02:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stefan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=1919</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For Republican politicians and the corporate media, the U.S. midterm election results are supposedly evidence of “a massive conservative trend sweeping the nation.”1 Proclaiming the victory of his party on election night, top House Republican John Boehner declared that “the American people have sent President Barack Obama a message through the ballot box to change course” – and he was not calling on Obama to steer further to the left. There has clearly been a significant decline in public support for Obama. However, there is no massive conservative trend in national opinion. The real picture is more uncertain and more complex. The majority did not vote One point will suffice to deflate the overblown rhetoric. The American people have sent no one a message through the ballot box to do anything, for the simple reason that the majority of the American people – 58.5%, to be more precise – did not vote. Well, nothing unusual about that. Voter turnout in the United States is low. In fact, a turnout of 41.5% is rather above average for midterm elections: it usually lies between 30% and 40%. Turnout in presidential elections, and in congressional elections held in the same year as presidential [...]


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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Supporting The “Lesser Evil”</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2010/10/supporting-the-%e2%80%9clesser-evil%e2%80%9d/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2010/10/supporting-the-%e2%80%9clesser-evil%e2%80%9d/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Oct 2010 06:28:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stefan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=1855</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Many “anti-capitalist” personalities urge people to support one of the two main capitalist parties, the Democrats, on the grounds that they are a “lesser evil” compared with the Republicans. One example is film maker Michael Moore (see March issue, p. 10). Another is Paul Street, who has written two useful exposés of Obama – Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics (2009) and The Empire’s New Clothes: Barack Obama in the Real World of Power (2010) (both from Paradigm Publishers). Although Street calls himself a libertarian socialist, he campaigned for Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. What they say versus what they do How much less evil, then, are the Democrats? A mistake that voters often make, especially during election campaigns, is to compare what the Republicans say and do with what the Democrats say. The relevant comparison is with what the Democrats do. The trouble is that when the Democrats have been out of office for a few years most voters no longer remember what they do. But those familiar with the record of the Clinton administration in the 1990s, for instance, or with Obama’s record as a congressman, might have noticed that between what the Democrats say and [...]


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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Fascists Take Over Russian Communist Party</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2010/09/fascists-take-over-russian-communist-party/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2010/09/fascists-take-over-russian-communist-party/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 27 Sep 2010 07:37:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stefan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[World Socialist Perspective]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=1844</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In a Russian-language document now circulating on the internet, Yevgeny Volobuyev, a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) in St. Petersburg, “sounds the tocsin to warn of the danger of the CPRF ﬁnally turning into a fascist party”. Volobuyev explains that Russian fascists have been arguing for a long time on their websites about “what to do with the CPRF”. Some said that they should just put communists “up against the wall”, but others argued that they should ﬁrst join the CPRF and take over its structures. In recent years, with openly fascist organizations like Russian National Unity fragmenting and losing legal status, “fascists and people inclined toward fascism streamed into the CPRF”. There they found many party leaders “demoralised by the collapse of the Soviet Union” and sympathetic to their cause. With the help of these leaders, they “were able to create an unofﬁcial fascist faction inside the CPRF” (ofﬁcially the party does not allow factions). They also managed to gain control of the party’s internet sites. The inﬁltrators would have been less successful had the ground not been so well prepared for them. Ever since the CPRF was founded in 1993, it has been [...]


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