E-News Bulletin Friday, 20 April 2012

South Africa: Chinese embrace the union
By Erin Conway-Smith
When Karl Yan moved to South Africa last year to work at a Chinese factory, the last thing he imagined was that he would end up joining the local union.

Yan, a skinny, bespectacled 24-year-old from a small town near Shanghai, is a shop steward for South Africa's clothing and textile workers union. He recently attended a union conference in Cape Town where, as the only Chinese delegate, he stuck out like a sore thumb — but he was a big hit with his South African comrades, who posed with Yan for photos and taught him their liberation dances.
Read report on: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/101202/south-africa-china-unions

Europe’s Economic Suicide
By Paul Krugman
On Saturday The Times reported on an apparently growing phenomenon in Europe: “suicide by economic crisis,” people taking their own lives in despair over unemployment and business failure. It was a heartbreaking story. But I’m sure I wasn’t the only reader, especially among economists, wondering if the larger story isn’t so much about individuals as about the apparent determination of European leaders to commit economic suicide for the Continent as a whole.
Read report on: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/opinion/krugman-europes-economic-suicide.html?ref=opinion

India: Stalinist CPM congress dismisses socialism
By Deepal Jayasekera
India’s main Stalinist parliamentary party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM, concluded its 20th national congress last week. According to senior party leaders, the six-day congress adopted the two main resolutions submitted by the party leadership— the “Political Resolution” and a “Resolution on Some Ideological Issues”—without significant amendment.
Read report on: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/apr2012/cpmc-a16.shtml

One Year after the Beginning of the Revolution
By Khalil Habash
The Syrian people have been struggling for a year now against a criminal and authoritarian regime. Over the past year, the regime has forgone any human consideration in its response to the uprising. Examples of human rights crimes include the recent massacres of women and children in Homs. Despite terrible repression, the popular movement in Syria continues to demonstrate in the streets to demand the overthrow of the regime.
Read report on: http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article2573

Greek riot police condemned! President of Greek Journalist's Union Attacked
The leaders of the Greek journalists and photoreporters’ trade unions have demanded that the police leadership stops its violence against press workers and releases the name of the riot policeman who assaulted and hit in the head the President of the Greek Photoreporters’ Union, Marios Lolos. Lolos underwent surgery on his skull and was treated in hospital for three days.
Read report on: http://www.wrp.org.uk/news/7447

A left-wing surge in France
By Lee Sustar
A French presidential election that was expected to give a boost to far-right Marine Le Pen of the National Front has instead been dominated by left-wing rhetoric from the leading candidate, Francois Hollande of the Socialist Party, and a strong showing by Left Front candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Read report on: http://socialistworker.org/2012/04/12/a-left-wing-surge-in-france

Kim Scipes on "The AFL-CIO's Secret War against Developing Country Workers:  Solidarity or Sabotage?"
Kim Scipes, a professor and the UAW NWU Chicago chair is interviewed on his book “THE AFL-CIO’s Secret War against Developing Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage? The book provides the history of the AFL and AFL-CIO in it’s international operations which are funded in large part by the US government.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzUsLrlie_Q