United States

Occupy Wall Street protesters force New York mayor to back off

14 October 2011
Occupy Wall Street protesters were in a confident and defiant mood this morning, Friday, after an attempt to evict them from their protest site failed.

Spirit of Seattle is back as protesters take on Wall Street

27 September 2011
On Friday 17 September a group of largely young campaigners, artists, and students occupied Wall Street in New York’s financial district.

Troy Davis execution stands in US tradition of racist lynching

24 September 2011
The execution of Troy Davis was nothing short of murder. And the sheer brutality of his killing has left many grasping to understand what kind of nation the US has become.

Mike Davis: 9/11- the embers of September

06 September 2011
Ten years ago, lower Manhattan became the Sarajevo of the "war on terrorism". Although conscience recoils against making an equation between the assassination of a single Archduke and his wife (28 June 1914) and the slaughter of almost 3,000 New Yorkers, the analogy otherwise is eerily apt.

US budget deal will wreck lives

02 August 2011
Workers in the US face the most serious assault on their living standards in decades.

US budget crisis: Obama will make poor pay for crisis

26 July 2011
Could the US government really default on its debts?

Watergate and Murdoch: notes on two scandals

19 July 2011
One night in 1972, six men were arrested while burgling the Democratic Party campaign headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex, Washington DC.

US row risks more economic turmoil

19 July 2011
The global economy faces further meltdown as world rulers scrabble to prevent the crisis deepening.

New York hotel workers: 'Shame on you, Strauss-Khan!'

14 June 2011
New York Hotel & Motel trades council union members held a loud protest against former IMF boss Dominic Strauss-Khan on Monday of this week.

Geronimo Pratt, former political prisoner and Black Panther, dies

07 June 2011
Former political prisoner and Black Panther Geronimo Pratt died last week aged 63. He is believed to have died of natural causes in Tanzania where he had settled and worked as a human rights activist.

Obama tries to hijack revolutions

24 May 2011
Barack Obama made a speech on the Middle East on Thursday of last week.

The American Civil War: war against slavery

19 April 2011
The American Civil War began 150 years ago this month when forces bombarded Fort Sumter, a government base in South Carolina. Some claim the war between Northern and Southern US states was about the rights of states. In reality, it was a conflict between two different ways of organising society.

Wisconsin: the bill is passed but we'll fight on

22 March 2011
The governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, has passed a bill to remove the trade union rights of some 175,000 workers in the US.

US: workers fight on in Wisconsin

15 March 2011
Over 150,000 workers and students surrounded the Capitol building in Wisconsin in the US last Saturday.

Wisconsin: We'll keep fighting Scott Walker's bill

12 March 2011
More than 30,000 people circled the state Capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin, last Saturday in a continued show of outrage against governor Scott Walker.

Wisconsin - how we built a mass movement

01 March 2011
On Friday 11 February governor Scott Walker declared war on public sector workers in the US state of Wisconsin by trying to ban trade unions.

Republicans and bosses are watching Wisconsin

01 March 2011
Scott Walker’s attacks on Wisconsin teachers and other public sector workers are part of a national agenda to privatise public institutions and destroy public sector unions.

Wisconsin in revolt at governor's attack on union rights

22 February 2011
Tens of thousands public sector workers in the US are blocking the streets of Madison, the capital of Wisconsin.

Minneapolis 1934: the Teamsters’ rebellion

09 November 2010
In the middle of the Great Depression of the 1930s, revolutionaries sparked and led mass strikes and factory occupations in the US. In 1934, more than 1.5 million workers took part in over 2,000 strikes—and they often won.

Obama's America is a disappointment for many

02 November 2010
US president Barack Obama was elected in 2008 on a wave of hope. There was justified exhilaration that a black man had won the most powerful elected office in the world, in a country so marked by racism.