L'Humanité in English

Apple invents subsidiaries without fiscal domicile

Elaine Scott — 2013-05-23T13:06:30Z

Tim Cook, director of Apple since 2011, has been summoned by the American Senate to explain the firm's fiscal movements. According to the conclusions of a parliamentary commission of inquiry, Apple could have avoided paying tax on tens of billions of dollars of profits in America by inventing a new trick: the creation of subsidiaries without fiscal domicile.
The report of the commission of inquiry is clear. Over 40 pages, it identifies the loopholes exploited by Apple in order to pay the (...)

- Economy / USA, Taxation

Defence: France sells its shares in EADS and buys drones from the Americans

Elaine Scott — 2013-05-23T07:45:17Z

On Sunday, Minister of Defence Jean-Yves Le Drian justified France's purchase of two American drones by explaining that France had “missed the render-vous for drones”. This must be what François Hollande meant by “giving meaning again to our presence in the integrated leadership of NATO”.
The white defence papers presented last month confirmed it: “Our defence strategy and national security can not be conceived outside of the framework of the Atlantic Alliance and our commitment to the European (...)

- Politics / Armament

Spain : Demonstration against Healthcare Privatisation

Dimitri Arcis — 2013-05-21T14:54:10Z

Thousands of people, many of them doctors and nurses, demonstrated this Sunday in Madrid against budget cuts in healthcare and privatisation of the management of several hospitals in the capital city.
Thousands of protesters demonstrated in the centre of the capital city, a banner before them on which was written: “Health is not for sale, it must be defended”. The demonstrators, waving placards proclaiming “Health is on sale” or “Budget cuts in healthcare are criminal”, demanded that the budget (...)

- World / Health Care, Spain, Demonstration

French Purchasing Power and Consumption Drooping

Gene Zbikowski — 2013-05-21T14:41:19Z

The purchasing power of French households chalked up a record 0.9% fall in 2012. The French statistical bureau also revised the 0.4% fall in the household consumption index for last year.
In 2012, gross disposable household income increased by only 0.9% in value, as against 2.7% the previous year. At the same time, consumer prices rose by 1.9% (as against 2.1% in 2011). Energy prices rose more slowly. Hence, the purchasing power of disposable income fell by 0.9% after a slight rise of 0.7% (...)

- Economy / Economic crisis

The German Model Is Breaking Down

Isabelle Métral — 2013-05-21T14:36:21Z

Now within a hair's breadth of recession, Germany is a victim of the austerity policies it has inflicted on itself and imposed on its partners.
The modest figure for German growth in the first quarter of 2013 – a mere 0.1% - only confirms the trend: the crisis is catching up on the euro zone's strongest economic power itself. Since mid-2012, all the driving sectors of its economy have been ticking over. In last year's fourth quarter the country even went right through an air pocket, with its (...)

- World / euro zone, Germany, Austerity

France in Recession – Government Maintains Austerity Course

Gene Zbikowski — 2013-05-18T16:42:18Z

France has gone into recession with a second quarter of negative growth, like most of the euro zone countries. This situation is the result of European economic austerity policies.
This comes as no “surprise” according to Economics Minister Pierre Moscovici, who on May 15 guaranteed that it is “largely due to the euro zone environment.” Thus France joins nine euro zone countries in the recession spiral and in the overall gloomy economic climate in Europe. Indeed, at the same time that the (...)

- Economy

Taubira in favour of a "land ownership policy" for the descendants of slaves.

Leopold O'Shea — 2013-05-17T22:35:00Z

Minister for Justice, Christiane Taubira "has never wanted to get involved" in the debate surrounding a "financial compensation" for slavery, a position reiterated by the Council for the representation of black associations (Cran) on Friday, but instead advocates a "land ownership policy" for the descendants of slaves overseas.
Referring to the racism and discriminations that are "the traces of that violence", the minister for Justice affirmed, in an interview with Journal du Dimanche, (...)

- Politics / Slavery

Kong Dongmei: On the shoulders of Giants

Hervé Fuyet — 2013-05-15T10:54:52Z

Comment on
Mao's granddaughter a millionaire
http://humaniteinenglish.com/spip.php?article2276
Kong Dongmei: On the shoulders of Giants
An article is published in "China Daily" : Kong Dongmei: On the shoulders of giants (Kong Dongmei: sur les épaules des géants)
http://news.cultural-china.com/2010...
The article shows that Dong, granddaughter of Mao, out of political conviction and family spirit, decided to open a publishing house centered on her grandfather works and life. The (...)

- World

To Desire to Make Capitalism Moral is, in Reality, to Demand its Suppression.

Leopold O'Shea — 2013-05-15T06:55:58Z

The demand to moralize capitalism emerged in public debate, ironically, during Nicholas Sarkozy's term of office, while he himself was embarking on ultra-free-market policy laden with scandalous human consequences. Its expression however is sapped by a strange contradiction, which manifests its limitations from the start. This contradiction presupposes that there is indeed something immoral in capitalism, since it would not need to be moralized otherwise. And at the same time, and for the (...)

- "Tribune libre" / Capitalism

Mao's granddaughter a millionaire

Harry Cross — 2013-05-15T06:40:48Z

The granddaughter of Mao Zedong has appeared on a public list of millionaires leading to accusations of hypocrisy charged at a regime which continues to officially claim to uphold the revolutionary ideals upon which the People's Republic was founded.
Forty-year-old Kong Dongmei and her husband Chen Dongsheng are in 242nd place on a list of rich indivuals published by the Chinese financial magazine New Fortune. Their worth is estimated at 5 billion Yuan (806 million dollars). Mrs Kong is the (...)

- World / China