June 22, 2001 | Issue 371

FRONT AND BACK PAGES

Thousands protest Bush in Europe
This man must be stopped!
GEORGE W. BUSH was faced with something that he wasn't used to when he visited Europe in June. Opposition.

Rallying for the Charleston Five
"We have to stand together"
COLUMBIA, S.C.--More than 7,000 union members marched on the South Carolina capitol June 9 to oppose the prosecution of five dockworkers on trumped-up riot charges.

SPECIAL FEATURES

The U.S. military's bloody record
The world's cop
FROM THE Second World War to the present, the U.S. has fought with every weapon at its disposal to remain the world's number one military power--no matter what the cost in human lives.

The struggle to defend the Charleston Five
"We're ready to take action"
THE CAMPAIGN to defend the Charleston Five is growing. KENNETH RILEY, the president of International Longshoreman's Association Local 1422, talks to Socialist Worker about this crucial battle.

WHAT WE THINK

Bush's European vacation sparks hostility at every stop
The ugly American
IT SEEMED that everywhere President Bush stopped during his five-country European tour, thousands turned out to take him on. These demonstrations gave the lie to the president's American media courtiers, who claimed that the only criticism of Bush came from a snobby European elite.

Crackdown on protests
THE SHOOTING of three protesters by Swedish police in June marks a dramatic escalation in the attempt by authorities to crack down on international protests against globalization.

Charleston and Chicago show two faces of labor today
Time to rebuild union power
CHICAGO IS famous for being a union town. Yet when 1,000 gas workers went on strike against the utility giant Peoples Gas in May, the city's union leaders didn't lift a finger.

Hundreds go to Socialist Summer School
ALMOST 700 people came from across the U.S. and around the world to participate in Socialist Summer School 2001 in Chicago in mid-June.

NATIONAL NEWS

The federal government's first executions in 38 years
U.S. death machine lurches into action
TERRE HAUTE, Ind.--For the first time in 38 years, the federal government's killing machine lurched into action in June with two executions in little more than a week's time.

Jeb Bush won't hear clemency plea
Leaving a 14-year-old to rot in prison
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--Like his big brother George, Gov. Jeb Bush doesn't seem to mind hinting that he'll do one thing, and then doing the exact opposite. On June 6, Bush refused to grant an early clemency hearing for 14-year-old Lionel Tate, despite indicating to Lionel's lawyers that he would.

Pentagon's new top gun
WASHINGTON--The Pentagon has a new dream weapon. Alliant Techsystems Integrated Defense is building the U.S. military's new infantry rifle--which it brags will be 500 times more lethal than the old-fashioned M-16.

THE DIRT ON DUBYA'S GANG
No AIDS drugs for Africa
WASHINGTON--George W. Bush and his cabinet of CEOs have to be happy with the corporate mentality of the bureaucrat who looks after U.S. foreign aid.

White House non-vandal scandal
WASHINGTON--"Sliced phone and computer lines." "Obscene messages left in copy machines." And goodness, "Champagne flutes missing from an Air Force jet." Such were the horrifying details of vandalism reportedly discovered by the incoming Bush administration during its first days in the White House.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

SWEDEN
Huge protests confront Bush visit
Shot down for protesting
SWEDISH POLICE shot three demonstrators with live ammunition June 15 in a shocking escalation of repressive tactics against the antiglobalization movement.

INDONESIA
Detained in a Jakarta jail
Socialist Worker columnist PAUL D'AMATO was among 32 people from a dozen countries detained by Indonesian authorities in June for attending a political conference outside Jakarta. Here, he describes what happened.

ITALY
The road ahead to Genoa:
"The mobilization looks to be huge"
PROTEST ORGANIZERS are expecting up to 175,000 demonstrators to descend on Genoa, Italy, for a massive protest against the Group of Eight summit on July 20-22. Socialist Worker talks to a leading organizer for the event in Greece.

MEXICO
After strike victory for flight attendants:
What's ahead for Mexico's unions?
AFTER 41 hours on strike, 1,500 union flight attendants for Mexico's largest airline, Aeromexico, returned to work victorious.

SOUTH KOREA
Strike grounds airline industry
SOUTH KOREA'S air transportation system ground to a halt in mid-June in the largest airlines strike in the country's history.

COLUMNS AND REGULAR FEATURES

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
Civil rights commission report shows:
Bush boys stole Florida
MORE THAN six months after the Election Day debacle in Florida, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission has issued its report. The verdict? George W. Bush's 537-vote margin of victory was made possible through the mass disenfranchisement of African Americans and other minorities at Florida's polling places.

WHAT DO SOCIALISTS SAY?
The bigots who say sexism doesn't exist
"ARE YOU tired of male-bashing and victimology?" asked an ad, headlined "Take Back the Campus," which appeared in university newspapers last month.

Exposing the desperate plight of the working poor
Left behind by the "miracle economy"
"NO ONE ever said that you could work harder--harder even than you thought possible--and still find yourself sinking ever deeper into poverty and debt." So writes Barbara Ehrenreich in her new book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.

"Glorious harbinger of a new society"
The Paris Commune
IN 1871, the working class in Paris rose up against their rulers and proclaimed the Paris Commune. It was the first example in history of ordinary people taking control of society and running it themselves.

THE MEANING OF MARXISM
How can we protect the environment?
FROM THE poisoning of rivers and seas by chemicals to the contamination of the earth by nuclear waste, from acid rain to the depletion of the ozone layer, from soil depletion to reckless deforestation--the evidence of environmental degradation is everywhere.

INSIDE THE SYSTEM
Dubya's European vacation
GEORGE W. BUSH'S stumble through Europe makes Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's European Vacation look like a seasoned diplomat.

ON THE PICKET LINE

Chicago union leaders failed to provide support
Gas workers strike ends in rotten deal
CHICAGO--Union workers for Peoples Gas voted June 8 by a 606-239 margin to end their three-week strike against the hated utility company.

Nurses strike over staffing shortages in Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.--About 1,350 nurses at two Fairview hospitals here entered their third week on strike--their first walkout since 1984--largely over staffing concerns.

ISSUES IN THE LABOR MOVEMENT
Why Teamsters should support Tom Leedham
TOM LEEDHAM is running a grassroots campaign for general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters against incumbent James Hoffa, son of the notorious Jimmy Hoffa.

Labor in brief

NEWS AND REPORTS

Protesters tell Bush they won't wait until 2003
Navy out of Vieques now!
VIEQUES, Puerto Rico--Protests continued June 18 against the U.S. Navy's practice bombing on the island of Vieques, days after George W. Bush promised to end military exercises by May 2003.

AIDS activists organizing to tell drug companies:
People before profits!
NEW YORK--Activists are organizing a march and rally for June 23 to highlight the global AIDS crisis.

Reports in brief

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Prisoner still striving for justice after 27 years
"This is a war on the poor"
I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to read several of your newspapers, and I find them very interesting and to the point. It's good that there is someone who has the courage to stand up against the injustice that is practiced in this so-called great country.

Colombian death squad forces its victims to flee
Carlos Castaño is the commander of a Colombian army of assassins known as Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), which means United Self-Defense of Colombia. Castaño's arrogance is as giant as his lack of shame.

D.C. General closed due to lack of democracy
If Washington, D.C., had home rule--the right to govern its own internal affairs--like every other city and state in the country has, D.C. General Hospital would still be open today.

Other letters

REVIEWS

Dot com bombs
Going from boom to bust
IF YOU'VE wondered what the "dot com" boom looked like from the inside, Startup.com is a place to start. But not to finish–there's more to the story than this new documentary is willing to tell.

Dot com bombs
Myths of the "new economy" exposed
SECRETS OF Silicon Valley will eliminate any illusions you might still have about the "new economy."

Novel of the future that sheds light on the world today
AT THEIR best, science fiction and fantasy describe alternate worlds that, by mixing the fantastic with the familiar, can allow us to better understand our own world.

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