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August 31, 2001 | Issue 377
FRONT AND BACK PAGES
Protesting is not a crime
Why we're marching in Washington
They say that the U.S. is a beacon of democracy and human rights for the whole world. But in the capital city of that "democracy," the authorities will do anything to keep us quiet. When some of the world's most powerful men and women meet for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual conferences in Washington, D.C., later this month, they'll be protected by a nine-foot-high, two-and-a-half-mile-long, $2 million, chain-link-and-concrete fence.
Palestinians face savage violence
Israel's terror: Made in the USA
Against the backdrop of Israel's stepped-up assassinations of Palestinian leaders, the Israeli Defense Ministry earlier this month announced a plan to create a "security zone" in the West Bank and Gaza.
Stop the war against Iraq
Since early August, U.S. warplanes have pounded targets in northern and southern Iraq at the rate of three or four raids a week. But you'd barely know it to read the mainstream U.S. press.
SPECIAL FEATURES
"Everything is done to save the banks"
How the IMF gang wrecked Indonesia
Australian socialist Max Lane talks about how the IMF's "rescue" of Indonesia after the 1997-98 economic crisis helped to turn a crisis into a disaster.
Washington walled off
Fortress D.C.
Nine feet high, on top of concrete highway barriers. A two-and-a-half mile perimeter, enclosing 220 acres of land. The U.S. government is building a fortress in the heart of Washington, D.C., to keep protesters from disturbing some of the world's most powerful people as they discuss policies that affect our lives.
Boycott the Bell!
Farmworkers from Southern Florida will hit the road this month for a nationwide Taco Bell Truth Tour. Taco Bell raked in $5.2 billion in sales in 1999. Meanwhile, farmworkers in Immokalee, Fla., who pick the tomatoes that go into Taco Bell products are lucky to make $7,500 for an entire year of backbreaking labor.
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WHAT WE THINK
Bush gang panics as economy slides toward recession
From miracle to mess
For months, the Bush administration and economic experts have insisted that the U.S. economic slowdown was "bottoming out." But the economy and hard-pressed consumers weren't listening.
U.S. walks out on UN racism conference in South Africa
Racists and hypocrites
The U.S. delegation to the United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, was ready to walk as soon as it arrived. Recognize the Israeli government's racism against Palestinians? Apologize for slavery? That was too much to ask.
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NATIONAL NEWS
Oklahoma City police chemist faked the crucial evidence
The innocent man they put to death
"I'm innocent, and I've got peace in my heart, and I'm ready to go home." Those were among the last words uttered by Malcolm Rent Johnson before the state of Oklahoma took his life on January 6, 2000.
Justice for Madison Hobley!
Prosecutors have been ordered to put up or shut up at a September 17 hearing into the case of Illinois death row prisoner Madison Hobley. Hobley is a member of the Death Row 10--a group of Illinois death row prisoners who were all tortured and have organized themselves to demand justice.
How Miami cops tried to get away with murder
Nearly a dozen cops were charged earlier this month with planting evidence and cover-ups in a string of police murders. And authorities say more indictments are on the way.
Officials ignored deaf man's pleas
Left in jail for two years by "mistake"
Joseph Heard was delivered to jail on October 13, 1999. He spent nearly two years behind bars before authorities figured out that they'd made a mistake--the case against Heard had been dismissed, and he was supposed to have been set free.
Cop mob in Philly gets off scot-free
It's okay to shoot someone five times and then brutally beat them...as long as you're a cop! That was the message that a Philadelphia grand jury sent August 28 when it decided not press charges against any of the cops who were caught on videotape last year savagely beating Thomas Jones.
Stop the attack on affirmative action
In the latest blow to affirmative action, a federal appeals court struck down the University of Georgia's admissions policy. So are African Americans overrepresented at the University of Georgia? Nope.
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
SOUTH AFRICA
"We didn't fight for liberation so everything we won could be sold"
General strike targets privatization plan
Three million South African workers joined a general strike at the end of August against the African National Congress (ANC) government's privatization of public utilities and basic industries.
AUSTRALIA
Politicians spew filth at asylum seekers
For nearly two weeks, more than 400 refugees from Afghanistan became political hostages in a battle over the rights of asylum seekers in Australia.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Anti-Catholic bigots lash out at schoolchildren
The scenes from Northern Ireland in early September looked like Little Rock, Ark., more than 40 years ago as Protestant protesters harassed and abused Catholic children on their way to school in a Belfast neighborhood.
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COLUMNS AND REGULAR FEATURES
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
U.S. tries to avoid slavery reparations
It's time they paid up
As the United Nations World Conference Against Racism moved toward its stormy conclusion earlier this month, European nations threatened to walk out. U.S. delegates weren't present at the debate--because they had already walked out.
THE MEANING OF MARXISM
A socialist newspaper to fight for our side
The role of the mainstream press, to quote Karl Marx, is to reflect "the ruling ideas of society." New York Times journalist John Swinton put it more colorfully at his retirement party.
WHAT DO SOCIALISTS SAY?
Their fence is an attack on all of us
D.C. police Chief Charles Ramsey says he needs a nine-foot-high fence and thousands of cops to "keep the peace" when protesters come to Washington to demonstrate against the IMF and World Bank. But that's par for the course today.
Resisting Israel's history of terrorism and repression
The struggle for Palestine
No matter what Israel does--assassinating Palestinian leaders, demolishing Palestinian homes, using live ammunition on children, or subjecting whole cities to starvation sieges--the U.S. continues to blame Palestinians for "violence" and "terrorism" in the Middle East.
Building the struggle against slavery
The abolitionists and their papers
The terrible crime of slavery in the U.S. South is at least taught in high school history classes. But the struggle to end slavery--launched decades before the Civil War began--gets little attention.
INSIDE THE SYSTEM
In defense of empire
Politicians and pundits generally go to great lengths to deny that the U.S. is an "imperialist" country. But recently, a few right-wing military strategists have argued that the U.S. is indeed imperialist--and should be proud of it.
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ON THE PICKET LINE
Teamsters rank and filers have to kick out Hoffa and...
Vote for Tom Leedham
The race for the president and executive board of the 1.4 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters is heading into its final stage.
Riley brings Charleston Five struggle to JwJ conference
Charleston Five defense leader and International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) Local 1422 President Ken Riley was the keynote speaker at the Jobs with Justice National Meeting September 7-9.
ISSUES IN THE LABOR MOVEMENT
The trial of Ron Carey: An attack on our unions
The trial of former International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Ron Carey is a political attack aimed at the heart of organized labor.
Labor in Brief
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NEWS AND REPORTS
Activists organizing to take on the IMF/World Bank
All out for Washington, D.C.!
Cities around the country are alive with activism in the run-up to the week of action at the end of September targeting the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings.
Reports in Brief
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Protests in Midwest target white supremacists
Fighting the Nazis
When the KKK rallied in St. Paul, Minn., on the same day that the World Church of the Creator (WCOTC) held a meeting in Schaumburg, Ill., you would think that August 25 was some kind of Midwestern white supremacist holiday.
Why are they preparing for war against us in D.C.?
From September 25 to October 2, thousands of people who care about the future of the world are coming to my home, Washington, D.C. In response, our mayor and police chief are rolling out a..."welcome" fence.
Letters in Brief
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REVIEWS
Thirty years after the revolt by men at the very bottom of society
The Attica Rebellion
On September 9, 1971, some 1,200 inmates at Attica prison in upstate New York revolted against inhuman conditions. Thirty years later, a new full-length documentary called The Ghosts of Attica will premiere on Court TV in September.
Explaining Darwin's dangerous idea
More than half of the U.S. population believes that the earth was created in the last 10,000 years, according to opinion polls. About the same number doesn't know that the earth orbits around the sun. And only 10 percent of the population accepts Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
A PEOPLE'S VACATION GUIDE
An art museum on the streets of LA
There's an art museum in Los Angeles whose exhibit space includes the walls of dry cleaning companies, auto repair shops, drainage canals, public housing projects and grade schools. The objects on display are mural paintings.
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