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March 29, 2002 | Issue 400
FRONT AND BACK PAGES
Nuclear hit list…Civil liberties gutted…Tax cuts for the rich
He thinks he can get away with anything
Even establishment figures think George W. Bush is going too far. "Whether it is an ill-specified axis of evil, or a decision to make tactical nuclear war thinkable…George W. Bush in his own way is as frightening as al-Qaeda," wrote columnist Robert Kuttner in the Boston Globe.
Two million rally in Italy
"We'll defend our unions"
In the biggest demonstration in Italian history, 2 million people mobilized March 23 to protest a labor law "reform" proposal that would strip unions and workers of their rights.
Bush faces protests on Mexico trip
Thousands of police fired tear-gas canisters at protesters to clear the way for George W. Bush's visits to Mexico, Peru and El Salvador last week.
SPECIAL FEATURES
State and local governments slash spending
Attack of the budget-cutters
At their annual meeting earlier this year, the governors of the 50 states talked about their common response to a combined budget shortfall of almost $50 billion: Cuts, cuts and more cuts. Socialist Worker looks at the attack of the budget-cutters--and talks to some of the people who are fighting them.
Looking back at the challenge to Washington's status quo
Lessons of the Nader campaign
"You can't spoil a spoiled system." That was one of Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader's favorite statements on the campaign trail during Election 2000. More than a year after the election, the words still ring true.
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WHAT WE THINK
Sharon wants to drown the Palestinian Intifada in blood
Israel's relentless war
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon claims the right to decide whether Yasser Arafat can attend an international conference--and whether he'll be able to return home afterwards. If this happened to an American political leader, the bombers might already be in the air.
Democrats' loyal non-opposition
Bet you didn't realize that the Democrats made their call to action in the battle over federal budget priorities last week. That's because the Democrats' alternative so meekly disagreed with White House proposals that even the partisan-obsessed Washington press corps mostly ignored it.
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NATIONAL NEWS
"Don't ask, don't tell" discharges hit new high
The Pentagon's excuse for a witch-hunt
Since September 11, George W. Bush has been full of praise for America's "real strength…the people who make the military go." But that praise doesn't extend to the 1,250 men and women discharged last year--for the "crime" of being gay.
New exercises to be met by protests
U.S. Navy out of Vieques!
Organizations fighting to kick the U.S. Navy off the Puerto Rican island of Vieques are getting ready for a campaign of resistance against three weeks of bombing exercises scheduled to begin April 1.
H-P executives put profits before jobs
It's all but certain that a March 20 vote by Hewlett-Packard (H-P) shareholders will result in a $22 billion merger with Compaq Computer--and that management at the united company will try to slash 15,000 jobs.
Dramatic evidence of global warming
A massive chunk of ice the size of Rhode Island fell off an ice shelf in Antarctica last week--a signal that global warming is accelerating rapidly, scientists warn.
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
CHINA
Workers defy repression to fight layoffs
Rebellion against the free market
Chinese workers in two northern cities are organizing the largest protests since the Tiananmen Square democracy demonstrations of 1989.
ARGENTINA
Police attack on occupation beaten back
Workers and supporters defeated an attempt by police to break up an occupation at the Brukman textile plant in Buenos Aires last week.
ZIMBABWE
Mugabe regime steps up violence
Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe cracked down on student protesters and other activists last week after stealing the presidential election.
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COLUMNS
READING BETWEEN THE LINES
We can expose the real terrorists
Events called by the National Mobilization for Colombia for April 19-22 will make a major statement against Bush's war. But as activists mobilize, a debate about how best to build a movement against U.S. intervention has arisen.
WHAT DO SOCIALISTS SAY?
Why did Arafat agree to an unjust peace?
For decades, the Palestinian struggle for national liberation inspired people committed to global justice--and Yasser Arafat was considered that struggle's determined leader. But today, he seems a shadow of his former self. How did it come to this?
INSIDE THE SYSTEM
The goodwill games
A "friendly" basketball game between U.S. and Afghan teams last week ended with one U.S. player kicked in the head and a spectator shot in the leg.
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ON THE PICKET LINE
Labor Against War organizes protests in SF and NYC
Solidarity with detainees!
Hundreds of trade unionists and activists in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City rallied March 23 to defend immigrant rights and oppose the Bush administration's recent tide of attacks on working people at home and abroad.
Hoffa pushes dues increase
By now many Teamsters have seen the "Report of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Teamster Finances." As with most publications from the International, you have probably thrown it out by now as being unbelievable--and it is.
Laidlaw Bus
Chanting "Fight! Fight! Fight!" some 400 bus drivers, mechanics and supporters rallied in Seattle to defend their jobs March 19.
Fight for union democracy
More than 100 union members and retirees from several unions met in Kalamazoo, Mich., March 24 in a town hall-style meeting on union democracy.
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REPORTS FROM THE STRUGGLE
Defend civil liberties, free Rabih Haddad!
More than 300 people turned out on March 22 and 23 in Chicago and Bridgeview, Ill., to protest the detention of Muslims and Arabs and the racist scapegoating that has occurred since September 11.
Stop the Nazis! Stop the Klan!
Chicago; Owensboro, Ky.
Fight school cuts and tuition hikes
Berkeley High School; City University of New York
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SW READERS SPEAK OUT
Money for missiles, but nothing for our kids
Bush's backward priorities
A few weeks ago, Bush chastised the North Korean regime for "building its military, while its people are going hungry." The idiot president has some nerve.
Cal State antiwar activists gain confidence
Recently, antiwar students at Cal State-Long Beach won two victories.
Kick this system to the curb
It's politics as usual here in Massachusetts. First, the legislature approved $30 million in budget cuts. Then, Gov. Swift announced she is plugging the gap with other monies. Now, she has announced her own round of cuts across the board.
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REVIEW
Taking on the stupid-white-man-in-chief
Wondering if you're alone in your outrage and disgust with our government these days? Thankfully, along comes Michael Moore's Stupid White Men.
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