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May 10, 2002 | Issue 406

FRONT AND BACK PAGES

Bush and Sharon
Partners in war crimes
People around the world were outraged by the hellish pictures of the destruction in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. But not in Washington, D.C.--where politicians from across the spectrum pledged their support to Israel during Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit this week.

Bush's EPA drops strip mine rule
A gift to corporate polluters
When is a stream not a stream? When it's a trash can for the mining industry.

SPECIAL FEATURES

France erupts in anger at Le Pen's election success
Defiance in the streets
Hatred of Nazi Jean-Marie Le Pen produced a landslide victory for Jacques Chirac in France's May 5 election. But as Socialist Worker's special eyewitness report from France concludes, the election is certain to be the first stage in a period of political confrontation.

James Petras on how the U.S. tried to topple Hugo Chávez
"The coup was directed by the White House"
Evidence is piling up of the Bush administration's role in last month's coup attempt against Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez. Author James Petras talks to SW about the U.S. role in the coup--and why it failed.

State governments swing the budget ax
These cuts will kill
Cuts, cuts and more cuts. That's what state governments across the country have in store as they try to come up with plans to balance their budgets. First in line for the chopping block are state workers and programs that provide needed social services for the poor.

WHAT WE THINK

Bipartisan agreement on tougher welfare ''reform'' rules
Heaping misery on the poor
George W. Bush's plan for welfare is like the rest of his "compassionate conservative" policies. Heavy on the conservative and light on the compassionate.

Bush's new excuse for a dirty war
"Just as we fight terrorism in the mountains of South Asia, we will fight terrorism in our own hemisphere," Attorney General John Ashcroft declared last week, announcing the indictment of six left-wing rebels in Colombia--the Bush gang's latest pitch for taking the "war against terrorism" into the Western Hemisphere.

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NATIONAL NEWS

Suspension of Palestinian rights group lifted
Free speech fight wins at Berkeley
A pro-Palestinian student group at the University of California-Berkeley won its free speech fight against the administration's attempts to silence it.

Ashcroft's roundup of 9/11 detainees
Stop the attack on our rights
Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin challenged the Justice Department's wholesale roundup of so-called terrorist suspects after September 11, ruling that the feds acted illegally in indefinitely detaining suspects as "material witnesses."

Work is more deadly than war
Three times more people die each year from work-related accidents or diseases than are killed in wars. That's the incredible finding of a report from the International Labor Organization.

White House retreats from student loan scam
The Bush administration was forced to retreat last week from a scheme to steal money from a federal student loan program to pay for tax cuts.

The Iraq connection that never was
Another of the U.S. government's post-September 11 lies has been exposed--and from the horse's mouth.

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COLUMNS

WHAT DO SOCIALISTS SAY?
Is it anti-Semitic to oppose Israel?
There's no contradiction at all between opposing anti-Semitic bigotry against Jews and opposing the political project of Zionism--the construction and defense of a Jewish state on hijacked land in Palestine.

READING BETWEEN THE LINES
Why is colonialism respectable again?
One of the worst developments in the post-September 11 battle of ideas is the newfound respectability of colonialism. But as Western rulers discuss a "new imperialism" and a "return to colonialism," it's worth considering just what they propose to revive.

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ON THE PICKET LINE

Charleston Five kick off their victory tour in Chicago
Celebration and solidarity
More than 200 people packed the UNITE union hall in Chicago last week to celebrate the victory of the Charleston Five and May Day--and to pledge their solidarity to workers in struggle.

University of Massachusetts
Administrators at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have gone on the offensive against a union for resident assistants (RAs).

LA school bus drivers settle
School bus drivers here voted in late April to end their 26-day walkout and accept the contract offered by Laidlaw Education Services. Unfortunately, the three-year deal differs little from the company's offer before the strike a month ago.

Labor in brief
Celebrate May Day; Columbia University; San Francisco day laborers

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REPORTS FROM THE STRUGGLE

NYC students fight cutbacks
Education is a right!
"1-2-3-4, CUNY needs an open door! 5-6-7-8, don't expel, educate!" That was the chant that rang out in New York April 30 as nearly 1,000 high school and City University of New York (CUNY) students protested outside City Hall.

Defend Palestinian rights
On April 27, more than 100 people gathered in Judson Memorial Church in New York City to hear activists from the International Solidarity Movement speak about their recent visit to the West Bank.

Reports in brief
Marching for a moratorium in California; Defend civil liberties

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SW READERS SPEAK OUT

"If there is a hell on earth, it is here in Jenin"
Destruction beyond words
The destruction in Jenin is beyond words. If you see it up close and personal, no word other than "massacre" can describe what happened there. What you see on television does not begin to tell the story.

Zionism doesn't challenge anti-Semitism
In answer to Yves Coleman's letter (SW, April 19): Zionism is not Judaism. It seems that this cannot be said enough.

Other letters
Challenging Israel's lies here at home; They want to divide and conquer; Don't blame Jospin for Le Pen; The uprising in LA wasn't progressive

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REVIEW

Another Pulitzer for a New York Times hack
Head cheerleader for the bosses' team
In April, nationally syndicated columnist Thomas Friedman won his third Pulitzer Prize. So you might think that Friedman had something interesting or challenging to say--or that he was an exceptional journalist. You would be wrong.

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