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June 28, 2002 | Issue 412
FRONT AND BACK PAGES
Bush backs Israel's apartheid
George W. Bush announced his long-awaited "peace plan" for the Middle East on June 24. But Bush's "peace" proposal is an endorsement of war--Israel's half-century-old war against Palestinians.
Support West Coast longshore workers
Showdown on the docks
The showdown shaping up on the West Coast waterfront between the bosses' Pacific Maritime Association and more than 10,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union could be the biggest U.S. labor battle in years.
Walkout in Canada
Strikers stop scabs at Navistar
Striking workers at a Navistar factory in Chatham, Ontario, are setting a fighting example for the labor movement on both sides of the border.
SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIANS
The bulldozers that wreck Palestinian lives
Caterpillar's weapon of destruction
Ten minutes. That's all the time that Israeli officials gave Saleem Shawamreh to get his family and belongings out of his home. They came without warning, issued the ultimatum--and then used two Caterpillar D9 bulldozers to flatten his house.
Activists launch campaign for divestment
"Making the issue real"
Supporters of Palestinian rights are organizing for divestment--pressuring companies and institutions to cut their ties to Israel's apartheid system. Activists Rania Masri, Snehal Shingavi and Yusef Khalil talk to Socialist Worker about the struggle ahead.
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SPECIAL FEATURES
How high-flying executives got rich off corporate rip-offs
Crime in the suites
With the number of corporate meltdowns growing, SW looks at how last year's Wall Street darlings have become this year's symbols of what's wrong with Corporate America.
Another world is possible
Socialism 2002…Fight for socialism!
More than 750 people attended Socialism 2002, a conference cosponsored by Socialist Worker, in Chicago on June 13-16. Here, we print excerpts of a few of the sessions at Socialism 2002.
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WHAT WE THINK
Supreme Court decisions put limits on the death penalty
It's time to end all executions!
In another blow to the machinery of death, the U.S. Supreme Court last week banned the execution of the mentally retarded.
G-8 fat cats offer crumbs to the poor
A remote location surrounded by rough terrain and wild animals, with surface-to-air missiles at the ready. Sounds like something from a James Bond movie--the secret lair of criminal underworld heads plotting for world domination. Not exactly. It's the Canadian resort town of Kananaskis, Alberta--and currently the site of the annual summit of the Group of Eight nations.
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NATIONAL NEWS
New evidence of the dangers of global warming
Why won't Bush take action?
Global warming is coming soon, bringing disease and bacteria with it. According to a report published in Science magazine last week, the rise in temperatures caused by the "greenhouse effect" is likely to have devastating health consequences for dozens of animal species--including humans.
Washington rakes in the corporate cash
For sale to the highest bidder
"For sale to the highest bidder." Those words should hang over the doors to the U.S. Capitol building.
Saying no to women's rights
After initially indicating its support, the Bush administration is delaying congressional ratification of the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
Detained student activist wins bond
Ahmed Bensouda, the University of Illinois activist detained in May by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), was released on bond last week.
U.S. officials out to wreck world court
U.S. officials are demanding that all American peacekeeping troops be granted blanket immunity from prosecution by the new International Criminal Court.
Full of praise for the bigots
George W. Bush addressed the religious right bigots of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in June--and had the gall to praise them for their "tolerance."
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COLUMNS
WHAT DO SOCIALISTS SAY?
The McDonaldization of the whole world?
It seems that American culture has spread is tentacles into every corner of the world. According to Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation, there are 17,000 McDonald's restaurants in more than 120 countries around the world--a six-fold increase from a decade ago.
READING BETWEEN THE LINES
Why Ashcroft can't be trusted with our rights
In the days following last September 11, news outlets filled with stories of supposed terrorist conspirators being rounded up. One prominent case focused on two Middle Eastern men who federal agents pulled from an Amtrak train in Texas.
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ON THE PICKET LINE
Carousel workers win eight-month strike in Chicago
"Sí se pudo, sí se pudo"
"Sí se pudo! Sí se pudo!" The chant, "Yes we did!" filled the basement of the Highwood Lanes bowling alley June 22, where more than 100 friends, family and supporters gathered to celebrate the victory of strikers at Carousel Linens, Inc., in suburban Chicago.
Queens bus drivers
Workers at three private bus lines in Queens are striking because of the city's refusal to grant job security and fund health care benefits.
Why won't Hoffa fight UPS?
More than 1,000 workers turned out to demand a good contract from UPS at a rally hosted by Teamsters Local 804 outside New York City.
Labor in brief
Immigrant airport screeners; Bay Area Rapid Transit; Enron
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SW READERS SPEAK OUT
Unionists take on global "rat race to the bottom"
Organizing in the maquiladoras
I recently returned from a solidarity delegation that visited Nuevo Laredo, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. I met and talked with several workers and labor organizers about workplace conditions and also the battle for human rights.
How racist testing adds injury to insult
"If Martin Luther King Jr. had decided to comply with the laws, we would still have Jim Crow laws on the books." That was what Los Angeles school board member Genethia Hayes recently told Superintendent Roy Romer in a discussion about testing.
Other letters
Don't have illusions in Cuba; Myth of a two-state solution; King's "militant nonviolence"; We have to oppose corporate unionism
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REVIEW
25 years since punk began
Revolution rock?
I nearly fell off my chair a few weeks ago when I read that John Lydon--a.k.a. Johnny Rotten of the legendary punk rock band the Sex Pistols--had offered to sing for the Queen of England's "Golden Jubilee," celebrating her 50-year reign.
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