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August 23, 2002 | Issue 418

FRONT AND BACK PAGES

Stop Bush's war drive!
Planning another slaughter in Iraq
No country since Vietnam has suffered more destruction from U.S. military power than Iraq. The 1991 Gulf War killed an estimated 200,000 people in a period of just six weeks. Then came a decade of economic warfare--in the form of UN sanctions. But still George W. Bush isn't satisfied.

Making workers pay the price
Airlines bosses lower the ax
Corporate America is cutting more jobs--and airline bosses are leading the way. This month's bankruptcy filing at US Airways--followed by United Airlines' threat to make the same move--signals an all-out assault on union jobs and benefits across the industry.

SPECIAL FEATURES

The terrible toll of a new war on Iraq
A recipe for more misery where misery is already the order of the day. That's a good way to describe what the Bush administration has in store for Iraq. In this speical feature, Socialist Worker looks at the bloody toll of the U.S. war.

Iraq anti-sanctions activist Bert Sacks speaks out
"What's going on is brutal"
Earlier this year, the U.S. government fined Bert Sacks $10,000 for bringing needed medicine and supplies to Iraq in violation of economic sanctions. Sacks spoke to SW about the toll of sanctions--and how he's responded to the U.S. government's attempt to silence him.

Latin America suffers the consequences of "neoliberalism"
Pushed to the edge by the IMF
The Brazilian economy remains in turmoil even after this month's record $30 billion bailout loan by the International Monetary Fund. The roots of this crisis are U.S.-backed free-market policies that have caused economic crisis to spread from one end of Latin America to the other.

Framed and put to death because of their political beliefs
Sacco and Vanzetti
Seventy-five years ago this month, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti--two Italian immigrants--were executed in the state of Massachusetts. But not before the case and the movement that was organized to save them made a huge impact around the world.

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WHAT WE THINK

The Bush gang spews hot air at its made-for-TV summit
Clueless in Crawford
George W. Bush and his administration of corporate executives may be fans of the free market. But when it came to the "free" discussion of the U.S. economy's problems at a forum in Waco, Texas, last week, they left little to chance.

Colombia's killers get green light
The dirty war in Colombia just got dirtier, with a little help from the U.S. government. Colombia's new president, Álvaro Uribe, can now use dozens of attack helicopters and other supplies provided by the U.S. in operations against left-wing rebels fighting a decades-old civil war.

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NATIONAL NEWS

NYC's homeless crisis drives teen to suicide
Victim of the shelter system
Jason-Eric Wilson is a victim of the disastrous state of New York City's social services. On August 7, the mentally ill 16-year-old killed himself in his family's shelter room in Harlem.

Feds' police-state methods exposed
Ripping up civil rights
Arbitrary detentions. Secret arrests. Illegal interrogations. The Bush administration is using police-state methods that would shame some of the world's cruelest dictators.

Ashcroft's dirty bomb lie
John Ashcroft could hardly contain himself in June when he crowed to the world that authorities had arrested an al-Qaeda operative who planned to set off a "dirty bomb" in Washington, D.C. But now, law enforcement officials are admitting that they have no evidence of a "dirty bomb" plot.

Bush's corporate crime cop a crook
Earlier this year, when George W. Bush was "getting tough" on crooked CEOs, he named Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson to head up his corporate crime task force. Turns out Thompson is exceptionally "well-qualified" for the position.

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COLUMNS

WHAT DO SOCIALISTS SAY?
New trouble ahead for U.S. economy?
Earlier this year, most economists were happily predicting that an economic recovery was underway. But after a steady stream of statistics that show continuing problems for the economy, the analysts have changed their tune. What happened?

READING BETWEEN THE LINES
Don't blame Greens if Wellstone loses
With control of Congress up for grabs in November, no state will be more closely watched than Minnesota. There, liberal Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone faces a White House-engineered challenge from former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman.

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ON THE PICKET LINE

ILWU dockworkers send a message to Washington:
Hands off our union
Rallies by dockworkers up and down the West Coast last week sent a message to George W. Bush: Keep your hands off our union!

UPS should give us more
The recent contract negotiations between the Teamsters and United Parcel Service have exposed the weaknesses of the national Teamsters leadership and its lawyer president, James Hoffa.

Labor in brief
Chicago hotels; University of California-Berkeley; Coalition of Immokalee Workers; Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace; University of California-Santa Cruz

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REPORTS FROM THE STRUGGLE

Activists will confront racist rally at Capitol
Keep Nazis out of D.C.!
Antiracists are building for an August 24 counterdemonstration against a rally of neo-Nazis and racist skinheads on the steps of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

Reports from the struggle
Stop Israel's terror; Free the detainees; The Struggle for Palestine

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SW READERS SPEAK OUT

OBITUARY: DAN PETTY
"He lived his ideals"
Dan Petty, a founding member of the International Socialist Organization who was loved by all who knew him, died on August 8 at age 51.

Exposing the CEO's lies at Delta Dental
I am one of the many unfortunate workers at Delta Dental who have been forced to strike.

Other Letters
Baseball owners' greedy games; UN has no solution for Palestinians; SW should cut out the jargon

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REVIEWS

New York City's poor fight for decent jobs
What's wrong with "welfare to work"
There are few places where the stereotype of welfare recipients as lazy, stupid and greedy doesn't dominate. A rare, inspiring exception is the documentary A Day's Work, A Day's Pay by Kathy Leichter and Jonathan Skurnik.

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