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September 27, 2002 | Issue 423

FRONT AND BACK PAGES

The world super-cop
Stop their insane drive to war
The Bush administration summed up its foreign policy goals in a terrifying national security document sent to Congress last week. In short, it says that George W. Bush has the right to attack any country he pleases--and he doesn't need a reason.

Rich nations squeeze the world's poor
Stop the global loan sharks
The economic and political leaders who will gather for the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington, D.C., this week will talk about poverty. They'll talk about "strategies" to solve world hunger. But talk is cheap. And so are they.

SPECIAL FEATURE

The fight for global justice
Thousands of people are headed for Washington, D.C., for a weekend of protests against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. In this special feature, Socialist Worker talks to some of the best-known voices of the movement about the fight for global justice.

Arundhati Roy: "Globalization is ripping through people's lives"
George Monbiot: "They are systematically destroying economies"
Eric Toussaint: "The question of war is completely integrated"

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WHAT WE THINK

Bush's first-strike doctrine
The empire's new clothes
It's official. The U.S. claims the right to attack any country without provocation, keep its armed forces immune from war crimes prosecution, use its military might to prevent the emergence of any competitor--and defy any international law, treaty or organization.

Israeli forces lay siege to Yasser Arafat's compound
Israel's iron fist
Israeli forces smashed into Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah last weekend, using bulldozers to flatten all but one building in which Arafat was trapped. The offensive drew international condemnation--and sparked the largest wave of Palestinian protests in months.

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NATIONAL NEWS

Washington's rip-off of Indian trust funds
"They robbed an entire race"
A federal judge last week held Interior Secretary Gale Norton in contempt of court for her part in the federal government's rip-off of Native Americans.

Will governor in Illinois commute death sentences?
Illinois' attorney general filed suit last week to block Gov. George Ryan's case-by-case review of the state's death penalty system. Ryan, who halted all executions two-and-a-half years ago, is considering commuting death sentences--possibly for every prisoner on Illinois death row.

Denver airport workers arrested in INS raid
Latest victims of Feds' witch-hunt
Attorney General John Ashcroft's witch-hunters claimed dozens more victims in Denver last week. On September 17, authorities swooped into Denver International Airport with indictments against 110 workers accused of giving fake social security numbers on employment applications.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

GERMANY
Stage set for new conflicts with Washington
Schröder wins by bashing Bush
Opposition to Washington's war drive against Iraq and U.S.-style free-market policies were key to German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's come-from-behind re-election victory last weekend.

BRAZIL
Millions say "no" in vote on FTAA
Close to 10 million Brazilians said "no" to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas in an unofficial referendum, the results of which were announced last week.

SOUTH KOREA
Hospital workers hold out against repression
After 119 days on strike, hospital workers at the Kyung-hee Medical Center in Seoul won their fight for a decent wage increase and better conditions.

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COLUMNS

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
The truth about UN weapons inspectors
Many who oppose U.S. war plans against Iraq hope that Saddam Hussein's new willingness to admit weapons inspectors "unconditionally" will slow down or prevent all-out war. Unfortunately, in the past, UN weapons inspectors have provided the U.S. with a convenient excuse to escalate the bombing of Iraq.

Inside the system
The vermin of Beverly Hills; The revolution might be televised; Heard it through the grapevine

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A TRIBUTE TO DUNCAN HALLAS

Duncan Hallas
He trained a new generation in Marxist ideas
Duncan Hallas, the British Marxist and a founding member of the International Socialist Tendency, died last week. Since we formed 25 years ago, Duncan was a major influence on the International Socialist Organization and this newspaper, Socialist Worker.

The legacy of Karl Marx
As Duncan Hallas showed in this 1983 article, Karl Marx was an uncompromising fighter against every kind of oppression and exploitation; his whole life was devoted to the cause of the "self-emancipation of the working class"; and his ideas are fundamentally important for American workers today.

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ON THE PICKET LINE

Shipping bosses threaten to lock out workers over job actions
ILWU debates action on the docks
A series of job actions, an internal battle inside the dockworkers' union and an employer threat to lock out workers highlight the growing tensions on West Coast docks.

Unions retreat--but airlines want more
Union leaders at United Airlines were set to respond to United's demands for $9 billion in givebacks as Socialist Worker went to press.

Labor in brief
Washington teachers; Premier Home Health Care Services; Cody Steel Erectors; Santa Cruz County; Graphic Packaging Corp.

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REPORTS FROM THE STRUGGLE

Wherever Bush's gang of warmongers goes...
We'll be there!
Opponents of a U.S. war on Iraq are dogging Washington's warmongers--and their media mouthpieces--wherever they raise their ugly heads.

Beat back the bigots
In a show of support for their elected representatives, more than 150 students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus beat back an attack on two key student government positions.

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SW READERS SPEAK OUT

Facing deportation after a school trip to N.Y.
No human being is illegal
While listening to the radio recently, I heard a story that turned my stomach. In Arizona, the Immigration and Naturalization Service is threatening to deport a group of teenagers to Mexico.

Will the "People's Strike" help our fight?
Global justice activists are busy planning for the weekend of September 28, when thousands will protest the World Bank and IMF in Washington, D.C. But one element--the "People's Strike," organized by the Anti-Capitalist Convergence--is a step backward for the movement.

Standing up for our right to free speech
On September 14, I was handcuffed and detained for selling Socialist Worker on a public street with five other people.

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REVIEWS

What's behind their "war on terrorism"
The government has used September 11 to launch a war against one of the world's poorest countries, shred the bill of rights, increase military spending and divert attention from recession and corruption at home. But as As'ad AbuKhalil argues in his new book, the "war on terrorism" has very little to do with ending terrorism.

Chronicling the FBI's history of dirty tricks
Alarms went off for anyone who knows the FBI's sickening history of repression when Attorney General John Ashcroft pressed for more federal law enforcement powers after September 11.

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