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October 25, 2002 | Issue 427
FRONT AND BACK PAGES
No more blood for oil profits
No war on Iraq
We say no to Washington's war on Iraq! That's the message that people from across the country will send George W. Bush October 26 at demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.
Congress rejects extension of jobless benefits
We need money for jobs, not war
Wall Street was counting its money last week during one of the biggest stock-market surges in decades. But the mood was very different at the unemployment office on West Lawrence Avenue in Chicago, where laid-off workers were coping with the worst long-term jobless rate in two decades.
SPECIAL ANTIWAR SUPPLEMENT
The facts activists need to know
Exposing their lies
The U.S. government has been at war with Iraq for more than a decade, and the lies have been piling up ever since. Socialist Worker's Anthony Arnove exposes 10 years worth of U.S. propaganda about Iraq.
Bush administration cranks up the propaganda machine
"The clamor of the chorus for war"
David Barsamian, the director of Alternative Radio, talked to SW about Washington's propaganda campaign for a new war on Iraq--and the corporate media's complicity.
Antiwar movement takes off
Building the resistance
More than 100,000 people are expected at antiwar demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco on October 26. This will be the largest show of opposition yet to Bush's drive to war against Iraq--but only the latest in a series of protests in city after city.
Why the UN won't stop a war
The arrogance of the Bush administration knows no bounds. Even as U.S. diplomats at the United Nations were negotiating a new resolution on Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell was issuing an ultimatum.
The Bush gang's war on the world
Shoot first and ask questions later. That's the basic idea of the so-called Bush Doctrine. Socialist Worker columnist Sharon Smith reviews John Pilger's book The New Rulers of the World--and explains the background to the White Houe's new imperialist strategy.
U.S. watchdog in the Middle East
Fully one-third of all aid given by the U.S. government to foreign countries goes to Israel--which has just 0.001 percent of the world's population. Why the imbalance? Because Washington regards Israel as its key "strategic asset" in the oil-rich Middle East.
A Gulf War veteran speaks out
"I was over there to fight for oil"
Anthony Swofford, a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War, wrote in a powerful op-ed article for the New York Times that he was sent to the Gulf to fight for oil profits. Here, he explains why he opposes Bush's drive for a new war on Iraq.
"They want a stranglehold over us"
Billy Robinson is the former president of United Auto Workers Local 2036 at the auto parts maker Accuride in Henderson, Ky.--and a veteran of the Vietnam War. Billy sent this statement of solidarity to the New York City Labor Against War conference, held October 19.
Ashcroft's war at home
Attorney General John Ashcroft pulled out all the stops to get to Chicago on October 9--so he could announce at a press conference that the Feds were indicting Enaam Arnaout, director of a Palos Hills, Ill.-based Muslim charity, with charges relating to "terrorism."
War cry of the chickenhawks
It turns out that many of the Bush administration's toughest "hawks" are "chickenhawks"--politically connected rich brats who were able to skip out on their own "patriotic duty" during U.S. wars.
Washington's old ally
Saddam Hussein killed his way to the top and used systematic terror to stay there. And he has the U.S. government to thank for it.
A history of lies to justify their wars
The Bush administration has taken Winston Churchill's words--"In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies"--to heart. But the U.S. government has a long history of lying to win public approval for its wars.
"Wars have always been waged for plunder"
Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs gave a powerful speech against the First World War on June 16, 1918, in Canton, Ohio--and spent 10 years in prison for it. Here, we print excerpts from Debs' Canton speech.
An alternative to a world of wars
Ultimately, we can't end wars unless we get rid of a society that creates the conditions for war--capitalism. Workers' power holds the key to creating a world free of war and exploitation.
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
INDONESIA
Bush claims al-Qaeda link to attack in Bali
U.S. uses bombings to expand its war
Within hours of the horrific bombings in a resort town on the Indonesian island of Bali, the U.S. government was sending a message: Join our "war on terrorism," or suffer the consequences.
VENEZUELA
Bosses threaten another coup
Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez announced earlier this month that his government had stopped another right-wing coup attempt. But social tensions remain high.
ITALY
Second general strike rocks Italy
As many as 1 million workers took to the streets for rallies in more than 100 cities October 18 as Italy was rocked by a second general strike in less than six months.
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NATIONAL NEWS
Debate rages in Illinois over a plan for commutations
Showdown over the death penalty
Illinois again took center stage in the national debate over the death penalty last week. Gov. George Ryan is considering whether to commute the sentences of some or all of Illinois' death row prisoners before he leaves office.
Eleven people found suffocated to death in railroad car
Victims of Washington's war on immigrants
The horrific consequences of U.S. immigration policy became all too clear in Denison, Iowa, last week, when workers at a grain elevator discovered the bodies of 11 people--most likely undocumented Mexican immigrants--in a rail car.
Bush gang stoops to brand-new low
The Bush gang has no shame. They're even trying to link the recent sniper attacks around the Washington, D.C., area to the "war on terrorism."
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COLUMNS
THE MEANING OF MARXISM
Marxism and the dialectic of change
Marxism is, in a nutshell, the theory and practice of working-class emancipation. Marxism is also a method of looking at the world. One of the most important foundations of Marx's method was dialectical thought.
Inside the system
Florida's governor: Jeb Bigot; Barbie's dream house gets invaded; Heard it through the grapevine
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ON THE PICKET LINE
Why we need to build solidarity with the dockworkers
Defending the ILWU
Shipping bosses are preparing to use an 80-day federal court injunction to attack the West Coast dockworkers' union. And the Bush administration is ready to help.
Stop the U.S. war drive at home and abroad
Antiwar unionists meet in NYC
Union members, their allies and supporters gathered in New York City October 19 to plan more union organizing against Bush's war on Iraq. The New York City Labor Against the War organizing conference drew 110 participants, reflecting growing union opposition to the war threat.
Labor in brief
Verizon; Boston janitors; Peterbilt; Portland teachers
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REPORTS FROM THE STRUGGLE
SAY NO TO BUSH'S WAR ON IRAQ
Speaking out in "too loud a voice"
Activists across the country are organizing to make the October 26 antiwar demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco as large as possible. And in the process, they're convincing more people to get involved in local antiwar groups at their schools and in their neighborhoods.
Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Anti-death penalty activists, former death row prisoners and religious leaders held a press conference and rally in Chicago last week to demand commutations for all Illinois death row prisoners.
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SW READERS SPEAK OUT
New York's governor is no friend of workers
Why did unions back Pataki?
Last week, the United Federation of Teachers, which represents more than 80,000 New York City teachers, announced that it was endorsing Gov. George Pataki for reelection. But Pataki is no friend of labor.
This fight is for free speech at Northeastern
On October 9, the Northeastern University chapter of the International Socialist Organization--a campus student group for more than six years--received an e-mail informing us that our group had been suspended.
How the ILWU fought for Mumia
Being from Philadelphia, "Ground Zero" of the Mumia Abu-Jamal case, I cannot read about the Bush League's animosity towards the International Longshore and Warehouse Union without remembering that this union shut down the West Coast ports in support of Mumia.
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REVIEW
Film marks 30 years after Bloody Sunday
On January 30, 1972, British soldiers killed 13 unarmed marchers at a civil rights protest in Derry City, Northern Ireland--a slaughter that became known as "Bloody Sunday." Paul Greengrass made the film Bloody Sunday to mark the 30th anniversary of this outrage.
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