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April 18, 2003 | Issue 449
FRONT PAGE
This isn't liberation, this is conquest
"We're here to give you your fucking freedom," the U.S. Marine snarled at a crowd of protesting Iraqis. "Now back off." This confrontation--like countless others across the country--exposed the truth about the U.S. "liberation" of Baghdad.
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NIGHTMARE IN IRAQ
"This is what you call freedom?"
"The nightmare that Saddam Hussein has brought to your nation will soon be over," Bush announced over Iraqi airwaves April 11. Meanwhile, the nightmare that Bush has in store for Iraq was well under way--thanks to the U.S. military.
Washington's military machine seizes control of Iraq
They're the real looters
The real looters of Iraq aren't the poor of Baghdad and Basra. They lurk in the boardrooms of Exxon and BP, and in the White House and the Pentagon.
"The situation in Iraq is chaotic and catastrophic"
The nightmare the U.S. caused
Bush claims that the U.S. has liberated Iraq from Saddam Hussein's rule. But he won't say how many ordinary Iraqis have been "liberated" from food, water, electricity and medical care.
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EXPOSING THEIR WAR PROPAGANDA
U.S. occupation of Iraq unmasked
The toppling of a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad provided the media with the perfect image to cheer the U.S. "victory" in the war on Iraq. But there was a lot more to the picture than met the eye--literally.
Is this liberation--or humiliation?
Just a few days after the toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein, a quite different gathering of Iraqis took place in in Baghdad's Firdos Square--this time to chant, "Down, down with America."
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BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
Arundhati Roy on Bush's war for American Empire
"The outline of the beast"
Arundhati Roy, the internationally known novelist and global justice activist, talked to Socialist Worker about the motives behind Bush's war--and the struggle to stop it.
Washington hawks on the attack
War on the world
The new U.S. war on Iraq began on March 20. But for a hard core of "hawks" in the Bush administration, the planning for it began years before.
Why did Saddam Hussein's regime collapse without a fight?
Bush topples an old U.S. ally
Why did the Iraqi state--after confounding George W. Bush's advisers' predictions of a U.S. "cakewalk" in the first weeks of the war--collapse so quickly when U.S. troops got to Baghdad?
Congress packs the bill with plenty of pork
Bush's war budget scam
Tucked inside the $79 billion package to fund Bush's invasion of Iraq were provisions to fund pet projects of individual senators and corporate welfare for well-connected executives.
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MOVEMENT AGAINST THE WAR
Protests continue in the wake of the U.S. victory
"We're exposing their lies"
Days after the U.S. military declared that it had "liberated" Iraq, antiwar activists came out on April 12 to show their opposition to Washington's war on Iraq.
Taking on Oakland cop brutality
"We won't stand for it"
Hundreds of people packed a raucous Oakland city council meeting last week to show their anger at a recent unprovoked police attack on antiwar protesters and longshore workers.
International antiwar movement
Reports from Britain and Ireland
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THE WAR AT HOME
Trying to silence resistance
UMass professor targeted by cops
About 50 students sat in at campus police headquarters at the University of Massachusetts-Boston to protest the arrest of an African American professor for the crime of defending a student activist being harassed by a military recruiter.
Will USA PATRIOT be made permanent?
With the help of congressional Republicans, the White House is pushing to tighten the noose around our civil rights by making the USA PATRIOT Act permanent.
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NATIONAL NEWS
Behind bars in the land of the "liberators"
The racist injustice system
The U.S. doesn't need to send its military thousands of miles away to free people from a cruel prison system. That's because the world's largest prison system is right here in the U.S.
Racist frame-up exposed in Texas
In a victory over an outrageous racist frame-up, authorities in Texas are moving to reverse drug trafficking convictions of 38 men and women from the small town of Tulia.
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COLUMN
THE MEANING OF MARXISM
The "halves" and the have-nots
In 1562, three American Indians were brought to France. Coming from a society with "no practice of subordination or of riches or poverty, no contracts, no inheritances, no divided estates," the Indians were shocked at what they saw.
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ON THE PICKET LINE
New York City mayor declares war on workers and the poorr
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to present a budget that will call for $1 billion more cuts, in addition to the $600 million already announced, with 15,000 layoffs.
On the picket line
SEIU Local 32B-32J; Washington Teachers Union
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REPORTS FROM THE STRUGGLE
End the death penalty
More than 150 people came to the Riverside Church April 11 to hear powerful stories of resistance to the criminal injustice system.
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SW READERS SPEAK OUT
Pro-war hate crimes target Muslims at Yale
Stand up to the bigots
A few weeks ago, a right-wing student at Yale wrote a column entitled "The disgusting side of the antiwar movement." A week later, we got to see the much more "disgusting" side of the pro-war movement.
OBITUARY
Michael Kidron
Michael Kidron, longtime British socialist and theorist, died last month in London at the age of 72.
Letters to the editor
How many Iraqis really are celebrating; Vilified for backing resistance; Immigrants under attack in Oregon
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REVIEW
Thrown off the rolls and onto the street
The welfare reform disaster
"Ending welfare as we know it" was Bill Clinton's rallying cry as he pushed through his drastic welfare "reform" in 1996. It's clear that they've succeeded in that task--but at a terrible hidden cost to the poor.
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