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April 30, 2004 | Issue 497

FRONT PAGE

Bring the troops home now!
They died for oil and empire
Photos of the coffins of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq made their way into the national media last week--visual proof of the growing toll of Bush's war for oil and empire.

SW SPECIAL FEATURES

The war they wanted, the disaster they got
Socialist Worker reports on another insider account exposing the Bush administration's fanatical drive to war against Iraq--and explains why John Kerry and the Democrats won't oppose them.

Corporate America's CEO pay heist
The U.S. economy lost jobs again last year. But Corporate America's biggest bosses couldn't resist giving themselves a big fat raise anyway.

May Day: Born of U.S. workers' struggles
May Day was born as a workers' holiday in the 19th century to honor the struggle of the U.S. labor movement for the eight-hour day.

WHAT WE THINK

Why Kerry and the Democrats won't oppose the occupation
Two faces of U.S. empire
No matter how many missteps the Bush administration has made under the weight of the Iraq crisis or the September 11 scandal, John Kerry and his fellow Democrats miss every opportunity to put Bush on the spot.

NATIONAL NEWS AND ANALYSIS

Huge turnout for abortion rights rally, but was it...
A march for women's lives or Democrats' votes?
The overwhelming message from march organizers wasn't that we need a new grassroots fight against Bush's attack on abortion rights--but that we should vote for John Kerry.

New Supreme Court cases
Challenge to the gulag in Guantánamo
Will the U.S. Supreme Court let the Bush administration get away with locking up hundreds of men indefinitely in a military gulag? That's the question being asked in recent cases.

The struggles that lie ahead
Turn up the heat for gay marriage
We have to expose Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and his allies as the bigots they are--and turn up the heat on the slew of Democratic politicians who refuse to take a stand.

Pocketing profits from students' labor
A charter school in Pensacola, Fla. has been charged with fraud for hiring out students with behavioral or academic problems to work on state road crews.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Mordechai Vanunu freed after 18 years behind bars for...
Exposing Israel's nuclear arsenal
A defiant Mordechai Vanunu--the whistleblower who exposed Israel's secret nuclear weapons program--was finally released from prison after 18 years behind bars.

COLUMNS

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
Mercenaries hired to terrorize Iraqis
The U.S. is relying on a growing army of soldiers from private military contractors, such as Blackwater USA--the employer of the four American "civilian contractors" killed in Falluja.

THE MEANING OF MARXISM
Plundering the world's poor
Go to the Web site of the World Bank, and you will find a downloadable brochure entitled "Working for a World Free of Poverty." A better title would be "Putting Profits First."

ON THE PICKET LINE

Columbia University grad employees on strike
"The union is about dignity"
Graduate student employees at Columbia University in New York City are entering the second week of a strike for union recognition after walking off the job on April 19.

Labor in brief
New York University; University of Wisconsin-Madison; Seattle-area grocery stores; Northeastern Illinois University; Minneapolis bus workers

NEWS OF OUR STRUGGLE

Thousands in D.C. protest global loan sharks
Stop the IMF's war on the world's poor
Activists from around the U.S. and the world turned out for a spirited march against International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington, D.C.

News and reports
Victory for Oakland 25; Demonstrate against George Bush; Protest Caterpillar

OUR READERS SPEAK OUT

Democrats disagree about how to go to war
Questions they won't ask
The Iraq war and occupation is not wrong because it distracted us from the "real war" against terrorism, but because it continues the imperialist policies that have made the world such a violent and unequal place.

How New York Democrats helped the bigots
On March 14, the steps of the Bronx county courthouse were filled with at least 5,000 antigay demonstrators organized by Evangelical Latino clergy and Democratic State Sen. Ruben Diaz.

Letters in brief
The shelter system nightmare; Will Kerry voters think it's worth it? Why voting for Kerry is right; Standing up to the "Protest Warriors"; Girls Scouts didn't win their battle

REVIEWS

Immigrant targets of the war on terror
Nightmare at Guantánamo
David Cole's excellent new book Enemy Aliens is a resource for those seeking to understand how the U.S. government has been able to name certain groups of people as exempt from civil and legal rights.

Novel chronicles the leaders of Haymarket
Martin Duberman's Haymarket: A Novel chronicles the lives of Lucy and Albert Parsons, leaders of the militant workers' movement for the eight-hour day of the 1880s.

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