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August 6, 2004 | Issue 508

FRONT AND BACK PAGES

Bush vs. Bush Lite
Where's the choice?
With its lineup of retired generals, displays of U.S. flags and endless talk of a "strong" America, the Democratic National Convention in Boston was explicitly aimed at conservative voters.

Moving in for super-profits
The corporate invasion of Iraq
There's another invasion taking place in Iraq. But this time, it's not the U.S. military moving in--it's Corporate America.

SW SPECIAL COVERAGE: ELECTION 2004

"You'll think you're looking at a Republican convention"
John Kerry's star-spangled convention
The Democrats' convention came wrapped in red, white and blue, and had one message above all others--that Kerry can be counted on to go to war to promote U.S. power overseas.

The Democratic Party's new liberal star
No wonder Democratic Party officials are thrilled about Barak Obama. With his liberal credentials, he can sell the kind of victim-blaming rhetoric and conservative policy proposals that establishment Democrats can't.

The Democrats' war on Nader
It's a scorched-earth war carried out around the country to challenge Ralph Nader's effort to get his candidacy on the ballot in different states.

A reply to Norman Solomon and Medea Benjamin
We can't struggle only when it's easy
Todd Chretien, the Northern California field coordinator for the Nader-Camejo campaign, wrote an open letter responding to appeals by radicals like Benjamin and Solomon to oppose Nader's independent presidential campaign.

SW SPECIAL FEATURES

Social Forum of the Americas:
We demand justice across the Americas
Ecuador was a perfect site for the first Social Forum of the Americas. Everyday life sharply illustrates the forum's theme that it's urgent to fight for economic equality and social justice.

Boston Social Forum:
What kind of fight can win another world?
The rest of Boston was being locked down by military and riot police in preparation for the Democratic National Convention, but the Boston Social Forum was a bubble of resistance and commitment to social justice.

Story of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
"We didn't come to compromise"
Today, the Democrats like to call themselves the "party of civil rights," but the struggle of Southern Blacks to win the vote tells quite a different story.

WHAT WE THINK

Behind the "progressive" case for supporting John Kerry
What's wrong with "Anybody But Bush"
It's understandable that millions of people want to see Bush beaten in November. But the Democratic Party establishment wants to defeat Bush the individual, but not the policies he stands for.

The crisis facing Yasser Arafat
The crisis facing Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority represents the bitter fruits of its bankrupt strategy of accepting the 1993 Oslo agreement as a vehicle for achieving a Palestinian state.

NATIONAL NEWS

In the run-up to the RNC:
Bush gang exploits new terror threat
George W. Bush wasted no time in using reports of a possible attack by al-Qaeda to his political advantage. And John Kerry soon followed suit.

Meager economic recovery leaves millions of people...
Desperate for a job
Wages are shrinking, newly created jobs are lousy, economic growth is slowing and the unemployment rate remains stuck--but profits and CEO pay are off the charts.

Recently detained Palestinian activist dies
Casualty of the witch-hunt
Farouk Abdel-Muhti--a Palestinian freedom fighter who fought his own struggle against the U.S. government's post-September anti-Arab hysteria--died of a heart attack after giving a speech in Philadelphia.

Islamic charity targeted by Feds
The Bush administration has taken its war on one Islamic charity to a new level.

The U.S. incarceration boom
A record number of Americans--6.9 million--is under the criminal justice system's control, according to a Department of Justice report released last month.

COLUMNS

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
The Anybody But Bush left slanders Ralph Nader
How can they defend Kerry?
Now that delegates have emerged from the Democratic National Convention "united" and "on message," the Anybody But Bush left might want to pause for a moment of self-reflection.

Inside the system
"Move it, you balloons"; Democrats throw Whoopi to the wolves; Heard it through the grapevine

ON THE PICKET LINE

Attack on unions could spread through airlines
UAL tries to slash pensions
United Airlines is attacking unionized workers' pensions in a move that's likely to trigger similar cutbacks across the industry.

Coca-Cola workers strike for health care
The success of this strike will determine the direction for upcoming contracts in other bottling plants around the country. As one worker put it, "We are fighting to save the right to health care for our families and all working people."

Labor in brief
Graduate student union organizing; City Market; Illinois state workers; University of Washington

NEWS OF OUR STRUGGLE

News and reports
Stop Israel's apartheid wall; Fight for gay rights

OUR READERS SPEAK OUT

India school fire that could have been prevented
Horrors of privatization
The fire that killed 77 schoolchildren in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu should serve as a constant reminder that there is high price to be paid for the free market.

Filipino protesters force troop withdrawal
In securing the release of Angelo dela Cruz, the Filipino truck driver who was taken hostage in Iraq early this month, newly re-elected Philippines President Arroyo was also saving her own skin.

Other letters
Kerry isn't for equal rights; Nader gave up on the Greens; Inadequate on women's rights; Feeble end to a brilliant exposé; Arrogance of the Bush gang

REVIEWS

If The Corporation were a person, it would be…
A very sick person
Using the idea of the corporation as a "person," the filmmakers seek to diagnose an obviously sick "patient." Their diagnosis: According to the criteria of the World Health Organization, this "person" is a psychopath.

What's behind the steroids scandals?
You're "guilty until proven innocent." This is the basic picture of the current hysteria around "performance-enhancing" drugs, which has taken hold of the sports world.

Maximum sentencing, maximum misery
Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett is an honest and, at times, infuriating account of how the criminal justice system destroys lives.

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