FRONT PAGE

Transit workers in New York City ended their 60-hour strike that shook the city and pitted New York's economic, political and media establishment against the determination of the 33,000 strikers. | READ SW'S REPORT FROM THE PICKET LINE

The execution of Stan Tookie Williams
They murdered a peacemaker
The state of California rewarded redemption with cold-blooded murder--justified with a press release and carried out in the dead of night.

Elaine Brown:
Background to Stan's story
A former leader of the Black Panther looks at the factors and conditions that generated mass violence attributed to the Stan Tookie Williams' Crips.

How the system fails poor and minority communities
"It's a set-up for failure"
SW talked to two supporters of Stan about why the system places no value on their lives--and consigns them to a world of violence and repression.

A step forward for Mumia
Pennsylvania death-row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal will get to plead his case in a federal appeals court early next year.

SW SPECIAL FEATURES

Bush claims that Iraqis are leading "better lives," but...
Iraq slides deeper into disaster
Ordinary Iraqis know another election will bring a now-familiar routine--curfews, bans on travel, sealed borders and escalated harassment and terrorizing of Iraqi citizens.

Sami Ramadani on the latest "milestone" election in Iraq
"The elections won't change things"

String of new revelations exposes...
Bush's torture chambers
With each passing week bringing more revelations, it's clear that prisoner abuse and torture are a routine part of the Bush administration's "war on terror."

Todd Chretien's "Million Votes for Peace" Senate campaign
A challenge to Feinstein
A socialist and Green Party member explains why he is challenging Sen. Dianne Feinstein in next year's election in California.

WHAT WE THINK

Corporate America's steals from workers and the poor
The class war economy
Rising profits and respectable increases in gross domestic product are happening side-by-side with falling wages, sinking family income, evaporating pensions and a failing health-care system.

NATIONAL NEWS

Air marshals shoot unarmed man in a Florida airport
Dead because he was mentally ill
Like Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian immigrant shot by British police in a London subway this summer, Rigoberto Alpizar was guilty until proven innocent.

Jury rejects the government's case against Sami Al-Arian
Victory for the Feds' witch-hunt victims
Witch-hunt victim Sami Al-Arian scored a major victory when a jury failed to convict him of a single charge following a five-month-long trial against him and three codefendants.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

BOLIVIA
Evo Morales poised to win presidential election
Will Bolivia's vote bring real change?
While Evo will most likely receive the largest number of votes, it is not clear how much of his plan for Bolivia could actually be put into effect.

ISRAEL
Sharon abandons Likud to form a new party
An "earthquake" in Israeli politics?
The picture that mainstream commentators are painting of the new situation in Israeli politics obscures more than it clarifies.

ITALY
High-speed rail line sparks protests
The construction of a high-speed train line near Turin, Italy--the site of next year's Winter Olympics--has sparked a huge struggle and clashes between demonstrators and riot police.

PHILIPPINES
Fury over rape by U.S. Marines
Daily protests are taking place in the Philippines outside the U.S. embassy over charges that six U.S. Marines raped a 22-year-old student.

COLUMNS

THE MEANING OF MARXISM
Lifestyles of the rich and very rich
U.S. Army Col. Mark McKnight insists that in today's Iraq, "an elite few can no longer erect expensive and ornate palaces." He should look in his own backyard.

ON THE PICKET LINE

Management demands massive concessions
Showdown in NYC transit
Members of New York City's Transport Workers Union Local 100 voted to authorize their leadership to call a strike if negotiations fail to achieve a deal by this weekend.

Labor in brief
Workers' rights are human rights

NEWS OF OUR STRUGGLE

Antiracists confront Nazis in Ohio
A massive police presence to protect a neo-Nazi rally in Toledo, Ohio, December 11 led to the arrest of 30 antiracists, including several pulled over by cops far from the actual protest.

News and reports
Military out of our schools; Stand up for immigrant rights; Put the Hammer in the slammer

VIEWS AND VOICES

Politicians of both parties closed their eyes to racism
Legal lynching in Maryland
Our movement suffered a tragic loss the night of December 5 when the state of Maryland proceeded with the legalized lynching of Wesley Eugene Baker.

Activists confront the college president at forum
Stepping up the fight at HCC
The Holyoke Community College Anti-War Coalition organized a forum to question the college president about actions taken against students who exercise their right to speak.

Views in brief
DNC is part of the problem

REVIEWS

Something for that hard-to-buy-for SW reader
Socialist Worker's holiday gift list
SW columnists and contributors give their book, movie and music choices for gifts this holiday season.

Political thriller Syriana exposes the dirty...
Politics of oil
Stephen Gaghan's follow-up to his Oscar-winning screenplay for Traffic is a labyrinthine political thriller about the violence and corruption that surrounds the politics of oil.

Rent--the ghost of East Village past
The movie of the 1996 rock-opera Rent captures a particular moment in history (the height of the AIDS crisis) in a particular place (New York City's East Village) with startling intensity.

Viewpoint of a suicide bomber
The mainstream media pore over every gory detail and every casualty from suicide bombings. Every death is bemoaned--but one.

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