MUMIA ABU-JAMALBush 2:The worst ever? 5

REPARATIONSCriminalized for demanding them 5

ABORTION RIGHTSCongressional assault 8

SUPERMARKETWORKERSStrike, lockout in week 3 10

Nov. 6, 2003 Vol. 45, No. 44

tion, indoor toilets or air conditioning. Various media observed that active-duty troops were in the

crowd at the demonstration and clearly sympathized with itsaims. Brian Becker of ANSWER urged the diverse audience toset up Bring the Troops Home Now committees in their com-munities and schools.

A people of color contingent first rallied at Malcolm X Parkand then marched through some of Washington’s AfricanAmerican neighborhoods, chanting “Impeach Bush” and “Nojustice, no peace,” before joining the main rally.

Damu Smith of Black Voices for Peace and UPJ pointed out

that because of U.S. racism and the poverty draft, Black andLatino soldiers are fighting and dying in Iraq in disproportion-ate numbers. The large crowd grew quiet as it listened to a tapedmessage from imprisoned Black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal,still on Pennsylvania’s death row after 20 years.

Congress is putting the finishing touches on authorization foran additional $87 billion to be spent on the occupation and“rebuilding” of Iraq. “Don’t give Bush 87 billion, don’t give him87 cents; give our troops a ride home,” the Rev. Al Sharpton, acivil rights leader and presidential candidate, said to strongapplause.

The anti-imperialist character of the ANSWER coalition camethrough as its speakers from many parts of the world linked thewar in Iraq to the Pentagon occupation of Korea and thePhilippines and expressed solidarity with popular movementsin Palestine, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua andMexico. The case of the Cuban 5 was raised, along with other tar-gets of U.S. repression.

The group Queers for Peace and Justice shared the programwith the president of the United Church of Christ, the AmericanArab Anti-Discrimination Committee and Black ministers fromNew York and Washington.

Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark referred to George W.

By Deirdre GriswoldWashington, D.C.

The last thing the Bush administration needs right now is anactive and united anti-war movement challenging its plans tooccupy Iraq and make the world safe for Halliburton and Big Oil.

But that’s exactly what it got on Oct. 25. Demonstratorsmarched in Washington, just a stone’s throw from the WhiteHouse, as well as in San Francisco, other cities in the U.S. andaround the world.

Protesters gathered here in the capital by the tens of thou-sands—organizers said 100,000, and even D.C. Police ChiefCharles H. Ramsey guesstimated a crowd of as many as 50,000.Their main message was clear and simple: “End the war andoccupation—Bring the troops home now!”

Two national anti-war coalitions had come together for thisday of protest, the largest since Bush declared the war officially“over.” International Act Now to Stop War & End Racism(ANSWER) and United for Peace & Justice (UPJ) co-hosted therally and march, showing the movement that different perspec-tives on the war and other issues do not have to be an obstacleto united action as long as there is agreement on commondemands.

The Bush administration has been unable to get even its fel-low imperialists to join a united front on Iraq. As a result, U.S.forces are dying and being maimed at a growing rate as acts ofresistance to the U.S./British occupation multiply. The impactof these casualties on the population here was clear at the protest.

Family members of troops stationed in Iraq, Kuwait andAfghanistan took the stage and held up photos of their lovedones, calling for them to be brought home. Some displayed pic-tures of relatives killed since the invasion of Iraq started.Veterans from previous wars formed a group near the front ofthe march.

Many reservists with families have been called up for this war.Their spouses and children have a hard time making ends meet.Injured and sick soldiers have been close to mutiny at FortStewart, Ga., where they’ve spent months without medical atten-

Estados UnidosMillones de millones de dólares pagados por el pueblo para más guerras. 12

50¢

WW PHOTO: BILL HACKWELLLead banner of Oct. 25 protest in Washington, D.C.

MASS PROTESTS IN WASHINGTON, SAN FRANCISCO

Bring the troops home

Continued on page 6

REVIVING STRUGGLE FOR SOCIALISM DEC. 6-7 CONFERENCE WW on the workers’states 11

NEW LEVEL Iraqi resistance 9

Page 2 Nov. 6, 2003 www.workers.org

JOIN US. Workers WorldParty (WWP) fights on allissues that face theworking class andoppressed peoples—Blackand white, Latino, Asian,Arab and Native peoples,women and men, youngand old, lesbian, gay, bi,straight, trans, disabled,working, unemployedand students.If you would like to knowmore about WWP, or tojoin us in these struggles,contact the branch near-est you.

National Office55 W. 17 St., New York, N.Y. 10011 (212) 627-2994; Fax (212) 675-7869wwp@workers.org

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Los Angeles269 S. Western Ave.,Room 110, Los Angeles, Calif. 90004 (213) 500-0529la@workers.orgPhiladelphiaP.O. Box 9202, Philadelphia, Pa. 19139 (610) 352-3625; phila@workers.orgRichmond, Va.P.O. Box 14602, Richmond, Va. 23221richmond@workers.orgRochester, N.Y.2117 Buffalo Rd., PMB.303, Rochester, N.Y. 14624 (716) 436-6458; San Diego, Calif.3930 Oregon St., Suite 230San Diego, Calif. 92104 (619) 692-4496

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BETSEY STERGARA life dedicated to the struggle

Special to Workers World

“Their whole lives were dedicated to the struggle.”

— Gwen, Betsy’s comrade for over 30 years

Betsy Marion Stergar, revolutionary communist,worker, mother, grandmother, great grandmother andso much more died suddenly at her home on Oct. 22after a massive heart attack. She was 84.

Betsy and her late husband Al Stergar, who died in1996, were founding members of Workers WorldParty-Milwaukee branch beginning in 1967. At the timeWWP only had branches in New York, Buffalo, N.Y.,and Youngstown, Ohio.

Betsy is survived by her daughters JoEllen Seifertand Lauren Sanchez, four children, six grandchildren,numerous friends and relatives and her Milwaukeecomrades Art Marburg and Gwen Wood.

A socialist life

Betsy Kelsner was born Feb. 4, 1919 in Milwaukee.From birth she knew the brutal effects of capitalismfirst-hand.

The daughter of immigrant parents, she livedthrough the vicious anti-labor Palmer Raid 1920s andthe attempted frame-up of the Scottsboro defendants,and suffered near-starvation during the Depression.She experienced with her parents and siblings the day-to-day struggle to survive.

At the same time Betsy was witness to, participatedin, and supported the militant struggles of that period.Sit-down strikes, boycotts, anti-racist struggles andmore—she was on the front line of many battles of theworking class and oppressed.

Introduced to socialism during this time, for over 60years Betsy never looked back. She and Al married in1941 during a time of radical ferment in Milwaukee andthe Midwest. For a time during World War II Betsyworked in various plants and then waited tables as apermanent job.

At end of the 1940s and beginning of the 1950s,Betsy gave birth to two daughters—JoEllen andLauren.

During the 1950s rocks and bricks were thrownthrough the windows of Al and Betsy’s home andswastikas were painted on their doors. These actionswere in response to their support of the Rosenbergs,charged with spying for the Soviet Union—and becausethey sought justice for Daniel Bell, a young AfricanAmerican man beaten to death by Milwaukee police;supported open housing and other civil-rightsdemands; and of course refused to renounce socialismand rat out their comrades and friends.

During the 1960s Betsy helped organized against theVietnam War, most notably with the organizationYouth Against War and Fascism. YAWF’s Milwaukeechapter office was firebombed. Members were beatenby cops and fascists. YAWF contended with countlessother menaces. YAWF members frequently battled thecops and Nazis.

In the early 1970s the Milwaukee chapters of YAWFand WWP helped the American Indian Movement andother Native organizations fight and win against thefirst attempted frame-up of Leonard Peltier.Throughout the later 1970s and 1980s Betsy helped

fight against the U.S. invasions in Latin America andthe police murder of Ernest Lacy, and participated inthousands of progressive and revolutionary actions.

Although she had carpal tunnel syndrome fromyears of household, waiting tables and other work,Betsy, was almost always the first one to volunteer forbookkeeping, clerical work, folding leaflets, staffing theliterature table, stuffing envelopes, taking minutes andperforming the other behind-the-scenes tasks thatkeep a party and its mass organizations alive and mov-ing.

Betsy was also known for always giving contribu-tions, and gently-and sometimes not so gently suggest-ing others do the same, despite her fixed income.Whether it was a dollar, ten or more, Betsy’s monetarycontributions often helped to make that many moreleaflets, help someone get on the bus, or keep the officeopen another month.

Always a faithful subscriber to Workers World news-paper, Betsy emphasized the need for a revolutionarynewspaper and other media.

During the mid-to-late 1990s Betsy worked with theanti-racist community organization the A Job is aRight Campaign, most noted for its work fightingagainst W-2, Wisconsin’s Draconian dismantling of Aidto Families with Dependent Children. As an organizerfor AJRC she often attended Milwaukee County LaborCouncil meetings. Betsy always remembered and sup-ported union struggles.

The struggle continues...

In her last years Betsy lit up when talking about thenational anti-war demonstrations organized byANSWER and others. Although she was unable toattend the demonstrations because of her health, Betsyalways tuned into CSPAN to catch the broadcasts. Shewas delighted to see the anti-imperialist movement,especially within the United States, alive and growing.

One of Betsy’s last cross-country trips was to NewYork City to attend a WWP conference celebrating the150th anniversary of “The Communist Manifesto.”

Although Betsy would be the first one to remind usof Joe Hill’s words—”Don’t mourn; organize”—we mustnever forget elders like her who sacrificed so much andnever lost their vision, or their iron-clad convictionthat socialism is not only possible, it’s inevitable.

BETSY MARION STERGAR: PRESENTE!

Bryan G. Pfeifer contributed to this report.

WW CALENDAR

NationalBring the troops home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Betsey Stergar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

The battle for slavery reparations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Congress criminalizes some abortions . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Grocery workers strike-lockout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

NYC restaurant workers march . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Racist witch hunt rocks Philly election . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Mumia on Bush 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

15,000 march in San Francisco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Solidarity with Stephen Funk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Internat ional

Worldwide marches target U.S. occupation . . . . . . . . 7

Anti-war protests follow Bush around the world . . . . . 8

Iraqi resistance reaches new level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

10 million strike in Italy to save pensions . . . . . . . . 10

Workers World on the socialist countries . . . . . . . . . 11

Editor ia ls

Congress votes to ease Cuba travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Notic ias En Español

Lo que es y lo que podría ser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Workers World55 West 17 StreetNew York, N.Y. 10011Phone: (212) 627-2994 Fax: (212) 675-7869E-mail: editor@workers.org Web: www.workers.orgVol. 45, No. 44 • Nov. 6, 2003Closing date: Oct. 29, 2003

Editor: Deirdre Griswold; Technical Editor: Lal Roohk; Managing Editors: John Catalinotto, Leslie Feinberg,Monica Moorehead, Gary Wilson; West Coast Editors: Richard Becker, Gloria La Riva;Contributing Editors: Greg Butterfield, Pat Chin, FredGoldstein, Teresa Gutierrez;Technical Staff: John Beacham, Joe Delaplaine, ShelleyEttinger, Hank Sambach; Mundo Obrero: Carl Glenn, Berta Joubert-Cecei, CarlosVargas; Internet: Janet Mayes

Workers World-WW (ISSN-1070-4205) is published weeklyexcept the first week of January by WW Publishers, 55 W. 17St., N.Y., N.Y. 10011. Phone: (212) 627-2994. Subscriptions:One year: $25; foreign and institutions: $35. Letters to theeditor may be condensed and edited. Articles can be freelyreprinted, with credit to Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NewYork, NY 10011. Back issues and individual articles are avail-able on microfilm and/or photocopy from UniversityMicrofilms International, 300 Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Mich.48106. A searchable archive is available on the Web atwww.workers.org.

Selected articles are available via e-mail subscription. Sendan e-mail message to wwnews-on@wwpublish.com.

Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. POSTMASTER:Send address changes to Workers World-WW, 55 W. 17 St.,5th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10011.

LOS ANGELES. .

Every FridayWorkers World Party weeklymeetings at 7:30 p.m. Dinnerat 7. At 422 S. Western.Phone (213) 500-0529 forinfo.

NEW YORK. .

Fri., Oct. 31Workers World Party weeklymeeting. Topic: Which roadfor the anti-war movement?Hear Brian Becker on thedebate over the slogan "Bringthe troops home now." 7 p.m.(Dinner at 6:30) 55 W. 17 St.,5th Fl., Manhattan. For info(212) 627-2994.

Sat., Nov. 1Demonstrate before MexicanConsulate at 21 West 39 St.at 11 a.m. to protest coverupof murders of women inJuarez, Mexico.

Every FridayWorkers World Party weeklymeeting. 7 p.m. (Dinner at6:30) 55 W. 17th St., 5th fl.,Manhattan. For info (212)627-2994.

SAN FRANCISCO. .

Sun., Nov. 2Workers World Party Forum:Iran and U.S. Strategy in theMiddle EAst. Featuring analy-sis by an Iranian activist. 5p.m. At 2489 Mission St,room 28. For info (415) 826-4828.

PHILADELPHIA. .

Sat., Nov. 1Rally and march to demandFREEDOM NOW for MumiaAbu-Jamal! 11a.m.-2:30 p.m.corner of 6th and Market Sts.,Center City Sponsored byInternational ConcernedFamily and Friends.

www.workers.org Nov. 6, 2003 Page 3

The battle for slavery reparations

Father and daughter convicted in tax caseBy Monica Moorehead

The U.S. government and the super-rich capitalist class that it serves wish thatthe struggle for reparations would goaway. Instead, this struggle will continueto manifest itself in various forms as longas the unfulfilled aspirations for justiceand equality exist, as a legal case inVirginia shows.

Robert Forster and his daughter,Crystal Forster, were convicted last Julyfor “conspiracy” to defraud the U.S. gov-ernment. Both Forsters are scheduled tosoon be sentenced in a U.S. District Courtin Richmond, Va.

Taking the advice of her father, CrystalForster had carried out a bold act when in2001: she filed for a $500,000 income-taxrefund. She did this as a vehicle for com-pensation for the unpaid labor of her slaveancestors.

Upon receiving the refund, she usedsome of it to pay back her student loansand to cover the cost of her brother’s first-year tuition at a very expensive college,Virginia Tech.

The convictions carry a maximum sen-tence of seven years. The father statedfrom jail: “This is not an effort to defraudthe U.S. government. This was purely aprotest against the U.S. government.....Black people are not treated as humans,

but as things by the U.S. government. Wewere used as resources to enrich this coun-try and we get no inheritance from thewealth we brought.” (Associated Press,Oct. 23)

Forster also renounced his U.S. citizen-ship while in jail. He was denied thelawyer of his choice when he tried to firehis attorney and have him replaced by anIndigenous attorney.

Like most African Americans, Forsterhas suffered from racist attitudes most ofhis life. He had sued the U.S. Departmentof Veterans Affairs hospital for denyinghim a promotion because of his national-ity. He reportedly felt very slighted whenthe courts awarded him only $5,000.

In 1993, the Black-oriented magazineEssence published an editorial urgingBlack people to file for a delinquent taxrebate of over $43,000 per household.The magazine viewed this amount astoday’s dollar equivalent of the 40 acresand a mule that were promised to thefreed slaves after the EmancipationProclamation of 1863.

President Andrew Johnson, the pro-slavery sympathizer who succeededAbraham Lincoln, veteoed the 40 acresand a mule. Johnson’s racist act helped laythe basis for overturning Black recon-struction in the South.

Forster is a tax return preparer. He took

they did not allow exemptions to protectthe woman’s health.

Those who oppose women’s right tochoose abortion coined the term “partial-birth” in 1995 to consciously mislead thepublic about the medical procedure usedfor abortions after 21 weeks. The proce-dure’s correct name is “dilation andextraction” (D&X).

Using huge blow-ups of late-termfetuses and gruesome descriptions of theprocedure, opponents of choice have pur-posely sensationalized it so they can usethe ban as a stepping stone to end legalabortion.

Indeed, reproductive-rights advocatespoint out that the ban could be interpretedto outlaw several other procedures usedfor abortions after 12 weeks. The vastmajority of abortions occur during thefirst 12 weeks after conception.

What those who denounce D&X don’tsay is that the procedure is rarely used andonly under extreme circumstances. It isestimated that D&X accounts for between0.004 and 0.1 percent of all abortions. TheAmerican Medical Association policyrestricts D&X use to cases where testsshow that the fetus has abnormalities thatare incompatible with life, and when D&Xis judged safer than all other methods.(AMA Policy H5.982)

Of course, any medical procedure, whendescribed in gory enough detail, seemsviolent and repulsive—especially if the pub-lic is unaware it is used only under highlyrestricted circumstances. Deliberatelykeeping the public ignorant about howrarely the procedure is used and not includ-ing an exception for use when needed toprotect a woman’s health shows that the

inflation into account and, for some of hisclients, increased the amount posed in theEssence editorial twelvefold. The InternalRevenue Service stated that more than80,000 income tax returns were submit-ted in 2001 asking for non-existent slav-ery tax credits. The total amount was $2.7billion.

‘They owe us’

The real criminals are not the Forstersbut the in-justice system that keeps alivethe legacy of slavery today with institu-tionalized racism. The primary victims ofthis racism are African Americans,Latinos, Indigenous people and otherpeoples of color. Every social institution istinged with white-supremacist ideology inorder to divide and conquer the masses.

If this were not the case, there wouldhave been a federal reparations programin existence long ago. No administrationhas even officially apologized for the U.S.policy of enslaving millions of African peo-ple, let alone offered compensation to thedescendants of the slaves.

There are now class-action lawsuits infederal courts where African Americansare suing U.S. corporations for their pastcomplicity in maintaining slavery. Thelawsuits argue that corporations such asFleet Boston Financial, Aetna and CSX are guilty of commiting crimes against

Congress passes ban criminalizing some abortions

issue has been consciously manipulated topromote the anti-choice campaign.

Democrats abet Republican agenda

Republicans, who overwhelmingly sup-ported the anti-woman bill, intend to useit demagogically to win votes in the 2004election. Sure as shooting, that’s Bush’sagenda. But Bush also has a long-termstrategy: By the time the case comesbefore the Supreme Court he intends tonominate an anti-choice justice who heexpects will change the vote to five to fourin favor of the ban.

It must be pointed out, however, thatthe ban would not have been passed if 17Democrats, most of whom have previ-ously voted pro-choice, hadn’t voted for it.Democrats have been doing this sort ofthing a lot lately—most recently givingBush the $87 billion he requested for theoccupation of Iraq. But the trend startedunder President Clinton with passage ofbills that radically limit welfare for poorwomen and that restrict rights of peopleon death row.

humanity along with profiting off ofunspeakable human suffering. The law-suits state that the wealth created by slav-ery would amount to an estimated $1.5trillion in unpaid wages today, consider-ing inflation.

If the class-action lawsuit is won, someof the plaintiffs plan to use the financialrestitution to establish a collective fund toprovide the decent education and healthcare that have been systematically deniedto African Americans for decades.

Is it just a coincidence that people likethe Forsters get caught and convicted, andthe rich don’t? Absolutely not. There existso many legal loopholes that the U.S.super-rich can manipulate to avoid payingmillions of dollars in taxes without beingconvicted, much less winding up in court.

This is another example of which classbenefits from the capitalist system. It iscertainly not the workers, the poor, theoppressed or what is left of the middleclass. It is the capitalist class composed ofcorporate heads and investors who arelaughing all the way to the bank.

As long as the horrific legacy of U.S.slavery is alive and well, the struggle forsocial equality and justice remains inevi-table. The Forsters deserve the supportand admiration of every working and poorperson of all nationalities for taking aheroic stand against racism.

Women in the reproductive-rightsmovement are itching to fight back. Infact, Planned Parenthood initiated a callfor a march and rally in Washington, D.C.,on April 25, 2004.

Some pro-choice groups have announ-ced plans to steer the movement into adump-Bush, support-the-Democrat direc-tion. But, as the vote on the ban shows,that strategy is a dead end. Democraticcandidates cannot be trusted to supportwomen’s right to choose abortion.

What persuaded the Supreme Courtjustices to legalize abortion in 1973? At thattime, five Republican appointees joinedtwo Democratic appointees to vote for thedecision. It was the upsurge of the inde-pendent women’s liberation movement,marching in the streets for abortion ondemand, that determined the 1973 ruling.

Just as an independent anti-war move-ment has emerged to oppose Bush’s pre-emptive wars, so too is an independentwomen’s movement needed to demandthe many essential components ofwomen’s reproductive rights, includingthe right to choose abortion.

By Sue Davis

By a vote of 64 to 34, the Senate passedthe “Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act” onOct. 21. The House of Representatives hadpassed it Oct. 2, by a vote of 281 to 142.

One of President George W. Bush’s long-standing campaign promises to the reli-gious right was that he would swiftly signsuch a bill.

But three organizations that championwomen’s rights have vowed that as soonas that happens they will file suit to pre-vent the law from taking effect.

The three are the Center for Repro-ductive Rights, the Planned ParenthoodFederation of America and the AmericanCivil Liberties Union on behalf of the Nat-ional Abortion Federation. NAF represents400 women’s health centers that providemore than half of the 1.2 million abortionsperformed yearly in this country.

Milestone against reproductive rights

Passage of the ban marks a milestone tolimit women’s reproductive rights. It isremarkable that the federal governmenthas outlawed a medical procedure, thuspreventing doctors from practicing medi-cine—and preventing women from receiv-ing the medical care best suited to theirneeds. Doctors found guilty of performingthe procedure could serve up to five yearsin prison for a criminal felony and payunspecified fines.

President Bill Clinton vetoed nearlyidentical bills twice during his presidency.In June 2000 the U.S. Supreme Courtruled in a five to four decision that similarstate bills were unconstitutional since

• Racism, national oppression & the right to self-determination • Black labor from chattel slavery to wage slavery • Reparations & Black Liberation • Harriet Tubman: woman warrior • Black labor & the fight for reparations l• Alabama’s Black Belt: Legacy of slavery, sharecropping

and segregation• Black farmers demand justice• Mumia Abu-Jamal to the 3rd UN World Conference Against Racism• Nigerian women take over Chevron Texaco • Causes of turmoil in Jamaica

Order now online from Leftbooks.com for $4.50Edited by Monica Moorehead

Page 4 Nov. 6, 2003 www.workers.org

By John ParkerLos Angeles

The strike and lockout at Los Angelessupermarket chains entered the thirdweek Oct. 26 with cracks showing in theanti-worker alliance of the three super-market chains: Ralphs, Albertsons andVons/Pavilion, which is owned bySafeway.

A United Food and Commercial Work-ers union official who prefers to remainanonymous told Workers World thatAlbertsons and Ralphs management wereconsidering breaking from Safeway’s CEOSteven Burd and negotiating separately.

UFCW workers can take credit forweakening management unity with theirmilitancy. Also, community support is stillstrong against the big three grocery chainsof Ralphs, owned by Kroger, Albertsonsand Vons/Pavilion.

The community’s boycott is working.Cash registers are silent as shoppers goelsewhere.

Part of the engine for building this mil-itancy and support has been the frequentrallies at local stores. At a Vons store in theEcho Park area of Los Angles, UFCW Local770 organized such an event for the strik-ing workers Oct. 26.

The local has already organized massrallies with big-name celebrities and laborofficials. Other unions supporting the ral-lies have included the Teamsters, ServiceEmployees, Television and Radio Actors,and Hotel and Restaurant Employees.

Part of the local’s strategy to keep up thespirits of striking and locked-out workersis to organize more frequent and smallerrallies of support at each store, especiallythose located in more remote areas. At theOct. 26 rally the tactic worked well.Workers not only got the chance to showtheir militancy through chants but alsomarched by the store’s entrance, wherethey blocked entry.

After the march, officials from theUnited Transportation Union, represent-ing striking Metropolitan TransitAuthority workers, expressed their soli-

darity, focusing on the demand for decenthealth care for workers. They were fol-lowed by a teacher representing theUnited Teachers of Los Angeles. He saidthe school he taught at was around the cor-ner, and that all the teachers at that schoolhad been instructed to not patronize thisVons.

Health care is key issue

Health care is one of the key issues ofthe strike and lockout affecting 71,000UFCW workers in Southern California.The big three food chains are trying to cut$1 billion in health-care benefits fromUFCW workers.

After Safeway’s proposal for drasticcuts, over 95 percent of UFCW workersvoted to strike. When this happened,Ralphs and Albertsons locked out theirUFCW workers without giving legalnotice.

Miguel Arrow lives not far from thisstore. He was observing the rally. Askedwhat he thought, he said: “We can’t letthese big corporations get away with mur-der by denying basic health care to work-ers. If they take it away from these people,who’s to stop my boss from making eyesat my health-care benefits. I’m withthem.”

Former customers of the big three haveshown unprecedented support for thestrike, which demonstrates this struggle’suniversal nature. Not only health care, butworkers’ basic right to have a union, is atissue.

Ralphs has proposed opening up newstores that will be non-union.

The big three are proposing a two-tierwage system that would significantlylower starting wages for new employees.This would provide great incentive toeliminate workers with more seniority andthereby lower labor costs.

And workers near retirement wouldface the loss of hundreds of dollars permonth in lost medical benefits.

In recent newspaper ads, the corporateexecutives of Vons, Alberstons and Ralphsfalsely stated that the workers are over-

paid. In reality, the average worker makes$312 per week. Many employees earn lessthan $10 per hour.

Lying and breaking the law seem par forthe course for these supermarket chains.In early October KFMB-TV, channel 8,reported on a videotape taken at a Ralphsin Chula Vista. The video shows how thisstore was circumventing truckers’ refusalto cross picket lines.

Channel 8 reported that on the video-tape, scabs could clearly be seen unload-ing creates of milk from a U-Haul truckwithout refrigeration. According to theCalifornia Department of Food andAgriculture, “Milk must be handled insuch a way that protects against tempera-tures above 45 degrees.”

The store is currently under investiga-tion. As it gets pretty hot here in SouthernCalifornia, especially in a U-Haul cab, 45degrees would be hard to maintain.

This shows the stores’ cavalier atti-tude toward both the workers who pro-duce their profits and the health of theirown consumers. Many of these samewage-and-benefit cuts against theUFCW would help drive down wages andbenefits for all workers, including those

who shop at their stores.However, instead of the government

seriously going after these violations, itchooses to harass and intimidate workerswith non-legal immigrant status. Thistook place in raids Oct. 23 in Wal-Martstores, when federal authorities arrested250 workers, mostly janitors. Some feelthat this may have been an attempt by thegovernment to eliminate workers whomight be most sympathetic toward aunion drive at these stores.

The move to unionize Wal-Mart is pick-ing up steam. It has become a focus in thisstrike/lockout. Many workers cheeredJesse Jackson at a Local 770 rally at aRalphs in South Central Los Angeles whenhe said, “Organize Wal-Mart.”

Solidarity threatens greedy three

Exploiting bitter rivalries among Ralphs,Albertsons, and Vons (Safeway) could bean effective tactic. In targeting Safeway,the UFCW viewed Safeway managementas the architect of a non-negotiating hardline that forced the union to strike. Safe-way would be particularly vulnerable if thelabor movement as a whole could take onthe giant supermarket chain.

Safeway owns 330 stores in central andsouthern California. It is one of NorthAmerica’s biggest supermarket foodretailers, with a total of 1,800 stores andover 172,000 workers. Safeway operatesin the Western, Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic regions, and western Canada. Itoperates under different names: theVons/Pavilion companies in southern andcentral California, Dominicks Finer Foodsin Chicago, Carr-Gottstein Food in Alaska,Genuardi’s Family Market in the easternUnited States, and Randall’s FoodMarkets in Texas.

Organizing and spreading the resis-tance could bring this Wall Street food-chain giant to its knees. Here lies a formulafor success that would bring economic andsocial justice to 71,000 UFCW workerswho are waging a heroic struggle. In unitythere is strength.

Can they split the bosses?

Grocery workers strike-lockout enters third week

Workers from Local 100 ofHERE-the hotel and restau-rant employees’ union-marched from the FourSeason to Gallagher’s SteakHouse on Oct. 29.

Dishwashers, cooks, wait-people and bussing stafffrom 25 of New York’supscale restaurants arethreatening to strike.Restaurant owners havedemanded health-insurancecutbacks and rejected theunion’s proposed $20-a-week raise for kitchen workers.

The contract for the 800unionized workers expireson Oct. 31. If they walk out,it would result in the firstshutdown of its kind here in decades.

WW PHOTO: ANNE PRUDEN

Healthcare is a major issue for UFCWsupermarket workers.

NYC restaurant workers march

www.workers.org Nov. 6, 2003 Page 5

By Betsey PiettePhiladelphia

With just over a week left before theNov. 4 mayoral election, an FBI inves-tigation targeting Philadelphia MayorJohn Street’s re-election campaign hasrallied African American voters in hisdefense.

The attack may be producing resultsunintended by the Bush administra-tion, which appears to be behind theattack. In the tight race withRepublican Sam Katz in the country’sfifth-biggest city, Street seems to bemaintaining his lead. Many AfricanAmericans see the intense attacks as afederal government assault not just onStreet but on their communities.

On Oct. 22, housing activists with theKensington Welfare Rights Union wentto federal court seeking a temporaryrestraining order to stop the JusticeDepartment from interfering withPhiladelphia’s municipal election.

The request, filed by attorneyMichael Coard, was based on legalprecedent established in a 1984Alabama case, Smith vs. Meese. Thatcase involved an attempt to influencean election by selective investigationsand prosecution.

KWRU President Cheri Honkalasaid, “The FBI does irreparable harm tocity voters by making the focus of theelection the probe rather than issues ofhousing, jobs and education.”

A secret two-year-old federal inves-tigation seems to be examining theentire Philadelphia political system ingeneral and contracts with people-of-color-owned businesses in particular.This investigation came to light when aPhiladelphia police sweep discoveredan FBI electronic surveillance “bug” inMayor Street’s City Hall office on Oct.7, just four weeks before Election Day.

Polls taken after the probe came tolight showed Street still pulling ahead.

But in response to the exposure, theFBI went on a new offensive. Thebureau invited media along to film theirdramatic raids of three city adminis-trative offices where boxes of seizedrecords were carted out.

The next day it was leaked to themedia that the FBI was subpoenaingStreet’s bank records—and his wife’s,son’s, and campaign finance coordina-tor Ronald White’s. The FBI raidedWhite’s law office.

The FBI claims to be investigatingthe Street administration for awardingcity contracts to political supporters, inparticular African American contrac-tors like White. However, White’s legalearnings seem insignificant when com-

pared to the tens of millions of dollarspaid over decades to a handful of lawfirms, all run by white men heavilyinvolved in bankrolling the mayoralcampaigns of Street’s predecessors.

A 1998 report now being updated byAtlanta-based D.J. Miller & AssociatesInc. revealed that from 1983 to 1995“minority”- and female-owned firms inPhiladelphia actually lost millions ofdollars because of patronage andcronyism involving white male officialsand business owners.

On a statewide level, currently only2.1 percent of Pennsylvania’s contractsare with companies owned by people ofcolor.

The FBI’s campaign to single outStreet as part of an investigation intoalleged municipal corruption involvingthe awarding of contracts has evencome under fire from Jeffrey Miller, aformer chief of the Criminal Division ofthe U.S. attorney’s office.

“Presumably, people who contributeto a campaign expect something inreturn,” said Miller, speaking gener-ally. “It goes as high as the president,who often appoints people who con-tribute to his campaign to ambas-sadorships. Such relationships are partof the political landscape in this coun-try.” (Philadelphia Daily News, Oct. 15).

Where to find corruption

If Attorney General John Ashcroft’sJustice Department and the FBI reallywanted to go after an elected officialengaged in kickbacks and cronyism,they could have stayed in Washingtonand bugged the White House to probethe billion-dollar contracts for work inIraq that Bush has doled out to Bechteland Halliburton, Vice President DickCheney’s former company.

The intensification of the FBI attackon Street may have also been designedto divert attention away from a scandalthat threatened the Katz campaign. Onthe morning of the FBI raid, thePhiladelphia Inquirer ran a front-pagestory about a civil lawsuit broughtagainst Katz by three former businesspartners accusing him of deceivingthem to the tune of a $2.1 million.

The former partners also say Katzparticipated in an embezzlementscheme.

Street and his supporters respondedto the FBI raid with an emergency newsconference where he described the raidas a “fishing expedition” designed to“hijack the election.” The governmentofficials whose offices were raidedreported that they had been cooperat-ing with the federal investigation andwould have turned over any records the

FBI had requested. Katz, who appears to be heavily

backed by suburban corporate interests,responded to the resurgence of supportfor Street from African American vot-ers by accusing the mayor of “racial pol-iticking.” Katz and his supporters con-tinuously claim that racism is not a fac-tor in this election. But they cameunder heavy criticism for sending amailing to voters in predominatelywhite Northeast Philadelphia urgingthem to help Katz “take back their city.”

In Oct. 26 campaign remarks, Katzsaid it’s a “sad state of affairs in this cityin which there’s a federal investigationand the reaction is sympathy.” Thus heonce again demonstrated how out oftouch he is with concerns being raisedin the African American communityabout the nature of the probe.

During a Saturday afternoon call-inprogram on WHAT, Michael Coard,leader of the Avenging the AncestorsCoalition and an attorney for MumiaAbu-Jamal, challenged Katz’s con-tention that race is not an issue in thecampaign.

Coard compared Street’s record—25years of community and governmentservice, including terms served as pres-ident of city council and the fact that heis the sitting mayor—with Katz’s. Thechallenger has never held office. Helacks any experience with communityissues.

Coard asked listeners to considerhow the media would respond if the sit-uation was reversed—and whether themedia would ever give the same con-sideration to an inexperienced AfricanAmerican candidate as they have tobig-business-backed Katz.

African American community responds

Racist witch huntrocks Philly election

Mumia from death row:Mumia from death row:

BUSH 2:The worst ever?

There is a tendency amongthe American elite, in theinterest of stability, to striveto “play nice” with whicheverparty is in the nation’s capital.You will hear many suggestthat it is in the “nationalinterest” to “respect theoffice” (if not the man), andto “be constructive” if onedares to venture criticism, atall costs.

This is seen as “professional” behavior, and notwithout coincidence, this “professional manner”protects one’s access, and perhaps one’s futureopportunities as well.

That’s why it was striking to read recently ofthe somewhat blunt criticisms offered byUniversity of California economist George A.Akerlof, a 2001 Nobel Prize laureate. In a recentinterview, the Berkeley-based economist offeredthe following assessment of the presidency ofGeorge W. Bush:

“I think this is the worst government the U.S.has ever had in its more than 200 years of his-tory. It has engaged in extraordinarily irresponsi-ble policies not only in foreign and economic butalso in social and environmental policy. This isnot normal governmental policy. Now is the timefor people to engage in civil disobedience.”(Dollars and Sense magazine, Sept./Oct. 2003)

Clearly, this isn’t the usual stuff one expectsfrom Nobel Prize-winning economists. It is extra-ordinary. But the essential message fromProfessor Akerlof was unmistakable: Protest.When asked what kind, he replied: “I don’t knowyet. But I think it’s time to protest—as much aspossible.”

Millions of Americans, many for the first timein their lives, did just that in the spring, as theytried to make the administration re-think thelooming Iraq adventure, but to no avail. The Bushadministration, like some hard-hearted Herod,vowed to “shock and awe” the Iraqi state intosubmission, and delivered almost unprecedentedbombing on a major city in recent years. Itbombed Baghdad and other major Iraqi cities fordays, each bigger than the last. In order to do so,it slapped the UN senseless, and using the pros-trate American media, vowed to remake the faceof the Middle East.

The bombs have burst. Armies have scattered.A satrap of U.S.-approved and chosen puppetshave been seated and given titles that seem tomean they have power. Yet this body, this so-called “Iraqi Governing Council” has less powerthan the meanest borough in the tiniest burg inAmerica. Power, backed by U.S. military deaththreats, resides in the Supreme Commander, PaulBremer, who says what goes and doesn’t go in theallegedly “free Iraq.” The U.S., which brought itsboots, guns and bombs onto Iraqi soil ostensiblyto “bring democracy,” is none too willing to allowthe Iraqis to rule themselves.

The U.S. is both hated and feared worldwide.In the councils of the United Nations it is seen asa rogue elephant, huge, powerful, dangerous andunpredictable. When the U.S. speaks of “free-dom,” “democracy,” and “human rights,” manydiplomats politely cover their snickers for fear ofoutraging the elephant, who might—who knows?—announce yet another self-proclaimed “Waragainst Whatever.”

In polls throughout Europe, when citizens areasked to name a country that poses the greatestthreat to world peace, the U.S. is indeed—num-ber one. Meanwhile, George III manages tothreaten and sneer against other nations thatthreaten his version of “world stability.” It is likethe elephant threatening the grass for beingtrampled.

The worst ever? I wonder what some historiansmight say about that. They might have a betterperspective than economists. Yet, with the nationexperiencing a “jobless recovery”, with over 3million people fired since March, with over 34million people living in dire poverty, with a warsucking up billions of dollars in a dangerous econ-omy, with fear stalking the U.S. heart like a lip-smacking lion spying an antelope on the veldt,with over 2 million men, women and children inU.S. prisons, these are not the best of times.

It’s time for serious change. If you agree,protest!

MUMIA SPEAKS:an interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal. Political prisoner andaward-winning journalistMumia Abu-Jamal speaks fromhis cell on Pennsylvania'sdeath row.

In this far-ranging interview, Mumiatalks about prisons, capitalism,politics, revolution and solidarity. The pamphlet also includes twoarticles— "The opressed nations,the poor and prisons" by MonicaMoorehead, and "The death penalty& the Texas killing machine" byTeresa Gutierrez. Foreword byLarry Holmes.

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A VOICE fromHARPER’SFERRY1859By Osborne P. Anderson, a Black revolutionarywho was there. With an essay on ‘The UnfinishedRevolution’ by Vince Copeland & new prefaces byMumia Abu-Jamal and Monica Moorehead. 128 pp,photographs. WORLD VIEW FORUM, 55 W. 17th St.,5th Fl., N.Y., N.Y. 10011$18 15% discount at l e f t books . comlef tbooks . com

Page 6 Nov. 6, 2003 www.workers.org

the Pentagon budget eats up social ser-vices. Holmes called on the crowd to “holdthe dates” for regional actions aroundMartin Luther King holiday, Jan. 17-19.

A speaker from Peace Action calledattention to a global day of action called forMarch 20, one year after the war’s start.

The demonstration coincided with thesecond anniversary of the so-called PatriotAct, and many hand-made signs and ban-ners assailed Attorney General JohnAshcroft and the administration’s assaulton civil liberties. One parodied the “Pledgeof Allegiance” students have to say inschool. It read, “One nation under sur-

veillance.” Speakers from Muslim andArab organizations spoke of roundups intheir communities that have led to massdeportations and detentions.

Youthful organizers from campusesand even high schools worked on allaspects of the demonstration. CaneishaMills, Sarah Sloan and Peta Lindsay werepart of an energetic group from Youth &Student ANSWER in Washington that didoutreach to organizing centers in 145cities, figured out the logistics of the day,got up before dawn to put the finishingtouches on the program, and then spokeat the rally.

WASHINGTON

Bring the troops home now!Bush’s humiliating experience inAustralia, where he was heckled by mem-bers of parliament even as thousandsdemonstrated outside, and called againfor Bush’s impeachment.

Many low-paid workers from aroundthe world are now infusing the labormovement here with a sharper sense ofclass struggle. Larry Holmes of ANSWERand Brenda Stokely, head of New YorkLabor Against the War, urged the anti-warmovement to focus on the struggles ofworkers who are becoming desperate as

Continued from page 1

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Partnershipfor Civil Justice, ANSWER

Luis Adolso Cardona, Colombian workerin exile Yoomi Jeong, Korea Truth

Commission, ANSWER Rev. Al Sharpton, National Action Network

Brenda Stokely, Co-chair NYCLAW& President DC1707 AFSCME

Elias Rashmawi, FreePalestine Alliance, ANSWER Larry Holmes, Co-Director IAC, ANSWER

WW PHOTOS: DEIRDRE GRISWOLD

PHOTOS, ABOVE AND TOP: WERNER PETRIKAT

www.workers.org Nov. 6, 2003 Page 7

15,000 march in San FranciscoBy Stefanie BeachamSan Francisco

On Oct. 25, a scorching hot day, over15,000 people marched in San Franciscoto protest the U.S. occupation of Iraqand to demand that the $87 billionplanned for Bush’s war be used insteadfor education, health care and jobs.

Buses filled with concerned peoplereached San Francisco from all over theWest. They came from San Diego, LosAngeles, Santa Barbara and HumboldtCounty, Calif., from Seattle, Phoenix andmore.

As the marchers moved through thestreets of San Francisco they chanted:“We’re all fired up. Won’t take it no more.We want money for health care, not forwar” and “Bring the troops home now!”

The media and the U.S. governmentcontinue to lie, saying the economy is onthe upswing and that Iraq is under con-trol. Yet the numbers in the street tell a

different story. The real story is thatunemployment is growing by the dayand that the Iraqi people continue toresist the occupation of their country.

The Oct. 25 demonstrations in San Fran-cisco and D.C., where there were 100,000,showed that the anti-war movement isgrowing stronger and is ready for the bat-tles ahead. Anti-war, anti-occupation andanti-imperialist activism is on the rise inthe United States and around the world.

The demonstration in San Francisco wassponsored by International ANSWER, NotIn Our Name, Bay Area United AgainstWar, United for Peace & Justice, and theVanguard Public Foundation.

Speaking during the opening rally at theCivic Center Plaza, Leilani Dowell fromWorkers World Party stressed why it is soimportant that the movement was againout in the street in large numbers: “Onlythe mass movement of the people can stopimperialist war against Iraq, Afghanistan,Palestine, Colombia, Syria, Cuba, Iran,

Venezuela, North Korea and everywhere.”At the closing rally at Jefferson Square

Park, Ban al-Wardi from the Free Pales-tine Alliance spoke of the need for the anti-war movement to firmly embrace thestruggles of all: “We cannot be truly anti-war without the very heart of the peaceand justice movement—that heart is thePalestinian people.”

Richard Becker from the ANSWERcoalition summed up the feelings of thecrowd when he asked, “Is there any rea-son to stay in Iraq”? The answer from thedemonstrators was a resounding “No!”Becker went on to say, “In fact, among allthe lies being pushed forward to justifythis war and racist occupation probablythe biggest one yet is that more money isneeded to continue the pillaging of Iraq.”

Other speakers included Hollywoodactor Danny Glover, former U.S. Rep.Cynthia McKinney and Vietnam veteranRon Kovic, author of “Born on the Fourthof July.”

Worldwide marches target U.S. occupationBy John Catalinotto

Including the anti-Bush protests theweek before Oct. 25, demonstrations toend the U.S. occupation of Iraq took place in over 60 cities in over 20 countries coinciding with the protests in the UnitedStates, based on reports from local organizers.

In the days just before Oct. 25, somespecial actions took place.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell hadbeen scheduled to visit Athens, Greece onOct. 22. When the Greek anti-war move-ment got wind of his visit a few days ear-lier, they quickly mobilized. On the adviceof the Greek government, Powell can-celled his trip and went on to the “DonorsConference” in Madrid, Spain.

Not that Powell got such a popular wel-come in Spain. Anti-war organizerAngeles Maestro reports that some20,000 people marched into downtownMadrid to protest the conference anddemand the U.S.-British occupiers getout of Iraq. There were also demonstra-tions in Barcelona, Bilbao, La Coruña,Oviedo and Tenerife.

On Oct. 25, one of the larger actions out-side the U.S. was in South Korea, whosegovernment, along with that of Japan andTurkey, threatens to send troops to Iraq.An organizer there reports that “morethan 30 South Korean cities includingSeoul held demonstrations to protestagainst the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the

dispatching of Korean troops to Iraq.More than 5,000 people gathered in Seoulalone.”

“The mood was very different from theprevious demonstrations. One reason isthe recent series of suicides committed byworkers in protest to [Korean President]Roh Moo-hyun’s neo-liberal policies. Onecan feel the mood of sadness and rage.‘How many more workers need to diebefore they could get a decent wage?’ waswhat everyone at the demonstration werethinking.”

On Oct.25 in Japan, an organizerreports that the group “World Actionstaged rally in Miyashita Park Tokyo.Some 1,500 workers and students gath-ered in this rally. After the rally, partici-

pants demonstrated to call for theend of occupation on Iraq by U.S.or the United Nations, and to stopthe dispatch of the Japanese mil-itary, the Self-Defence Forces, toIraq.”

In Lisbon, Portugal, some2,000 people gathered in the rainin the main square to demand an end tothe U.S. occupation of Iraq and that thegovernment desist from sending 200troops to that country. A favorite sloganwas “Iraq for the Iraqis.” Another protesttook place in Oporto.

Organizers in Italy report solidaritydemonstrations at the U.S. Camp Ederle,in Vicenza, in Florence and some othercities. There was a “peace race” in Ypres,

Belgium, vigils and smaller protests inmany German cities.

Protests were also set in Copenhagen,Denmark, in Oslo and other Norwegiancities, and in Britain, France, Macedoniaand Mexico.

In Canada there were marches inVancouver, Edmonton, Toronto andMontreal, as well as other cities.

Danny Glover

Cynthia McKinney

Tokyo, JapanLisbon, Portugal

PHOTO: SF INDYMEDIA/PETER MAIDEN

PHOTOS: RESISTIR.INFO

PHOTO: AWAC

PHOTO: BERNIE FOXPHOTO: SF INDYMEDIA/PETER MAIDEN

Page 8 Nov. 6, 2003 www.workers.org

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-BAYAN—the militant Philippine anti-imperialist movement, reported ondemonstrations in other parts of Asia dur-ing Bush’s seven-day trip.

Anti-imperialist and anti-war groups inJapan held nationwide mass actions onOct. 17 to demand an end to the Pentagonoccupation of Iraq and to protest theKoizumi government’s deployment ofJapanese troops there.

In Thailand, the Workers’ Democracy,a coalition united against the U.S. occu-pation of Iraq, organized demonstrationsagainst its government sending 1,000Thai soldiers to Iraq. Organizersexplained that the march from the WorldTrade Center in Bangkok to the SiamCenter retraced the route of the historic1975 protest demanding the dismantlingof U.S. military bases there.

And mass anti-war sentiment in Britainand Australia have reached such criticalmass that the Connecticut Cowboy facedembarrassing rebuffs from the politicalestablishments of these two main imperi-alist allies.

Bush can run, but he can’t hide

The Canberra, Australia, visit was thelast leg of Bush’s six-nation jaunt. TheAustralian government has contributedtroops and military hardware to the impe-rialist military assault on Afghanistan andIraq and backed Washington’s war drivepolitically in the United Nations.

Right-wing Australian Prime MinisterJohn Howard, a servile ally of Washing-ton, welcomed Bush with open arms andan invitation to address a joint sitting ofparliament’s two legislative houses.

Outside Parliament House on Oct. 23,a massive security apparatus skirmishedwith thousands of anti-war protesters.Activists pressed against police barricadesas Bush’s motorcade screeched up to theentrance, banging drums and chanting“George Bush go home and take Howardwith you!”

Later, near the U.S. Embassy, anti-waractivists broke though the police barriers.After being pushed back by the mass ofpolice force, demonstrators marched to

Anti-war protests follow Busharound the world

Howard’s official residence, where theAustralian leader was hosting a lunch forthe U.S. president. Others stood up tosecurity forces and their attack dogs out-side the U.S. Embassy compound whereBush spent the night. (CNN.com, Oct. 23)

A day earlier, an estimated 7,000 to10,000 activists marched against Bush inSydney.

This popular anger was reflected insideparliament. As Bush tried to defend thePentagon-led aggression against Afghan-istan and Iraq. Two Green Party Senators,Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle, disruptedand heckled the U.S. head of state, chal-lenging him on the war drive anddenounced the “free trade” agreementthat Bush and Howard are reportedlynegotiating in secret. They also demandedthe return of two Australian nationals—Mamdouh Habib and David Hicks—heldat the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo,Cuba, called on Bush to respect interna-tional law.

So hot is the breath of widespread angeron Howard’s neck regarding these brutaland illegal internments, that the primeminister reportedly told Bush during their40-minute private discussion, “It proba-bly suits everybody that their fates beworked out sooner rather than later.

Together with hundreds of other “sus-pects,” Habib and Hicks have been cagedin Guantánamo without charges for twoyears and “both face U.S. military trailswith limited access to legal advice, theirfamilies and lawyers have said.” (AP, Oct.23) Habib’s wife and 18-year-old sonAhmed, and Hicks lawyer were in the par-liament public gallery. Ahmed was ejectedafter standing and calling out to Bush:“What about my Dad’s rights?”

Both Senators resisted being removedby the sergeant at arms after the speakerof the House ordered them ousted fromthe chamber.

Some 13 Labor legislators, mostlywomen, sat silently, refusing to rise for astanding ovation at the end of the speech.Earlier, 41 opposition lawmakers hadsigned a letter criticizing the Bush-led wardrive, “saying that a clear and present dan-ger in Iraq did not exist.” According to the

Oct. 27 Business Day, Labor Party leaderSimon Crean had ordered them all tobehave during Bush’s speech.

Had CNN not defied the Australian gov-ernment’s orders not to film inside thechamber, viewers around the world wouldnot have seen a close-up of Bush’s facetwitch or the scuffling as Howard and loyalpoliticians formed a jostling cordon tohelp the U.S. president make a quick exit.Nettle tried to hand Bush some papers, buthe refused to take them.

No pomp due to circumstance

At this point, Bush desperately needs agood photo opportunity. His senior aidesthought it would be jolly if the sovereignruler of the U.S. rode together with theQueen of England in a triumphal proces-sion along London’s Mall during the pres-ident’s Nov. 19-21 state visit.

The regal procession is traditionally thehigh point of public pageantry when ahead of state visits. And meticulous planswere already in the works.

Smiling crowds waving flags on sticks,cheering “bully for Bush!” Unfortunatelythese best-laid plans went astray becauseso many people in England think of Bushas just that: a bully.

So the British government had todeliver an unpleasant message to the OvalOffice. After consultations with the Houseof Windsor and Scotland Yard, a seniorPalace official announced Oct. 18,“Downing Street, anxious about possibleanti-war protests from the start, has nowdecided to pull the plug on it.

“We are liaising with the White Houseand they have made no attempt to hidetheir disappointment,” he concluded.

Instead, Bush will be whisked aroundby helicopter, “to avoid protesters who lineroad routes,” noted the Oct. 19 SundayTelegraph.

And, the article continued, a prestigiousinvitation to deliver a speech to the BritishParliament has been withdrawn. “Otherproposed events have also been curtailedor cancelled, and he will not addressParliament because of fears of a boycott byMPs.”

Instead, King George and the Queen ofEngland will be photographed sipping teainside Buckingham Palace, choreo-graphed and under guard. The messagethese staged snapshots will deliver to allthose outside the fortressed walls is “Letthem eat cake.”

Marie Antoinette was a “neo”-con, too.

By Leslie Feinberg

Like a traveling salesman, Commanderin Chief George Bush has been on theroad, hawking the U.S. “war on terror”like snake oil. It’s a tough sell.

As Bush jetted to five countries inSoutheast Asia and to Australia in sevendays Oct. 17-23, angry demonstrationsfilled the streets wherever Air Force Onetouched down.

Thousands of workers protested inManila when Bush arrived for an light-ning eight-hour state visit on Oct. 18,widely seen as a reward to PresidentGloria Macapagal-Arroyo for sending sol-diers and police to beef up U.S.-led forcesin Iraq. Demonstrators converged onCongress where Bush was addressing theJoint Houses of legislature and other sitesin the capital.

Nationally coordinated protests alsotook place in Baguio, Cordillera, Ilocos,Central Luzon, Cebu, Iloilo-Panay,Samar, Leyte, Negros, Davao, Cotabato,Agusan Provinces, Cagayan de Oro andother major urban centers and provinces.More anti-war protests were scheduledfor Oct. 25.

The Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU)—oneof the biggest union federations in thePhilippines—issued a statement stressingthat the policies of Bush and Arroyo have“brought serious setbacks in theeconomies of both countries. High unem-ployment and massive retrenchmentcaused widespread industrial unrestamong workers and labor unions. Poorpeople and other patriotic and peace-lov-ing sectors continue to protest over theunjust war launched by Bush and sup-ported by Arroyo. We declare them ene-mies of the working class.”

KMU Secretary General Joel Mag-lunsod castigated the police blockadesand use of force against protesters. Heconcluded, “Bush wants to impose whathe failed to achieve during the WorldTrade Organization Conference in Can-cun, which is to forge ‘free trade agree-ments’ with Asian states. We urge peoplesall over Asia to frustrate the U.S. eco-nomic and military agenda in the region.”

Gloria Pacis, mother of Marine resister Stephen Funk,joined the military families in Washington, D.C. Oct. 25.Funk, a Marine reservist who refused to report for duty inprotest last winter, is now serving a six-month prisonterm in Camp Lejeune, N.C., really for speaking outagainst the war. Funk also had the courage to come outas a gay man in the Marines.

A number of anti-war, Filipino and lesbian/gay/bi/trans organizations have joined to support Funk’s suitasking for clemency. Every Saturday and Sunday between12 p.m.-3 p.m., Funk is allowed visitors at CampLejeune. On Nov. 15, his supporters are converging with

others from the region, to show support and soli-darity with this heroic anti-war activist.

Among the endorsing organizations are:International Action Center; Freedom Trainers;Suzanne Kelly, secretary treasurer, Local334,OPEIU-AFL-CIO, Richmond, Va.; New JerseySolidarity; Network in Solidarity with the Peoplesof the Philippines; Gloria Pacis, mother of StephenFunk; Queers for Peace and Justice; SupportNetwork for an Armed Forces Union (SNAFU).

To endorse, email freestephen@join-snafu.org

Supporters to visit war resister

WW PH0TOS: G. DUNKEL

www.workers.org Nov. 6, 2003 Page 9

By Fred Goldstein

There is a torrent of so-called “anti-war”demagogy coming from the majorDemocratic Party presidential candidates.And there are reams of complaints andaccusations emanating from foreign pol-icy strategists, editorial writers and con-gressional committees about the way theBush administration conducted the warand about how it has no strategy for sta-bilizing the country.

This criticism is bound to multiply andgrow more intense in the wake of the sui-cide car-bombings against police stationsand the International Red Cross thatrocked Baghdad on Oct. 28, the attack ona police station in Falluja the followingday, and the recent revelation that thenumber of attacks on occupation forceshas officially reached between 25 and 35per day. The attacks on the police force setup by the U.S. show the intense anti-occu-pation sentiment that is spreading likewildfire.

Every atrocity committed by U.S.forces, every raid, every killing at a check-point fuels the resistance in its variousforms. But for all the criticism within theestablishment, no one on the inside is sug-gesting that the U.S. get out of Iraq,although this is the only way out of thequagmire.

Despite misgivings in some quartersabout the Bush administration’s diplo-macy, the U.S. ruling class, with all itsmedia and its bought-and-paid-for Con-gress, unanimously gave the Bush admin-istration its support to go ahead andinvade and occupy Iraq. Furthermore, itwas delirious with joy when it thought thewar was won and Iraq was in U.S. hands.Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeldwas the man of the hour.

This assessment was premature. TheU.S. ruling class and its representative inWashington made the mistake that all rul-ing classes are congenitally prone tomake—it totally underestimated if notentirely discounted the role of the Iraqimasses.

As exploiters and rulers who give ordersthat affect millions, who buy and sell cor-porate empires, whose lobbyists write thelaws, who hire and fire workers at will, andwhose courts enforce the rights of prop-erty and imprison millions in their racistprison-industrial complex, the ruling classplays a role in society that accustoms itsmembers to think that the masses don’treally count.

That is why they and their servants inWashington reduced the struggle for Iraqto the struggle between Saddam Husseinand his Baathist government on the onehand and the U.S. military on the other.

Wolfowitz: ‘Taking it to the enemy’

If this quality of underestimating themasses and overly relying upon militarysuperiority alone is endemic to imperial-ist millionaires and billionaires, it is par-ticular pronounced in the right-wing mil-itary intellectuals who serve them. And thedeficiency in this approach came home toone of the most fanatical advocates of theconquest of Iraq in a very personal way lastSunday, Oct. 26, in the al-Rashid Hotel inBaghdad.

Deputy Secretary of Defense PaulWolfowitz was staying at the al-Rashidduring his three-day tour of Iraq.“Wolfowitz was upbeat when he arrived inBaghdad on Friday,” said the Oct. 27 edi-tion of the Christian Science Monitor. “He

told reporters that the military is ‘takingthe fight to the enemy,’ and he expandedupon U.S. successes during visits to theoil-rich northern town of Kirkuk and toHussein’s hometown of Tikrit.”

An hour after Wolfowitz flew out ofTikrit, a U.S. “Black Hawk” helicopter withthe 12th Aviation Brigade, while coveringa U.S. combat patrol, was shot down by arocket-propelled grenade.

Things got worse for Wolfowitz when hegot back to his hotel. “In a daring attackanti-American guerrillas yesterday fired abarrage of rockets at the al-Rashid hotel,a symbol of the U.S. occupation, in theheart of Baghdad,” reported PatrickCockburn in the Oct. 27 edition of theLondon Independent. The attack killed aU.S. colonel and wounded 15 other people,including the senior coalition finance offi-cial, Britain’s Jacob Nell.

“The rockets, fired from a home-madelauncher hidden in a blue trailer, smashedinto the al-Rashid at 6:10 a.m.,” continuedCockburn, as Wolfowitz was dressing fora breakfast meeting. “In the minutes afterthe attack American officials fled in theirpajamas and underpants to the conven-tion center opposite the hotel, said eye-witnesses.”

The launcher contained 20 three-footrockets in a trailer disguised as an electricgenerator. Using a pick-up truck, theattackers pulled the trailer into position ona side street about 800 yards from thehotel just minutes before they fired therockets.

“The attack on the hotel, which is withinthe ‘green zone,’” wrote the Los AngelesTimes on Oct. 27, “a highly secure area ofseveral square miles—the only one inBaghdad within which the Americans andcoalition forces can move with relativefreedom—was particularly audaciousbecause it was executed at relatively closerange, U.S. officials said.”

The compound has a grey-walledperimeter which towers over Baghdad. Ithas multiple check points, double helixesof razor wire, high sandbags and “hadbecome a symbol of the embattledAmerican occupation.”

New level of resistance

Toby Dodge of the Royal Institute ofInternational Affairs in London told theTimes that “politically it shows people thatthey [the resistance] can deploy at will…. Byattacking the most famous landmark in thecompound, they are saying, ‘We rule thestreet. You don’t.’”

The attack marks a new phase of theresistance. It required not only a highdegree of ingenuity, but higher level plan-ning, coordination, surveillance, intelli-gence, technical expertise, military exper-tise and boldness. Above all, it involvedthe active or passive cooperation of manyIraqis. It was carried out despite all theU.S. military raids, roundups, spying,electronic eavesdropping, and every man-ner of intimidation and bribery. This indi-cates that the occupation is unable toeffectively penetrate the growing masssupport for the resistance.

The Oct. 27 Wall Street Journal testifiedthat the al-Rashid attack was a step for-ward for the resistance: “Until recently,these rocket and mortar attacks—includ-ing one on al-Rashid in September—usu-ally failed to hit their targets. But in thepast few days, the guerrillas managed toinflict dozens of casualties, several ofthem fatal, by shelling U.S. bases in thecities of Samarra, Baquba and Balad, andby hitting a power station in Baghdad.”

This information had been suppressed bythe Pentagon up to now.

“The ability to hit even the most pro-tected U.S. targets raises new questionsabout how the American-led coalition canpacify Iraq,” continued the Journal.“There are now as many as 35 anti-coali-tion attacks a day, most in Baghdad andSunni areas to its west and the north. Inaddition, guerrillas regularly kill Iraqiswho help the coalition—including thechief of police in the southern Amarahprovince, who was gunned down this pastweekend.”

When Wolfowitz faced the press afterthe attack on the al-Rashid, he denouncedthe attackers as “a few who refuse to acceptthe reality of a new and free Iraq.” ButCockburn of the Independent wrote: “IfWolfowitz had spoken to Iraqis livingclose to the scene of the attack he mighthave revised his opinion about the popu-larity of the U.S.-led occupation. ... In thestreet below a young man, who did notwant to give his name, said: ‘Nobody inIraq can accept the occupation, absolutelynobody.’” Cockburn quoted other, evenmore forcefully negative opinions aboutWolfowitz and the occupation forces.

In the same way, “Wolfowitz and otherU.S. officials have blamed Hussein loyal-ists and other terrorists” for the suicidebombings in Baghdad, in which civilianswere killed along with the police, accord-ing to the Oct. 27 edition of theWashington Post. However, “Iraqis at thebombing sites expressed scorn at theAmerican presence in their country, argu-ing that it has been responsible for pro-voking the attacks.”

Rumsfeld’s reversal

Whatever the relationship between theforces that staged the bombing attacks inBaghdad and other resistance forcesaround the country, the fact is that the warof resistance is moving in the direction ofa genuine people’s war with widespreadpopular support. The hatred of the occu-pation is growing—both passive andactive.

All the world can see it. That is why evenDonald Rumsfeld was compelled to reversecourse in his much-publicized, leakedmemo on counter-terrorism in which hesaid it would be a “long, hard slog” in Iraqand Afghanistan. There is much specula-

Al-Rashid under fire

Iraqi resistance reaches new leveltion about the meaning of his memo in thecontext of the bureaucratic and politicalstruggle within the administration. It canbe seen as Rumsfeld trying to seize the ini-tiative by admitting he was wrong but thenproposing all sorts of new measures in thephony “war on terrorism.”

But whatever the interpretation of thememo, the resistance has forced him toadmit that his entire public posture—thatof defending to the end the so-called “suc-cesses” of the occupation—was false.

On the other hand, much has been saidabout the U.S. State Department’s volu-minous plans predicting all the problemsthat wound up besetting the occupationand criticizing the Pentagon for ignoringthese plans. To the ruling class punditswho refuse to understand the fierce anti-colonial sentiment of the Iraqi people, allthe problems would have been averted ifRumsfeld had only accepted ColinPowell’s advice. But this is a totally shal-low view.

No amount of planning could get theIraqi people to accept a colonial occupa-tion. It might have delayed the struggleslightly or made it somewhat more diffi-cult. But no amount of planning in anycolonial office ever reconciled any oppres-sed people to accepting colonial status orkept them from fighting against it.

And then there is the argument that theoccupation would have prevailed if it onlyhad “multilateral” support. Why, one mustask, would the Iraqi people accept “multi-lateral” occupation and colonialism anymore than they would accept it from theU.S. and British imperialists? And fur-thermore, this was a fantasy in the firstplace.

The French and German imperialistsand the Russian capitalists, with all theirinvestments in Iraq and all the moneyowed them by the Iraqi government, werenot going to help U.S. imperialism con-quer Iraq and thereby undermine theirown interests.

Now that the resistance is rising, theU.S. rulers wants to blame their servants,their “allies” and everyone but them-selves. It was their mad lust for colonialloot that led them into this adventure. Andit will be the combined struggle of the Iraqipeople and the worldwide movement ofsolidarity against war and occupation thatwill ultimately force them out.

Everything’sOK in Iraq . . .They’re justtaking it down forrepairs

Page 10 Nov. 6, 2003 www.workers.org

10 million strike inItaly to save pensions

The Senate didn’t vote 59 to38 to ease the ban on peoplefrom the United States trav-

eling to Cuba because the wealthypatricians on Capitol Hill are anygreat friends of that workers’ revo-lution. But the move was welcomedin the Caribbean nation, where theeconomic warfare of the illegalU.S.-led blockade takes a deep toll.

Weeks earlier, the House hadalso voted, 227 to 188, to refuse toappropriate funds to enforce thetravel restrictions, as part of its$90 billion bill to fund U.S.Transportation and TreasuryDepartment programs.

President George W. Bush’saides vowed that he would veto theentire appropriation to fundTreasury and Transportation if theamendment loosening the travelban were part of the bill.

The Bush administration, of allthe groupings in the capitalistpolitical establishment, has lied theloudest about how dreadful theCuban Revolution is and how terri-ble life is there. Of course, whenBush and his neo-con cronies talkabout how hard life is in Cuba, theydon’t mean because the UnitedStates is using an economic cudgelto bludgeon the population of theisland nation.

In early October, Bush used aRose Garden ceremony toannounce that his administrationwas tightening restrictions on peo-ple from the United States travel-ing to Cuba. And he said he’d usethe Department of HomelandSecurity to target and punish anyU.S. citizens who defied his edict.

Therein lies the contradiction: IfCuba is so bad, why can’t peoplefrom this country go there and seefor themselves?

In truth, for 40 years U.S.administrations have tried to keepa barricade around the Cuba toprevent much-needed aid andtrade from traveling in and to pre-

vent the revolution from travelingout. The Cuban Revolution is veryimpressive. Those from the UnitedStates who have challenged thetravel ban—labor unionists, health-care workers, teachers and oth-ers—have returned inspired by thesuccesses of the planned economythere and the human relations itproduces.

People in the United States, fedon the pablum that this is thefreest country on earth, don’t wantto be told where they can or can’ttravel and what they can or can’tsee. And two years ago the struggleof a virtually united Cuban popula-tion standing shoulder to shoulderwith Juan Miguel Gonzalez seekingthe return of young Elian—heldcaptive by anti-Cuban forces in theUnited States—moved many in thiscountry.

The imperialist establishment isunited in its goal of overturning theCuban Revolution. But they aren’tof one mind about how to achievethat objective. After 40 years offrontal assault, they’re looking forother ways to undermine the revo-lutionary process there. Still, thisdoesn’t rule out hostile movestoward Cuba by sectors of the U.S.ruling class.

On the other hand, Bush needsthe support of farm-state legisla-tors, many of them from his ownparty, who are clamoring to easetravel and trade restrictions onCuba. Since the ban on farm salesto Cuba was loosened in 2000, U.S.agribusiness has sold $282 millionin agricultural goods to the island.

Cuban officials hailed the Senatevote as confirmation that themajority of people in the UnitedStates want to improve relationswith Cuba.

The best way to build that soli-darity is to strengthen the demandhere in the belly of the beast to liftthe brutal U.S.-led embargoagainst Cuba—now!

Congress & Cuba By John Catalinotto

On Oct. 24, some 10 million workers shutdown Italy with a four-hour general strike andmass demonstrations.

The CGIL, CISL, UIL and COBAS unionconfederations called the strike in an attemptto stop brutal cuts in pensions and other socialservices. Train, air and local transport werecompletely stopped.

The right-wing government led by mediamagnate Silvio Berlusconi has proposedseverely cutting pensions and the public-health, school and university systems andother social services.

John Gilbert, an English teacher in Florenceand a labor unionist, told Workers World that65,000 people demonstrated in thatRenaissance capital as part of the action. Alltold, said Gilbert, “CGIL-CISL-UIL held 100demonstrations in 100 cities with an estimated1.5 million people participating despite therain in many places.”

Gilbert also said that “the COBAS-left-wing,grass-roots unionists held a national demon-stration of 10,000 striking workers, many ofthem schoolteachers, in Rome.”

According to the Oct. 25 Il Manifesto news-paper, hundreds of thousands came out inRome, Milan and Naples. And there were tensof thousands in many other cities, includingPalermo in Sicily and Genoa, Turin and Venicein the north.

Il Manifesto noted that the Milan demon-stration was made up not only of the industrialwork force but of service workers, temporaryworkers, retired workers, neighborhood andconsumer groups, youths and students, andthe opposition political parties. It also pointedout that many women participated, and thatthey were especially angry that the govern-ment is trying to raise the age of retirementwhen the women work “two jobs, in the fac-tory and at home.”

Along with economic demands and attackson the Berlusconi government, said Gilbert,“there were peace flags and signs and sloganscalling for the withdrawal of Italian and otherWestern occupation troops from Iraq andAfghanistan.”

Berlusconi’s Council of Ministers agreed onthe new draft law for pensions on Oct. 3.According to the proposal, starting in 2008workers and other employees must have paidin 40 years of contributions before receiving apension, or have reached a minimun age of 65for men and 60 for women. Otherwise, pen-sions will be considerably reduced. Currentlythe retirement age is 57 after 35 years of con-tributions.

This is especially threatening at a time whenunemployment is growing—especially for theyoung—and more of the available jobs areshort-term, low-paid or both.

In 1994, a mass turnout of millions of work-ers protesting similar pension counter-reforms ended the first Berlusconi govern-ment after only seven months. This time,though 70-80 percent of the work force tookpart in the strike, it appears unlikely that thegovernment will retreat or resign.

The unions’ bargaining position is streng-thened by the strike’s success and the fact thatthey struck together. Last spring Berlusconiwas able to divide the different confederations.But even such a massive action, which wouldbe earthshaking if it took place in the UnitedStates, has its limitations at a time when Italianbosses and the European capitalists in generalplan overall cuts in workers’ true wages.

Pensions and social services are underattack throughout the European Union. Thisattack has aroused mass protests not only inItaly but in France, Germany, Austria andPortugal. Workers’ actions will have to gobeyond symbolic protests to force a change inpolicy. A decisive struggle over the pensioncuts is still to come.

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www.workers.org Nov. 6, 2003 Page 11

This was written in response to a readerin Britain, who asked about WorkersWorld’s position on the socialist countries.

Dear Bertolt:

On your question as to whetherWorkers World considers “the formerSoviet Union, the Eastern Europeancountries before 1989, North Korea,Cuba, etc. as socialist countries,” theanswer is yes. But let me elaborate.

Beginning with the 20th century, therelentless expansion of the capitalist sys-tem generated imperialist wars, socialistrevolutions and national liberationstruggles, as Lenin put it. The period oftransition from capitalism to socialismon a world scale began with the RussianRevolution, but it has lasted much longerthan he and earlier Marxists expected,and has seen grave setbacks for social-ism. In this period, however, no thirdsocial system and no new propertiedclass have appeared in the world.

We broadly define as socialist thosecountries where the old state of theexploiting classes was smashed and thenew regimes expropriated the means ofproduction and established some form ofplanned economy. Freed of the profitmotive, economic development could bereorganized to satisfy basic humanneeds. This generally came aboutthrough the revolutionary interventionof the masses (USSR, China, Cuba,Vietnam, Korea and others). However, inmost of Eastern Europe, the destructionof the old state structures came notthrough mass revolution but throughmilitary defeat of the bourgeois fascistregimes by the Soviet Red Army at theend of World War II.

There have been other very significantrevolutions that we do not characterizeas socialist. They have remained withinthe framework of capitalist propertyrelations but have achieved much greaterindependence from imperialist control—the bourgeois nationalist revolutions inIraq and Libya, for example.

Those who argue that the growth ofbureaucracy and political repression inthe USSR represented a new form ofclass society cannot explain why it col-lapsed. The answer is that the bureau-cracy was not a new class but a privi-leged grouping with a dual character. Onthe one hand, it was a drag on the strug-gling new socialist system, but on theother it organized the economy at a timeof many remarkable gains for the work-ers and peasants. Because of its plannedeconomy, the Soviet Union was able togrow from a semi-literate, semi-feudalsociety to an industrial space-age powerin just two generations, and despite suf-fering immense destruction in WorldWar II. But it could not sustain its social-ist development against the hostility ofthe entire bourgeois world, fascist and“democratic” alike.

In his book “Perestroika: A MarxistCritique,” for example, Marcy wrote:

“From the point of view of administra-tion, the Soviet state is in the hands of avast bureaucracy. But the ownership ofthe means of production, meaning thebulk of the wealth of the country includ-ing its natural resources, is legally andunambiguously in the hands of the peo-ple—the working class, who make up theoverwhelming majority of the popula-tion. Those in the governing group aremerely the administrators of the stateand state property. ... The ownership ofthe means of production in the hands ofthe working class is truly the most signif-icant sociological factor in the appraisalof the USSR as a workers’ state, orsocialist state as it is called in deferenceto the aspirations of the people.”

That was written in late 1989, beforethe breakup of the Soviet state led to thewidespread selling off of the people’swealth.

Each socialist revolution has beenshaped—and, in that sense, limited—bythe material and social conditions it hasinherited from the past and by whetherit has any allies to turn to or is isolated ina sea of hostile capitalist states.Whatever subjective failings one canpoint to flow from these hard facts.

The fall of the USSR has had a pro-found effect on working-class move-ments and national liberation strugglesaround the world. It has especiallyemboldened the U.S. monopoly capital-

The governing group before Yeltsinhad no special property rights in theSoviet system—that is, it was in no way aruling class in the Marxist sense of theword. But it did have privileges, bothlegal and illegal, that separated it fromthe masses and whet the appetite ofmany in its ranks for ownership of themeans of production they managed. Theimperialists alternately threatened theSoviet leaders with nuclear extinctionand tried to seduce them with grandiosepromises. Once the workers’ state wasdismantled, many members of this stra-tum of Soviet society found it easy tomake the transition to capitalism. But itwas only then that they were able to takepossession of the country’s wealth, andeven then it was often through trickeryand gangster tactics.

They had been members of a groupingthat enjoyed privileges within the work-ers’ state. Some then made the transitionto being members of a capitalist owningclass that has usurped the workers andreintroduced the most vicious forms ofexploitation.

The pulling down of the Soviet stateand the looting of what had beensocially-owned property—much of itdone by the same imperialists who hadbeen totally concentrated on its destruc-tion—has brought a world of woes to theworkers there and the revival of the mostbitter national antagonisms, pullingapart the union itself. All the socialindices prove what a devastating devel-opment this has been.

It has also createdgreat hardships foroppressed, underde-veloped countries try-ing to progress eco-nomically that hadgreatly benefited fromthe existence of asocialist bloc, whichhelped them acquiretechnology and holdthe imperialist robbersat bay.

We feel totally vindi-cated in having beenstaunch supporters ofthe USSR againstimperialist interven-tion and internal reac-tion, even as wewarned again andagain of the growth ofbourgeois elementswithin, and differedwith the policies of theleadership on manyworld questions. If youlook at our web site—www.workers.org —you will find a verycomprehensive analy-sis of the USSR by thefounder of WorkersWorld Party, SamMarcy.

Workers World on the socialist countriesists, who now openly flaunt their imper-ial ambitions. But it has in no waynegated the class struggle. That is on therise again, driven forward by the insa-tiable need of the capitalists to extractgreater surplus value from the workers,especially as technology advances andcompetition for markets becomes morevicious.

We are confident that the worldwidestruggle for socialism must revive, notonly in oppressed countries but espe-cially in the imperialist centers. Whatthe oppressed all over the world need inorder to shake off their chains are strongworking-class movements that can chal-lenge the imperialists at home—right inthe belly of the beast, as our Cuban com-rades say. It will happen. The spread ofcapitalist globalization—capital movingto where wages are lowest and destroy-ing local economies, forcing workers andpeasants from around the Third Worldto seek jobs in the imperialist coun-tries—makes international class solidar-ity and struggle all the more needed byworkers of all nationalities.

Let’s fight for socialism as we want itto be, and as it can be when imperialismis defeated, while valuing and learningfrom the great sacrifices and strugglesthat have been taking place all over theworld.

Deirdre GriswoldEditor, Workers World newspaper

PerestroikaA MARXIST CRITIQUEBy Sam MarcyThe Soviet economic reforms: theirimpact on wages and prices, agriculture,socialist planning, national minorities,foreign policy and the world progressivemovement.

$10.99 Order from: Leftbooks . com

de Representantes y el Senado aprobarauna apropiación mucho más grande que ladel año pasado: $368.2 mil millones.

Después, echándole sal a la herida, laadministración de Bush dijo que eso noera suficiente. Que se necesitaba másdinero para la ocupación y la “reconstruc-ción” de Irak y Afganistán. Así que logra-ron que los generosos guardianes deltesoro público les dieran otros $87 milmillones de dólares “suplementarios”. Sise suman las dos cifras el total es de $455.2mil millones para el Año Fiscal 2004.

Si se suman los presupuestos de ambosaños para el Pentágono, más los “suple-mentarios”, el total viene siendo $882 milmillones. Si revisamos nuestra mate-mática veremos que durante estos dosaños, la familia promedio de 4 miembrosse espera que pague cerca de $12.160 omás de $3.041 por persona, para la guerra.

¿Qué podría hacerse con ese dinero?

Los trabajadores de este país tienenmuchas otras cosas que podrían hacer conese dinero. Como arreglarse los dientes, opagar los préstamos estudiantiles paraque la cuenta bancaria no sea tomada porel Departamento del Ingreso, o hacer máspagos a la tarjeta de crédito.

Pero en vez, este gobierno de los ricos,por los ricos, y para los ricos lo usará paraconstruir submarinos, aviones de combatey proyectiles.

El pasado enero, antes de comenzar laguerra, William D. Nordhaus, economistade la Universidad de Yale, predijo que laguerra contra Irak podría costar a laeconomía de este país un total de $1.6 milmillones de dólares en el transcurso de ladécada. (Washington Post, 8 de enero)

Con la creciente resistencia a la domi-nación extranjera en Irak y la reticencia deotros países de querer ayudar a pagar unaguerra que pensaron que no debió ocur-rir, el estimado de Nordhaus sin dudaalguna será menos de la realidad.

Nuevas casas para una cuartaparte de la población.

Cuando se habla de miles de miles demillones (trillones), a la mayoría de lapoblación se le hace difícil imaginar taninmensa suma de dinero. Vamos entoncesa desglosarla.

Por ejemplo 2 trillones de dólares. Esees el estimado que la Oficina del Presu-puesto del Congreso en un reporte publi-cado en enero estimó que el gobierno gas-taría en los próximos 5 años en la “defensanacional.”

Piense en esto por un momento: Dostrillones de dólares es suficiente para con-struir casas nuevas, cada una valorada en$100.000 para 20 millones de familias,más de la cuarta parte de la población delos Estados Unidos.

¡Que gran reintegro de los impuestossería para la gente de pocos recursos!Imagínese terminando con el desamparoy las viviendas inadecuadas de un sologolpe. E imagínese cuántos millones deempleos esto crearía, no sólo en la con-strucción sino en la manufactura de todaslas cosas necesarias para amueblar unacasa cómoda y atractiva. En este momentotodos menos unos pocos estados están encrisis debido a la caída en ingresos esta-tales, y no pueden imprimir dólarescomoel gobierno federal. Sus recortes pre-supuestarios están afectando también alos gobiernos de los condados y de lasmunicipalidades. Como resultado, losrecortes más grandes en años acaban deser implementados en escuelas, bibliote-cas, departamento de bomberos, parques,programas médicos, en centros paraancianos y en veintenas de otros serviciosvitales.

Cerca de un millón de personas estánperdiendo su cobertura de Medicaid esteaño, según el Centro de Prioridades dePolítica y Presupuesto. La ayuda para uni-versidades ha sido recortada en 13 esta-dos. La de la educación primaria y secun-daria ha sido recortada en nueve. Las sub-

Por Deirdre Griswold

¿Qué son $87 mil millones de dólares?Se ha convertido en un símbolo más queen una cifra. Es decir brevemente que elgobierno ignora las necesidades delpueblo aquí en los Estados Unidos mien-tras gasta gigantescas sumas de dinero enla conquista y ocupación de Irak yAfganistán.

¿Será la última gota de agua que rebasela cubeta?

Se oye mencionar cuando otra pieza dela infraestructura se desmorona, o cuandolos trabajadores gubernamentales pier-den sus empleos o los servicios vitalessufren más recortes. Cuando la prensa lepide sus comentarios a la gente en la calle,esta con coraje menciona los $87 mil mil-lones.

Es mucho dinero. Son $300 por cadapersona en los Estados Unidos. Cualquiertrabajador que se le haya dicho que el gob-ierno no gastaría ese dinero y se los daríaen un reintegro, lo consideraría como undía muy especial.

Una pequeña muestra de $87 mil millones

Pero en realidad, esa cifra de $87 milmillones es sólo una muestra.

Se refiere a una apropiación “suple-mental” aceptada por el Congreso en adi-ción al gigantesco presupuesto militar delpróximo año.

He aquí el desglose del gasto militarpara los años fiscales del 2003 y 2004:

Para el Año Fiscal 2003, el cual cubre elperíodo del asalto masivo contra Irak, elCongreso aprobó un presupuesto para elPentágono de $364.4 mil millones. Peroen abril de este año, le dio a los guerreris-tas otros $62.4 mil millones “suplemen-tarios” para cubrir la guerra contra Irak.

Ahora viene el Año Fiscal 2004. Tomósólo 25 minutos el 17 de septiembre paraque el comité que reconcilia las versionesdel proyecto de gasto militar de la Cámara

venciones para el cuidado infantil parafamilias de bajos ingresos han sido recor-tadas en 18 estados al igual que enWashington, D.C. Los padres desespera-dos, tienen que escoger entre arriesgar laseguridad de sus hijos o perder susempleos.

Con estos recortes, el empleo de cientosde miles, hasta de millones de maestros,bibliotecarios, bomberos, asistentes soci-ales, inspectores de carne y otros emplea-dos públicos están en peligro.

Mientras los despidos entran en vigor,la economía ya debilitada recibirá otrochoque severo en el sector de servicios queera el que supuestamente iba a compen-sar por la disminución en la fuerza laboralindustrial.

Eliminar los déficit presupuestarios

¿Y cuán grande son los déficites presu-puestarios que generan todo este dolor?

En el año fiscal de 2003, los déficitespresupuestarios estatales sumaron aprox-imadamente $76 mil millones, según laConferencia Nacional de LegislaturasEstatales. Sólo los gastos “suplementar-ios” federales para la guerra en Irakdurante el mismo año hubiesen cubiertoesa cantidad.

Para el año fiscal de 2004, los déficitesestatales se espera que lleguen a $85 milmillones. Pero esto todavía hubiera sidocubierto con los $87 mil millones de lasapropiaciones “suplementarias” recientespara la guerra y la ocupación militar.

Si la clase trabajadora estuviera en con-trol del destino de este país, ¿no es ciertoque el bienestar del pueblo sería nuestraprioridad y no una guerra costosa sin finque hace que los EE.UU. sea más odiadoy menos seguro?

Los soldados de los EE.UU. están muri-endo a diario en Irak y Afganistán, al cre-cer la resistencia a la ocupación extran-jera. Los $87 mil millones no sólo paganpor esta represión del pueblo sino tambiénpara instalar gobiernos títeres de exiliadoscomo Ahmed Chalabi, un ladrón finan-ciero convicto que no ha estado en Irak porlos últimos 40 años hasta que fue instaladocomo líder por las tropas de los EE.UU.

Este dinero también va destinado a cor-poraciones de los EE.UU. amigas de laadministración de Bush, como la Halli-burton. Su afiliada, Kellogg Brown & Rootrecibió contratos para reconstruir lainfraestructura en Irak -no para ayudar alpueblo iraquí- sino para que otras empre-sas estadounidenses pueden sacar elpetróleo y el gas natural, asegurándose asíenormes ganancias. El VicepresidenteDick Cheney, mientras ocupa su puesto enla Casa Blanca, recibe $1 millón anual enpagos de “jubilación” de sus días comoEjecutivo en Jefe de la compañía.Entonces eso es- el problema es la clasedominante criminal corporativa, no lacantidad de riqueza disponible. Hayriqueza suficiente para poder construiruna sociedad armoniosa en la cual nadiepase hambre, viva sin techo o sufra deninguna necesidad humana. El problemaes como deshacernos de este sistema cap-italista, el cual está adicto incontrolable-mente a las ganancias y a las guerras.

La desaparición de 2 trillones de dólares:

Lo que es y lo que podría serFO

TO: G

. DU

NKEL

Washington, D.C., 25 de octubre. Solidaridad con los cinco presos cubanos.