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MUNDO OBRERO • EEUU: Lucha contra los bancos Bolivia: Morales contraataca 12 Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! workers.org OCT. 2, 2008 VOL. 50, NO. 39 50¢ $1,000,000,000,000? United mass action can STOP giveaway to Wall Street bankers By Fred Goldstein What could be done with such a princely already bloated with hundreds of billions sum? It could be used to pay for universal in assets, will stop lending unless they get Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and health care, affordable housing, afford- their hands on the Treasury’s money. Protests delay Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke able education, day care, job creation and Paulson presented Congress with a pal- have attempted to stampede Congress other basic needs. This money is urgently try three-page proposal to explain why Troy Davis execution into handing them dictatorial financial needed to deal with the real crisis of the the Treasury needs to spend the $700 bil- By Dianne Mathiowetz authority so they can carry out a $700-bil- workers and the oppressed. lion! It was virtually empty of any specif- Atlanta lion bailout of Wall Street. The bankers’ books are filled with bad ics other than the authoritarian demand in Sept. 23—Jubilant supporters of Troy The aim of the Paulson plan is for the debts. They bought up these debts thinking Section 8 that: “Decisions by the Secretary Davis gathered tonight for a celebration government to buy up the bad debts of to increase their profits through collecting pursuant to the authority of this Act are on the steps of the Georgia State Capitol banks, mortgage brokers, insurance com- interest payments from the workers. But non-reviewable and committed to agency here. panies and any other corporation that can now the gravy train of interest payments discretion, and may not be reviewed by They had been expecting to hold a be classified as a financial institution. is over, so they want the government to any court of law or any administrative death vigil for the Savannah man, believ These loan sharks are the same institu- come in and take the bad debts off their agency.” ed innocent by many, who was convicted tions that made huge profits trafficking in books. In this grab for unlimited financial of killing a police officer in 1989. subprime and other mortgage loans. Now Their front man is Paulson, who spent power, Paulson wants to operate unim- Even though the U.S. Supreme Court home prices are declining, adjustable-rate 32 years at the investment bank Goldman peded by any legal or constitutional had agreed to hear a motion of appeal on mortgage payments are going up, the cost Sachs and was the biggest single share- restraints. It was an attempt at a financial Sept. 29, the state of Georgia, in a highly of living is skyrocketing, and the economy holder in the company. Now secretary coup by the so-called banking fraternity, irregular move, went ahead and issued is shrinking—leaving workers with fewer of the Treasury, he is coming to their headed by Paulson. an execution order for Sept. 23. jobs and smaller paychecks. Millions can rescue. He has around him a whole team of The Supreme Court intervened less no longer pay their mortgages. former Goldman Sachs bankers. Bush’s than two hours before Davis was to be While screaming crisis, the bankers are Attempt at a financial coup White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten Continued on page 6 rushing to the front of the $700-billion Paulson tried to terrorize Congress and is also from Goldman Sachs. There’s John bailout line. the entire population into quickly giving J. Mack, head of Morgan Stanley, another If approved, the Paulson plan will raise him unlimited authority to dole out hun- giant investment bank. Paulson called on BOSSES VS. IMMIGRANTS the government’s bailout of the super- dreds of billions to the banks. He threat- him for advice on the bailout of Fannie From Tucson to Denver 6 rich to one TRILLION dollars. It has ened that the “credit markets” would Mae and Freddie Mac. And he consults already committed $315 billion to bail out seize up, leaving people’s businesses, with William Gross of PIMCO, a giant giant insurer AIG as well as Fannie Mae, jobs and lives in jeopardy. In plain lan- bond fund with $830 billion in assets. AFTER HURRICANE IKE Freddie Mac and Bear Stearns banks. guage, it means that these moneybags, Continue on page 4 What big business hath wrought 7 Foreclosure protests in Lansing, L.A., WW PHOTO: ALAN POLLOCK Robert Pratt of UNITE HERE at Boston 3 Michigan rally to stop foreclosures. Subscribe to Workers World Four weeks trial: $1 One year: $25 NAME PHONE ADDRESS EMAIL CITY/STATE/ZIP WORKERS WORLD 55 W. 17 St. NY, NY 10011 212-627-2994 www.workers.org Cuba, Haiti slammed by storms • Turmoil in Pakistan • Declaration on Iraq • Hands off Bolivia & Venezuela! • NATO expansion • Nigeria, oil & repression 8-11 Page 2 Oct. 2, 2008 www.workers.org The Jesse Jackson campaign: National oppression & class conflict H In the U.S. By Sam Marcy Brooke and is not the case with any of Jackson’s rivals in Stop giveaway to Wall Street bankers . 1 the Democratic primary. Troy Davis execution stayed for a week . 1 This article by the founder of Workers World Party, Movement of oppressed people WW in 1984: The Jesse Jackson campaign . 2 which appeared Feb. 2, 1984, in this newspaper, explained why the party’s position on national oppres- What is the nature of the movement that he is leading? People tell Mich . legislators: ‘Moratorium NOW!’ . 3 sion in the United States required it to support the pri- It is a movement of the oppressed people. ‘Foreclose the war, not our homes!’ . 3 mary campaign of Jesse Jackson that year. The views That is the crux of the matter. ‘Bail out Main St —not. Wall St ’. 3 Were he leading any other type of movement, let us Marcy laid out, when applied today, explain why Beware right-wingers denouncing ‘Wall Street’ . 4 say a more left-wing version of the McGovern-Hart- WWP this election is supporting the candidacy Gov’t abuse persists in Rosenberg case . 5 of Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente. Below Cranston supporters, were his anti-war utterances Thank you, Josh Howard . 5 are excerpts from the original. A full version of the (which are not anti-imperialist in character) sharp- article is available at www.workers.org. er and more clearly defined, and even if he were more Arizona hospital lets ICE terrorize immigrants . 6 We propose to discuss the propriety of a work- WW militant on labor and other social issues, his effort Muslim workers fired for protesting discrimination . 6 ing class party giving support to the Jesse Jackson in1984 would merely be in the direction of a bourgeois lib- La Peña celebrates 21 years of resistance . 6 eral movement and would not be a truly progres- primary campaign in the Democratic Party. Hurricane Ike was no equalizer . 7 sive break from his presidential rivals. The Jackson candidacy is unique in terms of presiden- Power still out for hundreds of thousands in Ohio . 7 tial elections, not only in that it is the first time that a It would merely be a 1984 version of the older populist Film star calls for release of Cuban Five . 8 serious attempt is being made by a Black candidate to movements, which were of course bourgeois in character, run for president, but that it has aroused a truly popular notwithstanding their radicalism. ... movement of the Black people. It cannot be stressed too frequently that the Jesse H Around the world It is necessary to distinguish the Jackson candidacy Jackson movement is a movement against national Storm-wracked Cuba: Lift the blockade . 8 from other Black leaders who have run (some of whom oppression, the oppression of a whole people, and it is After four hurricanes, Haiti faces famine . 8 this which makes it a qualitatively different struggle. were subsequently elected). This is necessary in order to U .S . incursions sow turmoil in Pakistan . 9 Viewed from this perspective, his campaign is objectively isolate those particular features which are characteristic Le Feyt Declaration: Peace in Iraq is an option . 9 of his campaign. It will also enable us to deal with the directed against the capitalist establishment, notwith- Will NATO’s expansion bubble burst? . 10 campaign from the viewpoint of national oppression as standing that he himself may subjectively be for it. well as its relation to the class struggle in general. The very first and highly significant struggle of the Higher oil prices breed repression . 11 Jackson forces against the National Committee of the Unlike Brooke candidacy Democratic Party over the very important rules govern- H Editorials In 1966, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts ran for ing the primary and caucus elections fortifies our conclu- Hands off Bolivia, Venezuela . 10 the U.S. Senate and was elected on the Republican sion only too well. ticket. He was the first Black Senator since the days of Rules issue H Noticias En Español Reconstruction. He was again elected in 1972. The rules, as they were defined two years ago, enabled EEUU: Lucha contra los bancos . 12 Previously he had acted as Attorney General of an easy choice between the two candidates then presumed Bolivia: Morales contraataca . 12 Massachusetts and might have been reelected in 1978 to be the front-runners, [Ted] Kennedy and [Walter] had it not been for allegations of fraud or misconduct Mondale, by requiring that a candidate win 20 percent in relation to his divorce proceedings.