Bring the Troops Home! Fell on Belgrade EDITORIAL 10 SATURDAY• April 12TH Subscribe to 12 NOON • WASHINGTON, D.C

April 3, 2003 Vol. 45, No. 13

50¢ EE.UU. El pueblo exige trabajos, escuelas y cuidado de salud. NO GUERRA 12 Iraqis vs. the empire

By Fred Goldstein that the gigantic high-tech military machine was there to con- quer them. NEWS FROM Whatever finally happens in the battle for Baghdad, the ini- Refusing to be objects of history and passively await their tial resistance by the Iraqi people to the murderous bombing fate, they have written their own script of resistance. They BAGHDAD 7 of their capital and the invasion by heavily armed U.S. and have launched a determined and widespread campaign of British ground troops has shown that the Bush administra- desert and urban guerrilla warfare, the most difficult type, to tion’s plans for rapid and complete domination of Iraq were compensate for the staggering inequality of military force that based upon lies and illusions. they are facing. Wave of protests The terrible bombing of Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk with Whether or not this can change the ultimate outcome of the sweeps the globe 11 hundreds of cruise missiles and thousands of bombs has war, it is a glorious example of heroism, self-sacrifice and deter- caused enormous destruction and many casualties. The Iraqi mination for all the workers and oppressed. people are in grave danger of an even greater criminal bomb- When the U.S. and British military forces came storming ing offensive as U.S. forces escalate the battle to take Baghdad. across the Kuwait-Iraq border, they tried unsuccessfully to enter Nevertheless, the great difficulties faced by the U.S. inva- one city after another in southern Iraq. The conventional wis- sion forces, despite their overwhelming military superiority, dom was that they would be welcomed with open arms because show how profoundly the Pentagon planners have underesti- of the hostility of the Shi’ite Muslim population of the south to mated the will and ability of the people to resist imperialist the regime of Saddam Hussein. Instead, they ran into a wall of aggression. popular resistance from Umm Qasr to Basra to An Nasiriyah, It bodes ill for Washington’s plans for empire and world and throughout the region. conquest. The crucial port city of Umm Qasr has a population of 4,000. A Washington Post correspondent told MSNBC-TV on Iraqis didn’t follow Washington’s script March 24 that the occupation of Umm Qasr was supposed to WW PHOTO: PAT CHIN According to the script written by the Washington war plan- take four to eight hours. Instead it took five days because of Rising resistance, ners, the massive bombing of Baghdad combined with a light- the fierce resistance. ning blitzkrieg by armored divisions, covered by close air sup- The British Royal Marines were supposed to take control of coast to coast 8-9 port, was supposed to bring about a collapse of the Iraqi leader- Basra at the opening of the campaign. Presumably, they would ship, the defection of military leaders, a national uprising against easily enter this city of 1.5 million, the second largest in the coun- the government of Saddam Hussein and the welcoming of U.S. try and the center of the Shi’ite southern region. They were military forces as liberators. primed to exhibit Basra as an example of how the Iraqis were Can labor But the Iraqi people did not follow the script written by lined up waiting for their liberation. President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary As of this writing—March 26—the British forces are still stop this war? 4 Rumsfeld, and the rest of the right-wing, world-conquering mil- unable to enter the city. itarists in the White House and the Pentagon. Rather than act- As they marched further north, U.S. Marines were supposed ing out Washington’s illusions, they acted in accordance with to enter Nasiriyah and cross the Euphrates River on their way reality. They apparently never believed for one minute that the to Baghdad. It took three days of fighting with heavy air support War siphons billions imperialist armies of the U.S. and of Iraq’s former colonizers in London were coming to “liberate” them. They acted on the basis Continued on page 6 from economy 4

Media coverage: NATIONAL MARCH All spin, all the time 5

Turkey, the U.S. and the Kurds 6 Stop the war on Iraq!

When bombs Bring the troops home! fell on Belgrade EDITORIAL 10 SATURDAY• April 12TH Subscribe to 12 NOON • WASHINGTON, D.C. Workers World STAY ANTI-WAR ALERT Trial: $2 for 8 weeks. One year: $25 SURROUND THE WHITE HOUSE NAME V O L U N T E E R S NE E D E D ! PHONE NUMBER

ADDRESS Called by the A.N.S.W.E.R. COALITION Act Now to Stop War & End Racism CITY/STATE/ZIP BOSTON 617-522-6626 • CHICAGO 773-878-0166 • NEW YORK CITY 212-633-6646 • WASHINGTON DC 202-544-3389 WORKERS WORLD NEWSPAPER 55 W.17 St.NY, NY 10011 (212) 627-2994 LOS ANGELES 213-487-2368 SAN FRANCISCO 415-821-6545 www.workers.org email: [email protected] www. InternationalANSWER .org Page 2 April 3, 2003 www.workers.org

National Cuban 5 held in abysmal conditions...... 3 Cop gets off in Dorismond killing...... 3 Mumia on ‘Axis of arrogance’ ...... 3 Can labor shut it down and save lives? ...... 4 Unionists march in NYC protest ...... 4 War costs rise as rich get tax cuts...... 4 Media monopoly ...... 5 Cheney is licking his chops...... 5 Quote of the week ...... 5 Save community libraries ...... 5 Oscar winner denounces Bush’s war ...... 5 U.S. demos keep up the pressure ...... 8 Anti-war anger in Baltimore ...... 8 Women slam war and budget cuts...... 9 Protesters storm San Francisco streets ...... 9

International WW PHOTO: BILL HACKWELL ANSWER blocks entrance to Bechtel, San Francisco, March 20. The city was shut down and 1,600 protesters Iraqis vs. the empire ...... 1 were arrested. Kurds squeezed by oil politics ...... 6 U.S. offensive in Afghanistan ...... 6 Internationals in Baghdad ...... 7 New York meeting on Venezuela ...... 10 Wave of protests sweeps world ...... 11 Hockey fans boo war flag ...... 11

Editorials When bombs fell on Belgrade ...... 10

Noticias En Español El mundo dice no a la guerra de conquista ...... 12

WW CALENDAR

LOS ANGELES.. SAN FRANCISCO.. Sun., March 30 Every Sunday Anti-war rally and peace march. Workers World Party weekly Gather at noon in Pershing meetings. These educational Square, 6th & Hill, and march to meetings cover current events as the downtown Federal Building, well as struggles of peoples from Temple & Los Angeles. For info all over the world. 5 p.m. At L.A. ANSWER (213) 487-2368. 2489 Mission St, room 28. For info (415) 826-4828. A quarter-million march against the war, New York, March 22. WW PHOTO: DEIRDRE GRISWOLD NEW YORK.. Every Friday Workers World Party weekly meetings at 7 p.m. Phone (212) 627-2994 for topics and location. Tue., April 1 Mumia: A powerful voice against war and racism. Guest speaker: Pam Africa, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal. 7 p.m. At 39 W 14th St., Room 206, Manhattan. For info phone Millions for Mumia/IAC at (212) 633-6646.

Workers World 55 West 17 Street New York, N.Y. 10011 Phone: (212) 627-2994 • Fax: (212) 675-7869 E-mail: [email protected] Web: http://www.workers.org/ Vol. 45, No. 13 • April 3, 2003 Closing date: March 26, 2003

Editor: Deirdre Griswold; Technical Editor: Lal Roohk; Managing Editors: Greg Butterfield, John Catalinotto, Leslie Feinberg, WW PHOTO: JULIA LA RIVA Los Angeles, March 22. Monica Moorehead, Gary Wilson; West Coast Editors: Richard Becker, Gloria La Riva; JOIN US. Workers World Atlanta P.O. Box 424, Chicago P.O. Box 06178, Los Angeles San Francisco Contributing Editors: Joyce Chediac, Pat Chin, Naomi Cohen, Shelley Party (WWP) fights on all Atlanta, Ga. 30301 Wacker Drive Station, 422 S. Western Ave., 2489 Mission St. Ettinger, Teresa Gutierrez; issues that face the (404) 235-5704 Chicago, Ill. 60606 Room 114, Rm. 28, Technical Staff: Rebecca Finkel, Elena J. Peckham, Hank Sambach; working class and (773) 381-5839; Los Angeles, Calif. 90020 San Francisco, Mundo Obrero: Carl Glenn, Carlos Vargas; oppressed peoples—Black Baltimore 426 E. 31 St., Fax (773) 761-9330; (213) 487-2368 Calif. 94110 and white, Latino, Asian, Baltimore, Md. 21218 [email protected] fax (213) 387-9355 (415) 826-4828; Internet: Janet Mayes Arab and Native peoples, (410) 235-7040 [email protected] fax (415) 821-5782; Cleveland Workers World-WW (ISSN-1070-4205) is published weekly except the women and men, young [email protected] Philadelphia [email protected] P.O. Box 5963 first week of January by WW Publishers, 55 W. 17 St., N.Y., N.Y. 10011. and old, lesbian, gay, bi, P.O. Box 9202, Seattle straight, trans, disabled, Boston 31 Germania St., Cleveland, OH 44101 Phone: (212) 627-2994. Subscriptions: One year: $25; foreign and Boston, Mass. 02130 phone (216) 531-4004 Philadelphia, Pa. 19139 1218 E. Cherry #201, working, unemployed institutions: $35. Letters to the editor may be condensed and edited. (Enter at 284 Amory St.) [email protected] (610) 352-3625; Seattle, Wash. 98122 and students. [email protected] (617) 983-3835; (206) 325-0085; Articles can be freely reprinted, with credit to Workers World, 55 W. 17 If you would like to know Detroit Richmond, Va. [email protected] St., New York, NY 10011. Back issues and individual articles are avail- Fax (617) 983-3836 5920 Second Ave., more about WWP, or to [email protected] P.O. Box 14602, State College, Pa. able on microfilm and/or photocopy from University Microfilms Detroit, Mich. 48202 Richmond, Va. 23221 join us in these struggles, 100 Grandview Rd., International, 300 Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106. A searchable contact the branch near- Buffalo, N.Y. (313) 831-0750; [email protected] [email protected] State College, archive is available on the Web at www.workers.org. est you. P.O. Box 1204 Rochester, N.Y. Pa. 16801 2117 Buffalo Rd., PMB. Buffalo NY 14213 Houston (814) 237-8695 Selected articles are available via e-mail subscription. Send an e-mail (716) 857-2112 303, Rochester, N.Y. 14624 National Office P.O. Box 130322, message to [email protected]. [email protected] (716) 436-6458; Washington, D.C. 55 W. 17 St., Houston, Texas P.O. Box 57300, New York, N.Y. 10011 77219 (713) 861-5965 San Diego, Calif. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send 3930 Oregon St., Suite 230 Washington, DC 20037, (212) 627-2994; [email protected] (202) 347-9300 address changes to Workers World-WW, 55 W. 17 St., 5th Floor, New Fax (212) 675-7869 San Diego, Calif. 92104 [email protected] York, N.Y. 10011. [email protected] (619) 692-4496 www.workers.org April 3, 2003 Page 3

Mumia Abu-Jamal. from death. Cuban 5 held in row. abysmal conditions By Gloria La Riva

Olga Salanueva is the wife of René González, one of five Cubans imprisoned by the U.S. for trying to stop terrorism Axis of arrogance against their country. She hasn’t heard a By the time these words reach you, the word from her husband since he and his skies over Baghdad may be ablaze with four comrades were locked down Feb. 28 red light. Not the searing shimmer of the in “Security Housing Units” of the U.S. Iraqi sun, but skies aflame with the bom- prison system. SHU are brutal isolation bardments of war. cells that have become standard in If that is so, it has meant that the U.S. almost every U.S. prison. rulers have dropped the dingy loin-cloth “This latest indignation has only of diplomacy, and are embarking virtually served to strengthen us,” she said in a unilaterally, without the fig-leaf of the telephone interview from Havana. “The United Nations, to placate the war wing families of our compañeros will continue of the U.S. government, who, drunk on being fine, but we miss them deeply. And the wine of power, have opted to remake the world in their twisted image. They although we cannot communicate with will use the term “democracy” until it each other, our hearts are together.” WW PHOTO: DEIRDRE GRISWOLD Supporters of Cuban 5 publicize case at March 22 anti-war march in New York. means next to nothing. … Salanueva has been prohibited from This is not, as the Mad Texan would entering the U.S. and has not seen her Weinglass said that Hernández’s situ- The five never even attempted to have you believe, a “Coalition of the husband for five years. His sentence is 17 ation is even worse than that of many engage in gathering classified informa- Willing.” It is, rather, a quasi-coalition of years. thousands of prisoners held in isolation tion about the U.S. Their activities were the available. … It is, perhaps more than René González, Fernando González, anything, a “bevy of the bought.” It is the around the U.S. He is in what is called strictly related to stopping terrorism Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández best “coalition” that money and privilege “the box,” for violent offenders. from anti-Cuba groups in Miami and and Ramón Labañino—the Cuban Five, can buy. Spanish and British premiers do In five years of incarceration, none of defending Cuba from possible paramili- as they are known to their supporters— not a “coalition” make. the five has been accused of misconduct. tary or military actions. are political prisoners of the U.S. gov- It is also thin cover for an Empire, But they are being collectively punished The U.S. is concerned, however, about which arrays itself in the tattered flag of ernment. They had penetrated right- as victims of 43 years of U.S. hostility the growing international and national “democracy” while ignoring the wishes of wing Cuban groups in Miami that have toward revolutionary Cuba. support they are receiving. There are over millions, if not billions, of the voices of carried out terrorism against their coun- Weinglass traveled in a blinding snow- 120 committees around the world on the people of the world. try. Now they are serving sentences of storm to see Guerrero on March 20 in their behalf. Should the bombs falling stunt the from 17 years to double-life in prisons Florence federal prison near Colorado growth of the anti-war movement? Some scattered around the U.S. Springs. He had been warned by the A fight for their freedom among you, especially the left imperial- Since late February they have been in ists, will certainly argue for this. I would Bureau of Prisons that their ability to An emergency worldwide campaign is tiny cells where the lights are kept on argue otherwise; that the forces for communicate and exchange legal docu- underway to demand their release from around the clock and there is no way to peace should not shudder at the specter ments would be greatly restricted. But SHU isolation and a new trial. Appeals tell day from night. No natural light can of war. That the need for peace rises, not that didn’t prepare him for the prison’s will be filed on April 7 in Atlanta. The enter the windowless rooms. Reading diminishes, at the outbreak of war. treatment of Guerrero. National Committee to Free the Cuban Indeed, consider the lessons from the his- and writing materials are prohibited. “It is the worst visiting conditions I Five, the Atlanta Cuba Solidarity Com- toric Vietnam War. There, protests began For the first two weeks of isolation, have ever encountered,” Weinglass mittee and the National Lawyers Guild, slowly, painfully, after years of long, hard even Cuban consular officials in Wash- said. “It was a very small cubby with a among others, are sponsoring a public organizing. ington were denied the right to talk with thick glass between us and a telephone community forum at Atlanta’s Spelman The war was raging daily in Vietnam, or write to their compatriots. Now a visit which we had to use to communicate. College on April 6. Two important web- Laos and Cambodia. Yet the movement requires 16 days’ notice. The space was so small that my associ- sites have all the pertinent information swelled, and grew, and deepened, until Attorney Leonard Weinglass, legal none of the politicians in the White ate counsel and I could not fit in it on their case and the campaign for their counsel for Guerrero, flew out west to see House, neither Nixon nor Johnson, could together. He had to stand behind me freedom: www.freethefive.org and him and Hernández, who is serving two withstand the public demand. Such a and share the one phone on our end. www.antiterroristas.cu. trumped-up life sentences in Lompoc movement must be reborn now! Antonio was locked in on his side and Fernando González, in the spirit that prison. Weinglass is preparing crucial The pretexts for war are always pro- we, the attorneys, were also locked in the five Cubans have exhibited during moted by the supine corporate media. appeals to be filed on behalf of all five on on our side.” their incarceration, told his attorney See it for what it is, and continue your April 7. Weinglass added, “Antonio was Joaquin Méndez by phone, “Please efforts to bring this imperial venture to Weinglass wrote in a memo that he was informed in writing that he is to remain assure all our friends at the National an end. shocked at Hernández’s “deplorable con- in this condition until Feb. 24, 2004— Committee that regardless of the condi- Many months ago, this writer wrote ditions.” He has been stripped of cloth- when it could be extended for another tions of confinement I am in at this about “To War for Empire!” and felt, ing except for underpants and t-shirt. His year.” moment or could be placed in the despite the spirit of this earlier work, shoes were taken away and he is denied that the anti-war efforts of the people The confinement order against all five future, and regardless of anything the all reading material. A letter from his would make a difference in the final dis- was authorized by Attorney General John government comes up with, I will lawyer, Joaquin Mendez, was confis- position emerging from the Capitol. Ashcroft. It says they pose a risk of “dis- always be certain of the triumph of jus- cated before he could read it. He is denied Apparently, this writer underestimated closing classified information” that tice and I will always be alongside the all contact with the outside world and fel- the greed, bellicosity, and madness of the “could pose a threat to the national secu- Cuban people, our revolution, and all Bush Regime. Mr. Bush called for the low prisoners. rity of the United States.” our friends.” evacuation of the Husseins from the Iraqi nation. Is there any real doubt that millions of Americans believe that the Bushes should vacate the premises of 1600 Cop gets off in Dorismond killing Pennsylvania Avenue? If people really believe in the power of democracy, then these days of another By Heather Cottin of police killings in Black communities Haitian community expressed outrage at kind of March Madness should mark the New York here. In October 1999, undercover nar- this murder and character assassination. deepening and the flowering of the anti- In a city where racist cops continue to cotics police in the Bronx had fired 41 bul- war movements, both here and abroad. Almost three years to the day after lets at an unarmed African immigrant, terrorize the Black community, Muriel This is not an end, but a beginning! New York City Detective Anthony Amadou Diallo, while he was merely Goode-Trufant of New York’s special Movements are kind of like communal Vasquez shot unarmed security guard standing in the entry of his building. The federal litigation division called Doris- relationships; each has their ups and Patrick Dorismond to death, the office cops who killed him went free. On March mond’s death an “accident.” The city downs. Don’t be discouraged. Don’t give of the U.S. Attorney, the FBI and the 1, 2000, cops in the Bronx shot to death agreed to pay Dorismond’s family $2.25 up. To paraphrase the martyred labor Civil Rights Division of the Justice an unarmed youth, Malcolm Ferguson, million to settle a lawsuit. This was an leader, Joe Hill, “Don’t mourn.... Department have concluded that the just days after he participated in a protest indication, said the family’s lawyer, Organize!” killing was not even a violation of over Diallo’s murder. Derek Sells, that “the city believes there For many, the very breadth and growth of this movement has been an inspiration. Dorismond’s civil rights. New York cops were on a murder was some wrongdoing.” He added, It may yet have much to surprise us. But Dorismond, who had been sitting in a spree. “There’s no amount of money that can what matters is what is in our hearts. If replace Patrick.” midtown bar, had angrily rejected an When Vasquez shot Dorismond on you believe in it, fight for it! offer to sell him drugs by the undercover March 16, 2000, Mayor Rudy Giuliani Meanwhile, the detective who shot There is no better way! narcotics cop, who then shot and killed expressed no sympathy to the family. He Dorismond is armed, dangerous and, like him. instead maligned the victim by releasing all the other killer cops, back on the Dorismond’s shooting followed a spate his sealed juvenile arrest record. The streets of New York. Millions4Mumia.org Page 4 April 3, 2003 www.workers.org

As 'shock and awe' intensifies Can labor shut it down and save lives?

By Milt Neidenberg caused an enormous disruption of the pub- In February, U.S. Labor Against the George P. Shultz and former Secretary of lic transportation network. Political War held an international telephone news Defense Caspar W. Weinberger. “Shut it down! Walk off the job!” These strikes are illegal, but both unions conference. More than 200 unions from Richard Perle was appointed by Secre- chants are ringing out at massive anti-war promised to defend their members. 53 countries on five continents, represent- tary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to chair demonstrations here and abroad. Since Nothing so militant has occurred here. ing over 130 million workers, agreed on a the powerful Defense Policy Board. Perle the U.S. imperialist invasion of Iraq began, Nevertheless, an anti-war sector contin- joint statement rejecting a U.S. war recently got a $750,000 retainer from raining waves of “shock and awe” bombs ues to grow within the AFL-CIO. A young, against Iraq. WorldCom, a bankrupt telecommunica- and missiles on Baghdad, students and progressive development, it will ulti- On March 12, USLAW called for coor- tions corporation now under criminal youth have provided a splendid example. mately change the relationship of forces dinated anti-war activities that were investigation that is lobbying the govern- They walked out of high schools and col- within organized labor. primarily educational. It was an effort to ment for lucrative contracts. leges to protest the illegal war. Over the past year, anti-war resolutions overcome the Bush/Pentagon lies and The “No blood for oil” placards carried Even before the war began, tens of thou- have swept through the labor movement forged documents, so pervasively repeated by demonstrators expose the real motives sands of workers across Europe partici- —from local unions, central labor coun- by the corporate media—lies like “Iraq is of the Wall Street/Washington/Pentagon pated in short strikes. A European Trade cils, state federations and even a few inter- an imminent threat to the U.S. popula- war against the Iraqi people. Union Confederation (ETUC) spokesper- national unions. Rank-and-file unionists tion” and “Saddam Hussein was responsi- Since the U.S. invaded Iraq with only son told CNN that “unions in 12 coun- joined hundreds of thousands of anti-war ble for the 9/11 bombing of the World the British ruling class at their side, the tries—France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, demonstrators, who responded first to the Trade Center,” among others. AFL-CIO national leaders have stood on Portugal, Austria, and some of the North- war against Afghanistan and then to the Many trade unionists are not buying the sidelines. Ignoring the huge outpour- ern European countries, confirmed their buildup of this war. into the phony propaganda. They added ings of anti-war demonstrators, including participation.” The Associated Press The crushing economic assault on jobs, their voices to the massive demonstra- thousands of union members, AFL-CIO reported that tens of thousand dropped wages and benefits has spurred the emer- tions on March 15 and 22 here and around President John J. Sweeney issued a state- their tools in Germany. gence of anti-war resolutions that connect the world. As U.S. soldiers come home in ment that could have been written by his In Britain, the Rail, Maritime and the war to economic cuts and threats to body bags and more Iraqis die, the anger Democratic Party friends. These labor Transport Union, comprised of train dri- civil liberties and civil rights. They remind of the movement will rise. leaders are isolating themselves from an vers and subway workers, and the Com- millions of unionists that the sons and Even before casualties take full effect, important power base that can help in the munication Workers Union, representing daughters of working class families bear Wall Street is involved in billions of confi- struggle against the insidious, all-out British Telecom and post office employees, the brunt of war and recession. dential contracts being handed out by the attacks on labor that accompany the war. called all their members to “take protest As more of the ranks of labor join forces Bush administration to its oil buddies, History has confirmed over and over action on the day war is officially with the many millions of constituents enhancing their wealth, power and profit. that all profound social change comes declared.” Bob Crowe, RMT general sec- comprising the anti-war, anti-racist move- The beneficiaries of these “cost plus fixed from below—from the workers and the retary, has urged workers to “Pile on the ment, the potential for creative job actions fees” include the Halliburton company, oppressed nationalities. It is only from pressure. ... If it means sitting on motor- at the workplace has become more favor- headed by Dick Cheney before he became their sacrifices that new and creative ways, sitting on streets, or occupying fac- able. They may come sooner than later, Bush’s vice president, and Bechtel, whose forms of struggle will develop to end this tories, so be it.” His members have already and possibly start as an economic strike. directors include former Secretary of State barbaric system of wars and recessions. War costs rise as rich get tax cuts

By Heather Cottin The windfall 2001 tax cut will efficiently rob the workers of $2 trillion over 10 While people were watching the images years, while the stock dividend tax breaks of bombs and tanks in swirling sand- in 2002 saved the ruling class another storms, the Bush administration on $1.6 trillion, according to the AFL-CIO March 24 requested an additional $75 bil- web site. lion from Congress for “emergency spend- Appropriating money for war is not ing” for the war on Iraq. And that’s only simply a matter of paying the troops. They for the first month of war. get a very small portion of the war bucks. This is in addition to the $400 billion The military industries get the lion’s already voted for military spending for share. While Washington claims that the WW PHOTO: G. DUNKEL 2003, covering the budgets of the Defense U.S. will help the people of Iraq, there’s New York City Labor Against the War, March 22. Banner reads, "Labor's enemy is in Department and the Energy Depart- only $543 million in humanitarian aid in the White House and the boardrooms." ment’s nuclear weapons program. All the appropriations bill. Out of $75 billion, those pundits who vowed that this war only $1.7 billion is allocated to rebuild a would cost only $50 billion are silent. And modern country that is being shattered Unionists march the $75 billion is only “the first install- before our eyes. That’s the cost of one ment,” according to Rep. David Obey. B-2 bomber. So who will pay for this war? The total Who gets the rest of the money? The in NYC protest military budget so far this year—$475 bil- “defense” contractors. They get money for lion—breaks down to an average of over weapons such as Boeing’s Mark-84 Special to Workers World Council 37, representing many city work- $1,500 per person for everyone in this JDAM, a $10,000 bomb that gouges a 20- New York ers, District Council 1707, representing country, or more than $6,000 for a fam- foot crater and hurls up 10,000 pounds of social service workers, Local 1930, the ily of four. Workers are being told they rock and dirt debris at supersonic speed. Mary Lewis, a member of UAW Local Library Guild, and Local 2626, Electronic must pay with their taxes, and the young The U.S. has stockpiled thousands of 2110 at Columbia University, explained Data Processors; and SEIU 1199, repre- must pay with their lives. Because of grow- JDAMs at Persian Gulf air bases. why she came. “I was sitting home last senting health and hospital workers;. ing unemployment, young people facing Billions go to Raytheon for Tomahawk night, watching the horrible devastation People doing similar work marched poverty and a miserable job market and cruise missiles, to Lockheed Martin of Baghdad, crying. I saw them plant the together in Doctors and Nurses Against become cannon fodder. So poor youth will for the PAC-3 missile, to Boeing for American flag in Iraqi soil.” Ms. Lewis, a the War, the Progressive Librarians Guild, die liberating oil wells for Exxon-Mobil Apache helicopters. The money goes for 63-year old African American who hadn’t Teachers Against the War—a dissident and Halliburton. giant Daisy Cutter bombs, bunker busters, protested for a long time, continued, “I caucus within the United Federation of At the same time, the Senate and House depleted uranium tank blasters. It goes to knew then that I’d have to march against Teachers, whose leaders support the are working on a tax bill to hand over at General Motors for tanks, to Kellogg this colonial war.” war—and Educators against the War. least $350 billion in immediate tax cuts Brown & Root and Halliburton for mili- A number of union locals and district New York City Labor Against the War, that would benefit mostly the wealthiest tary installations in the Gulf region. councils organized official contingents in which originated the call for labor to come people in the U.S. In a move even Bill As the states face monster cutbacks in the massive March 22 anti-war demon- out for March 22, also had a separate con- Gates of Microsoft found surprising, the social services and unemployment grows, stration in New York, among them UAW tingent. Senate voted for an amendment to the workers everywhere are becoming aware Region 9A; the Professional Staff Con- Thousands of union members came out budget bill that would repeal the estate of the human and financial costs of this gress of the City University of New York, to protest this vicious, racist war. Many of tax, thereby putting more of the financial war. They can stop the war machine when AFT Local 2334; Local 100 of the TWU, the union members in the contingent felt burden on the backs of the working class. they realize that a desert quagmire in Iraq which represents workers in New York it was a good start in drawing their unions U.S. tax legislation is fleecing workers is not in the interests of anyone except Big City’s public transit; AFSCME District into the anti-war movement. so rapidly that it is difficult to keep up. Oil and the military-industrial complex. www.workers.org April 3, 2003 Page 5 Media monopoly gives Cheney is licking his chops The March 20 edition of Corporate us a scripted war Watch reported that Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former com- By Leslie Feinberg and censorship is being increasingly pany, is working side by side with the expressed in placards and chants at Quote of the week Pentagon in a business deal worth close marches and rallies, and demonstrations It would take a very patient person Capt. John J. Zeigler, Army recruiting to $1 billion. This deal commenced from with an empty schedule to punch holes have targeted CNN offices in Atlanta and the very beginning of the war. company commander for the Bronx, to in all the Pentagon propaganda accom- Hollywood for glorifying the war. The deal breaks down to Halliburton panying this endless war drive. Advances in technology bring the war high school students who ask why the providing tent cities and other “logistical It’s all spin, all the time. into living rooms in real-time. But, U.S. is invading Iraq: “It’s not impor- support” to the U.S. war effort and the “embedding means the journalists cover- “The media is a weapon of war,” U.S. tant whether we support this; our job U.S. taxpayers footing the bill. Cheney Army Gen. Tommy Franks boasted on ing the U.S. war on Iraq are ‘in bed’ with held the position of chief executive officer is to obey. If you’re a normal person, March 25. This barrage of high-tech pro- the military,” syndicated writer Norman at Halliburton before taking office. He still paganda sandbags the world’s view. Solomon observed, noting that they’re you don’t want to go to war. You don’t receives “compensation” from the com- “I see these images on television and not “embedded” with Iraqi families at want to go into another country and pany to the tune of $1 million a year. ground zero. He added that if reporters people commenting that we’re bombing kill someone. But if that’s what you Halliburton’s subsidiary, Kellogg, Baghdad,” Secretary of Defense Donald want to get front-page stories, they know Brown and Root, has worked out a 10- are told to do, then you have to stand Rumsfeld told Face the Nation March 23. better than to “rock the boat” with their year contract with the Pentagon entitled “We’re not bombing Baghdad. That is a editorial boards. by your duty.” (New York Times, March 24) Logistics Civil Augmentation Program. precise attack on the regime of Saddam NPR—National Public Radio—is now According to a spokesperson for the U.S. Wasn’t slavery abolished in 1865? Hussein.” called National Pentagon Radio by many Army Field Support Command in Rock Less than 48 hours earlier, the world progressives. Island Arsenal in Illinois, the federal gov- had watched the fireballs and mushroom The daily “briefing” from the Pentagon ernment has given carte blanche to LOG- Arab news sources like Al-Jazeera. The clouds that rose from the relentless bomb- is a monolingual tower of babble. The CAP to participate in military operations day after the Bush administration rebuked ing. If the media industry here hadn’t view that the monopoly media are the for profit throughout the world, including the Qatar-based satellite news channel for buried reports of Iraqi civilian casualties unofficial government Information Mini- Afghanistan, Djibouti, Georgia, Jordan, broadcasting footage of U.S. prisoners of under its verbal rubble, he never could stry has driven many to turn to British Kuwait, Turkey and Uzbekistan. war and casualties, New York Stock have gotten away with this Big Lie. and French coverage in hopes that they So the next time you hear about the U.S. Exchange officials revoked credentials of Media polls are being shaped to shape might offer a slightly different slant. government “liberating” the Iraqi people two of its reporters. public opinion—from how the questions and crying crocodile tears for dead U.S. Searching off-shore and online Many people are scouring the informa- are skewed to how the results are hewed. soldiers, think about the true motives of tion highway for independent news There’s less coverage of massive anti- Little tidbits can be found outside the Bush and company—world domination sources including Weblogs, or blogs. Since war protests around the world and the borders of the U.S. media empire. The and profits. resistance to war in U.S. towns, cities and Toronto Star pointed out on March 25 that the war began, many of these daily indi- — Monica Moorehead campuses. Anger at media manipulation the major U.S. news corporations patched vidual diaries are serving as a network for up a little slip of the lip by independent news reports. Commander in Chief Bush Manufacturing the ‘news’ TELEVISED WORLDWIDE. at a March 6 media conference. When a reporter A.J. Liebling hit the nail right on the tried to cut him off, Bush head: “Freedom of the press is guaranteed Oscar winner began to blurt: “This is a only to those who own one.” scripted …” But online MTV rebuffed an anti-war commercial. transcripts at the New Painting them as “advocacy advertising,” denounces York Times, Fox News, networks, cable channels and affiliates CNN, MSNBC and the Los have blocked commercials that oppose the Angeles Times either cut U.S. military aggression. Bush’s war the reference or changed it As the first bombs dropped on Bagh- By Monica Moorehead to “unscripted.” dad, “Rally for America” events sprouted Others searching for up in Atlanta, Cleveland, San Antonio, The Oscar ceremony is watched each news about the war turn to Cincinnati and other cities. Clear Channel, Inc., paid for the rallies and used its band- year by a worldwide audience estimated width to sponsor the campaign. at a billion people. The producers of this New York, March 22. The San Antonio-based broadcasting glitzy show said the 75th anniversary of the Academy Awards would be aired on Continued on page 10 WW PHOTO: PAT CHIN March 23, war or no war. These same producers, on behalf of the Bush administration, pressured presenters and win- ners alike beforehand not to use the A people's resource podium to make political statements on the war. While a few artists took the occasion to Save community libraries call for peace, it was Michael Moore, the progressive director and producer, who By Pat Hilliard has a budget of $90 billion, libraries in libraries, not war. They are also standing courageously took it a step further, mak- upstate towns are taking a heavy hit. up to the government’s recent attempt to ing the most powerful statement of all. How can you keep up with the activi- Because of Washington’s aggressive war intimidate patrons from using the Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine,” a ties of the people’s struggle against war moves, the state is saddled with big out- library. Libraries have been in a struggle powerful, satirical look at the symptoms and racism if you don’t have a com- lays for “homeland security”—including with the Department of Homeland and roots of U.S. violence, was among the puter? Try visiting your local library. extra troopers on the U.S.-Canada border Security about reporting what library nominees for best documentary feature. Libraries in the past were places for and at bridges, reservoirs and other key patrons read and look at on the Internet. As his name was announced as the winner books only, but today’s modern library points. All this is eating into schools, Some libraries have posted signs letting of this category, Moore called on the other has video and audio tapes and offers free libraries and other services. patrons know that what they look at may nominees to come with him to the stage. computer use. Libraries are also offering Bookmobiles, which often go to rural be reported. This is part of the Patriot They all wore peace buttons in a show of other services such as places to meet and areas, are being discontinued com- Act, which demands that Internet unity. discuss today’s issues. pletely. In North Carolina, Hawaii, servers report what people research In his acceptance speech, Moore stated Libraries do not limit themselves to Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and many from computers, whether at home or in that while documentary artists focus on English only, but offer newspapers and other states, branch offices of libraries the library. non-fiction subjects, Bush was a fictitious books in many different languages. For are being closed and books and equip- Part of the struggle against war and president sending U.S. soldiers to Iraq for instance, the Jersey City Public Library ment are being put into storage. racism is going to your local library and fictitious reasons. Then he shouted, offers Informe, a database of Spanish- The American Library Association creating library defense committees. “Shame on you, Mr. Bush!” This provoked language journals and newspapers. reported on its Internet site the thoughts While you are there, be sure to look up the both sporadic boos and a standing ovation However, libraries, like every other of one library patron: “I feel that we need many Internet sites that bolster the peo- from the divided audience of actors, direc- social service, are under attack and must the neighborhood libraries, for us, the ple’s struggle. Of course, there is tors and producers. be defended. Budget cuts are limiting the older ones, and for the children,” said www.workers.org for Workers World Days before the Oscar ceremony, hours and staff available to assist library Marie Benedict, who comes in once a week newspaper and www.peoplesvideo.org for Moore won the Independent Spirit patrons. to send e-mail to her great-grandchildren. Peoples Video Network. These will help Award. At that event, he demanded that In Virginia, for example, the public “I grew up with a library.” give you ideas on what to do to defend our CNN dismiss all the retired and active library system faces budget cuts as high Activists are in the streets demanding community libraries. military officers it hires to interpret the as 15 percent. In New York State, which funding for schools, education and news. Page 6 April 3, 2003 www.workers.org Iraqis vs. the empire

Continued from page 1 by propaganda radio broadcasts and as intended by the Bush for them to secure the bridge long enough telephone calls to unit commanders administration. to get across a two-mile column of tanks inviting them to negotiate their capitula- It is not merely a change and armored vehicles. The fighting for the tion. The lack of large-scale surrenders in the regime, but a change city is still in progress. suggests that Iraqi commanders instead in the status of a nation of may have been manipulating the expec- 25 million people from Peasants with rifles tations of their U.S. contacts.” political independence to against Apache helicopters political, economic and Further north in Kabala, peasants U.S. troops were lied to military domination by an brought down two low-flying Apache The U.S. high command brought imperialist super-power. It helicopters with small arms fire and 250,000 troops in as an invasion force, is a change in status from drove back another 30 helicopters on a feeding them the same lies. They were told control over their oil and mission to secure the area for the 3rd that they were liberators. Now they are other resources for the Infantry Division. Iraqi irregular militia being killed and wounded and face a wall purposes of national devel- forces using only pickup trucks and fir- of popular hostility and hatred. As U.S. opment—even though ing machine guns and rocket-propelled casualties mount, the prospect of demor- restricted by the economic grenades attacked armored columns. alization among the troops and further sanctions—to total depen- The Wall Street Journal of March 25 loss of political support at home for the dence upon Washington, summed up the situation this way: “Far war is growing. the giant oil companies, the from being hailed immediately as libera- The Bush administration and the high Pentagon and imperialism Iraqi woman in Baghdad, March 25. tors, invading U.S. and British forces in command are now faced with the task of in general. southern Iraq are facing deep hostility and conquering Baghdad. The Pentagon is Iraq has long struggled for the status gunfire from some residents who are planning to escalate its bombing in and of political independence, through often desperate for food and water and around the city in order to reduce U.S. bloody rebellions against the Ottoman Ashcroft and the Justice Department. sometimes furious about the continuing casualties. But, in the final analysis, the Empire and then the British Empire. It They have stood silent as the military and military assault against their country.” U.S. forces have to take the city on the carried out a revolution of national liber- police role in monitoring institutions and “In a dusty town of Az Zubayr, just ground. Washington may be preparing to ation in 1958. The mass of the Iraqis do civilian life has drastically expanded south of Basra,” continued the Journal, horrendously escalate its war crimes not want to return to colonial status and under the pretext of homeland security. “some Iraqis in civilian clothes fired against the Iraqi people, as well as throw military occupation, to be followed by a The corporate media and the Congress rocket-propelled grenades and machine U.S. soldiers into a gigantic battle where neocolonial regime that is part of the have become increasingly subservient to guns at British and American troops. they will be forced to act as an oppressive U.S. empire. and integrated into the war machine at ‘The Americans are destroying our coun- army and face the wrath of Iraqi people The Iraqi people, and all the people of this critical moment, when the lives and try. There will be a fight,’ said Ismail resisting occupation and oppression. the Middle East, know that this war is the futures of millions are at stake. Hantush, an engineer at the state-run The movement in this country must opening shot in a new expansionary phase The movement must escalate and Iraqi oil company.” escalate its fight to bring the troops home intended by the Bush administration to be broaden its struggle against imperialist To give a sense of how completely the and extricate them from the stranglehold a step in the direction of establishing the aggression and occupation abroad and U.S. political and military authorities of the Pentagon, which is sending them to absolute world domination of Washington military-police state reaction at home. had discounted the anti-colonial hatred commit aggression and war crimes. The and the Pentagon. Whatever the final outcome of this bru- of the masses, the Journal reported that Iraqi people have every right to resist this. The acquiescence of the working class tal war, the heroic Iraqi resistance to “just a few weeks ago, coalition officers Washington has the gall to denounce and the people at home is an essential con- overwhelming force should be an exam- in Kuwait were making plans to fly TV the Iraqis for war crimes and violating dition for the Bush doctrine of preemption ple and an inspiration to stop the U.S. crews to film the cheering crowds in the Geneva Convention because their and this new era of “endless war” to suc- war machine right here at home. The southern Iraq.” television showed U.S. prisoners being ceed. In the course of this war the big busi- next big opportunity will come on April The U.S. forces are now in the position asked their names and where they come ness media has become a virtual state 12 in Washington, D.C. of having to turn to suppressing the peo- from. But the entire war is a organ. The so-called “embedded” ple in the south in order to protect their crime–including the attempt to over- reporters are really imprisoned, bribed, rear. The U.S. Central Command has throw a sovereign government, bombing corrupted mouthpieces for the military Caught between stretched its supply lines for 200 miles cities and killing civilians, and invading high command. The anchors who talk to through a territory that was supposed to to plunder the oil and set up a puppet them over the television networks are be friendly and safe. Now the British and government. mere conduits for the latest Pentagon U.S. forces are bombing the city of Basra As for the treatment of prisoners, those propaganda. in preparation for occupation. The entire captured in the Afghan war and taken to The Congress, after approving the war, Kurds are military plan was based upon the illu- Guantanamo naval base are denied pris- has become a silent body during this his- sion that the imperialists could terrorize oner of war status by the U.S. Two were toric turn implemented by the right-wing By Greg Butterfield the people into surrender and deceive beaten to death while in detention and 19 militarists in the White House and the them with false promises of liberation. more have attempted suicide because of Pentagon to lead U.S. imperialism onto On March 26, Gen. Hilmi Ozkok, chief The Washington Post reported on torture and inhuman conditions. The the path of world empire, onto the path of of staff of Turkey’s armed forces, conceded March 25 that, “The continued Iraqi hypocrisy of the Bush administration unbridled militarism in the struggle to to U.S. demands not to send additional resistance specifically calls into question knows no bounds. vanquish all its imperialist rivals and troops into northern Iraq. the efficacy of the biggest psychological vastly expand its exploitation of the Refuse to be imperial subjects Earlier, it appeared to many, including operations campaign waged by the U.S. oppressed peoples of the world. Turkish officials, that a quid-pro-quo military. Over the last six months, U.S. The underlying basis for the united All the traditional instruments of bour- agreement had been reached between aircraft dropped more than 25 million resistance of the Iraqi people, regardless geois opposition have also stood by while Washington and Ankara to allow Turkish leaflets on the Iraqi military units and of their attitude toward the government of the constitutional rights of the people have intervention in northern Iraq in exchange civilians, urging them not to fight the Saddam Hussein, is that they recognize been under assault from the Patriot Act for letting U.S. and British warplanes fly U.S. invasion. That was supplemented the essential meaning of “regime change” and the regime of Attorney General John over Turkey. But as the Bush administration’s hopes for a swift war were dashed in southern Iraq, Washington feared the possibility of open warfare between the Turkish Army U.S. offensive in Afghanistan and U.S.-allied Kurdish groups in northern Iraq. The Pentagon says it’s counting on the By G. Dunkel 82nd Airborne involved calls itself the ers. The soldiers seized some of the Kurdish groups and their militias—now “White Devils.” weapons every Afghani village needs to officially under U.S. military command— Gen. Tommy Franks, the former top Why now? Perhaps for propaganda defend itself. to aid U.S. Special Forces troops in the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has purposes, to create the impression that But U.S. helicopters flying over north. So Turkish officials were leaned on, moved on to a higher-stakes war in Iraq. Iraq is somehow connected to al-Qaeda Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, still use and paid off with $1 billion in cash grants But he leaves behind an occupation that and the Taliban. The operation was flares to foil heat-seeking missiles. CNN and loan guarantees of $8.5 billion “to grows more bloody as spring makes billed as a response to a Taliban attack reported on March 23 that a U.S. Black cushion the economic trauma of war.” travel in the Afghani mountains easier. on a border post that left three guards Hawk helicopter was shot down in east- (New York Times, March 26) A few minutes after the bombs began dead, and the fact that three U.S. bases ern Afghanistan; six soldiers on it died. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdo- falling on Baghdad, the U.S. with some in eastern Afghanistan came under mis- The Afghan Islamic Press reported gan, in a televised address March 23, had Romanian mercenaries opened up the sile attack earlier in the week. that a thousand people in the western said the U.S. and Turkey reached an agree- largest operation in a year against According to the U.S. command, it province of Largham demonstrated on ment for Turkish troops to deploy “in a alleged Taliban supporters and their al- was a success. Some poor Afghani farm- March 22 to protest the U.S. war on limited area, reportedly 19 kilometers, Qaeda allies. The U.S. brigade of the ers were arrested as Taliban sympathiz- Iraq. skirting the border in northern Iraq.” www.workers.org April 3, 2003 Page 7 Internationals in Baghdad describe resistance By John Catalinotto seems not only cruel, but stupid too.” itary or government installation. are receiving permits to work and began The Spain-based Committee to Support “You cannot imagine the impact of the doing shifts at a Baghdad hospital. But They went to Baghdad as doctors, as the Arab Cause has been organizing week- cruise missiles falling on this sprawling, they continue to send reports to the move- links to the anti-war movements in their long brigades to Iraq from different exposed city; the tremors they cause when ment in Belgium, urging demonstrations own countries, as “human shields” regions of the Spanish state over the past they explode, unleashing a ball of fire and and strikes. defending structures vital to the 5 million months. column of dark smoke. For more reports from them, see humans living in Iraq’s capital. “It is difficult to describe the ominous www.irak.be/ned/missies/ Whatever they came to do, these soli- ‘We have decided to stay’ sound of aircraft flying over our heads and medicalMissionColetteGeert/ darity internationalists are bearing wit- On March 18, they vowed: “We have dropping their bombs. The aggressors are two_belgian_doctors_in_baghdad.htm. ness to the crimes U.S. and British imper- decided to remain here in Baghdad once now determined to break the spirit of this ialism are inflicting on Baghdad. And, by the military campaign against Iraq by the people after trying to do so with hunger Morale of the Iraqis phone and email, they are chronicling the USA and its allies has begun and after the and disease over 12 years of embargo, as Of the ability of Iraqis to resist, the dif- resistance of the Iraqi people. Basque Country Brigade has been evacu- if this were a medieval siege.” For more ferent observers agree: “Their morale is Before the all-out attacks started, on ated.” Their goal is to bear witness to information, see www.nodo50.org/csca/. still intact,” wrote Van Moorter on March March 16, Rosemarie Gillespie, one of five events in Baghdad and to continue to link 21. “People support one another. The for- Australians in a human-shield team at the the now massive Spanish anti-war move- Two doctors from Belgium eign journalists are panicking more than 7th of April water treatment plant on the ment with events and people in Iraq itself. Two doctors from Belgium are now in them.” Tigris River in the suburbs of Baghdad, The six who signed this statement were Baghdad—Dr. Colette Moulaert, a pedia- Gillespie, in a later communication, messaged to the world: soon joined by three from the Basque del- trician and surgeon and member of the compared the Iraqis to the many in “Preparations for the dreaded bombing egation. Workers’ Party of Belgium, and Dr. Geert England who–while considering Winston raids are now being made in earnest. “Our decision should not be taken as Van Moorter, an emergency medicine Churchill a reactionary—rallied to him Everywhere windows and glass doors are one of foolishness or presumption,” they specialist and activist with the anti-war under the bombs of the Nazis, and noted being taped up. Crates of bottled water are wrote. “It is not for the nine of us that you coalition StopUSA (Stop the United States the growing number of volunteers swell- being delivered in haste. should be concerned: concern yourselves of Aggression). They both work with ing the ranks of armed Iraqis in Baghdad. “The price of bottled water is going up. instead with the fate of the Iraqi people, to Medical Aid for the Third World and have The group from Spain wrote: “Every So is the price of a taxi fare to the border. whom we have freely linked our own.” been in combat situations in the past. morning, after every attack, these same Most people here seem to be dealing with And on March 22, in both a report and “We are OK here. Last night (March 20) people go out again into their streets and the threat of bombing with a degree of a message to the demonstrators back there were air raids for about three hours,” continue to smile at us, grateful that we stoic calm, going about their business, home: “From 7:20 p.m. yesterday until wrote Dr. Van Moorter. “Some of the are here, raising their fists or flashing the making the necessary preparations. 10:00 a.m. local time, the attacks were attacks were only some hundreds of victory sign, warm and trusting in spite of “As Asmaa said: ‘We are not afraid any very intense, especially in the Al Mansur meters away, less than one kilometer. everything, asking us to tell you of their more. We’re used to it. We’re not afraid for district, a densely populated area in the Hotel Palestine, our hotel, is on the banks will to resist even when that seems an ourselves, only for our children.’ center of Baghdad where institutional of the Tigris and it was at the other side. unimaginable miracle in the face of the “Asmaa has two small children, a 3- buildings (governmental and ministerial) We don’t know what they targeted. war machine closing in on them.” year-old girl, Meriam, and a 4-month-old are mixed in with residential blocks of flats “According to Iraqi TV many were These internationalists, together with baby boy, Omar. Will they survive the and houses.” injured in Basra. But apparently the Iraqis those from Voices in the Wilderness and bombing? Following a solidarity visit to a hospi- put up fierce resistance and the U.S. sol- independent reporters like videographer “The thought of Australian Air Force tal: “Five brothers–two adults, a diers had a hard time.” Mae Ying Welsh, are the flesh-and-blood pilots, as well as American ones, bombing teenager, two children–all burned while And later, “We tell everybody about the evidence of the world’s solidarity with Baghdad, possibly blowing up one of the they watched the missiles falling over the protests against U.S. aggression in Bel- Iraq’s people and a heroic link between five Australian ‘human shields’ or any of city early Thursday night. And so on: up gium and other countries. That is impor- the global anti-war movement and the the other human shields for that matter, to 36 in one hospital alone, all civilians, tant for the morale of anybody here,” Iraqis who continue to resist U.S.- or little children like Meriam and Omar, none of them living near any kind of mil- writes Van Moorter. The “human shields” British imperialism. Turkey and U.S. squeezed by oil politics

(ChannelNewsAsia.com, March 24) will be withdrawn. General Ozkok insisted against the Iraqi govern- Their purpose, Erdogan said, was to that Turkey’s military reserved the right to ment, warned of a shooting prevent tens of thousands of refugees send in additional forces, but would do so war between local Kurds and from flooding southern Turkey and to only under U.S. supervision. the Turkish military if hunt down Kurdish “terrorists.” Ankara was permitted to Now, according to General Ozkok, “We Kurdish militias intervene. have no desire to establish a permanent under U.S. command Both groups are hostile to KADEK and Anti-war marchers mark the Kurdish buffer zone.” Turkey’s government is among the have cooperated with U.S./Turkish new year March 21 in Frankfurt, Germany. Many carried pictures of On March 21, the Turkish Parliament biggest recipients of U.S. military aid. repression of the left. Kurdish political prisoners in Turkey. voted to allow U.S. overflights in the war Washington has long supported its sup- The Sunday Times of London reported against Iraq. The vote came three weeks pression of Kurds in southern Turkey. March 23 that three days of arm-twisting goal is to secure two major oil centers, after the parliament had rejected Wash- From 1984 to 1999, the army carried meetings took place in Ankara just before Kirkuk and Mosul, under Pentagon ington’s plan to use Turkish bases to out a bloody campaign aimed at destroy- the U.S./British assault began. These control. launch a “northern front” with 62,000 ing the pro-independence Kurdistan meetings, under the auspices of U.S. spe- The Bush administration doesn’t want U.S. troops. Workers Party (PKK), a group allied with cial envoy and former Unocal oil company Kurdish militias—even those dominated Erdogan, the ruling Justice and Dev- Turkey’s communist movement. More adviser Zalmay Khalilzad, aimed at by the compliant PUK and KDP—to seize elopment Party, and especially the than 30,000 people died—mostly civilians clamping down on leaders of rival Kurdish these areas, which remain under the con- Turkish military wanted to collaborate suspected of sympathizing with the PKK. and Iraqi opposition groups—many on the trol of the Iraqi government. U.S. compa- with the Pentagon. But popular opposi- The Congress for Freedom and CIA’s payroll for years. nies don’t want to have to share control of tion to the war, including massive street Democracy in Kurdistan (KADEK), suc- The PUK and KDP agreed to place their the oil or how the profits are divvied up. protests, made the rulers afraid to accept cessor to the outlawed PKK, still has armed forces under direct U.S. command. Both cities have faced heavy bom- U.S. terms. strong support among Kurds in Turkey. (Reuters, March 18) bardment since the war began. So a compromise–the overflights–was KADEK has called for a spring uprising Kurdishmedia.com reported that hun- pushed through. against both the Turkish regime and the Real targets: dreds of U.S. Special Forces troops began Turkish military leaders continued to U.S.-led war in Iraq. Oil profits and KADEK to arrive in the region March 22 at Bakrajo deny that 1,000 commandos had Opposition to the war was a major The interests of the U.S. and Turkish Airport near the town of Sulemani. More crossed the border into Iraq on March theme March 21 during Kurdish new year ruling classes in northern Iraq overlap troops could be flown in from Jordan or 21-22. But a BBC World News corre- celebrations in southern Turkey. considerably, and have nothing to do the numerous U.S. bases in Central Asia. spondent stationed in the area and oth- For months Kurdish people in northern with securing rights and sovereignty for Turkey doesn’t want these oil centers to ers asserted that the commandos did Iraq have been voicing their opposition to Kurdish people. come under Kurdish control, either. indeed enter Iraq. And some 50,000 Turkish military intervention. The Patri- Both Washington and Ankara want to Ankara fears such an outcome would fuel heavily armed Turkish troops are poised otic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the hunt down KADEK members thought to demands for independence among Kurds along the border. Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), two be hiding in the mountainous region. in Iraq and Turkey, and could strengthen It’s unclear whether those commandos bourgeois parties allied with the U.S. U.S. officials assert that their primary the forces of the revolutionary left. Page 8 April 3, 2003 www.workers.org U.S. demos keep up the pressure By Monica Moorehead full riot gear began arresting people, pick- and march were co-sponsored by the On March 20, more than 1,000 stu- ing them off one by one. The crowd, Long Beach Area Peace Network and the dents from Seattle Central Community The U.S. military’s “shock and awe” including people who had just been enjoy- ANSWER coalition of L.A. College, University of Washington and bombing of Baghdad is a strategy to ter- ing a spring day in the park, chanted “Let At about the same time in Los numerous area high schools walked out in rorize the Iraqi people into surrendering them go” and “Arrest Bush!” More than 90 Angeles, some 20,000 to 25,000 anti- Seattle, to protest the war. They joined to U.S. colonial occupation and to psy- people were reportedly arrested and many war demonstrators marched without a some 3,000 other anti-war activists at the chologically paralyze and demoralize the were pepper-sprayed by the police. permit from Hollywood and Vine to Federal Building for a rally and march. worldwide anti-war movement. In Atlanta, 1,500 anti-war activists nearby CNN headquarters for a militant Police attacked a peace encampment But not only is the Iraqi population marched to the international headquar- rally to express the growing anger over with pepper spray on the State Capitol heroically resisting this brutal invasion, ters of Cable Network News. The march pro-war bias in reporting by the big-busi- campus in Olympia, Wash. Five hun- the anti-war movement worldwide is do- took to the streets without a permit and ness media. They chanted, “CNN, NBC— dred protesters blocked I-5 freeway in ing everything it can to resist the war. And stopped traffic in front of the CNN build- put our protests on TV!” Signs read: Bellingham. despite the growing number of U.S. mili- ing. Continuing to focus on the role of the “PNN—Pentagon News Network.” In Philadelphia, more than 100 peo- tary casualties and prisoners of war, peo- media in this war, marchers passed by the After marching back to Hollywood ple were arrested as they blocked ple in cities large and small in this coun- Atlanta Constitution newspaper before and Vine, they resisted police efforts to entrances to the Federal Building on try are demonstrating against this war. ending up at a rally in Woodruff Park. push them out of the intersection for March 20. Some 800 supporters cheered Coordinated demonstrations took another hour. People were in no mood to on the anti-war resisters. In the afternoon, place all over the U.S. on March 22 that ‘No business as usual’ be rushed off the street, and held their hundreds braved driving, cold rain to brought out hundreds of thousands Since the actual military attack on Iraq ground in spite of a number of unpro- protest at City Hall and the Federal against the invasion of Iraq. began, anti-war groups have disrupted voked arrests, and threats of tear gas and Building. More than 2,000 gathered on More than 250,000 people took to the traffic, blocked government building rubber bullets. the steps of the Art Museum for a march streets of New York City. The march was entrances and other campaigns of The demonstration was called by the to City Hall on March 23. Bishop Thomas called by United for Peace and Justice. resistance to emphasize that there is no ANSWER coalition, Coalition for World Gumbleton was the featured speaker at a Many contingents, including one from business as usual when an imperialist war Peace, Interfaith Communities United for rally organized by School of the Americas International ANSWER—the Act Now to erupts. Justice and Peace, and Global Women’s Watch. Stop War and End Racism—coalition, In San Francisco, there was direct Strike. In San Diego, a peacemakers’ refugee made up the march which spanned more action on March 20 and 75,000 people In Chicago, 15,000 anti-war protest- camp was formed on March 22 in front of than 40 blocks and took more than four took to the streets on March 22. (See ers took the streets on March 20. Police the Federal Building. The camp was hours to wind its way down Broadway to related article.) illegally detained more than 750 in the described as “an organized nonviolent Washington Square Park. Also on March 22, well over 3,000 peo- streets for hours, before arresting them. direct action designed to create a safe New York’s “finest” attempted to close ple shouting, “Peace! Now!” took part in Those arrested report they were denied space for demonstrators to feel a sense of down the march at 4 p.m. A tense con- the largest march in years in the major food, water, sleep and bathroom facili- community.” These young people have frontation ensued. Thousands of cops in port city of Long Beach, Calif. The rally ties. They were finally released on the vowed to stay in front of the Federal morning of March 22. Some of those Building until the war stops. arrested had been passersby who The Old Women’s Project organized a weren’t even part of the demonstration. march of 80 veiled women dressed in Some 80 people in Chicago carried black, each holding pictures of Iraqi out civil disobedience at the federal women and children, which was seen by building on March 21. Later that day, many shoppers in downtown San Diego. 4,000 marched through downtown. A Later, 1,000 people surrounded the day later, 1,500 people turned out for an Federal Building and held an anti-war emergency demonstration. rally. The Western Massachusetts Stop the In Richmond, Va., 2,000 rallied on War coalition organized the largest anti- March 23. war protest at the Westover Air Reserve Other areas organizing ongoing anti- Base to date: 2,000 marched; 55 protest- war protests include Buffalo; New Paltz ers were arrested as they lay down or sat and 60 other towns and villages in Mid- on the ground in front of the base gate. Hudson Valley, N.Y.; Houston and Austin, This base provides C-5 cargo planes that Texas; Detroit and Lansing, Mich.; transport soldiers and supplies to the Hartford, Conn.; Boston; Baltimore; and WW PHOTO:DEIRDRE GRISWOLD Middle East. many more cities. New York, March 22. Anti-war anger in Baltimore as local Marine dies in Iraq

By Sharon Black munity and labor rally to stop Bush’s war. rounded by a massive show of Baltimore Baltimore’s neighborhoods are mostly police, including 14 cars filled Black and impoverished, reflecting with SWAT teams and regular One of the first U.S. troops killed in the decades of racism and cuts in services. cops, several brigades of motor- war against Iraq was Kendall Waters-Bey, Andre Powell, an ANSWER volunteer cycle police, four unmarked a Marine from Northeast Baltimore. In and a union organizer, spoke to the peo- police cars and a helicopter. The this working class neighborhood of brick ple: “The rich will not fight and die in this intimidation did not stop the car row houses, there is anger, pain and tears. war. Instead it will be the sons and daugh- caravan. His four sisters have been openly criti- ters of the workers and poor who will die— Both the car caravan and police cal of President Bush and the war. In an the majority who joined the armed forces converged at the Unity United interview with Baltimore Sun staff to learn a skill or receive an education.” Methodist Church, a historic reporters, Michelle Waters, the oldest sis- He continued, “This war is one of geno- African American church in ter, proclaimed, “It’s all for nothing, that cide against the Iraqi people. It will Baltimore’s Westside where the war could have been prevented. Now include not only massive bombing but also rally was to take place. The police we’re out of a brother. Bush is not out of a long-term occupation and colonial rule. cordoned off the street in front of brother. We are.” Our children and loved ones will be called the church, blocking access to the Nakia Waters told the newspaper, “This on to fight door-to-door against people rally. war is all about oil and money. It’s about who are trying to defend their country Despite this police intimida- greed. [Bush] ought to send his daughters from invasion.” tion, the church was filled. Larry over there to fight.” Renee Washington is a mother of five Holmes, a national coordinator This sentiment is echoed everywhere in children, one of whom is presently in the for ANSWER, brought the group Baltimore’s working class and poor com- service. She is also related to Kendall to its feet as he called for action munities, say volunteers of ANSWER— Waters-Bey’s mother. She fought to hold and resistance to the war. Dr. Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. back her anger as she added, “We have Kwame O. Abayomi, the pastor They took a similar message to both East had to endure cutbacks in our schools, of Unity United Methodist and West Baltimore on March 22. racism in the street, and now our youth Church, hosted the gathering. WW PHOTO: JULIA LA RIVA Armed with sound systems, decorated will be forced to die for the oil companies.” Abayomi represents the 6th District in With ANSWER in Los Angeles on March 22. cars and flyers entitled “Don’t Let Our Washington distributed flyers while the Baltimore City Council, where he Loved Ones Die for Oil Profits,” the group Powell announced the 3 p.m. rally. has introduced a resolution against the drove through the city to advertise a com- The car caravan was quickly sur- war. www.workers.org April 3, 2003 Page 9 Protesters storm San Francisco streets By Brenda Sandburg San Francisco

As the Bush administration launched its murderous war on Iraq, tens of thousands of protesters took over the streets of San Francisco, shutting down much of the city on March 20. Activists had first learned about the onset of bombing the night before, during a march of 10,000 in the rain. On the morning of March 20, thousands of students and workers called in sick or walked out of their schools and jobs. The call for “no business as usual” the day the war started in order to show mass opposition had been issued in prior weeks by anti-war coalitions, including Inter- national ANSWER—the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism coalition. At 7 a.m. on March 20, dozens of simul- taneous direct actions began, organized by Direct Action to Stop the War. Demon- strators blocked intersections and key buildings in the financial district. The large number of actions kept police jump- ing from one location to another and allowed protesters to hold areas for long periods of time. About 2,400 protesters were arrested over a three-day period beginning San Francisco, March 22. WW PHOTO: BILL HACKWELL March 20. An ANSWER affinity group joined the about eight hours, Roellig said those who Riot police and California Highway Patrol Vanguard Public Foundation. Marin Peace and Justice Coalition and withheld their names were held for 24 officers lined up in front of the march, car- It was the third major action organized S.F. Presente to shut down Bechtel hours and treated harshly. “My daughter, rying shields and pointing teargas guns. by ANSWER in four days. The first was on Corp.—the military contractor that won a who is almost totally blind, had bruises all But both times the cops were forced to March 19 at 5 p.m.—the deadline the Bush multi-million-dollar contract to rebuild over her arms,” Roellig said. “They twisted back down because of the militancy and administration had set for the start of war. Iraq after the United States destroys it. our wrists and arms behind us; the pain determination of the protesters who About 90 minutes into the action, the The ANSWER contingent marched in a was so shocking.” loudly chanted, demanding their right to United States started bombing Iraq. column to the entrance of Bechtel and In addition to direct actions March 20, the streets. ANSWER also participated in a civil locked arms. ANSWER held a mass rally and march The confrontation energized the crowd, disobedience action March 24, blocking Lisa Roellig, an ANSWER activist and through the city that drew about 15,000 which then marched six miles—down the entrance to the Transamerica Pyra- member of Marin Peace and Justice, said people. Students from many high schools Market Street to Van Ness and up Calif- mid, where the Carlyle Group has offices. she and other members of her group were took part. ornia Street, one of the steepest streets in The Carlyle Group, one of the nation’s arrested while reading the names of the “If 10- and 11-year-olds can figure out the city. biggest military contractors, has strong Iraqi men, women and children killed in that this war is wrong, adults and the gov- Drivers honked their car horns and ties to the Bush administration. George 1991 in the Al Ameriyah shelter by a ernment should be able to, too,” a 12-year- cable-car operators on California Street Bush Sr. is one of its top advisors. Pentagon bomb during the first Gulf War. old student from James Lick Middle rang their bells in support. Protesters have been in the streets of School said at the rally. Protests continued into the night. this city almost every day since the U.S. ‘Whose streets? Our streets!’ High school students led the march as People could not bear to be quiet while attacks began. People call the ANSWER Roellig and her 18-year-old daughter, it surged onto Market Street, its ranks Iraqis were being killed. office continuously to find out when the Alexandra Phillips, were among a group of swelled by people coming from the direct next action will be. people arrested March 20 who refused to actions in the financial and commercial San Francisco: “San Francisco has become a symbol of give their names to police as an additional districts. Symbol of U.S. resistance resistance, an inspiration to our brothers form of protest. The cops tried twice to block the protest A demonstration of 75,000 was held and sisters around the world,” said While other activists were processed in from proceeding down Market Street. March 22, initiated by ANSWER and ANSWER organizer Tahnee Nye. Women slam war and budget cuts By Nancy Younassi ror. Native people have dealt for cen- colonization of the south, and more than ation of the working class as a whole. She Boston turies with the terrorism of the U.S., 50 years of U.S. economic sanctions evoked Marx and Engels in reminding Canadian, Mexican and other colonizing against the north. women how their dual role as laborers On March 22, the Women’s Fightback governments. I urge all of you to con- “When the U.S. started bombing Iraq, and “instruments of production” is Network and ANSWER Boston held a sider the knowledge that we have gained we knew that we could be next. We sup- exploited by the capitalist class. This gives spirited anti-war rally that packed the during that time. If we had unified early port the right of North Korea to defend women an even greater reason to fight Cambridge YWCA. The event was co- on, worked together rather than as sepa- itself against U.S. imperialist aggression.” back and gain control of both their labor chaired by WFN leaders Steph Simard and rate nations, we may have prevailed. Jeong stressed the need to strengthen power and their bodies, alongside their Erline Salley and included cultural per- Now is the time to come together in the solidarity between the anti-war move- brothers in the struggle. formances by Puerto Rican activist Marta unity, to speak with one voice and say ment in the U.S. and the Korean people’s Pratt also encouraged the crowd to cast Rodriguez and DAGGER, the Theatre NO to war. We have the power within us struggle against U.S. imperialism. Jeong aside the ruling class notion that women Offensive’s Queer Women’s Guerrilla the- to stop this war and to change the world, said that the Korean people’s desire to kick are inherently more peaceful and nurtur- ater troupe. and we will do so.” out the 37,000 U.S. troops forcibly divid- ing than men. War hawks like Madeleine Mahtowin Munro, co-chair of United Yoomi Jeong of the Korea Truth ing the Korean peninsula is at an all-time Albright and Condoleezza Rice quickly American Indians of New England, Commission had just returned from vis- high, especially since the death last sum- disprove this theory. “What matters is opened with an eloquent message of resis- its to both North and South Korea. She mer of two young Korean girls who were which side of the class struggle one stands tance to racism, colonialism, budget cuts told the crowd, “The Korean people are crushed by a U.S. tank. on—the side of the oppressors or the side and war. She saluted women in the front- actively opposed to the U.S. war on Iraq. Minnie Bruce Pratt, a renowned les- of the oppressed.” lines of the struggle worldwide. Huge demonstrations take place contin- bian poet and anti-racist activist, ana- Her carefully woven formulations and Speaking of the cutbacks and deepen- uously. We know first-hand what war, lyzed the relationship between capital- passionate agitation left the audience with ing war at home, Munro explained, economic sanctions and occupation are ism, imperialist war and women’s oppres- an even greater resolve to carry forth the “People of color in the U.S. know first- all about. We have endured and resisted sion. Her talk helped to deepen the decisive class struggle as so many revolu- hand what it is to be on the receiving end Japanese imperialist occupation, the crowd’s understanding of the revolution- tionary women have done before us, “Not of a relentless campaign of war and ter- Korean War which resulted in the U.S. ary role women have to play in the liber- just to fight and die, but to win.” Page 10 April 3, 2003 www.workers.org

Packed New York meeting says ‘We’re with Venezuela’

When bombs fell By Leslie Feinberg With the Bolivarian Revolution Venezuela has stood up and demanded Just days before U.S. bombs exploded respect; has gotten off its knees. on Belgrade in the streets of Baghdad, Rodrigo Cháves Venezuela is a rich country, yet the told a community meeting in upper Man- reality is poverty, he explained. This s U.S. missiles pouring into Taking stock today of the region that hattan that Venezuela may be the next results from the fact that 80 percent of Baghdad murder the very peo- was once, and may again someday be target. everything is owned by .001 percent of the A ple Bush is claiming to “liber- Yugoslavia, one can see clearly just Cháves, national coordinator of Vene- population. He said the ruling elite have ate,” the world should recall a similar what imperialist “humanitarian” inter- zuela’s Bolivarian Circles, spoke to a destroyed the economy in their drive for aggression by U.S. imperialism just vention has brought. packed, grassroots meeting in Washington cheap labor and their callous disregard four years ago. On March 24, 1999, the Four dependent mini-states, two Heights on March 16 about how Wash_ing- for the rights of workers. “We don’t want Pentagon opened a bombing campaign imperialist protectorates and a Serbia ton and the elite of his country are waging them,” he said. on Yugoslavia that lasted 78 days. in chains have replaced an indepen- class war against the workers and peasants Today, Cháves noted, the peasants, or Washington sold that war with the big dent state of southern Slavs that had of Venezuela. campesinos, are becoming owners of the lie that it was a noble venture, a 24 million people. The Bolivarian Circles are neighborhood land and getting aid from the government “humanitarian” intervention. It was U.S. and NATO military bases domi- groups that defend and implement the to sow their crops. The fishers’ harvest is supposed to rescue Kosovo and espe- nate the territory. German and U.S. goals of social and economic transforma- being protected. The neighborhood Circles cially its ethnic Albanian population capital dominate the economy. tion President Hugo Chávez has been try- are organizing better schools, providing from alleged Serb repression. Kosovo has become an apartheid ing to set in motion since he was elected by health care, and building roads and sub- Washington then had closer collabo- state run by organized crime, a center a popular mandate in 1998. ways in their neighborhoods. ration from its NATO allies. The big of drugs and prostitution based on the Latinos from the Dominican Republic, Yet Washington and the Venezuelan big powers submerged their rivalry in kidnapping of women. The right-wing Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Colombia business media characterize these moves order to smash independent KLA gangs have driven out Serbs, Jews crowded into the standing-room-only towards genuine workers’ and peasants’ Yugoslavia. and other minority people who lived event. The Venezuela Solidarity Committee democracy as a violent denial of freedom. Western politicians and the ruling there. of New York called the meeting to help dis- Cháves responded that it was the wealthy class media got public support for the Whatever Yugoslav industry is pel propaganda against Venezuela, build bosses who tried to shut down the war through an intensive campaign of potentially profitable, especially in support in New York for the struggle there, Venezuelan economy through a national demonization of the Yugoslav leader Serbia, has been sold at dirt-cheap and demand that the U.S. not violate that “lockout” that resulted in sick people dying Slobodan Milosevic, just as they do prices to Western imperialism. The country’s sovereignty. because ambulances had no gasoline. If that Saddam Hussein today. But the assault rest has been closed, creating 30-50 As revolutionary efforts in Venezuela isn’t terrorism, he asked, what is? He added on Yugoslavia had as little to do with percent unemployment and reducing have deepened, Washington has backed the that the big-business media has openly Milosevic as the war on Iraq today has two-thirds of people in Serbia to offi- Venezuelan elite in efforts to destabilize the called for the assassination of the elected to do with Hussein—except that nei- cial poverty. country and oust President Chávez through president. ther leader was ready to prostrate his The imperialist takeover has failed reactionary coups. A two-month-long The United States has shown no respect country and submit to the interests of even to bring order. The recent assas- attempt to sabotage the country’s economy for Venezuela’s right to self-determination. Western imperialism. sination of NATO-stooge Zoran collapsed in early February. Referring to CIA-directed coups in Chile The goal of the 78 days of brutal Djindjic, Serbia’s prime minister, The March 16 meeting was electric. The and Colombia that resulted in murders of bombing—preceded by 10 years of sub- brought that failure home. audience sang along to revolutionary songs their popularly elected leaders, Cháves version, the fomenting of civil war and Anyone studying developments in and cheered political poetry. They greeted emphasized to the U.S. movement, “This is economic sanctions—was to remove the region following the U.S.-NATO militant statements with standing ovations your chance to support Venezuela now and the one remaining independent coun- takeover of Yugoslavia might get a hint and chanted, “[Hugo] Chávez isn’t leaving; not look back, like perhaps you may have try in Eastern Europe that had kept as to why the Iraqis are fighting so hard Chávez isn’t going. We’re with Venezuela!” when Allende or Gaitan were assassinated.” some of the gains of its socialist revo- to prevent the U.S.-British imperialist Speaking in Spanish, Rodrigo Cháves He concluded that Venezuela is fighting lution. Its people, resources, industry gang from seizing their country. said forcefully that his government does not the same conditions that the people of and strategic location were to be taken support U.S. military aggression against Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and over to serve imperialist interests. Iraq, which he characterized as military and all of Latin America have to endure. economic imperialist domination. Teresa Gutierrez, co-director of the He described how his government has International Action Center, wrapped up organized a committee that, in conjunction the meeting, stressing the vital importance with the Iraqi, Palestinian and Libyan of support for the struggling people in Latin embassies, travels across his country edu- America who have demonstrated their sol- cating the population about what is really idarity with so many struggles around the going on in the Middle East. world. Media monopoly

Continued from page 5 Mass media giant NBC is owned by network is the country’s largest owner of General Electric, a charter member of the radio stations—more than 1,200 in 50 military-industrial complex and a mega- states and the District of Columbia. In an war profiteer. article entitled “Radio’s Big Bully,” Viacom, the fourth-largest entertain- Salon.com says Clear Channel is as big as ment kingdom, owns CBS. Another of its NBC or Gannett. Claiming 100 million lis- crown jewels is Blockbuster Entertainment. WW PHOTO: JOHN CATALINOTTO teners, Clear Channel garnered about 20 ABC? That’s Disney, the company percent of the radio industry’s $16 billion founded by Walt Disney, a reported Nazi in 2001 revenues. sympathizer during World War II. It pro- SUBSCRIBE A bill currently in the Senate threatens to duced the mega-movie “Pearl Harbor,” freeze further deregulation in the radio which was filmed aboard Navy vessels with industry and limit each corporation’s audi- the Pentagon’s blessing. It has been TO WORKERS WORLD ence share and percent of advertising dol- charged with racist stereotypes of Arab and SPECIAL TRIAL SUBSCRIPTION lars. The administration is against it. other nationally oppressed peoples, and According to Jane Kirtley, professor of squeezes sweatshop profits out of laborers $2 FOR EIGHT WEEKS (NEW SUBSCRIPTION) media ethics and law at the University of in Haiti. $25 for one year Minnesota, the radio and music industry MSNBC is a joint venture of blue-chip goliath’s support of the Bush war drive in corporate giants Microsoft and General Name ______Iraq makes it “hard to escape the concern Electric. CNN is an acquisition of that this may in part be motivated by issues AOL/Time Warner. The bellicose Fox Phone number ______that Clear Channel has before the FCC and News Channel is owned by media mogul Congress.” (Chicago Tribune, March 19) and billionaire Rupert Murdoch. Address ______All told, this is the same moneyed class From the people who of banking and corporate magnates that City/State/Zip ______brought you the war has a stake in expanding a U.S. imperial Workers World Newspaper Who are the monarchs behind the empire in the Middle East and around the 55 West 17 St. NY, NY 10011 (212) 627-2994 monopoly media realm? world. www.workers.org April 3, 2003 Page 11

Pakistan Syria Japan Germany The sun never sets Wave of protests sweeps world By John Catalinotto American Center, where they battled with reported totaled 500,000 in a country of start of the war. police. Even in mountainous Nepal there 10 million. On March 24 “school kids” In Madrid, Spain, hundreds of thou- A wave of anti-war protests has been are protests. But the largest action on the turned an annual National Day parade sands came out on three consecutive days, circling the globe since Washington subcontinent was in Lahore, Pakistan, into an anti-war march. first high-school and university students, launched its missiles at Baghdad. The where 200,000 on March 23 vowed to Italy remains continuously mobilized. A then trade unions took the lead, and on movement that showed its strength Feb. defend Iraq against the U.S. attack. million protest in dozens of cities. March 22 all the organizations together. 15 has grown broader and deeper. Furious Pakistan’s regime, a U.S. ally, quickly dis- Workers walk out. Peace flags fly from 2 Police fired rubber bullets. Barcelona and at U.S. crimes, it is resisting Washington’s tanced itself from Washington’s war pol- million balconies. Italian Premier Silvio other cities joined the action. In Lisbon, drive for empire. icy. Berlusconi, despite his general sub- Portugal, 90,000 came out. The protests began as a new day In Sana’a, Yemen, a march by 200,000 servience to Bush, promises that no Italian In Belgium on March 24 the Caterpillar dawned in Australia, Japan and Korea. on the U.S. Embassy was met with live soldiers will fight. workers laid down their tools for 24 hours They then moved with the sun across ammunition. Four were killed, including In Germany on March 20 “there were to protest the war. Indonesia and South Asia. In the Middle a 12-year-old. In Cairo, 20,000, mostly 50,000 up to 70,000 pupils in Berlin in Across the Atlantic, 10,000 march on East they challenged the existence of university students, defied the Mubarak the streets. Joined by 50,000 adults later. the U.S. Embassy in Sao Paolo. People in unstable regimes. regime to protest and call for action to help Another 15,000 in Stuttgart.” And, “this Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Costa They reached deeply into Africa and Iraq. In Damascus, Syria, on March 25, a morning we blockaded the U.S. Army Rica and Puerto Rico protest war and from East Europe and the Balkans across day after five Syrians returning from Iraq Headquarters in Heidelberg.” On March Yankee rule. A quarter million in New York the NATO countries. They crossed the were killed in a bus rocketed by U.S. 20, some 300,000 people demonstrated and Montreal take the streets, 40,000 in Atlantic to Brazil and Argentina, the Andes planes, hundreds of thousands protested. all over France, and again on March 22. Toronto, 20,000 in Vancouver and 75,000 countries and Central and North America, A move is on to surround U.S. embas- in San Francisco, where 1,500 are arrested from New York and Montreal to San Fran- Protests in Africa sies and consulates everywhere. In Greece during the five days. cisco and Vancouver, past Chicago and An email from South Africa’s Anti-War the embassy closed for at least two days. Washington’s potent military assault on Mexico City, ending in Hawaii and starting Coalition: “Across the Cape Metropole, In Switzerland, 30,000 marched in Baghdad is already a smashing political up again at the International Date Line. about 8,000 school pupils took to the Berne on March 20, and 100,000 in 30 defeat for U.S. imperialism. Teenagers In the 19th century British imperialism streets in Gugulethu, Langa, Athlone, cities on March 22. The same day in worldwide, who a year ago craved U.S. boasted that the sun never set on its empire. Maitland, Salt River. Among them were Amsterdam, Netherlands, about 100,000 jeans and t-shirts, who lined up for Since March 20 the sun hasn’t set on anti- increasing numbers of workers, COSATU people came out, more than on Feb. 15. In Hollywood movies and watched U.S. sit- war protests against U.S. imperialism. members. This marks a historic phase in Finland on March 22, “We had biggest coms, are shouting “Bush, murderer!” in Gathered here are excerpts from news the anti-war movement as it is the first antiwar-demonstration in 30 years. In 90 languages, trashing McDonald’s and reports and email messages from organiz- time that the youth have taken center Helsinki over 40,000 demonstrated burning U.S. flags. ers. New developments include massive stage in the post-apartheid struggles and against war. In Turku there were about participation and initiative of high-school on a directly political issue at that.” 17,000 people.” students, longer political strikes by orga- Protests took place also in Zimbabwe On March 22, “Britain witnessed the nized labor and large, angry turnouts in and Kenya, and on March 24, some 40,000 biggest wartime demo in its history as the Muslim world. took the streets in Nouakchott, Mauritania. 700,000 people marched through London “In Japan our demonstrations are not In Turkey on March 23, police blocked on an anti-war demo that had been called so large as in Europe,” an organizer writes. 1,000 people who tried to march to the only five days before,” wrote Chris But pictures show protesters outside one U.S. Embassy in Istanbul. In Izmir in the Nineham of the Stop the War Coalition. of the many U.S. military bases. The U.S. west of Turkey, protesters shouted, “We An even larger march had preceded the Nepal troops see the protests, too. will not be soldiers for the USA!” and In the Philippines demonstrators “Iraqi people are not alone.” burned a U.S. flag. They want the Penta- From the Greek movement: “The strike gon out of Iraq—and to stay out of the action on March 20 was unprecedented. Hockey fans boo Philippines, where the U.S. military was The center of Athens was paralyzed by a based for decades. Continued militant demo even bigger than on Feb. 15, more protests in South Korea caused the parlia- than 250,000. Thousands of young school war flag ment on March 25 to shelve a vote on kids, students took part and marched for sending troops to Iraq. more than five hours. Big demos in more By Josina Dunkel the fact that the Montreal team apologized Activist Max Watts calls from Sydney, than 30 cities,” which papers later were all highlighted. However, some Australia. “The Hockey, a sport of body checks and Russian-born players on the Islanders demonstration was sanctioned punches, is now a venue for team reportedly did not see anything not as large protest. During the last Canadians- wrong with the booing. Saturday [March 22] Islanders game in Montreal, fans booed A year ago, U.S. pilots bombed a group as Thursday,” he the “Star Spangled Banner” when it was of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, says, jokingly. “We played before the game. This was not an killing four. The pilots had taken amphet- left the dog home.” act of team rivalry but rather showed amines to stay awake—standard Air Force Tens of thousands Canadian anger against the war in Iraq. policy. Canadians were angered by have come out each In opinion polls, popular protests and President George W. Bush’s slowness to day, and Premier even government actions, Canadians apologize for the accident. John Howard ducks have shown themselves to be over- In Canada, hockey is political—it is the eggs and shouts whelmingly anti-war. national sport and a powerful symbol of wherever he goes. Quebec has distinguished itself as the Canada. Canadians were particularly In Calcutta, anti- most anti-war province. In its largest city, proud that both their men’s and women’s war demonstrators Montreal, over 200,000 people marched Olympic teams beat their U.S. rivals. But of the Socialist Unity against the war and got barely a mention it is unusual for Canadians to show their Center on March 20 in the U.S. media. But the simple action objections to U.S. foreign policy during a converged on the of a large portion of the 20,000 hockey hockey game. It is simply one measure of fans caught the eye of the American news the level of disgust Canadians feel about media. This apparent act of disrespect, the this unjust war and the way the U.S. gov- South Korea hurt feelings of the Islanders’ goalie, and ernment treats them. El mundo dice no a la guerra de conquista

Workers World/Partido Mundo Obrero profundiza la crisis. publicó la siguiente declaración sobre La perspectiva de Bush, la perspectiva el ataque de los Estados Unidos contre promovida por los derechistas que domi- Irak el 19 de marzo. nan el gobierno y los medios de comuni- cación, es la de un futuro terrorífico donde Debe ya estar muy claro para todos EE.UU. está armado hasta los dientes, no que el gobierno de los Estados Unidos ha importa el costo y estará listo para atacar estado pidiendo el desarme de Irak— en cualquier momento cuando algunos de algo que básicamente ya se logró con la los mil millones de personas alrededor del primera Guerra del Golfo—para que su mundo que sufren condiciones insoporta- propia fuerza militar, la más destructiva bles puedan tomar represalias contra el del mundo, pueda agredir y conquistar a país que ha construido este horrible una nación virtualmente indefensa, la “nuevo orden mundial”. cual es solamente una décima parte del El pueblo en los países ricos imperial- tamaño de los EEUU. istas debe saber que los bancos interna- Nunca antes se había visto un caso tan cionales y las corporaciones son los que claro de agresión como esta guerra. Aún han destruido las economías locales, WW FOTO: PAT CHIN la ONU la cual por más de 50 años se ha 22 de marzo en Nueva York. dejando a países enteros desposeídos, doblegado a intervenciones militares esta- sin la capacidad de proporcionar ni dounidenses—comenzando con Corea, para así poder mostrar algún tipo de actual administración con compañías siquiera agua potable para sus habi- siguiendo con Vietnam y una veintena de apoyo del pueblo por su guerra impopu- como la Halliburton de Dick Cheney, a la tantes, sin mencionar el cuidado de la otras guerras y operaciones armadas, lar, es necesario que el mundo dude cual ya le han sido prometido jugosos con- salud, la educación y empleos. La inter- pequeñas y grandes—no pudo aceptar totalmente de cualquier “revelación” que tratos en la reconstrucción por el vención imperialista no puede resolver esta. sea convenientemente producida. Pentágono de la industria petrolera de estos problemas, sino que los empeora. Si la ONU se ha vuelto “irrelevante”, Bush ya ha declarado que sus tropas Irak después de la guerra. ¿Y cómo lo iban Todas las promesas de que la guerra citando a Bush, es porque esta organi- son “libertadoras”, y no conquistadoras. a hacer? Eso desenmascararía su juego–el está librada para beneficiar al pueblo zación mundial, la cual incluye a gobier- Una enorme operación se está poniendo juego político que todos los senadores iraquí, o a los afganis, o a los coreanos son nos tanto de naciones dominantes como en camino para crear las imágenes nece- conocen bien, de hablar en nombre del solo mentiras contadas por aquellos que sojuzgadas, es incapaz de acusar al gob- sarias para convencer al mundo de que pueblo mientras defienden los intereses aspiran a ser los conquistadores. No hay ierno de los Estados Unidos por sus los iraquíes quieren ser invadidos. del gran capital, cuyos agentes en los que adivinar que forma va a tomar la crímenes contra la paz y por sus guerras Esta guerra no es una aberración o un corredores del Congreso les sobornan “democracia” al estilo de los EE.UU. Basta criminales que están en violación de los acto irracional de un líder. Tiene el apoyo generosamente. ver la opresión que sufren los palestinos a propios mandatos de la ONU y de todas de la clase gobernante más poderosa del La guerra en el extranjero está acom- las manos del Israel democrático, auspi- las leyes internacionales. mundo, aunque la oposición masiva haya pañada por una intensificación en la ciado por EE.UU., o la represión sangri- En su discurso del 17 de marzo cuando causado que algunos teman las conse- guerra doméstica –una guerra racista de enta de la Turquía “democrática” hacia los el Presidente George W. Bush le dio “la cuencias. Esta clase representa una con- la clase de los billonarios para aumentar curdos. Un gobierno instalado en Irak a advertencia final,” a Irak, él dijo que vergencia de la captura del poder político la explotación de los trabajadores de este punta de bayonetas estadounidenses será estaba atacando a ese país “para por los “neo-conservadores” alrededor de país. un régimen títere bien entrenado en pro- imponer las justas exigencias del Bush, de la supremacía militar de los No es una mera coincidencia que la porcionar fotos propagandísticas de esce- mundo.” Esto en sí muestra que el dis- Estados Unidos que ahora no está contes- aerolínea United Air escogió el día 17 de nas enternecedoras pero serviles a las curso entero se basaba sólo en mentiras. tada desde el colapso del bloque socialista, marzo, el día del discurso de guerra de demandas de las corporaciones petroleras Mientras que los gobiernos pueden estar y la incapacidad del Gran Capital de Bush para someter una petición formal a de los EE.UU. paralizados bajo la presión de la única remendar la creciente crisis económica la corte especial de quiebras para dis- Pero hay otra perspectiva del mundo súper potencia económica y militar, mundial, la cual está debilitando merca- olver sus contratos con sus empleados, que está ganando momento en años nunca antes los pueblos del mundo dos y enfrentando a las corporaciones incluyendo pilotos, auxiliares de vuelo y recientes y en la cual creen apasionada- habían expresado su oposición a una globalizadoras contra las clases gobernan- mecánicos. mente muchos jóvenes. Es un mundo guerra con tanto fervor, y tan masiva- tes imperialistas. Esta guerra, y las que siguen a medida donde la ciencia y la tecnología están en mente. Muchos que han creído en “el sis- que la Doctrina de dominio esta- manos del pueblo y están empleadas Las corporaciones billonarias de tema” están sorprendidos por los even- dounidense de Bush se va poniendo en para lograr alfabetización, buena salud, medios de comunicación repiten las men- tos que revelan la total desconexión acción alrededor del mundo, va a costar nutrición apropiada, una infraestructura tiras de Bush como si fueran verdad. Y entre el establecimiento político y la vol- trillones de dólares pagados por los tra- moderna basada en el desarrollo continuarán haciendo lo mismo. Ya está untad del pueblo. El Congreso no ha bajadores de este país, en adición a las sostenible, y un ambiente sano para los claro que hay equipos especiales de los respondido de ninguna forma a sus peti- vidas perdidas de un número incierto de mil millones de habitantes del planeta. Estados Unidos que han sido organizados ciones fervientes, sino que ha dado al soldados jóvenes. ¿Quién más va a pagar La seguridad y el bienestar de ese para producir una justificación para esta presidente la autoridad constitucional por los portaaviones, escuadras de aviones mundo no requieren miles de armas guerra de agresión “encontrando” armas de declarar una guerra. de guerra, y el despliegue de cientos de nucleares, arsenales de armas químicas, iraquíes de destrucción masiva. Lo que la Mientras que los eventos siguen inex- miles de efectivos con armas de alta tec- biológicas ni “convencionales” pero ONU un pudo encontrar en muchos años orablemente hacia delante, no hay nología de todas clases? ¿Acaso los ejecu- mortíferas como las poseídas por el Pentá- de inspecciones, es seguro que los Estados ningún debate en el Congreso ni se ha tivos de Enron y Exxon/Mobil? No, ellos gono, o de guerras constantes de agresión. Unidos van a “encontrar” de una manera exigido por los líderes de la “oposición”. estarán intentando extraer todo lo que Ese mundo se puede construir basado en u otra. Un ejemplo son los documentos El Líder de la Minoría del Senado, Tom puedan de los sueldos, las pensiones y los la solidaridad y las luchas del pueblo tra- que fueron presentados por los Estados Daschle, un Demócrata que se está seguros de salud, mientras permiten que bajador y de todos los que han sido oprim- Unidos y Gran Bretaña, mostrando que preparando para las elecciones del los servicios sociales desaparezcan y idos por el sistema capitalista. Irak trató de obtener uranio, pero su 2004, está tratando de suavizar ante el recortan los impuestos a los ricos. En este momento, la guerra contra Irak falsedad fue expuesta ante la ONU. Pero público su apoyo a la guerra criticando Ocurriendo sobre de un declive eco- trasciende todas las demás cuestiones. exponer los nuevos pretextos es más difí- tímidamente la administración de Bush, nómico espantoso, la guerra está Mientras que esta clase dominante trae cil ahora opacado por esta “nube de diciendo que no hizo un buen trabajo en acelerando la ofensiva patronal en contra la guerra con más furia, puede esperar guerra”, cuando se ha invadido territorios obtener el apoyo internacional—para de los sindicatos, muchos de los cuales que toda lucha doméstica se vuelva una y aquellos que pueden contrarrestar los una guerra brutal, criminal, e ilegal con- están actualmente resistiendo y rec- lucha antibélica. La maquinaria de argumentos de los Estados Unidos tra una nación ya debilitada por 12 años hazando la guerra y la represión domés- guerra puede y debe ser derrotada por un podrían perecer en cualquier momento. de sanciones. tica que la acompaña. poderoso movimiento para hacer Sabiendo que Washington está ejer- Nadie en el liderato de los dos partidos regresar las tropas. ¡Presupuesto para ciendo presión intensa sobre los medios políticos del establecimiento se atreve a Dos perspectivas mundiales trabajos, educación y cuidado de salud, de comunicación para que repitan sus mencionar el inconveniente tema del Dos perspectivas muy diferentes del no para incesantes guerras imperialistas acusaciones sin someterlas a crítica, petróleo y la relación incestuosa de la mundo están emergiendo mientras se de conquista!