Dec. 18, 2003 Vol. 45, No. 50 50¢ Las Filipinas Sistema de Salud 12 This is anti-terrorism? Pentagon slaughters 15 Afghan children By Heather Cottin The massacre followed “stringent rules of engagement,” according to Maj. Christopher West, U.S. military spokesperson. Dean, Gore, U.S. occupation forces in Afghanistan and Iraq are creating a West proudly claimed that the attack “was precisely targeted— nightmare for the population there as they step up military it hit one house without damaging others in the area.” Clinton and repression in the face of growing resistance. Villagers said the man the U.S. was hunting, Mullah Wazir, On Dec. 5, a Pentagon air and ground assault killed six chil- was not in the village. But a U.S. spokesperson claimed that the war dren and two adults after a wall fell on them on a farm compound Abdul Muhammed Wahid, who had been killed, was the man EDITORIAL 10 in eastern Paktia Province in Afghanistan. U.S. military officials they sought. (BBC, Dec. 7) admitted the deaths on Dec. 10. Wahid had recently returned to Afghanistan from Iran to get Another nine children were playing quietly on Dec. 6 near a married. His mother, who also lost two granddaughters, Bibi small house in Hutala, a tiny village in southern Afghanistan. Toara and Bibi Tamama, in the raid, identified his body. Two girls were fetching water from a stream. The boys were play- Two brothers who had lost three children stood near little ing marbles. The girls’ uncle stood nearby. Suddenly the roar of embroidered hats and bloodied galoshes. One said: “Look at The seller a huge armored plane shattered the silence of the country morn- their little shoes and hats. Are they terrorists?” (New York Times, ing. Dec. 8) & the sold The U.S. A-10 Warthog launched 30 to 40 rockets into the vil- Washington justified the attack because Wazir was allegedly By Mumia Abu-Jamal lage, murdering nine children along with the man, who had involved in recent attacks on foreign workers constructing a raced toward the creek to protect his nieces. Continued on page 10 Conference on Reviving Struggle for Socialism Subscribe Labor and socialism to Workers 4 World Supporting supermarket strike Trial: $2 for 8 weeks. 4 One year: $25 NAME The pernicious capitalist state 5 PHONE NUMBER ADDRESS Internationalism 6-7 CITY/STATE/ZIP WORKERS WORLD NEWSPAPER 55 W.17 St.NY, NY 10011 (212) 627-2994 A red May Day www.workers.org in your future 8 The Soviet Union 9 Latin America rising 11 WW PHOTOS: DEIRDRE GRISWOLD,G. DUNKEL & JOHN CATALINOTTO Page 2 Dec. 18, 2003 www.workers.org Mumia Abu-Jamal from death row: They saw themselves as others had seen them. The seller They had been formed by the images made of them by National those who had the deepest necessity to despise them. Mumia on the seller and the sold . 2 —JAMES BALDWIN, “Notes of a Native Son” The great Boeing plane robbery . 3 California immigrants fight to regain driving rights . 3 & the sold ometimes, an honest examination of the institutions of a What’s ahead for U.S. working class? . 4 society tells us deep truths about the nature of that Ssociety. Such an examination reveals raw, uncomfortable Anti-war group joins labor struggle . 4 and hidden truths about what the unwritten rules are, and The pernicious role of the capitalist state . 5 why. Hundreds gather for meeting on socialist struggle . 6 When we examine the way that public schools have Laying the basis for a red May Day . 8 responded to the challenge of educating African-American children, we must conclude that the education of millions of such children is not the real priority of this society. Millions of International such children emerge from public schools with little notion of Pentagon slaughters Afghan children. 1 their place in the world, or how to move through the society Iraq war awakens international solidarity . 7 with sanity, with life-affirming rewards and some semblance of peace. The Soviet Union and the struggle for socialism. 9 They leave, far too often, early and ungraduated. Others Bolivar, Marx and the liberation of Latin America . 11 may graduate, but their achievements are slighted because Protest Gen. Clark at The Hague tribunal. 11 of the light and undemanding nature of the studies. Whether one has graduated or not is not the mark of whether one is educated or not. Far too often, young Blacks are taught, if Editorials anything, how to get a menial job; how to work for others; Dean, Gore, Clinton and the war . 10 how to “sell” some meager skill. Meanwhile, in schools where the well-to-do live, the young Noticias En Español are taught critical thinking; how to ask the right questions. Indeed, to question! They are taught not how to sell them- Sistema de Salud Comunitario. 12 selves, but how to produce things to be bought by others, to secure and amass wealth. What the American school system is, is a class-bound struc- ture that reproduces itself in the next generation. WW CALENDAR One generation is being trained to follow; the other gener- ation is being taught how to lead. In such a system, how can LOS ANGELES. PHILADELPHIA. we wonder why things are unchanged, from generation to Every Friday Sat., Dec. 13 generation? Workers World Party weekly 22 years is enough! Free STAND As the late educator Murray Levin suggested in one of his meetings at 7:30 p.m. Dinner Mumia Abu-Jamal!!! Rally at 7. At 422 S. Western. 10 a.m. at 7th & Fairmount last books on the dearth of instruction in Black and Latino Phone (213) 500-0529 for Sts.; march 11 a.m. to with schools in Roxbury, “Oppression is the lesson.” info. Benjamin Franklin High School, Broad and Green Sts., MUMIA Why shouldn’t children, in a nation that claims to love lib- NEW YORK. erty, be taught freedom? Mumia's high school. Indoor conference and rally at 1 p.m. on December13 Instead, they are conditioned to obey, to follow orders, to Every Friday Workers World Party weekly SAN FRANCISCO. not rock the boat, to be ... passive. meeting. 7 p.m. (Dinner at The evidence WILL be heard! True education awakens, it does not darken the windows of 6:30) 55 W. 17th St., 5th fl., Every Sunday Rally, March & Conference perception. True education enlivens, it does not dull the Manhattan. For info (212) Workers World Party weekly spirit. 627-2994. meetings. These educational This is what the elders of every civilization on Earth have meetings cover current events as well as struggles of peo- RALLY AT 10:00 a.m. struggled to do. They tried to build young people who could ples from all over the world. 5 at 7th & Fairmount Streets, take on the tasks of defending, building and expanding the p.m. At 2489 Mission St, community. room 28. For info (415) 826- at the Friends Neighborhood Guild. This is the In this new century, there are too many youngsters who are 4828. neighborhood where Mumia grew up seen as expendable. They are presumed to be ignorant. They MARCH AT 11:00 a.m. are left to rot on the vine of life, untaught and unproductive. In a truly humanistic society, no person is seen as expend- to Benjamin Franklin High School, Broad and Workers World able. Green Streets. This was Abu-Jamal's high school, In a society said to be based on “rugged individualism,” 55 West 17 Street where he was given his name by his teacher each individual is valued, and given the materials necessary New York, N.Y. 10011 Timone Ombina and waged a struggle to have the to make a valuable contribution to the whole. Phone: (212) 627-2994 school's named changed to Malcolm X High School That isn’t happening now, and it is truly a scandal. Fax: (212) 675-7869 At 1:00 p.m. there will be an Young people should be given, “as a social duty,” the E-mail: [email protected] wherewithal to grow in knowledge and understanding of the indoor conference and rally at the high Web: www.workers.org world in which we live. They are to be accorded a history Vol. 45, No. 50 • Dec. 18, 2003 school. The audience will hear the evidence that that reflects their place in the world that is, and the world to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court refused to admit Closing date: Dec. 10, 2003 come. when it recently rejected the motions of Abu- To fail to do so is to commit a kind of social suicide. It is Jamal’s defense attorneys. cruel. It is stupid. It is wrong. Editor: Deirdre Griswold; There will be legal presentations by attorneys If public schools are not functioning in this country, then it Technical Editor: Lal Roohk; Sam Jordan and Michael Coard, and reports from is incumbent upon this country to provide the materials nec- Managing Editors: John Catalinotto, Leslie Feinberg, witnesses in the case, including Terri Maurer- essary to transform the problematic present into a system of Monica Moorehead, Gary Wilson; Carter and Veronica Jones. There will also be a promise. West Coast Editors: Richard Becker, Gloria La Riva; taped presentation from Arnold Beverly confess- Anyone who questions the conditions of urban school dis- Contributing Editors: Greg Butterfield, Pat Chin, ing to the killing of officer Daniel Faulkner—the tricts should only peruse a copy of Jonathan Kozol’s “Savage Fred Goldstein, Teresa Gutierrez; crime for which Abu-Jamal was convicted.