Sept. 4, 2003 Vol. 45, No. 35

Subscribeto WorkersWorldTrial: $2 for 8 weeks.

One year: $25

N A M E

P H O N E N U M B E R

A D D R E S S

C I T Y / S T A T E / Z I P

WORKERS WORLD NEWSPAPER

55 W.17 St.NY, NY 10011 (212) 627-2994

www.workers.org

wanted their children back with them, and for war resisters.The same week protesters hit the streets of Chicago and of

Richmond, Va., to protest war and occupation; they confrontedAttorney General John Ashcroft in Detroit to oppose the“Patriot Act”; and they marched outside Defense SecretaryDonald Rumsfeld’s home in Taos, N.M, as the unpopular war-maker was meeting with equally unpopular Vice President DickCheney.

The media took notice of the new developments. On Aug.22, Financial Times reporter James Harding used the Chicagodemonstration as an example of “a new season of anti-warprotest with a fresh message: ‘Bring the troops home now!’”

The ANSWER coalition, which led many of last year’s anti-war actions, has called for local protests against the occupa-tion of Iraq and Palestine for the Sept. 25-28 period, followedby a national march on Washington on Oct. 25. The major slo-gan for Washington: “Bring the troops home now!”

‘Bring the troops home!’

Mood grows hostileto Bush’s endless war By John Catalinotto

Another GI was killed in Baghdad on Aug. 26—the 139thsince President George W. Bush declared the war over on May1. As many news reports noted the next morning, this is morethan were killed during the U.S. invasion.

The same day Bush promised American Legionnaires in St.Louis “no retreat” from Iraq and an endless war between “civ-ilization and chaos.” He claimed to represent civilization.

The next morning two more GIs died while fighting the Iraqiresistance.

Meanwhile, the U.S. people, on a collision course with Bush,were finding ways to express their dissatisfaction with the con-tinuing occupation of Iraq.

A Newsweek poll released Aug. 23 found that about 70 per-cent of the U.S. population thought the U.S. would be “boggeddown” in Iraq for years. More wanted troops out than wantedthem kept in. And for the first time, more people wanted Bushreplaced in 2004 than wanted him to stay.

Articles in this issue of Workers World show that pollsweren’t the only area where people showed their opposition tothe occupation.

At the commemorative civil rights rally held in Washingtonon Aug. 23, anti-war statements drew the most enthusiasticapplause and cheers.

A packed meeting at a Black church in Brooklyn, N.Y., onAug. 19 showed strong support for parents of GIs in Iraq who

PHOTO: PAT CHIN

Relatives of GIs in Iraq and war resisters join Black political activists, unionists and anti-war forces at House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Black church hosts anti-war rally 7

ESTADO UNIDOSMas allá del fracasoenergético 12

PALESTINEHow Sharon disguisesprovocation 11

IMMIGRANTS TO PROTESTOct. 4 march set forQueens, N.Y. 5

CALIFORNIARECALLWhat it means for workers

4

THE WORLDAROUND US

Cleveland's banks & power outage 3

Bush covered up9/11 hazards 3

Bill gates,Blaster & other worms

EDITORIAL 10

OCCUPIED IRAQ

Blast at UN headquarters 9

Six weeks in Baghdad 8

Page 2 Sept. 4, 2003 www.workers.org

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

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

Atlanta P.O. Box 424, Atlanta, Ga. 30301 (404) 235-5704

Baltimore 426 E. 31 St., Baltimore, Md. 21218 (410) 235-7040baltimore@workers.org

Boston 31 Germania St.,Boston, Mass. 02130 (Enter at 284 Amory St.) (617) 983-3835; Fax (617) 983-3836boston@workers.org

Buffalo, N.Y. P.O. Box 1204Buffalo NY 14213 (716) 857-2112buffalo@workers.org

Chicago P.O. Box 06178,Wacker Drive Station,Chicago, Ill. 60606 (773) 381-5839; Fax (773) 761-9330;chicago@workers.org

ClevelandP.O. Box 5963Cleveland, OH 44101phone (216) 531-4004cleveland@workers.org

Detroit5920 Second Ave., Detroit, Mich. 48202 (313) 831-0750; detroit@workers.org

HoustonP.O. Box 130322, Houston, Texas 77219 (713) 861-5965houston@workers.org

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

San Francisco2489 Mission St. Rm. 28, San Francisco, Calif. 94110 (415) 826-4828; fax (415) 821-5782; sf@workers.orgSeattle1218 E. Cherry #201, Seattle, Wash. 98122 (206) 325-0085;seattle@workers.orgState College, Pa.100 Grandview Rd.,State College, Pa. 16801 (814) 237-8695Washington, D.C.P.O. Box 57300, Washington, DC 20037,(202) 347-9300dc@workers.org

WW CALENDAR

National

Mood grows hostile to Bush’s endless war . . . . . . . . . 1

Safiya Bukhari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Alert on Mumia’s health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

The power outage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Bush lied about 9/11 pollutants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

A look behind California’s recall vote . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Tulia, Texas, frame-up victims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Protest for immigrants’ rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Detroit marchers protest Ashcroft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Black community rally to “bring the troops home” . . . 6

Richmond, Va., against war, occupation . . . . . . . . . . . 6

DC rights march . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chicago anti-war protest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Internat ional

Baghdad doctor’s testimony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

How U.S. made UN a target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Venezuela mass outpouring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Palestine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Editor ia ls

Microsoft worms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Notic ias En Español

La codicia capitalista cortocircuita la red eléctrica . . . 12

Workers World55 West 17 StreetNew York, N.Y. 10011Phone: (212) 627-2994 • Fax: (212) 675-7869E-mail: editor@workers.org Web: www.workers.orgVol. 45, No. 35 • Sept. 4, 2003Closing date: Aug. 27, 2003

Editor: Deirdre Griswold; Technical Editor: Lal Roohk; Managing Editors: Greg Butterfield, John Catalinotto, Leslie Feinberg,Monica Moorehead, Gary Wilson; West Coast Editors: Richard Becker, Gloria La Riva;Contributing Editors: Joyce Chediac, Pat Chin, Naomi Cohen, ShelleyEttinger, Teresa Gutierrez;Technical Staff: John Beacham, Rebecca Finkel, Adrian Garcia, Elena J.Peckham, Hank Sambach; Mundo Obrero: Carl Glenn, Carlos Vargas; Internet: Janet Mayes

Workers World-WW (ISSN-1070-4205) is published weekly except thefirst week of January by WW Publishers, 55 W. 17 St., N.Y., N.Y. 10011.Phone: (212) 627-2994. Subscriptions: One year: $25; foreign and insti-tutions: $35. Letters to the editor may be condensed and edited.Articles can be freely reprinted, with credit to Workers World, 55 W. 17St., New York, NY 10011. Back issues and individual articles are avail-able on microfilm and/or photocopy from University MicrofilmsInternational, 300 Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106. A searchablearchive is available on the Web at www.workers.org.

Selected articles are available via e-mail subscription. Send an e-mailmessage to wwnews-on@wwpublish.com.

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

LOS ANGELES. .

Fri., Sept. 5Forum on the Cuban Five.6:30 p.m. At CARECEN 2845W. 7th St. For info (213)487-2368.

Sun., Sept. 28No to colonialism in Iraq,Palestine, and everywhere.Gather at noon Hollywood &Vine. March to Hollywoodand Highland for 2 p.m. rally.

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

NEW YORK. .

Every FridayWorkers World Party weeklymeetings at 7 p.m. Phone(212) 627-2994 for topicsand location.

SAN FRANCISCO. .

Sun., Sept. 28No to colonialism in Iraq,Palestine, and everywhere.At Dolores Park at noon,march to Civic Center for 2p.m.

Every SundayWorkers World Party weeklymeetings. These educationalmeetings cover currentevents as well as struggles ofpeoples from all over theworld. 5 p.m. At 2489Mission St, room 28. For info(415) 826-4828.

SAN DIEGO. .

Sat., Sept. 27No to colonialism in Iraq,Palestine, and everywhere.Gather at noon on theUniversity Avenue bridgeover I-15 in City Heights.March at 1 p.m.

Black liberation fighterSafiya Bukhari, Presente!

In the early hours of Aug. 24, the pro-gressive movement lost an invaluableleader. Safiya Bukhari, known interna-tionally for her tireless work to free polit-ical prisoners in the United States, diedfrom complications of prolonged illness.She was 53 years old.

Born in 1950 in Harlem, N.Y., Safiyamoved to South Carolina before she was1. She attributed her love for her peopleto her upbringing in the Black South.

In 1969, Safiya, a college student, joined the BlackPanther Party after witnessing a vicious police beatingof a Panther brother in Times Square. She had tried tostop the attack and was ultimately arrested. It was injail that Safiya decided to leave college and dedicate herlife to the struggle against racism.

As a New York City BPP organizer, Safiya became thesection leader for 125th to 116th Streets from SeventhAvenue to First Avenue. She taught political educationclasses, coordinated community breakfast programsand focused on the needs of women in the community.

With CONTELPRO raids and arrest on BlackPanthers, Safiya soon joined the Black Liberation Army.To avoid testifying against her comrades, she wentunderground for over two years. In 1975, Safiya wascaptured. She spent nine years in prison, with close to ayear of that term done in solidarity confinement.

From behind the walls of prison, Safiya foundedMothers Inside Loving Kids, an advocacy rights groupfor mothers sentenced to long terms to retain custodyand visitation of their children. It was also in jail thatshe begun her regular correspondence with MumiaAbu-Jamal.

After she was released on Aug. 22, 1983,Safiya used her training as a “jailhouse”lawyer to fight for the freedom of her com-rades still behind prison walls. She wroteprolifically about individual cases, designedand made political prisoner T-shirts, buttons,bumper stickers and mouse pads, wrote factsheets on each individual case. For years tocome, Safiya provided critical support to hercomrades, from driving their family members

for visits to making sure medical needs were met.In 1992 she co-founded the New York Free Mumia

Abu-Jamal Coalition, which she co-chaired until herdeath. She also served as vice president of the Republicof New Afrika and was a longtime producer at thePacific station WBAI.

In 1998, Safiya became the co-chair of the JerichoMovement to Free U.S. Political Prisoners andPrisoners of War. She traveled internationally to speakout against the racist U.S. prison industrial complex.

Despite serious health conditions, since 2000 Safiyahad been a leading force in organizing continued soli-darity for the New York Three, who were framed fromkilling New York City police in 1975.

Safiya Bukhari, revolutionary, mother, grandmother,singer, writer, comrade, sister and friend: Presente!

—Imani Henry

Some of the information in this report comes fromstatements from International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal and WBAI ProducerSally O’Brien. Also, Henry wrote a series of six articlesinterviewing Safiya Bukhari published in WorkersWorld the summer of 2002; the first url is www.workers.org/ww/2002/safiya0704.php

A L E R T on Mumia's health

Supporters of imprisoned Black revolutionary andjournalist Mumia Abu-Jamal are very concernedabout his health. They report that he is suffering fromswollen feet that could be the result of blood clots, apotentially serious condition. He wants to be able totake herbal medicines and be examined by a doctorfrom outside, since he has no confidence in the prisondoctor.

Abu-Jamal is still on death row in Pennsylvaniaafter 21 years, even though a judge’s ruling struckdown his death sentence last year. His eloquent advo-cacy for the poor and oppressed has made him a tar-get of the repressive state establishment.

The Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal is asking that people not only contact SCIGreene Prison at (724) 852-2902 about Mumia’s con-dition, but also urge elected officials supportive ofMumia to put pressure on the prison and demandthat Mumia’s minimum requests be met.

These officials are:State Sen. Vincent Hughes at

hughes@dem.pasen.gov.

Rep. Harold James at (215) 462-3308 or www.hallwatch.org/profiles/pahouse/hjames/faxbank/writeletter

Congressmember Chaka Fattah. Go towww.house.gov/htbin/wrep_findrep and type in4601 Market, Philadelphia, PA 19143-4616 to get toemail form.

In a late development, the group on Aug. 26 asksMumia’s supporters to engage in a creative “directaction” and send cloves or whole heads of fresh garlicto Mumia in prison, care of SCI Greene’sSuperintendent, including a note stating all of theabove demands. People can mention that at SCIGraterford, fresh garlic is available to prisonersthrough commissary.

Please enclose your garlic in a sturdy envelope witha note instructing the Superintendent to provide gar-lic to Mumia and mail it using the following address:

Mumia Abu-Jamal, c/o Superintendent Folino, SCIGreene, 169 Progress Drive Waynesburg, PA 15370

—Deirdre Griswold

The unholy alliance among banks, utilities and both capitalist partiesthreatens more dangerous collapses of

the system in the future.

www.workers.org Sept. 4, 2003 Page 3

Cleveland's banks, FirstEnergy and the power outageBy Deirdre Griswold

The vast Aug. 14 power outage thatforced over 50 million people in theUnited States and Canada to turn to19th-century technology is nowbelieved to have started in Ohio, in thedomain of the FirstEnergy Corp.

FirstEnergy didn’t cause the rollingblackout that brought down 13 statesand the province of Ontario. Thepower failure spread because thehigh-voltage transmission lines thatnow carry electricity hundreds ofmiles from seller to buyer were not builtto handle such a task. And the energy com-panies—mostly controlled by big bankslike Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs andCitigroup—have not wanted to invest inupgrading the grid.

The Ohio company may not be thatmuch different from all the others. Butsince the problem seems to have origi-nated in its system, FirstEnergy is gettingmedia attention. And some interestingfacts have come out about the company.

FirstEnergy was formed through amerger of utility companies that ownednuclear power plants. These companies,instead of saving consumers money withwhat they had promised would be an inex-haustible source of cheap energy, hadinstead incurred huge debt. Operating thenuclear power plants has proven to beenormously expensive.

One of FirstEnergy’s facilities is theDavis-Besse nuclear power plant at PortClinton, Ohio. In March of 2002, workersaccidentally found that leaking boric acidhad eaten a football-sized hole, six inchesdeep, in the head of the nuclear reactor.Only a thin stainless steel lining, two-tenths of an inch thick, was containing thenuclear reaction, and it had begun to crackand bulge.

“[T]hat’s not a lot of wiggle roombetween containment and KingdomCome,” wrote William M. Adler in theAustin Chronicle.

Davis-Besse is currently shut down.Millions of people live in the reactor’sshadow. Their safety and the crucialGreat Lakes water supply had been atrisk. Even though inspections had earlierfound improper maintenance and actualcover-up of the reactor’s degradation,federal regulators decided that the com-pany’s financial condition necessitatedthat the reactor continue to operate.

It was a classic case of collusionbetween the federal government and bigbusiness in the interests of profit.

Sam Collins was the management offi-cial from the Nuclear Regulatory Com-mission directly responsible for oversee-ing the Davis-Besse nuclear power plantwhile some $450 million in flaws wentundetected. Collins had actually stoppeda government-ordered shutdown ofDavis-Besse just three-and-a-half monthsbefore the hole in the reactor was discov-ered. Yet this July, Collins was promotedto a higher position in the NRC. (Counter-punch, Aug. 23)

Might all this have something to do withthe fact that FirstEnergy donated $640,000

to George W. Bush’s presidential electioncampaign?

FirstEnergy used to be called theCleveland Electric Illuminating Co. It wasa high-performing blue chip stock until itinvested in nuclear power.

Strangled public utility

In the 1970s, CEI was in an epic strug-gle to get Cleveland to sell its publiclyowned utility, Muny Light. Muny Lightprovided electricity to about one-third ofcity residents, at savings of 20 to 30 per-cent compared to CEI’s rates. It also savedthe city millions of dollars on street lightsand city-owned facilities.

In 1976, after CEI got all the majormedia behind it, the mayor and city coun-cil agreed to sell Muny Light, which wouldgive CEI a monopoly on electric power.Dennis Kucinich, the maverick Democratnow running for president on a populistplatform, was an elected clerk of theMunicipal Court at the time. He cam-paigned for mayor on the promise hewould not sell Muny Light. Kucinich waselected and canceled the sale.

Two years later, according to Kucinich:“The Muny Light issue came to a head onDec. 15, 1978, when Ohio’s largest bank,

Cleveland Trust, the 33rd largestbank in America at that time, toldme that they would not renew thecity’s credit on $15 million worthof loans taken out by the previousadministration unless I wouldagree to sell Cleveland’s munici-pally owned utility to CEI. On thatday, by that time, the sale of MunyLight was being promoted byboth Cleveland newspapers, vir-tually all of the radio and TV sta-

tions in town, the entire business com-munity, all the banks, both political par-ties, and several unions, as well as a major-ity of the Cleveland City Council. All I hadto do was to sign my name to legislationand the system would have [been] soldand the city credit ‘protected.’ The chair-man of Cleveland Trust even offered $50million of new credit if I would agree to sellMuny Light. ...

“I said no to the sale of Muny Light toCEI. At midnight, Cleveland Trust put theCity of Cleveland into default.

“Later, it was revealed that ClevelandTrust and CEI had four interlocking direc-tors. Cleveland Trust was CEI’s bank.Together with another bank, ClevelandTrust owned a substantial share of CEIstock and had numerous other mutualinterests.”

This unholy alliance among the banks,the utilities and both capitalist parties hasonly grown since then. It could be seen inthe Enron scandal that contributed tonearly bankrupting the state of Cali-fornia. And now it is starkly evident in therecent power outage and in the shakyinfrastructure that threatens more costlyand dangerous collapses of the system inthe future.

Undoubtedly, those who worked atGround Zero and the many members ofcleaning crews will be the most affected.These workers often immigrants paid theminimum wage and given little or nosafety equipment, cleaned polluted officeand residential space after the disaster.Sen. Charles Schumer endorsed thecoverup, calling it “understandable. ... Ifthe public loses faith that things are safewhen the government says so, we’ll havedone more damage. ...” For Schumer andfor the White House, people’s lives aresecondary. For them, damage controlmeans saving Wall Street and the liars inWashington.

By Heather Cottin

The Bush administration instructed theEnvironmental Protection Agency to lieabout air pollution in New York after theWorld Trade Center burned up in Sept-ember 2001. The White House coordi-nated its effort with the National SecurityCouncil and the EPA on behalf of the cap-ital of finance capitalism: Wall Street.

According to a report by the EPA’sinspector general’s office just released—almost two years after the Twin Towersdisintegrated into a trillion toxic parti-cles—the White House instructed theEPA to give “misleading information.”

The Long Island daily Newsdayreported Aug. 23 that “some of the [EPA]press releases were softened before beingreleased to the public, reassuring infor-mation was added and cautionary infor-mation deleted.”

“Softened” is a euphemism. All state-ments had to be cleared by the NationalSecurity Council of the White House.

On Sept. 16, 2001, EPA chief ChristineTodd Whitman issued a statement sayingit was “safe for New Yorkers to go back towork in New York’s Financial District.”But it was not safe.

The asbestos level was in some cases 10

times the acceptable levels. As early asJanuary 2002, reports on asbestos indi-cated that the increased danger in “homesor offices that have not been properlydecontaminated could be as high as oneadditional cancer death for every 10 peo-ple exposed.” (St. Louis Post Dispatch,Jan. 14, 2002)

A vermiculite mine in Libby, Mont.,supplied some of the asbestos used in theWorld Trade Center. Most of the people inLibby are now dying of asbestos-relateddiseases. The W.T. Grace Company madeits money and then closed down the mine.

Cate Jenkins, an EPA senior chemistwho measured the levels of asbestos inLibby, noted the World Trade Center con-nection in early 2002. She asked, “Whyare government agencies just shruggingoff the fact that many of the apartmentsand businesses in lower Manhattan haveidentical levels of asbestos or higher?”

Les Skramstad, a miner from Libby,also saw what was happening back then.“It’s the same damned government bab-ble and indecision that led to half thistown being either dead or dying fromasbestos. ... Twenty or 30 years from now,when those New Yorkers start falling overdead, some young government bureaucratwill get all choked up apologizing for what

the EPA and others didn’t do.” (St. LouisPost Dispatch, Jan. 13, 2002)

What the government did do was dis-tort, cajole and cover up.

Lethal levels of lead and asbestos werein the air. Scientists were alarmed at thedeadly cocktail of inhalable particles, toxicmetals, asbestos and byproducts of burn-ing plastic. Yet the EPA directed busi-nesses to open up, saying, “The generalpublic should be very reassured by initialsampling.”

The plume of debris that blew over Man-hattan, Brooklyn and Queens was called“no significant health hazard,” by the EPA.But there was in fact no basis for sayingthis. The EPA had not tested for very fineparticles of substances like asbestos.

In November 2001 Dr. Tom Cahill, pro-fessor of applied science and atmosphericsciences at the University of CaliforniaDavis, suspected the presence of the ultra-fine particles, considered to be more dan-gerous to human health than large parti-cles.(New York Times, Feb. 24, 2002)

But the EPA did what it was told. Thegovernment got the financial district upand running again, while the millions whoinhaled the air and those with deadly dustin their homes, schools and businesseswere kept in the dark.

lethal plumeBush lied about 9/11 pollutants

Millions exposed to lethal plume

Page 4 Sept. 4, 2003 www.workers.org

A look behind California’s recall voteBy Saul KanowitzSan Francisco

An enormous amount of money andmedia space is being used to cover the Oct.7 recall vote and the complementary spe-cial election for governor of California.The Democratic and the Republican par-ties are calling on the workers and poorpeople in California to vote for theirparty’s respective candidates.

Both big-business parties are sayingthey can solve the problems plaguing thestate of California. What course of actionbest serves the independent interests ofthe multi-national working class inCalifornia?

Historically, the right to recall electedofficials is a progressive social develop-ment. It removes barriers between themasses of people and the representativesof the government.

Recall can facilitate the will of themajority of society, who are the workersand the poor. During the Paris Communeof 1871—the first attempt to establish agovernment of the workers—the right ofrecall was one of the laws the commu-nards enacted.

The current recall campaign and refer-endum, however, has a completely differ-ent character. It began as a right-wingattack on the already bankrupt program ofGov. Gray Davis, who is a political centristand a Democrat. With heavy funding andhired canvassers, the campaign was ableto gather enough signatures to force arecall referendum on Oct. 7.

On that day voters will vote on twopoints. First, they vote yes or no on therecall of Governor Davis. Then they voteon who should replace Davis as governor.If Davis loses the recall vote, whoever ofthe many candidates gets the most votesbecomes California’s next governor.

Democratic Party and “lesser evil”

The Democratic Party points to thisright-wing offensive in order to put pres-sure on progressive organizations and thelabor movement to provide resources,

first to “get out the no vote on the recall”and then to back the campaign of Lt. Gov.Cruz Bustamante. Once again they ask theworking class and oppressed to choose thelesser of two evils. The message is, “Well,Davis may be a disappointment, but whatis coming is even worse.”

Organizing for a no vote on the recallgives legitimacy to the Gray Davis admin-istration.

But what is Davis’s record? During theheight of the economic boom, he presidedover an energy crisis in which billionswere shelled out to the energy companies.This exacerbated the current budget crisisthat has led to enormous cuts in social ser-vices and increases in fees for services andeducation that fall most disproportion-ately on the poor.

In October 2002 Davis vetoed a bill thatwould have given an estimated 1 million-plus undocumented workers, mostly fromLatin America, the right to obtain a dri-ver’s license or state ID. By denying theseworkers the basic right to drive, Davis kepta section of the workers in a desperate andvulnerable position. This in turn drovedown the living standards of all workingand poor people in the state.

This bill could have served as a modesteffort at combating racism and buildingsolidarity between documented andundocumented workers. Now, Davis ishaving to turn to the Latino communityand admit he was wrong to veto the bill.He is now promising to sign it and is ask-ing for their vote.

In several cases involving women whohad been victims of domestic violence andhad been convicted of killing theirabusers, Davis overturned decisions bythe state parole board that would havegranted them parole.

Under the Davis administration, theprison-industrial complex consumedmore of the state budget than the deteri-orating educational system. The prisonsystem was the only sector to see anincrease in funding for the fiscal year2003-2004.

Workers, oppressed people and the

middle class in California have all becomeangry and disillusioned with the Davisadministration. Those drawn to work onthe recall campaign are mostly disen-chanted middle-class and poor whites. Therecall forces appealed to them with reac-tionary and racist demagogy, objectivelyagainst their own class interests. But theyare not a cohesive right-wing movementthat present an immediate threat andmust be stopped at all costs, including sur-rendering independent working-class pol-itics, which is what some are urging.

Instead of spending resources to shoreup the capitalist electoral system, theinterests of the working class andoppressed people would be better servedby calling for a vote of no confidence inboth arms of this system, the Democraticand Republican parties.

What makes a Terminator‘viable’?

The program of the big-business candi-dates arbitrarily identified by the capital-ist media as “viable” is more of the same,but under the direction of a different faceor party. They all call for continued cuts insocial services and education, “efficien-cies” in government—which is code forattacks on state workers—and tax and feeincreases that protect the rich and hurt thepoor.

This goes for the three major Repub-lican candidates, State Senator TomMcClintock, former baseball commis-sioner Peter Ueberroth and movie actorArnold Schwarzenegger, as well as forBustamante.

Among the 135 candidates left on theballot as of Aug. 26, some are more pro-gressive. But without an enormous socialupheaval, none of the progressive or rad-ical candidates will sit in the governor’schair. The budget crisis will still be placedon the backs of the workers and the poor,as it is now.

During the 2002 gubernatorial cam-paign, the labor movement gave millionsto Davis’ election. The governor is report-edly seeking an additional $10 million

from labor for the recall campaign. Butwhether Davis remains in office orBustamante, Schwarzenegger, McClintock,or Ueberroth wins, the workers andoppressed of California will face the samefundamental conditions.

It’s not that there are no differencesamong the major candidates. It’s that itwould be more effective use of resourcesto organize independently of them.

Is another world possible?

What if that $10 million went towardsorganizing a statewide march against thebudget cuts? What if the state AFL-CIOprovided buses free to all poor andoppressed communities affected by theRepublican/ Democratic budget for amass rally in Sacramento to denounce thebig-business legislature?

What if students from around the state,at the University of California andCommunity College levels, brought theirgrievances on the 30 percent or moreincrease in tuition to Sacramento—andrefused to leave until the legislature taxedthe wealthy to complete the constructionof the Merced campus and roll backtuition?

What if the lesbian, gay, bi and transcommunity got out the rainbow flag andbrought demands for statewide domesticpartner benefits to Sacramento?

What if the labor and progressive move-ment issued drivers’ licenses or IDs to themillion undocumented workers and thoseworkers showed up at Sacramentodemanding validation of their IDs?

What if all this happened on the sameday and no one refused to leave until allthese demands were met?

That would be the beginning of a gen-uinely progressive recall of the bankruptcapitalist system.

Workers World Party does not call for ano or a yes vote on recall. At the same time,it endorses the gubernatorial candidacy ofC.T. Weber of the Peace and FreedomParty, which has popularized an anti-racist and anti-war program in the statesince the Vietnam War.

TTULIA, TEXAS .

35 Black frame-up victims pardonedBy Richard Wales

In late August, Texas Gov. Rick Perrywas forced to reverse a racist atrocitywhen he pardoned the 35 Black peoplefrom Tulia who were still in jail or facingcharges. Perry said that he was influ-enced by questions about the testimonyof undercover agent Tom Coleman. Buthe was also feeling the heat of a media,legal and popular campaign to free thesevictims.

Some 46 people, 39 of them Black,were originally arrested in a 1999 drug“sting” operation in Tulia. Some 38 Blackdefendants were convicted on trumped-up drug charges on the strength ofColeman’s words.

The FBI recovered no cash, drugs orweapons when its agents searched thehomes. Of the other three convicted, oneis on deferred probation and two otherswere ineligible for pardons because ofother convictions.

This case is a story to be added to a longlist that reveals the racist nature of thecriminal justice system and the ingrainedracism in U.S. society.

A week after the arrests, Tulia’s local

newspaper, the Sentinel, ran this head-line: “Tulia’s Streets Cleared of Garbage,”referring to the Black people who hadbeen framed and arrested.

Now the entire public is aware that TomColeman is a racist liar the local policewere using as an informant. But Colemancouldn’t do it singlehandedly. Districtattorneys had to present these casesbefore judges and juries.

After the first few tried were sentencedto from 12 to 99 years in prison, somedefendants pleaded guilty to avoid suchlong terms. They still received sentencesof up to eight years.

The 35 are now pardoned, but not justfrom the governor’s good will. Creditinstead Jeff Blackburn, an Amarillo,Texas, lawyer working with the NAACPLegal Defense Fund. Blackburn has spentthousands of hours and thousands of dollars of his own money in seeking

justice for his clients.Credit the Pacifica radio network that

has spent many hours publicizing theatrocities over its listener-sponsoredradio stations. Credit the series by Blackcommentary writer Bob Herbert that ranover the better part of a year in the NewYork Times.

This story has crept into the conscious-ness of increasing numbers of people overthe last two to three years, bringing pres-sure on officials like Gov. Perry. It shouldnever have taken this long to correct whatone racist cop did—a cop who had beenfired from a previous law enforcementposition for misconduct involving theftand abuse.

That 10 percent of the Black populationof any town could be prosecuted, let alonefound guilty, is a racist atrocity.

After Perry issued the pardons, defenseattorneys filed a federal civil-rights law-

suit in Amarillo’s federal district court. Itnames more than 40 defendants, includ-ing the drug task force that supervised thesting and every county belonging to thetask force.

Blackburn, one of the lawyers who filedthe suit, said he is seeking compensationand justice for violation of the constitu-tional rights of his clients, Tonya Whiteand Zury Bossett.

“This lawsuit is going to get done whatit needs to get done,” Blackburn said. “Interms of bringing true accountability, thereal wrongdoers in this case have got topay for what they did. They’ve got to payin a large enough amount that they won’tdo it again.”

And there are many people who believethat if there were real justice in Texas,many of these police officials would facecriminal charges for depriving people oftheir freedom.

Tulia defendants: first row from leftCalvin Kent Klein, James Barrow, BennyRobinson, Freddie Brookins Jr., TimothyTowery and Willie Hall. In back from leftare Kizzie White, Christopher Jackson,Jason Williams, Dennis Allen (hand tochin), Kareem White (obscured), DanielOlivarez and Joe Moore.

www.workers.org Sept. 4, 2003 Page 5

9/11 repression spurs immigrant fightback

Mass protest set for Oct.4 in Queens, N.Y.By Teresa GutierrezQueens, N.Y.

One of the first U.S. soldiers to die in theinvasion of Iraq was an immigrant fromGuatemala, Marine Lance Cpl. JoseAntonio Gutierrez.

To die in an imperialist war for oil andcolonial domination is a tragedy for anyworker. When one reviews the horribleconditions for immigrants in the UnitedStates today, Gutierrez’s death becomeseven more tragic.

Immigrants in the United States, espe-cially those who come from oppressedcountries, face extreme exploitation rein-forced by deplorable work conditions,racial profiling, inhumane prison deten-tion with no legal representation, racistattacks, and even out-and-out slavery.

The capitalist economic system in itsbloodthirsty drive for greater and greaterprofits super-exploits the labor of theseimmigrants. And the capitalist govern-ment has been historically complicit withthis situation, carrying out policies thatfacilitate the bosses’ exploitation.

But a new situation exists in the UnitedStates today.

A growing movement among the immi-grant population—both documented andundocumented—indicates that they areplaying an ever greater role in the pro-gressive and working-class movements.

Much as during the early part of the lastcentury when Jewish, Italian and Irishimmigrants carried out militant strugglesagainst the bosses, the situation today illu-strates the longstanding adage: Repres-sion breeds resistance.

Immigrants and so-called war on terrorism

On April 20, 2002, the biggest demon-stration in solidarity with Palestine everheld in the United States took place inWashington, D.C., organized by the anti-war coalition ANSWER (Act Now to StopWar and End Racism).

One of the most exciting scenes at thisimportant anti-war demonstration wasthe sea of faces of activists not tradition-ally seen at U.S. anti-war rallies.

The vast majority of participants at themarch were immigrants and children ofimmigrants from countries throughoutthe Middle East and South and CentralAsia. They came from Latin America andAfrica as well.

Despite—or perhaps because of—President George W. Bush’s so-called waron terrorism, immigrants and their chil-dren came to say no to war in Iraq and toshow solidarity with Palestine.

The U.S. government, in launching its“war on terrorism,” had expected to driveArabs and others from the Middle Eastinto the shadows of this society. But theopposite occurred.

Immediately after Bush’s wave ofrepression was unleashed, immigrantsbegan to defend themselves from theonslaught. Their allies, too, organized intheir defense.

Longstanding organizations as well asnew formations rose up to protest thewave of racial profiling sweeping thecountry.

On June 26, the Migration PolicyInstitute, a mainstream and pro-govern-ment Washington think tank, issued areport saying that more than 1,200 peoplehad been detained in the year after Sept.

11. The government has refusedto say exactly how many or whothey are, according to the insti-tute.

Nearly 77,000 non-citizenmen from Arab and Muslimcountries were questioned,photographed and finger-printed. About 13,000 are indeportation proceedings. Pro-gressive organizations believethe numbers could be muchhigher.

Immigrants from othercountries were also targeted.Workers of color at airportsthroughout the country wereheld and scrutinized. Manyworkers report being fired fromairport jobs just because theywere born in Latin America.

Super-exploitation: Nothing new in the U.S.

The so-called war on terrorism has par-ticularly targeted immigrants from theMiddle East and South and Central Asia.But it was calculated to have a chillingeffect on all immigrants.

The Bush administration and thebosses expected immigrants to cower infear as a result and perhaps stay quietly inthe underground economy. But that didnot happen.

Instead, immigrants are organizing inincreased numbers.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reportedin 2000 that the number of immigrantworkers in the United States had jumpedto 15.7 million, up 17 percent from threeyears earlier. The BLS estimated thatnearly 5 million of these workers wereundocumented.

The report stated that immigrants nowrepresent 12 percent of the workers in theUnited States. This has a profound effecton the work force and the economy.

Many immigrants who come to thiscountry have a unique perspective on theclass struggle. They come from countriesdevastated by hundreds of years of impe-rialist domination. Most are forced tomigrate to the United States because theirhome countries can no longer provide aliving.

So when the jobs they get are the worstjobs, it is easy to understand why immi-grants fight against these horrific condi-tions. These jobs range from supermarketdelivery that pays an illegally low $3 anhour, to gardening or becoming nannies,housekeepers or manicurists.

According to Immigration News Briefsof September 2000: “There is a horrificwave of violations of the nation’s laborlaws. Unscrupulous employers have

refused to provide workers’ compensationor pay minimum wage or time-and-a-halfovertime to immigrants required to work70 to 80 hours a week.

“Some female immigrants have com-plained that their bosses sexually harassthem, and they fear that if they complain,their bosses will report them to the INS.

“One immigrant, Silverio Otero, a gro-cery store worker on New York’s LowerEast Side, complained that for a long timehe was paid $240 a week even though thestore owner required him to work 72 hoursa week. That came to $3.33 an hour.”

This was three years ago, when theeconomy was still booming. If anything,conditions are likely to be worse now.

A woman from Cameroon was actuallyenslaved by a Silver Spring, Md., couplewho forced her to work for three yearswithout pay as a housekeeper and babysit-ter. (Washington Post, March 28, 2002)

Given these awful working conditions,it is even more shocking that immigrantsrisk losing their lives just to come andwork here.

A Washington Post editorial of Aug. 16headlined “Death in the Desert” predictedthat the death toll among immigrants try-ing to cross the border from Mexico intothe United States will break all recordsthis year.

Five more migrants had been foundthat weekend alone.

The record deaths are partly due to anunusually fierce heat wave and “partly toincreased patrols along other parts of theborder,” according to the Tucson Citizen.

And the danger is not just in the cross-ing. Not only has the government carriedout a racist witch hunt against someimmigrants and people of color, but theanti-immigrant climate has spurred onmany a racist attack.

Throughout the United States, immi-grants of all nationalities are beaten, spiton and chased down by racist thugs. Thehome of a Latino family in Farmingdale,N.Y., was recently burned down.

Out of the shadows and into the streets

The wave of racial profiling, the inten-sity of the exploitation and the brutality ofthe anti-immigrant hysteria fostered byvarious legal and extralegal institutions inthis country give immigrants and theirchildren no choice but to organize in self-defense.

On Oct. 4, a national event for immi-grant rights will occur in Flushing,Queens, in New York. Caravans of laboractivists, students and immigrants fromevery corner of the United States will con-verge there.

This event could have historical signif-icance. It is being spurred on not only byimmigrant organizations of many nation-alities but by the labor movement. Calledthe Freedom Summer Ride, it is taking onthe character of a major civil-rights move-ment, like that of the 1960s.

The fact that it is in Queens, a boroughof New York City where every continent onthe earth is represented, could indicatethat the immigration movement is matur-ing. It has the potential of being not just amovement where Latinos or Pakistanis orHaitians work on their own, but wherethey and all other immigrants cometogether in one mighty voice, with onemighty fist, to say, “Enough is enough.”

The event could also become, implicitlyor explicitly, a major demonstrationagainst the colonial occupation of Iraq.

Oct. 4 in Queens: Will it be the day whenall can see that “there are no borders in theworkers’ struggle”?

Detroit marchers protest AshcroftBy Workers World Detroit bureau

Attorney General John Ashcroftcontinued his national tour to defendthe Patriot Act in Detroit, when headdressed over 100 local police officialsat Cobo Conference Center downtownon Aug. 21.Outside of the center, over 60 peoplechanted slogans denouncing the PatriotAct that was passed in the immediateaftermath of the attacks on the World

Trade Center in New York and thePentagon in Washington, D.C. on Sept.11, 2001.The Act has been used to justify theindefinite detention of hundreds ofimmigrants from predominantly Muslimnations. Many of these immigrants havebeen subjected to forced registrationby the Immigration and NaturalizationService.At the demonstration outside, membersof the Michigan Emergency Committee

Against War and Injustice, the BlueTriangle Network, InternationalANSWER, the Detroit Area Peace andJustice Network and otherorganizations, held signs calling for theimpeachment of Bush, the withdrawalof all U.S. troops from Iraq, anddemanding an end to the harassmentand deportation of Muslim, Arab andSouth Asian immigrants by the UnitedStates government.

Map routes show some cities scheduled to participate in theimmigration march. See www.immmigratworkersfreedomride.com

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

By G. DunkelBrooklyn, N.Y.

A strong and informative rally filled theHouse of the Lord Church in BrooklynAug. 19. The gathering kicked off the NewYork City campaign to mobilize for theOct. 25 march on Washington to end theoccupation of Iraq and bring the troopshome.

With anger and humor, speakersshowed their concern for both the U.S.troops who are dying daily and the greatlysuffering Iraqi people who are dying ingreater numbers.

Two speakers have children among theU.S. troops in Iraq. One’s son is a warresister.

The enthusiastic, majority Black audi-ence filled the sanctuary and most of thebalcony on this workday midsummernight. The crowd greeted CynthiaMcKinney, the former member ofCongress from Georgia, with a standingovation and fists in the air.

As they left, many people took extraleaflets about a Sept. 28 march to supportthe Palestinian struggle as well as those forOct. 25. Many were community or unionorganizers.

“This war was unnecessary, unjust, itwas about oil and hegemony,” said theRev. Herbert Daughtry in welcoming therally to his church. “It was about oil, youknow it and the American people know it.It was naked imperialism.”

Daughtry, who is 73 years old, has beena national leader of the Black United Frontand has a 45-year-long history of involve-ment in major national and citywide pro-gressive struggles.

ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War andEnd Racism) leader Larry Holmes

thanked Daughtry for risking having ananti-war rally in his church. Referring tothe power outage that struck theNortheast Aug. 14, he said: “It probablyonly took 15 minutes or so for the peoplehere to start thinking about Baghdad,Basra, Iraq, their lack of food, medicine,and power.

“There’s power outages over therebecause of the war and the bombing. Overhere there was a power outage because noone could figure out how to make a profitfrom fixing their hokey grid. Those inpower failed, their system failed becausethey couldn’t figure out how to make aprofit.”

Holmes had some fun with terminol-ogy. “A blackout,” he said, “is when Blackpeople go on strike. A power outage iswhen all of us go on strike. And that’s peo-ple power.

“A power surge is when we go out intothe street and stop a war or some otherinjustice. We need to get the people inpower out of it.”

Holmes called for people to go toWashington on Oct. 25 and to organizeothers to go. He pointed out that there are

new forces entering the struggle—resisters in the military and the families ofsoldiers. They will lead the Washingtonmarch.

Holmes ended his talk with: “Stop allthe dying, stop all the colonizing, stop allthe occupying. We must make this occu-pation fail. Iraqi people know what theyhave to do. We have to do our part.

“If this occupation fails, it will be muchmore difficult for Bush and company tooccupy North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Libya,Zimbabwe, anywhere they’re scheming tocontrol.”

Family members speak out

Gloria Jackson, a childcare worker inLocal 205, AFSCME District Council 1707,whose 29-year-old daughter is in Iraq, hadthis message: “I want my daughter home.I don’t see why she can’t come home. Shewas scheduled for Sept. 4 but they saidthey couldn’t replace her.”

Jackson said, “I need you to help mefight for her and for all of them and bringthem all home.”

Moonanum James is co-chair of UnitedAmerican Indians of New England and a

Vietnam-era veteran. His son is a reservistnow stationed in Iraq. James said, “Ihonor my son by standing here and talk-ing about this struggle. Native Americanshave been on the receiving end of 500years of a relentless campaign of war andterror. Isn’t it open racism behind thisdrive to see our Arab sisters and brothersas somehow less than human?”

James called for unity with thePalestinians struggling for their land, andfor solidarity with Leonard Peltier, MumiaAbu Jamal and all other political prison-ers.

Ron Kuby, a lawyer who has handledthe cases of many military resisters, said,“Now that the war is not going so well,when troops say ‘get us the hell out ofhere,’ the military’s response is to say ‘ifyou speak out, you will be court mar-tialed.’”

McKinney, who was singled out by theBush administration for defeat when sheopposed the pro-war campaign just afterthe Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said, “In themost passionate spirit of patriotism, wesay bring the troops home now.”

McKinney gave shocking details about

Brooklyn action jumpstarts Oct. 25 march

Black community rallies to ‘bring troops home’

By Susanne KellyRichmond, Va.

Chanting, “From Iraq to Palestine,occupation is a crime,” several hundredpeople held a militant rally and marchagainst the U.S. imperialist war on Iraq inRichmond, Va., on Aug. 24

The demonstration was called by theCoalition Against the Occupation, whichconsisted of Richmond ANSWER—ActNow To Stop War and End Racism, FoodNot Bombs and others.

Marchers demanded an end to the U.S.

commemorate that event.Ana Edwards of the Defenders of

Freedom, Justice and Equality said:“There is a connection between theclosing of a community pool and thebillions spent on the war. There is aconnection between the overcrowdedconditions at the Richmond city jailand the money spent by the U.S. onarms of destruction.”

Dr. Ali Abed, who had just returnedfrom Palestine, said, “Our problem isnot with Jews, but we are against

occupation of Iraq and toU.S. funding of the Israelioccupation of Palestine.They also took note of the1963 Civil Rights March onWashington and expressedsolidarity with thosemarching the day before to

racism, and racism is the core and essenceof Zionism.”

Selim Khalfani, executive director of theVirginia Conference of the NAACP, said:“We’re not here today to be nostalgic. Thesame issues of jobs, freedom and justiceare as relevant today as they were in 1963.”

After the rally, protesters marchedthrough the campus of Virginia Common-wealth University and heard other speak-ers. Organizers announced plans for theOct. 25 national march in Washingtonagainst the occupation of Iraq.

Richmond, Va.,marchers open

anti-war offensive.

WW PHOTO:SUSANNE KELLY

RICHMOND, VA.RICHMOND, VA.

Against war and occupation

WW PHOTO:JOHN CATALINOTTO, ABOVE PAT CHIN

Above, from left, Larry Holmes, Cynthia McKinney, Rev. Herbert Daughtry and NYC Councilperson Charles Barron. Below, fromleft: Daughtry, Gloria Jackson, Moonanum James, Gloria Pacis—mother of Marine resister Stephen Funk—and Dustin Langley.

www.workers.org Sept. 4, 2003 Page 7

1,000 in Chicago blastoccupation

DC rights march reflects anti-war moodBy Pam ParkerWashington, D.C.

The Aug. 23 march on Washington thatmarked the 40th anniversary of the giant1963 Civil Rights March led by the Rev.Martin Luther King Jr. was noted for itsstrong anti-war mood. Thousands of peo-ple from across the country streamed ontothe grounds of the Lincoln Memorial tocommemorate the historic march, whichfeatured Dr. King’s famous “I Have ADream” speech.

The night before this year’s march,Yolanda King hosted a “spit in” gearedtoward younger activists. Many people

took the stage for five minutes each to“spit” poetry against war, about growingup poor and oppressed, about police bru-tality and other injustices to illustrate thatthe “dream” has not been realized by mostworking people in this country.

Teach-ins about civil rights and peaceand justice issues gathered audiences inhuge tents on the Washington Mall.

Throughout the weekend the speakerswho received the loudest ovations werethose who demanded an end to the occu-pation of Iraq.

Among the speakers were three presi-dential candidates—the Rev. Al Sharpton,Carol Mosely Braun and Howard Dean;

By Beth SemmerChicago

More than a 1,000 people attended aprotest Aug. 23 organized by the ChicagoCoalition Against War & Racism(CCAWR). Over 60 organizationsendorsed the protest, called just threeweeks ago.

On Aug. 22, Financial Times reporterJames Harding used the Chicago demon-stration as an example of “a new season ofanti-war protest with a fresh message:“Bring the troops home now!” And indeedmany rally speakers, including veteransand parents of U.S. soldiers, urged thecrowd at Federal Plaza to get back in thestreets to get the U.S. out of Iraq and bringthe troops home now.

The rally was co-chaired by PhilanaFisher and Andy Thayer, activists withboth CCAWR and the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network, a Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans organization that defends againstattacks on the LGBT community. Theytold the demonstrators that upcomingactions included a mass rally in ChicagoSept. 26 as part of the Sept. 25-28 Inter-national Days of Protest Against War,

Occupation and Empire and that CCAWRwould be organizing buses to go to the Oct.25 March on Washington.

Pearlie Stuckey of Chicago ANSWER,whose son recently returned from duty inIraq, told the crowd how last fall shefeared the U.S. was determined to go towar with Iraq and her son would be sent.Determined to do something about theimpending war Stuckey went toWashington, D.C. for the Oct. 26, 2002,and the Jan. 19 and March 15 ANSWERmarches. She was ready to get on the bus

historic civil-rights leaders such as JamesForman, Coretta Scott King and JesseJackson; representatives of the civil-rights/peace-and-justice movement likeNOW Executive Director Kim Gandy,National Lesbian and Gay Task ForceExecutive Director Matt Foreman, DamuSmith of Black Voices for Peace, LeslieCagan of United for Peace and Justice,James Zogby of the Arab American Insti-tute, Raul Yzaguirre of La Raza, and MahdiBray of the Muslim American Association,who invited everyone to come back for theOct. 25 march against the U.S. occupationof Iraq. National youth and student lead-ers and church representatives also spoke.

how the Pentagon disregards soldiers’ rea-sonable health concerns by ordering themto take anthrax and smallpox vaccines thatit knows are dangerous. DynaCorp, a firmwith close political ties to the administra-tion, produces the vaccines. But thePentagon can’t find enough money toguarantee enough water to soldiers serv-ing in one of the hottest countries in theworld.

She asked, “If the government couldspend $40 million to impeach Bill Clintonfor having sex, if they denied me re-elec-tion for asking questions about 9/11, ifthey try to recall Gray Davis for a badeconomy, doesn’t a conspiracy to use falsegrounds for going to war, looting the trea-sury, mishandling 9/11 provide groundsfor the impeachment of George Bush?”

Union supporters

Brenda Stokely is president of AFSCMEDistrict Council 1707, which representshome-health-care and childcare workersin New York City. She said: “It’s alwaysvery important when we come togetherlike this. It’s always very important whenwe go out in public and march. It’s alwaysvery important when we rally. But what’sequally important is what we do on a dailybasis to bring this leadership down to itsknees and out into the streets because thisain’t about reform.”

She went on: “This country can’trecover based on the foundation it wasbuilt on. It was built on kidnapping androbbing people from another land, steal-ing the land from the people who werealready here when that idiot who thoughthe was in India landed here. ... People whorun the IMF, the World Bank are the oneswe must get rid of to get rid of imperial-ism.”

This aroused a cheer from GloriaJackson, who is also a member of Stokely’sunion, and who let everyone sitting nearher know, “She’s my president!”

New York City Councilmember and for-mer Black Panther Charles Barronrecalled his youthful appreciation of HoChi Minh, Kim Il Sung, Fidel Castro, CheGuevara, Kwami Nkumrah, JuliusNeyrere and Amilcar Cobral. He said,“What’s happening in Iraq is not aboutSaddam, it’s about people who have hadenough occupation.”

Barron plans to run for mayor of NewYork in 2005 as a representative of theBlack community and of other people ofcolor. He said, “The bottom line is thatAmerica needs a revolution—radical, rootchange.”

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of thePartnership for Civil Justice inWashington, D.C., and an ANSWER steer-ing committee member, pointed out:“Bush’s preventive war is not just againstIraq, but it’s also against human rights,against workers in the United States andelsewhere in the world. It is also againstSocial Security, education and healthcare.”

She said the people gathered togethercan “force this war to come to an end.”

again for the Oct. 25, 2003 march.Another speaker was Gloria LaRiva of

the International Action Center in SanFrancisco, who was in town for the con-vention of her union, the CommunicationWorkers of America. Gloria is also a del-egate to the San Francisco Labor Councilwhich recently passed a resolution callingfor an end to U.S. occupation of Iraq andendorsing the Oct. 25 March onWashington.

Shoppers and tourists lined the marchroute, with some joining in.

ChicagoANSWER's

PearlieStuckey

addressescrowd, whichlater marches

throughdowntown

(below).

WW PHOTOS: BETH SEMMER

Page 8 Sept. 4, 2003 www.workers.org

Belgian doctor's testimony

Six weeks in U.S.-ruled BaghdadGeert Van Moorter, a doctor in theBelgian organization Medicine for theThird World who was in Baghdad dur-ing the U.S. bombing in April, returnedto Baghdad from the beginning of Julyto mid-August to find witnesses forwar-crimes charges against U.S. Gen.Tommy Franks. He was interviewed inthe Belgian weekly newspaper,Solidaire, on Aug. 20.

By Pol De Vos

Geert Van Moorter: At first one had theimpression that everything is going moreor less OK. Life goes on, numerous storesare stocked with goods. Only the U.S.jeeps disturb the peace. But as soon asnight falls, all this illusion disappears.Before the war, the city woke up at night-fall. Until 1 or 2 a.m., groups of peoplewould be talking and joking around in thestreets.

Now, at night, Baghdad is a dead city.Besides, the U.S. command decreed a cur-few that begins at 11 p.m., so no one cango out.

I quickly noticed that the populationwas still suffering terribly from the conse-quences of the war. The Iraqis can’t under-stand how it could be that four monthsafter the official end of the conflict thereare still only a few hours of electricityavailable each day.

There are still enormous problems withdrinking water. The gas supply is stillgravely disrupted. Many people told methat after the devastating first Gulf War,in 1991, when most of the countryremained in the control of the Iraqi gov-ernment, all these problems were resolvedin less than two months. Now, the entireadministrative structure of the country istopsy-turvy.

Most public services and ministries arestill closed down. The state enterprises areshut. There are hundreds of thousands ofIraqis who lost their jobs and are more orless running in place. How do they stayalive? I have no idea. They cannot stillhave savings, after two wars and 12 yearsof sanctions.

By good luck, the “oil for food” programfunctions more or less. About 80 percentof the distribution structure put in placeby the prior regime seems to still exist.Considering what it is, naturally, it is apitiful consolation.

De Vos: But they have still installed a“provisional government,” no? Hasn’t thatsucceeded in resolving the problems?

Van Moorter: Everyone I’ve spokento has expressed only contempt for thiscouncil of 25 who today claim to lead thecountry. “In the past we had ONESaddam, today we have 25,” joked some-one. “The majority are profiteers who havebeen abroad for years. They enteredBaghdad with the American tanks.” It isthe U.S. forces who pull the strings. Theso-called “ministers” have in reality noth-ing to say.

De Vos: Have the peoplesucceeded in forgetting thewar? Can they put aside theanxiety and tension of thosedays?

Van Moorter: Too manypeople are still confronteddaily with the consequences ofthe bombings. For example, Iwas able to see Mohammed AliSarhan again. During the war,he had lost both his legs. OnApril 7, he was accompanying

in an ambulance his wife, who was in thefinal stage of pregnancy, and anotherwoman on the verge of giving birth. Thenthey became the target of a U.S. tank.

Mohammed was blown out of theambulance, the two women and thebabies about to be born were burned todeath. When witnesses at the eventwanted to come to Mohammed’s aid, theywere shot down.

Later, I was able to round up other wit-nesses, the father and the sister of theother pregnant woman. They were also inthe ambulance. The sister is still recover-ing from her grave burns and has a seri-ous fracture. They confirmed the story:U.S. troops had fired on the ambulancewithout reason.

De Vos: How do the people experiencethe presence of the U.S. military?

Van Moorter: An interpreter toldme: “I feel like a foreigner in my owncountry. Each time that I see theAmericans, I’m overcome with anger.”

She told me how earlier she had led avaried social life. But today she doesn’t goout in the evening. She doesn’t even daretravel by auto. The U.S. soldiers are arro-gant. Those Iraqis who had a neutral or asomewhat positive attitude toward theU.S. because they got rid of SaddamHussein know today thatthe U.S. Army did not cometo help them.

At the international air-port in Baghdad, thou-sands of people are beingheld. Everyone “suspect” isarrested and often evenbeaten without explana-tion. I went to see a younglad—10 years old—who wasshot down at a control post.His shoulder was com-pletely smashed up and hewill be disabled for life. Butthis boy has nowhere to go.

The U.S. Military Police,who are assigned to punishcrimes committed by the

troops, won’t raise their little finger to stopthese abuses of power and the assaultscommitted by the U.S. military. When Iasked one of them how they would react ifthey received complaints from the Iraqis,his reaction was: “It’s war, man!”

De Vos: What do the U.S. soldiersthink now about their presence in Iraq?

Van Moorter: A soldier told me thatthey could not eat any of the local food ordrink any local drinks. Only their ownrations. It is obviously untenable.

I had one friendly conversation with asoldier in a jeep. He was wearing a heavyhelmet and a thick flak jacket. It was morethan 104 degrees F. I was there in a T-shirt. I signaled him that I was very hotand asked if he wasn’t suffocating underhis outfit. His answer: “And it’s not onlythat. I feel like I’m a prisoner. We can’tleave our Jeep, we’re not safe anywhere.”

De Vos: What have you noticed of theresistance?

Van Moorter: Naturally, there aremany protest actions and demonstra-tions. Those are organized for many dif-ferent reasons. The unemployed, the fam-ilies of people who have been arrestedwithout reason, the inhabitants whodemand water and electricity, the soldiersthat have not been paid for months.

Then there is the armed resistance. Iheard explosions regularly, often duringthe day. In the beginning of July, I was atthe Hotel Palestine when, from the otherside of the Tigris, in the presidentialneighborhood, a bomb went off. I heardthe rumble, saw the clouds of smoke ris-ing.

Quite soon, helicopters were comingand going, as well as trucks. I was also ableto see a U.S. Army truck burned up. Aboutthree hours after the attack, I was there.You have to be fast to see anything,because as quickly as possible the U.S.forces get rid of all traces of the attacks.

It’s a secret for no one that the officialnumber of U.S. victims is always under-stated. In just the first two weeks in Iraq,at the first half of July, I learned from wit-nesses that 16 U.S. troops had been killed.

De Vos: Could one say that the resis-tance is intensifying?

Van Moorter: I had the impressionthat it is getting better and better orga-nized. The actions have grown in size,which require more preparation. I wastold of military training organized by offi-cers and generals of the former army.

In certain regions, money is openly col-lected to support the resistance. I haveseen many printed fliers opposing the U.S.

occupation. The politicalopposition grows strongerand demonstrates withsharper demands. At theend of July, the colonialauthority closed downthree newspapers becausethey criticized the U.S.forces and because theywrote of the success of theresistance.

De Vos: You are one ofthe initiators of the chargesagainst Gen. [Tommy]Franks. What is your pointof view regarding this afteryour visit to occupied Iraq?

Van Moorter: One ofthe goals of my visit wasprecisely to collect supple-

mentary information regarding warcrimes. I succeeded. In addition, I evengathered another series of new chargesand, indeed, all concerning serious warcrimes.

The case in Belgium against Gen.Franks aims at obtaining an independentinvestigation of these crimes. But it isexactly at this time that the Belgian gov-ernment has chosen to eliminate the lawof universal competence. That is some-thing that the Iraqis are unable to under-stand.

Above, a youngIraqi whoseshoulder wassmashed by gunfireat a U.S. controlpost. Left, a U.S. tank burned by the resistance.

CREDIT: SOLIDAIRE

CREDIT: SOLIDAIRE.

Dr. Geert Van Moorter in Baghdad. At right, he meets with Mohammed Ali Sarhan, who lost his legs when a U.S. tank in April blew apart the ambulance he was riding in, killing his wife and unborn child.

www.workers.org Sept. 4, 2003 Page 9

IRAQ.

How U.S. policies made the UN a targetBy Sara Flounders

Whoever bombed the United Nationsheadquarters at the Canal Hotel inBaghdad on Aug. 19, killing 23 and injur-ing over 100, mostly UN personnel, theact has raised questions about the UN’srole in Iraq.

The Bush administration has tried touse the bombing to deepen its hold onIraq. The White House is already workingon new UN Security Council resolutions topressure many countries to commit troopsto this criminal occupation.

But the UN bombing also exposed theoccupation’s weakness. This may under-cut U.S. efforts to bribe other govern-ments to send the foot soldiers Washing-ton needs as additional cannon fodder.

Though this may come as a surprise tosome, the UN hardly played a humanitar-ian role in its recent history in Iraq. Itsown former officials will testify to how theUN has made itself hated among Iraqis.

UN role in Iraq

Dennis Halliday, a former assistant sec-retary general and senior UN official inIraq, resigned in 1999 rather than admin-ister the UN blockade. He is a predeces-sor of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN spe-cial representative killed in the Aug. 19bombing.

Halliday, who was nominated for the2001 Nobel Peace Prize, described the UNrole in Iraq: “The West sees the UN as abenign organization, but the sad reality inmuch of the world is that the UN is notseen as benign. The UN Security Councilhas been taken over and corrupted by theU.S. and U.K., particularly with regard toIraq, Palestine and Israel.

“In Iraq, the UN imposed sustainedsanctions that probably killed up to 1 mil-lion people. Children were dying of mal-nutrition and water-borne diseases. TheU.S. and U.K. bombed the infrastructure in1991, destroying power, water and sewagesystems against the Geneva Convention. Itwas a great crime against Iraq.

“Thirteen years of sanctions made itimpossible for Iraq to repair the damage.That is why we have such tremendousresentment and anger against the UN inIraq. There is a sense that the UN humil-iated the Iraqi people and society. I woulduse the term genocide to define the use ofsanctions against Iraq. Several millionIraqis are suffering cancers because of theuse of depleted uranium shells. That’s anatrocity. Can you imagine the bitternessfrom all of this?” (Sunday Herald, Aug. 24)

Hans von Sponeck, a former assistantsecretary general and the senior UN offi-cial in Iraq who replaced Dennis Halliday,also resigned in protest of the UN role in2000. On Aug. 20 Von Sponeck said onthe radio show “Democracy Now” thatwhile the attack on the UN was horrible itcould be “expected” because the Iraqiswere so provoked by the U.S. occupation.

The UN exists in a world where the cap-italist market ruthlessly decides politicaland economic relations. It is a body thatalmost exclusively represents capitalistgovernments that do not represent thepeople or their interests. The UnitedStates, as the undisputed military and eco-nomic super-power, has overwhelminginfluence.

The UN’s humanitarian agencies pro-vide assistance to war refugees, food to

famine victims and medical care to peoplein impoverished countries. These agen-cies’ thousands of civil servants may bedeeply committed to providing emer-gency relief. But the UN budget forhumanitarian assistance is not even aband-aid.

To put it in perspective: Socialist Cuba,a relatively poor country with only 11 mil-lion people, provides more free doctorsand medical teams to developing coun-tries than the UN World HealthOrganization.

1991 war and sanctions

One of the greatest crimes againsthumanity—the 1991 bombing of Iraq andthe 13-year starvation sanctions leviedagainst that country—was carried out as aUN-authorized action.

Based on resolutions that the UnitedStates pushed through the UN SecurityCouncil, the devastating 42-day bombingof Iraq in 1991 took place under the UNflag. The bombs reduced Iraq’s earlieraccomplishments of free education, freehealth care, electrification and moderninfrastructure to rubble.

Then 13 years of devastating sanctionswere implemented through the UNSecurity Council. The sanctions causedthe death of more than 1.5 million Iraqis.

U.S. veto power kept the sanctions ruth-lessly in place once the UN Security Coun-cil had voted for them. For the people ofIraq there is little perceived difference.

As an international movement arose todemand an end to the sanctions, the UnitedStates implemented—again through theSecurity Council—the Oil for FoodProgram. This program allowed UN sanc-tions to continue while allowing Iraq tosell a severely restricted amount of oil. Thecontrols were so onerous that they droveboth Halliday and von Sponeck to resign.

The entire sanctions regime was aneffort to totally destroy Iraq, based on thenow exposed myth that Iraq was hidingweapons of mass destruction.

The UN Security Council, throughUNSCOM, carried out more than 9,000intrusive weapons inspections. Vital Iraqiindustries were systematically destroyedbecause the sanctions program judgedcountless industrial processes to have apotential dual military-civilian use.

The entire UN inspections program waslater exposed as a thinly veiled U.S. spyoperation. The UN weapons inspectorswere always based at the Canal Hotel.

It was only in March 2003 that the UNSecurity Council refused to pass a voteauthorizing U.S. bombing and invasion ofIraq. Nevertheless, the Bush administra-tion rushed ahead with a war that wasunprovoked, criminal and illegal againsta sovereign but defenseless country.

A month after the Pentagon blasted itsway into Iraq and the sheer brutality of thewar had overwhelmed the mass move-ment, the same UN member states thathad refused to authorize the war voted,with the exception of Syria, for a resolutionthat gave the United States and British mil-itary occupation full “authority.”

This was the most sweeping autho-rization for colonial domination in UNhistory.

After the Baghdad government col-lapsed there was a growing effort to againmake the UN part of the U.S.-British occu-pation machinery and to line up countries

to send foot soldiers, while keeping totalU.S. command and control.

On Aug. 14, the UN Security Councilpassed a resolution welcoming Washing-ton’s handpicked “Iraqi Governing Coun-cil.” The UN vote established the UNAssistance Mission in Iraq, calledUNAMI.

UNAMI sent 300 advisors to Iraq towork on such “humanitarian” missions astraining a new Iraqi police force.

In the Aug. 20 British Independentnewspaper, reporter and Middle Eastexpert Robert Fisk wrote that the Aug. 19bombing of the UN building “proves thatno foreign organization, no NGO, nohumanitarian organization, no investor,no businessmen can expect to be safeunder America’s occupation.”

Who are the foreign terrorists?

Virtually all the U.S. and British corpo-rate media claim foreign forces are pour-ing into Iraq to fight the U.S. occupation.They accuse the Al Qaeda network, theAnsar Al-Islam group, Syrians, Saudis andIranians of slipping across the border. TheFinancial Times speculated that 3,000Saudis volunteers had infiltrated Iraqfrom the north—although the Saudi bor-der is on Iraq’s south.

These unsubstantiated reports are afeeble attempt to downplay the breadthand depth of Iraqi resistance. Iraqis areskilled, highly educated, have militarytraining and are furious over the U.S.occupation. They can organize their ownresistance.

A guerrilla struggle has quickly devel-oped using a diverse range of tacticsinvolving ambushes, land mines, tripwires, car bombs, drive-by shootings androcket-propelled grenade launchers.

Today, Iraqis consider the more than140,000 U.S. troops and 10,000 Britishtroops to be the main foreign terrorists inIraq.

Meanwhile the Bush administration isin a wild scramble to increase foreignintervention in the service of the U.S.occupation. Through bribery and heavypolitical arm-twisting

Washington has forced others to pledgesupport.

Forty-four countries have agreed tosend some military forces to operate underthe Pentagon’s command. Five other coun-tries are discussing the possibility.Although few troops have actually arrived,approximately 22,000 are pledged.

UN under U.S. command

Less than 48 hours after the explosionat the UN offices in Baghdad, Secretary ofState Colin Powell went to the UN to pressfor a new resolution that would convincemember states such as France, Russia,India, Pakistan and Turkey to providetroops for a proposed multinational force.

Powell made it clear that the United

States is unwilling to give the UN author-ity in Iraq. The other imperialist powers,which are in competition with U.S. corpo-rate power, seek some “authority”—meaning some say in the multi-billion-dollar reconstruction budget and in con-tracts for oil exploration, development,pumping, transport and sales.

According to Philip Gordon, a seniorfellow at the Brookings Institute, a U.S.think tank, the Bush administration hasdecided after weeks of internal debate torefuse to transfer any significant author-ity to the UN, a strategy he considers anerror. (Aug. 20 International HeraldTribune)

But the UN bombing undercut U.S.efforts. The most immediate fallout fromthe attack is the decision by Japan to post-pone “until next year” sending 1,000troops.

Poland immediately scaled back itsunpopular decision to send its troops.Polish troops were to be stationed in thecentral area between the British and U.S.forces.

Ukrainian troops were to operate underPolish command. This would have freedup thousands of U.S. troops. PolishForeign Minister Cimoszewicz stated thataccess to Iraqi oilfields “is our ultimateobjective.”

In a rerun of the old Spanish Empire,Spain’s troops were to command troopsfrom El Salvador, Honduras, the Domin-ican Republic and Nicaragua. Today thesecountries are all U.S. neo-colonies. Thedeath of a Spanish civilian at the UN head-quarters has opened a new debate andrenewed opposition within Spain.

The decision in The Netherlands tosend Dutch troops is already under dom-estic attack because of the radiation dan-ger due to the U.S. use of depleted-ura-nium weapons.

Italy’s commitment of troops wasalready unpopular and is expected to meetnew resistance.

Adding to the problems, the UN, whiledeclaring that it will remain in Iraq, is cut-ting its staff more than in half. TheInternational Monetary Fund has with-drawn its staff.

Within the U.S. ruling class there is agrowing split over the involvement of theUN. Some in the Bush administration aredetermined to go it alone. Others areincreasingly concerned about the mount-ing crisis, the vulnerability and isolationof the U.S. position. Clearly the U.S. occu-pation is in crisis.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfo-witz, touring Iraq on July 20, made theincredible statement: “I think all foreign-ers should stop interfering in the internalaffairs of Iraq.”

Wolfowitz, a key architect of the U.S.invasion of Iraq, should realize that onlyby bringing the U.S. troops home nowcould his statement come true.

Washington wants to hog Iraq’s wealth for U.S. monopolies,but U.S. troops, shown above, want out.

Page 10 Sept. 4, 2003 www.workers.org

VENEZUELA.

Mass outpouring backsBolivarian revolution

Bill Gates, Blaster, SoBig & other

computer wormsIn early August, the MS Blasterworm shut down computer sys-tems at Edwards Air Force

Base, brought down the Air Canadareservations system, and forced a haltto Amtrak rail service on the EastCoast for a few hours. It was one of themost disruptive computer viruses yet.

Then came the SoBig worm, fillingthe Internet with millions of infectedemails almost instantaneously. Manyemail systems ground to a near halt.

The most disruptive computerviruses have taken advantage of secu-rity holes in Microsoft’s Windowsoperating system. Other computer sys-tems like the Macintosh andGNU/Linux are not affected.

The fault lies partly with Microsoftchoosing to defy security standards inits default settings for InternetExplorer and Outlook Express in orderto gain some market advantage. Partlyit’s that Microsoft’s software gets tar-geted simply because it’s on most com-puter systems.

At the root of the problem, though,is Microsoft’s monopoly control of theWindows operating system and mostof the applications that run on it suchas Word, Excel and Powerpoint. This iswhat makes these virus attacks so devastating.

Microsoft’s private control of thedominant computer operating systemmeans that everything is hidden in theinterests of protecting the coropora-tion’s private profits. On any computersystem, users will find vulnerabilitiesand problems. But it isn’t profitable toadmit such problems, fix them and

Join the Workers World Supporter ProgramSupporters who contribute $75 a year receive a year’s subscription, a monthlyletter and five free trial subscriptions

$300 Enclosed to become a WW Sustainer. One time donation of $ _____.

Enclosed 1st monthly payment: $6 (Supporter) $10 (Sponsor) $25

(Sustainer) Please send me more information about the Supporter Program.

Please fill in your name and address below.

Name _______________________________________ Phone ____________________________________________

Address _____________________________________City/State/Zip ____________________________________

Email ____________________________________________________

Clip and return to Workers World Newspaper 55 W. 17th St., 5th Fl., NY, NY 10011

212.627.2994 ' fax: 212.675.7869 ' www.workers.org ' email: ww@workers.org

before the end of Chavez’ term. Theyclaim to have collected over 2 million sig-natures authorizing a referendum torecall President Chavez. But Chavezforces have challenged the authenticity ofthe signatures. The new Venezuelan con-stitution allows a recall referendum at themidpoint in a president’s term.

On Aug. 21 the opposition held aprotest to support the referendum thatdrew “tens of thousands” of people,according to the Washington Post.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powellshowed Washington’s support for thebig-business opposition with this Aug. 14statement: “We are pleased that a mech-anism was found where the government,under President Chavez, and the opposi-tion could have this referendum.”

Chavez answered that Washigtonshould not intervene in the internalaffairs of Venezuela and that the countryis not “a North American colony.” (BBCMundo Aug. 15)

Despite the vicious internal oppositionof the rich and their U.S. backers, theChavez government has succeeded inimplementing many reforms that benefitmost of Venezuela. It recently initiated aliteracy campaign, drawing from thelessons of the campaign the CubanRevolution undertook in the 1960s.

The new constitution offers indige-nous peoples rights they never hadbefore. A bank was set up to specificallygrant loans to low-income women. Andrural peasants have received land titles.

It is clear the Venezuelan workers andpeasants recognize the importance of thisprocess and support it. As Yaritza Alfarotold reporters at the Aug. 23 demonstra-tion: “We are poor and we back the pres-ident. We won’t permit a referendum.”(Associated Press Aug. 23)

By Nathalie Alsop

Hundreds of thousands of supportersof Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolutiongathered in the streets of the capital city,Caracas, on Aug. 23 to celebrate the mid-point of the popular President HugoChavez’s term. The demonstrators, esti-mated at 500,000 to a million people,took part in the last of six days of festivi-ties to celebrate Chavez’s three years inoffice.

The masses of workers and farmerswere also in the streets to protest theopposition forces’ newest strategy, a ref-erendum seeking the president’s recall.

The opposition forces are led by acoalition of business owners, bought-offofficials in the old company unions andthe corporate news media. They contin-ually try to sabotage the popular govern-ment and the economy. They have alsomade two serious attempts to overthrowChavez, both with the support of U.S.imperialism.

In April 2002 they arrested Chavezand attempted a coup. That was stoppeddead by popular demonstrations and sec-tions of the military. The second attemptwas an unsuccessful two-month-longnational lock-out—mislabeled a“strike”—supported by the U.S. govern-ment and corporations like McDonalds,Nestle and Coca Cola. While the lock-outsabotaged the economy for two months,it ultimately collapsed.

These wealthy elements hate Chavez asmuch as the poor Venezuelans love him.They fear that a continued expansion ofdemocracy will threaten their ability toexploit the Venezuelan workers and peas-ants, and will eventually lead in a social-ist direction.

Their latest attempt is to force a vote

make sure all users have the fixes.Microsoft has made billions of dollarsby shipping unfinished and sometimesuntested software and never botheringto fix known problems.

Microsoft has made an art of deny-ing responsibility for all problems andvulnerabilities and refusing to fixthem. Frequently it will blame rivalsoftware companies for Windows’ fail-ures. Yet it has been shown time aftertime that the problems Microsoft hasblamed on others are in fact its ownproblems.

Open software systems can’t hidevulnerabilities and problems like that.The software code is open for anyoneto see. That’s what makes systems likeGNU/Linux more secure, becausewhen problems are discovered theycan be easily isolated and fixed. Thereis nothing to hide.

Microsoft is like the computer Halin the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.”There’s something wrong inside, buthow can you get in there to fix it?

Open source software isn’t con-sciously socialist, no matter how muchBill Gates preaches against it as a plotto undermine capitalism in hisspeeches at the Cato Institute. But allof society has become dependent oncomputers and their operating sys-tems, as well as on the Internet.Private control of these systemsrestricts their development and inter-feres with their effective use. It is onlynatural that the millions who usethese systems should resist theserestraints.

I

capitalismo ha revolucionado losmedios de producción durante los últi-mos 200 años, pero no puede reconcil-iar los intereses a largo plazo de laHumanidad –conformada mayormentede trabajadores que están ahora conec-tados por tropecientos hilos en unaeconomía global- con su necesidad deobtener beneficios inmediatos paraunos pocos privilegiados.

Irónicamente, su deseo de rentabili-dad crece más precisamente cuando elsistema produce bienes baratos en can-tidades siempre mayores. La crecientecrisis de sobreproducción conduce a losadministradores del capital a tomarmayores riesgos y a tomar decisionesque pueden mejorar su verdadera razónde hoy, a la vez que magnifica el poten-cial de un desastre futuro.

Políticos desde Bush a Bloombergrealizaron un elogio a la población porsu calma y conducta ordenada duranteel corte. Fue una táctica, por supuesto,para distraer la atención de las causasde los problemas y de su propio papeltanto como pilares del capitalismo esta-

dounidense y moldeadores de la políticapública.

Sin embargo lo que la gente traba-jadora mostró, es que no necesitan delos Bush ni de los Bloomberg, y ni de lospropietarios de las compañías de sum-inistro eléctricos y tampoco de los ban-cos. Ellos demostraron tener la capaci-dad y habilidad de realizar el trabajobien hecho, cualquier trabajo.

Aquellos que claman por una mayorregulación estatal de la industriaenergética olvidan quienes son losdueños el gobierno. No solo Halliburtono Enron, sino cientos de otras empresasladronas se han asegurado de colocar asu gente en los asientos del poderpolítico. Cuando los zorros cuidan elgallinero, las gallinas terminan en elcaldero.

Tanto el capitalismo se vuelva cadavez más disfuncional, se debe encontrarun modo para romper los lazos de lapropiedad privada y reunir la riquezaeconómica y al pueblo. Los PanterasNegras tenían un eslogan que acertabaa sintetizar esta idea: Power to thePeople (El poder para el Pueblo.)

Continua de pagina 12

La codicia capitalista cortocircuita la red eléctrica

www.workers.org Sept. 4, 2003 Page 11

By Richard Becker

Aug. 26—The Black Panther Party usedto have an expression about brutal copswho justified their murderous actions by“masquerading as the victim of an unpro-voked attack.” The same description couldbe applied to Israeli Prime Minister ArielSharon.

A series of unfolding developments overthe past two weeks has brought the U.S.-sponsored and misnamed “road map forpeace” close to termination. Blame for thecollapse, according to U.S. officials and thecorporate media, must be assigned exclu-sively to actions of the Palestinian side, inparticular the bombing of an Israeli bus onAug. 19 in Jerusalem in which 20 peoplewere killed and more than 80 wounded.

Predictably, U.S. officials, from thepresident on down to the billionairemayor of New York City, competed in theircondemnations of the Palestinians andpledges of devotion to Israel.

And just as predictably, the politiciansand pundits alike mysteriously failed todiscern the monotonously familiar pat-tern of Israeli provocations, including theassassinations of prominent Palestinianleaders, that preceded Aug. 19.

For the big business media here,Palestinian casualties—never mind thatthey are significantly higherthan those among Israelis—are never sufficient to“derail the peace process.”According to them, onlyIsraeli blood flowing cancause a “derailment.”

Sharon, like his prede-cessors, thoroughly under-stands the racist rules ofthis game. Not only does hehave a 50-year career ofmass murder of Palestin-ians—from Qibya to Gaza toSabra and Shatila—behindhim, but Sharon has nocompunctions whatsoeverabout sacrificing his fellowIsraelis when he considersit politically expedient.

In the course of the strug-gle, and particularly overthe past decade, the assas-sination of Palestinianresistance leaders hasbrought retaliation insideIsraeli population centers.When leaders of the Hamas(Islamic Resistance Move-ment) or Islamic Jihadorganizations have beenassassinated, retaliationhas been almost guaran-teed.

The Israeli Army prefersto carry out “targetedkillings”—as its spokesper-sons like to call assassina-tions—with U.S.-suppliedattack helicopters. Missilesand 1,000-pound bombsare often the weapons ofchoice, and crowded citystreets are frequently thevenue for the Israeli hits. Asa consequence, civiliancasualties are often high.The U.S. media at best treatsPalestinian civilian casual-ties as mildly regrettable“collateral damage.”

made under the “road map.”Since the Palestinian resistance organi-

zations began observing a “hudna,” orceasefire, on June 29, the Israeli govern-ment has reneged on virtually all condi-tions of the agreement. After pulling backfrom parts of Gaza and the city ofBethlehem in June, no further Israeliwithdrawals have taken place. Palestinianeconomic activity remains at an all-timelow, while poverty and malnutrition, par-ticularly among children, are at recordhigh levels.

Of the more than 7,000 Palestinianprisoners held in Israeli prisons, only 336have been released, most of them individ-uals whose terms were nearly over.

Construction of the first phase of a 25-foot “apartheid wall,” intended to cut theWest Bank in half and annex 58 percentof its territory to Israel, was completed inlate July.

And rather than a freeze on settlements,more “outposts”—future settlements—have been established than dismantled. Inearly August, Sharon’s governmentannounced the expansion of a major Gazasettlement. In Gaza, 40 percent of the landis allocated for Israeli settlers, who num-ber fewer than 5,000 people. More than1.25 million Palestinians live in Gaza’svastly overcrowded refugee camps and

The Palestinian guerrilla forces fight-ing against Israeli occupation have nosuch weapons. They have not receivedhundreds of billions of dollars worth ofhigh-tech weaponry from Washington oranywhere else. So, Palestinian bombstypically are delivered strapped to thebody of a person who invariably dies inthe operation.

What triggered end of ceasefire

The event that immediately triggeredthe Aug. 19 Jerusalem bombing was theassassination five days earlier by Israelitroops of the Hebron leader of the IslamicJihad organization, Mohammed Seder.Hebron is a city of 150,000 Palestinians inthe southern West Bank. It has an Israelisettler population of less than 500, whonevertheless control more than 20 percentof the city. The Israeli Army frequentlyimposes round-the-clock curfews on thePalestinian population of the city.

On Aug. 18, talks between Israeli andPalestinian negotiators broke off over theissue of the withdrawal of the Israeli Armyfrom West Bank cities. The refusal of theIsraeli forces to dismantle roadblocks sur-rounding the cities, which effectively iso-late them economically and socially evenfrom surrounding villages, was the culmi-nation of a string of broken Israeli pledges

PALESTINE..

Sharon disguises provocation as ‘self-defense’

cities.Moreover, Israeli incursions and

attacks inside Palestinian cities andcamps escalated in August, resulting innumerous casualties.

Now, the Israeli government hasannounced that the Haram Al-Sharif, siteof the Al-Aksa Mosque, is open for Jewishand Christian “visitors,” while it remainsrestricted for Muslims. It was Sharon’s“visit” to Al-Aksa, accompanied by 1,500riot police, that sparked the beginning ofthe second Palestinian Uprising (Intifada)on Sept. 28, 2000.

The Sharon government clearlyintended that the assassination of Seder inHebron would end the “road map”process altogether. At the same time, itwould be sure to unleash a response,allowing Israel to put the onus for the col-lapse on the Palestinians.

So, after the Jerusalem bombing didoccur, Israel sealed the deal with theassassination-by-missile of one of the toppolitical leaders of Hamas, Ismail Abu-Shanab, and his bodyguards in Gaza onAug. 21. Tens of thousands of people andrepresentatives of all resistance organiza-tions filled the streets of Gaza City the fol-lowing day for Abu-Shanab’s funeral.Later, Hamas and Islamic Jihad formallyannounced an end to the ceasefire.

What’s behind the‘road map’

The “road map” is a U.S.plan to create what one com-mentator has called a“Palestinian mini-mini-ministate”—in other words, abantustan, independent inname but in reality acolony—while putting an endto the Palestinian nationalliberation struggle. ThePalestinian movement isseen in Washington as amajor obstacle to U.S. rulingclass plans to restructure theMiddle East in the aftermathof its seizure of Iraq.

The Sharon government,highly conscious of Israel’sdependence on U.S. military,economic and diplomaticsupport, went along with the“road map” for the timebeing.

Both the U.S. and Israeligovernments had demandedthat the Palestinians create anew government, headed byMahmoud Abbas, as a pre-condition for starting negoti-ations.

And both demanded thatAbbas “dismantle” the resis-tance organizations, all ofwhich are deeply rooted inthe population.

That would have requireda civil war among thePalestinians, something thatboth Washington and TelAviv have been mostdesirous of for the pastdecade. But the Palestinianforces, despite different per-spectives ranging fromIslamic to nationalist toMarxist, have skillfullyavoided such a ruinous con-flict.

EndOccupationNo to Colonialism in Iraq, Palestine, and everywhere

Sept. 25 - 28, International Days of Protest to

The people of Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Philippines and Colombia continue to resist empire and colonial rule.

Bush built his case for war against Iraq on a foundation of lies and racism. Now, Iraqi people and U.S. soldiers are dying daily. While millions are jobless, with education, healthcare, and children in crisis, thePentagon is spending $150 million/day on the occupation of Iraq! This year the U.S. plans to send morethan $10 billion to Israel – while an Israeli Apartheid Wall is institutionalizing colonial Bantustans andimprisoning an entire population with our money. The Pentagon is fighting in Afghanistan, the Philippinesand Colombia, and threatening new wars against Korea, Syria, and Cuba. "Regime Change" is being pro-posed for Iran and Zimbabwe.

It seems there is never enough money to meet human needs, but no shortage of funds for war and thepropagation of hate. With every military occupation, resistance mounts. As we are pitted against the peo-ple of the world, working people in the U.S. end up paying the price with our lives and taxes.

Not everyone is suffering of course: Bechtel, Halliburton, Big Oil and military contractors stand to makebillions from colonizing Iraq. How many children of corporate executives or politicians are fighting in Iraq?While pretending to “support the troops,” Bush and Congress are slashing veterans’ benefits. Secure in theWhite House, Bush proclaimed “bring ‘em on,” inviting Iraqi resistance fighters to attack U.S. troops. Wesay, “Bring the Troops Home Now!”

But Bush and the Pentagon face a rising tide of global opposition to their endless war. Sept. 25-28, people around the world will join in International Days of Protest Against War,Occupation and Empire on the third anniversary of the Palestinian Intifada (uprising). Join us.

San Francisco Sun. Sept. 28Gather12 noon Dolores Park

19th & Dolores Streets, 16th St. BART

1 pm March, 2 pm Rally Civic CenterGrove & Larkin, Civic Center BART

Initiated by: International A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Act Now to Stop War & End Racism

For info cal l (415) 821-6545 or emai l answer@act ionsf .org

w w w . I n t e r n a t i o n a l A N S W E R . o r ga project of Progress Unity Fund

Bring the Troops Home Now!

IRAQ

IRAQ

PALESTINE

Endorsers: SF Labor Council (AFL-CIO),Bay Area Labor Ctte. for Peace & Justice,American Arab Anti-Discrimination Ctte.SF Chpt., Latinos Against the War (LA),Int’l Black Coal. for Peace & Justice,Korean Americans for Peace, GabriellaNetwork, Bay Area Iranians for Peace &Justice, Ctrl. Ctte. for ConscientiousObjectors, Vets for Peace (Orange Cty.),South Asian Network, Al-Awda (SF & LAChpts.), Int’l Indian Treaty Council, Asian &Pacific Islander Coal. Against War, AfghanWomen’s Mission, Out Against the WarCoalition, Howard Wallace (*Pride atWork), Queers for Peace & Justice, SF BayView, Office of the Americas, FOCUS(Filipino Community Support), Sr. ActionNetwork, Food First, Not In Our Name,Int’l Solidarity Mov’t (N. Cal. SupportGroup), Peninsula Peace & Justice Ctr.,South Bay Mob. to Stop the War, Bay AreaUnited Against War, CSUS Campus PeaceAction, Project Censored, Comité 98, GrayPanthers (Greater Oakland), GlobalExchange, Code Pink, Green Party(Orange Cty.), Socialist Action, Nat’l Ctte.to Free the 5 Cuban Political Prisoners,Global Women’s Strike, North Cty.Progressive Coalition, Lake MerrittNeighbors Organized for Peace, FreedomSocialist Party, Radical Women, MarinInterfaith Task Force, Marin Peace &Justice Coal., Workers World Party, Voicesof Hope (Sedona, AZ), US-Cuba InfoMedProject, Modesto Peace & Life Ctr.,Frontline Newspapers, Mob. to FreeMumia Abu-Jamal, Left Party, SouthAlameda Cty. Peace & Justice Coal., WILPF(LA), Petaluma Progressives, Peace Fresno

mente indispensable para el crecimientodel capitalismo estadounidense. Esto fuedolorosamente claro para las clases dom-inantes durante la Gran Depresión,cuando el hundimiento de los negocios demuchas empresas energéticas contribuyóa la implosión de la economía.

Tal y como muchos de los capitalistashacen, entonces y ahora, encantados deatacar al gran Estado, los astutos repre-sentantes políticos de los grandes nego-cios en la Administración Roosevelt inten-taron rescatar del caos a su propia clasedecretando un paquete de medidas queaseguraría el acceso a la energía eléctricaa través de los EEUU a unos precios rela-tivamente bajos garantizando a las empre-sas privadas de la energía un beneficio.Muchas de estas empresas pertenecierona dueños locales.

Sin embargo, el tremendo crecimientoen la demanda eléctrica de las décadasrecientes ha estimulado el apetito delgran capital y aquella regulación lesresulta ahora insatisfactoria. Sus gruposde presión han empujado para que se pro-duzcan desregulaciones parciales de algu-nas áreas.

Enver Masud, que dirigió el Estudio dela Red de Energía Nacional en EEUU en1980, y el Estudio de Fiabilidad EléctricaNacional en 1981 para el Departamento deEnergía estadounidense, escribió el 18 deAgosto en el periódico Christian ScienceMonitor: “En cambio, la desregulaciónestaba mal denominada. Lo que realmentesucedió fue que las nuevas leyes y regula-ciones estaban puestas en su sitio, y un sis-tema bien comprobado que favorecía laminimización de costos se reemplazó porun sistema sin examinar que fomentaba lamaximización de beneficios. Tambiénfracturó la responsabilidad de garantizaruna fiabilidad completa del sistema”.

El cambio de las normas hizo más fácilcerrar las plantas eléctricas menos renta-bles, la separación de la propiedad de lasplantas de aquellos de las líneas de trans-misión, y despedir en todo este recorridoa muchos trabajadores. El control de laindustria pasó de compañías energéticasmenores a las corporaciones de mayorcapacidad –y ahora a manos de los bancosy firmas financieras que andan detrás deellas.

¿Quién es dueña de la industria?La gran banca

“La mayor fuerza de la industriaenergética hoy día no son las grandes com-pañía de gas natural o de energía eléctrica,sino los grandes bancos como Goldman

Sachs, Morgan Stanley y Citigroup,” tal ycomo afirma el New York Times del 19 deAgosto. Estas compañías de Wall Street sehan movido “agresivamente” dentro delmercado de energía, y han compradoplantas de energía, señaló el Times,porque “las ganancias que se ofrecen sonatractivas y la capacidad infrautilizada...puede ser comercializada en mercadosabiertos rentablemente”.

Si tuvieses una radio que funcione apilas en Nueva York durante el apagón,podrías escuchar la Radio Bloomberg, lacual se llama a sí misma “la única Estaciónde Radio Global del Mundo”. Sí, el alcalde,Michael Bloomberg, el también millonariopropietario del imperio de la comunica-ción y las noticias financieras. Mientrasmillones de personas se armaban depaciencia, narraba sobre lo bien queenfrentaba la ciudad el hecho –una refer-encia al alcalde y otros funcionarios, porsupuesto.

Claro, Wall Street estaba en una de laszonas en que la energía se restauróprimero. Las luces de neón iluminaban enel Times Square, también, doce horasantes que millones de residentes pudiesenutilizar sus refrigeradores, ascensores oventiladores.

Aún no se encendían los semáforos enmuchas zonas. Los trenes subterráneosestaban inmóviles. Las temperaturasaumentaban en los grandes cañones deconcreto y los rascacielos.

En Detroit y Cleveland, millones de per-sonas se enfrentaban ante un problemapeligroso, añadido al resto de problemas,dado que el corte del suministro dejabainutilizables las bombas de agua.

Pero en Wall Street, “los precios de laenergía en el Noreste hirvieron el viernes,el día siguiente al apagón, llegando a másde $1.000 un megavatio por hora desde unprecio promedio más cerca a los $100”(New York Times, 19 de agosto.)

Los bancos y financieras de Wall Streetque recientemente habían adquirido elnegocio de la energía hacían su agosto.

¿Emplearán este dinero para recon-struir la red de energía? Incluso aunquehayan saltado muchas alarmas que undesastre se podría dar, no han hecho nadatodavía. Estos ingresos se están repar-tiendo realmente entre propietarios yaccionistas.

La careta y la interpretación que losmedios de comunicación le han puesto alo que se ha nombrado el Gran Apagón del2003 es que el apagón se produjo por lafalla de la maquinaria capitalista de intro-ducir en el proceso de mejora de la red de

Por Deirdre GriswoldNew York

Fluye instantáneamente de ciudad aciudad, de estado a estado, de región aregión, incluso a través de las fronterasnacionales. Donde hay demanda, penetrainmediatamente. Donde no puedeaprovechar un beneficio, mengua. En oca-siones el fluido se interrumpe en unmomento crítico, y surge una crisis.

La compleja red a través de la cual viajaenriquece a muchas empresas, pero tansólo algunas pocas y gigantes corpora-ciones dominan por completo el proceso.

No, no estamos hablando de electrici-dad. Hablamos del capital.

Para comprender por qué el 14 deagosto la red eléctrica falló una vez más engran parte de los Estados Unidos, es nece-sario saber qué es lo que le sucede a laamplísima riqueza social creada por el tra-bajo colectivo de millones de trabajadoresen el país más rico del mundo. Estaenorme riqueza ha sido empleada paragenerar una máquina militar más mod-erna y poderosa que en cualquier otrobloque de naciones del planeta. Y ha pro-ducido una clase de magnates con activomayor que muchos países enteros.

¿Es debido a eso que, en pleno sigloXXI, la distribución de electricidad en losEE.UU. haya sufrido un colapso monu-mental?

Tal y como el escándalo Enron y ladebacle energético de Californiademostraron, capitalistas han amasadofortunas inmensas, legal e ilegalmente,mediante la venta de electricidad comomercancía. Entre los años 1999 y el 2000,los ingresos totales por servicios de estetipo aumentaron un 32 por ciento y lasganancias por valores subieron hasta el 11por ciento. A pesar del estancamiento delresto de la economía, el promedio de recu-peración de las inversiones en serviciosenergéticos es ahora la más grande que seconoce en los últimos diez años. Los divi-dendos por servicios de este tipo son tresveces mayor que el promedio de los 500de Standard & Poor.

Al mismo tiempo, estas empresas, nohan encontrado interesante invertir en laactualización y mejora de la red –laenorme y compleja línea que transmiteelectrones desde los generadores hasta losconsumidores.

La inversión en transmisión eléctrica esahora la mitad que la de hace 10 años.

Por eso incluso aunque exista exceso decapacidad en el área de generación eléc-trica –suficiente para satisfacer los picosde demanda– los cuellos de botella aflo-ran en el área de transmisión. Los orde-nadores que dirigen la electricidad a travésde las líneas desde los vendedores a loscompradores están programados paraproducir abultados beneficios –frecuente-mente a costa de la eficiencia y la conser-vación de la energía. La electricidad seenvía a cada vez mayores distancias, sibien perdiendo potencia en el camino.

La regulación comenzó en la década de los 30

Durante más de un siglo, la disponibil-idad fiable de fuerza eléctrica ha sido total-

transmisión eléctrica una herramientapara sacarle ventaja—lucro. Ese es el‘mantra’ del capitalismo: si no es rentable,no lo hagas. Seguramente, a consecuenciade esto, los políticos y los medios de comu-nicación demandarán mayores tasas deinteres y rescates económicos guberna-mentales para costear las nuevas ymejores líneas eléctricas. El Secretario deEnergía Spencer Abraham ya ha aparecidoen televisión para anunciar que los con-sumidores parece que tendrán que pagarhasta $50 billones de dólares en cobrospor el uso de electricidad.

De cualquier modo, la carga decualquier nueva construcción, recaerá contodo su peso sobre la clase trabajadora,especialmente sobre las comunidades decolor, tanto consumidores como con-tribuyentes sin caros abogados que lespuedan encontrar los huecos de la ley.Además, la industria criticará más fuertelas leyes de naturaleza medioambientalculpándolas de limitar la producción,incluso cuando ese no sea el problema.

Los desastres son cada vez más grandes

Este corte es aún peor que los masivosfallos energéticos que pararon el Noresteel 9 de Noviembre de 1965, que par-alizaron la ciudad de Nueva York el 13 deJulio de 1997, y en el muy caluroso veranode 1996, que causaron apagones en 11estados del Oeste, Alberta y la ColumbiaBritánica en Canadá, y la Baja Californiaen México. Después de aquellos desastres,se produjeron exámenes de cómo fun-cionó la red eléctrica. Se formaron nuevasorganizaciones –El Consejo de FiabilidadEléctrica de Norte América fue larespuesta de la industria después de1965– y se dispusieron mecanismos paraaislar el problema ante cortes eventuales.De manera que no se esperaba que nuevosapagones volvieran a producirse.

Pero sucedieron, y el día que las tem-peraturas alcanzaban los 90 gradosFahrenheit—un calor no usual para estaépoca del año. Y esta vez afectó un total de50 millones de personas de EEUU yCanadá.

Es posible que los capitalistas individ-uales no son muy inteligentes, pero tienenmucha gente inteligente trabajando paraellos. Su clase ha sido advertida una y otravez de que el sistema de transmisiónenergética es anticuado e inadecuado.Ahora ha sido otro colapso el que le hacostado a sus negocios billones de dólares–sin mencionar el desorden, los inconve-nientes y el peligro que ocasiona a dece-nas de millones de hogares.

Para la clase dominante incluso todavía,al igual que el anticuado sistema de con-trol de tráfico aéreo –que se colapsó en elárea de Nueva York sólo unos días despuésdel apagón, por razones no relacionadas–los costos reales del desastre parecen másaceptables que la necesaria revisión de lainfraestructura.

Todo esto parece irracional, pero nodebemos fijarnos en la irracionalidad delos individuos sino en la de un sistemaeconómico que se atrinchera cuando elmundo ha cambiado sustancialmente. El

Continua a página 10

Subscribete a Mundo Obrero$2 por 8 semanas de prueba $25 por un año

Nombre______________________________________________Telephono____________________

Dirección ________________________________________________________________________

Ciudad / Estado / Código Postal______________________________________________________

WW Publishers, 555 WW. 117 SSt., NNY, NNY 110011

La codicia capitalista cortocircuita la red eléctrica