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April 5, 2002 | Issue 401
FRONT AND BACK PAGES
"No one is safe from this terror"
Stop Israel's war on the Palestinians
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has declared an all-out war on Palestinians. And his first target was Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat.
Jobs and benefits slashed while the CEOs cash in
"Where am I going to work?"
The 20,000 workers who got pink slips from United Airlines last fall are scrambling to make ends meet. But one person who lost his job at United doesn't have to worry. He's James Goodwin, the former CEO who was forced to resign in disgrace--but still got a $5.7 million severance package.
ISRAEL'S REIGN OF TERROR
A call to action from besieged Ramallah:
"Raise your voices right now"
Toufic Haddad is a Palestinian living in Ramallah and co-editor of the left-wing journal Between the Lines. He spoke with Socialist Worker as Israeli soldiers besieged Yasser Arafat's compound not far from his home.
Israel's cruel reign of terror
The U.S. mantra that Yasser Arafat "must make a 100 percent effort to fight terrorism" is a way of avoiding the main issue and the true source of violence--Israel's daily humiliation and intimidation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living under its military occupation.
Suicide attacks "borne of despair"
The Israeli government claims that Palestinian suicide bombings are proof of the fanaticism they must defend against. But in reality, these Palestinian attacks are a product of hopelessness and despair--in the face of Israel's military offensive to drown the Palestinian resistance in blood.
SPECIAL FEATURES
A look inside Illinois' broken death penalty system
The real face of death row
Illinois Gov. George Ryan--who two years ago bowed to growing pressure and called a halt on all executions--has said that he will review the cases of all 163 Illinois death row prisoners during his final months in office. What will he learn?
The revolutionary legacy that the media covers up
The real Malcolm X
The recent discovery of letters, diaries and notebooks belonging to Malcolm X has stirred new interest in the man and his politics. But establishment voices that treat Malcolm X as a saint today seek to bury his real legacy of revolutionary internationalism and anti-imperialism.
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WHAT WE THINK
U.S. bears responsibility for Israel's savage crackdown
The monster that Washington created
When reporters asked George W. Bush about the solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict on Monday, he sputtered: "There needs to be a focused coalition effort in the region against peace--I mean, against terror, for peace." He was more truthful the first time.
Supreme Court rules against rights of illegal immigrants
An attack on all workers
Illegal immigrants don't count as human beings. That's the message that the U.S. Supreme Court sent last week when it ruled in a 5-4 vote that illegal immigrants aren't entitled to legal protection when they are wrongly fired from their jobs.
SW turns 25
Socialist Worker turns 25 years old this month. That's a quarter century of reporting on struggles throughout U.S. society--the stories of working people that don't make it into the mainstream media.
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NATIONAL NEWS
S.F. cops' sick attack on four youths
Standing up to police brutality
Residents of the Bay View Hunters Point neighborhood in San Francisco are coming together to say no to police brutality.
Plea from a prisoner held at Guantánamo Bay:
"Can you tell the world about us?"
When journalists toured Camp X-Ray, the U.S. prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in March, one prisoner tried desperately to attract their attention. "We've been on a hunger strike for 14 days, and nobody cares," he called out. "Can you tell the world about us?"
New study exposes racism
The back of the health care bus
"The medical world just reflects the real world." That's how one African American patient summed up the reality of the health care system--a reality reflected in the findings of a report released last month that found that minorities in the U.S. consistently receive lower quality health care than whites.
Justices uphold war on drugs in public housing
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously last week that public housing officials can evict tenants for drug use by family members--whether or not the tenants know about it, and even if it occurs off public housing property.
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COLUMNS
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
Confronting the crime of slavery in the U.S.
In 1865, the U.S. government promised every freed slave 40 acres of tillable land, known as the "40 Acres and a Mule Proclamation." That was the last time the U.S. government gave any thought to compensating African Americans for 300 years of slavery. The reparations movement is now forcing the political establishment to reconsider.
THE MEANING OF MARXISM
Why do they tell lies about Lenin?
The Russian revolutionary Lenin is perhaps the most misunderstood, maligned and lied-about figure in history. If you learn about him at all, you're likely to hear that Lenin was a violent conspirator and a fanatical dictator.
INSIDE THE SYSTEM
Birdbrained logic
When environmental groups filed a lawsuit claiming that the Navy's bombing and shelling exercises on the tiny Pacific island of Farallon de Medinilla was killing the native bird population, Navy officials insisted that dropping bombs on the island is actually good--for both birds and bird-watchers.
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ON THE PICKET LINE
New DC 37 leaders still silent on contract showdown
AFSCME shake-up in NYC
As the contract between 135,000 AFSCME District Council 37 union members and the New York City government nears its June 30 deadline, the uproar in the union grows more intense.
Defend immigrant workers
Immigration and Naturalization Service agents raided San Francisco and San Jose International Airports last week, arresting 25 service workers for immigration violations--as part of a nationwide sweep of airports that began following September 11.
Berkeley teachers
In response to deep cuts by the Berkeley Unified School District because of years of gross budget mismanagement, members of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers are preparing to fight for their jobs, their programs and better teaching conditions.
State of Wisconsin
"Enough is enough!" shouted more than 1,000 state workers who were protesting the proposed state budget cuts at the Wisconsin State Capitol on March 28.
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REPORTS FROM THE STRUGGLE
Thousands show their outrage at Israeli repression
We want justice for Palestinians!
Thousands of people across the country took to the streets March 30 to commemorate Palestinian Land Day--the day 26 years ago that Israeli soldiers killed six Palestinians protesting the confiscation of their land. But Israel's stepped-up war in Ramallah and elsewhere gave the events added urgency.
Free Rabih Haddad
The Justice Department has provided no credible evidence that either Rabih Haddad or the Global Relief Foundation are connected to "terrorists." But that isn't stopping them from trying.
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SW READERS SPEAK OUT
D.C. families don't have a decent place to live
This housing crisis kills
The Washington metro area is facing a housing crisis that is leaving thousands of families without a decent place to live. This situation doesn't just increase homelessness. It kills.
We won't be intimidated or silenced by police
We're members of the ISO in Albany, Ga., a very conservative area in southwest Georgia. We found out just how conservative after our meeting last week.
They say the recession's over?
I am an unemployed white-collar worker currently living in Northern California. As someone who has been laid off--twice--in the past year, I get really burned when I hear politicians saying that the recession "never really happened."
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REVIEWS
Past struggles with lessons for today
THREE STRIKES is a wonderful book that recounts three important labor struggles from the first half of the century.
Ozomatli's catchy call to be active
It seems like every time you go to a meeting to organize a protest here in Southern California, someone says, "We should see if we can get Ozomatli to play!" And for good reason.
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