No. 18, May-June 2004  Table of Contents Selected articles linked Click on image to left for pdf version of complete issue.

 

Mobilize the Workers of the World to Throw Out the Imperialists! Rebellion Against Colonial Occupation of Iraq Since the beginning of April, Iraq has been convulsed by a rebellion that has extended to practically all the cities in the center and south of the country. Overcoming historic divisions which had been fanned by the imperialists since the time of British colonial rule, Muslims of both Sunni and Shiite rites drew closer to fight against a common enemy: the invaders headed by the United States. Among the Pentagon brass, the conviction is spreading that in its present contours the ongoing war in Iraq is “unwinnable.” The League for the Fourth International has called since before the beginning of the imperialist invasion for the defense of Iraq and the defeat of the occupation forces, as we did in Afghanistan as well, the previous target of the U.S.’ terrorist “war on terror.” The LFI has insisted that every blow by the Iraqi people landed against its bloody colonial rulers and the occupation armies is a blow on behalf of the exploited and oppressed the world over. At the same time, we stress that it is necessary to organize independently of both Sunni and Shiite religious fanatics, and to be ready to defend the working people, women and minorities against them. It is the duty of class-conscious workers and opponents of imperialism throughout the world to mobilize their power to bring the U.S. war machine to a grinding halt. Rebellion Against Colonial Occupation of Iraq  (25 May 2004)

The Hideous Face of U.S. Imperialism in Iraq Torture American-Style It was the photos that got them. The pervasive torture, the humiliation, dehumanization and sexual degradation of prisoners, the gratuitous beatings, the rapes, the outright murders, dozens of them, that took place at U.S. prisons in Iraq didn’t faze the Pentagon or the White House. In fact, from Guantánamo to Baghdad, the use of “aggressive” interrogations was approved right up the chain of command. The U.S. imperialists set out to enslave Iraq. So after slaughtering thousands with the Pentagon’s high-tech weaponry they grind it in by trying to humiliate their subjects. As the My Lai massacre came to symbolize U.S. devastation of Vietnam, the torture at Abu Ghraib prison now sums up the oppressive U.S. occupation of Iraq. From  “Operation Phoenix” in Vietnam to “Operation Condor” in South America, the U.S. has used torture and trained its puppet armies in the most scientific techniques. Calling on Bush and Rumsfeld to apologize for Iraq torture is like calling on Hitler and Göring to say they're sorry for the Kristallnacht pogrom against Jews. With the occupation forces hard-pressed to put down rebellion against colonial rule in Iraq, the outrage over the torture revelations must be used to defeat U.S.  imperialism and its flunkies. Torture American-style (10 May 2004)  Torturer Is Guard at Prison Where Mumia Abu-Jamal held (6 May 2004)  Darius Rejali, Forced to Stand: An Expert Torture (30 April 2004)

U.S./Army Candidate Arroyo Leads, 120 Killed Philippines Elections: Bread and Circuses, Minus the Bread On May 10, voters in the Philippines trooped to the polls in a “democratic” ritual that supposedly picks the president and legislators who are to govern the country. After the show biz hoopla, “exit polls” and “quick counts” proclaimed incumbent president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo the winner. Meanwhile, more than 120 have been killed in election violence, many of them leftists gunned down by police, paramilitary and military assassins. Arroyo has unreservedly supported Washington’s terrorist “war on terror,” bringing more than 1,200 U.S. military “advisors” to the Philippines on a “training” mission as well as dispatching a squad of troops to Iraq along with several thousand Filipino contract workers on U.S. army bases. Various left groups participated in the elections through “progressive” party lists, all of them amounting to miniature popular fronts which tied the workers to one or another bourgeois politicians. The Rebolusyonaryong Grupo ng mga Komunista (RGK) issued a call on the Filipino working masses not to support any of the bourgeois slates in these counterinsurgency elections, but to fight instead to defeat the imperialist war, from Iraq and Afghanistan to Southeast Asia, and to forge the nucleus of a revolutionary workers party. Philippine Elections: Bread and Circuses, Minus the Bread (May 2004)

NYC Mayoral Child Abuse: Bloomberg/Klein Beat Up on 8-Year-Olds Forced Flunk-Outs and the Assault on Public Education What It’s All About: Corporatization, Resegregation and War NYC billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg and his flunkey, schools chancellor Joel Klein, have set a quota of 15,000 3rd-graders to be deliberately failed. This is child abuse on a grand scale. The racist city rulers have set out to ruin the lives of these primarily black, Latino and immigrant students in a cynical electoral ploy, and to further a bipartisan capitalist agenda of privatizing, corporatizing and resegregating public education. Moreover, this use of standardized tests goes hand in hand with the drive to undermine or break teachers unions, and to regiment the population for imperialist war. Forced Flunk-Outs and the Assault on Public Education (19 April 2004)

Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti: Defeat U.S. Imperialism!  Democrats, Republicans – War Makers, Strikebreakers On the first anniversary of the United States’ imperialist war on Iraq, the pretexts for war  – supposed stockpiles of “weapons of mass destruction,” alleged ties with “Al Qaeda” terrorists – have long since been revealed as blatant lies. Last year millions marched in the streets in some of the largest antiwar demonstrations ever, but it didn’t stop or even slow down the imperialist juggernaut. Currently, opposition to the war is being channeled into the shell game of bourgeois politics through the Democratic Party. Talk of “Bush’s war” hides the fact that virtual Democratic nominee John Kerry voted for the invasion and even “antiwar” candidates Dean and Kucinich are for continuing the colonial occupation of Iraq (at most disguised in U.N. blue helmets). The Internationalist Group called to “Defeat U.S. Imperialism, Defend Iraq!” and fought for workers’ strikes against the war. While pro-capitalist union tops push protectionism (“save American jobs”) and campaign for the Democrats, Trotskyists seek to build a revolutionary workers party against all the capitalist war parties. Democrats, Republicans – War makers, strikebreakers (15 March 2004)

Imperialist-Engineered Coup Backed by the U.N. U.S. and France Impose New Colonial Occupation Throw the Imperialists Out of Haiti! At dawn on Sunday, February 29, Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced from office under intense pressure from Washington, bundled aboard a U.S. plane and removed from Haiti, not knowing where he was being taken. Shortly after, the first U.S. Marines arrived, seconded by soldiers brought in from France’s Caribbean colonies. The U.N. Security Council gave its blessing to the Franco-American condominium. This episode opened a “new chapter” in Haiti’s relations with the imperialist powers , as U.S. president Bush put it, namely a joint occupation by its former colonial masters. Gone are the tactical differences between the imperialist rivals over the Iraq invasion, and the Haitian masses will pay the price. In the guise of  “peacekeeping,”a new “death squad democracy” has been installed. But resistance by the Haitian working people and working-class action against the occupation in the U.S. and Europe could turn Haiti into a tropical hell for the imperialists. Throw the Imperialists Out of Haiti! (1 March 2004)

Combat the Coup Plotters – No Political Support to Aristide! Organize Worker-Led Resistance Against Death Squad Invaders! Over the last three weeks, murderous right-wing rebels have launched an armed coup d’état against the Aristide government, once backed by the Democratic Clinton administration. The armed plotters are allied with a “democratic” opposition, covertly financed by the Republican Bush regime. Meanwhile, the impoverished population has been ground down by Aristide’s anti-worker austerity and privatization policies, carried out on orders from the International Monetary Fund. Working people should not politically support either side in the dispute between a threadbare imperialist-installed populist regime and a squalid imperialist-backed unpopular-front opposition. What is urgently needed is class-struggle workers action, in both Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic, and building revolutionary workers parties opposed to all the bourgeois parties of the U.S. puppet regimes. Organize Workers Resistance Against Death Squad Invaders! (28 February 2004)

Students’ Rights Under Attack at CUNY Defend Miguel Malo! For two years, the administration of the City University of New York (CUNY) and the Bronx D.A. have pursued a vendetta against Miguel Malo, former president of the student senate at Hostos Community College. After endless pre-trial delaying tactics by the prosecution, Malo's trial began on Monday, December 1. He faces a year in jail for protesting cuts in bilingual Spanish and ESL (English as a second language) programs. CUNY authorities want to make an example of Malo, as part of a crackdown against student rights and an attempt to strengthen the powers of the campus cops. This is part of the racist profiling, mass round-ups of immigrants and the overall escalation of police-state measures that are the “home front” of the imperialist war waged by the U.S. ruling class. The Internationalist Group along with the Hunter Internationalist Club and the Revolutionary Reconstruction Club at Bronx Community College have played a leading role mobilizing support for Malo’s defense.  Demonstrations have been held on September 25 and November 24 outside Bronx Criminal Court as protesters chanted, “War on Iraq, CUNY under attack!”  Defend Miguel Malo! (November 2003)  Day One of Miguel Malo Trial  (1 December 2003)  Day Two of Miguel Malo Trial  (2 December 2003)  Day Three of Miguel Malo Trial  (3 December 2003)  Day Four of Miguel Malo Trial  (4 December 2003)  Day Five of Miguel Malo Trial  (5 December 2003)    Day Six of Miguel Malo Trial  (8 December 2003)  Day Seven of Miguel Malo Trial  (9 December 2003)  Mistrial Declared in Frame-Up of Miguel Malo  (10 December 2003)  Miguel Malo Frame-Up Dossier (December 2003)  Flyer for December 5 demonstration (requires Acrobat Reader) Petition to drop charges against Miguel Malo (December 2003)