Dear editor, I want to congratulate you for your October 1998 issue-especially Paul Siegel's "American Aurora" and the editorial on Clinton's crimes. Both these and the rest of SA's articles were written in working-class language, which makes your paper readable and accessible to plebian/proletarians, contributing to an understanding of what the class struggle is all … Continue reading Editorials
Month: January 1999
Editorials
Clinton and Impeachment What are President Clinton's real high crimes and misdemeanors? The list is long and heinous. The latest crime was December's air assault on the people of Iraq-the second under his administration. This comes on top of the murderous economic sanctions against Iraq, which are denying food and medicine to the people. According … Continue reading Editorials
Theater in Review: Hecuba
By GAETANA CALDWELL-SMITH "Hecuba," a play by Euripides, staged by the American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco. Directed by Carey Perloff. Starring Olympia Dukakis. "For Hecuba! / What's Hecuba to him, or he to her, / that he should weep for her?" -"Hamlet" Who, indeed is this Hecuba of Euripides' eponymous play? The fallen Queen of Troy … Continue reading Theater in Review: Hecuba
Quebec Election Reveals Political Impasse
By ROBBIE MAHOOD MONTREAL-Billed in advance as a date with destiny for Parti Quebecois (PQ) Premier Lucien Bouchard and Liberal Party candidate Jean Charest, Quebec's Nov. 30 election turned out to be a pretty dull affair. Bouchard easily out-maneuvered his Liberal opponent during the campaign, ably assisted by the ever-obliging prime minister of Canada, Jean … Continue reading Quebec Election Reveals Political Impasse
Capitalist Politicians in Indonesia Outflanked by Student Radicals
By GERRY FOLEY Political polarization is increasing rapidly as the social and political crisis in Indonesia deepens. In the confrontation in mid-November between government forces and protesters who had rejected the legitimacy of the government of "constitutional continuity" that took the reins after the resignation of veteran dictator Suharto, the procapitalist opposition leaders were clearly … Continue reading Capitalist Politicians in Indonesia Outflanked by Student Radicals
Large-Scale Fighting Resumes in Kosovo
By GERRY FOLEY On Christmas Eve, the Serbian military mounted a major attack on the village of Podujevo in Kosovo. The attacking force reportedly included about 40 tanks. The action seemed to bear out Ernest Luma's prediction in the Dec. 17 issue of the exile Albanian weekly Zeri i Kosoves, (published in Switzerland), which supports the … Continue reading Large-Scale Fighting Resumes in Kosovo
Zimbabwe Torn by Western Banks, Corruption
By JOHN RUHLAND HARARE, Zimbabwe-People in this country warn that speaking out against the government may lead to one's disappearance, but this does not prevent people from discussing the corruption of President Mugabe's administration. The consensus is that Mugabe's days are numbered, and he is busy consolidating the great personal wealth he squeezed out of … Continue reading Zimbabwe Torn by Western Banks, Corruption
Teamsters Notebook
By CHARLES WALKER In December, the James P. Hoffa forces swept the last of the union's reformers from the Teamsters Washington headquarters, popularly called the "Marble Palace." In a three-way race, Hoffa beat the reformers' slate headed by Tom Leedham by nearly 55,00 votes, or 55 percent to 39 percent. Hoffa's vote easily surpassed Ron … Continue reading Teamsters Notebook
New York City’s AFSCME Unions Rocked by Scandal
By PETER CLARK For the past six months scandals have been rocking one of the most powerful unions in the country. These events will have a profound affect on the labor movement nationwide and will provide valuable lessons for union militants. The union is District Council 37 (DC37) of the American Federation of State, County … Continue reading New York City’s AFSCME Unions Rocked by Scandal
Hey, Hey, Woodie Guthrie!
By RICK FIELDING "Woody, Cisco, and Me: Seamen Three in the Merchant Marine," By Jim Longhi. University of Illinois Press. It was in 1960 that I first became aware of Woody Guthrie and his music. Other than numerous references to him in folk music publications (virtually all of them originating from New York), he would … Continue reading Hey, Hey, Woodie Guthrie!
Farmers Ruined as Hog Prices Collapse: More Evidence of the Developing Global Economic Crisis
By NAT WEINSTEIN A report by David Barboza appeared in the Dec. 13 New York Timesunder the headline "Farmers Are in Crisis As Hog Prices Collapse." Barboza reports on the drastic decline in the prices farmers are now getting for hogs raised for the market. His report partly explains how it came to be. And, whether … Continue reading Farmers Ruined as Hog Prices Collapse: More Evidence of the Developing Global Economic Crisis
Howard Zinn Speaks on Iraq Bombing
By HOWARD ZINN President Clinton has just told another lie, this time not about the relatively trivial matter of his sexual activities, but about matters of life and death. In explaining his decision to bomb Baghdad, he said that other nations besides Iraq have weapons of mass destruction, but Iraq alone has used them. He … Continue reading Howard Zinn Speaks on Iraq Bombing
Book Review: ‘A People’s History of the United States’
By PAUL SIEGEL Howard Zinn, "A People's History of the United States, 1492-Present," (Revised and Updated Edition). Harper Collins, l995. 675 pp. $16. Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" sold more than 350,000 copies in its 1980 edition. Published in a revised and updated edition in 1995, it passed the 500,000 … Continue reading Book Review: ‘A People’s History of the United States’
Africans in America: Part III
By KWAME SOMBURU Slavery existed in the South for almost 200 years before "Cotton became King." Only 81 bags of cotton were exported from the United States as late as 1790. But the introduction of the cotton gin three years later stimulated large-scale development of cotton as a cash crop. Cotton production doubled every decade … Continue reading Africans in America: Part III
Former Death Row Prisoners
Mumia's struggle has resonated in every quarter of U.S. society. A dramatic letter calling for his freedom was signed by 15 innocent people who had lived on death row for periods ranging from two to 12 years. They had been convicted and freed when the racist and classist frame-up against them was finally brought to … Continue reading Former Death Row Prisoners
ABC Television Documentary on Mumia: ‘Objective Journalism’ or Hit Piece?
By JEFF MACKLER At a Dec. 12 conference in Philadelphia, defense attorney Leonard Weinglass responded in detail to the Dec. 9, ABC-TV "20/20" broadcast in which host Sam Donaldson, in the name of "objective" journalism, championed the efforts of the Fraternal Order of Police and other lying state officials who seek to murder Mumia Abu-Jamal. … Continue reading ABC Television Documentary on Mumia: ‘Objective Journalism’ or Hit Piece?
NAACP Elections
By DOUG MANN MINNEAPOLIS-The local branch of the NAACP is about to elect its leadership. Its current president, Leola Seals, was elected in the fall of 1997 on the promise to act like the head of a civil rights association instead of an ol' boys' network. Under her leadership, the branch has opposed several policies … Continue reading NAACP Elections
Minneapolis Police Assault Highway Protesters
By CYNTHIA BURKE MINNEAPOLIS-In the largest police action in Minnesota history, 600 Minneapolis police Minnesota state troopers and sheriff's deputies laid siege a few hours before dawn on Sunday, Dec. 20 to seven state-owned houses occupied by a few dozen protesters peacefully assembled to oppose the state's reroute of Highway 55 for construction of light … Continue reading Minneapolis Police Assault Highway Protesters
Homeless Die on the Streets of San Francisco
By MICHAEL SCHREIBER SAN FRANCISCO-On the night before Christmas the newspapers reported that yet another homeless person had been found dead in the streets. The body of a 47-year-old man was discovered on a parkbench in Chinatown. The coroner was unable to say as yet whether the man had died of exposure to the cold. … Continue reading Homeless Die on the Streets of San Francisco
Fightback: Bill the Barbarian
By SYLVIA WEINSTEIN Bill Clinton, president of the United States, just as Bush before him, proved to the capitalist class that he was their man. He carried out a ruthless war against a harmless people, Iraq, to prove that the United States can bomb and march into any country, any time, without a moment's notice. … Continue reading Fightback: Bill the Barbarian
Populist Candidate Wins in Venezuela
By GERRY FOLEY The triumph in the Dec. 6 Venezuelan elections of populist army officer Hugo Chavez, leader of a military revolt against the neoliberal government of Carlos Andres Perez in 1992, prompted The New York Times to ring a preliminary alarm bell. The Caracas daily El Universal immediately picked it up. In its Dec. 8 issue, El Universal summarized the … Continue reading Populist Candidate Wins in Venezuela
Native Peoples Face Terror in Chiapas
By GERRY FOLEY The greatest single outrage of the Mexican government's "low intensity war" against the native people's liberation movement came a year ago with the massacre of 45 unarmed pacifist Indians in Acteal, Chiapas, by a paramilitary mercenaries. Despite the outcry in Mexico and throughout the world against this savage slaughter, the regime has … Continue reading Native Peoples Face Terror in Chiapas
Mumia Abu-Jamal: The Struggle for His Freedom Enters a Critical Stage
By JEFF MACKLER The struggle to win a new trial and freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal has entered a critical stage. Mumia, a noted Black journalist and innocent political prisoner, has been on Pennsylvania's death row for 17 years after being convicted in a frame-up trial of killing a Philadelphia police officer. Key organizers of Jamal's … Continue reading Mumia Abu-Jamal: The Struggle for His Freedom Enters a Critical Stage
Clinton Bombs While Congress Bickers
By NAT WEINSTEIN Never before in a period of seeming stability has the world witnessed such a two-sided, tragicomic crisis as came to a head last month. The president was impeached and is to be tried by the Senate on charges of "high crimes and misdemeanors." At the same time, Clinton unilaterally launched another bombing … Continue reading Clinton Bombs While Congress Bickers