RESISTANCE - 4th week of Feb.

RESISTANCE! ezine
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published weekly by Socialist Action
and Youth for Socialist Action
<http://www.socialistaction.org/>
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1. SA/YSA activist calendar
2. current events from the past week
3. The Real Record of John Kerry
4. Bush Budget offers trilion 4 rich, cuts for poor
5. "Why the War on Terrorism . . . Ain't" by Mumia
6. Marxist link of the week
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1. Socialist Action's ACTIVIST CALENDAR:

-Monday, Feb. 23 Minneapolis Youth 4 Socialist Action will be 
holding a planning meeting at 7pm in the Coffee Shop Area on the 
Augsburg College campus.  For more info email <delfrutas@xxxxxxxxxxx>

-Tuesday, Feb. 24 Cheq Bay Youth 4 Socialist Action will be hosting 
a film showing called "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"
on the failed U.S. coup against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.  The film 
showing will be at 7:30pm in the upstairs meeting room of the Vaughn 
Public Library in Ashland, WI.  For more info email 
<sack01@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

-This Tuesday & Thursday San Francisco Socialist Action will be 
hosting a class on the contibutions of Karl Marx to
economics.  The classes will both be at 7pm at the Socialist Action 
Bookstore, which is located at 298 Valencia, at the corner of 14th 
street.  For more info call (415)255-1080.

-Every other Tuesday New York Socialist Action holds classes on 
socialist politics.  The classes are held at 7pm.  For more info 
call Gerry at (212) 873-7523.

-Thursday, Feb. 26 Duluth, MN Youth 4 Socialist Action will be 
hosting a forum on the CIA-crack cocaine connection at 7:30pm in the 
Just Living Center of the College of St. Scholastica.  Prior to the 
meeting, from 7-7:30pm YSA will be holding a planning meeting at the 
JLC.  For more info email <MLarson5@xxxxxxx>

-Saturday, Feb. 28 Lake Superior Socialist Action's Communist 
Manifesto study group that will be meeting at 4pm at the Amazing 
Grace coffee house in Duluth. Everyone is welcome; we read and 
discuss different parts of the Manifesto each week.  For more info. 
contact <mnsocialist@xxxxxxxxx>.

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3. CURRENT EVENTS FROM THE PAST WEEK:

-The U.S. has yet to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

-A vehicle bomb detonated Monday outside an Iraqi police station in 
a Kurdish neighborhood of this ethnically divided northern city, 
killing at least 10 people and wounding 45 others, police and 
hospital officials said.  [AP]

-The U.S. is sending 50 troops to violence torn Haiti to protect its 
embassies.  This decision comes on the heels of anti-Aristide rebels 
capturing the countries secend biggest city. [CNN]

-The U.S. was forced to withdraw its proposal for "caucus" elections 
in Iraq.  This was an undemocratic proposal to stack the elections 
to prevent anti-U.S. Shites from winning elections. [MSNBC]

-U.S. forces investigating allegations of mistreatment of Iraqi 
detainees at a prison west of Baghdad have suspended 17 soldiers 
including a battalion commander and a company commander. [Reuters]

-Howard Dean ended his campaign for Democratic Party presidential 
nominee and Ralph Nader announced an independent campaign which he 
says is aimed at winning disaffected Republicans. [CNN]

-Israeli troops have fired teargas at stone-throwing Palestinians as 
protests flared along Israel's West Bank barrier and the World Court 
began hearings on the disputed strip of fences and walls.  A 
Palestinian suicide bomber also killed 8 Israelis this weekend.  
[Reuters]

-Right-wing legal challenges to the city of San Francisco's granting 
of same-sex marriage licenes have so far been defeated.  Over 3,000 
couples have been able to get married so far. [CNN]

-British Universities are facing disruption this week with lecturers 
striking over pay and students protesting against the government's 
controversial plans for the funding of higher education. [Reuters]

----------------------------------------------------
3. The Real Record of John Kerry
By Joe Auciello

"When I vote to give the president of the United States the 
authority to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein, it 
is because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass 
destruction in his hands is a threat, and a grave threat, to our 
security and that of our allies in the Persian Gulf region. I will 
vote yes because I believe it is the best way to hold Saddam Hussein 
accountable."
? John Kerry, Oct. 9, 2002,
before the U.S. Senate

Which candidates can Americans choose in the 2004 presidential 
election? Which policies will Americans endorse?

Here's one record: Strangle, starve, then bomb Iraq. Send troops to 
combat in far-off countries. Increase military spending. Slash 
social spending. Tilt taxes to favor the wealthy. Put 30 million of 
the poor to work in dead-end jobs that will always leave them poor. 
Send living-wage jobs abroad.

Let companies, not workers, choose between union wages in the U.S. 
or sweatshop wages overseas. Deny health care to 44 million.

Place token minorities on the cabinet; preside over the re-
segregation of public schools and the roll-back of affirmative 
action.

Aren't these all good reasons to vote against Republican President 
George Bush? No, not at all. These policies are, as many will 
recognize, the legacy of Democratic President Bill Clinton. This 
year's elections are shaping up to offer more of the same.

Americans can vote for a candidate who was the son of privilege, a 
Yale graduate, a Skull and Crossbones member, who chose an easy and 
comfortable career in government. This, of course, is Republican 
presidential candidate George W. Bush.

Or, Americans can vote for a candidate who was the son of privilege, 
a Yale graduate, a Skull and Crossbones member, who chose an easy 
and comfortable career in government. That is Democratic frontrunner 
John Forbes Kerry. Between this and that, there is not much 
difference and not much choice at all.

John F. Kerry is the candidate of the Democratic Party 
establishment, the favorite of the party bosses and the corporate 
interests they faithfully represent. That section of the American 
ruling class that is now having second thoughts about the costs of 
the Iraq occupation is looking favorably at Kerry. To hear the 
candidate's speeches?with the attacks on corporate fat cats and 
splendid promises for the average American?it would be forgivable to 
think that Kerry was a political outsider, a courageous, radical 
reformer. But common sense, plus some knowledge of Senator Kerry's 
past, tells a different story.

Kerry's record is a string of inconsistencies, contradictions, and 
reversals. His only concern is getting elected; his only principle 
is popularity. He will jump to the winning side of any issue.

Kerry speaks in favor of civil rights and vows to "end the era of 
John Ashcroft." But Kerry doesn't mention his vote in favor of the 
Patriot Act that Ashcroft enforces.

Kerry has tried to blame George Bush for the loss of manufacturing 
jobs, but Kerry has not mentioned his vote for the North American 
Free Trade Agreement, which has sent thousands of factory jobs out 
of the country. Now Kerry only promises, if he becomes president, 
to "review" trade agreements.

The candidate who postures as a populist and a "man of the people" 
is actually, according to Forbes magazine, the wealthiest member of 
Congress. Kerry points out he has refused PAC contributions, but he 
has created the Citizen Soldier Fund, which enables him to accept 
even greater amounts of individual donations than PAC allows.

In his New Hampshire victory speech, Kerry declared, "I have a 
message for the influence peddlers, for the polluters, the HMOs, the 
big drug companies that get in the way, the big oil, and the special 
interests who now call the White House their home: We're coming. 
You're going."

But according to the Center for Responsive Politics, last year Kerry 
accepted more money from lobbyists than any other senator. He also 
received more than half a million dollars from the health care 
industry. Financial firms have given $3 million to Kerry, who just 
happens to serve on the Senate Finance Committee.

Along the campaign trail, some feisty rhetoric and bold promises are 
acceptable, even encouraged, as long as the candidate is securely 
shackled by the golden chains of corporate contributions. These are 
the ties that truly bind.

Kerry's entire campaign is a pledge of loyalty to party bosses, 
union bureaucrats, and corporate executives. No matter what 
candidate Kerry might say to get elected, obedience to big business 
interests will determine the actual policies of a President Kerry.

The U.S. war against Iraq is a defining issue, one that reveals the 
truth about a candidate. Next to jobs and the economy, it is the 
issue that many Americans care most about. Senator Kerry tries to 
play both sides at once. He voted for the congressional resolution 
to authorize war and voted in favor of the millions to fund it. 
Later, Kerry opposed sending the $87 billion needed to continue the 
war, but he also opposes the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

Does this more recent vote indicate a change of mind and direction? 
Not at all. In South Carolina, Kerry proudly stated, "I have voted 
for the largest defense budgets in the history of our country. I 
have voted for almost all weapons systems that we have today with 
few exceptions."

Kerry tries to position himself as neither the peace candidate nor 
the pro-war candidate, but as the "responsible" candidate. Rather 
than stand up for a principle or cause, which will inevitably 
displease some voters, Kerry tries to duck and hide, in an effort to 
please all voters. The trick is to try to cover the real 
disagreements and contradictions with a slather of words.

Unlike George Bush, who played dress-up on an aircraft carrier, 
Kerry is an authentic Navy veteran. Kerry argues that his experience 
of war in Vietnam will prevent the reckless deployment of military 
force, but, so he claims, that experience will also provide him with 
the courage and wisdom to use that force when appropriate and 
necessary.

Thus, Kerry tries to land squarely in favor of both sides of a 
defining and controversial issue. This stance, and Kerry's current 
image overall, is a carefully calculated product intended to appeal 
to the widest market. When Kerry speaks about the Iraq war, he says 
yes and no at the same time. Shallowness and duplicity is no 
accident. It lets the peace movement think Kerry is, if not one of 
its own, at least an ally. And it reassures the more conservative 
voter that Kerry, the war hero, is a red, white, and blue patriot 
who won't let America get pushed around by any foreigners, be they 
French or Arab. In other words, the Dixie Chicks won't be invited to 
sing at a Kerry rally.

The Kerry candidacy is only the newest version of an old trick: the 
false choice of the lesser evil. It's the dead-end idea that 
says, "Pull the lever for a bad candidate because the other one 
seems worse." It's the two-party shell game, where every electoral 
choice comes up empty. It's the cynical charade of American 
democracy in action. Worse still, in defense of this rigged game, 
young American men and women are sent overseas to fight, kill, and 
die.

A new generation of young militants has proclaimed, "Another world 
is possible!" Those activists who march and demonstrate, plus the 
thousands more who support them, will naturally want to find an 
electoral expression for their protests. But a John Kerry will do 
nothing to bring a better world to birth.

The painful truth is that the progressive movement today has no 
candidate to champion its cause in the electoral arena. Choosing 
some lesser evil will never advance the goals of peace, social 
justice, and radical change. A new world cannot be raised on the 
rotten timbers of the old.

Instead of supporting candidates today who will betray tomorrow, 
it's better to build the antiwar movement, support the March 20 
actions, join the April 25 march in Washington, D.C., for abortion 
rights, and, no matter who takes office next year, keep protest 
movements alive, strong, and independent.
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4. Bush Budget offers trilion for the rich, cuts for the poor
By Dave Bernt

The $2.4 trillion budget proposal announced by the White House 
surely brought smiles to the faces of the ruling rich of this 
country. The budget calls for massive increases for the military 
while slashing funding for domestic programs.

The proposed budget also includes a further $1.1 trillion in tax 
cuts by making permanent past tax reductions?which almost 
exclusively benefit the rich. The budget will lock in cuts that have 
given the average millionaire an extra $90,000 a year. Corporate tax 
receipts have reached their lowest point as a percentage of the GDP 
since the 1930s.

Spending on non-military programs would be frozen or cut. Total 
spending on non-military items are projected at 0.5% per year, well 
below the rate of inflation.

Major cuts would affect low-income housing and programs for 
education, water resources, parks and the environment, funding for 
the arts, child care, and much more. Thirty eight programs are to be 
eliminated altogether.

The cuts in domestic spending affect all the departments of the 
government and are aimed almost exclusively at programs that benefit 
working people. For instance, cuts in a housing voucher program will 
reduce the number of poor families receiving housing subsidies by 
250,000. This is just one of hundreds of cuts across the board.

And these cuts are being proposed at the same time that a record 
high 375,000 jobless workers exhausted their unemployment benefits 
in January, and an estimated 2 million will be in same predicament 
during the first half of the year.

While programs that benefit working people are being slashed, the 
military will receive major increases. Total military spending will 
rise to $401.7 billion, a 7.1 percent increase.

That amount, and the projected deficit, do not include funding for 
the colonial occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. That sum could be 
as high as $50 billion, according to the Bush administration.

The Department of Homeland Security will receive a 10 percent 
increase over last year.

While the Democrats' initial response to the budget has been to 
denounce it as an anti-anti-worker, anti-poor, anti-environment 
proposal, the Democrats will surely end up backing the main parts of 
the budget.

Although the Democrats will seek to position themselves as friends 
of workers and the poor, especially in an election year, their past 
performances give us a good idea of what the Democratic Party 
opposition will amount to. Bush's initial $1.35 billion tax cut 
passed with the help of 12 Democratic senators and 38 Democratic 
representatives.

It is also worth noting that under President Clinton domestic 
programs were similarly slashed. The combined cuts under the Clinton 
administration were more than the three previous Republican 
administrations.

One of Clinton's proudest accomplishments was the passing and 
signing of the infamous 1996 welfare reform bill, which dropped 2.2 
million families from the welfare rolls by the end of his 
administration. The Economic Policy Institute calculates that 47 
percent of these families have experienced critical hardships such 
as going without food, shelter, or necessary medical care.

The announcement by the Bush administration that the federal 
government expects a budget shortfall of $521 billion for fiscal 
year 2005, the largest deficit ever in dollar terms, underscores the 
deepening economic crisis in the United States and a continuing 
threat to the world capitalist economy.

The reason for the shortfall is clear enough?declining revenues as a 
result of economic recession and trillion dollar give-aways to the 
rich in the form of tax cuts and military spending. As profit rates 
decline, the government uses the budget to boost the profits of 
their friends in big business. The only way to pay for this massive 
give-away is deficit spending. A recent report by the International 
Monetary Fund released on Jan. 7 warns of the potential disastrous 
consequences of the runaway U.S. debt.

The IMF report noted that within a few years the U.S. external debt 
would be equal to 40 percent of its total economy. The report warned 
that the debt the U.S. owed to the rest of the world could be so 
high that it could have a significant impact on the value of the 
dollar and international interest rates.

The bankers fear that a substantial rise in international lending 
rates would slow global investment and deepen even further the 
international economic crisis.

Whatever short-term benefit the ruling rich may get from Bush's 
budget, they will pay for it later in continuing economic 
instability. All the cuts in social services, and trillion dollar 
tax and spending give-aways, can't solve the fundamental 
contradictions in the capitalist system. 
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5. "Why the War on Terrorism . .  . Ain't" 
by Mumia Abu-Jamal

Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be 
believed. -- I.F. Stone, Independent Journalist 

When presidents and their flacks announce their various wars on 
this, or wars on that, one should look deeply into such 
proclamations, for the real underlying reasons for their actions. 

Usually, it has very little to do with the announced reasons for the 
latest so-called 'war.' That is not to suggest that they aren't 
really wars, and that like all wars, there are serious casualties, 
but one must examine the reasons made in their defense. 

Many Americans will proclaim, with cold-eyed certainty, that the 
U.S. is engaged in a 'War Against Terrorism.' They are sure of this, 
and point to the newspapers and TV news shows to buttress their 
claim. But, as with the other various 'wars' during the last 
century, the wars against communism, against poverty, and against 
drugs, things are seldom what they seem. 

Let's try a simple test. Please name a country that is involved in 
terrorism. Go ahead; do it now: _____________ 

Unless I miss my guess, many have listed nations that are familiar 
to us if we read, or listen to, the corporate news. Iraq. Perhaps 
Afghanistan. Syria might be added. Perhaps Cuba. 

Few would add the names of nations that are far more familiar to us 
as US allies: Turkey. Israel. Russia ... (and for our world-wide 
readers or listeners, the United States!). 

If we define terrorism as the use of violence for political aims and 
ends, then the last set of nations are big players in the terrorism 
game. They either directly engage in, or arm and support, states 
which wage wars on occupied or minority populations. Indeed, to 
scholars and global activists, this isn't even subject to 
questioning. 

Antiwar activist and linguist, Noam Chomsky has written about this 
subject for decades, and one of his latest works, *Power and Terror: 
Post 9/11 Talks and Interviews* (Seven Stories/Little More, 2003), 
makes the case cleanly. On Turkey, Chomsky explains: 

They [Turkey] carried out some of the worst atrocities in the 1990s, 
I mean, far beyond anything that Slobodan Milosevic was accused of 
in Kosovo, surely before the NATO bombing. They were carried out at 
about the same time in southeast Turkey against maybe a quarter of 
the population, Kurds, who are horribly repressed. And millions of 
them were driven out of their homes, thousands of villages 
destroyed, maybe tens of thousands killed, every imaginable kind of 
barbaric torture. ...Turkey became the leading arms recipient in the 
world outside of Israel and Egypt, which are in a different 
category. And they're very grateful that the United States was so 
willing to help them in carrying out massive state terror. And in 
reward, they are now fighting the "War on Terror" [pp. 18-19]. 

This demonstrates that the proffered reason for the Iraq War, now to 
stop human rights abuses, was a political shadow dance. The common 
argument that Hussein was a tyrant who used gas "against his own 
people", Chomsky explains, is only part of the story: 

He did use gas against "his own people" (actually, Kurds are hardly 
his own people), *with our support*. He carried off the Anfal 
operation, maybe killing one hundred thousand Kurds, with our 
support. He was developing weapons of mass destruction at a time 
when he was really dangerous and we provided him the aid and support 
to do it, perfectly consciously. He was a friend and ally, and he 
remained so [pp. 37-38]. The Americans didn't care about the Kurds 
under Iraqi control, and don't care about the Kurds under the boots 
of Turkey today. They don't give a rat's ass about the Iraqi people 
either. Chomsky uses a wonderful quote by the German philosopher 
Hegel which captures American thoughts exactly: They are "mere 
Things--whose lives have no value." (Incidentally, Hegel was writing 
about Africans). 

The other nations I mentioned? Study. Read Chomsky's *Power and 
Terror*. Draw your own conclusions. 

Chomsky quotes two Western figures, Churchill, and the British 
statesman, Lloyd George, to show how the British defended using 
poison gas against what Churchill called "recalcitrant Arabs." Lloyd 
George, who began his career as a great Liberal, is quoted as 
saying, "[W]e insisted on reserving the right to bomb niggers" [p. 
121]. 

Terrorism isn't grown merely in foreign deserts: it's as present as 
our own back yards. 

Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal
To find out more about Mumia click <http://www.socialistaction.org/>
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6. MARXIST LINK OF THE WEEK:

"History of Haiti"
<http://www.geocities.com/mnsocialist/haitihistory.html>
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***This ezine is put out by Socialist Action and Youth for Socialist
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