Call of the Hemispheric and Global Assembly against
the FTAA and the WTO

Mexico City, May 11-12, 2003

We, the participants in this historic Hemispheric and
Global Assembly against the Free Trade of the Americas
and the World Trade Organization, held in Mexico City
on May 11-12, 2003, declare our intention and
commitment to derail the Fifth Ministerial of the
World Trade Organization that will take place in
Cancun in September of this year.

"Empire and the Capitalists"

Immanuel Wallerstein, May 15, 2003

No doubt, George W. Bush thinks he is in the forefront of those sustaining the world capitalist system. No doubt, a large part of the world left thinks that too. But do the great capitalists think so? That is far less clear. A major warning signal has been launched by Morgan Stanley, one of the world's leading financial investor firms, in their Global Economic Forum. Stephen Roach writes there that a "US-centric world" is unsustainable for the world-economy and bad in particular for the United States. He specifically takes on Robert Kagan, a leading neo-con intellectual, who has been arguing that American hegemony can only increase, particularly vis-a-vis Europe. Roach could not agree less. He sees the present world situation as one of "profound asymmetries" in the world-system, one that cannot last.

Anonymous Comrade submits:

"Of Blair, Hussein and Genocide"

John Chuckman, May 19, 2003

Britain's Prime Minister Blair has now claimed that the war in Iraq was justified by the discovery of mass graves. The ugly truth is that mass graves have become pretty common things since the beginning of the twentieth century, although many of the world's most savage and horrific acts left no such evidence, as in the case of America's napalming, carpet-bombing and throat-cutting millions in Vietnam.

California Town Criminalizes Compliance with Patriot Act

ARCATA, California (AP) -- More than 100 cities and one state have passed resolutions condemning the USA Patriot Act, saying it gives the federal government too much snooping power. But in this liberal fold of Northern California's Redwood Curtain, a simple denouncement just doesn't go far enough.

To cooperate with the act, the City Council says, is criminal.

jim submits:

"Bremer of Iraq"

Bill Berkowitz, (WorkingForChange, 05.09.03)

When L. Paul Bremer III sets down in Iraq as the U.S.'s new overseer of
reconstruction, he'll be bringing a lot of baggage along with him. Chosen by
President Bush for his expertise in counter-terrorism, crisis management and
diplomacy, Bremer has a resume that includes extended service in the Reagan
Administration, an eleven-year stint at Kissinger & Associates, and the
co-chairmanship of the Heritage Foundation's Homeland Security Task Force.
That President Bush has turned to a civilian and a skilled negotiator -- the
president called Bremer a "can-do-type person'' -- is indicative of the
administration's fear that events in post-war Iraq are in danger of spinning
out of control. Bremer, the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
Marsh Crisis Consulting, a subsidiary of the Marsh & McLennan Companies
(MMC), will take the reins of the multi-billion dollar reconstruction
project from retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, the administration's first civil
administrator, and assume command over the Office of Reconstruction and
Humanitarian Affairs.

Full story continues at:

Bremer of Iraq"

9/11 Investigation Public Hearing Agenda Detailed

NOTE: Despite an expressed commitment to investigate (during these May hearings) the failure of the National Air Defense  and the collapse of airspace security over our Nation's capital and the Pentagon, the commission has apparently elected to only have one witness to testify regarding this very well documented line of inquiry.

"The Progressive War"

Salim Muwakkil, In These Times, May 9, 2003

The pro-war progressives want to claim the tradition of the anti-Stalinist left of Cold War lore, but that analogy is faulty.

Among the many effects of the terrorism attacks of September 11, 2001, was the ideological shift they provoked among those on the left. Many left-leaning commentators were so disconcerted by some of their fellow travelers' responses to the attacks, they jumped straight into bed with the neocon war party.

Anonymous Comrade submits:

"Policy Through Rose-Colored Pilot's Glasses"

John Chuckman

Everyone, not attached by threadbare ideology or plain old war profiteering to President Bush's War on Terror, knows that even on its own terms, it can only fail miserably in a great waste of lives and substance. You cannot fight a war against religious faith and opposition to injustice unless you are prepared to be as utterly ruthless as Stalin, and even then, when you lie pickled in your tomb, the roots you missed destroying will grow hardy new plants, as they have in contemporary Russia. But I would never have expected stark evidence for failure to come so quickly.

Kellie Gasink writes
July 3-National Public Hearings to Repeal the Patriot Act

On July 3, cities around the country will sponsor independent public
hearings called by the National Coalition to Repeal the Patriot Act.

Anarchists and Palestine: Class Struggle or Popular Front?


  By Ryan Chiang McCarthy


   


  As the imperialist "war on terror" gains momentum, the conflict in Palestine is plunged continually into the center of world attention, conveyed so as to force us all to take positions along pre-defined lines- are you pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian? All states have joined the drive to polarize the world behind these fronts. For anarchists, it is vital not to compromise a class perspective, rejecting the programs of both Palestinian nationalism and Israeli genocide. In the US, where Israel must look for its lifeblood of weaponry and international clout, anarchists have a great responsibility to the proletariat of Israel and Palestine. Unfortunately, many US anarchists have chosen the way of the popular front.