contributions

The U.S. military capture of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein is being trumpeted by the corporate media and the Bush administration as simultaneously a great victory, the start of a new era, and justification for the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.
The seizure and public display of Saddam Hussein may be a propaganda victory for imperialism, but it changes nothing fundamental about the situation in Iraq, particularly the reality that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq (…)

By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY
BAGHDAD — The little canisters dropped onto the city, white ribbons trailing behind. They clattered into streets, landed in lemon trees, rattled around on roofs, settled onto lawns.
When Jassim al-Qaisi saw the canisters the size of D batteries falling on his neighborhood just before 7 a.m. April 7, he laughed and asked himself: "Now what are the Americans throwing on our heads?" (Interactive graphic: How a cluster bomb works and more)
The strange objects (…)

(Washington, DC) — US-based rights groups announced at a press conference today in Washington, DC that they will "join forces" in a US Human Rights Network to address what they see as the "alarming rate of human rights violations in the US" — saying that "as the US indulges an increasingly unilateralist bent in both domestic and foreign policy, the cost to rights at home and abroad is growing."
The groups, which cover such diverse issues as criminal justice, civil rights, immigration and (…)

http://lnn.labourstart.org/more.php?id=103_0_1_0_M
US occupation forces raid Iraqi union headquarters Statement of the Iraqi Federation of Workers’ Trade Unions (IFTU) About the Vicious Attack By the Occupation Forces on its Headquarters on Saturday 6th December 2003. To send your protest click here now.
To: Workers and the Iraqi Working Class, Iraqi, Arab and World Public Opinion, Supporters of Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights all over the world.
The American occupation forces, (…)

by John Dear
CommonDreams.org
I live in a tiny, remote, impoverished, three block long town in the desert of northeastern New Mexico. Everyone in town—and the whole state—knows that I am against the occupation of Iraq, that I have called for the closing of Los Alamos, and that as a priest, I have been preaching, like the Pope, against the bombing of Baghdad.
Last week, it was announced that the local National Guard unit for northeastern New Mexico, based in the nearby Armory, was being (…)

By Robert Schlesinger
WASHINGTON — The US Army Reserve fell short of its reenlistment goals this fiscal year, underscoring Pentagon fears that the protracted conflict in Iraq could cause a crippling exodus from the armed services.
The Army Reserve has missed its retention goal by 6.7 percent, the second shortfall since fiscal 1997. It was largely the result of a larger than expected exodus of career reservists, a loss of valuable skills because such staff members are responsible for (…)

Daniel Berenboim
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/interviews/story.jsp?story=470170
The sound of peace-making
[The conductor Daniel Barenboim has defied his critics to create a youth orchestra whose musicians cross the Israeli-Palestinian divide. He’s not playing politics, he tells James Rampton, but music is his contribution to finding a solution to the conflict]
In August, as the intifada was raging in the Middle East and the much-vaunted "road map" to peace appeared to be (…)

[Reuven Kaminer is a long-time socialist activist in Jerusalem. The following text is a position paper that he contributed to a coming discussion of the Palestine- Israel Academic Group. — psMod]
1) Even the most serious detractors of the Geneva Accords (GA) on the left and in the peace movement admit that the political, psychological and diplomatic impact of the initiative has been tremendous. The serious impact stems from the fact that the GA are based on a comprehensive text which (…)

The Unemployment Myth
"The reality is that we didn’t have a mild recession. Jobs-wise, we had a deep one."
The Unemployment Myth
By Austan Goolsbee
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/30/opinion/30GOOL.html
CHICAGO - The government’s announcement on Tuesday that the economy grew even faster than expected makes the current "jobless recovery" even more puzzling. To give some perspective, unemployment normally falls significantly in such economic boom times. The last time growth was this (…)

by Salim Muwakkil
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1202-12.htm
The Bush administration consistently ignored intelligence that was opposed to its ideological agenda in Iraq. About that, there now is little doubt.
The likelihood is increasing that the Bushites also may have ignored intelligence that could have prevented, or at least attenuated the attacks that killed nearly 3000 people, destroyed the World Trade Center towers, and poked holes in the Pentagon and Pennsylvania on Sept (…)