Lee Sustar

Bush's surge will mean more horrors

Patrick Cockburn, Lee Sustar — 2007-02-09T07:15:00Z

THE MASSACRE of 260 people near Najaf in southern Iraq on January 29 was first portrayed as a highly successful U.S.-Iraqi joint military action. But growing numbers of reporters in Iraq have uncovered evidence contradicting the official story—that the attack was on a breakaway Shiite sect allegedly bent on attacking mainstream Shias during a religious pilgrimage.

Instead, it appears that the majority of those killed were members of the al-Hawatim tribe based in the area, who happened to be in the way of a police crackdown on the religious sect. Most of the dead were victims of U.S. air strikes called in by Iraqi government forces.

PATRICK COCKBURN is the Iraq correspondent for Britain's Independent newspaper and author of the book The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq. He was one of the first Western journalists to challenge the official story over the killings in Najaf. He spoke to Socialist Worker's Lee Sustar about the massacre and the situation in Iraq today.

[Pages 6 and 7]

- / Socialist Worker

The U.S. pushes Iraq to the brink

Patrick Cockburn, Lee Sustar — 2006-03-02T00:18:00Z

Patrick Cockburn spoke with Socialist Worker's Lee Sustar about the situation in Iraq following the bombing.

The bombing of the Askariya Shia Muslim mosque in Samarra last week led to a wave of attacks on Sunni mosques and the killings of scores of Iraqis. The sectarian violence was the worst since the U.S. invasion in 2003, raising the specter of civil war in Iraq. Government forces and U.S. soldiers cracked down, imposing a nonstop curfew.

According to some reports, demonstrations involving Sunni and Shiites together put the blame for the bombing where it belongs—on the U.S. occupiers.

At the beginning of the week, Moktada al-Sadr, the militant Shiite cleric whose supporters have periodically clashed with U.S. armed forces, repeated his demand for immediate U.S. withdrawal and called for joint Shia-Sunni prayer services and other demonstrations of unity. (...)

[March 3, 2006 | Pages 6 and 7]

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The struggle over the future of New Orleans

Mike Davis, Lee Sustar — 2005-09-23T21:32:26Z

THE POOR of New Orleans—especially poor African Americans—suffered the brunt of Hurricane Katrina's devastation in the city, thanks to the criminal neglect of authorities at every level of government. Now, the wealthy elite wants to rebuild on its terms—and prevent large numbers of Katrina's victims from ever returning. But the politicians and business interests will face a fight—in a city with a rich tradition of resistance.

MIKE DAVIS is an author and activist whose books include City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, The Ecology of Fear and the forthcoming The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu. He spoke to Socialist Worker's LEE SUSTAR about the political impact of Hurricane Katrina.

[September 23, 2005 | Pages 4 and 5]

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Left behind to face the worst

Lee Sustar — 2005-09-01T02:45:00Z

Decades of official neglect, racism and the impact of global warming magnified the destructive impact of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and other parts of the South.

The mainstream media focused most on the big-money property losses—for example, the heavily damaged casinos on the Mississippi coast that took a direct hit from Katrina, and the tourist hotels in the French Quarter in New Orleans. But beyond the media spotlight are countless others who don't have sufficient insurance—or any insurance at all—to rebuild their lives.

As in all "natural" disasters, a far-from-natural logic asserted itself: Those who had the least to begin with stood to lose the most. (...)

[September 2, 2005 | Page 12]

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AFL-CIO's Role in Venezuela: Assessment and Debate

Stan Gacek, Lee Sustar — 2005-07-22T00:30:00Z

Report from Venezuela and analysis of AFL-CIO role in the 2002 coup attempt and afterward.

This group of articles first appeared in New Labor Forum, Vol. 14 Issue 3, September 2005. New Labor Forum is published by the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Labor, Community, and Policy Studies, part of the City University of New York, and Taylor & Francis. The journal is online at http://www.qc.edu/newlaborforum.

AFL-CIO: The Limits of Partnership

Lee Sustar — 2005-07-18T23:48:00Z

Background and analysis for the crisis in the U.S. labor movement.

A debate at the top of the labor movement fails to address the key issue...

The Failure of Partnership

THE AFL-CIO could be marking its fiftieth anniversary with a split. A contested vote over a restructuring proposal at the federation's executive committee meeting in March sets the stage for a final confrontation at the July convention in Chicago. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) appeared set to force the issue after union leaders voted to authorize its leaders to bolt. Yet a closer look shows the difference between labor's two main camps to be narrow. (...)

[Issue 42, July-August 2005]

- / International Socialist Review

Behind the IFTU controversy: Does Iraq's main union support the U.S. occupation?

Lee Sustar — 2005-06-15T13:27:59Z

A TOUR of the U.S. by Iraqi labor leaders has highlighted a controversy about that country's best-known labor federation-the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU).

The debate hinges on the IFTU's support for the U.S. occupation, its close ties to the former occupation-appointed government of Iyad Allawi, its takeover of assets and membership lists from Saddam Hussein's government-controlled unions, and its status under the occupation-appointed regime's Decree Number 16 as the sole legal union federation in Iraq today. (...)

[June 17, 2005 | Pages 6 and 7]

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Why French voters said...

Lee Sustar — 2005-06-02T04:50:00Z

EUROPE'S POLITICIANS and business executives were reeling May 29 after French voters resoundingly rejected the proposed European constitution in a referendum vote.

The draft constitution—whose writing was overseen by a former French president, Valéry Giscard D'Estaing—would centralize power in the Brussels-based bureaucracy of the European Union (EU), giving it greater power over the EU's 25 member countries. While “vote yes” propaganda hailed the constitution as a path to economic growth, it in fact is designed to lock in free-market, pro-business policies known as neoliberalism, while continuing to shred the European welfare state.

The defeat of the constitution is a blow to French President Jacques Chirac and the conservative government led by Chirac's ally, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. Chirac's popularity was already sinking due to budget cuts and the rollback of pro-worker reforms such as the 35-hour workweek. (...)

[June 3, 2005 | Page 5]

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KYRGYZSTAN: Mass demonstrations go beyond what the U.S. wanted

Lee Sustar — 2005-04-02T01:45:00Z

A MASS uprising that chased the authoritarian president of Kyrgyzstan out of his country March 24 went beyond Washington's scripted "people power revolutions" in the republics of the former USSR. But newly empowered opposition leaders quickly closed ranks against the protesters.

The new government—based on a rigged parliamentary election that sparked the protests to begin with—has dispersed protesters who demanded an election rerun, promising only to move forward presidential elections previously scheduled for October. The new parliament—dominated by supporters of ousted President Askar Akayev, including his daughter and son—will hold power. (...)

[ April 1, 2005 | Page 5]

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As Bush escalates the pressure... What's next in Syria?

Lee Sustar — 2005-03-17T11:55:09Z

LEE SUSTAR looks at the background to Bush's threats against Syria.

SYRIA'S MANEUVERS to survive pressure from the U.S. highlight how the regime has survived repeated Middle East crises in the past—and how Washington has alternately cast Syria as enemy or ally, depending on the strategy of the day.

The Syrian ruling party is a product of the same Arab nationalist Baathist movement that came to power in neighboring Iraq in the 1960s. Forged during the struggle against the French and British colonial "mandates" in the region after the First World War, Baathism looked to Arab unity to sweep away artificial states created by the imperial powers.

[March 18, 2005 | Page 5]

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John Negroponte: Washington's dirty warrior

Lee Sustar — 2005-03-04T12:31:00Z

LEE SUSTAR looks at the U.S. government's dirty war on Central America in the 1980s and how it has become a model for Iraq and the Middle East.

THE SEQUENCE is different, but the elements are similar, and even the personnel executing the policy is the same. A U.S. invasion to carry out a “regime change,” destabilization of neighboring countries through economic sanctions and military pressure, dirty wars to eliminate popular opposition—all dressed up with elections at gunpoint and a “peace plan” that consolidates Washington's imperial power.

As it was in Central America in the 1980s, so it is today in Iraq and the Middle East.

[March 4, 2005 | Page 5]

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Malcolm X: Legacy of a revolutionary

Lee Sustar — 2005-02-18T23:04:49Z

LEE SUSTAR looks at Malcolm X and the relevance of his ideas 40 years after his assassination.

WHEN THE historic leaders of African American struggle are briefly acknowledged during Black History Month in February, schoolchildren get to hear a few quotations: Frederick Douglass' indictment of slavery, Rosa Parks' refusal to sit at the back of a segregated bus, Martin Luther King's dream of a non-racist U.S.

Malcolm X, however, is usually left mute. Seen, perhaps—in a photo in a textbook, a name on a street sign or community college, even as an image on a U.S. postage stamp. But very seldom heard. (...) [Pages 6 and 7]

Social Security "reform": A smokescreen for benefit cuts

Lee Sustar — 2005-02-12T04:22:00Z

Lee Sustar looks at the politics behind the “crisis” in Social Security following George W. Bush's State of the Union address.

George W. Bush's Social Security privatization plan rests on three big lies.

The first is that the current system is in crisis and doomed to fail. The second is that gains in private retirement accounts will exceed traditional benefits from the program. And the last is that such accounts will become a cornerstone of an “ownership society” in which working people will steadily build wealth. (...)

[Page 5]

- / Socialist Worker

Labor Movement: The end of the New Unity Partnership's road to "reform"

Lee Sustar — 2005-02-05T17:47:00Z

Is Teamsters President James P. Hoffa the new face of labor movement reform?

Hoffa's recent call for changes in the AFL-CIO is widely seen as the reason for the dissolution of the New Unity Partnership (NUP), the grouping of unions headed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) that threatened to pull out of the AFL-CIO unless the labor federation restructured.

The NUP shook up the labor movement when it formed in 2003, presenting sharp criticisms of the AFL-CIO's passivity in the face of declining membership. It proposed devoting more resources to organizing. And it advocated the federation voting to merge smaller and weaker unions with larger ones to create a handful of big unions capable of increasing union density—the percentage of union members in particular industries—which would give labor increased leverage. (...)

[February 4, 2005 | Page 11]

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The MLK they didn't teach you

Lee Sustar — 2005-01-20T13:55:00Z

Lee Sustar looks at the real legacy of Martin Luther King.

CHANCES ARE you didn't hear this during the official Martin Luther King Day commemorations this week:

“They must see Americans as strange liberators,” King said in a speech about the Vietnam War in April 1967. “They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals, with at least 20 casualties from American firepower for one ‘Vietcong'-inflicted injury. (...)

[January 21, 2005 | Page 10]

- / Socialist Worker