STOP THE WAR

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DEFEAT THE OIL COMPANY WARS FOR CONTROL OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND MEDITERRANEAN

STOP THE WAR

WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER FOR PEACE WITHOUT BORDERS........APRIL 2000

New York workers don't forgive killer cops

Los Angeles workers don't forget Rodney King

Police Are The Enemy

Local Governments Send Armed Thugs on a Killing Spree
People Fight Back in Los Angeles and New York

February 1999–New York police break into a residence and kill Amadou Diallo. He and his wife were the next-door neighbors, and had entered with permission. The cops shot Diallo 41 times as he reached for his wallet. Diallo never knew that his attackers were cops.

February 2000–Four New York cops are acquitted of all charges in the murder of Diallo. New Yorkers turn to the streets in a wave of protests and school walkouts. At one of these protests, 25-year-old Malcolm Ferguson is arrested. During the arrest, the cops break his hand and do not allow it to be treated. Ferguson sued the police department. One week later, Ferguson was dead–killed by police in the lobby of his Bronx apartment building.

Two weeks later, NYPD plainclothes cops kill an off-duty security guard. Patrick Dorismond was standing on a curb trying to hail a cab when two men approached him trying to buy drugs. The cops shot Dorismond when he defended himself after being punched. Dorismond died not knowing that his killers were cops.

Over two thousand people attended Dorismond's funeral procession. They were surrounded by several hundred police in full riot gear. Police set up barricades to prevent people from entering the church where the services were being held. These barricades were thrown aside by marchers. After the funeral, a line of riot cops attacked the mourners. Rocks and bottles were thrown at the attacking cops. Men in suits pushed dumpsters into the streets in defense against the assault. 27 mourners were arrested.

Almost every week there are more reports of killings of unarmed suspects by the New York Police Department. There is no doubt that the acquittal in the Diallo case was a significant turning point. The courts, Mayor Giuliani, and the Federal Government have signaled that they want to see a drastic increase in police terrorism against working-class communities.

Many of these murders are committed by special drug units and community policing units, with full participation by the FBI and Border Patrol and INS agents. These secret police groups often violate the laws that they enforce for others. Los Angeles police, for example, are under investigation for having gone "hunting" for black and brown youth, for planting evidence, and for lying in court. Secret undercover units in the Rampart Division had special tattoos and gave each other trophies for each killing.

Community activists refuse to be intimidated by the LAPD. Protestors have rallied right in front of the police stations, with riot cops shoving and threatening the crowds. "No justice, no peace, no racist police!" is the most popular chant, while some people just get right to the heart of the matter and shout "Fuck the police!"

More and more protestors realize that demands for "community control of the police" is not the answer. Community occupations by police are part of their reign of terror. The only solution to police violence is to get rid of them entirely. Police organizations are nothing but hired guns for the government, which is the area-wide organization that rich families use to control territory. Down with the police! Down with the government!

This is a sucker.

He videotapes protests in Los Angeles for the police. He thinks he is going to intimidate us or maybe provoke us to hurt him. When confronted, he runs like a cockroach. Click here for more photos. If you know this pig, e-mail us with the information and help expose every wanna-be death squad.

Viewpoint: "Anti-Globalization" Movement
Supports the Myth of the "New Economy"

"Cool! It's the 'new economy!' We're all information techies working in clean computer jobs! Now I can buy an Internet stock and get rich!"

I know some people who actually believe that junk. Needless to say, they're white and live at home with their parents. I guess they'd rather believe some lying politicians than what they see in their own lives. Millions of young Americans are frequently unemployed; when they do have jobs, they're stuck in part-time and temporary jobs with near-minimum-wage poverty. The so-called "white collar" jobs that use computers are often as low-paying as those that require manual labor. It's hard to get excited about the stock market when you have to borrow money for diapers.

If so many people have such bleak real lives, why is the myth of the "new economy" so strong? Well, for one thing, many factories closed in the US and reopened in China and other places where wages are lower. American high school graduates generally can't find the unionized, better-paying jobs that their parents or grandparents had in basic industries such as manufacturing, petroleum and mining, construction, metals, or transportation. American-born youth are also mostly unaware of the conditions of work in agriculture or the textile industry. An entire generation has almost no experience in the jobs that produce food, clothing, shelter, fuel, and other necessities.

Illusions about an "information age" and its "new economy" could not spread without the general lack of knowledge about the history of working people. About every 30 years, the rich whip up anti-communist hysteria and hire secret police and open fascists to break up the organizations of workers' struggle. Real leaders are replaced with sell-outs, and unions and socialist parties become defenders of the system. Ideas that are politically ineffectual, such as vegetarianism, become chic and trendy. Official textbooks fill the void with a few teary-eyed references to 19th Century sweatshops and slavery.

Lack of knowledge of the past goes hand-in-hand with lack of participation in present struggles. Since TV stations never give "public service" ads to promote anti-government activity, many people never hear about planned protests. But after generous media coverage of the Seattle protests, another major rally will follow on April 16 in Washington DC.

Many people who are new to struggle will go to this rally. The leaders of this action, however, are not. Despite their positive ideas and willingness to take action, it is difficult to take the "anti-globalization" leaders seriously. They are aware of the enormous body of research and theoretical writings already done on the subject. For example, 84 years ago the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin wrote a very good pamphlet on the worldwide growth of corporations. It is called Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. His ideas were based on those developed in the previous generation of struggle, most notably the works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. Their pamphlets The Communist Manifesto, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, Wage-Labour and Capital, Value, Price and Profit, as well as their ground-breaking work Capital are universally condemned, satanized, and censored by the rich.

With so many well-known works already done on the topic of imperialism, why do we need a watered-down diet version? Are the "anti-globalization" advocates so narrow-minded that they accept ideas only from anti-communist sources? And what "new" economic solutions would these anti-communists offer? These misleaders bend with the wind, bowing to any passing fad. They are extremely afraid that working-class people might become aware of knowledge from the past–and might take action against a capitalist future.

The sacrifices of the past are honored in an annual day of education and organization on May 1. May Day is known as Labor Day everywhere except in the country where it began: the United States. This year, radical leaders spit on the graves of working-class martyrs by creating "anti-globalization" protests two weeks before May Day. Their goal is to forestall the demonstrations of worldwide working-class solidarity with harmless spectacles of begging for some sort of non-global capitalism.

The anti-communism of liberals is hardly something new. Liberalism is just as pro-capitalist as conservatism or fascism. Increasingly, working-class people in the US refuse to call themselves "liberal." Liberal leaders respond by creating distorted versions of Marxist ideas and mass-marketing them as the "new," eco-friendly, gender-neutral, white thing to do.

There is no particular reason to help build the "anti-globalization" protests, nor is there any reason to avoid them. The Libertarians, Greens, and other wanna-bes are just as pro-capitalist and anti-worker as the Democrats and Republicans.

STOP THE WAR Protest Wins Lower Gas Prices

In July, we protested at a Shell station in El Cajon that had the highest prices in its area. The action was very successful–almost nobody went there to buy gas during our picket, and we got many honks of support. A few weeks later, its owner gave up the franchise and became a non-branded gas station with average prices.

In Memory of Christina Mary West

January 9, 1981 -- March 17, 2000

Chrissy, we love you and will miss you always.

DEFEAT THE OIL COMPANY WARS FOR CONTROL OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND MEDITERRANEAN

STOP THE WAR

WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER FOR PEACE WITHOUT BORDERS.....AUGUST 1999

Peace? Where?

American Troops Invade Europe
as NATO Armies Carve Up Yugoslavia

As 7000 US troops went ashore in Greece on their way to invade Yugoslavia, they were met with hostile anti-American protests. The US bombing and NATO invasion of the Kosovo region of Yugoslavia is very unpopular among European workers, and for good reason.

The last time American troops invaded Europe, during World War II, they never left. The US Army and Air Force occupied the defeated Axis countries of Germany and Italy, set up bases there, and those bases remain even though the war is long over. Britain, a member of the US Allied bloc during World War II, was also covered with US military bases that were not closed at the end of the war.

Soon after World War II, the United States began the Cold War against its ally, the Soviet Union. The US used its economic and military power over Western Europe to press these war-weakened countries into forming the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The United States set up more military bases in NATO member-states, and continued to pressure non-NATO countries to join. NATO was then, and has always been, a two-edged sword. NATO is not only an anti-Russia military alliance, it is also an excuse for the United States to keep its guns pointed at the backs of Western Europeans.

When the Soviet Union lost the Cold War and became fragmented into dozens of countries, the United States went on a new offensive. The new goal was to take over as many of these countries as possible. Since Russia is too big and too well-armed for an immediate takeover, the US and its NATO alliance is now attacking the nations on the fringes of the old Soviet bloc, such as Yugoslavia.

Why does the US Government want to control the political and economic life of Europe? Why does the US military threaten both Eastern and Western Europe with bombings and occupations? Greed. The rich families that own the banks and industrial corporations in America want to own the banks and industrial corporations in Europe as well. These rich families already have their police pointing guns at Americans. They want to get the same power over Europeans. The American rich are creating a worldwide empire–an empire based on money–and they will stop at nothing to achieve it. What they cannot buy, they will take. Who they cannot control, they will kill.

The European capitalists are no better, but they are divided into many nations that are much smaller and weaker than the United States. Some of the European rich want to strengthen the European Union and its Euro currency. They want to become a stronger imperialist force versus the Americans, Russians, and Asian powers. For now, the biggest Western European capitalists will profit more by taking part in the NATO campaign against Eastern Europe. Working-class people, on the other hand, see nothing but death in the US/NATO wars. Both American and European youth are dying in these wars, while the owners of corporations laugh.

DEFEAT THE OIL COMPANY WARS FOR CONTROL OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND MEDITERRANEAN

STOP THE WAR

WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER FOR PEACE WITHOUT BORDERS..........JULY 1999

US Troops Invade Kosovo–
Protests Continue Locally

After a two-and-a-half month bombing campaign, US and NATO troops massed for a ground invasion of Yugoslavia. On Thursday, June 10, two hundred Russian troops seized the airport at Pristina, capital of the Kosovo region of Yugoslavia. US, British, French, Italian, and German troops invaded Yugoslavia two days later. The US/NATO occupation is a deliberate attempt to concoct yet another new micro-state out of the remnants of the former Soviet bloc. The Russian co-occupation is an attempt to delay the further break up of its junior trading partner, and to salvage as much political and military influence as it can versus its stronger NATO enemy.

The introduction of 25,000 ground troops is part of a wider war between the United States and Russia. They are fighting over ownership of the immense petroleum and natural gas resources of Central Asia and the Middle East, as well as for control of land routes for pipelines to the lucrative Western European market. Ordinary working-class people are casualties in the big-power land grab.

Media News Blackout–No News Is Good News?

Since the bombing began in late March, local peace activists have taken to the streets in protest. Every Saturday at noon in Downtown San Diego, an average of 40 persons picketed and handed out leaflets. Sunday night peace walks and other activities were also held. Local media routinely ignored the protests.

On Saturday, June 5, about 20,000 people in the US protested the bombing of Yugoslavia, but if you weren't watching C-SPAN, you'd never have known it! 10,000 marched in Washington and 6000 marched in San Francisco, with absolutely no press coverage in the big daily newspapers or TV networks. In addition, there were local protests all over the US that day.

Without a doubt, the rich people who own and run the big-business media are very biased. They fully support the wars for empire, and they uncritically repeat US war propaganda. Their blackout on news of peace marches shows that they do not want you to know that anyone else opposes the wars. By refusing to report some news, the owners of the for-profit media are taking a stand against the rights of all. Local peace activists joined a protest at the San Diego Union-Tribune offices on June 17. This protest was organized by local unions that are also being ignored by the Union-Tribune.

This newsletter will expose the story that the big-business media covers up. This newsletter will report on the wars caused by greed for profits, lust for territorial control, and envy of the claims of other tyrants. This newsletter will report on the oil companies as they cause war and ecological disaster around the world, while choking Americans with high fuel prices.

PROTEST THE WARS

INFORMATIONAL PICKET LINES
AT GAS STATIONS

Thursday July 1 . . . . 4 pm
2nd & Madison . . . El Cajon

Thursday July 15 . . . . . . 4 pm
H Street . . . . . . .Chula Vista
(just off I-5 Freeway)
next to H St. Trolley Station

Use a computer to locate events in San Diego-Tijuana.

US Bombs and UN Sanctions
Kill Iraqi Civilians

The US war against Iraq is not over. A hit-and-run campaign of bombings continue to destroy Iraqi industries, and US warships prevent Iraq from trading with other countries. The US has simply failed to accomplish its political goal of overthrowing the Saddam Hussein government. With revenge in mind, US oil companies are using their military to set an example. They are using terrorist bombings to scare their opponents away from taking any action. This low-level warfare and economic blockade has caused more than 500,000 deaths since the end of the Gulf War on February 28, 1991. Most of those who perished were children. Unclean water supples and a general lack of medicine causes deaths of babies with diarrhea. Adults are dying from treatable conditions such as asthma, high blood pressure, and starvation.

The United Nations voted to allow the Iraqi national oil company to sell up to $5.6 billion worth of petroleum. Iraq would be allowed to use half of the money to buy food and medicine. Iraq currently pumps 1.7 million barrels per day, well short of the estimated 2.2 million needed to meet the goal.

Ethiopia, Eritrea Renew War for Territory

One year since their last dispute, the governments of Ethiopia and its breakaway republic Eritrea are at war again. Over ten thousand soldiers died in the first days of fighting. 500,000 refugees are homeless. The current war is over Ethiopia's seizure of the Badme border area in February. Ethiopia bombed the Eritrean capital in May, and Eritrea resorted to police sweeps that arrest all men on sight to try to catch all suspected draft dodgers. Similar mass arrests to "catch criminals" are now happening in Nigeria and Rwanda.

Indonesia Elections Meaningless for Workers

On June 7, Indonesia held its first democratic elections in 44 years. The PDI-P opposition party gained a 40% plurality of votes and will dominate the new coalition government.

Indonesia is notorious for attacking labor. Nike shoe workers, for example, earn about one US dollar per day. New faces in the Jakarta government will not change its anti-worker policies. Free elections means that one million rich man's dollars can buy just as many politicians as another rich man's million.

Meanwhile, the slaughter continues on the island of East Timor, where nationalists are fighting to create another country.

Venezuela Oil Workers Settle After Threats

JUNE 21–Hours before a national strike was to have begun, Venezuelan oil workers accepted a 3% pay increase. They had decided the week before to go out on strike because the government's national oil company, PDVSA, refused to negotiate. 12,000 PDVSA workers had been laid off in the last year.

Several foreign oil companies have operations in Venezuela and would have been severely affected by a strike. Venezuela is the second-largest source of US oil imports. PDVSA owns US-based CITGO, which has many gas stations in California.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had just returned from a three-day trip to New York and Houston, where he met with corporate bosses–including Texas governor George Bush. After returning, Chavez threatened to dissolve Venezuela's Congress and Supreme Court and rule as a dictator. Differing little from Chavez, other Venezuelan business leaders called for the army to take over the government. Defense minister Raul Salazar warned that he would deploy army troops if oil workers went out on strike.

DEFEAT THE OIL COMPANY WARS FOR CONTROL OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND MEDITERRANEAN

STOP THE WAR

WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER FOR PEACE WITHOUT BORDERS..........JUNE 1999

Bill Clinton:

Humanitarian or Lying Politician?

When Yugoslavia began its latest round of forcible deportations in the Kosovo region, politicians around the world cried out against the inhumanity of the Milosevic regime. United States military and government officials daily proclaimed the need for action, but generally agreed that bombing would be useless. An air war against Serbian troops, they said, would do nothing to return Kosovo Albanians to their homes. A few weeks later, President Clinton announced that he would bomb Yugoslavia.

Since then, several thousand persons have fled for their lives–both from the Yugoslavian army and from US bombs. These refugees are now barely-housed and barely-fed in refugee camps in the countries bordering Yugoslavia. A few have been resettled in the US and other countries, with no hope of ever returning. President Clinton's air war against Yugoslavia has nothing to do with helping Kosovans. If the bombing is not intended to help the refugees, then what is the war for?

Obviously, armament companies make money off war. Yugoslavia is a major weapons producer, so it seems likely that US companies want to eliminate a rival in arms sales while they profit by supplying the bombs. Oil companies are also winners form warfare in the region, as they seek to control the potential routes for oil pipelines to the lucrative Western European market.

If Clinton is so concerned for refugees, why did he ignore the killings of over half a million Rwandans in April 1994? Why did Clinton and the media put so little emphasis on Croatia's forcible expulsion of 200,000 Serbs in August 1995? The so-called "ethnic cleansing" is not an issue to the United States Government unless the victims can be used by the media to gain sympathy for US corporate interests abroad.

Clinton ordered the bombing of a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan and villages in eastern Afghanistan last August, and launched air strikes against Iraq in December. At the time, President Clinton claimed that his air raids were intended to stop terrorism. Apparently, US policy is to use its own terrorist bombings. Meanwhile, the US Government ignores the atrocities carried on by its NATO allies, such as Turkey's mass arrests, expulsions, and executions of Kurds in November 1998.

There is no evidence to believe that US politicians care about terrorism or the suffering of people. There is no reason to believe that Bill Clinton ever speaks the truth. To the contrary: politicians are responsible for ordering terrorist bombings, and they invent lies to excuse it. Everyone who wants peace must join together against their common enemy: the war-mongering politicians and the corporations they so craftily serve.

What We Stand For

STOP THE WAR is published in the belief that peace is the natural, cooperative condition of humanity. Warfare is an anti-social aberration that can be ended permanently. We define peace as a way of life, not as merely an interval between gunfire. We struggle to end the entire system that causes war and violence.

Every violent act and threat of harm is based on a mistaken idea: the idea that some persons should dictate the terms of life to others. Power over others is achieved by treating things, ideas, and persons as possessions. The idea of property is the source of all violence.

Ownership takes the actual form of society divided into classes. The upper class consists of inheritance units–families–that make huge claims of ownership. Economic and political oppression comes as the rich enforce their claims. Employers, landlords, merchants, and investors are the instigators of coercion and war. For this reason, we do not invite rich people to participate in our activities.

The lower class consists of the great majority of persons whose claims of ownership do not go beyond items of personal use. Working-class people do not exploit others for property gain. The concern for others before one's self is the only source of peace; therefore, the struggle of the working class to end classed society is the same as the struggle to end warfare.

STOP THE WAR advocates action based on the self-organization of the working class. We reject the elitist notion that poor people are somehow unable to comprehend theory or practice. To the contrary–we believe that the poorest people are the best-informed about actual conditions and are the most-capable of directing struggle. We oppose any philosophy that tends to limit the participation of poor people. Concepts of race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual revolution, male chauvinism, and the like are just excuses for the existing structure of oppression.

STOP THE WAR does not want money. We want you. Come to the activities in your area, and send us news to print. Help us publish and distribute this newsletter. The power to change the world is in your hands.

Click on this link for San Diego-Tijuana area activities.