Americas

The mass workers' and peasants' mobilisations against the selling off of the gas industry that has shaken Bolivia over the past period took on a clear insurrectionary character on Monday, October 13. The balance sheet of the clashes between the masses and the army is more than 50 dead and hundreds of wounded, and a government which is increasingly isolated and on the verge of being overthrown.

After the invasion of Iraq seemed to have run according to plan and without meeting any great resistance, the anti-war movement declined. Now it is beginning to pick up again. Among those actively campaigning in the USA for an end to the occupation of Iraq are the "Military Families Speak Out" (in which people who have relatives in the army are organized), and "Veterans For Peace". The mood in the USA is changing.

After 12 days the General Strike in Bolivia is still going on. the country is close to a standstill thanks to the road blockades organised by the peasant organisations. All the roads to the capital, La Paz, are under the control of the strikers. One of the most militant sections of the working class, the miners, have taken a leading role, keeping the level of militancy very high. Aníbal Montoya (El Militante-Argentina) analyses the situation.

Between August 9 and 11 in Oventic, Chiapas, the history of "Aguascalientes" as a rebel territory of the EZLN ended. This has made way for the establishment of civil administration in the areas where the EZLN has set up autonomous municipalities. It is a clear sign of the open intention of the EZLN leadership to go from being a military organization to being a local or regional political organization.

Two years ago today the world watched in disbelief as two planes were deliberately crashed into New York's twin towers. In a few minutes the dream of America's invulnerability came crashing down in a pile of twisted, scorched rubble. Two years later, the ruling class in the USA is making cynical use of the anniversary to justify its warlike policies, while at the same time they are burying the site of a great human tragedy in order to construct new offices for the greater glory of profit and the market economy.

Today is the 30th anniversary of the coup staged by Pinochet against the elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende. This anniversary has been overshadowed in the last couple of years by the dramatic events that took place at the World Trade Center in New York in 2001. The same date falls on a tragic day for the Chilean proletariat, full of lessons to be learnt.

Sometime last May a triumphant George W. Bush hired an aircraft carrier (at the tax payer's expense) to announce to the nation that the war in Iraq was over and America had won. Just four months later a more sober George Bush, his feet now firmly on dry land, faced the television cameras to inform the American public that they were in for a long, hard haul in Iraq, that they would have to put up with a lot of pain and expense before the show was over.

On August 13 the Chilean Trade Union Confederation (CUT) called a one-day general strike. This was the first general strike since the fall of the Pinochet dictatorship. It marks the beginning of a new epoch and has to be seen within the context of the general situation in the whole of the South American sub-continent.

Chanting this as one of the main slogans, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans flooded the streets of Caracas on August 23, to once again demonstrate their support for the government of President Hugo Chávez and his movement known as the "Bolivarian Revolution". It was an important reply to the latest parody that Venezuelan reaction had been trying to build up in the days prior to the demonstration. They had just handed their fraudulent list of signatures, with which they are trying to get a referendum called against Chávez, to the National Elections Council (CNE).

This special edition of the US Socialist Appeal looks at the forthcoming election year and poses the need for an independent party of the American working class. It also looks at the connections between the top US corporations and the most heinous capitalist regime of all time - the Nazis, showing that far from defending “democracy” the US capitalists have always had one thing at the top of their agenda, their own influence, privileges and most importantly their own profits. ...

Nearly six decades ago, American GIs fighting against Hitler's armies in Europe were astonished to discover that the German military drove Ford trucks. If the GIs had looked up to the sky, they would have seen the Nazis flying planes built by Opel, a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Motors. In 1939, the German branches of GM and Ford supplied 70 percent of cars sold on the German market. German subsidiaries of both auto giants went on to manufacture military materiel for the armies of the German fascist state. Archival research has established that some managers in both firms, US citizens, failed to resist the conversion of GM and Ford plants in Germany and German-occupied France and

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Making predictions in the complex world of electoral politics is difficult, but we can say without any doubt that regardless of who wins in 2004, the interests of the working class will not be served. The 2004 campaign will be a big business campaign and the winner will be a big-business candidate. Still, in the coming months, there will be a lot of pressure from those on the left who want to defeat Bush at all costs. The logic behind this sentiment is understandable - for millions of Americans, GW Bush represents all that is evil, decrepit, and dangerous in the world (a capitalist world).

The American ruling class's open war on working people around the world has intensified in recent months. The capitalist class has plunged the world into the most unstable period since the end of World War II. The invasion of Iraq has solved absolutely nothing for the Iraqi people, and has only increased the risk of further terrorist attacks here at home.