PART TWO ______________________________ ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN News * Analysis * Research * Action ______________________________ - AFIB No. 257, July 2, 2000 - ***** RED ACTION BM Box 37 London WC1N 3XX E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.redaction.org/ - Sunday, 25 June 2000 - ----- ____________________________________________________________________ LONDON SOCIALIST ALLIANCE REALITY CHECK ____________________________________________________________________ The Tottenham by-election where the big hope of the conservative Left, the London Socialist Alliance took 885 votes, approximately 5% of the vote confirms the warning made clear following the Greater London Assembly election in May, that 'bolting together left wing groups' will not be sufficient to pull the working class in behind it. The fact is the working class have not just lost faith in socialist parties per se but to greater extent in socialism itself. Consequently the Left as a whole needs to re-invent itself. Failure by the LSA to take the opportunity to do so will see it follow the same path as that of it's 'left unity' predecessor Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party. With the BNP pulling 25% of the vote in the New Deal Board election in Newham on the same day the consequences must be obvious. Like the LSA after the May 4th elections, Scargill was similarly triumphant following the general election in 1997 claiming the SLP was now the 'fourth biggest party' nationally. Thereafter it was of course all down hill. Indeed confirmation that the 'bluff and bluster' approach would prove self-defeating came in a parliamentary by-election in his own backyard in Yorkshire. If memory serves the SLP 'saving it's deposit' there was hailed as breakthrough then. In reality if all he could do was save his deposit, in what must have been considered a 'heartland' by supporters, then self-evidently there was little chance the party would do better elsewhere. The same equation is now true for the LSA, Tottenham being to them what Barnsley was to the SLP. Taking into account the work intensive high profile LSA campaign, the unpopularity of New Labour in inner London, plus the characteristic low turn out of 25%, the LSA result was poor no matter how you cut it. Indeed the approximate of 5% is only marginally better than the Left have traditionally come to expect from standing in working class constituencies in the last three decades. True the LSA had the satisfaction of beating the Greens into fifth place. But that only serves to remind that these days 'socialism' like environmentalism is politically on the 'fringe', mainstream fringe, but fringe nevertheless. Some climbdown from a little over three years ago, when the victory for Blair was hailed a 'socialist triumph' a 'class vote' and 'a move to the left' by all the principle sponsors of the LSA, the SWP by far the largest numerically, being particularly prominent in the drum-beating. Rather than continue to pretend they were both right then and right now, the only starting point for the Left as a whole is a 'lucid registration of defeat'. The Left has failed. Acknowledging mistakes is the only way of correcting them. Fascism has re-invented itself and socialism must do the same. Failure to do so, when 'left unity' is itself viable, will almost certainly guarantee that the repeat of the pattern of other countries in Europe is fulfilled. There, almost uniformly, the radical alternative is filled by the far-right rather than the far-left. The writing is on the wall. THE COUNT Labour 8785 Lib Dems 3139 Cons 2634 LSA 885 Green 606 * * * ____________________________________________________________________ LONDON SOCIALIST ALLIANCE REALITY CHECK (PART 2) ____________________________________________________________________ - Wednesday, 28 June 2000 - The result of last week's Rise Park by-election in the London Borough of Havering on Thursday was: Conservative 909 (58%) up 12% from 1998 Residents Association 541 (32%) up 1% from 1998 Labour 138 (8%) down 15% from 1998 London Socialist Alliance 34 (2%) In the GLA elections the LSA got 1.6% in the area and so claim to have improved on that as well as 'increasing the local profile for the LSA'. Pete Alder, the Havering candidate, views this as a positive result - moving forward were it not for, well you name it and the LSA will have a myriad of excuses and reasons why. Why is it that the Socialist Alliance is failing to win hearts, minds and, ultimately for them, votes, despite grandiose claims to the contrary? At a time when the BNP are commanding as much as a quarter of the vote in London saying that the LSA are clearly out of touch with working class voters would be something of an under-statement. How can anyone who has taken the wrong road entirely ever expect to reach their destination, unless they have the sense and integrity to admit they've got it wrong, and remedy the situation. The LSA should take stock of reality, rather than crawling down the same old worn out paths of left wing fiction. Subscribe to Red Action Do You Get It Regular? Red Action is produced on a bi-monthly basis. To ensure you receive your copy of RA on a regular basis, we recommend taking out a subscription. Subscription rates are as follows: Britain and Ireland: 6 issues will cost �5 inc P&P. The rest of Europe: 6 issues will cost �7.50 inc P&P. USA and elsewhere: 6 issues will cost �10 inc P&P. Make cheques and PO's payable to Red Action in pounds sterling, no foreign currency please. Please enclose a telephone no. if possible. ***** GERMANY ALERT `The Free Flow Of Uncensored Facts' Web: http://www.germanyalert.com - Thursday, 29 June 2000 - ----- ____________________________________________________________________ CDU FIXED KOHL PROBE ____________________________________________________________________ BERLIN (29 June 2000) -- Christian democrat (CDU) members of the committee investigating disgraced former chancellor Helmut Kohl rigged the probe, it was reported as hearings on Kohl's role in illegal slush funds began in Berlin. Kohl had regular secret meetings with CDU committee members at his Bundestag office right up until two days before important witnesses began to be heard, the hearings revealed. The meetings lasted up to three hours each and took place on some thirty separate occasions. Kohl was given prompts and preparation for the hearings in a move to fix or rig the probe results in his favor. The former chancellor admitted the meetings took place, but claimed they were not used to give him confidential committee information. The revelation heaped further scandal upon what has already turned into a national disgrace. Greens party committee member Christian Str�bele charged that Kohl used the secret briefings to control the hearings from behind the scenes. Str�bele called for a disciplinary probe into the alleged rigging. The senior CDU official on the investigating committee, Andreas Schmidt, admitted the meetings with Kohl took place but denied that they violated committee rules. Volker Neumann, social democrat (SPD) committee chairman, asserted that the Kohl briefing sessions "could prevent us from getting to the bottom of the matter" and demonstrates that Kohl "is still pulling the strings" at the hearings. Kohl spent much of the first day of his testimony denouncing the committee, defying demands that he name contributors to an admitted illegal slush fund and denying any involvement in illegal activity. The hearings continue in one week. * * * ____________________________________________________________________ '�BER ALLES' FAILS TO STIR CONDEMNATION ____________________________________________________________________ BERLIN (26 June 2000) -- Germans stopped singing "Deutschland, Deutschland �ber alles" when Hitler was finally stopped, and those lines of the German anthem remained a symbol of shame for decades. Until now, as Baden-W�rttemberg christian democrat (CDU) leader G�nther Oettinger has declared he sang the lines in public at a recent right-wing Burschenschaft (student society) celebration. Oettinger was clearly proud of his action, though many believe that singing "Deutschland, Deutschland �ber alles, �ber alles in der Welt" is almost like giving a stiff right-armed Hitler salute. The words, after all, were used during the Third Reich as a battle hymn for German expansion. Just as shocking as the singing of those words by a German political leader has been the reaction, or lack of it, from within the CDU. While former Bundestag president Rita S�ssmuth described Oettinger's act as "disturbing," top christian democrat leaders declined to condemn their colleague. All this is not to say that the CDU, which used to claim to be the part of the center-right, has been wholly taken over by a new generation of Nazis. But the party of disgraced former Chancellor Helmut Kohl does appear increasingly to be infested with overt extremist right-wing views. Copyright 2000 Germany Alert ***** THE BETHUNE INSTITUTE FOR ANTI-FASCIST STUDIES Web: http://bethuneinstitute.org Research Directors: David Lethbridge, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Helmut-Harry Lowen, [EMAIL PROTECTED] - June 2000 - ----- ____________________________________________________________________ SOVEREIGN CITIZENS: ELDON WARMAN AND THE DETAX MOVEMENT ____________________________________________________________________ By David Lethbridge http://www.bethuneinstitute.org/documents/eldonwarman.html For the last three years, the sovereign citizen movement has been operating and expanding throughout western Canada. More recently, it has developed a nation-wide network with a significant presence in Ontario. Primary among its organizers are Eldon Warman of Detax Canada, and Fred Kyburz of Patriots on Guard. The sovereign citizen movement began in the United States in the early 1970s as part of the far-right doctrine of the racist and violent Posse Comitatus. Formed in 1969 by William Potter Gale, an anti-Jewish Christian Identity adherent, and by Henry Beach, a former pro-Nazi leader of the "Silver Shirts" in the 1930s, the Posse rapidly spread throughout the Mid-Western and Western states. The Posse proclaimed that the USA was a republic and not a democracy, and that the "individual is sovereign." Posse propaganda encouraged sovereign individuals to return their driver's licenses and birth certificates, and to refuse to pay taxes. >From the beginning, the Posse was deeply antisemitic, claiming that a >Jewish conspiracy had taken over the government and was responsible for >passing "illegal" laws mandating the income tax code. According to the >Posse, the only valid laws are based on the English Common Law and >deriving from the Magna Carta. The power to interpret these laws is held >to rest with common law associations composed of white, Christian males. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Posse's membership was estimated at between 12,000 and 50,000, with possibly ten times the number of sympathizers. Gale and James Wickstrom, leader of the Posse's "National Director of Counterinsurgency" and a Christian Identity pastor, declared a Holy War. On a radio interview from Dodge City, Kansas, Gale said: "Yes, we are going to cleanse our land. We're going to do it with a sword. And we're going to do it with violence." He told his listeners to "start making dossiers, names, addresses, phone numbers on every damn Jew rabbi in this land or JDL leader in this land. ... You get these roadblock locations where you can set up ambushes, and get it all working now." Other similar messages attacked African-Americans and Communists. In the years that followed, assaults, murder, and even torture, were committed by Posse followers. In the mid-1990's, a large group of sovereign-citizen adherents, including a former Calgary police officer, declared themselves Freemen and moved to Montana. Like the Posse, they maintained that they were common law proponents, and basing themselves on the Magna Carta, refused to license their vehicles or pay taxes. Several of the Freemen were involved in giving anti-tax seminars. Following their arrest in 1996 on false check charges, a large cache of weapons was discovered on their property. The same doctrines that inspired the Posse Comitatus and Freemen are now being promoted in Canada by Eldon Warman and Fred Kyburz. In April of this year, flyers were placed throughout Kelowna, BC, announcing a Warman seminar on "detaxing and sovereignty recovery," and stating that "Detax Canada is about Recovering your Sovereign Status." The seminars were to be held at Okanagan University College, in Kelowna, and Langara College, in Vancouver. Reference to Warman's website revealed material identical, in essence, to that of the Posse Comitatus and the Freemen. Tax law is said to be a fraud in violation of the Magna Carta, and which removes an individual's sovereign status. Common law is promoted as the only valid law. The government is said to be an illegal "imposter." The claim is made that driver's licenses are a "signed confession of guilt admitting to the crime of theft," and recommendation is made, on the basis of common law, that sovereign citizens revoke such licenses as well as marriage and business licenses. Canada is claimed to be a republic and not a democracy. Sovereignty seminars and support groups are promoted. Links are provided to antisemitic religious sites, US "Patriot" and Militia sites, and to neo-fascist organization of Lyndon LaRouche. A further page on Warman's site reveals that in September 1999 a police officer pulled him over for a traffic violation. Warman refused to present his driver's license and then assaulted the officer and "jumped on top of him." Subsequently, Warman filed a common law affidavit claiming "denial of jurisdiction" to the courts of BC, where he was arrested, and the courts of Alberta, where he lives. In March, he was convicted of assault and sentenced to time served. I alerted Okanagan University College and Langara College to Warman's history of violence, and to certain antisemitic statements made on his Internet site. Warman had written, "Is the judge sitting on the bench in YOUR courtroom ... of the Jewish Faith? If so, they have a commitment to other loyalties above their secular oath of office and pledge to speak the truth. The prayer of 'Kol Nidre' at Yom Kippur negates any other oath that one of the Jewish faith may take in the secular world during the year. The Freemasons have a similar secret. ... A judge in either category may lie and cheat with a clear conscience when conducting judicial functions." Largely on the basis of these antisemitic remarks, both Colleges cancelled Warman's scheduled appearances. Warman publicly denied any antisemitism, but within days, his website contained a virulent attack on me laced through-and-through with antisemitic content. Despite the fact that I am not Jewish, I am referred to as a "JDL (Jewish Defence League) sleaze;" and as a "champion of the Communist and Zionist cause." I am said to have "zionist (sic) benefactors" who "have brought us counterfeit money, usury banking, the ultra right and the ultra left ideologies (Nazism to Bolchevism) (sic), two major world wars, hundreds of lesser wars, illicit drugs, pronography (sic), a myriad of religious cults, international cartels etc. etc." Such claims are, of course, entirely consonant with the fraudulent lies of the Hitler regime and of most neo-fascist organizations in the contemporary period. Furthermore, in an act that comes close to criminal harassment, Warman provided my home address and that of my employers and suggested that his supporters write "nice letters" to both. Warman and Fred Kyburz are scheduled to speak at an undisclosed location in Kelowna on 1 July. >From the Posse Comitatus, to the Freemen, to the Detax Canada and Patriots On Guard organizations, the message and the tactics are strikingly similar. Individuals are lured into the movement through the promise of tax avoidance. A series of seminars, workshops, and manuals for home lessons, draws recruits deeper into a bizarre world of strange legal documents, mysterious conspiracies, antisemitism, and ultimately, far-right extremism. Copyright 2000 The Bethune Institute for Anti-Fascist Studies. All rights reserved. ***** LA VOZ DE AZTLAN E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.aztlan.net - Saturday, 1 July 2000 - ----- ____________________________________________________________________ RACISTS PLAN JULY 4 RALLY IN LOS ANGELES ____________________________________________________________________ Los Angeles, CA -- The white racist bigot Glenn Spencer has announced that the vile Arizona vigilante rancher Roger Barnett will join him and the rabid Barbara Coe at a 4th of July rally in Los Angeles, California. The rally is scheduled from 10:00 A.M to 4:00 P.M at the federal building in Westwood. It is not known whether Barnett will maintain his "courage" to come to L.A. at this volatile juncture in time. He has bragged to the national media that he "hunted down" and arrested thousands of undocumented Mexican workers that passed through his ranch (80% of the 22,000 acre ranch is leased from the Arizona taxpayers) near Douglas, Arizona during recent months. There are now recorded incidents of murder of harmless Mexican workers along the Sonora/Arizona border including a critical shooting of a Mexican youth by two Arizona ranchers on horseback. The California and Arizona anti-Mexican racists have now joined with a white supremacist group from Arlington, Texas and are planning violent actions against Mexican migrants at the border this coming Fall. Barnett is considered the leader of the dangerous and expanding anti-Mexican vigilante movement along the 2,000 mile border region. ***** MAD BUTCHER RECORDS Bergfeldstr. 3 34289 Zierenberg, Germany Tel: 05606-534340 Fax: 05606-534341 Web: http://www.madbutcher.de E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Saturday, 1 July 2000 - ----- ____________________________________________________________________ OUT NOW! THE BENEFIT CD FOR OUR ANTIFASCIST NETWORK ____________________________________________________________________ Tracklist: 01. Psycho Gambola, Die Welt hat noch Verstand 02. Skalariak, Unios 03. Los Fastidios, SHARP (taken from MBR 023/KOB 002 Contiamo su di voi) 04. Non Conform, Vergangenheit 05. Brigada Flores Magon, Continente Olvidado (unreleased, Split EP with Opcio K-95 still available) 06. Rebellion, Popular 07. The Strike, Communique 08.1. Mai 87, Sie marschieren wieder 09. Attila the Stockbroker, Tyler smiles (taken from MBC 003 The Pen & the sword) 10. Die B�ume, May be 11. FFD, Proletario (taken from MBR 035 Let�s all unite) 12. Heyoka, El pueblo unido 13. Scrapy Still, standing (taken from BBR 012 You better wake up) 14. Robb Johnson, Invisible People 15. Opcio K-95, Oi! per Catalunya (taken from MBR 026, Split Ep with Brigada Flores Magon) 16. Spark, Burning Mind 17. Klasse Kriminale, Gridalo Forte (taken from MBR 034 Electric Caravanas) 18. OI! the Arrase, Solidaridad 19. Die Internationale Our Canadian & US American distro: Insurgence Records 2 Bloor St. W. Suite 100-184 Toronto, Ontario M4W 3E2 CANADA E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.insurgence.net ***** WORLD SOCIALIST WEB SITE Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) Web: http://www.wsws.org/ E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Tuesday, 27 June 2000 - ----- ____________________________________________________________________ US GREEN PARTY CANDIDATE RALPH NADER COURTS BUCHANAN SUPPORTERS ____________________________________________________________________ News & Analysis: North America By Jerry White http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/jun2000/gp1-j27.shtml The US Green Party held its national convention in Denver, Colorado last weekend and nominated Ralph Nader as its presidential candidate in the 2000 elections. Nader, who ran as the Greens' candidate for president in 1996, won the backing of 295 of the 315 voting delegates attending the convention. Several hundred people participated in the three-day convention. A large number were veterans of the anti-Vietnam War and anti-nuclear protests, with the vast majority well over the age of 40. At least 95 percent were white and most were professionals, including educational consultants, building contractors, software developers, teachers and college professors. Some were upper-middle-class and quite privileged, as in the case of a vice president of Chase Manhattan Bank with whom this reporter spoke. Of the few college students attending, most described themselves as "activists," including one from the New School of Social Research in New York City and another a leader of the United Students Against Sweatshops at the University of Kentucky. A number of delegates were associated with other parties, such as the Democratic Socialists of America, the Socialist Party, which merged with the Greens in Oregon, or groups affiliated to the US Labor Party, which maintains close relations with the Greens although most of its founding unions support Al Gore. The delegates were for the most part disaffected Democrats, but one could also find former Republicans who had supported Senator John McCain's bid for the Republican nomination and were attracted to Nader's call for campaign finance reform. The convention generated widespread coverage in the media. Over 200 reporters, including those from the television networks, CNN and major newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times covered the event, giving Nader and the Greens generally favorable coverage. Under conditions of widespread disaffection with both the Republican and Democratic candidates, Nader's standing in the opinion polls has improved. Last week he drew 7 percent in a nationwide NBC/ Wall Street Journal poll as well as a survey of California voters. Were this level of support to translate into votes in November, Nader could tip the balance in a series of tightly contested state races and affect the outcome of the national election. Spokesmen for presumptive Democratic candidate Al Gore have expressed particular concern. Nader, 66, has a long association with the Democratic Party, beginning his career in the mid-1960s as a legal consultant on auto safety issues for Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then the secretary of labor. He gained a reputation as a consumer advocate and pressed for various reforms, including environmental protection and occupational health and safety standards. Since the early 1990s he has allied himself with the AFL-CIO trade union leadership and other proponents of economic nationalism in campaigns against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization. In his acceptance speech, Nader made it clear that he was seeking the support not only of disaffected liberals repelled by the Democratic Party's shift to the right, but also middle class people and workers who have been attracted to right-wing forces such as the presumptive Reform Party presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan. Nader's speech combined denunciations of the domination of "global corporate power over our government" and the economic insecurity facing small businessmen, farmers and workers with appeals to patriotism, so-called family values and economic nationalism. Nader declared that the Greens' aims--for a healthier environment, communities and people--were "conservative goals too," and warned his supporters not to "prejudge" any voters. He added that the party should appeal to all those opposed to "the voyeurism of the mass media," "the rejection of the wisdoms of our elders and forebears" and the misuse of tax dollars. The Green Party candidate related an experience from his campaign, illustrating how he hopes to woo Buchanan supporters with appeals to "community-based economics and patriotism." During a visit to Toledo, Ohio he provided legal support to a resident forced to relocate his home to make room for a new DaimlerChrysler auto plant. Nader noted approvingly that this worker, who had fought the Germans in World War II, expressed outrage that the American government was forcing him to move to accommodate a German multinational corporation. For all of Nader's references to the concentration of wealth and political power in the hands of an "oligarchy," the Green candidate only advanced a series of mildly reformist proposals, including campaign finance reform, increased taxation of the wealthy, an end to "corporate welfare" and legal efforts to withdraw state corporate charters from companies that violated environmental and labor standards. He concluded with an appeal to the enlightened self-interest of the "contented classes in America," saying they were the "citizens who can give voice to the powerless and the beleaguered to improve their conditions." History, Nader said, showed that when corporations "shared power with the people they oppressed and excluded," they "prospered more." Throughout the convention, in numerous speeches, public appearances and press conferences, Nader repeated the theme that the corporate "takeover" of the two-party "duopoly" threatened the democratic rights of the American people. But when challenged to take a position on key questions of democratic rights, he was unwilling to take a stand that might alienate the more right-wing forces he is seeking to attract to his campaign. At a noontime press conference on June 25, in response to a question by this reporter, Nader stated his unequivocal support for last year's impeachment drive against Bill Clinton, and expressed disappointment that the Senate had not voted to remove him from office. Nader was oblivious to the threat to democratic rights embodied in the campaign of extreme right-wing forces to remove an elected president from office, using a sex scandal as the legal pretext. He likewise ignored Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's trampling of civil liberties and due process. Instead he characterized the highly partisan impeachment of Clinton by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives as a "thorough trial," adding cynically, "He had a whole host of Democrats. He had his legal advocates--the best lawyers that money can buy." Nader's support for the impeachment campaign aligns him with Christian fundamentalist groups, right-wing multimillionaires and the most reactionary elements in Congress and the judiciary, and in opposition to the overwhelming majority of the American people, who indicated first in opinion polls and then in the 1999 congressional elections their deep disquiet over the tactics of the Starr probe and their suspicion that behind the impeachment campaign lay profoundly antidemocratic forces. Nader's embrace of the anti-Clinton sex scandal is noteworthy as well because it flies in the face of an amendment to his own party's Platform 2000, which states the following: "It is the position of the Green Party that sexual activity conducted among consenting adults in private shall not be the basis for any form of criminal prosecution, discrimination, or other negative treatment by any state, local or federal government." At the same press conference, a questioner from the New York Green Party pointed out that Nader had not traveled last week to Huntsville, Texas to oppose the execution of Gary Graham. He asked if Nader would make a statement denouncing the state killing of Graham and whether he supported the call for a new trial for political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and the release of framed American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier. Nader refused to make such a statement and sidestepped the question, saying there were many abuses of justice, and "There just isn't enough time to keep focusing in an important way on each one..." Nader and Buchanan That Nader is tailoring his campaign to reach potential Buchanan voters was underscored by comments made by an official from Nader's camp in the presence of this reporter. The official predicted that Buchanan would be the "first to break the truce" between the two third-party candidates. When this reporter asked the official about this truce, he replied that while there was no written pact, Nader and Buchanan had worked together since the anti-NAFTA campaign in the early 1990s, and that there was a "mutual agreement" not to criticize one another. Nader has, in fact, refrained from attacking Buchanan's right-wing positions on abortion and immigration, and remained silent on Buchanan's long-standing ties to anti-labor textile bosses in the South. Both men have joined with the Teamsters union leadership in the latter's racist campaign against the entry of Mexican truck drivers into the US, as well as the anti-Chinese campaign to oppose normalization of trade with Beijing. Asked about his opposition to NAFTA by a Canadian reporter, Nader said Mexican workers threatened the jobs and living standards of American workers. Speaking to the camera crews at one press conference, he asked, "How would you like to be replaced by Mexican camera crews making $10 a day?" Nader's attempt to combine certain reform proposals with an increasingly rightward political trajectory was in keeping with the general outlook of the Green Party leadership, which displayed throughout the convention an overweening desire to be accepted by the media as a legitimate party. The Greens' efforts to be part of the political "mainstream" underscore the highly superficial character of the organization's independence from the Democratic Party. In fact, the party is largely seen by its own leaders and members as a tool for placing pressure on the Democrats and shifting them to the left. Many delegates told this reporter they hoped a growing vote for the Greens, and a growing number of Green officeholders, would serve as a "catalyst" to influence the two big business parties. Dean Myerson, the convention coordinator, summed up this general orientation, saying the meeting "would launch us to a new level of influence on the political system by demonstrating to the nation the quality and seriousness of the Green Party." Copyright 1998-2000 World Socialist Web Site. All rights reserved. *****
