In the November issue:

Taking Back Iraq's Oil
by Jeff Sowers

Oil may not be the only reason the U.S. government is rushing into war with Iraq, but it is certainly one of the main reasons. Domestic politics, arms industry sales, and other factors all play a role. But for the money-hungry oil corporations, like Exxon-Mobile, Shell, and BP, it is oil that glitters like a mountain of diamonds in the Iraqi desert. read more

Letters From Readers

Why I Oppose the War: I am against a U.S. war against Iraq. I support other countries standing up to the warmongering rhetoric of Bush. I am for a nonviolent solution that is international in scope.....

Dear School Principal: In an attempt to balance the extremely patriotic event that had been planned for 9-11-02 for our students, my class worked on a unit about the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. We looked at library books and discussed the fact that the people were like us in many ways.s.... read more

Incidents Mar Otherwise Successful Anti-War Protests
by Sandra Ahten

As evidenced by the recent demonstrations in Washington, DC that drew nearly 200,000 protestors, the anti-war movement is being "reinvigorated," as reported in the October 30th New York Times. Locally, the trend of increasing skepticism and opposition to the Bush administration's plans to use military force in Iraq has been reflected in the growing number of people attending the weekly protests along Prospect Avenue organized by A.W.A.R.E., the Anti-War, Anti-Racism Effort.... read more

A Review of Civil Liberties One Year After 9/11
by Stephen Hartnett

As the failed hunt for Osama Bin Laden gives way to preparations for the invasion of Iraq, and as the passing of a year of mourning gives way to commercial exploitation and political opportunism, many Americans are beginning to realize that one of our most pressing duties is to protect the Constitution from the Patriot Act. Ponderously titled “An Act to Deter and Punish Terrorist Acts in the United States and Around the World, to Enhance Law Enforcement Investigatory Tools, and for Other Purposes,” the Act amounts to the most drastic revision of US civil liberties since the shameful Espionage Acts of 1917 and 1918. The Act’s final phrase, “and for Other Purposes,” sounds ominously like a blank check for government intervention... read more

Protestors As Targets
By Belden Fields

It has come to my attention that early this year a training class for law enforcement officers was held in our community. The instructor was Lt. Colonel Dave Grossman. His biographical statement modestly describes him as one of the “foremost experts in the field of human aggression, the roots of violence and violent crime.” The Lt. Col. is a former Airborn Ranger and Infantry officer. He was a psychology Professor at West Point and a former professor of military science at Arkansas State University.... read more

Santa Claus Conquers the Longshoremen
By Ricky Baldwin

The mainstream media have buried the biggest labor story in decades, far bigger than the Reagan Administration’s decision to fire the air traffic controllers. The Bush Administration has used the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, not to break a strike, but to slap down a union already locked out by employers. Never before has the government used this power in a lockout... read more

Chuck D Takes on MTV
By Shawn Gaynor (originally published by the Ashville Global Report)

Chuck D, front man of the Hip-hop group Public Enemy, is once again at odds with the mainstream music world, this time over song lyrics that MTV finds objectionable. So what is the word in question? Is it booty, bitch, ho? No, the word in question is "free", as in "free Mumia and H. Rap Brown"... read more

Letter from Guatemala, August 24, 2002
by Jessica Pupovac

It has been a while since I have had the chance to write. A lot has been going on down here and with me personally and I haven’t had much opportunity to sit at a computer much less organize my thoughts. Most significant, however, I should tell you before continuing that 500,000 communion wafers turned out to NOT BE ENOUGH during Pope John Paul’s visit to Guatemala City recently. Can you believe it? Guatemalans everywhere found themselves embarrassed and disillusioned and without a communion wafer. As if being found guilty of genocide in the Spanish courts a couple months ago weren’t enough... read more

The World Summit in Johannesburg
by Michael Goldman

On the drive from the Johannesburg airport to the wealthy white suburb of Sandton – host to the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, the largest international conference ever – colorful billboards cajole Summit delegates to taste and enjoy the city’s tap water, boasting that it is as pure and clean as bottled water. Suspended above the airport freeway, Black township boys splash joyfully in an endless bath of fresh blue tap water. Unlike bottled water, the messages imply that Jo’burg’s water is free, clean, and for all to enjoy... read more

A Development Distaster: The Pak Mun Dam in Thailand
by Joe Rupp

For the past half-decade Thailand's Pak Mun Dam has been recognized by environmental and human rights groups as a posterchild of insensitive, inequitable, top-down development strategy. Despite civil society's criticism, however, thousands of local villagers still squat in a makeshift, shantytown protest village only yards from the dam. They eat, sleep and commune in protest of the dam that has stolen their own livelihoods, their families' food source and their children's playground. Still today their demands to permanently decommission the dam, restore the river ecology and revitalize community health remain unmet... read more

About This Issue

Poetry
by Matthew Murrey
Leverage
Woodcutter
Detained
Obsessed

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March IMC Calendar
Middle Room Gallery

Past Issues

Aug2001 | Sept2001 | Oct2001 | Nov2001 | Dec2001 | Feb2002 | March2002 | April2002 | Oct 2002