Just a few weeks ago, Bush, Rumsfeld, and co. seemed incapable of doing any wrong. The lightning charge across Iraq led to one of the quickest and most decisive military victories in the history of warfare. Here at home, things were looking up as well. A broad range of economic indicators seemed to indicate that this time for sure, the recovery the markets had been predicting for the past two years had arrived. How quickly things change!

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.

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.

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.

Yesterday was Labor day in the US. On this occasion, we are publishing two articles from the new issue of the American Socialist Appeal Workers’ Struggle at Whole Foods Market
Support the right of workers everywhere to join a union! By Shane Jones.
Why Join a Trade Union?
Some interesting facts about trade unions and the bosses' attempts to prevent them from forming!

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.

• USA: No to the War on Workers at Home and Abroad!
• No to Bush! No to the Democrats!
• Partners in Crime: American Big Business and the Nazis