United States

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.

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.

The reader probably knows that the Bush administration is a thieves' kitchen. But we are not talking about naïve politicians in the third world tempted by the rustle of wads of dollars. Bush and his gang were born into big business and are an important part of the establishment in the States. What we see is a corrupt symbiosis between capitalist politicians and the big corporations.

Do you remember the story of private Jessica Lynch? During the Iraq war this US soldier became a heroine, a real "American icon". However there is a second part to this "drama".