Opinion polls in the US show overwhelming support for military action in
Afghanistan. But as Diane Stokes in Chicago reports, the mood is more
complex than the polls would suggest.
Most of the long-suffering Afghan people would welcome the overthrow of
the Taliban regime. However, neither the country’s opposition militias
nor Western imperialism provide a solution to their problems as the
experience of re-introducing capitalism into those former Soviet
republics neighbouring Afghanistan...
US president Bush says he’s targeting the Taliban regime because it’s
harbouring terrorists around Osama bin Laden. But in the 1980s it was
the US CIA which helped arm, finance and instruct Bin Laden and other
Islamist groups to fight the USSR army then occupying Afghanistan.Bin
Laden is just the latest...
The bitter power struggle between rival factions of Indonesia’s ruling
elite came to a head this summer. The People’s Consultative Assembly
completed a nine-month campaign to oust president Abdurrahman Wahid,
voting 591-0 on 23 July to replace him with his deputy, Megawati
Sukarnoputri.
Supporters of Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid clashed violently
with police last week in the capital Jakarta. This follows renewed
efforts by the national parliament to impeach the head of state.
Days of angry street demonstrations in the Philippines capital Manila
culminated in an attack on the presidential palace in the early hours of
May 1. After seven hours of battles with the police using teargas, water
cannon and live ammunition, four people were dead, over 100 injured and
hundreds more arrested. A state...
A corrupt and inept president - Joseph ’Erap’ Estrada of the Philippines
- has been removed from power by a mass movement on the streets. This
comes just months after the overthrow of Milosevic in Serbia and a year
after the revolutionary events of Ecuador. Once again it has been
demonstrated that action -...
The recapture of the strategic Elephant Pass by the Tamil Tigers
inflicted a severe blow to the Sri Lankan army. President Chandrika
Kumaratunga has declared a state of emergency, suspending democratic
rights and demanding yet more sacrifices from working people. Will the
Indian state intervene? At this crucial juncture...
