Support for military action from Pakistan’s General Musharraf has been
duly rewarded by George Bush. Sanctions imposed on both Pakistan and
India following their 1999 nuclear weapons tests have been lifted.
However, in siding with the US, Musharraf has unleashed opposition from
the country’s pro-Taliban...
Even at this early stage, the anti-war movement is gathering pace across
the US. Thousands have been involved in peace demonstrations. Over 2,000
marched in Berkeley. 500 demonstrated in Oberlin College, Ohio, where,
as The Guardian reported (24 Sept), Socialist Alternative - the
Socialist Party’s sister...
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.
