WE NEED to identify what "Empire" means. Does it mean the US government (and its European satellites), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and multinational corporations? Or is it something more than that? In many countries Empire has sprouted other subsidiary heads, some dangerous by-products-nationalism, religious bigotry, fascism and, of course, terrorism.
"IN THE hours immediately following the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld asked for plans to be drawn up for an American assault on Iraq. The following day, in a cabinet meeting at the White House, Rumsfeld again insisted that Iraq should be "a principal target of the first round in the war against terrorism".
DAMON ALBARN, lead singer of the band Blur, explained to Socialist Worker why he supports the Stop the War Coalition.
Parliament is not nearly democratic enough. We need a revolution to get genuine control, writes Paul Foot
"I WAS out in Saudi Arabia for the 1990-91 Gulf War. My job was as a dispatch rider for one of the armoured brigades. I had quite a lot of freedom to roam around on the bike. I saw the utter devastation caused by the RAF Tornadoes; carpet-bombing and the artillery. It sickened me. One day I drove my bike into a mass grave. The British army was bulldozing the Iraqi bodies into a big hole.
BLOOD brothers Bush and Blair met in Washington last week to plan the final elements of their war against Iraq. Days before, both had made chilling speeches about the era of permanent war. Answering questions in the House of Commons, Blair laid out his readiness to attack Iraq.
Helen Shooter went to Salford in Manchester to talk to refugees and find out what their lives are really like.
ON Monday 17 February London mayor Ken Livingstone's congestion charge comes into force. Between 7am and 6.30pm on weekdays drivers will have to pay £5 a day to drive into central London.
THE BRITISH National Party (BNP) hopes to make wider gains after getting council seats in Burnley, Blackburn and now Halifax. The Nazis want to start establishing the kind of strength their counterparts in Europe like Le Pen's National Front have achieved. Ten years ago the BNP Nazis thought they were on the brink of such a breakthrough in Britain.
THE ELECTION last week of a fifth Nazi British National Party (BNP) councillor in Britain needs an urgent response. Adrian Marsden got 679 votes to become BNP councillor in the Mixenden ward in Halifax, West Yorkshire. He beat the Liberal Democrat candidate by just 28 votes and Labour by 38 votes.
WORK dominates our lives. Yet it is often the thing we hate the most. Why? After all, work is part of what being human is about. People have always worked on the natural world to secure the necessities of life. Work can be a pleasure too. Look at the enthusiasm with which people pursue hobbies.
No. We're not talking about asylum seekers... The mansions here are owned by two English men. Chilham Castle belongs to multimillionaire Stuart Wheeler. He bought the 400-acre estate in Kent because he said the three people in his family "needed somewhere bigger to live".
