An article on the Socialist Democracy website by US socialist, Matt Siegfried After 45 Years as Northern Ireland’s leading demagogue the 82 year old sectarian preacher, Reverend Doctor Ian Paisley, has exited the political stage. He has resigned, as of May, his position as Stormont’s First Minister as well as Leader of his Democratic Unionist…
Torture, Rape, Murder….It’s the American Way
Matt Siegfried exposes the systematic abuse of Iraqi prisoners as an extension of the US penal system. This article originally appeared in Fourthwrite (see p27). The photographs of US soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners have become symbols of American conceit, American hypocrisy and brutality. The folly of the Iraq adventure seems to be summed up by…
The oil and military Industries behind Bush
Matt Siegfried, a socialist and trade unionist activist from Detroit, examines the motivation behind the US government’s obsession with war against Iraq. This article originally appeared in Fourthwrite. The United States is on the verge of war with Iraq. A section of the Bush administration, reflecting a section of the US ruling class, has long…
Colombia, the IRA, US and Manifest Destiny
Matt Siegfried, a socialist and trade unionist activist from Detroit, looks at the implications for the US government’s Plan Colombia This article first appeared in Fourthwrite No. 10, Summer 2002. The ruling class of the United States has long viewed everything south of the Rio Grande as its exclusive domain. The United States became a…
How the civilised US treats prisoners of war
Matt Siegfried, a socialist and trade unionist activist from Detroit, looks at the fate of prisoners of war held at Guantanamo Bay. This article first appeared in Fourthwrite No. 9. The United States is the country with more people locked up, both as a percentage and in absolute numbers, than any other country in the…