'If there were a covert operation, would I discuss it ever?'

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The CIA has launched an operation to overthrow Gen. Manuel Noriega in Panama, the Los Angeles Times reported last month. The use of U.S. troops and other "high-risk" options are being considered. President Bush refused to deny the report. "If there were a covert operation, would I discuss it ever?" he said.

Day-care facilities have just opened for CIA employees in Despite holding a strong hand at the start of their walkout 48 days ago, Boeing workers still lost out when the company played its standard "ace in the hole"-union misleadership.

The new contract, which was voted in by an 81 percent margin, claims few improvements over the original "insulting" offer put out by Boeing. This offer consisted of a three-year package that included a pay increase of 10 percent over the life of the contract, 8 percent and 3 percent lump-sum "bonuses," cost-of-living adjustments covering 99 percent of increases in inflation, and a reduction in mandatory overtime from 200 hours to 160 hours per quarter.

Though the contract that was ratified still held to a 10 percent wage increase, it fattened the lump sum "bonus" by 8 percent, bringing it to 19 percent over three years. Mandatory overtime still wasn't eliminated, but simply "cut back" to 144 hours per quarter.

"Enough overtime for a lifetime"

"What this contract shows is that our leadership didn't work hard enough for us," said Jim Franchebos, who works at the 747 plant in Everett, Wash. Franchebos was outraged that workers would still be required to work hundreds of overtime hours against their will. "I've worked enough overtime to last me a lifetime," he stated.

It is common knowledge among the members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) at Boeing that the company is in the midst of a record profit-making period, with a backlog of orders for new airplanes worth at least $85 billion. Aerospace analysts say that the estimated $2.5 billion lost by Boeing during this strike will amount to nothing "more than a blip" in a few years.

Rather than hiring a sufficient number of people to get the work done safely, Boeing chose to simply implement mandatory overtime requiring machinists to work 10-hour days, six and seven days a week. This is a route commonly chosen by big business, whose myopic vision only lets them see the Socialist Action has just completed a three-month subscription drive. The final tallies are not in as we go to press, but we have already exceeded our goals.

San Francisco, for example, has sent in over 220 subscriptions so far. This was done despite the earthquake, which prohibited Socialist Action teams from going to many sales opportunities in the region.

Most of our new readers signed up for long-term (one-year or sixmonth) subscriptions. But close to 250 special three-month subs were sold at the women's pro-choice Langley, Va. All the kids will be identified only by a first name and a number (such as Johnny 007). Depending on who is visiting the center, children of parents in CIA "covert" work will be kept separate from those whose parents are in "overt" work. And photographs of wall displays are strictly forbidden.

The of Rights is the subject of a current newspaper and TV ad campaign financed by the Phillip Morris Companies, Inc. Why is a giant coffin-nail maker publicizing the historic document of our rights? (It might have something to do with the tobacco industry's efforts to roll back health laws by citing so-called "smokers' rights.")

Pollution is the No. 1 worry of Soviet citizens, a recent poll reported. Environmental-activist groups are fighting the construction of over 30 power plants of various kinds. But there's much more to be done. The USSR emits at least one-fifth of the sulfuric acid in the Earth's air.

The level of the oceans has risen nearly six inches in the last century, after holding steady for 5000 years. Furthermore, scientists report, global warming has caused the rate of the rise to double in the last 20 years. Soon, we can go surfing in the Rockies!

Just in time for Christmas, toymakers are marketing an environmental test kit (for kids 10 and older). "Investigate pollution in your neighborhood," says the label on the box. "It offers ways for kids to correct a problem." If the government and Big Business won't clean up the neighborhood, let your 10-year-old do it.

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