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(continued from page 1: “UN vote provides cover for U.S. war against Iraq”) the Soviet Union is that the chickens are coming home to roost. Gross economic mismanagement and bureaucratic rule has led to massive revolts against the hated Stalinist rulers. These democratic movements have led to the demise of the Stalinist parties even though the states remain intact for now (except East Germany).

Decades of Stalinist rule, however, have left the people depoliticized and open to all types of capitalist demagogy. Not surprisingly, many people in these countries have illusions in the capitalist West and its material goods as the solution to their economic problems. This includes the capitalist forms of democracy.

But the demise of Stalinist regimes is not a victory for imperialism over socialism in the Cold War. The collapse of Stalinism (the opposite of socialism) is an advance for working people in Eastern Europe and in the imperialist countries. For the first time in decades workers and farmers in these countries can be involved in real politics. They can consider all ideas—including genuine Marxist views. They can begin to organize independent of the Stalinists.

This reality frightens not only the old Stalinist bureaucrats who are still entrenched in the government and state apparatuses, but the capitalists as well. Big problems are already emerging in former East Germany as workers who once had "life-long jobs" and social benefits are now in the unemployment line. There is growing discontent in Poland and other Eastern European countries over the promises of the market economy.

In the short term, of course, Washington and its allies can take advantage of the collapse of the Stalinist regimes to push their aggression against the toilers of the world.

Today Gorbachev is a friend of Bush. The new governments in Eastern Europe are allies of Washington. They have cut aid to countries that have stood up to imperialist aggression. Gorbachev is ready to strike a deal against the people of Iraq.

At the same time, Washington's new position does not reflect all that it seems. The kings and emirs of the Persian Gulf do not reflect the views of the Arab masses on the question of war against Iraq. In a fight between Bush and Saddam Hussein, those in Saudi Arabia. A long war would lead to explosions throughout the Middle East and beyond.

Furthermore, the world economy is on the brink of a major recession. Guns and butter are not possible in the United States. To pay for a major war, the U.S. government will have to demand more concessions from U.S. working people: fewer social benefits, more taxes, and a lower standard of living.

A Mideast war would boost the economy but only briefly, since the economic problems are structural. Economic competition between Washington, Bonn, Paris, and Tokyo will intensify for shrinking world markets. This could lead to new trade wars, or worse.

A worsening world capitalist economy means that the Charter of Paris' anticipated transition from "socialism" to market economies in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union will result in even more hardships for the workers of those countries. More hardships means more organized resistance to the bureaucracies' plans to become capitalists.

For these reasons Gorbachev and many imperialist allies in Europe prefer a "peaceful solution" than war against Iraq. They are ready to consider a compromise with Saddam over Kuwait if possible.

Washington, on the other hand, continues to raise the stakes as a warning to others who would dare stand up to the world's most hated power.

As we head for the new year, what is clear is that the war preparations of Washington are serious and that Bush plans war if he can get away with it. But the longer he waits, the more opposition to war will grow at home and abroad.

Recent opinion polls all show declining support for the Pentagon's war preparations. It is not surprising that Bush and other government officials are trying to find new arguments for their aggression: to save jobs is the newest one, along with stopping a "madman" from using atomic weapons.

More groups are speaking out, including major church organizations. Ads are appearing in newspapers opposing war in the Gulf. There are larger protests taking place on college campuses.

In this context, pressure must be multiplied demanding that Washington Bring Our Troops Home Now! Immediate withdrawal without negotiations or conditions on Iraq. Out Now! is the only just, and peaceful, solution to Washington's aggression against the Arab people.

Dear editor, Readers of Socialist Action will be interested to hear that on Friday, Nov.16, in New York, the Moscow Trials Campaign Çommittee held a forum commemorating the 50th anniversary of Trotsky's assassination. Speakers included Paul Siegel of Socialist Action, Marilyn VogtDowney of the Fourth International Tendency, and Estoban Volkov, Trotsky's grandson.

Although the meeting commemorated Trotsky's death, the speakers focussed on the future. Several reported on the re-publication of Trotsky's works in the original Russian in the USSR and reported seeing this summer, for instance, "The Stalin School of Falsification" on sale in subway stations in Moscow.

Marilyn Vogt-Downey told the audience that at two of the three libraries she visited in Moscow, the librarians were reading Trotsky behind their newspapers.

Paul Siegel analyzed why Trotsky, along with his son Leon Sedov, is the only victim of the Moscow Trials who has not been rehabilitated. He concluded that it was above all the strength of his political ideas that the Stalinist bureaucracy fears.

Finally Estaban Volkov spoke for everyone present when he described his and his grandfather's hope for a non-exploitative socialist society in which "never more would the human tree be cut to gather its fruits."

Liz Campbell New York, N.Y protect themselves or their daughters from the cultural practices of genital mutilation and labial infibulation, cannot work or be educated with men, then it must be acknowledged that the women • of the Arabic nations have had no role in self-determination and that the culture of those nations is solely a men's culture imposed on the women.

Islamic scripture does not require these practices, although male religious authorities argue that it does much as male Catholic authorities pretend they have scriptural or divine justification for Catholicism's oppression of women.

If there were open emigration for women-if those who did not like it could leavemaybe then this culture could be described as an "Arabic" culture rather than solely as "Arabic male" culture. However, until that day, Socialist Action should recognize that what you defend is nothing less than sex-based apartheid and oppression.

Lisa Small, Arlington; Va.

Dear editor, The day after Thanksgiving, I took part in a picketline in front of F.A.O. Schwartz, a yuppie toy store in San Francisco.

F.A.O. Schwartz was recently purchased by a Dutch-based corporation, K.B.B., and has been trying to bust Local 1100 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. They recently fired a Black, gay