Tonight, March 28, we urge our readers to join an online discussion of President Obama’s speech defending the decision to attack Libya.

_Strange and desperate attempt to divide growing union movement _

On March 3, notorious right-wing FOX TV personality Glenn Beck launched a 12-minute attack against Fight Back! News, the Committee to Stop FBI Repression and many individual labor and anti-war activists associated with these projects. The purpose of his attack was to try to sow division among the many forces that have united in Wisconsin to boldly fight back against the anti-union agenda of Governor Scott Walker.

Editor’s note: A flood of commentaries are appearing in the press to mark the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan. The following is an editorial evaluating the Reagan legacy that we published in 2004.

The struggle against racist anti-immigrant laws continues

On July 28, Federal Judge Susan Bolton placed an injunction on most of Arizona’s SB1070 until a Federal Court of Appeals rules on whether the state law is legal under the U.S. Constitution. The Court of Appeals case is now set to begin in November.

Nearly all the recent immigration proposals from within the U.S. political establishment have called for an increase in the use of soldiers to guard the U.S. Mexico border. People concerned with immigration reform should understand clearly the reasons that a further militarization of the U.S. border is unacceptable.

Minneapolis, MN – On July 1 the Minnesota nurses’ union negotiating team reached a settlement with management, averting a strike. If they would have gone on strike, it would have been the largest nurses strike in U.S. history. The following is the text of a leaflet that Fight Back! prepared to distribute on the nurses’ picket lines during the strike. While the strike didn’t happen, we are sharing this leaflet because it lays out the importance of the nurses’ struggle in the context of the economic crisis.

_Year One of the New Administration Saw Change but not Progress _

One year ago Chicanos, Mexicanos and Central Americans celebrated the end of the eight years of Bush administration. In addition to launching two wars and ushering in the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, the Bush administration stepped up repression against immigrants. Raids and deportations of workers by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) doubled, redoubled and then doubled again under Bush. The Bush administration implemented the notorious 287(g) program, where ICE teamed up with local police and sheriffs allowed racists such as Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio to harass Chicanos, Mexicanos and Central Americans. The October 2006 “Secure Fence Act” stepped up the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, contributing to the deaths of more and more immigrants trying to enter the United States.

_Put a Tax on Wall Street! _

In September of 2008 the New York Federal Reserve gave the U.S. insurer American International Group (AIG) an $85 billion loan as part of the bailout of Wall Street. The NY Fed told AIG to pay big banks in full the $62 billion AIG owed for credit default swaps. In addition, the NY Fed told AIG not to tell the public how much they owed or who they were paying off. The government bailout of AIG has been increased three times since then and now totals more than $180 billion.

In September, the U.S. government released its annual report on health insurance coverage, showing a continuing decline in private health insurance and the huge number of people who had no health insurance for all of 2008. That same month Democratic senators released their proposal for health insurance 'reform.' However, this proposal could end up as more of a bailout of the for-profit health insurance corporations than a solution to people's health care needs. The best solution for working people, a government run, single-payer health insurance program, was endorsed by the AFL-CIO national convention in September. But this single-payer health insurance plan has been largely excluded from the health care debate by the Obama administration and the corporate media.

Sisters and Brothers,