weblog

—2004.october
REPORT FROM RIO
Despite many hopes of progressives in Brazil and around the globe that the Lula government would represent a move away from neoliberalism, reality has been disappointing. So far Lula has taken the wrong stance (from a progressive viewpoint) on almost every labor issue and has solidly maintained the neoliberal approach of his predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Most recently the government is opposing the current bank workers' strike or at least not doing anything that would suggest being pro-labor or in line with a Worker's party. A major problem is the extent to which the strong union confederations are completely linked to the Lula administration and thus a formerly militant union confederation —CUT— now has the softest criticisms, if any, and lacks the independence for actions in support of labor. As so often, the left must look to social movements or some efforts for independence of unions. But Lula [and his administration]—through his charisma and the upbeat mood regarding the economy—is able to fool the working and the poor, non-working Brazilians. Although there has been an increase in recent months of industrial jobs, thousands, if not millions are still in need of jobs or more work (as many are underemployed) and real wages are still declining. A luta sigue! (the struggle continues)
Paul Cooney | 10.01.2004

MILLION WORKER MARCH
The Longshoreman's union in the Bay Area (ILWU Local 10), long one of the most militant unions in the US, passed a resolution in late March to call for a nationwide "million worker march." Now planned to converge on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on October 17, 2004, the mission of the march is working class independence from the Republican and Democratic parties. Endorsers include the entire west coast ILWU Longshore Division, AFSCME District Council 37 (New York) representing 125,000 members, American Postal Workers Union representing 330,000 members, National Education Association (2.5 million members, endorsed by the 12,000 delegates at 2004 national convention) and many others.The organizers' open letter to the anti-war movement urges: "Let us put aside our small differences, our organizational concerns, our divergences around matters of minor moment. Remember our common aspirations and forget the rest. If we can do this, we have the opportunity to build a movement unprecedented in the history of our people. If we cannot, nothing lies before us but never ending war and universal suffering both at home and abroad."
Sara Burke | 9.28.2004

—2004.september
INEQUALITY UPDATE
This year's Forbes 100 List shows Bill Gates (worth $48 billion) at the top of list for the 11th year running. Also, there are 313 billionaires on the list, compared to 262 last year, and the total net worth of the richest 400 US capitalists exceeded $1 trillion for the first time since the height of the dot.com boom.

According to the Responsible Wealth organization's "I Didn't Do It Alone: Society's Contribution to Individual Wealth and Success," report, "It takes a village to raise a billionaire... everyone on the Forbes 400 owes their wealth partly to a taxpayer-financed inheritance of public research and contracts; public schools and universities; communications, transportation and other critical infrastructure, and myriad government institutions from the Federal Reserve and the courts to
the Treasury, Defense and Commerce Departments."

The growing US inequality suggested by Forbes' list looks even more sinister in light of the most recent report by the International Labor Organization's World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, which extends this trend into a global context: "Seen through the eyes of the vast majority of men and women around the world, globalization has not met their simple aspiration for decent jobs, livelihoods and a better future for their children. In 2003, official figures for global unemployment reached a record high of over 185 million people. Unofficial figures would be much higher, especially if one includes the underemployed and the working poor."
Sara Burke | 9.28.2004

—2004.june
SHIFTING SANDS
According to recent polls in the NYTimes and LATimes 53% of US voters now say the situation in Iraq did not merit war. 43% said war was justified. When the same question was asked in March and November, the numbers were reversed.  And 44% approved of Bush's handling of the war, compared to 51% in March.

—2004.april
CORPORATE SPIN ON TORTURE OF IRAQI PRISONERS BY US SOLDIERS
Photographs of Iraqi prisoners being tortured by US soldiers (including smiling male & female soldiers posing for pictures next to prisoners being sexually humiliated) were broadcast yesterday by CBS.  The pictures were apparently taken last fall in Abu Graib prison.  If you have not had the chance to see them Rahul Mahajan has placed the photographs on his weblog.

It has caused acute embarassment for Tony Blair who just last week was taking a high public profile in support of the assault on Falluja.  The British government is doing a very careful dance between condemnation and reaffirmation of its support. The Guardian is the only newspaper I came across that asks whether the abuses are accidental or not.  It quotes Amnesty International which says that such incidents occur with alarming frequency suggesting that the abuses are systematic and not isolated.  The group notes that reports of other incidents ibvolving torture of prisoners have gone univestigated by the coalition.

So what about coverage in the American press?  This issue proved to be so involved, we made a special page just for the related links. Click here to read more.
Joe Smith | 4.30.2004 | 11:17am

CORPORATE CENSORSHIP: NAMES OF WAR DEAD
The Sinclair Broadcast Group, a media company that serves 24% of US homes, refused to air Nightline's Ted Koppel as he read the names—without pictures—of the US war dead in Iraq. Claiming that the show would be a political statement "disguised as news content," this right-wing corporation knows that when the public won't swallow their ideology, it's time for censorship.

"The Death of Local News" on Alternet tracks the rise of Sinclair through "a combination of acquisitions, clever manipulations of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules, and considerable lobbying campaigns."

The Columbia Journalism Review's "Who Owns What?" tool lists the broadcast affiliates owned by Sinclair, whose vision for the future of local news is one of a giant, centralized newsroom.
Sara Burke | 4.30.2004 | 7:58am

BRITISH PETROLEUM FLEES IRAQ
"BP's chief executive delivered a serious setback to hopes of rebuilding Iraq when he said that the oil company has no future there. John Browne, one of Tony Blair's favourite industrialists, indicated he had given up on Iraq because the political and security situation in the country had deteriorated so much. Yet only 18 months ago he was extremely enthusiastic about prospects, lobbying in Washington and London to ensure American rivals did not cut him out of the action." [from the Guardian]
Joe Smith | 4.28.2004 | 11:49pm

ZINN: WHAT DO WE DO NOW?
I have always been a huge fan of Howard Zinn. When I was young and looking for answers to why the society I lived in was so friggin screwed up Zinn's A People's History of the United States gave me hope. Zinn taught me that, bad as it may seem, things would have been a whole lot worse if not for generations of people coming together to struggle for a better world. The only book that I can think of that was more influential for me back then was Chomsky's Washington Connection & Third World Fascism. (damn but I'm indebted to those anarchists!)

But I have to say that Zinn's article "What do we do now?" leaves me a bit perplexed. With the US on the verge of unleashing a huge wave of death and destruction on the Iraqi people—my own informal count based upon this morning's news articles suggested about 100 Iraqis had been killed by the US in the cities of Baghdad, Kufa, Falluja and Najaf in the last 24 hours, and when came back online this evening I saw that the US had spent the day dropping bombs on Falluja—Zinn acts gobsmacked at the discovery that John Kerry is just as much of a homicidal maniac as George Bush when it comes to Iraq.

It's my own turn to wipe the gob of spit away when I read Zinn's words that "John Kerry, sadly (for those of us who hoped for a decisive break from the Bush agenda), echoes that fanaticism [of adding more troops in order to win]" Maybe its a rhetorical strategy, breaking it gently to the minions whose brains have been pickled by months of parsing what appeared to be minute differences between Kerry and George Bush. Whatever the case, Howard Zinn has found his anger and his voice. Welcome back to the independent left, Howard!
Joe Smith | 4.27.2004 | 10:00am

NEW BLOG: CRITICAL MONTAGES
An interesting blog put out by the tireless Yoshie Furuhashi.  Whether you agree of disagree with her analysis, Yoshie puts out very high quality radical commentary on a large range of issues with a stunning number of citations.  I have no idea how she puts together her pieces so quickly but I am genuinely awed by her production (& productivity).  Her most recent commentary "Talk Left, Walk Right" is about regimes that take a progressive line while implementing neoliberal policies.  Yoshie looks at the case of the South Africa under the ANC and Japan under the LDP.
Joe Smith | 4.27.2004 | 10:00am

BOLIVIANS CALL FOR OUSTER OF NEW PRESIDENT
"About 20,000 demonstrators swamped downtown La Paz on Thursday to demand the resignation of Carlos Mesa just six months after nationwide protests toppled the previous president. In addition, bus, truck and taxi drivers and street vendors held a strike across the nation, urging Mr. Mesa's ouster and protesting a gas export deal with Argentina. The main protest was peaceful and was headed by the head of the Bolivian Labor Confederation, Jaime Solares, and the head of the driver's association, Angel Villacorta. Mr. Mesa took office after bloody riots in October that left 80 dead and forced the president, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, to resign. He fled to the United States."

How to handle the country's gas reserves - the largest in Latin America - was a major issue in his downfall, in part because he planned to export gas through Chile, with which Bolivia has a bitter century-long border dispute. Mr. Mesa recently announced a July 18 referendum on gas export plans. But late on Wednesday, he signed a deal in Buenos Aires with the Argentine president, Néstor Kirchner, to export up to four million cubic yards of gas to Argentina for six months. Protesters said the price was below market value. The United States Embassy issued a statement reiterating 'its decided support to the constitutional and democratic process' and the Mesa administration 'to the end of its tenure in August 2007.'" [Agence France-Presse]
Joe Smith | 4.27.2004 | 9:13am

WTO RULES IN FAVOR OF BRAZIL ON US COTTON SUBSIDIES
With job losses due to globalization already a political issue (so-called outsourcing of white collar jobs) the WTO ruling cames at an awkward time for the Bush administration. Without the subsidies US production of cotton will almost certainly plummet drastically. The question remains, after initial gains, will the plight of farmers in the periphery be changed all that dramatically? One suspects there will be an explosion of new cotton production that will eventually drive prices back down. Nevertheless, the Bush administration chalks up another loss at the world trade body. [Washington Post]
Sara Burke | 4.23.2004 | 7:07pm

RISING CORPORATE MILITARY MONSTER IN IRAQ
It seems to me that the growth in corporate security forces capable of engaging in open combat and full scale military operations is the flip side of a domestic trend toward private police forces guarding walled communities. It suggests that the nation-state is losing its grip on the monopolization of power. How long before increasingly privitized arrangements provoke a violent clash between the state and corporate power, where the guns of mercenaries are turned on forces representing the state? What sort of scenario might provoke such a clash? A case, for instance, of one or the other of the two parties seeing their territorial rights (real or institutional) infringed, and responding with violence? [Common Dreams]
Joe Smith | 4.24.2004 | 12:04pm

US SOLIDARITY ACTIVISTS ARRIVE IN NAJAF
Coincidentally, just this month Blackwater Security engaged in full-scale battle in Najaf. The company used its helicopters to resupply employes engaged in battle on the ground. How will these corporate mercenaries react if they are confronted with American peace activists putting themselves between the occupation and the resistance?

Incidentally the background of the 4 activists represent an interesting micro-profile of some of the feeder movements to the current movement in the US: Latin American solidarity, Zapatista organizing, Catholic Worker, Military Families Support Network are included. (see last paragraph). [Common Dreams]
Joe Smith | 4.24.2004 | 9:57am

10,000 COPS TO GUARD GARDEN FOR GOP GALA
"Nearly 10,000 of New York's Finest will be working to keep this summer's Republican convention safe—the largest force ever assigned to a national political gathering, NYPD sources told The Post... City cops will also assist the Secret Service—the lead agency in charge of security - in dealing with huge numbers of protesters and protecting President Bush when he arrives at Madison Square Garden to accept the Republican nomination. [NY Post]
Joe Smith | 4.24.2004 | 12:04pm

REVOLTS IN IRAQ DEEPAN CRISIS IN OCCUPATION
Two decades of neoliberalism have left Latin American nations swamped in a tide of rising inequality, rising poverty and slow growth. To the dismay of many neoliberal globalization has meant increasing dependency on the global North. Perhaps the next question that should be asked is the one raised 40 years ago by Latin American dependistas. Does neoliberalism simply perpetuate the existence of a lumpenbourgeoisie incapable of guiding the nation towards equitable development? Does neoliberalism foreclose political options so radically that revolution will once again be seen as the only possible way forward? Not yet, perhaps. But by downsizing democracy neoliberalism risks undercuting the legitimacy of democratic rule in the eyes of the many. [AP story in the Guardian]
Joe Smith | 4.21.2004 | 10:36pm

PICTURES OF US MILITARY DEAD ON THE MEMORY HOLE
Following a Freedom of Information Act request from The Memory Hole, the Air Force released 361 photos showing soldiers' remains arriving home. These are the images of US military dead that the Pentagon prevented the public from seeing. Compare these images to those of the burned, maimed, and "carbonized" bodies of dead Iraqi soldiers in Peter Turnley's profound, disturbing, and important photo essay from the 1991 Gulf War: "The Unseen Gulf War."
Sara Burke | 4.20.2004 | 5:45pm

VENEZUELA'S BIGGEST OPPOSITION PARTY SPLITS FROM ANTI-CHAVEZ COALITION
"The shocking announcement" by Accion Democratica to leave the anti-Chavez coalition Coordinadora Democratica "was largely ignored by the commercial media which opposes President Chavez. Even Globovision, an all news channel with a clear anti-government line, has given very little coverage to the announcement. Globovision's president holds strong political ties to AD... The [AD] leader said his party 'won't remain silent' if other opposition
parties attempt to execute a new coup d'etat like that of April of 2002." [from Venezuela Analysis]
Joe Smith | 4.19.2004 | 9:16am

REVOLTS IN IRAQ DEEPAN CRISIS IN OCCUPATION
A highly pessimistic assessment of how dramatically the landscape has changed in the wake of events this month. From the grinding to a halt of reconstruction efforts to child guerillas dropping explosives from highway overpasses [last lines of article] the US is suddenly realizing it faces a world of pain as it struggles to maintain its grip on the occupation. [from the Washington Post]
Joe Smith | 4.18.2004 | 10:43am

BAGHDAD BRACES FOR MUJAHIDEEN ONSLAUGHT
93 US troops have been killed so far in April, the largest monthly toll since the start of the war. Today's papers report 5 more Marines killed in an ambush by Iraqi Mujahideen forces near the Syrian border.  An estimated 300 Mujahideen fighters took part in the attack.  US Marines responded in their usual fasion, shooting pretty much everything in sight.  One local doctor reported civilians being picked off by Marine snipers as they left their homes to use outdoor toilets behind their houses.  10 Iraqi were killed and 30 wounded.

In related news leaflets have been distributed in Baghdad calling on residents to stay off the streets.  The leaflets say 'The Combined Mujahideen Brigades' are coming to Baghdad.  The US is taking the threat seriously.  Are we on the verge of the battle for Baghdad?
Joe Smith | 4.18.2004 | 10:00am

NAFTA TRIBUNALS STIR US WORRIES
One of the remarkable things about the NY Times is how it periodically "discovers" stories. In this case the Times has discovered 10 years after the fact that NAFTA trade tribunals set up under Chapter 11 of the agreement can circumvent the US judicial system. There is precious little in this article that wasn't already covered by Bill Moyers a year or two back in a segment of his Now series called "Trading Democracy."

In a more perfect world this article would have been titled: "Clinton's Free Trade Legacy: NAFTA Tribunal Stirs U.S. Worries." Kerry's self-serving explanation "When we debated NAFTA, not a single word was uttered in discussing Chapter 11. Why? Because we didn't know how this provision would play out. No one really knew just how high the stakes would get." Sounds like an articulate version of Bush's Tim Russert interview wherein the president tried to explain what might euphemistically be called his "thought process" leading up to the war. Plus ca change... [NYTimes article]
Joe Smith | 4.17.2004 | 3:04pm

KERRY'S KOAN: WHO AM I?
Well, one thing's for sure, since he isn't a "redistribution Democrat," he must be a redistribution Republican!  In this way John Kerry defines the domestic economic component of his losing strategy. [NYTimes article]
Joe Smith | 4.17.2004 | 9:13am

ADVISING JOHN KERRY ON NATIONAL SECURITY: RAND BEERS
Rand Beers was Clinton's point man on Colombia. Some may remember Beers for his statement: "It is believed that FARC terrorists have received training at Al Qaida terrorist camps in Afghanistan." He was later forced to retract this assertion under oath. Rand Beers retracts a number of false statements including the one made above. Also see The Toxic Career of Rand Beers. And get general bio info from the disinfopedia entry on Beers.
Joe Smith | 4.11.2004 | 10:08pm

THIRD-WORLD RESISTANCE & WESTERN INTELLECTUAL SOLIDARITY
James Petras offers a strong statement of solidarity with those fighting in the anti-colonial war raging across Iraq. He chastens Western intellectuals for sitting on their hands while pathetically issuing statements endorsing John Kerry who has promised more to bring more troops, more weapons of death and more bloodshed to the people of Iraq. The reticience of the intellectuals is only the latest part of a longer history of ambivalence about the question of anti-colonial struggle. He sees in the national liberation struggle underway in Iraq a signal that goes out to movements all over the Third World that true mass uprisings cannot be conquered by imperial armies. Fiery stuff from the sociology department in Binghamton.
Joe Smith | 4.10.2004 | 10:01pm

CHINA SEES SOCIAL COSTS OF "MARKET REFORM"
Market reforms breed social dislocation and a have produced rapidly growing presence of people begging on the streets of China's cities. In the wake of this new urban poverty have come a raft of laws criminalizing vagracy. In the meantime "intellectuals pushing for greater individual rights argue that modern China should have a society where people have the right to beg." [NYTimes article]
Joe Smith | 4.7.2004 | 2:37pm

MONBIOT: "JUMP ON OUR BANDWAGON"
"The left must see that only environmentalism has the power to restrain global corporations... The limiting factor for corporations, in other words, is no longer labour, but the ecosystem and the regulations which protect it. This is why battles over the environment are among the few that the world's dissident movements are winning." [from the Guardian]
Joe Smith | 4.6.2004 | 11:36am

KERRY SUPPORTS BUSH ON MERCENARIES IN IRAQ
A mighty wind. Kerry, Pelosi and McCain rally in support of Bush in the wake of Wednesday's attacks declaring that the US will not be run out of town by terrorists. Kerry also refers to the deaths of the 4 corporate mercenaries in Falluja as "civilians." [NYTimes article] Also see blog entry for 4.2.2004 below.
Joe Smith | 4.3.2004 | 9:11am

MERCENARIES IN IRAQ
To what degree does the increasing use of mercenaries reflect a crisis of the nation-state? It has its parallels on the domestic side in the growth in exclusive gated communities where private firms are hired to provide security. It reflects a decline in the notion of the public sphere and less accountability for the state. The NY Times puts the number of corporate mercenaries (referred to as employees of private security firms) in Iraq at 15,000. It also mentions interactions between the press and mercenaries charged with the security of paul Bremer at a meeting on Mosul:

"In Iraq, Blackwater personnel guard L. Paul Bremer III, the head of the civilian administration, among their other jobs. Around Baghdad, the Blackwater guards, most in their 30's and 40's, are easily identified, with their heavily muscled upper bodies, closely cropped hair or shaven heads and wrap-around sunglasses. Some even wear Blackwater T-shirts. Like Special Operations Forces, they use walkie-talkie earpieces with curled wires disappearing beneath their collars and carry light-weight automatic weapons. "In the northern city of Mosul, where Mr. Bremer met with about 130 carefully vetted Iraqis on Thursday, Blackwater guards maintained a heavy presence, standing along the walls facing the Iraqi guests with their rifles cradled. More than once, Iraqis and Western reporters moving forward to take their seats in the hall were abruptly challenged by the guards, with warnings that they would be ejected if they resisted." [NYTimes article]
Joe Smith | 4.2.2004 | 1:09pm

EARTH TO FRIEDMAN, EARTH TO FRIEDMAN
Just four short days ago the smug but none too bright Thomas Friedman was claiming that he never bothered to watch "one second" of the 9/11 hearings because "I made up my mind about that event a long time ago." "It was not a failure of intelligence," Friedman speculated wishfully, "it was a failure of imagination." By this he meant that the US lacked "people with evil enough imaginations to put those pieces [of existing intelligence] together" and conclude that planes flown into buildings would be the weapons and targets of choice. Now Sibel Edmonds, a former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance, has provided evidence to the panel investigating 9/11 which proves senior officials knew of al-Qaeda's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened. Somebody at the NY Times needs to tell Friedman to get off his ass and do some real reporting.
Joe Smith | 4.1.2004 | 11:34am

US URGED TO TURN ATTENTION TO OIL-RICH AFRICAN STATES TO DEFUSE UNREST
Political instability in the oil-producing states of west and central Africa presents a threat to US energy interests, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank run by former deputy secretary of defense John J. Hamre and former US Senate hawk Sam Nunn. [Financial Times article]
Joe Smith | 4.1.2004 | 8:43am

BRAZIL UNVEILS INVESTMENT PLAN TO DEFUSE UNREST
A raft of pro-business policies is accompanied by raises for civil servants. [Financial Times article]
Joe Smith | 4.1.2004 | 8:43am

—2004.march
NADER ON THE "LIBERAL VIRUS"
One of the interesting things about this year's campaign is the convergence in opinion between the DLC wing of the Democratic Party and the independent left. Thus, whereas in 2000 we might have huffed about how the corporate
media pigeon-holed Nader as a spoiler and megalomaniac, this year what Nader calls the "liberal virus" (the first sound bite from the Nader campaign of 2004!) has reproduced that message everywhere. With everyone marching in lockstep this is clearly not the year for independent or third party politics. Or so we are told. The truth is the liberal virus has primarily infected left intelligentsia, those who are ostensibly in a position to help shape (left) public opinion.
In the real world Nader continues to poll 5% or more nationally.

Rather than towing Democratic Party line the left needs to be asking what seems to me to be a far more disturbing problem. Back in 2000 a visible chunk of the left backed Nader with well known results. Most notably he failed to reach the goal of attracting 5% of the national vote. This time around Nader is running without any visible support from the left. And yet Nader's numbers are as strong, if not stronger, than last last time around. This is what I call the collapse of the left. It is not only a collapse of nerve, it is a collapse of influence as well. In retrospect it appears that left intelligentsia were probably as ineffectual in getting more votes for Ralph Nader in 2000 as they are in corralling voters behind John Kerry in 2004. That is why the left needs Ralph more than he needs us. It is also why the left is so foolish to pass up the opportunity to exploit his high public profile as we build alternative political institutions. [NYTimes article]
Joe Smith | 3.31.2004 | 9:11am

ON OUTSOURCING, I'M WITH STUPID
"Economists, who as a group are big supporters of free trade, said the administration appeared to be bungling the politics of trade in a period when many jobs have been lost and there are now worries that high-paid white-collar workers could be vulnerable to having their jobs sent abroad as well." I say we make a t-shirt to pass out at the next economics conference. We could make three variations, one with the mug of John Snow, one with N. Gregory Mankiw, & one with GWB. Each would be emblazoned with the logo "On outsourcing, I'm with stupid." Let's see if they're willing to wear their political economy on their sleeve, as it were. [The Guardian]
Joe Smith | 3.30.2004 | 10:49pm

LONGSHOREMEN CALL FOR "MILLION WORKER MARCH"
Ali Tonak reports in Counterpunch: "The ILWU Local 10 is aware of the discrepancy between the union leadership and the need for fundamental change and is planning a march on Washington for some time in mid October. You can read their proposal at http://www.indybay.org/. They are calling it the Million Worker March. 'Attacks upon working families have been carried out with the complicity of congress, both Democrats and Republicans are responsible', declared Clarence Thomas [of the ILWU] at yesterday's rally as he explained the need for a million worker march. I have also heard from other union organizers involved that this march is planned in a radical light and the AFL-CIO is either going to have to endorse it and take a meaningful stance for a change or continue in its spineless direction and further alienate the majority of rank and file members from the Washington D.C. leadership. Hopefully the Million Worker march will not be co-opted by the AFL-CIO into a rallying cry for the Democratic Party and the rift between workers and union leadership will widen. From my vantage point it seems clear that only when the workers are able to shake union bureaucracy off their backs will longshoremen and not their owners make the decision to shut down the ports."
Sara Burke | 3.29.2004 | 11:34pm

FRIEDMAN'S ONGOING FAILURE OF INTELLIGENCE
"I have a confession to make: I am the foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times and I didn’t listen to one second of the 9/11 hearings and I didn’t read one story in the paper about them. Not one second. Not one story. Lord knows, it’s not out of indifference to 9/11. It’s because I made up my mind about that event a long time ago: It was not a failure of intelligence, it was a failure of imagination." [from Thomas Friedman's March 20, 2004 column in the NYTimes]
Joe Smith | 3.28.2004 | 11:16pm

FREE TRADE & US ELECTIONS
In an election year, the growing anti-free trade sentiment in swing states like Maine is of great concern to the major parties. Since the two parties agree on the sanctity of free trade a vigorous public debate is permitted. All that is at stake is who occupies the White House and not whether trade policies will be altered. [Boston Globe]
Joe Smith | 3.28.2004 | 11:05pm

US-CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION SEARCH ENGINE
Here's a search engine that allows you to look up which campaign your immediate neighbors are writing checks to. [Fundrace.org]
Joe Smith | 3.28.2004 | 10:15pm

AFL-CIO IN VENEZUELA
"Massive mobilizations, strikes, street conflict, hysterical mass media, social and economic disruption: Chile in 1972-73 Venezuela in 2002-04. The AFL-CIO is once again on the scene, this time in Venezuela, just as it was in Chile in 1973. Once again, its operations in that country are being funded by the U.S. government. This time, the money is being laundered through the quasi-governmental National Endowment for Democracy, hidden from AFL-CIO members and the American public. Once again, it is being used to support the efforts of reactionary labor and business leaders, helping to destabilize a democratically-elected government that has made major efforts to alleviate poverty, carried out significant land reform in both urban and rural areas, and striven to change political institutions that have long worked to marginalize those at the lowest rungs in society." [article in LaborNotes]
Sara Burke | 3.27.2004 | 12:09pm

US NATIONWIDE CALL TO ACTION
"We are calling for a national campaign to take advantage of this election year to emphasize the power of direct action and to present direct democracy as a viable alternative to representation. This campaign will include literature distribution, postering and stickering, demonstrations, educational events, and other forms of community outreach, both in our own communities and around the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. It will culminate in a nationwide day of direct action on November 2, election day."

Debate is raging on the internet about the response of the Left to this year's elections. This interesting call to action—coming from an anarchist perspective—is well worth grappling with. [dontjustvote.com]
Sara Burke | 3.26.2004 | 11:52am

FIGHTING "TERROR" WITH TERROR
"So who benefits most from the spreading fear in Iraq? According to Bush, the winners are faceless evil-doersbent on undermining Iraq's future democracy. And according to Bremer, this means that the attacks will continue as the June 30 handover approaches."

"But this is not the word on the streets here. Twenty minutes after the bombing of the Mount Lebanon hotel last Wednesday, the rumours began to fly: it was the US,the CIA, the British ... If these conspiracy theories have traction, maybe it's because the occupying forces have so brazenly taken advantage of the attacks to do precisely what they accuse foreign terrorists of doing: interfering with the prospect of genuine democracy in Iraq." [Naomi Klein in the Guardian]
Sara Burke | 3.25.2004 | 9:33am

THE PERFECT STORM
Jeremy Rifkin writes in the March 24 Guardian, "We have all the conditions coming together to create the perfect economic storm: record oil prices triggering a restriction in US economic growth and an increase in the federal budget deficit, accompanied by further erosion inthe value of the dollar—with increased budget deficits and the diminished value of the dollar leading in turn to higher interest rates to convince foreign investors to lend the US additional money, followed by a further retraction of the US economy as rising interest rates lead to a drop indomestic investment and consumption. The cascade of events touches off atsunami that engulfs the rest of the global economy, submerging the world in deep recession." The administration continues to play the stupid card.
Joe Smith | 3.24.2004 | 8:21am

HUNGER RISES IN SUBURBIA
Suburbs, once synonymous with the middle-class triple dream of land, home and community, are increasing sites of hunger. Nationally the number of families facing food insecurity increased 15%, or 1.5 million, between 1999 and 2002. The number of suburban households facing food shortages rose by roughly a quarter-million from 2001 to 2002. Increasingly food insecurity
is afflicting the working poor. [from the NY Times]
Joe Smith | 3.22.2004

CORPORATE OUTING OVER CLARKE BOOK
I was sitting in a corner of my local coffee shop grading papers when I overheard CNN reporting on the Richard Clarke story.  The scoop, that Viacom owns both CBS and Free Press.  Richard Clarke's book is published by Free Press and his interview was on 60 Minutes, a news show carried by CBS.  The implication is that Viacom is smearing Bush to promote sales of its book.
 
There is more than a little irony in this sudden rush to expose corporate hierarchies.  Recently Christian Parenti caused an uproar on MacNeil-Lehrer when he suggested that part of the blame for terrorism in Iraq is due to the inability of Halliburton & Bechtel, both firms in bed with Bush, to provide meaningful improvements in Iraqi life.  Given that both companies feed almost exclusively from the public trough it seems that such information on corporate ties is more than a little newsworthy.  Apparently the MacNeil-Lehrer people disagree.

CBS reports on its own ties to Viacom. Cynthia Cotts reports on the hubbub over Parenti:

"Parenti, author of an upcoming book on occupied Iraq, was being interviewed by NewsHour's Ray Suarez. He and Middle East history professor Juan Cole were analyzing the recent suicide bombings in Iraq and various groups that might have been involved. Then something went terribly wrong: Parenti suggested that Halliburton and Bechtel have failed to provide "meaningful reconstruction" and that the U.S. occupation might actually be contributing to the instability in Iraq. Lehrer apparently went ballistic."

The offending comment closes the interview with Christian Parenti and Juan Cole:

RAY SUAREZ: Does this, for the near term, Christian Parenti, make the American job harder on the ground in Iraq?

CHRISTIAN PARENTI: I would think so. I would think that we have to look at some of the deeper causes as to why there's so much frustration. Why are Iraqis so angry and willing to point the blame at the U.S. after this sort of bombing? A lot of it has to do with the failure of meaningful reconstruction. There still is not adequate electricity. In many towns like Ramadi there wasn't adequate water. Where is all the money that's going to Halliburton and Bechtel to rebuild this country? Where is it ending up? I think that is one of the most important fundamental causes of instability, is the corruption around the contracting with these Bush-connected firms in Iraq. Unless that is dealt with, there is going to be much more instability for times to come in Iraq.
Joe Smith | 3.22.2004 | 7:34pm

POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE OTHER LEADING BRAND
"Many major Kerry donors actually give more to Bush," according to a recent article in the NY Times. The big money and Democratic National Committee (DNC) political support lining up behind Kerry are interesting. One that caught my eye was: "past Kerry donor Bernard Schwartz, chairman of Loral Space and Communications—the tenth leading donor to the Democratic Party, giving $5.3 million over the years."

Now from an old New School for Social Research point of view—for those of you acquainted with one of NYC's historic "Left institutions"—the Schwartz/Kerry connection is ominous. The New School University (as it has now been sanitized) has its own Schwartz dilemma. But this time it's not with John Kerry, the war "hero," but Bob Kerrey, the war criminal and incongruous president of the New School. Schwartz has given bundles to the economics department and the Center for Economic Policy Analysis (CEPA) and has funded a lecture series on which he and Bob Kerrey collaborate very closely.

The Schwartz funded Program on Markets, Equality and Democracy at CEPA has a mission to promote "constructive capitalism." This is the slogan of the other leading brand. The Democratic Party wants to contrast its Kerry/Kerrey/Schwartz/and-so-on vision with the escalating anarchy of the Bush administration. This is crap that ignores the debilitating secular tendencies of capitalism and the realities of rising global poverty and inequality.
Sara Burke | 3.10.2004 | 4:43pm

HOPE CRUMBLES IN RAFAH AS HOMES ARE GROUND TO DUST
One hardly knows what to say when John Kerry boldly distinguishes himself from George Bush by stating that Yasser Arafat is an "outlaw to the peace process." "What peace process?" is the obvious question that comes to mind since Bush's roadmap got bulldozed years ago. Is it the peace process of grabbing Palestinain land by erecting apartheid barriers? The peace process of collective punishment of bulldozing Palestinian homes? The peace process of solidifying the hold of Israel in the occupied West bank by expanding existing settlements? The peace process of keeping the elected leader of the Palestinians holed up in his shattered compound in Ramallah? But perhaps we should take Kerry's words at face value. As president he will keep the US firmly in the camp of Israel no matter how brutally fascistic the latter's policies may be toward Palestinians. The carnage will continue unabated.

"Over the past four months, as many homes have been wrecked as during the October raid [when 200 homes were bulldozed and 2000 displaced]. A further 210 have been bulldozed, forcing another 2,000 people from their homes on the edge of the ever-widening Philadelphi Road, a five-mile strip along th border under Israeli military control. The scale of the devastation is now far beyond that which the town of Jenin saw two years ago." [Guardian]
Joe Smith | 3.09.2004 | 3:40pm

JAMES PETRAS: CAPITALISM VS. SOCIALISM, THE GREAT DEBATE REVISITED
"The debate over the superiority of socialism and capitalism continues because what has replaced socialism after the collapse of the USSR is far worse on every significant indictor. The debate continues because the achievements of Cuba far surpass those of the emerging capitalist countries and because in Latin America the emerging social movements have realized changes in self-government (Zapatistas), in democratizing land ownership (MST Brazil) and natural resource control (Bolivia) which are far superior to anything US imperialism and local capitalism has to offer.

"The emerging socialism is a new configuration which combines the welfare state of the past, the humane social programs and security measure of Cuba and the self-government experiments of the EZLN and MST."
[From Rebelión]
Joe Smith | 3.08.2004 | 9:18pm

TRUE RATIONALE FOR US MILITARISM A DECADE OLD
"The war was carried out in pursuit of a larger vision of using America's overwhelming military superiority to shape the future. The outlines of that vision were first sketched more than a decade ago, immediately after the Soviet Union collapsed. Some of the most important and bitterly debated aspects of the war in Iraq -- including the administration's willingness to engage in preemptive military action -- can be traced to discussions and documents from the early 1990s, when Pentagon officials, under then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and then-Undersecretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz, led the way in forging a new, post-Cold War military strategy for the United States." [From The Washington Post]
Joe Smith | 3.08.2004 | 10:27am

PERSPECTIVES ON THE COUP IN HAITI: THE RETURN OF OTTO REICH?
The web is percolating with interest in Otto Reich and his probable role in the coup in Haiti. "Otto Reich's fingerprints are all over this weeks kidnapping of President Aristide," J.Damu—of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America—says of the "Return of Reich." Apparently, Reich the Sequal has been in the works for some time. [Stories in Common Dreams, Guardian, FAIR, Counterpunch, and the National Security Archive]
Sara Burke | 3.06.2004 | 1:57am


—2004.february
ARISTIDE FORCED OUT OF HAITI AS US MARINES MOVE IN
The administration all but backs the overthrow of Haitian democracy—and the NY Times steadfastly refuses to portray the rebels forces as something other than a "motley rebel band of advancing former soldiers and gang members."

"As the barricades burned in the capital city around him, and with a rebel army on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Jean-Bertrand Aristide fought for his political life as Haitian president right until the end." [quote from BBC news]
Joe Smith | 2.29.2004 | 8:44am

AMERICA'S MOST DANGEROUS EXPORT: "FREE MARKET DEMOCRACY"
It is a truism that free markets favor strong actors over weak ones. That is one major reason why hegemonic powers in the capitalist world system have also been advocates of free trade. From their position of power, hegemonic powers have imposed free trade on weaker economies while keeping protections in place domestically. In the current conjuncture the hegemonic power has been the United States. And, true to form, it has exported a version of free trade that plays to its strengths while disadvantaging other states. Within these other states free trade policies have generally further polarized the gross (and growing) inequalities of the larger world system. This has often translated into further advantaging ethnic minorities who already had some advantaged position to exploit. South Asians in East Africa, Chinese in Indonesia, Whites in Zimbabwe, and currently, Sunnis in Iraq. Add democratization to the picture and you often have a mixture which can help galvanize the oppressed majority against market dominant minorities. That in turn can turn into a recipe for mass violence. In the following article Amy Chua, a profeesor of law at Yale, looks at this phenomenon. She also argues that the free trade model which the US applies to every party but itself in the long run recreates the minority-majority tensions on a global scale. In this case, the US is perceived as the crony capitalist market dominant minority. The result is growing resentment
worldwide against US power. [from The Guardian]
Joe Smith | 2.28.2004 | 10:53am

US TREASURY DEPARTMENT CURTAILS FREEDOM OF SPEECH
"[The Treasury Department] has warned publishers they may face grave legal consequences for editing manuscripts from Iran and other disfavored nations, on the ground that such tinkering amounts to trading with the enemy.

Nahid Mozaffari, a scholar and editor specializing in literature from Iran, called the implications staggering. 'A story, a poem, an article on history, archaeology, linguistics, engineering, physics, mathematics, or any other area of knowledge cannot be translated, and even if submitted in English, cannot be edited in the U.S.,' she said. 'This means that the publication of the PEN Anthology of Contemporary Persian Literature that I have been editing for the last three years would constitute aiding and abetting the enemy.'" [from NY Times]
Joe Smith | 2.28.2004 | 10:17am

HALF OF BLACK MEN IN NYC ARE JOBLESS
"Mark Levitan, the report's author, found that just 51.8 percent of black men ages 16 to 64 held jobs in New York City in 2003. The rate for white men was 75.7 percent; for Hispanic men, 65.7; and for black women, 57.1. The employment-population ratio for black men was the lowest for the period Mr. Levitan has studied, which goes back to 1979...

"Researchers who have studied joblessness said Mr. Levitan's findings were consistent with trends among disadvantaged men, both black and white, in other Northern and Midwestern cities where manufacturing jobs have disappeared in recent decades. Some said factors that might have made the problem worse since 2000 could include welfare reform, high rates of incarceration producing gaps in job histories, and competition with immigrants for low-skill jobs." [from NY Times | or download report pdf from Community Service Society (homepage: http://www.cssny.org/)
Joe Smith | 2.28.2004 | 10:17am

SOCIAL DARWINISM COMES TO US FOREIGN-AID POLICY
The Bush administration's "Millennium Challenge Account" is a prototype for US assistance to developing nations that pits one nation against another in a contest to parrot American values. Aid-seekers will have to compete to prove their "worthiness" for grants that the Bush administration projects at $5 billion annually by 2008. The NYTimes reports: "Representative Henry J. Hyde, the Illinois Republican who is the chairman of the International Relations Committee and an important backer of the new approach, wants to place a performance-driven Republican imprint on such aid, which, until recently, was denounced by some of his colleagues as 'pouring money down a rat hole.' ...To qualify for the funds, countries must demonstrate, in the president's words, that they are 'ruling justly, investing in their people, and establishing economic freedom.'"
Sara Burke | 2.22.2004 | 11:04am

COUNTRIES UNDER US TRADE EMBARGO BANNED FROM SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
The Inquisition created The Index and banned 'subversive' books like Mill's Principles, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, books by Moors and Jews, as well as all vernacular bibles. In another era, Aristophanes' great anti-war comedy, the Lysistrata, was banned by US customs until 1930 under the federal Anti-Obscenity Act. Marx's Capital was also banned in the 1970's by all military dictatorships in Latin America. In Mexico the PRI didn't bother, since they thought nobody would understand Capital. Now it seems we have another chapter in the history of obscurantism and intolerance.

Under the terms of a US trade embargo supported by the Bush administration, scientific journals that accept papers from Libya, Iran, Iraq, Sudan or Cuba can be fined $50,000 and the publisher sent to jail for up to 10 years. A coalition of scientific organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science call on supporters to sign a petition to reverse the ban.
Claudio Puty | 2.19.2004 | 10:20am

LULA AND THE PT-CORRUPTION SCANDAL: WHAT THE NY TIMES ISN'T TELLING YOU
Lula's second year as president kicked off with a big scandal when Epoca, Brazil's most prominent centrist weekly magazine, put a videotape from 2002 up on its website. The tape shows Lula's most important Ministry of Internal Affairs consultant—Waldomiro Diniz—doing a dirty deal with gambling kingpin Charlie Waterfall in exchange for campaign contributions to gubernatorial races in Rio and Brasília. Now there are calls for a parliamentary commission of investigation, and Lula's top aides are working overtime to avoid it. [NY Times article]

What you won't read in the Times is that the scandal has produced a particular crisis for the left wing of the Workers Party [PT], a fraction that makes up one third of the party's representation in Congress. The PT's left wing is struggling to come to a position on the issue, torn between giving its support to the parliamentary inquiry, on the one hand, and denouncing the scandal as right-wing dirty politics, on the other. Sources connected to the PT say they have info that a fraction of the right-wing PSDB—former President Cardoso's party—gave the tapes to the press to precipitate a governmental crisis. Lula's honeymoon is definitely over.
Claudio Puty | 2.16.2004 | 6:34pm

WTO: CHINA TO DOMINATE POST-QUOTA TEXTILE TRADE
"China's low labor costs and high productivity are the biggest factors behind its likely dominance of this industry, the [U.S. International Trade Commission] report says. Although other countries have lower wages, China's base of modern factories, a growing number of suppliers and increasingly efficient shipping networks have made it difficult for other countries to compete." [from the LA Times]
Joe Smith | 2.11.2004 | 11:44am

PLAME CASE: TOP BUSH AIDE QUESTIONED
Already reeling from pressure on the issue of missing Iraqi WMDs and fresh off a coolly received interview with Tim Russert, Bush now finds his administration in the midst of a growing scandal inquiry. The investigation into the administration's blowing the cover on CIA operative Valerie Plame last summer looks set to give Bush some real headaches. [from the NY Times]
Joe Smith | 2.10.2004 | 12:02am

YEAR OF THE MONKEY PROVES CRUEL TO CHENEY
How appropriate is it that Cheney's troubles accelerate with the start of the Chinese New Year? In the Chinese calendar this year is the year of the monkey. The monkey is an unpredictable creature and we may yet find that Dick's past monkey business as CEO of Halliburton will prove to be a major liability for the prez in an election year. Jim Lobe documents Cheney's growing troubles, sans the year of the monkey reference. [from the The Asia Times]
Joe Smith | 2.08.2004 | 11:26am

EVIL EMPIRE: BELLICOSE RUMSFELD RATTLES EUROPE
Rumsfeld demonstrates that the unilateralist core of the administration will admit to no errors of judgement. He defends the doctrine of pre-emptive war even though it is clear that intelligence had been inaccurate (or sexed up, as the case may be). And he all but thumbs his nose and calls the Europeans a bunch of Saddam lovers.

"Asked whether America's stature in the world had been diminished since the war, he acknowledged the Iraq war had taken its toll, but contended that it was more because of biased reporting by Arab media like Al Jazeera than anything the United States had done. "I know in my heart and my brain that America ain't what's wrong in the world," he said.

"Some European participants said they were stunned by what they called Mr. Rumsfeld's arrogance, especially in light of the apparent intelligence failures in Iraq. "His view is, 'We're right, they're wrong, and we'll continue to be right,' " said Christoph Bertram, director of the German Institute for International Politics and Security in Berlin. "It was a performance of 'We know better.' " [from the NY Times]
Joe Smith | 2.07.2004 | 5:49pm

HALLIBURTON INVESTIGATION LEADS TO NIGERIA
Yet another issue that could prove troublesome for Bush's re-election hopes: "While Obasanjo hopes that the probe will prove his anti-corruption credentials, it will add to the growing pressure on US Vice President Dick Cheney, Halliburton's former chairman." [from Agence France Presse]
Joe Smith | 2.7.2004 | 1:04pm

THE MATURING MOVEMENT AGAINST SWEATSHOPS
Cooperation is the new watchword among students, monitoring groups and corporations. "We have a preference for cooperation because it leads to action more quickly," says Scott Nova, executive director of the WRC. He notes that the group's quiet intervention in two Indonesian factories recently prompted corporations to comply with health-benefit laws and to open the door to independent unions there. [from In These Times]
Joe Smith | 2.6.2004 | 2:09pm

REGIONAL TRADE SOARS IN NORTH-EAST ASIA
According to the Korean International Trade Association (Kita), Japan, China and South Korea produced 15 per cent of the world's exports last year and the region accounted for about 20 per cent of the world's gross domestic product if Taiwan was included. Trade between Japan, China and South Korea accounted for 20 per cent of the three countries' total overseas shipments last year, up from 19 per cent in 2002 and 14 per cent five years ago. [from the Financial Times]
Joe Smith | 2.6.2004 | 1:08pm

EUROPE PUSHES FOR TRADE VETO PLAN IN WTO
"Governments would be allowed to ban imports from countries that did not share their national values and standards under proposals for radical changes to global trade rules being studied by Pascal Lamy, Europe's trade commissioner." [from the Financial Times]
Joe Smith | 2.6.2004 | 1:13pm

NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL PASSES RESOLUTION AGAINST PATRIOT ACT
I have been unable to find mention of this story in any of the local NY papers. Only Channel 1 news, ironically owned by Fox, carried a brief mention. This is curious since NYC is hosting the GOP convention in August. [from oneworld.net]
Joe Smith | 2.6.2004 | 11:15pm

A DEADLY PLAGUE OF SLUMS
"Thanks to global neo-liberalism disease surveillance and epidemic response are weakest precisely where they are most important: in the mega-slums of Asia and Africa. That's where the brushfire of H5N1 could turn into a deadly biological firestorm." [from tomdispatch.com]
Joe Smith | 2.4.2004 | 1:20pm

—2003.october
TROUBLE TRACKING BUSH'S LIES?
The Bush administration's Pentagon task force concluded that the Iraqi oil sector was devastated by the UN sanctions regime at the same time as the administration itself peddled the fiction that Iraqi oil exports would cover the cost of the occupation and the rebuilding of Iraq. "Now, as the Bush administration requests $20.3 billion from Congress for reconstruction next year, the chief reasons cited for the high price tag are sabotage of oil equipment and the poor state of oil infrastructure already documented by the task force." If you're having trouble tracking Bush's lies, see David Corn's article in the Nation.
10.08.2003 | 9:38am

—2003.september
FOCUS ON WTO SUMMIT IN CANCUN
Christian Aid's head of trade policy, Claire Melamed, writes in the Guardian that trade liberalization creates "producers who are blown out of the market by cheap imports, traders and processors who cannot make a living, and consumers suffering wildly fluctuating prices." Former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz also writes in the Guardian, "The strategy that the US, and to a lesser extent Europe, seems to be following is the usual: hard bargaining, extreme positions, last-minute concessions, arm twisting, peer pressure, tacit threats of cutting off development assistance and other benefits, and secret meetings among a small number of participants are all designed to extract concessions from the weakest."

KickASS [Kick All Agricultural Subsidies], is a great blog to watch for developments at Cancun. And Indymedia's Cancun site has extensive coverage, with articles like "Cancun: a model for self-destruction."

Focus on the Global South is one of the key groups in Cancun. Its homepage includes stories on the week of protests beginning today, including actions like this one: "A farmer tied himself to the cross of rice stems with his mouth gagged shut. This powerful image—seen at the anti-WTO demonstration in Bangkok—is a potent symbol that farmers are going to be effected by the trade deal without their voice being heard."

Free trade supporter Andrew Rose argues in Foreign Policy that protesters in Cancun are "wasting their time." Not because they don't understand the issues, but because—as he argues—the WTO is impotent to implement free trade since powerful member countries won't give it sovereignty over matters of trade, when they stand to lose out.

Economists critique the liberalization agenda. Globalization and the Myths of Free Trade, a conference held at the New School for Social Research/New School University last spring, challenged both the theory and empirical claims behind the WTO's agenda. Go to the site to download papers on globalization and economic development, gender and inequality, capital mobility, competition, and free trade.
09.09.2003 | 1:27pm

BORIS... SCHWARZENEGGER?
According to today's Guardian, "Spin doctors behind Arnold's campaign to be Governor of California have come under fire in Russia over a film that shows them as the architects who propelled Boris Yeltsin to victory in the 1996 Russian presidential election." The film Spinning Boris, just released on video in Russia but not due for US release until next year, has Arnold's campaign manager, George Gorton, Richard Dresner (one-time Conservative Party advisor), and Joe Shumate (part of Arnold's present team) under the microscope.
09.07.2003 | 4:25pm

EU GEARS UP FOR CANCUN: OUCH!
"The European commission yesterday launched a ferocious attack on poor countries and development campaigners when it dismissed calls for big cuts in Europe's farm protection regime as extreme demands couched in "cheap propaganda." [Guardian article]
09.04.2003 | 1:03am

POVERTY AND INEQUALITY ON THE RISE IN AMERICA
The incomes of 1.3 million Americans fell below the poverty line last year, according to a census report released last week. ["Ranks of Poor Rise" Washington Post] In addition, the Economic Policy Institute reports "new evidence of extraordinary growth in income inequality" based on Congressional Budget Office data that shows rapid income growth in the highest income brackets and slow growth in low and middle incomes.
09.03.2003 | 10:28pm

SNOW JOB
US manufacturers are preparing to file formal complaints against China with the US Trade Representative and the WTO, claiming that the world's manufacturing giant is toying with exchange rates to "frustrate the intent" of WTO trade agreements. Meanwhile, the Bush administration dispatched Treasury Secretary John Snow to apply pressure in Beijing, with the IMF as cheerleader. ["Hands Off" from Guardian, "Eventually" from NYTimes, "IMF Backs Snow" Financial Times.
09.03.2003 | 9:17pm

—2003.august
CHINA VS. MEXICO
Competition from cheap Chinese labor and decreased demand from US consumers means that Mexico's economy is smarting after almost a decade of NAFTA. Since 2001, 500 of Mexico's 3,700 maquiladoras have shut down and 218,000 jobs have been lost. ["As China Gallops, Mexico Sees Factory Jobs Slip Away" NYTimes
09.03.2003 | 8:58pm

ANARCHISTS VS. COMMUNISTS
Talk of the recent soccer game between these historically opposed tendencies has been all over email lists lately, launching both serious debates and predictable put-downs. In "Imperialism is Offsides," players write that "a fundamental goal of these games, in addition to having fun, is to help build non-sectarian political culture where we can learn more about each others work, find our points of unity and open space for comradely debate about differences." One notable difference is that the majority of the anarchist team is white and the majority of the communist team is people of color, so the work and play together also helps to build a "multi-racial anti-capitalist movement."
08.29.2003 | 12:19pm

ANOTHER AMERICAN SLIGHT OF HAND
Oil revenues in Iraq seem to be as elusive as the WMDs and other "truths" of the invasion and occupation. Now the US says funds seized during the war are just about gone. This equals a costlier war for American taxpayers, especially with Paul Bremer saying the restoration essential services (eg. water and electricity) may cost up to $30 billion above and beyond the $1 billion a week the occupation currently costs. [BBC story]
08.27.2003 | 2:49am

MONBIOT ON THE UN
In recent Guardian articles ["We can seize the day" and "Becare the bluewash"] that co-incide with the release of his new book, The Age of Consent—a manifesto for "global democratic revolution"—George Monbiot sketches out his vision for a reformed United Nations. [Also worth noting is his July 10th radio interview with Doug Henwood archived on the Left Business Observer.] Whatever your views on Monbiot, his proposals and challenges to the global justice movement deserve a response.
08.27.2003 | 12:46am

NOTES ON THE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT
In the July-August issue of Monthly Review, Barbara Epstein offers a social and historical analysis of the worldwide antiwar movement, or at least of its American component. She concludes that the movement, "if it is to gain strength and momentum, needs to link up with the broader antiglobalization movement, and the antiglobalization movement needs to link its labor and environmental segments more effectively. To accomplish all of this it is necessary to draw out the connections between production and consumption under capitalism—by way of the critique of commodity fetishism. There should be no war for oil, but also no war for the auto-petroleum complex, and no war for the system of production and consumption that makes such patterns of accumulation necessary. Until such connections are drawn, the movement will lack staying power, the capacity for its different elements to coalesce, and a meaningful political praxis."
08.27.2003 | 12:46am

ATTACK OF THE LIBERALS
In the article, "Gang Green" in the self-proclaimed "liberal" American Prospect, Michael Tomasky advises Democrats worried about another Green Party presidential spoiler to attack ferociously and immediately. Calling Nader a "megalomaniac whose tenuous purchase on present-day reality threatens to cancel out every good thing he's done in his life" and Cynthia McKinney a "discredited anti-Semite," he appeals to the "rational half" of Nader's supporters, not the "devoted dialecticians who won't allow facts to pass through the doors of their little theoretical straw huts." Thomasky's shrill diatribe is just the tip of the liberal iceberg these days: Demos hell-bent on dividing Left coalitions with red-baiting and slander.
08.06.2003 | 2:10pm

ARGENTINA'S FALL: WASHINGTON PUSHED THEM OVER THE BRINK
Major Washington Post article reveals Wall Street's role in the economic collapse of Argentina. Roberto Lavagna, the current economy minister: "We must pay attention to bubbles. With stocks, or companies, or countries. All are part of the same phenomenon."
08.04.2003 | 12:41am

BUSH TO NGOs: WATCH YOUR MOUTHS