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Today's
Stories
February 20 / 22, 2004
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
February 19, 2004
Cecilie Surasky
Anti-Semitism
at the World Social Forum? That's Not What I Saw
Ray McGovern
Iraq
Hawks and Deceptive Intelligence: Did They Really Think They'd
Get Away With It?
Tariq Ali
How Far
Will Bush Go in Iraq?
Ralph Nader
Whither
the Nation?
Wayne Madsen
Would Kerry Purge the Neo-Cons?
Norman Solomon
The Collapse of Dean's Cyber-Bubble
Christopher Brauchli
Cheney, Halliburton and the NYT
Mike Whitney
Bush's Iraq Strategy: "I Hope They Kill Each Other"
Lewis Carroll
Bush the Mighty Helmsman from Yale
Website of the Day
Sex Toy Horoscope
February 18, 2004
William Wilgus
Bush:
AWOL and Dereliction of Duty
William Blum
Mush-Minded
Liberals
Dave Lindorff
Bush's China Syndrome
Greg Weiher
Why
is Kerry Getting a Pass?
Mike Griffin
Killing the Messenger: the AFL-CIO's Attack on Harry Kelber
Mark Hand
Kerry Tells Peace Movement to "Move On"
February 17, 2004
Mike Ferner
The
Countryside Murders in Iraq
Mokhiber / Weissman
Corporation
as Psychopath
Marjorie Cohn
DrakeGate:
a Victory for Free Speech
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's
Endgame: a Review of Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire"
Greg Bates
Nader Ambush: a New Low for The
Nation
Ximena Ortiz
A Bush
Doctrine, of Sorts
Gary Leupp
Whatever Happened to Gen. Khazraji?
Sen. John Kerry
"The Cause of Israel is the Cause of America"
Steve Perry
Kerry
1, Drudge 0
February 16, 2004
James Johnston
Huddling
with the Cheeseheads in a NASCAR World
Sara Eltantawi
To
Wear the Hijab or Not
Bruce Anderson
Kevin
Cooper and the Midnight Needle
Elaine Cassel
Feds
on Campus: the Drake Subpoenas
Rahul Mahajan
Bush,
Is the Tide Finally Turning?
Kevin Cooper
The Ritual of Death
Stan Cox
Goodbye, Howard Dean
Larry David
My War
Steve Perry
Bush and the Guard: the Cover-Up's the Thing
Website of the Day
Prison Patriots: Help This Vital Film Get Made
February 14/15, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Milk Bars, Hollywood and the
March of Empires
Jeffrey St. Clair
Oil Grab in the Arctic
William A. Cook
Faith-Based Fanatics
Stan Goff
Beloved
Haiti
Dave Marsh / Lee Ballinger
Rock, Rap & the Election
Hughes / Weiher
Tupac, the Patriot Act and Me
Michael Colby
Bush v. Kerry: the Power Elite's Dream Ballot
Mickey Z.
Michael Moore's Lesser Party: the General and the Lieutenant
Josh Frank
Dean's Demise No Big Loss for the Left
Peter Wolson
The Politics of Narcissism
William James Martin
Clean Break with the Road Map
Daniel Estulin
Religious Extremism in Africa
Standard Schaefer
The Privatization of Culture: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Dave Zirin
Maurice Clarett Gets Off the Plantation
Tracy McLellan
Oprah's Birthday Greedfest
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Guthrie, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Progressives Scorecard: Where Do the Dems Rank on the Issues
That Matter?
February 13, 2004
Alan Maass
Kevin
Cooper's Fight to Live
Karyn Strickler
McCarthyism in the Sierra Club
Annie Higgins
On
a Street in America
Adam Federman
Democratic Snipers Target Nader
Mike Whitney
George W. Faces the Nation
Brian Cloughley
Our Imperial Leader Has Spoken
Website of the Day
Lying Action Figure Doll
February 12, 2004
Ray McGovern
George
Tenet's Spin Cycle
Robert Jensen
Bush's
Nuclear Hypocrisy
Saul Landau
Elegy to the Salton Sea
February
11, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Hail, Kerry: Senator Facing-Both-Ways
Steve Perry
Bush
v. Bush?
February
10, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
Inquisition in Iowa
Ron Jacobs
Politics and the Beatles: Don't
You Know You Can Count Me Out (In)
Elizabeth
Schulte
The Many Faces of John Kerry
Mickey
Z
Meet the Oxmans: "The Rich
Shouldn't Sleep at Night Either"
February
9, 2004
Michael
Donnelly
Will Skull and Bones Really Change
CEOs? Inside John Kerry's Closet
Chris Floyd
Smells Like Team Spirit: the Bush
B-Boys Replay Their Greatest Hits
Bill
Christison
What's Wrong with the CIA?
Dr. Susan
Block
Janet Jackson's Mammary Moment:
Boob Tube Super Bowl
February
7/8, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
Offending Valerie: Dealing with
Jewish Self-Absorption
Jeff Ballinger
No Sweat Shopping
Dave
Lindorff
Spray and Pray in Iraq: a Marine
in Transit
Alexander
Cockburn
McNamara: the Sequel
February
6, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Are the Kurds in the Way?
Joanne
Mariner
Anita Bryant's Legacy
Saul
Landau
Happiness and Botox
Kurt Nimmo
Horror Non-fiction: A How-To Guide
from Perle and Frum
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Real Intelligence Failure:
Our Own
February
5, 2004
Benjamin
Shepard
Turning NYC into a Patriot Act Free
Zone
Khury
Petersen-Smith
A Report from Occupied Iraq: "We Don't Want Army USA"
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
Teresa
Josette
The Exeuctioner's Pslam? Christian Nation? Yeah, Right
David Krieger
Why Dr. King's Message on Vietnam is Relevant to Iraq
Christopher
Brauchli
Monkey Business: Of Recess and Evolution in Georgia Schools
Norman
Solomon
The Deadly Lies of Reliable Sources
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Presenting President Edwards!
February
4, 2004
Brian
McKinlay
Bush's Australian Deputy: Howard's
Last Round Up?
Mark
Gaffney
Ariel Sharon's Favorite Senator: Ron Wyden and Israel
Judith
Brown
Palestine and the Media
Frederick
B. Hudson
Moseley-Braun and the Butcher: Campaign for Justice or Big Oil's
Junta?
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's Independent Commission: Exonerating
the Spooks
M.
Junaid Alam
Philly School Workers Fight for Fair Contract
Fran Shor
Whose Boob Tube?
Kevin
Cooper
This is Not My Execution and I Will Not Claim It
February
3, 2004
Alan
Maass
The
Dems' New Mantra: What They Really Mean by "Electability"
Nick
Halfinger
How the Other Half Lives: Embedded
in Iraq
Rahul
Mahajan
Our True Intelligence Failure
Neve Gordon
The Only Democracy in the Middle East?
Laura
Carlsen
Mexico: Two Anniversaries; Two Futures
Terry
Lodge
An Open Letter to Michael Powell from the Boobs & Body Parts
Fairness Campaign
Hammond
Guthrie
Investigating the Meaningless
Website
of the Day
Waging Peace
February
2, 2004
Gary
Leupp
The Buddhist Nun in Tom Ridge's Jail
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Manners of Their Deaths: Capital Punishment in a Smoke-Free
Environment
Tom
Wright
The Prosecution of Captain Yee
Winslow
Wheeler
Inside the Bush Defense Budget
Lee Ballinger
Janet Jackson's Naked Truth
Leonard
Pitts, Jr
For Blacks, the Game of Justice is
Rigged
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Hollow Candidate:
The Trouble with Howard Dean
Website
of the Day
Resistance:
In the Eye of the American Hegemon
Jan. 31 / Feb 1, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate
Undercounting of Coalition Fatalities
Bernard
Chazelle
Bush's Desolate Imperium
Jack
Heyman
Bushfires on the Docks
Christopher
Reed
Broken Ballots
Michael
Donnelly
An Urgent Plea to Progressives: Don't Give in to Fear
Rob Eshelman
The Subtle War
Lee
Sustar
Palestine and the Anti-War Movement
George
Bisharat
Right of Return
Ray
McGovern
Nothing to Preempt
Brian Cloughley
Enron's Beady-Eyed Sharks
Conn
Hallinan
Nepal, Bush & Real WMDs
Kurt Nimmo
The Murderous Lies of the Neo-Cons
Phillip
Cryan
Media at the Monterrey Summit
Christopher
Brauchli
A Speech for Those Who Don't Read
John
Holt
War in the Great White North
Mickey
Z.
Clueless in America: When Mikey Met Wesley
Mark
Scaramella
The High Cost of Throwing Away the Key
Tariq Ali
Farewell, Munif
Ben
Tripp
Waiter! The Reality Check, Please
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Guthrie, Thomas and Albert
January 30, 2004
Saul
Landau
Cuba High on Neo-Con Hit List
Michael
Donnelly
Bush's Second Front: The War in
the Woods
Elaine
Cassel
Worse Than Jacko: Child Abuse at Gitmo
David Vest
More Halliburton News, Brought to You by Halliburton
Mike
Whitney
The Kay Report: Still Defending Aggression
David
Miller
The Hutton Whitewash
Sam
Husseini
How Many People Must Die Because of This "Mistake",
Senator Kerry?
January 29, 2004
Patricia
Nelson Limerick
John Ehrlichman, Environmentalist
Ron
Jacobs
Homeland Security and "Legalized"
Immigration
Rahul Mahajan
New Hampshire v. Iraq
Greg
Weiher
Bush Calls for Preemptive Strike on
Moon and Mars
Norman
Solomon
The State of the Media Union
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Does NH Mean Anything?
January
28, 2004
Kathy
Kelly
Bearing Witness Against Teachers of
Torture and Assassination
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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Weekend
Edition
February 20 / 22, 2004
Facing Off with the
IMF and Global Bankers
Argentina
Fights Back
By ROGER BURBACH
Buenos Aires.
President Nestor Kirchner of Argentina is emerging
as the leading nemesis of the International Monetary Fund and
the private financial speculators in South America. Assuming
office in May 2003 with less than a quarter of the popular vote,
he now enjoys 85% support in the opinion polls due in large part
to his determination to take on the neo-liberal policies that
lead to the country's economic collapse in 2001-2.
During the crisis Argentina defaulted
on portions of its international debt that stands at over $140
billion. Kirchner has now thrown the G-7 nations, the leading
capitalist countries, into a quandary with his declaration that
the private investors who bought about $50 billion in government
bonds in Argentina in the 1990s will receive only 25% of the
face value of their bonds. Kirchner argues the bondholders gambled
on Argentina during the heady days of the corrupt, neo-liberal
government of Carlos Menem, when some bonds paid upwards of 30%
annual returns. Caring little about what these exorbitant rates
meant for the Argentine people, the Kirchner government argues
the bondholders should now reap the results of their speculative
adventures that helped fuel the boom and bust of the Argentine
economy.
During 2002 and 2003 the IMF, the World
Bank and other international financial institutions lent new
funds to Argentina in hopes of keeping the country from opting
out of the international financial system. There were even signs
that some of the lending institutions were backing off from their
history of enforcing dramatic cutbacks in basic social programs
and balancing the budget on the backs of the poor. In early 2003,
the Inter-American Development Bank lent $1.5 billion to help
shore up the country's social programs, including the special
government payments of about $50 a month to the heads of household
who were unemployed. Due in large part to the government's decision
to insist that the domestic economy came first and that social
spending needed to be increased, the country's economy in 2003
grew at 7.5% percent after having contracted by over a quarter
in 2001 and 2002.
However just last week the finance ministers
of the G-7 nations who meet in Monterrey, Mexico, insisted the
government must "be more flexible" in its debt renegotiations
with the private bondholders. Beholden to the financial and political
dictates of the G-7 countries, the IMF and the World Bank are
both pressuring the government to change its approach. The IMF
called the Economics Minister, Roberto Lavagna, to Washington
to renegotiate the release of a loan for $8 billion later this
month while the World Bank has already held up a loan for $5
billion that was scheduled for release on February 11.
The government however is giving few
signs of budging and has hinted it may even suspend debt repayments
to the IMF and the World Bank. On February 4, Lavagna released
a report pointing out that these institutions continued to drain
the country of financial resources even during the midst of a
severe economic crisis. In 2002 and 2003, they lent $9.3 billion
to the country while collecting $16.6 billion in old debt. In
other words due to the repayment demands of institutions like
the IMF and the World Bank the country suffered a net loss of
over $7 billion.
The fact that Nestor Kirchner, a little
known politician from the sparsely populated province of Santa
Cruz, would take on the dominant international institutions is
due in large part to the fact that the Argentine people have
rebelled against prior governments and openly mobilized in the
streets against the payment of the foreign debt to the IMF and
its kindred institutions. A popular slogan in 2002 was "Que
se vayan todos," meaning the entire political class and
its international financial backers should be tossed out. International
private banks like the Bank of Boston and Citibank were denounced
in particular for their role in precipitating the country's crisis.
The Piqueteros are the leaders of this
popular revolt. Comprised of the underclass that is suffering
the brunt of the country's 20 percent unemployment rate, they
pour into the streets blocking traffic to demand jobs, government
assistance for their families, and land to grow their own foodstuffs.
The political beliefs of the entire country have been shaken
by the crisis. Popular assemblies, cooperatives, alternative
currencies, worker-seized and run factories, along with a host
of local self-help institutions have all taken root in the country
as the people strive to over come their economic destitution.
Jose Luis Coraiggo an economics professor at the National University
of General Sarmiento in Buenos Aires who is studying the alternative
economies declares: "These steps taken by people are largely
defensive in nature. But they are the seeds of something new
that could flourish if the government decided to make them the
center piece a new peoples run economy."
Even the French foreign minister, Dominique
de Villepin, who stood up to the Bush administration in the lead
up to the Iraqi War, gave a nod to the new popular institutions
in a recent visit to Argentina. He met with the Popular Assembly
of San Anselmo in the province of Buenos Aires, announcing a
special contribution to the Assembly's free popular dining center
as well as to its educational and cultural programs. One of the
country's most militant popular assemblies, a leader of the San
Anselmo assembly told De Villepin: "We have taken the streets
to end the economic model and interests that has impoverished
Argentines and sold out our countryWe organized the assembly
because we need to resist the efforts to privatize even the political
spaces of participation." It was not specifically mentioned
at the Assembly, but one of De Villepin's reasons for making
this gesture was to try to protect French investments like the
Argentine water company that was privatized during the Menem
government.
The Piqueteros of Argentina are especially
militant, often denouncing government programs as "reformist"
at best, and for not going far enough to take on foreign interests
and the economic groups that still dominate the country. In early
February, several groups of Piqueteros seized the Labor Ministry,
denouncing the government decision to eliminate the $50 a month
payments to about 250,000 families. This occurred on the eve
of the visit of Lavagne to Washington where he was to negotiate
with the IMF on the dispersal of the new loan. The government
says there were irregularities in many of these payments, but
the Piqueteros are demanding a public review of the cases of
those who were dropped from the roles.
"For the time being Kirchner maintains
his high level of support," says Manrique Salvarrey, a political
journalist who also works as a staff assistant in the Argentine
congress. "But if he cedes too much to the IMF and does
not carry out fundamental economic changes, the country could
witness further political eruptions from groups like the Piqueteros."
Roger Burbach
is the author of "The
Pinochet Affair," published last year. In May, 2004
Zed Books will release a new book he wrote with Jim Tarbell,
"Imperial Overstetch: George W. Bush and the Hubris of Empire."
Weekend
Edition Features for February 14 / 15, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Milk Bars, Hollywood and the
March of Empires
Jeffrey St. Clair
Oil Grab in the Arctic
William A. Cook
Faith-Based Fanatics
Stan Goff
Beloved
Haiti
Dave Marsh / Lee Ballinger
Rock, Rap & the Election
Hughes / Weiher
Tupac, the Patriot Act and Me
Michael Colby
Bush v. Kerry: the Power Elite's Dream Ballot
Mickey Z.
Michael Moore's Lesser Party: the General and the Lieutenant
Josh Frank
Dean's Demise No Big Loss for the Left
Peter Wolson
The Politics of Narcissism
William James Martin
Clean Break with the Road Map
Daniel Estulin
Religious Extremism in Africa
Standard Schaefer
The Privatization of Culture: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Dave Zirin
Maurice Clarett Gets Off the Plantation
Tracy McLellan
Oprah's Birthday Greedfest
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Guthrie, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Progressives Scorecard: Where Do the Dems Rank on the Issues
That Matter?
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