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January 5, 2004
Gary Leupp
North
Korea for Dummies
January 3 / 4, 2004
Brian Cloughley
Never
Mind the WMDs, Just Look at History
Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan
The Wrong War at the Wrong Time
William Cook
Failing to Respond to 9/11
Glen Martin
Jesus
vs. the Beast of the Apocalypse
Robert Fisk
Iraqi Humor Amid the Carnage
Ilan Pappe
The Geneva Bubble
Walter Davis
Robert Jay Lifton, or Nostalgia
Kurt Nimmo
Ashcroft vs. the Left
Mike Whitney
The Padilla Case
Steven Sherman
On Wallerstein's The Decline of American Power
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Taiwan Hypocrisy
William Blum
Codework Orange!
Mitchel Cohen
Learning from Che Guevara
Seth Sandronsky
Mad Cow and Main Street USA
Bruce Jackson
Conversations with Leslie Fiedler
Standard Schaefer
Poet Carl Rakosi Turns 100
Ron Jacobs
Sir Mick
Adam Engel
Hall of Hoaxes
Poets' Basement
Jones, Albert & Curtis
January 2, 2004
Stan Cox
Red Alert
2016
Dave Lindorff
Beef, the Meat of Republicans
Jackie Corr
Rule and Ruin: Wall Street and Montana
Norman Solomon
George Will's Ethics: None of Our Business?
David Vest
As the Top Wobbleth
January 1, 2004
Randall Robinson
Honor
Haiti, Honor Ourselves
David Krieger
Looking
Back on 2003
Robert Fisk
War Takes an Inhuman Twist: Roadkill Bombs
Stan Goff
War,
Race and Elections
Hammond Guthrie
2003 Almaniac
Website of the Day
Embody Bags
December 31, 2003
Ray McGovern
Don't
Be Fooled Again: This Isn't an Independent Investigation
Kurt Nimmo
Manufacturing Hysteria
Robert Fisk
The Occupation is Damned
Mike Whitney
Mad Cows and Downer George
Alexander Cockburn
A Great Year Ebbed, Another Ahead
December 30, 2003
Michael Neumann
Criticism
of Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Annie Higgins
When
They Bombed the Hometown of the Virgin Mary
Alan Farago
Bush Bros. Wrecking Co.: Time Runs Out for the Everglades
Dan Bacher
Creatures from the Blacklight Lagoon: From Glofish to Frankenfish
Jeffrey St. Clair
Hard
Time on the Killing Floor: Inside Big Meat
Willie Nelson
Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth?
December 29, 2003
Mark Hand
The Washington
Post in the Dock?
David Lindorff
The
Bush Election Strategy
Phillip Cryan
Interested Blindness: Media Omissions in Colombia's War
Richard Trainor
Catellus Development: the Next Octopus?
Uri Avnery
Israel's
Conscientious Objectors
December 27 / 28, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
A
Journey Into Rupert Murdoch's Soul
Kathy Kelly
Christmas Day in Baghdad: A Better World
Saul Landau
Iraq
at the End of the Year
Dave Zirin
A Linebacker for Peace & Justice: an Interview with David
Meggysey
Robert Fisk
Iraq
Through the American Looking Glass
Scott Burchill
The Bad Guys We Once Thought Good: Where Are They Now?
Chris Floyd
Bush's Iraq Plan is Right on Course: Saddam 2.0
Brian J. Foley
Don't Tread on Me: Act Now to Save the Constitution
Seth Sandronsky
Feedlot Sweatshops: Mad Cows and the Market
Susan Davis
Lord
of the (Cash Register) Rings
Ron Jacobs
Cratched Does California
Adam Engel
Crumblecake and Fish
Norman Solomon
The Unpardonable Lenny Bruce
Poets' Basement
Cullen and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Activism Through Music
December 26, 2003
Gary Leupp
Bush
Doings: Doing the Language
December 25, 2003
Diane Christian
The
Christmas Story
Elaine Cassel
This
Christmas, the World is Too Much With Us
Susan Davis
Jinglebells, Hold the Schlock
Kristen Ess
Bethlehem Celebrates Christmas, While Rafah Counts the Dead
Francis Boyle
Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
Alexander Cockburn
The
Magnificient 9
Guthrie / Albert
Another Colorful Season
December 24, 2003
M. Shahid Alam
The Semantics
of Empire
William S. Lind
Marley's
List for Santa in Wartime
Josh Frank
Iraqi
Oil: First Come, First Serve
Cpt. Paul Watson
The
Mad Cowboy Was Right
Robert Lopez
Nuance
and Innuendo in the War on Iraq
December 23, 2003
Brian J. Foley
Duck
and Cover-up
Will Youmans
Sharon's
Ultimatum
Michael Donnelly
Here
They Come Again: Another Big Green Fiasco
Uri Avnery
Sharon's
Speech: the Decoded Version
December 22, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
Pray
to Play: Bush's Faith-Based National Parks
Patrick Gavin
What Would Lincoln Do?
Marjorie Cohn
How to
Try Saddam: Searching for a Just Venue
Kathy Kelly
The
Two Troublemakers: "Guilty of Being Palestinians in Iraq"
December 20 / 21, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
How
to Kill Saddam
Saul Landau
Bush Tries Farce as Cuba Policy
Rafael Hernandez
Empire and Resistance: an Interview with Tariq Ali
David Vest
Our Ass and Saddam's Hole
Kurt Nimmo
Bush
Gets Serious About Killing Iraqis
Greg Weiher
Lessons from the Israeli School on How to Win Friends in the
Islamic World
Christopher Brauchli
Arrest, Smear, Slink Away: Dr. Lee and Cpt. Yee
Carol Norris
Cheers of a Clown: Saddam and the Gloating Bush
Bruce Jackson
The Nameless and the Detained: Bush's Disappeared
Juliana Fredman
A Sealed Laboratory of Repression
Mickey Z.
Holiday Spirit at the UN
Ron Jacobs
In the Wake of Rebellion: The Prisoner's Rights Movement and
Latino Prisoners
Josh Frank
Sen. Max Baucus: the Slick Swindler
John L. Hess
Slow Train to the Plane
Adam Engel
Black is Indeed Beautiful
Ben Tripp
The Relevance of Art in Times of Crisis
Michael Neumann
Rhythm and Race
Poets' Basement
Cullen, Engel, Albert & Guthrie
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
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January
5, 2004
We Shall Overcome
On
the 45th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution
By FIDEL CASTRO
Many of us who had the privilege of witnessing
that exciting day are still alive; many others are deceased.
On January 1, 1959 the overwhelming majority of those here tonight
were less than 10 years old or had not been born or there were
still many years to go before they would be born.
It was never our purpose to attain individual
or collective glory, honors or recognition. However, those of
us who today have a legitimate right to call ourselves Cuban
revolutionaries found ourselves obliged to write what has turned
out to be an unprecedented page in the annals of history. Unhappy
with the social and political situation in our country, we simply
resolved to change it. This was not something new in Cuba; it
had happened many times for almost a century.
We believed in the rights of the peoples,
including the right to independence and to rise up against tyranny.
It was from the exercise of such rights in this hemisphere, conquered
by European powers by fire and the sword, mass slaughter of indigenous
peoples and the enslavement of millions of Africans, that a group
of independent nations emerged, one of which was the United States
of America.
When, on July 26 1953, the Cuban Revolution
fought its first battle against an illegal, corrupt and bloody
regime, 8 years had not yet gone by since the end of World War
II unleashed by fascism in 1939, which took the lives of more
than 50 million people and brought about the destruction of the
economies of all the then industrialized countries, with the
exception of the United States, which was out of reach of enemy
bombs and guns.
The fascist ideas that were the cause
of that colossal conflict were in total contradiction with the
principles proclaimed by the 13 former British colonies in America
on July 4, 1776 in their Declaration of Independence, which literally
read: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty
and the pursuit of Happiness. [...]That whenever any Form of
Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right
of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to
effect their Safety and Happiness".
The French Declaration of the Rights
of Man, which resulted from the 1789 French Revolution, carried
this point even further when it proclaimed: "When the government
violates the rights of the people, insurrection is for the people
and for each portion of the people the most sacred of rights
and the most indispensable of duties".
The fascist ideas also clashed head on
with the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter after
the gigantic battle that was World War II. Among the principles
the Charter proclaimed to be essential prerequisites of a world
political order are respect for the rights of the people to sovereignty
and independence.
Actually, the rights of the peoples have
never been respected throughout humanity's brief known history,
so full of wars of conquest, empires and an infinite variety
of forms of plunder and of ways for human beings to exploit other
human beings. Nevertheless, at that historic point in time and
despite the reality that the victorious powers imposed a world
political order with privileges for a minuscule group of the
most powerful states that became ever more irritating, many nations,
institutions and people were hopeful that a new and promising
stage for humanity was beginning. More than 100 nations or groups
of nations, including human groups that still lacked a national
identity, were formally recognized as independent States. It
was a time that greatly favored illusions and deception.
The overwhelming majority of countries
that formally received the status of independent states was made
up of former colonies, dominions, protectorates and other forms
of oppressing and controlling countries that the most powerful
nations have used for centuries.
Their dependence on the former colonial
powers was almost total; their struggle to attain greater sovereignty
and act on it has been difficult and often heroic. The dreadful
harassment to which they are submitted in Geneva to get them
to support the US resolutions or, as a last resort, to abstain
from voting against them is proof of this. The way these states
behave in the United Nations General Assembly is admirable. An
expression of this is the growing and almost unanimous support
for Cuba against the blockade.
The worst of all is that a considerable
number of those countries that were supposedly independent before
that conflict was unaware of just how little independence they
really had, and Cuba was one of them. Almost all of the Latin
American countries were on that sorry list, as would become blatantly
clear. As soon as our heroic people achieved real and full independence,
almost all of their governing elites joined with the United States
to destroy the Revolution and prevent the social and political
accomplishments we were rapidly achieving.
The aggression began as early as 1959
with the use of all possible economic and political measures,
including violence, terrorism and the threat of the massive use
of US military might.
What happened to Cuba would help showing
all of the illusion and deception contained in those elegant
texts about principles and rights proclaimed by the United Nations
Organization.
Might and not rights would continue to
be the basic fact of human life, as it has been the case through
the millennia.
All that has happened up until the present,
since the first known historical facts were registered, is the
result of the natural and spontaneous, torpid and disorderly
evolution of human society. Nobody can be blamed for the various
economic and social systems that have followed one another over
the course of five thousand years.
The different civilizations which arose
in the most distant regions of the world: China, India, the Middle
East, the Mediterranean, Central and South America obviously
were, to a greater or lesser extent, ignorant of the others'
existence, were independent, although many things attest to the
extraordinary range of their knowledge. Some are amazing like,
for example, the Greek civilization with its art, philosophy,
literature, its knowledge of history, physics, mathematics, astronomy
and other subjects.
Our knowledge of Mayan and other pre-Incan
civilizations is growing, and this knowledge shows that human
beings, even when separated by tens of thousands of years in
time and tens of thousands of kilometers in space were already
creators and capable of extraordinary works. Yet, in all the
civilizations that preceded us and even today, empires, wars
of conquest, different kinds of slavery and feudalism, rich and
poor, privileged, ruling social classes and exploited, marginalized
and excluded classes have existed in one form or another. To
ignore this fact would require enormous ignorance.
I must admit that Marx was right when
he sketched out the idea that only when a truly rational, just
and equitable social regime exists on this earth, will humankind
have left prehistory behind.
If the whole development of human society
has inevitably been chaotic, disorderly, unpredictable, extremely
cruel and unjust, the struggle to create a different and truly
rational world, worthy of our species' intelligence is, at this
moment in its history, which bears no resemblance to any of humanity's
previous stages, something that was not possible or even imaginable
in other circumstances: an attempt by human beings to plan their
own destiny for the first time.
Dreaming of impossible things is called
utopia; struggling for goals that cannot only be reached but
which are essential if the species is to survive, is called realism.
It would be wrong to assume that such
an aim would be motivated by ideology alone. We are talking about
something that goes beyond the noble and completely justifiable
whishes for justice, beyond the deep desire that all human beings
can live a free and decent life: we are talking about the survival
of the species.
The big difference between the age of
the Greeks and our age lies not in the intellectual capacity
of our species but in the exponential and seemingly infinite
development of science and technology that has taken place in
the last 150 years, and which completely eclipses the negligible
and ridiculous political capacity we have shown for facing up
to the risk of perishing as a species, a risk which really is
threatening humanity.
Less than 60 years ago, when the first
nuclear device equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT exploded over
Hiroshima, it became clear that technology had created a tool
which, if developed, could bring about the obliteration of human
life on this planet. From that day on, the development of such
new weapons and weapons systems, hundreds of times more powerful,
varied and accurate has not ceased, not for one day. Today, there
are tens of thousands of them. Actually, very few have been destroyed
under deceptive and limited covenants.
A small group of countries that have
a monopoly over such weapons have taken upon themselves the exclusive
right to produce and improve them. Meanwhile the contradictions
and interests of its members change and humanity develops under
a web of nuclear weapons that threaten its very existence. Someone
could say something similar to what that Persian emperor said
as he and his huge army closed in on the 300 Spartans defending
the pass at Thermopiles: "Our nuclear weapons shall hide
the sun".
The lives of the billions of human beings
who inhabit this planet depend on what a few think, believe and
decide. The worst of it all is that those who wield such great
power do not have psychiatrists to look after them. We cannot
just accept this. We have the right to denounce it, to exercise
pressure and demand changes and an end to such an absurd, unheard
of situation, which makes hostages of us all. No one should ever
have such powers or else no one on this earth will be able to
talk of civilization again.
There is another lethal problem as well:
nearly 40 years ago some people began to voice their concerns
over what has come to be called the environment, because a barbarous
civilization was destroying the natural conditions for life.
This extremely sensitive issue was then put on the table for
the first time. Quite a few people thought it was just some alarmists
exaggerating, a kind of neo-Malthusianism, like in previous centuries.
They were, in fact, well-informed and
intelligent people who took to building a public awareness on
this issue, at times worried sick that it was too late to take
useful measures. Regrettably, those who due to their great political
responsibilities should have shown greater concern, showed only
ignorance and disregard.
More than ten years have passed since
the UN-convened Rio de Janeiro Summit and despite the usual proliferation
of speeches, pledges and promises, very little has been done.
Nevertheless, there is a growing awareness of the mortal danger.
And the struggle must grow and will grow. There is no option.
Recently, a conference was held in Havana
on desertification and climate change, which was also convened
by the UN. It was an important effort to inform, raise awareness
and call people to join the struggle.
In Rio de Janeiro, I was a witness to
the deep concerns and fear of representatives from small islands
in the Pacific and from other countries threatened by the risk
of being either partially or totally submerged by the seas because
of climate change. This is sad. The first to suffer the consequences
of environmental damage are the poor. They do not have cars,
or air conditioners; it is possible they do not even have furniture,
if they have houses, that is. The effects of huge emissions of
carbon dioxide causing atmospheric warming and the destructive
effect of the ultra violet rays that pass through the damaged
ozone layer filter have a greater impact on them. When they fall
ill, it is common knowledge that there are no hospitals, doctors
or medicines for them or their relatives.
A third problem: according to the most
conservative estimates possible, world population took no less
than 50,000 years to reach one billion. This happened around
1800, just as the 19th century was beginning. It reached two
billion 130 years later, in 1930. It reached 3 billion in 1960,
thirty years later; 4 billion in 1974, fourteen years later;
5 billion in 1987, thirteen years later; 6 billion in 1999 only
12 years later. Today, it stands at 6.3 billion.
It is really amazing that in just 204
years world population increased by 6.4 times from the figure
of one billion reached in 1800, after no less than 50 thousand
years, calculated in a relatively arbitrary and conservative
way so as to have a point of reference, but that should be further
analyzed. It could have taken many more years, if we limit ourselves
only to the time it took to reach its current capacity.
At what rate is it growing now?
1999: population 6,002 millions; growth
77 millions.
2000: population, 6,079 millions; growth
75 millions.
2001: population, 6,154 millions; growth
74 millions.
2002: population, 6,228 millions; growth
72 millions.
2003: population, 6,300 millions; growth
74 millions.
2004: estimated population, 6,374 millions;
growth 74 millions.
What will the world population be in
the year 2050?
The lowest estimates say it will be 7,409
millions; the highest say 10,633 millions. According to many
experts, there will be around 9 billion inhabitants. The enormous
alarm generated by this colossal demographic explosion plus the
accelerated degradation of the natural conditions needed for
our species' survival have caused people to react with true dismay
in many countries, since almost one hundred per cent of the growth
I mentioned will take place in Third World countries.
Aware of the growing deterioration and
reduction of land and water resources, of the famines in many
countries, of the indifference and wastage in consumer societies
and the educational and health problems facing the world population,
one could imagine that if all of these problems are not solved
our human society might become one where its members devour each
other.
It would be a good idea to ask the Olympic
champions of human rights in the West if they have ever used
a single minute to reflect on these realities, which to a very
large degree are the result of the current economic and social
system. It would be worth asking them how they feel about a system
that, instead of educating the masses as a fundamental element
for making progress in the search for urgently needed, viable
solutions, with the support of science, technology and culture,
spends one trillion dollars every year on alienating consumerist
advertising. With the money spent in just one of those years
to spread this peculiar poison, all the illiterate and semi-illiterate
people in the world could be taught to read and write and even
reach ninth grade in less than ten years and no poor child would
have to go without schooling. Without education and other social
services, crime and drug abuse can never be reduced or eradicated.
This we proclaim from Cuba, a country blockaded for 45 years,
accused and condemned more than a few times in Geneva by the
United States and their closest allies but which is about to
provide health, education and cultural development services the
like of which the developed and rich West has never even dreamed
of and, what is more, these are absolutely free for all citizens,
with no exceptions whatsoever.
The neoliberal globalization imposed
on the world, designed to facilitate greater looting of the planet's
natural resources, has, in the wake of the fateful "Washington
Consensus" led most of the countries in the Third World,
and especially those in Latin America, into a desperate and unsustainable
situation.
The first fruit of this disastrous policy
was the "lost decade" of the 80s during which economic
growth in the region only reached 1%; it rose to 2.7 % between
1990 and 1998, much lower than false hopes and pressing needs,
to drop again to 1% between 1998 and 2004.
The foreign debt, which in 1985, the
year of that treacherous "consensus", was $300 billion,
today stands at more than $750 billion.
Privatizations wiped out hundreds of
billions of dollars worth of national assets that took many years
to create but which evaporated with the speed at which capitals
flee from those countries to Europe and the United States.
Unemployment reached record heights.
Of every 100 new jobs created, 82 are in the so-called "informal
sector" which includes a long list of those who earn their
living any way they can without any kind of social or legal protection.
Poverty has grown alarmingly, especially
extreme poverty; it has grown by 12.8 % involving 44 % of the
population. Development is stagnant and social services are deteriorating
by the day. Neoliberal globalization, as was to be expected,
caused a veritable disaster in these services, first and foremost
health and education.
If old and new forms of looting, such
as unequal terms of trade, the unceasing, forced flight of capital,
the brain drain, protectionism, subsidies and the WTO's edicts
are added to this, then no one should be surprised by the crises
and other developments in South America.
Latin America is the world region where
neoliberal globalization was applied most rigorously and exactingly.
Now it is facing the challenge of the FTAA which will sweep away
national industries and turn the MERCOSUR and the Andean Pact
into appendages of the US economy: it is a last assault on the
economic development, the unity and the independence of the Latin
American peoples.
But, even if this attempt at annexation
is successful, this economic order will still be unsustainable,
both for the Latin American peoples and for the people in the
United States whose jobs are threatened by plentiful cheap labor
recruited by the maquilas from among those who were prevented
by the existing poverty, educational disaster and unemployment
from getting properly trained. Cheap, unskilled labor is something
that the Latin American oligarchies can offer on a grand scale.
A summary of all that I have said shows
my profound conviction that our species, and with it each one
of our peoples, are at a turning point in their history: the
course of events must change or else our species shall not survive.
There is no other planet we can move to. There is no atmosphere,
no air and no water on Mars, neither is there any transportation
for us to emigrate there en masse. Either we save this what we
have, or many millions of years will have to go by before another
intelligent species arises that can start all over again the
adventure we have gone through. Pope John Paul II has already
explained that the theory of evolution is not irreconcilable
with the creation doctrine.
I must draw my talk to a close. There
is much work awaiting us in 2004.
I want to congratulate our people for
everything it has done over all these years, for its heroism,
its patriotism, its fighting spirit, its loyalty and its revolutionary
fervor.
I want to offer special congratulations
on this 45 anniversary to those who took part in glorious internationalist
missions, today epitomized by the exemplary behavior of the five
heroes imprisoned by the Empire who, with impressive dignity,
have withstood the unjust, vengeful, cruel actions of the enemies
of their homeland and their people; epitomized too by the 15,000
doctors who, making great sacrifices, taking risks and dangers
carry out their internationalist duties anywhere in more than
64 countries, a human feat that the United States and Europe
could never accomplish as they lack the human capital to demonstrate
which human rights they are really defending.
Nobody can prevent with threats or aggressions
that our doctors, teachers, sports instructors or any other collaborator
show their solidarity; nobody can hold back the bravery of our
sons and daughters because many are ready for the honor of taking
the place of those who might fall victims of terrorist actions
encouraged and promoted by extremist officials in the US government.
I congratulate all those who struggle,
those who never give up in the face of adversity; those who believe
in humanity's capacity to create, sow and cultivate values and
ideas; those who bet on humanity; all of those who share the
beautiful tenet that a better world is possible!
We shall fight hand in hand with them
and we shall overcome!
Weekend
Edition Features for January 3 / 4, 2004
Brian Cloughley
Never
Mind the WMDs, Just Look at History
Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan
The Wrong War at the Wrong Time
William Cook
Failing to Respond to 9/11
Glen Martin
Jesus
vs. the Beast of the Apocalypse
Robert Fisk
Iraqi Humor Amid the Carnage
Ilan Pappe
The Geneva Bubble
Walter Davis
Robert Jay Lifton, or Nostalgia
Kurt Nimmo
Ashcroft vs. the Left
Mike Whitney
The Padilla Case
Steven Sherman
On Wallerstein's The Decline of American Power
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Taiwan Hypocrisy
William Blum
Codework Orange!
Mitchel Cohen
Learning from Che Guevara
Seth Sandronsky
Mad Cow and Main Street USA
Bruce Jackson
Conversations with Leslie Fiedler
Standard Schaefer
Poet Carl Rakosi Turns 100
Ron Jacobs
Sir Mick
Adam Engel
Hall of Hoaxes
Poets' Basement
Jones, Albert & Curtis
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