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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers! How Cops Extort Confessions;
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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers!
How Cops Extort Confessions;
How the U.S. “Justice System” Really WorksNinety-two per cent of felony convictions in the U.S. are obtained by plea bargains or confessions. Without them the “justice system” would grind to a halt. In an important piece in our latest newsletter, available only to subscribers, Emily Horowitz shows how totally innocent people will “confess” under police pressure, even without physical torture. Horowitz outlines the powerful case for banning confessions altogether. Also in this new edition Marcus Rediker, co-author of the legendary The Many Headed Hydra, writes of popular heroism and resistance in the favelas of Medellin, Colombia. Alexander Cockburn reports on how America’s oldest bank, patronized by the global elites, washed billions smuggled out of Russia, and how the Russians might win their money back, shaking the world’s banking system if they do so. Serge Halimi describes the real battle for the soul of Europe. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great presents.
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Today's Stories August 6, 2008 Marc Herold August 5, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Jeff Halper Patrick Cockburn Nancy Welch Peter Morici Sousan Hammad Eamon Martin Shepherd Bliss Tim Matson Website of the Day August 4, 2008 Uri Avnery Saul Landau David W. Remington Rev. Jesse Jackson Dave Lindorff Peter Morici Joanne Mariner Ramzy Baroud Christian Wright Website of the Day August 2 / 3, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Patrick Cockburn Winslow T. Wheeler James Abourezk Andy Worthington Brian Cloughley Robert Fantina Benjamin Dangl Marlene Martin David Yearsley Fatemeh Keshavarz David Michael Green Obama as Dukakis Harvey Wasserman Jason Hribal Phyllis Pollack Laray Polk Ron Jacobs David Macaray David Rosen Dan Bacher Joe Allen Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 1, 2008 Jonathan Cook Nikolas Kozloff Rannie Amiri Peter Morici Christopher Brauchli M. K. Bhadrakumar Patrick Cockburn James J. Brittain Dan Bacher Website of the Day
July 31, 2008 Michael Hudson Carl Finamore Mike Whitney Joshua Frank Andy Worthington Ralph Nader Bill Moyers / Robert Weissman Dave Lindorff Website of the Day July 30, 2008 Brian M. Downing Chuck Spinney William S. Lind David Ker Thomson Karl Grossman Mike Whitney Martha Rosenberg James Murren Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Website of the Day July 29, 2008 Jeffrey St. Clair John Ross Peter Morici Alison Weir Gary Leupp David Macaray Brenda Norrell Marjorie Cohn Eric Ruder Website of the Day July 28, 2008 Dr. Bryant Welch Kathy Kelly Mike Whitney Peter Morici Christopher Brauchli Clifton Ross Stephen Lendman Website of the Day July 26 / 27, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair James G. Abourezk Joseph Nevins Uri Avnery Linn Washington, Jr. David Yearsley Binoy Kampmark Saul Landau Joshua Frank Brendan Cooney Jonathan Cook Robert Fantina Lee Sustar Michael Winship David Macaray Missy Beattie Robert Weissman Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend July 25, 2008 Harvey Wasserman Paul Craig Roberts Alan Farago Paul D'Amato Gary Leupp Niranjan Ramakrishnan Mike Whitney Paul Krassner Mike Roselle Website of the Day July 24, 2008 Greg Moses Andy Worthington James Bovard Joe Bageant George Wuerthner DC Larson William Willers David Macaray Website of the Day July 23, 2008 Winslow T. Wheeler Paul Craig Roberts Ralph Nader Mike Whitney Susie Day Website of the Day July 22, 2008 Nikolas Kozloff Patrick Cockburn Soldz, Olson, Reisner Arrigo and Welch Moshe Adler Martha Rosenberg Dan Bacher Harvey Wasserman Anthony Papa Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day July 21, 2008 Ishmael Reed Mike Whitney Andy Worthington Scott Pellegrino John Ross Robert Weitzel Mike Stark Website of the Day July 19 / 20, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Dave Lindorff Saul Landau Ron Jacobs Uri Avnery Neve Gordon Roane Carey Robert Fantina Christopher Brauchli Fred Gardner David Macaray Richard L. Hutto Bill Moyers / Ronnie Cummins David Yearsley Alison McKenna Wajahat Ali Poets' Basement Website of the Day July 18, 2008 Corey D. B. Walker Mike Whitney Robert Bryce Mike Roselle Bouthaina Shaaban Eve Spangler Website of the Day
July 17, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts James G. Abourezk Ralph Nader Allan J. Lichtman Andy Worthington"Screwed Up" and"Abused": Omar Khadr's Interrogations at Gitmo Ronnie Cummins
July 16, 2008 Jeffrey St. Clair Paul Craig Roberts Conn Hallinan Dave Lindorff William S. Lind Christopher Brauchli Website of the Day
July 15, 2008 Michael Hudson Brian Cloughley Patrick Cockburn John Ross Howard Lisnoff Website of the Day July 14, 2008 Uri Avnery Paul Craig Roberts Trish Schuh Patrick Cockburn Mike Whitney Alan Farago Seth Sandronsky Phyllis Pollack Website of the Day July 12 / 13, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair James Abourezk Nicole Colson Stan Cox Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Wajahat Ali / John Stauber Alan Farago Missy Beattie Robert Fantina Rannie Amiri Gregory Kafoury Fran Shor Martha Rosenberg David Macaray Andrew Wimmer Ron Jacobs Farzana Versey Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend July 11, 2008 Kevin Alexander Gray Sasan Fayazmanesh Peter Morici Mike Whitney Manuel Garcia, Jr. Robert Weissman Ramzy Baroud Kelly Overton Adrian Burgos Website of the Day July 10, 2008 Brian McKenna Paul Craig Roberts Saul Landau Ron Jacobs Joshua Frank Peter Morici Alan Maass Robert Weissman William Blum Alan Farago Website of the Day July 9, 2008 Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Luis Rodriguez Sheldon Richman Fatemeh Keshavarz Chad Hanson Sen. Russ Feingold Niranjan Ramakrishnan Dave Lindorff Stanley Heller Philip Rizk Website of the Day July 8, 2008 Nikolas Kozloff Laura Carlsen Mike Whitney Andy Worthington Patrick Irelan Chellis Glendinning David Macaray Dave Lindorff John Chuckman Phillip Doe Website of the Day July 7, 2008 Patrick Bond Kathy Kelly Andy Worthington Clifton Ross Elizabeth Schulte Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Binoy Kampmark Stephen Fleischman Website of the Day July 5 / 6, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair / Patrick Cockburn Mike Whitney Robert Fantina Binoy Kampmark Rannie Amiri Eric Ruder Brian Cloughley William Blum Frank Barat Christopher Brauchli David Yearsley Ron Jacobs Karim Makdisi Wendy Thompson / N. D. Jayaprakash Ramzy Baroud Kelly Overton Richard Neville Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
July 4, 2008 Kathy Kelly Dave Lindorff Paul Krassner Jackie Corr Laray Polk Dan Bacher Walter Brasch Charles Modiano Website of the Day July 3, 2008 Sharon Smith Andy Worthington Laura Carlsen Peter Morici Ramzi Kysia Martha Rosenberg Anne Landman Dave Zirin Kristin Bricker Website of the Day
July 2, 2008 Patrick Irelan Vijay Prashad Brian Cloughley Ralph Nader Robert Fantina Dave Lindorff Parvez Ahmed Robert Bryce Website of the Day July 1, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Mike Whitney Douglas Macgregor Steven Higgs Andy Worthington Binoy Kampmark Dave Lindorff Roger Burbach Richard W. Behan Gary Leupp Website of the Day |
August 6, 2008 The Zapatistas are Still ResistingWhat I Re-Discovered in MexicoBy MICHAEL ESTRADA What ever happened to the Zapatista struggle? This question and others about what was probably the most inspirational social movement and rebellion in the world around seven years ago propelled me to participate in a study abroad program on Zapatismo with the Mexican Solidarity Network this summer. Seven years ago, I was a recent graduate of U.C. Berkeley and was deeply involved in the global justice movement. Since that time, however, for both political and personal reasons (e.g., the post 9/11 climate and the demands of establishing an actual career and taking care of family), I have not been as involved politically and not been able to follow the Zapatista struggle as much as I’ve wanted to. My decision to enroll in the program was in large part an attempt to become politically engaged again. It helped me achieve that and more. For six weeks a group of us studied the history, culture, and political economy of the Zapatista struggle while living in and working with a Zapatista community in the highlands of Chiapas. Among many things I learned and was reminded of is the justness of their cause and the lengths that nation states are wiling to go in protecting their power and interests. Below is an analysis/explanation on the current security situation facing the Zapatistas. With the recent passage of such policies as the Merida Initiative (Plan Mexico), the evidence suggests that the Mexican government, with U.S. backing and support, is planning on increasing its repression of the Zapatista movement. In fact, in enhancing the Mexican government’s ability to use its military internally as it does, many concerned activists, human rights groups and political commentators describe Mexico’s new security plan as a (re)militarization of Mexican society. To the Zapatistas, however, their communities and land are already militarized and the repression, harassment and attacks by both military and paramilitary forces that literally surround them (The nearest paramilitary camp was just a ½ mile away from the community we were living with.) will most certainly increase with the passing of the initiative. Indeed, the Zapatistas view the Merida Initiative as an escalation of the repression and violence already being used against them by U.S. and Mexican government and corporate interests. Thus, to the Zapatistas, the political, economic and military aspects of governance are all very interrelated. In essence, they would say that the government’s economic plans can’t effectively be implemented without using military and political repression against those very social actors (e.g., the poor, indigenous, workers, farmers) who are being hurt by those same economic policies and that are being left with little choice but to resist them. The Political Economy of the Struggle Today The economic conditions that the Zapatistas originally rebelled against on January 1st, 1994 are still very much present. Corporate interests want to gain more access to the potential markets, cheap labor pool, ample land and natural resources that the state of Chiapas provides. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is the specific form the corporate economic model took then. Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) is the more specific and extended form that it takes now. While it wouldn’t establish a free trade zone, if implemented, the PPP would attempt to economically integrate Southern Mexico and Central America with each other (Mesoamerica). The plan’s main goal, however, is to open up the area to corporations from Latin America and other countries outside the region, particularly the U.S. Originally launched in 2001 by the very pro-business Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (PAN), the PPP stalled in 2003 due to its controversial, pro-corporate nature and the resistance generated by nearly a decade of economic dislocation and misery experienced by the large majority of Mexicans from NAFTA. Economic elites around the world, including in Mexico, have not acquired immense wealth by easily giving up, however. Thus, the euphoria experienced by critics and opponents when the PPP was seemingly defeated was proven premature when current Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who is also in the PAN and probably won the election through fraud, announced shortly after taking office in December 2006 that he would reinitiate PPP, though he plans on renaming it the Mesoamerica Initiative. To help begin realizing their corporate goals, economists or technocrats in the Mexican government have recently launched ambitious infrastructure projects. They include or have included the construction or repaving of highways, the modernization of the ports of Chiapas, the construction of an International Airport in Tuxtla, electricity distribution upgrades, and the construction of a fiber optic system between Tuxtla and Ciudad Hidalgo. Sectors and/or industries that Mexico’s elites want to eventually establish and that the infrastructure improvements are ultimately for are tourism, manufacturing, or maquilas with all the perks such as tax exemption for foreign companies that go along with them, forestry and agroindustry, which would largely take the form of African Palm and eucalyptus plantations. This of course does not include ongoing economic plans such as the desire to further open up the Lacandon rain forest, where 20% of Mexico’s biodiversity is located, to pharmaceutical and biotech companies who want to use the organisms of the jungle to develop new drugs, pesticides, perfumes and even new, genetically modified crops. Needless to say, these plans and projects will further displace and exploit indigenous people and communities, ignores their cultural way of life and wreak potential havoc on the environment itself. In the case of African Palm trees, for example, indigenous families will be expected to give up their farming and/or the cultivation of goods essential to their way of life and survival like corn, beans and coffee in order to produce palm oil for goods like cosmetic products primarily produced for export. Furthermore, the foreign plants excessively drain the nutrients and the water from the soil they grow in and require heavy usage of herbicides and pesticides, all of which greatly draws the environmental sustainability of the PPP into question. And Mexico’s elite won’t of course admit it publicly, but racism certainly permeates their economic ideas, given that it is still very common for elites to think that “in Chiapas, a chicken is worth more than an indio [Indian].” The Military/Para-Military Component The revival of the PPP has its military complement in the recent passage and acceptance by both the U.S. and Mexican governments of the Merida Initiative or Plan Mexico. Largely presented as a way to combat spiraling crime and deadly violence spurred by the Mexican drug trade (437 people were killed in drug related violence in Mexico in June alone!), there is little doubt that the Mexican government will use the money it gains from the plan and military/law enforcement equipment to repress social/political dissent and challenges, especially the Zapatistas. This can perhaps be seen by analyzing the plan’s funding priorities and just by recognizing the fact that the plan is actually considered part of a national security plan. In regard to funding, according to Laura Carlsen’ recent article (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4684 ) under the plan, the U.S. government will provide a three year aid package worth $1.6 billion dollars. In the first installment provided this year, the Mexican government will receive around $400 million dollars in aid. Around 30%, or $116.5 million, will go to the Mexican military. $73 million will go to “judicial reform, institution building, anti-corruption, and rule-of-law activities.” $48 million will go to “narcotics controls and deterrence” which includes surveillance, inspection, training and purchasing of security equipment (Not one penny goes to drug treatment or rehabilitation!). The rest of the $400 million, roughly $112 million, is earmarked for increased criminal justice efficiency (read: quicker prosecution of criminals) in the form of software and training in case-tracking and the centralization of data. Omitting the $73 million earmarked for “judicial reform” (How serious should this be taken, given the immense corruption in the Mexican state?), obviously the bulk of the money is going towards repression and prosecution of perceived “criminals.” And this doesn’t even touch on increased domestic spying powers like phone tapping the Mexican government is contemplating adopting. Of course, along with the drug trade and problem, terrorism is also cited as a justification for Plan Mexico. Similar to what American elites say, Mexico’s elites are raising the specter of terrorism coming from what they see as a porous southern border too, the one they share with Guatemala. And while nothing in the document is specific about protests or social movements, or any kind of resistance against corporate practices or encroachment, the historical behavior of capitalist countries is proof enough that they will defend their economic power and interests with military and police force when necessary, whether from external or internal threats. Given the Zapatistas are still vehemently resisting the economic and cultural subjugation of their communities and lives, it should come as no surprise, then, that the Mexican government is already making claims that Zapatista communities are illegally cultivating drugs and using the military to conduct raids and/or searches (Read John Gibler’s recent article here: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/17855.) Paramilitaries are increasingly being used by the Mexican government as well. In fact, since the early days of the Zapatista uprising, the Mexican government has been fine-tuning its use of paramilitaries. Various groups that were operating throughout the 90s have been forced to disband due to negative publicity, but they have since been unified and given a more public and legitimate face with the creation of the Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Peasant Rights (OPPDIC) in 1998. Publicly, OPPDIC claims to represent indigenous communities by pushing for more services, subsidies and petitioning for land. (A favorite tactic by OPPDIC members is to expel through force a Zapatista family or community and then petition the government for the land that they have just taken.) Privately and militarily, however, its members largely play the same roles they did before. They regularly harass, intimidate, beat and have shown a willingness to even kill Zapatistas. The close connections the Mexican government has to OPPDIC has been well-documented by such groups as the Center for Political Analysis and Social and Economic Research (CAPISE). CAPISE also has recently reported that over 74,000 hectares of Zapatista territory are under threat of invasion from military and/or paramilitary forces. Quite literally, this means that Zapatista communities are surrounded by and/or even mixed with anti-Zapatista communities (e.g. PRI dominated communities) and paramilitary strongholds or camps. In another Zapatista community we visited, half the town was PRI. It was obvious they did not want us there when we nervously walked through their market to get a feel how they lived and what government control looked like (The Mexican government was handing out welfare checks that day and the community was having a market day just for the occasion. On principle, the Zapatistas don’t accept welfare or any government services, for that matter.) The Zapatistas describe this situation as a perfect example as to how the Mexican government (the mal gobierno or bad government) actively uses divide and conquer strategies to split the indigenous population apart from each other. U.S. Government Complicity/Involvement As the Zapatista’s perspective on the modern world would expect, the U.S. government is playing an active and supportive role in their repression in essence because U.S. and Mexico interests (political, economic and military) greatly coincide. In respect to America’s politics, this strong and close relationship is what creates so much continuity between American presidents and the two main parties in the American political system. Applied to the American presidential campaign, what this looks like is pretty straight forward. While John McCain is understandably drawing ire from liberal and progressive activists with his staunch support of the Bush Agenda and openly expressed willingness to use military force to protect American interests, Barack Obama can also be viewed as fundamentally supporting the same aims. The Zapatistas certainly view this as being the case. Unlike many American progressives and social justice activists who believe Obama can and/or will significantly shift the priorities of American capitalism and U.S. militarism, the Zapatistas don’t expect much of a change if he is elected. Indeed, it doesn’t surprise the Zapatistas at all that Obama supports the Mesoamerica Initiative and is pro-corporate. In fact, in several political and educational conservations, several Zapatistas expressed this exact view. As they regularly told us in political conversation, “Obama is an elite politician. He represents the opinions and interests of corporations and the wealthy, not of the people.” Recent articles by such authors as Naomi Klein on Obama’s circle of advisors certainly suggest this is true. The Zapatistas, however, do not have to wait for and read critical news pieces like Klein’s to understand how the modern political world works and why it’s important to build an effective social movement for social change. They understand that their vision of democracy, where ordinary people and communities have real control over their lives, where there is true political and social equality and where their economic needs are met, is a fundamental challenge to the elite democracies practiced by the U.S. and Mexico. They also feel that their vision will only be achieved or constructed by ordinary people fighting for it themselves (In fact, the Zapatistas the last 5 years have deepened their vision of democracy by instituting the Juntas de Buen Gobiernos [Juntas of Good Government]). Elites, whether Calderon, Lopez Obrador from the left-of-center party in Mexico, McCain or Obama, are part of the problem, not the solution, given this perspective, and need to be resisted, not placated to. This is a lesson that perhaps liberals and progressives in the U.S. should learn from and contemplate how to put to practice if they are truly serious about building alliances with other struggles for social justice around the world like the Zapatistas. Voting for Obama shouldn’t be considered the wrong thing to do, but failing to hold him accountable, or any politician for that matter, for betraying the interests of the people by taking to the streets en masse should be. Michael Estrada is a Political Science Instructor at the City College of San Francisco. He would like to think Tom Hansen with the Mexico Solidarity Network with the recommendations he made about the article. He can be contacted at estrada-michael@sbcglobal.net
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