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Today's
Stories
December
4 / 6, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Politicize the CIA? You've Got to
be Kidding
December
3, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Lie Then Escalate
Ben
Tripp
Fun With Boycotts: How to Shop in a
Time of Crisis
Joe
Allen
Murder in El Salvador: the Assassination of Teamster Organizer
Gilberto Soto
Matthew
B. Riley
Human Rights Court Fails Lori Berenson
Meir
Shalev
In the End, It is the Violin that Wins
Bob
Wing
The White Elephant in the Room: Race and Election 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
When McCain Bit His Tongue
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
The EU, the US, Israel and Iran
December
2, 2004
Tito
Tricot
No Justice in Chile: I'm a Torture
Survivor in a Country Where Torturers Still Run Free
Behzad
Yaghmaian
The Murder of Theo Van Gogh and Muslim Migration
Dr.
Susan Block
Lana and Me: Meetings with Remarkable Apes
Frank
/ Chowkwanyun
Liberalism and Its Bounds
Lee
Sustar
Standoff in Ukraine: the Bad v. the Corrupt
Patrick
Cockburn
Another Grim Record in Iraq
Mark
Engler
Seattle at Five
Michael
Donnelly
Something Stinks in South Bend: the Firing of Tyrone Willingham
Nate
Collins
The Bay Area Mall on an Ohlone Burial Grounds
Saul
Landau
The Assassination of Danilo Anderson
December
1, 2004
Phillip
Cryan
Associated with Whom? Rightist Bias
in Wire Coverage of Colombia
Dave
Zirin
What's the Matter with "Leon"?:
Budweiser's Racist Commercial
Ghali
Hassan
Iraq's Health Care Under the Occupation:
200 Children Die Every Day
Donna
J. Volatile
Beware Western Nations Threatening "Democracy"
Patrick
Cockburn
How Saddam Tried to Arm the Insurgency
Nick
Meo
Chemical War Over Afghanistan
Mike
Ferner
The Battle of Toledo
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Shame and Determination on Global AIDS Day: 40 Million and Rising
Kathy
Kelly
Looking the Other Way: the Real Crimes
of the UN in Iraq
November
30, 2004
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Veil of Secrecy
Toni
Nelson Herrera
Meeting Kurtz: When Art is a Crime
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bush Delusions: Successful at Incompetence
Patrick
Cockburn
The Insurgency Strikes Back: There Are No Safe Havens in Iraq
Chuck
Munson
WTO Protests Five Years Later: Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization
Movement
Adam
Williams
Citizenship Sold: Back to Business in Indiana
Gregory
Elich
A Dangerous Turn in the US Plans for
North Korea
Website
of the Day
Read Lynne Cheney's Lesbian Novel Online!
November
29, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Blowback in Ukraine: The Hand of
the CIA?
Omar
Barghouti
"The Pianist" of Palestine:
Roadblock Concerto at Gunpoint
Mike
Whitney
The US Media and Fallujah: How to
Market a Siege
Uri
Avnery
The Abu Mazen Style: "Give Me
Some Credit!"
Matt
Vidal
Globalization and Economic Inequality: a Look at the Numbers
Patrick
Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign
Minister
Alan
Farago
Sex Change and Salvation: God, Girly Men and Endocrine Disrupters
Justin
Huggler
Bhopal 20 Years Later
Antony
Loewenstein
How Australia Reported Arafat's Death and Legacy
Gary
Leupp
Ukraine: Poll Results Aren't the Real
Issue
Website
of the Day
Mosul: Images from a Kill Zone
November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
November
26, 2004
Peter
Feng
Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine?
Greg
Moses
It's the White Vote, Stupid
Liaquat
Ali Khan
The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should Be Banned from Canada: a Memo to the Ministry
of Immigration
Dave
Lindorff
Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the
Way
Gary
Corseri
When Black Friday Comes...
Paul
Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Conservatives?
Website
of the Day
Iraq Pipeline Watch
November
25, 2004
Willliam
Loren Katz
Giving Thanks to Whom?: "Thanks
to God We Sent 600 Heathen Souls to Hell Today"
Mitchel
Cohen
Why I Hate Thanksgiving
Mike
Ferner
An Uncommon Mom
November
24, 2004
Gila
Svirsky
License to Kill: the Example of Violence
is Set by the State
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The
Other Mess in Congress
Christopher
Brauchli
The Company He Keeps: the Syndicate of Tom Delay
Dave
Lindorff
Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony
Ron
Jacobs
The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem
Ken
Sengupta
Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah
Diana
Barahona
The Final Holocaust or Why I Voted for Ralph Nader
John
L. Hess
Safire the Shameless
Jason
Leopold
Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear
War
Map
of the Day
Now and Then: 2004 v. 1860
November
23, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
Bush and Uribe at the Beach
November
22, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage
in Detroit
Paul
Craig Roberts
On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again?
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada
Kathie
Helmkamp
Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill
Ken
Sengupta
The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place
in Iraq"
Mike
Whitney
Greenspan's Hammer
Roger
Burbach
Why They Hate Bush in Chile
Website
of the Day
Fed Up with Government Lies and Corporate Spin?
November
20 / 21, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Poisoned Chalice
Todd
May
Religion, the Election and the Politics of Fear
Abbas
Ahmed Ibrahim
The Horrors of Fallujah: a First-Hand Account
Kevin
Zeese
Mishandling Nader
Landau
/ Hassen
After Arafat
Tom
Barry
The Vulcans Consolidate Power: The Rise of Stephen Hadley
Fred
Gardner
Pot Shots: Ask Dr. Todd
Justin
E.H. Smith
Triumph of the Will: the Sequel
Carl
Estabrook
Where We Are Now
Gary
Leupp
Imperial History-Making vs. Reality-Based Thought: a Dialogue
Dave
Lindorff
Apocalypse Soon
Jenna
Michelle Liut
Plans Colombia and Patriota: Wanton Wastes of Money, Manpower
and Lives
Mickey
Z.
The Granma Moses of Radical Writing: an Interview with William
Blum
Greg
Moses
The Same Old Struggle Against Imperial America
Sharon
Smith
Abortion Rights and the Election: What Now?
Ron
Jacobs
Sandwiches and Car Bombs
Ben
Tripp
Raising d'Etre: Finding Money in Hollywood These Days
Richard
Oxman
Basketbrawl Two Pointer: Iraq Rules!
Gilad
Atzmon
Politics and Jazz
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Albert, Ford, & Anon.
Website
of the Day
Voice of the Forest
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
December 4 / 6, 2004
An Interview with Artist Anthony
Papa
"Art
Can be a Weapon of the Oppressed"
By
LUCY HERSCHEL
Anthony Papa served 12 years of a 15-years-to-life
sentence as a first-time, nonviolent felony drug offender under
New York state's Rockefeller Drug Laws (RDLs). In prison, he
became an artist and a political activist. Since his release
in 1997, Papa has fought tirelessly along with others to repeal
New York's draconian drug laws, cofounding the group Mothers
of the New York Disappeared.
Now, Feral House has published
his book 15
Years to Life: How I Painted My Way to Freedom. In
October, the Whitney Museum of American Art held a party to launch
the book. LUCY HERSCHEL spoke with Anthony.
THE SUBTITLE of your book
is "How I Painted My Way to Freedom." Can you explain
how that happened?
I WAS sentenced to 15-to-life
in maximum-security prison in Ossining, N.Y. I was lost. I really
didn't know how I was going to survive, until one day I discovered
my talent as an artist. My discovery of my art was life saving,
it maintained my humanity, my self-esteem, it gave me meaning
in my life and helped me transcend the negativity of the prison
environment.
Sing Sing was a cesspool. Parts
of the prison were like the old Times Square--you could buy any
type of weapon, TV sets, any form of contraband, drugs. There
were more drugs in Sing Sing than in the streets.
The point I like to make is,
if you can't control drugs in a maximum-security prison, how
can you control drugs in a free society?
More importantly, my art helped
me discover my political awareness--who I was in society. I discovered
the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and Picasso's "Guernica"--those
were my influences where I saw that art could be used as a weapon
of the oppressed against the oppressor. I began painting social
statements against the death penalty and the prison-industrial
complex.
One of my pieces, "Corporate
Asset," portrays the prison-industrial complex before the
term was even coined. It shows how the family unit is taken away
from the home, the prisoner becomes food for the machine--the
systematic dehumanization of the prisoner who becomes a nameless
statistic going through the revolving doors of justice on the
road to recidivism, only to be plucked in again at any time by
the system.
It's a visual narrative of
important social concepts. For me, the greatest asset of an artist
is using art as a social commentary.
WERE YOU ever afraid that
the political message in your work would hurt your chances at
clemency?
ACTUALLY, MANY times I debated
this. While my clemency petition was pending, my counselor came
to me and told me to slow down. Although he personally agreed
with what I was doing, he thought I was jeopardizing my chances
at freedom. Apparently, the warden had come to him and had wanted
to withdraw the letter of support he had sent to the governor
for me, because I was so outspoken.
But I felt I had an obligation
to speak out against the atrocity of imprisonment through my
art.
For example, I painted one
series called "Contraband Search." Coming back from
a visit one day, I was put through a body cavity search three
times, and I felt very dehumanized by it. I went to the library
and I found policies and directives on how C.O.s are to conduct
body cavity searches, and I was appalled by the 20 pages of directives
describing the methods of all types of searches.
So I painted a series of six-page
paintings about this issue, and I tried to send them out--but
the work was confiscated.
I called my lawyer to say that
I wanted to sue them because they took away my right to create--first
they want me and now they want my mind. He said, "Look,
slow down, don't sue them, you have you clemency petition pending,
and you're going to hurt your chances at clemency. Handle it
internally."
So I was forced to strip down
the directives off the paintings. But when I went back to my
cell I thought, "Now they have my mind." So I made
diagrams of where the directives were on the painting and sent
the directives out separately in the mail.
Later, I got a call that the
deputy of security wanted to see me, and I thought, "Now
I'm in trouble, they must have found the directives in the mail.
I just blew my shot for freedom." Instead, he told me that
he just got off the phone with the governor, and he said, "You're
free." I just broke down crying. That was an amazing experience.
So even though I did jeopardize
my freedom, I thought it was my duty and my obligation. Because
I had this vehicle, I became a kind of cause celebre, and a lot
of people wanted to come in the prison and interview me. I used
my art as a vehicle to talk out against the system.
I thank Governor Pataki for
my clemency, but I have become an activist against him and his
stance on Rockefeller reform, which is nonexistent. Three years
ago, for the first time in 28 years, the governor openly came
out and spoke against the drug laws. Then the Senate and State
Assembly leaders also came out.
So you have all three top dogs
of New York State government wanting to change the laws, but
for three years, they've just argued about what changes to make.
So throughout all this political rhetoric, people are still wasting
away in prison. I will continue to use my art to fight the governor
to compel him to change these laws.
SO IF the top three legislators
all agree, why hasn't there been reform?
BECAUSE OF the prison-industrial
complex--money raised at local, state and federal levels through
the business of the prison. Since 1982, 33 prisons have been
built in up-state, rural Republican territories. It's about the
dollar. That's why people are still in prison, that's why these
laws have not changed. That coupled with the disfunctionality
of the legislative process in Albany.
The "war on drugs"
is a war on people itself and primarily people of color. It's
about controlling a certain population. If you look at New York
State, 75 percent of the 19,000 people who are locked up under
these laws come from seven inner-city neighborhoods. So this
is about institutionalized racism.
It's very hard to change the
system when it's run by politics that are dictated by personal
gain. All politicians are thinking about is their own political
careers. They don't care about people locked up in prison; they
don't care about anything else.
YOU TOLD me about a new
district attorney who, with the support of activists, won a big
upset victory in Albany by running strictly on an anti-Rockefeller
Drug Law platform, beating out an incumbent who was a strong
supporter of these laws. How do you think he won?
MY GROUP, the Mothers of the
New York Disappeared that I cofounded in 1998 through the William
Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice, laid the foundation by going
to Albany dozens of times, meeting with officials, protesting
in the street and getting tremendous publicity up in Albany,
so the people in Albany were educated about the draconian nature
of the RDLs.
They saw it was a waste of
tax money, of human life, money that could be better spent on
needy communities, to feed the homeless, put shoes on shoeless
children.
When I came out in 1997, I
went to Albany with different groups to lobby politicians, and
I saw that I was wasting my time trying to change the laws from
the top down. All these politicians had dual opinions about the
laws. The public opinion was: "We support these laws. They
work." But behind closed doors, they said would say, "Look,
I know these laws don't work, they cost a lot of money, but I
can't look soft on crime because I don't want to loose my job."
From that point, I said to
myself, "We aren't going to win it up here. We're going
to have to develop a plan to work it from the bottom up."
That's why I started the Mothers
of the New York Disappeared. We actually changed public opinion
by taking the issue to the street and putting a human face on
it. We formed the group based on the Argentine mothers. They
fought the military when they overtook the government in the
1970s and '80s. Some 30,000 people were murdered--they disappeared.
They held candlelight vigils and the Plaza de Mayo, and got a
lot of public sympathy and public pressure from around the world
to seek justice.
We met May 8, 1998, the 25-year
anniversary of the RDLs, right across from St. Patrick's Cathedral,
and we staged our first rally, and all the New York press was
there. We saw that this was how we were going to change these
laws--by getting the press involved and reaching the masses with
these human interest stories.
And from a small, dedicated
group of maybe 25 people, in five years, we changed the face
of the war on drugs and how it was fought in New York. What we
did is we took to the grassroot street level. Now that model
has expanded to other groups that hold rallies now across the
country.
WHERE DO you think the fight
against the Rockefeller Drug Laws should go from here?
WE NEED to continue to put
pressure on the governor, and we need to do it in a variety of
ways. I had a meeting with Larry Fisher, LL Cool J's former manager,
who runs an organization called Hip Hop for Youth, about going
to Albany in January during Pataki's State of the State address
and having an event with different rappers.
The governor's proposed legislation
is watered-down reform. It's a slap in the face to activists
and to the people in prison.
In 2002, Pataki pushed through
the Senate a reform bill that would have affected some of the
loved ones we were advocating for. The next day, the governor
met with the Mother of the New York Disappeared and said, "If
you support us, your loved ones will be free."
So that was hanging like the
carrot dangling on a string. And we actually rejected it, and
it was hard for a lot of mothers--some of these women are disabled,
in wheelchairs, dying of cancer, their loved ones stuck in prison.
But we thought about the whole
group. Instead of letting a few hundred people out, we want to
build a movement to save thousands and thousands and thousands
of lives in the long run.
AFTER THE election, Bush
is claiming a mandate for all this policies, including the "war
on terror." Do you see a connection between the "war
on drugs" and Bush's "war on terror"--the locking
up of immigrants, Guantánamo Bay and the prison scandals
in Iraq?
IF YOU go to Times Square,
they have a Drug Enforcement Administration exhibit, "Drug
Traffickers, Terrorists and You," in which they are basically
saying, "If you smoke a joint, you're supporting the terrorists."
It's total propaganda.
Drug users today are demonized--they're
treated today as Communists were during the McCarthy era, the
same way groups of people suspected of terrorism are treated
today. This goes with the whole philosophy of controlling certain
populations of people with propaganda.
I don't think Bush has a mandate,
I think he stole the election again. But that won't effect my
fighting against the war on drugs. I will continue to create
ways to fight the government around these draconian laws that
lock up certain disenfranchised or marginalized populations in
the U.S.
Lucy Herschel writes for the Socialist
Worker. For more information about Anthony Papa's artwork,
his book or the fight against the Rockefeller Drug Laws, visit
his Web site at www.15yearstolife.com.
Weekend Edition
Features for November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
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