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How to make the bankers scream: Robert Pollin, world's best obituarist of Clintonomics, explains it all for you. Do police states make people feel safer? Vicente Navarro on Franco's Spain, Cockburn on Ireland in the Fifties under the Catholic Hierarchy, Alevtina Rea on growing up in Brezhnev-time. Capitalism's true utopia? St Clair on the Pentagon's no-bid arms contracts. How's the press doing in Iraq? Patrick Cockburn tells all to Omar Waraich. Get the answers you're looking for in the latest subscriber-only edition of CounterPunch... CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 |
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Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY  Today's Stories May 2, 2005 Vicente
Navarro April 30 / May 1, 2005 Alexander
Cockburn Gabriel
Kolko Jennifer
Loewenstein Lee
Sustar Saul
Landau T.W.
Croft Nikolas
Kozloff William
Blum Dave
Lindorff Joshua
Frank Doug
Giebel Steven
Erlanger Fred
Gardner Mike
Whitney Kurt
Nimmo Joe
DeRaymond Michael
Dickinson Mickey
Z. Justin
Taylor Poets
Basement Website
of the Weekend
April 29, 2005 W.
John Green Luke
Brothers Norman
Solomon M.
Junaid Alam Jackie
Corr Hunter
Greer Sharon
Smith Website
of the Day
April 28, 2005 Omar
Waraich Kevin
Zeese Dave
Lindorff Greg
Moses Toni
Solo Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Werther
April 27, 2005 John
Ross Joshua
Frank Ray
McGovern Mark
Donham Dan
Smith
April 26, 2005 Dave
Lindorff Alevtina
Rea Greg
Moses Joshua
Frank Diana
Johnstone
April 25, 2005 Uri
Avnery Alison
Weir Lee
Sustar Leonardo
Boff Gary
Leupp
April 23 / 24, 2005 Alexander
Cockburn Gary
Leupp James
Petras Harry
Browne Fred
Gardner Ron
Jacobs Elizabeth
Schulte Chris
Floyd
April 22, 2005 Saul
Landau Kevin
Zeese Joshua
Frank Mike
Whitney Michael
Flynn Lee
Sustar Website
of the Day
April 21, 2005 Bill
Quigley Dave
Lindorff Jason
Leopold Kathleen
Christison
April 20, 2005 John Ross Kevin Zeese Uri Avnery Website of the Day
April 19, 2005 Jean-Guy Allard Dave Lindorff Neve Gordon Brian Concannon, Jr Murray Hudson Frank B. Ford Monty Python Michael Dickinson Paul Craig
Roberts Website of the Day
Linda Schade
/ Kevin Zeese John Ross Brian McKenna Mike Whitney Patrick Cockburn Dave Zirin Eli Stephens Harry Browne Website of
the Day
April 16 / 17, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Mark Dow Omar Waraich Robert Buzzanco Sherry Wolf Fred Gardner Ron Jacobs Mark Weisbrot John Pardon Yoshie Furuhashi Mike Roselle Ralph Nader Ramzy Baroud Jackson Thoreau Michael Dickinson Richard Neville Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
April 15, 2005 Brian Cloughley Bill Glahn Mickey Z. Stephanie McMillan Josh Mahan David Russitano Jorge Mariscal Rodolfo "Corky"
Gonzales Tom Reeves
April 14, 2005 Karyn Strickler Pat Williams Jessica Pupovac Joshua Frank Jerzy Mankowski Talli Naumann Antony Loewenstein Virginia Rodino Saul Landau
/ Farrah Hassen Website of the Day
April 13, 2005 Maria Carrión Mike Whitney Terry Jones Dave Lindorff Nathaniel Livingston, Jr. Kurt Nimmo Don Fitz Tom Crumpacker JG Jack McCarthy Kevin Zeese Jeffrey St.
Clair
April 12, 2005 John Wheat
Gibson Kevin Zeese Alan Farago Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Nelson P. Valdes Dave Zirin Website of the Day
April 11, 2005 Tom Barry Saul Landau Monique Dols Phil Gasper Mike Whitney Edwin Krales Paul de Rooij Website of the Day
April 9 / 10, 2005 Jeffrey St.
Clair William A. Cook Gary Leupp Alan Maass Laura Carlsen Joe DeRaymond Nikolas Kozloff Dave Lindorff Greg Moses Fred Gardner Justin Smith Ron Jacobs M. Junaid Alam Ira Kay Elizabeth Schulte Jackie Corr Christopher
Brauchli Leslie A. Fiedler Ben Tripp Poets Basement Website of
the Weekend
April 8, 2005 Rob Eshelman Hom Raj Acharya
/ Sally Acharya Felice Pace Neve Gordon Mike Whitney Don Monkerud Adam Engel Vicente Navarro Website of the Day
April 7, 2005 Joshua Frank Yitzhak Laor Alan Maass Steven Sherman Dave Lindorff Gerry Adams John Chuckman Michael Dickinson John Ross Website of the Day
April 6, 2005 Peter Camejo Kevin Wehr Matt Vidal Robert Creeley
/ Bruce Jackson Nikolas Kozloff Sea Shepherd Crew Brenda Child Terry Eagleton David Swanson Cindy Ellen
Hill Website of
the Day
April 5, 2005 Jim Connolly Paul Craig
Roberts Gary Leupp Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Dan Smith Mark Engler Richard Oxman Greg Moses Website of the Day
April 4, 2005 Kevin Zeese Paul Craig Roberts Larry Birns
/ Sarah Schaffer Karyn Strickler Joshua Frank Michael Dickinson Surendra R.
Devkota Derrick O'Keefe Uri Avnery Website of the Day
April 2 / 3, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Stan Goff John Ross Saul Landau Robert Creeley Mike Roselle Joshua Frank Fred Gardner Greg Moses Fran Quigley Kurt Nimmo Nicole Colson Chris Genovali Alan Farago Lawrence Reichard Ben Tripp Avantika Regmi Lee Sustar Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Poets' Basement Website of
the Day
April 1, 2005 Tom Barry Rahul Mahajan Charlie Cray
/ Jim Vallette Dave Lindorff Zeynep Toufe Suzan Mazur Michael Dickinson Stan Cox Ra Ravishankar Daniel Wolff
March 31, 2005 Sharon Smith Ron Jacobs Tariq Ali Michael Dickinson Kanak Mani
Dixit Mitchell Zimmerman Xuan-Trang
Ho Dave Zirin Joe Bageant Jeff Halper Website of
the Day
Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Subcomandante
Marcos Norman Finkelstein Steve Niva Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams Steve
J.B. Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber Wendell
Berry CounterPunch
Wire Cindy
Corrie Gore Vidal Francis Boyle
Subscribe Online
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May 2, 2005 Lobbyists or Organizers?If Imperialism is the Cause, Shouldn't the US Anti-War Movement be Anti-Imperialist?By RON JACOBS Burlington, Vermont If the comments I hear at public events
or in private conversations (vocal and via email) about the current
state of the "antiwar" movement are any indication,
groups like the US organization UFPJ are in real trouble. This
trouble does not come from a lack of antiwar sentiment, nor does
it come from apathy. Instead, it comes from a growing sense
that the leadership of this organization (and others like them)
are attempting to lead those of us who attend their demonstrations
into the arms of the dead-end process known as mainstream politics.
By this, I mean that the UFPJ leadership wants to lobby Congress
to end the war. While this is certainly a noble thought, it
has about as much possibility of success as me turning into a
frog. A converse of this constant street action occurred during the US wars on the people of Central America in the 1980s. Although certain regions of the country organized direct actions and protests, much of the movement against these wars was focused on lobbying Congress. This lobbying did help get the Boland Amendment banning aid to the US counterinsurgency forces known as the Contras but, as any one who was involved in this movement remembers, Ronnie Reagan just had his secret team fund and support the contras through illegal drug sales and arms smuggling. All of this work was done out of George Bush the First's office. Then, when the men and women involved were indicted and convicted, George Bush the First pardoned them all. Underlying the desire to organize (or lobby) Congress instead of organizing people to get in the streets and make life miserable for the warmongers is a belief that Congress's agenda is somehow different from the agenda of the Pentagon or the White House. This belief is not only naïve; if one really wants to end the US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan it is downright foolhardy. Congress shares the same agenda as the rest of the US government. Even those (few) members who disagree on individual issues like Social Security, education, and labor issues share an underlying assumption that the US had only the best intentions in its attack on Iraq. Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of the legislators in Washington share the administration's assumption that it is essential for the United States to maintain its imperial army and that it should not hesitate to use it when the interests of corporate America are threatened. Given this, there is no way that Congress is going to be lobbied to end the US occupation of Iraq. Furthermore, unless those of us in the antiwar movement who understand this organize around this understanding, the movement against the war and occupation will be relegated to the role similar to that of Jiminy Cricket in the tale of Pinocchio. We may be right, but it doesn't matter because we can be ignored as easily as a small insect. So, what do we need to do? I don't claim to have any of the answers, but, if we look once again at history, we can find some very helpful clues. The most important one being that we must understand that the war in Iraq and the "war on terror" are imperial wars. In other words, they are part and parcel of Washington's and Wall Street's need to maintain, control, and expand their markets. That means the movement against these wars must be an anti-imperialist movement. This, in turn, means that we must understand that no organ of the imperial governments involved in these wars is going to help us because we have convinced them that they are wrong. After all, this is their livelihood. They do not believe that what they are doing is wrong, because their economic and political situation demands that these wars and occupations must occur. The governments that Washington has put in place in Baghdad and Kabul are representing the interests of the imperial powers, not the interests of those capitals' respective peoples. Let me repeat, the governments occupying Iraq and Afghanistan need to undertake these military actions in order to maintain their dominance in the world's political and economic dynamic. The only way they will let go of these military actions is when the political and economic cost of those actions is greater than the benefits. The resistance groups in Iraq and Afghanistan understand this, even with their internal differences and disparate motives. The movement against the war in the countries of the occupiers needs to also understand it. Our job is to create the situation where that understanding becomes the case and is acted upon. Are the current antiwar organizations (UFPJ and ANSWER in the US, Stop the War Coalition in the UK) the proper vehicles for creating this situation? I can't speak for the UK organization or any organization in other countries outside of the US. However, when it comes to the US organizations, I believe the answer is no, not as they are currently operating. UFPJ has failed to put forward an anti-imperialist analysis of the war and occupation: a fact that is perhaps best displayed by their tacit support of war party member John Kerry via the Anybody But Bush electoral movement in 2004. ANSWER seems to have too much baggage associated with its founding organization (Worker's World Party-WWP) to be able to reach very far beyond its current constituency. This is too bad for ANSWER, especially considering their work against the sanctions and ongoing war on Iraq for more than a decade and their support amongst the communities of color in the United States. I would like to state here that this is not meant to be a call to disband either of these organizations. After all, they have played (and will continue to play) an important role in the antiwar movement. It is instead, a call on those who consider themselves to be non-WWP anti-imperialists to stop trying to change the nature of UFPJ and ANSWER and form our own antiwar grouping(s). There is a need for a broad anti-imperialist coalition to oppose the designs of Washington and London. There is also a need to take that opposition to the streets, the schools, the workplace, the military, and wherever else we can. The time is getting late. Who will make the first step towards building this organization? Ron Jacobs is author of The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs' essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch's new collection on music, art and sex, Serpents in the Garden. He can be reached at: rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu
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