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February
5, 2002
David
Vest
The
Enron Creature
Dita Sari
Why
I Rejected the
Reebok Human Rights Award
February
4, 2002
Eric Miller/Beth
Daley
Five
Weapons Systems
That Bilk the Taxpayers
Kenneth
Roth
Dear
Condoleezza,
You've Misstated the
Geneva Convention
Robert
Jensen
The
Occupation Must End
Shahid
Alam
How
Different Are
Islamic Societies?
David
Vest
Everybody
Says I Loathe You
John Chuckman
American
Politics of Grief
February
3, 2002
Zoltan
Grossman
War
and New Military Bases
February
2, 2002
Francis
Schor
Carlucci's
Strange Career
February
1, 2002
Dr. Susan
Block
The
Great Ashcroft Cover Up
Jeremy
Voas
Why
We're Suing Ashcroft
David
Vest
10
Things I Know About Him
January
31, 2002
Rahul
Mahajan
The
State of the Union:
A New Cold War
Dave Marsh
Miles
Copeland, War
and the Future of Music
John Pilger
The
Colder War
Alexander
Cockburn
American
Journal:
Killer Dog, Weird Couple
Dr. Susan
Block
Blowback
and Daniel Pearl
January
30, 2002
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Linda
Lay, Hill and Knowlton and the Tears of a Clown
Jack McCarthy
Free
Noelle Bush!
Michael
Ratner
Memo
to Bush: Adhere to
the Geneva Convention
Jay Moore
Proud
to be an American?
Susan
Block
The
Great Pretzel Swallower
and Guantanamo Porn
January
29, 2002
Gary Leupp
Why
This War Was, and Remains, Utterly Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Birds of Kandahar
Patrick
Cockburn
Afghan
Opium Trade
Back in Business
January
28, 2002
Larry
Chin
Brosnahan
for the Defense
Mokhiber/Weissman
Tyranny
of the Bottom Line
George
E. Curry
Civil
Rights Nominee Called Affirmative Action "Racist"
Sen. Russ
Feingold
Campaign
Finance Reform?
Think Enron
John Chuckman
Liberal?
Media?
January
27, 2002
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Enron's
Drip, Drip, Drip
Tom Turnipseed
MLK
Jr.'s Dream Perverted
January
26, 2002
Norman
Madarsz
Adieu,
Bourdieu
January
25, 2002
National
Lawyers Guild
Know
Your Rights
Alexander
Cockburn
You
Call This Terrorism?
CounterPunch
Wire
Cal
Energy Crisis Hoax:
It Wasn't A Shortage,
It Was a Shakedown
Tariq
Ali
Kashmir,
Klinghoffer,
the Kurds and Chomsky
Nadine
Strossen
Protecting
MLK Jr.'s Legacy:
Justice and Liberty After 9/11
January
24, 2002
Robert
Fisk
Turkey
Targets Chomsky
Dean Baker
Lying
on Top:
Ken Lay One of Many
David
Vest
Idiot
Wind
January
23, 2002
Terry
Waite
Guantanamo
Prisoners:
Justice or Revenge?
Molly
Secours
The
Case of Abu-Ali:
Racism and the Death Penalty
Robert
Jensen
Speak
Out, Get Slimed
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
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bin Laden and Bush
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The New Crusade:
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The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
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Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
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February 5,
2002
Dispatch from Pôrto Alegre
Pôrto
Alegre has landed on the world's political map. The World Social
Forum, held in the southern Brazilian city January 30th through
February 4th, was another boistrous success. Hundreds of panels
voiced optimism and joy in contrast to these dark times.
By Norman Madarasz
Thousands, many barefooted, marched tightly joined
in suffering and hope. Six sailors held a floral filled boat
on top of which stood proudly a Virgin Mary-in appearance only.
On Saturday, amid the second World Social Forum, citizens of
Pôrto Alegre celebrated Nossa Señora dos Navegantes
do Sul, the procession for Iémanja: Queen of the water,
Mother of the Seas.
Capital of the southernmost Brazilian
state of Rio Grande do Sul, Pôrto Alegre is now on the
international political map. Activists, intellectuals and artists
from different practices, ideas and worlds met here for the second
World Social Forum, held between January 30th and February 4th
. The world of syncretic religion, the active African Orixa strain
in Brazil's version of Catholicism may have lain on the outskirts,
its spirit infused its politics. Syncretism strayed long ago
from European Church dominance in this country with world's largest
Catholic congregation. The Pope, it is said, does not enjoy visiting
Brazil. Nor do the leaders of Davos.
The World Social Forum 2002 has been
an unmitigated success. It brought together over 50 000 representatives
and delegates globally. The city of Pôrto Alegre (1,2 million)
received them in a spirit of public protest and celebration now
only distant memories in North America. Throughout the weekend
streets greeted throngs of demonstrators, doubling those who
set out to this progressive South American city last year. Hundreds
of workshops funneled into dozens of plenary sessions often with
themes, ideas and projects rubbing shoulders that have never
felt contact before. The politics of social justice have become
syncretic.
With the celebrating now at a close,
what really amounts to success for social justice still remains
to be defined. The general mood is that smiles of joy will vanquish
W's smirk of cynicism. The assembly call, "another world
is possible", emphasizes the consensus felt in critically
rejecting a globalization based on neo-liberal economic principles.
Relieved, delegates confirmed that, with the exception of the
English-speaking North, 9-11 has not dispersed the drive. Still,
as Davos came to New York, it seems unlikely that Pôrto
Alegre will reach Burlington, Vermont.
Negri and Hardt argue in their recent
Empire that revolutionary success is to be evaluated in the country
that has exalted the idea like no other. The Forum can easily
claim success for not having taken place in the U.S. As opposed
to last year, thousands of American and hundreds of Canadian
delegates (mainly from French-speaking Québec) attended
the Forum. The feedback they received regarding the militaristic
turn of the U.S. has forgone politeness. During the Clinton-era,
many Southern countries implemented neo-liberal economic policies,
entering into trade agreements and promoting strong currencies
as a result. Now, after the State of the Union address and State
bankruptcy of Argentina, the U.S. model has unwittingly proved
itself untenable and, worse, filled with undaunted risks for
the majority of the world's population.
American delegates focused on the urgent
need to work toward blocking Fast Track legislation in the U.S.
Congress on the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement (FTAA).
This proposal to act was generally accepted by their Southern
counterparts. Over the weekend it led to two important demonstrations.
Both occasioned calls for peace toward the Bush administration,
while demonstrators were being clubbed in New York City. As the
FTAA became a priority for the Bush government in the wake of
the May 2001 Québec summit, Forum delegates all agreed
that a major step in countering neo-liberalism has to take place
in the U.S. Were there even a chance for demonstrations to get
off the ground, bitterness is likely to meet them. Back in Québec,
Argentina stood proudly alongside Chile, El Salvador, Mexico,
Canada and the U.S. as part of the agreement focus group. With
the overthrow of President De La Rúa, Argentina has been
reasserting to Brazil its commitment to the MERCOSUL (Free Trade
Agreement of South America). It has done so at significant human
and financial cost. The question is: will the North American
middle class budge at all when faced with this picture?
This brings to light one of the main
drawbacks of the Forum's effects. Save for the alternative and
loosely Democratic press, there has been a near media blackout
in the English-speaking North about the Forum. It has had to
compete on the language front, also, not just because of the
dozens of languages spoken among its delegates. The fact is that
in no other time has English been spoken by so many around the
world. By contrast, English for Northerners has become a screen
filtering foreign moves to seek more equitable and sustained
economic partnership.
The particularities of Lusophone Brazil
remain little known in the North. With a population of 171m,
it is the second largest economy of the Americas after the U.S
and Canada. Delivering the message in English on Brazil's interests
may play second fiddle to delivering the message per se. Still,
by being oblivious to the languages of others, key elements get
lost in translation-or are simply left unheard.
As a national event, the World Social
Forum has provided a window on the country's vast geopolitical
landscape for the work of the PT (left-wing Workers' Party).
A long-standing PT town, Pôrto Alegre operates according
to participatory democratic guidelines as regards budget allocation
and spending policies, among other things. Luis Ignacio 'Lula'
Da Silva, PT candidate for the upcoming presidential elections,
was prominent in opening the Forum. Contrasting the two rival
world gatherings, Lula declared: "In the North, they're
discussing how to accumulate wealth. We're debating ways on how
to best distribute the same wealth."
The left-wing PT is a socialist party
on the lines of Polish Solidarity. Both share similar histories
as they moved from trade union to political party. Lula is a
veteran from the assembly lines of the huge multination autoplants
in São Paulo State, where he was head of the Metal Workers'
Union. Also a veteran of presidential elections, the tally of
his vote hovering around 35%, he has lost three times to right-wing
alliances in the lead-up to run-off elections. Conveniently,
Brazil's vastly powerful Globo TV network and its cable affiliate,
Globo News, have given generous spots to the Forum, even surpassing
in broadcast time news from NYC. Aware of the right's media power
play, Lula nonetheless seeks to be reassuring when highlighting
the tense choice awaiting the Brazilian electorate later this
year. Here, as in Colombia, Argentina and Peru, yet another socialist
alternative has emerged.
Following years of prosperity, Brazil
has recovered with relative success from the currency crisis
of 1998. It has moved toward implementing social justice in leaps
and bounds following 25 years of military dictatorship and the
massive embezzlement scandal that forced President Fernando Collar
to step down ten years ago. Receiving high-marks from Mary Robinson,
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, out-going President Fernando
Henrique Cardoso has played off numerous right-wing factions
in his alliance to bring the country to where it is today. It
is debatable whether the president's vision can be pressed forward
by any party other than the PT.
Media exposure of the World Social Forum
host country has contrasted internationally. Adepts of chance
can believe what they want about Newsweek's January 26, 2002
cover story, which has smitten Brasilia's objectives with the
vast land reform program. The article's patronizing tone and
vicious condemnation was too strong to be coincidental. Without
even a mention of the IMF and debt crisis, its author Mac Margolis
portrays 'Fernando Henrique' as a puppet of the powerful. Owing
to the articles reckless snap shot, which is real time unfolds
under the IMF's wary eyes, it made sure North-American main media
would see even less point in covering the Forum. By contrast,
Le Monde, El Pais, and Jornal do Brazil gave generous space to
dealing with the events on a day-to-day basis.
Meanwhile in New York, Brazil government
ministers were fighting their own battles. These should not merely
be dismissed as bickering amongst the rich. The two situations
are not identical and they ought to be compared. The unspoken
word, the expression for which not enough has been said even
in Pôrto Alegre, whose effect is massive poverty spreading
rabidly in the South, is how to sway the G7 middle classes toward
wealth sharing. With pockets tightly sealed by the threads of
their credit line, the middle classes are the major obstacle.
In sound economic terms, this has less to do with paying UN and
UNESCO dues than with giving the South the industrial space needed
to develop and keep its own manufactures: wealth, resources and
profits to boot.
The buzzword here is a variation on sustainable
development, though emphasizing more than ever geoproportional
circulation of production resources, social services and education.
Multilateral institutions emerging from Bretton Woods in the
shadow of the UN have shown their vested interest in stifling
economic miracles in the South. As tax sensitive as the Northern
middle classes appear, they can no longer claim to ignore the
international régime they are funding. Dozens of conferences
addressed these topics. But industrial development and the kind
of multilateral legislation the South needs to develop, as well
as the sacrifices required by the North as it compels its leaders
to share the wealth of the world, are among darker, more intangible
topics. Without one, there cannot be the other.
Recent litigation at the WTO between
Brazil's regional jet builder, Embraer, and Canada's Bombardier
is a case in point. It has exposed Canada's now aggressive posture
regarding what it views as its right to unshared wealth. Canadians
will doubtless recall International Trade Minister Pierre Peddigrew's
pleading with demonstrators in Seattle about the benefits guaranteed
for Southern countries once they agree to trade rules and register
at the WTO. For the following two years, the Canadian government,
lobbied by Bombardier, bitterly fought to make Brazil pay for
the hidden subsidies it awarded to Embraer. In the end, the WTO
decided that if anyone was subsidizing its industry it was Canada.
Its government has granted low-interest loans to two American
airlines as a trade-off for buying Bombardier aircraft. Whether
an exception or the rule, the WTO's history of settling litigation
behind closed doors remains one of the major sticking points
for the democratic spirit expressed in Pôrto Alegre.
With the facts behind neo-liberalism
an affront to social justice, its propaganda is even more offensive.
Brazil's industries, as other countries', clearly need the open
market Americans promise and compel their trade rivals to apply.
But when trading time comes round, US and Canadian governments
have done little more than shut doors. An offshoot of American
business practice is to encourage increased 'dollarization' of
Latin-American economies. This was the case with Argentina who,
until last year, was regularly cited by the IMF as one of their
"success stories" with respect to how loan issuance
was propelling a stumbling economy to stand afoot again. We all
know now what truth lay behind those statements, oddly echoing
Enron's and Nortel's own previsions. Which is why apart from
the American attack of Afghanistan and Israeli butchery of the
occupied Palestinian territories, Argentina was on everyone's
lips. The paneleros, or pan beaters, were there to remind conference
goers that their cacophony brought two presidents crashing down
in the last month and a half-the fate of a third now hangs delicately
in the balance.
Out numbering the World Economic Forum
25-fold, few were surprised with the failed rapprochement between
the rival forums. Monday morning saw Social Forum spokesperson
Cândido Grybowsky link up via telephone with André
Schneider, GM of the New York/Davos Forum. Barely ten minutes
into the chat, conversation broke down. "It's shameful to
boast of how they're helping developing countries by sending
$US 25m in medication, when that sum equals what Brazil spends
per month on treating AIDS," riled Grybowsky.
What Schneider and his crew have shown
is that 9-11 will be exploited by the powerful to extend the
groundwork that even a cynic can see leaves the field ripe for
further disasters and increased violence. The wiser elements
in his camp may be smart enough to notice that syncretic politics
and geopolitical industrial legislation are safeguards to their
own profits and stability. But the long-term has never been Davos'
forte as a pragmatic option. It is precisely in that direction
and time span that the spirit flown in Pôrto Alegre will
spread further. Onward to India in 2004, with another stopover
in Gaùcho country in 2003.
Norman Madarasz
is an independent philosopher. He has translated Alain Badiou's
Manifesto for Philosophy, available at SUNY Press. He
can be reached at: n_madarasz@hotmail.com.
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