home / subscribe / donate / about us / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events
|
|
|
Questions Labor's Leaders Daren't Ask: Where and Why Did We Go Wrong? by JoAnn Wypijewski; Oil on Ice: How Bush Won ANWR, with an Assist from the Dems by Jeffrey St. Clair; The Self-Rehab of George Kennan by Alexander Cockburn; The State and Terri Schiavo: a Conversation with Ralph Nader; Lisa Frittko: She Escorted Walter Benjamin Across the Pyrennes by Lawrence Reichard. Remember these stories are available exclusively in the print 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 |
|
Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY  Today's Stories April 14, 2005 Saul Landau
/ Farrah Hassen 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
March 30, 2005 Gary Leupp Ralph Nader
/ Kevin Zeese Chase Madar Toni Solo Jackie Corr Ahmad Faruqui Mike Roselle Jude Wanniski Francis A.
Boyle Jeffrey St.
Clair Website of
the Day
March 29, 2005 Ralph Nader Gary Leupp Sonia Cardenas Stew Albert Mark Weisbrot Dave Lindorff Carl G. Estabrook
March 28, 2005 Jeremy Scahill Sonali Kolhatkar Sasha Kramer Kevin Zeese Tom Stephens Dr. Teresa Whitehurst Newton Garver Paul Craig
Roberts Website of the Day
March 26 / 27, 2005 Gary Leupp Peter Linebaugh Marc Robert Laura Carlsen Saul Landau
/ Puja Patel Dave Foreman Fred Gardner Jennifer Matsui Dave Lindorff Dharma Adhikari Joshua Frank Patrick Barr Christopher
Brauchli Ramzy Baroud Jackie Corr Ben Tripp Dr. Susan Block Mickey Z. Justin Taylor Richard Joseph Poets' Basement
March 25, 2005 Scott Richard
Lyons Yoshie Furuhashi Pat Williams Mark Engler Rahul Mahajan Lance Selfa Ralph Nader John R. Llewellyn Jo Guldi
March 24, 2005 Joshua Frank Talli Nauman Martin Espada Dave Lindorff Elaine Cassel Jack McCarthy Jack Random Barbara Ferguson Suzan Mazur Dorreen Yellow Bird Andrew Wimmer
and Mark Chmiel
Patrick Bond Mike Whitney Becky White Michael Donnelly Niranjan Ramakrishnan Ashley Smith David Swanson Derrick O'Keefe Paul A. Moore Dalton Walker Patrick Cockburn
March 22, 2005 William Blum Jim Vallette Greg Moses John Farley Ron Jacobs M. Junaid Alam Rep. Cynthia
McKinney Dave Lindorff James Petras
March 21, 2005 John Walsh Werther Mike Stark David Swanson James T. Phillips Mike Ferner Robert Jensen Paul Craig
Roberts Stew Albert Website of
the Day
March 19, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Tom Reeves Saul Landau Alan Maass Ron Jacobs David Green John Blair Steve Greenfield Ben Tripp Mike Roselle Joshua Frank Mark Weisbrot Dave Lindorff Sarah Schaffer Warren Hastings Poets' Basement
March 18, 2005 Dave Zirin Richard Thieme John Walsh David Swanson Ben Terrall David Boyle Dorreen Yellow Bird Mokhiber /
Weissman Greg Moses Website of
the Day
March 17, 2005 Christopher
Brauchli Bill Quigley Brian Cloughley Gary Bass / Adam Hughes Dave Lindorff Jude Wanniski Alexander Billet John Ross Website of the Day
March 16, 2005 Ralph Nader William Cook Kevin Zeese Jackie Corr Alan Maass David R. Kolker Cindy Ellen
Hill Paul Craig
Roberts
March 15, 2005 Gary Leupp Dave Lindorff Greg Moses Hadas Their
/ Katrina Yeaw Alison Weir Matt Koehler Evelyn Pringle Harry Browne
March 14, 2005 Ralph Nader David Miller Stan Cox Mike Roselle David Swanson Simona Sharoni Dave Lindorff Dorreen Yellow Bird Tom Barry Website of the Day
March 12 / 13, 2005 David H. Price Noam Chomsky Laura Carlsen Stan Goff Valentina Nicoli Michael Leonardi Saul Landau
/ Sarah Anderson Joe Bageant Manuel García,
Jr. Greg Moses James J. Brittain Ben Tripp Joshua Frank Fred Gardner Walter Brasch Ramzy Baroud Christopher
Brauchli Michael Donnelly Ron Jacobs Richard Oxman Poets' Basement
March 11, 2005 Jerry Fresia Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff William James
Martin Muqtedar Khan Kathryn Ledebur Mike Whitney Dave Zirin Website of the Day
March 10, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts John Marc Leas, Colleen McLaughlin
and Ashley Smith Larry Birns Michael Donnelly Luis Gomez Jackie Corr Uri Avnery Website of the Day
March 9, 2005 Jeffrey St.
Clair Ward Churchill Robert Fisk Bernice Powell Jackson Mickey Z. Dave Zirin Michael Donnelly James Reiss Vijay Prashad
March 8, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts Robert Fisk Kurt Nimmo Suzan Mazur Evelyn Pringle Giuliana Sgrena Elaine Cassel
March 7, 2005 Dave Zirin Brian Cloughley John Chuckman Mike Whitney Mark Weisbrot Fred Gardner Richard Neville Uri Avnery
March 5 / 6, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Gary Leupp Ron Jacobs Tom Reeves Jenna Orkin Tom Barry Joshua Frank Moshe Adler Jane Stillwater Omar Barghouti / Jacqueline
Sfeir Christopher
Brauchli John Pilger Raúl
Zibechi David Krieger Three Takes on Nepal Surendra R. Devkota Bhishma Karki Joseph Pietri Ben Tripp Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
March 4, 2005 Frederick Hudson
March 3, 2005 Pat Williams Brian Cloughley Dave Lindorff Amira Hass Greg Moses Lynne Landes Nelson P. Valdés John Ross
March 2, 2005 Saul Landau
/ Farrah Hassen Mike Roselle M. Junaid Alam Suzan Mazur Jackson Thoreau Michael Donnelly Jeffrey St.
Clair Website of the Day
March 1, 2005 Scott Richard
Lyons David Lindorff Patrick Cockburn
/ David Enders Ron Jacobs Tanya Garcia Joseph Pietri Kona Lowell Paul Craig
Roberts 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
|
April 14, 2005 Meet the NeighborsWhat You Should Know About Bank One's New DaddyBy JESSICA PUPOVAC Chicago, Illinois Now many Chicagoans have one more thing in common with people in Indonesia fighting to save their endangered rainforests, indigenous people in Equador threatening mass suicide to stop the building of a pipeline and your typical, Joe-Shmoe Iraqi. When Bank One branches and ATMs began sprouting up on every major intersection in Chicago and right in my very own backyard, little did any of us know what lie ahead. Bank One has recently completed a merger with JP Morgan Chase (JPMC), and together they form the second largest bank in the history of capitalism, with $1.1 trillion in assets. The joint power they wield is facilitating the unbridled exploitation of both the environment and the economically impoverished wherever they and their borrowers operate -- and they and their borrowers get around. A national Day of Action took place yesterday in opposition to reckless "development" projects they have financed around the globe, and Chicago activists assembled during lunch hour at Bank One headquarters on Dearborn and Madison. Replete with their very own "Bank Crimes Unit" sporting hazmat suits, gloves and giant magnifying glasses, demonstrators entered the bank in pursuit of "Investments of Mass Destruction," giving bank-goers, employees and passersby a lesson in the dangers of unrestricted corporate globalization, as well as a quirky tale to take back to the water-cooler. Although the issues they dramatically interpreted take place in far away lands, the Loop-dwellers need not look far to witness Bank One's questionable banking practices. For years, they have been financing payday lenders and pawn shops in lower-income and minority communities, while offering a disproportionate number of branches where residents can access financial services such as prime rate mortgages, small business loans and checking accounts. The merger of these two banking giants could not have happened without the wave of banking deregulation that has taken place on both the state and federal level over the past decade. Today the size and influence of the JPMC - Bank One calls citizens to take a closer look at the giant living in the backyard, and to begin demanding from them equitable, sustainable and accountable business practices.
The Woodstock Institute, an organization that has been promoting access to capital, credit and economic development in Chicago's lower-income communities for the past 25 years, charged in a February 2005 report that low-income and minority communities have significantly less access to bank branches than their more affluent counterparts. This leaves them with a "service vacuum" that payday lenders have been scurrying to fill. "A borrower walks into a payday lender is offered a 45-day loan," explains Marva Williams, VP of the Woodstock Institute. "At the end of the term, they have to pay back the entire principle or they roll over what they can't pay." According to the Institute's analyses, a borrower can pay as much as $4,000 on a $200 loan in a one-year period, and the average payday loan in rolled over an average 13.8 times (in minority neighborhoods; predominantly white neighborhoods have a 37% lower roll-over rate). "These are people who are already strapped for cash and this becomes a short-term fix that in the long term gets them into serious trouble." JPMC and Bank One have both financed such ventures. As long as "they are following all of the laws," said a representative from the Bank One headquarters in Chicago, they do business with them. The development of the loopholes that allow such predatory practices have created a massive influx of payday lenders, and currently they operate 50% more outlets than McDonalds. There are viable alternatives
that attempt to bridge the gap for those living in underserved
communities, and some of them are being attempted by local credit
unions such as the Northside Community and the Southside Federal
Credit Unions. These agencies are at the forefront of finance
that aims to combat, rather than exploit, poverty. They offer
low-interest, short-term loans and an alternative to payday lenders.
Internationally, JP Morgan Chase has been involved some of the most controversial and environmentally destructive projects in recent history. They underwrote loans for China's Three Gorges Dam project, which displaced over 1 million people, flooded over 24,000 hectares of farmland and damaged several ecosystems and communities along the way. In Indonesia, they finance BlueLinx Holdings, Inc., the largest wood distributor in the US, which admits to importing undocumented (likely illegal) lumber from Indonesia's highly sensitive and quickly disappearing rainforests. They have also financed mines currently under investigation for poisoning local residents, as well as the worlds largest mine, responsible for displacing indigenous communities and, according to the Australian Council on Overseas Aid, the torture and extra judicial execution of local organizers in West Paupau. (For more information on these cases and others, visit www.dirtymoney.org.) Here in the US, they are the major financer of oil and gas companies and in 2002 alone they ranked number one, representing over one-third of the entire market.
Ever since Iraq was declared "open for business," (and, no doubt, beforehand), insurance companies, construction firms, health managers and, yes, banks have been lining up to take a ride on the reconstruction merry-go-round, with JP Morgan Chase selling tickets. They scored a job with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) running the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI). The TBI was established in 2003 to replace the UN Oil-for-Food Programme, moving control of revenue and import purchases from the state to the private sector. JP Morgan Chase is managing that transition, issuing letters of credit, guaranteed by Iraq's crude oil supply, for the importation of billions of dollars in equipment and services. According to the JP Morgan Chase website, in the first two months after the birth of the TBI it issued import letters of credit for over $200 million in imports. Although Iraqis need to import necessities from the outside world, the current "government of Iraq" is hardly an independent body with the best interests of the Iraqi people in mind. Companies from nations that supported and contributed to the war are first in line to enjoy the spoils, regardless of whether their products are economical or of high quality. The TBI itself will be comprised of banks from Coalition countries, all of whom will be positioned to facilitate investments from local moguls back home. Not that the parceling of the spoils will be entirely equitable. The US Export-Import bank is providing 100% insurance coverage for political and commercial risk to all US companies willing to invest, should Iraqi ministries default on payments. However, what is most threatening to economic stability in Iraq is the CPA Order 39, opening up all of Iraq's resources, save oil, to foreign ownership. Soon after the order was issued, Finance Minister Kamel Al-Gailani went a step further and declared that Iraq's banks would be open to 100% foreign ownership. With this, it will be impossible for smaller, locally owned banks to have any oversight or participation in forging Iraq's new "free market" economy, nor will they have rights to any of the profits. This is more than a reconstruction plan. This exposes a long-term agenda of neocolonialism. Indeed, Bush and his cronies have publicly declared their vision for Iraq and, indeed, the Middle East. Current Ambassador John Negroponte was selected in a big part due to his experience as Ambassador to Mexico during the drafting of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). George W has stated that he fully intends to create a "Middle East Free Trade Area" (MEFTA?) within 10 years. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has
assembled its own team of special advisers to brief on the speedy
privitisation of Iraq's nationalized industries. Avoiding Paying the Piper And all of this is what we know of. A 2001 report by Congress on money laundering, which involves disguising the origins of illegally obtained cash and then transforming it into apparently legitimate investments, named JP Morgan Chase as one of the four large banks in the US allowing these practices through "complacency, with lax due diligence, weak controls and inadequate responses to troubling information."
But what can compete with convenience? Bank One is the most ubiquitous bank in Chicago, with over 1,000 ATMs in the metropolitan area. And now, with the JP Morgan amalgamation, it has become a mega-merger with global reach, joining the cadre of bigger-than-life corporations that are increasingly all but consolidating entire industries. Only two companies in the world make all commercial jets. Three wholesalers control over 90% of the distribution of drugs. The four largest media giants effectively design the way Americans learn about global and national events. Critics of the mega-merger charge that this results in unions and grassroots community organizations losing bargaining power, as the mega-corporation can simply pick up and move it's exploitative practices to another, more economically deprived locale if they are experiencing too much friction. At the same time, they charge, democracy itself is undermined, as elections and legislation become are increasingly and unduly influenced by industry and corporate lobbyists. As more and more rivals join forces to take on bigger fish, unimaginable sharks are born. The little fish inevitably speaks with a funny accent, while the sharks are naturally great Whites, headquartered in Western Europe or North America. They limit competition and control prices, two indispensable components of any "free" market system, as envisioned by Adam Smith. JPMC - Bank One was just ten years ago seven separate entities, and now they are one behemoth bank. Also precarious is the risk that a too-big-to-fail project will indeed disappoint, as happened during the recent Enron meltdown (which, incidentally, JP Morgan Chase was implicated in). Such a dive can, and usually does, have national economic consequences. Already, the consolidation of JPMC and Bank One has led to over 12,000 lay offs.
The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has been spearheading a campaign for months, utilizing a variety of tactics. "We're calling on JP Morgan Chase," says Dan Firger, an organizer with the Rainforest Action Network, "to stop funding projects or operations that destroy endangered forests, to work to reduce the carbon emissions and climate change impacts resulting from investments in dirty energy sources like oil and coal, and to put safeguards in place to protect the human rights of indigenous peoples that may be affected by projects funded by the company" (details available at www.ran.org) . Such agreements have been becoming increasingly common in recent years, as more and more corporations are recognizing that environmentally and socially responsible investing is simply good business sense. In fact, Citibank, the only mega-bank in the world bigger than JPMC, after facing very similar grassroots pressure (also spearheaded by RAN), released a groundbreaking set of comparable environmental commitments. Months later, Bank of America (the number three banking franchise in the US) followed suit and established even higher standards. They have realized that exploitative investments are not sustainable policy for human beings, the earth, or even bankers. Change is possible, at least environmentally. However, ultimately, the political implications of the mega-merger are what have people rioting in the streets from Seattle to Cancun, Caracas to Seoul. The political clout and the resulting lack of government oversight of the mega-merger is the world's greatest threat to labor and environmental standards as well as participatory democracy, and it is this that we need to protect, using every means still in our arsenal - whether it be through consumer action, letter writing, spending power or whatever other tactic you can imagine. And there is always the option of taking to the streets. The activists who demonstrated yesterday outside of Bank One headquarters continued on to over 27 branches in Chicago and are no doubt already dreaming up their next undertaking. Jessica Pupovac can be reached at: PupovacJ@ChicagoCommons.org
|
