|
|
home / subscribe / donate / tower / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events
|
EXCLUSIVE! HOW THE FBI SPIED ON EDWARD SAID First look at secret files: How G-Men kept Said under surveillance from 1971. David Price traces years of snooping on US's best known Palestinian Bush says 30,000 dead in Iraq but real number caused by 2003 US attack is AT LEAST 180,000, maybe twice that as Andrew Cockburn digs out the real numbers Is the US Constitution worth saving? Hmmm, maybe ... New York Times takes a year to make up its mind. Cockburn and St Clair on NYT and NSA ... 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 |
|
Dec. 31 / Jan. 1, 2005/6 Patrick Cockburn December 30,2005 Evo Morales Earl Ofari
Hutchinson Dave Lindorff Gary Leupp Ron Jacobs Brian Concannon Sandra Lucas T.W. Croft Website of
the Day
December 29, 2005 Norman Solomon Missy Comley
Beattie Dave Zirin Kevin Zeese Derrick O'Keefe Sam Bahour Macdonald Stainsby Bill &
Kathleen Christison Website of the Day
December 28, 2005 Jeffrey St.
Clair Lila Rajiva Amira Hass Joshua Frank David Swanson Richard Thieme Paul Craig
Roberts Website of the Day
December 27, 2005 Evan Jones Uri Avnery Mike Whitney Gideon Levy David Swanson Norman Solomon
December 26, 2005 Lawrence R.
Velvel Lance Olsen Ben Terrall Scott Boehm Charlie Ehlen Tom Kerr
December 24/25, 2005 Aleander Cockburn James Petras Ralph Nader Lila Rajiva Fred Gardner Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Gary Leupp Saul Landau John Chuckman Dr. Susan Block St. Clair / Vest / Pollack
/ Donnelly Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
December 23, 2005 John Ross Chris Floyd Lawrence Mishel
/ Ross Eisenbrey Joanne Mariner Eric Johnson-Debaufre Ray McGovern J. L. Chestnut,
Jr. Website of
the Day
December 22, 2005 Ingmar Lee Elisa Salasin Christopher
Brauchli Robin Blackburn Evelyn Pringle Amira Hass Francis A.
Boyle Stew Albert Website of
the Day
December 21, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts Lila Rajiva Joshua Frank Dave Zirin Ramzy Baroud Sonia Nettnin Ben Saul Jonathan Cronin Patrick Cockburn Website of
the Day
December 20, 2005 Jackie Corr Earl Ofari
Hutchinson Michael Donnelly Gian Paulo
Accardo Pierre Tristam Norman Solomon Sen. Robert Byrd Dave Lindorff Website of the Day
December 19, 2005 Mike Marqusee Gary Leupp Ron Jacobs John Blair Gideon Levy Kevin Zeese Missy Comley Beattie Don Santina Website of the Day
December 17 / 18, 2005 Cockburn /
St. Clair Gabriel Kolko Susan Alcorn Werther Ralph Nader Patrick Cockburn Fred Gardner Dave Lindorff Ned Sublette Lee Sustar Jason Leopold Laura Carlsen Jeff White Ray McGovern Chris Floyd William Loren Katz Rose Miriam
Elizalde Greg Moses Heather Gray Alison Weir St Clair /
Walker / Pollack Poets' Basement Website of
the Day
December 16, 2005 Tom Kerr Mark Engler John Bomar Patrick Cockburn Pierre Tristam William S. Lind Cyril Neville Robert Jensen Saul Landau Website
December 15, 2005 Oren Ben-Dor Stan Cox Joshua Frank Ben Terrall Patrick Cockburn Monica Benderman Walter A. Davis Vijay Prashad Website of
the Day
Patrick Cockburn Paul Craig
Roberts Lawrence R. Velvel Wayne Garcia John Sugg Gary Leupp Ray McGovern Alan Maass April Hurley, MD Kevin Alexander
Gray
December 13, 2005 Stephen T.
Banko, III Patrick Cockburn Laura Carlsen Karl Grossman Niranjan Ramakrishnan Kevin Zeese Norman Solomon Michael G.
Smith Stew Albert Bob Dylan Phil Gasper Website of
the Day
December 12, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts Lawrence R.
Velvel Jessica Stewart George Bisharat Nate Mezmer Earl Ofari
Hutchinson Alison Weir Seth Sandronsky Patrick Cockburn Website of
the Day
Alexander Cockburn Landau / Hassen Ralph Nader Linn Washington, Jr Bill Christison Mike Ferner Elizabeth Schulte Neve Gordon / Yigal Bronner Linda S. Heard Ingmar Lee Ray McGovern John Chuckman John Ryan Dick J. Reavis Christopher
Brauchli Behzad Yaghmaian Aseem Shrivastava John Ross Ben Tripp St. Clair / Pollack / Vest
/ Despair Poets' Basement Website of the Week
December 9, 2005 Linn Washington,
Jr. Dave Zirin
/ Mike Stark Patrick Cockburn Alexander Cockburn Lila Rajiva Gary Leupp Jason Leopold Bruce K. Gagnon Andrew Cockburn Website of the Day
December 8, 2005 Kathy Kelly James Petras William S.
Lind Laura Carlsen Justin Akers Thomas Graham, Jr Norman Solomon Tariq Ali /
Robin Blackburn Website of
the Day
December 7, 2005 John Ryan Gary Leupp Fran Quigley Jeremy Brecher
/ Brendan Smith Joshua Frank William W.
Morgan Dave Lindorff Patrick Cockburn Harold Pinter Website of
the Day
December 6, 2005 Ron Jacobs Patrick Cockburn Yifat Susskind Mike Whitney Pat Williams Paul Craig
Roberts Website of
the Day
December 5, 2005 John Walsh Brian Cloughley Mokhiber /
Weissman Robert Jensen Norman Solomon Peter Rost, MD Lila Rajiva Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn Lawrence R.
Velvel Rev. William Alberts Saul Landau Ralph Nader Paul Craig
Roberts Mike Whitney Allan Lichtman Dave Lindorff Brian Concannon,
Jr. Fred Gardner Manuel Garcia,
Jr. Carol Wolman St. Clair /
Vest / Walker / Pollack Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
December 2, 2005 Stan Goff Mike Ferner Christopher Brauchli Niranjan Ramakrishnan Manuel Talens Peter Phillips J.L. Chestnut,
Jr. Website of
the Day
December 1, 2005 John Walsh,
MD Ron Jacobs Jenna Orkin Joshua Frank Tiffany Ten
Eyck Missy Comley Beattie Eli Stephens Elaine Cassel Website of
the Day
Subscribe Online
|
Weekend
Edition "Reforms" Claim Their Usual Dead in MaharashtraFarm Suicides in VidharbhaBy P. SAINATH Farm suicides in Vidharbha [the north-eastern region of the state of Maharashtra ] since November 1 have crossed the 100 mark. There have been 200 since June 2. But the last 100 have occurred in less than two months. As many as 64 farmers have taken their own lives in December alone thus far. The total for the year is over 300. This month, the Maharashtra Government admitted to over 1,000 farmer's suicides in the State since 2001. [ One crore = ten million. There are approximately 43 rupees to one US dollar.] "The numbers are mounting," says Kishore Tiwari of the Vidharbha Jan Andolan Samiti. "Efforts to stop them are failing." The `Register of Deaths' the Andolan maintains in Yavatmal district is flowing over. Even this register is based mainly on newspaper reports. Which means deaths that have gone unreported do not make it to the tally. "Note that the rise in suicides has followed the fall in cotton price," points out Vijay Jawandia, Vidharbha's leading farm activist. "This is no surprise. The government's so-called `relief package' of Rs. 1,045 crore for the farmer has not had the slightest impact on the trend." It is three weeks since the Maharashtra Government announced its package in the Assembly session at Nagpur. That came after the former Minister, Gulabrao Gawande's attempted suicide on the floor of the House in a bid to highlight the farm crisis. His action shocked the State and he was tossed out of the Assembly for the rest of the session. But the session was wound up weeks earlier than it should have been. So this didn't mean much. However, little is now heard of the "Rs. 1,045 crore package." That, says Mr. Jawandia, is because "there is no package. It's mostly farmers' money. Plus, money from existing schemes. They have in fact taken away much more from the farmer than they have given to him." The advance bonus of Rs.550 normally paid to cotton growers has been scrapped this year. This amount used to be added on to the minimum support price set by the Centre. Without it, the cotton price per quintal falls from Rs.2250 to Rs.1700 roughly - that is, to the level of the Centre's minimum support price (MSP). "Scrapping the advance bonus means a loss of Rs.1,100 crore to the farmer," points out Mr. Jawandia. "And that isn't the only problem." Over a third of the package is simply the farmer's own money. That is, some Rs.370 crore have come from what is known as the `capital formation fund' of the Cotton Federation. That body normally deducts three per cent of the MSP given to farmers for that fund. This money, anyway their own, is to now be returned to the farmers. Yet, that now makes things harder for both. Without that sum in its kitty, it becomes far tougher for the Federation to raise loans from the banks. That in turn affects the farmers from whom it will have to purchase less. Cotton growers are thus pushed into selling to private traders at prices as low as Rs.1500 a quintal. This now fuels farmer anger with a government that came to power promising them Rs.2700 a quintal. Farm activists also protest what they see as a lot of `fake accounting.' An official from the agriculture department of one of the troubled districts told The Hindu : "A lot of the `package' money is from other schemes already in place. There's too much juggling. Soil conservation, watershed, other allied activities, all are now mixed up in this package." The much-touted waiver of interest on loans comes to just Rs.61 crore. Perhaps the one new element of the package is the State's decision to arrange for the marriages of farmers' daughters in the six districts seeing the most suicides. It has set aside Rs.1 crore per district for this purpose. "This amounts to telling the farmer we'll look after you when you're dead," says Kishore Tiwari. "You go ahead with your suicide. We'll get your daughter married." Some communities have proved more innovative than the government. Like in Dorli village in Wardha district. Farmers here simply put up signs announcing their whole village was for sale. As gram panchayat members told journalists: "We await a customer. Let's sell the village, pay our dues and move out. That's better than suicide." For Dorli, that's worked a bit. The Member of Parliament for the region, Datta Meghe, quickly announced Rs.10 lakh for schemes in the village from his MPLADS fund. Elsewhere, despair overrides such drama. Debt-driven farm suicides are now on in rich Western Maharashtra, too. Even wealthy Baramati has not escaped them. The Government's response has been to crack down on private moneylenders. Over 500 sahucars have been booked in Vidharbha since the drive against them began a month ago. In itself a welcome action, it has misfired for two reasons. The banks still do not give loans to farmers. And secondly, the new sahucars, that is, the input dealers and others, are left untouched. With the small village sahucars on the run, there is now no source of credit at all for many. "None of the real issues have been touched," says Mr. Jawandia. "Not the burning problem of price. Not credit. Not the headache of mounting imports. Nor the damage that BT cotton is doing, pushing so many farmers over the edge. The package is not even about shifting money from one pocket to another. It's about stealing from both pockets. Now, with the changes in the marketing rules, private traders rule the roost. The middlemen have become the top men." Meanwhile, the deaths continue. Maharashtra began by telling the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that there had been 140 suicides Statewide since 2001. It ends this year conceding a figure of 1,041. That is, the fourth figure the same State has put out within months. For Vidharbha, it is decidedly not a happy new year. P. Sainath is the rural affairs editor of The
Hindu (where this piece initially ran) and the author of Everybody
Loves a Good Drought. He can be reached at:
psainath@vsnl.com.
|
from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann  Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair                            Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org. |
