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A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
November 18, 2001
Jonathan Farley
Shame on You,
Chelsea!
C.G. Estabrook
American
Crusades
November 17, 2001
Zoltan Grossman
It Ain't
Over Til It's Over
November 16, 2001
Rick Giombetti
Rep.
McDermott and
the Decay of Liberalism
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
The Voices
of Muslim Feminists
Mokhiber/Weissman
Kill,
Kill, Kill
November 15, 2001
George
Monbiot
Blasting
Our Way
Toward Peace
Jack McCarthy
Hitchens
Mind-Meld
and Hot Bodies
Steve
Perry
Afghan
Puzzle Palace
RAWA
We Do Not Accept
the Northern Alliance
November 14, 2001
Jensen/Mahajan
The
Press Must Press Harder on Afghanistan
David Vest
The Great Unificator
Harry
Browne
Preventing
Future Terrorism
November 13, 2001
Peter Mahoney
Veteran's
Day, 2001
Rep. Ron
Paul
Expanding
NATO
Is a Bad Idea
November 12, 2001
Robert Jensen
Goodbye to
All That...
Patriotism
Nancy
Oden
My
Day at the Airport
CounterPunch Wire
East Timor
10 Years
After the Massacre
C.G. Estabrook
Instead
of Terror
Alexander Cockburn
Wide World
of Torture
November 11, 2001
Douglas
Valentine
Homeland
Insecurity: The Politics of Terror in America
November 10, 2001
Grover Furr
Seeking an Opposition
to the Afghan War
Bruce
Kyle
Anatomy
of a Green Smear:
Backstabbing Nancy Oden
November 9, 2001
Karen Snell
Torture By
Proxy
John Troyer
A
New Kind of Activism
Tariq Ali
Q &
A About the War
Michael
Colby
Schoolgirl
Gets Booted
for Anti-war Views
November 8, 2001
Mokhiber/Weissman
The
Cipro Rip-Off
Mitchel Cohen
The Smear Campaign
Against Nancy Oden
Steve
Perry
American
Roulette
November 7, 2001
Bahour/Dahan
Placebo Peace
Plan
Tom Turnipseed
Bush
Gives Billions
to His Oil Buddies
Cockburn/St. Clair
Greens, Airports
and
National ID Cards
Dr. Susan
Block
Ayatollah
Asscroft
Brian J. Foley
Bombing Campaign
Not "Self-Defense" Under International Law
November 6, 2001
Mark Scaramella
Where's
That Red Cross Money Going
C.G. Estabrook
Our Torturers
Sheperd
Bliss
Scott
Nearing on War
Rep. Ron Paul
Underwriting
the Taliban
Tariq
Ali
The
General Who
Came to Dinner
Evan Ravitz
Stop the War
Through
Direct Democracy
Steve
Perry
Hunger
in Afghanistan
November 5, 2001
Patrick Cockburn
Living
in the Minefields
David Price
Terror
and Indigenous People
November 3, 2001
Declan McCullagh
Nancy Oden Interview
Daniel
Wolff
The
Memphis Blues Again
Mark Weisbrot
War on Civilians
Dave Marsh
How
the RIAA (and the FBI) Cheat Musicians
Robert Jensen
Speaking
Out Against
War on Campus
November 2, 2001
CounterPunch
Wire
Green
Party Leader Detained at Maine Airport; Prevented from Boarding
Any Plane
Alexander Cockburn
FBI Eyes
Torture
November 1, 2001
Dean Baker
Dying
for Patents
Sami Amarah
US Attempts
to Recruit
Russian Vets of Afghan War
Molly Secours
Where
Are the Voices of Reason? Let the Women
Be Heard
William Blum
Unleashing the
CIA
October 31, 2001
Tom Turnipseed
Terrorize
the Poor,
Subsidize the Rich
Chris Clarke
Thank God
for Berkeley
Steve
Perry
The
Silent Genocide
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Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
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Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
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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:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
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A Pocket Guide to
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November 18,
2001
A Blow for Peace
Alina Lebdeyva
and the red carnation
By Kalpana Sharma
The
Hindu
Her weapon was a red carnation. Her enemy was
war. And she struck a royal cheek three times to register her
protest. A 16-year-old schoolgirl momentarily brought to the
front pages of some newspapers the fact that there are people
all over the world who are against the bombing of Afghanistan.
Ms. Alina Lebedyeva is a student in std. 11 in Riga, capital
of the Baltic state of Latvia. She said: ``I did it because I
am protesting British involvement in the bombing of Afghanistan
and Latvia's attempt to join North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.''
And for her action of slapping Prince Charles three times with
a red carnation, she faces a possible 15 years in jail.
Young Alina's action has interesting
symbolism. She used a flower, which could not do the object of
her attack any harm. She is a woman. And she took a calculated
risk in doing this. What motivated a young girl like her, one
wonders? The police claim that she is a well-known political
activist. But "well-known" already by the age of 16?
Despite the culture of violence fed to them by the media, why
are young people like Alina protesting against war and demanding
peace?
You would not think this is happening
if you scan the media, either here or in other countries. The
news continues to be dominated by talk of war even if occasional
opinion pieces reflect another point of view. But the fact that
many ordinary people, young and old, are feeling apprehensive
about the turn of events after September 11 is not being adequately
reported.
It is true that many of the protests
are relatively small. Not all of them are as dramatic as Alina's
"action". Yet, the very fact that peace rallies are
being held suggests a process of thinking that needs to be acknowledged.
The demonstrations are a culmination of this process, of the
realisation that a war cannot bring about peace, or end terrorism;
that the repercussions of a policy of using violence are so grave
that no country, no people, can remain untouched by it.
Even in the heart of American redneck
country, Texas, the home state of the current incumbent in the
White House, there are protests that are being planned. At the
end of October, Texans United Against War was formed. They are
now planning a week of protests in every major city in the state
of Texas. They are also negotiating a "peace bridge"
between the United States and Pakistan and are considering taking
a delegation from the U.S. to Pakistan. Their three point programme
is simple: "Oppose war, defend against racism, protect civil
liberties".
The Texans are only the latest on a long
list of groups in the U.S. who have registered their opposition
to war and urged restraint on the part of their Government. One
of the earlier statements was made by the War Resisters' League
barely a week after September 11, when all such sentiments could
easily have been misunderstood given the charged atmosphere in
the country. Since then there have advertisements in newspapers
signed by hundreds of people, and other forms of protests that
have clearly revealed that there is no unanimity in the U.S.
about its Government's action. But once again it is the media
that is refusing to recognise these protests and what they represent.
The illusion of widespread support for the bombing is thus being
reinforced.
All these groups in different parts of
the world, from the U.S. to Japan, Australia, Britain, countries
in Europe and even India and Pakistan, have called for a halt
to the bombing specially during Ramzan. In Pakistan, thousands
of people travelled to Rawalpindi at their own expense earlier
this month to protest against the war. The Alliance for Peace
and Justice called for an end to the bombing of Afghanistan.
But it also raised slogans against terrorism, against religious
fanaticism and religious terror and demanded a crackdown on armed
bands and religious fanatics. This set them apart from the pro-Taliban
groups that have been demonstrating in Pakistan and who are constantly
in the news.
For the media, in general, these protests
have been non-events. They are considered to be part of the same
liberal-loony-left brigade who oppose war and globalisation and
who support human rights and environmental protection. But the
media is missing out on a story, on the fact that these protests
are part of efforts by civil society groups to underwrite peace,
regardless of whether there is war or relative peace. For instance,
in the on-going conflict between Israel and Palestine, few people
know that Women in Black, a group of women peace activists, have
been demonstrating every single week for a peaceful resolution
to the conflict. Israeli and Palestinian women hold a silent
vigil each week. But the very regularity of their protests makes
them a "non-event" for the media.
As the weeks drag on into months, one
gets an uncomfortable feeling that just as these voices for peace
are being muffled or ignored, Afghan women will be forgotten
as political negotiations attempt to forge a settlement in their
country. Women are often used as an excuse to wage war. But apart
from constantly being shown as victims of war, their ability
to negotiate peace is hardly ever recognised.
Instead of discussing whether the future
government in Afghanistan - if and when this war ends - will
comprise followers of King Zahir Shah, or have representatives
of the Northern Alliance and supposedly-moderate Taliban, Afghan
women living outside the country's borders with a strong commitment
to peace, secularism and democracy should be involved. One cannot
forget the voice of sanity that Ms. Hannan Ashrawi brought during
the Middle East negotiations. Surely there are more than a few
equivalents amongst Afghan women. Which government will have
the courage to push for their inclusion and central role in forging
a peaceful future for Afghanistan?
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