home / subscribe / donate / about us / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events

 

Inside the New Print Edition of CounterPunch: Labor at the Crossroads

First the Wedding; Now the Wake: Big Labor's New Unity Partnership by JoAnn Wypijewski; Report from Baghdad: How Did the Votes Add Up: by Patrick Cockburn. Tsunamis of Blood: Wolfowitz in Indonesia: by Joseph Nevins; ALSO Alexander Cockburn on Tsunami Aid: How the People Scored. 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!

Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683
or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Wars of the Laptop Bombers

 

Today's Stories

February 19 / 20, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
Back to Salem: Paul Shanley and the Return of "Recovered Memory"

Kathleen Christison
Struggling forr Justice in Palestine

Ted Honderich
On Being Persona Non Grata

Scott Richard Lyons
Ward Churchill and the Identity Police

George Beres
Censorship in the Land of Wayne Morse: Gagging W. Churchill in Oregon

John Pilger
First, They Attack the Past

Norman Madarasz
Death Wish for Reform in Brazil?

 

February 18, 2005

Ben Moxham
In East Timor, the Nightmare Continues

Dave Lindorff
The Scum Also Rises: the Bloody Career of John Negroponte

Larry Birns
Negroponte: a Resume of Death Squads, Deceptions and Bribery

Gregory Elich
N, Korea's Phantom Nukes and the US's Subversion of Diplomacy

Samuel Logan / John Meyers
The Future of Colombia's Paramilitary Death Squads

Nicole Colson
Shock and Awe on Civil Liberties: From Lynne Stewart to Ward Churchill

Suzan Mazur
Whose National Security Are We Talking About?

Mickey Z.
"One Man Has Stopped Killing"

 

February 17, 2005

Joshua Frank
Hogtying of the Deaniacs

Paul Craig Roberts
Bush's Willing Sychophants: the Conservative Media

Robert Fisk
Under the Shadow of Death in Lebanon

Christopher Brauchli
Where Time Stands Still: Kinsey and Darwin in Cobb County, GA

Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Military Recruitment TV: Why Send Them to College, When Your Kid Can be Cannon Fodder?

Alison Weir
Russia, Israel and Media Omissions

Ahrar Ahmad
A Review of Shahid Alam's "Is There an Islamic Problem?"

Saul Landau
An Interview with Cuban VP Ricardo Alarcon: "The US Tramples the Laws It Wrote"

Website of the Day
Petition to Support Ward Churchill

 

February 16, 2005

Robert Fisk
Lebanon: a Battlefield for the Wars of Others

Kevin Zeese
Creating a Real Ownership Society: Share the Wealth; Protect Retirement

Gary Leupp
Meanwhile, in Nepal...

Ron Jacobs
Why the Iranian Opposition Should Not Trust the Bush Administration

Jessica Leight
Oil-Flush Chavez Begins to Strut His Stuff

Greg Moses
Houston, You've Got a Problem: Documenting Voting Irregularities in Texas

Mark Engler
The Last Porto Alegre

Jack McCarthy
Where's the Outrage About Pat? Buchanan Does a Churchill

Bill Christison
US Foreign Policy Dangerously Slanted Toward Israel

Website of the Day
The World is Melting: a Photo Survey by Gary Braasch

 

 

February 15, 2005

CounterPunch News Service
Dean a "Safe" Moderate, Says NYT Citing CounterPunch

Robert Fisk
The Killing of Mr. Lebanon

Uri Avnery
"Sharm-al-Sheikh, We Have Come Back Again"

Stan Cox
Fighting Big Pharma in Little Digwal

Mickey Z.
Radio Active North of the Border: an Interview with Chris Cook

Dave Zirin
Bashing Bush: Jose Canseco Comes Clean

Nadia Martinez
Ending World Poverty? Opening at the World Bank, Apply Now

Lila Rajiva
"Little Eichmanns" and the 'Harijan': the Danger of Magical Thinking in Politics

Paul Craig Roberts
The American Job Sell Out

 

 

 

February 14, 2005

Robert Jensen
Ward Churchill: Right to Speak Out; Right About 9/11

Brian Cloughley
Kuwait's Freedom, Bush-style

Patrick Cockburn
Outcome of the Iraqi Elections: Shortages, Corruption, Guerrilla War

Gary Leupp
Post-election Iraq: What Next?

Michael Donnelly
Sacred Nature: Just Another Commodity?

Dave Lindorff
When Bush Came to My Neighborhood

Elaine Cassel
The Lynne Stewart Verdict

 

February 12 / 13, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
Ward Churchill's Genes

Saul Landau
Alarcon Speaks: an Interview with the Vice President of Cuba

Paul Craig Roberts
Nothing to Fear But Bush Himself

Patrick Cockburn
Two Years After the Fall of Saddam, the Resistance Controls All Major Roads into Baghdad

John Feffer
Bush v. N. Korea: Round Two

Mickey Z.
Right to Remain Silent; Duty to Speak

Kurt Nimmo
Viva la Cucaracha!

Fred Gardner
Waiting for Raich

Dave Zirin
Fighting the New Republic(ans)

John Chuckman
Hiroshima, Mon Amour

Ben Tripp
A Leftist on the Bush Payroll

Carol Norris
"Buddy, Can You Spare a Dwarf?"

Robert Fisk
No Middle East Peace Without Justice

Frank / Chowkwanyun
Muzzled Activist in an Age of Terror: the Case of Sherman Austin

Mike Whitney
Condi's Euro Tour

Deborah Frisch
A Psychologist's Defense of Ward Churchill

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Reading Khomeini in Colorado

Christine TenBarge
What's So Special About Ward?

Ron Jacobs
Curtis Mayfield's Train to Jordan

Dr. Susan Block
Chemistry of Love: a Valentine's Greeting

Poets' Basement
Louise, Smith-Ferri, Ford and Albert

Website of the Weekend
Free Sherman

 

 

 

February 11, 20055

Manuel Garcia, Jr
The Eight Percent War

Kurt Nimmo
Ann Coulter's Racism: Where's Geronimo When You Really Need Him?

Dave Lindorff
Guckert or Gannon? The Perfect Plant; He Fit Right In

Larry Birns
War is Peace; Slavery is Freedom: Democracy According to Elliott Abrams

Bill Quigley
Twenty Questions: a Social Justice Quiz

Tom Barry
Bush's State of Delusion

Jennifer Van Bergen
Lynne Stewart's Conviction Hurts Us All

 

 

February 10, 2005

Dave Lindorff
What Academic Freedom?

Christopher Brauchli
The Love of Slaughter: From Rwanda to Iraq

Patrick Cockburn
In Baghdad, It's Easy to Get Killed

Nicole Colson
Have the Democrats Surrendered on Abortion Rights?

Suzan Mazur
More on the Assassination of Lumumba from Mr. Garsin of Kinshasha

Michael Donnelly
Salvaging an Opposition

Mike Stark
Driving Ossie Davis: "Give Them a Little Truth, a Little Hope"

Greg Moses
Taking Jesus Back from the Hijackers

Website of the Day
The Missionary Positions

 

 

February 9, 2005

Jeffrey St. Clair
Duck and Cover Redux: Bunker Busters and City Levellers

Mickey Z.
What Ward Churchill Didn't Say

John Ross
Hecho en Mexico: the Iraqi Election

Tom Barry
Ambassador of Lies: Elliott Abrams, the Neocon's Neocon

Conn Hallinan
The Coup in Nepal: Nursing the Pinion

Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Vision for Iraq: Cricket is Fine, But Chess is "Absolutely Forbidden"

Steen Sohn
Danish PM Says It's OK for Israel to Violate UN Resolutions

Tim Wise
Reflections on Empire and Uppity Indians

Website of the Day
Support Antiwar.com

 

 

February 8, 2005

Patrick Cockburn
Shia/Kurd Coalition to Dominate New Iraqi Govt.: "It's an Electoral Pact, Not a Party"

Brian Cloughley
Out of the Mouths of Generals: "It's Fun to Shoot Some People"

Steve Breyman
Against the Selfishness of the "Ownership Society"

Harry Browne
"Don't Get on that Plane!": Soldiers Seek Asylum in Ireland

Doug Giebel
"We Love Free Speech in America": the People, the President and Ward Churchill

Nate Collins
The Censorship of Ward Churchill and Dancehall Reggae: It's the Same Beast

Dave Lindorff
It's Time for a Labor-Oriented Newspaper

David Smith-Ferri
Sanctions and the Health Crisis in Iraq

 

 

February 7, 2005

Paul Craig Roberts
Bush's War on Jobs

Carolyn Baker
The New McCarthyism on Campus: Churchill and the Attack on Higher Ed

Joshua Frank
Marc Cooper's Hit List: First Mumia; Now Ward Churchill

Mickey Z.
Warning: More Hate Speech from W. Churchill

Patrick Cockburn
The Kidnapping Gangs of Iraq

Mike Whitney
Tom Friedman: Scribe for New Age Imperialism

Stacie Jonas
Pinochet: Fit to be Tried

Dave Zirin
A Miserable Super Sunday: Clinton, Bush and the FBI

Tariq Ali
Imperial Delusions

 

 

 

 

February 5 / 6, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
Ward Churchill and the Mad Dogs

Kurt Nimmo
A Ward Churchill Kind of Day

Joshua Frank
Liberals Trash Ward Churchill

P. Sainath
Mumbai's Man-Made Tsunami

Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Triumph; Allawi's Bust

Laura Carlsen
Bush, Rice and Latin America

Dave Lindorff
How the NYT Killed the Bush Bulge Story

Pamela Olson
West Bank Story

Behzad Yaghmaian
The Future of Sudanese Refugees in the West

Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
A Threatened UN in King George's Court

Roger Burbach
World Social Forum: a Tale of Two Presidents

Robert Fisk
History by Laptop

David Swanson
James Forman and the Liberal-Labor Syndrome

Justin E.H. Smith
Gay Marriage: a Report from Canada

Cacie Hart
The "State" of the Union: More War and a Ban on Love

Ron Jacobs
Chairman Bob Avakian: a Revolutionary Life

Mickey Z.
Viewing America from the Outside

Ben Tripp
Republican Heroes: a New Breed of Good Guy

Ben Sonnenberg
France at the End of the Devil's Decade: Renoir's Rules of the Game

Poets' Basement
Smith-Ferri, Davies, Collins, & Albert

Website of the Weekend
John Trudell: How to Earn a 17,000 Page FBI File

 

February 4, 2005

Brian Cloughley
The Army Symphonist: "Sometimes the Only Way to Change the Behavior of Someone Like That is to Kill Them"

Bill Christison
Election Parallels: Vietnam, 1967; Iraq, 2005

Elaine Cassel
Did Zoloft Make Him Do It?

Jacob Levich
Chomsky and the Draft

Kanak Mani Dixit
Return of the Royalists in Nepal

Ron Jacobs
The Downward Spiral in Iraq

 

 

February 3, 2005

Ward Churchill
On the Injustice of Getting Smeared: a Campaign of Fabrications and Gross Distortions

Sharon Smith
Resisting Soldiers Need Our Support

Mickey Z.
Leslie Gelb Asks Iraq: Who's Your Daddy?

Mike Whitney
President of Alienation: a Desperate State of the Union

Jenna Orkin
9/11 the Sequel: the Toxic State of Lower Manhattan

Saul Landau
Elections Won't Prevent Civil War in Iraq

Yitzhak Laor
Strange is the Silence

Dave Lindorff
The Assault on Social Security: a New Campaign of Lies

 

 

February 2, 2005

David Domke / Kevin Coe
Bush's Brand of Christianity

Noam Chomsky
Iraq After the Elections

M. Shahid Alam
O'Reilly's Fatwah on "Un-American" Professors: FoxNews Puts Me in Its Crosshairs

Richard Oxman
Ringing in 1984 with Ward Churchill and Derrick Jensen

Joshua Frank
The Suckering of Howard Dean

Dave Lindorff
A History Lesson from the NYT

Nina Hartley
Feminists for Porn

Website of the Day
War is a Racket

 

 

February 1, 2005

Joshua L. Dratel
The Torture Memos

Patrick Cockburn
New Doubts About Allawi

Robert Fisk
"The Only Decent Food We Get is at Funerals"

Uri Avnery
The Stalemate

Col. Dan Smith
"W" Stands for Withdrawal

Alison Weir
Making America as "Secure" as Israel

Alan Farago
Heaven and Hell in the Everglades

Ray Hanania
Low Voter Turnout of Iraqi Expatriates: Less Than 10% of Qualified Voters

Paul Craig Roberts
American Police State

Website of the Day
Statisticians Refute Official Rationale for Exit Poll Errors

 

 

 

January 31, 2005

Dave Zirin
Mr. Frank's Fatwah: New Republic Writer Calls for Death & Torture of Arundhati Roy and Stan Goff

Robert Fisk
Amid Tragedy, Defiance

Chyng Sun
Gonzales: Chief Prosecutor of Porn?

Greg Moses
The Real Scandals of the Texas Election

Mike Whitney
Cheney at Auschwitz

Ali Tonak
Turkey and the EU: Fantasies and Ultimatums

Patrick Cockburn
A Victory for the Shia

Website of the Day
Voting by the Script: Where Did the 8 Million Voter Turnout Figure Come From?

 

 

January 29 / 30, 2005

Manuel Yang / Peter Linebaugh
A Dialogue About Murder in Toledo

Gabriel Kolko
Wilsonian and Neoconservative Myths

Patrick Cockburn
Baghdad: City of Empty Streets

Robert Fisk
This Election Will Change the World, But Not as the US Wanted

Linn Washington, Jr.
Con Job: Bush Pledges on Racism Lack Realism

Bernard Chazelle
Why the Children of Iraq Make No Sound When They Fall

Gary Leupp
"This Kind of Subject Matter": Bush's New Ed Secretary vs. Vermont's Lesbians

JoAnn Wypijewski
The Passion of Paul Shanley

Alexander Cockburn
The Case of Father Jerry

Ron Jacobs
Ballot of the Puppets in Iraq

Brian Cloughley
Smart Bombs; Wrong House: Iraq's Civilian Dead

Fred Gardner
Peron May Split

Sister Dianna Ortiz
Memo to Bush from a Survivor of the Guatemalan Torturers: Stop the Torture!

Tom Reeves
How Bush Brings Freedom to the World: the Case of Haiti

Fran Quigley
Report: Haiti Now "More Violent and More Inhuman"

Suzan Mazur
"Mr. Garsin from Kinshasa": an Old Hand Weighs In on the Murder of Lumumba

Kurt Nimmo
Condi Rice and the Neocon Plan for the Palestinians

Lenni Brenner
Holocaust History: Beyond the UN's Rhetoric

Gilad Atzmon
The Politics of Auschwitz

Luis Gomez
Power and Autonomy in Bolivia

Mark Gaffney
NASA Searches for a Snowball in Hell: Why Velikovsky Matters

Ben Tripp
Lament of the Mnemonopath

Richard Oxman
Meet the Fuqers

Poets' Basement
Louise, Collins, Shanahan and Albert

Website of the Weekend
Chemical Industry: Deceit and Denial

 

 

 

January 28, 2005

Rachard Itani
Tsunami Aid By the Numbers: the US Really is a Miser

Jensen / Youngblood
Iraq's Non-Election

Patrick Cockburn / Elizabeth Davies
Attacks on Polling Places Leave 13 Dead

Dave Zirin
The Great Donovan McNabb: Proud "Black Quarterback"

Dave Lindorff
Suicide by State Execution?

Karyn Strickler
A Corporate Death Penalty Act?

Jorge Mariscal
Fighting the Poverty Draft

 

 

January 27, 2005

Seymour Hersh
We've Been Taken Over By a Cult

Cockburn / Sengupta
The US's Bloodiest Day in Iraq

Dave Lindorff
Juke Box Journalism: Shilling for Bush

Ignacio Chapela / John F. García
The Laws of Nature

Mike Whitney
The Widening Chasm Among Conservatives

Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Those Liberal Southern Baptists!

Ray McGovern
Reining In Cheney

Russ Wellen
Marginalizing Bin Laden

Christopher Brauchli
The FBI's Carnival of Errors

Website of the Day
Informed Eating

 

 

 

 

January 26, 2005

Saree Makdisi
An Iron Wall of Colonization: Fantasies and Realities About the Prospects for Middle East Peace

Scott Fleming
In Good Conscience: an Interview with Concientious Objector Aidan Delgado

Dave Lindorff
Filling Saddam's Shoes: the Puppet Regime Return's to Torture

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Salazar and Obama: Two Dismal Debuts

Toni Solo
The US and Latin America: a Not-So-Magical Reality

William James Martin
Condoleezza Rice: Confused About the Middle East

William A. Cook
Bush's Second Inaugural Address: the Lost Ur-Version

Eric Hobsbawm
Delusions About Democracy

Alexander Cockburn
The CIA's New Campus Spies

 

 

January 25, 2005

Brian Cloughley
Iraq as Disneyland

Mike Roselle
Satan is My Co-Pilot

Josh Frank / Merlin Chowkwanyun
The War on Civil Liberties

John Chuckman
Freedom on Steroids

Paul Craig Roberts
A Party Without Virtue

Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
The Intolerance of Christian Conservatives

James Petras
The US / Colombia Plot Against Venezuela

Website of the Day
Lowbaggers for the Environment

 

 

January 24, 2005

Fred Gardner
Last Monologue in Burbank

Lori Berenson
On the Politicization of My Case

Uri Avnery
King George

January 22 / 23, 2005

Jennifer Van Bergen / Ray Del Papa
Nuclear Incident in Montana

Alexander Cockburn
Prince Harry's Travails

Jeffrey St. Clair
The Company That Runs the Empire: Lockheed and Loaded

Stan Goff
The Spectacle

Saul Landau
Nothing Succeeds Like Failure

Gary Leupp
Official Madness and the Coming War on Iran

Fred Gardner
Is GW Getting the Runaround?

Phil Gasper
Clemency Denied: the Politics of Death in California

Stanley Heller
A Kill-Happy Government: Connecticut Chooses Death

Greg Moses
The Heart of Texas: an Inauguration Day Betrayal on Civil Rights

Justin Taylor
The Folk-Histories of John Ross

Daniel Burton-Rose
One China; Many Problems

Elaine Cassel
Try a Little Tyranny: Questions While Watching the Inaugural

Mike Whitney
Failing Upwards: the Rise of Michael Chertoff

Mark L. Berenson
My Daughter Has Been Wrongly Imprisoned

Christopher Brauchli
It Doesn't Compute: a $170 Million Mistake

Gilad Atzmon
Zionism and Other Marginal Thoughts

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Day of the Rats

Mark Donham
The Secret Messages of Rahm Emmanuel

Ben Tripp
Adventures in Online Dating

Walter Brasch
Hollywood's Patriots: Soulless Kooks, Mr. Bush?

Poets' Basement
Wuest, Landau, Ford, Albert & Drum

 

 

January 21, 2005

Dave Lindorff
A Great American Journalist:
John L. Hess (1917-2005)

Sharon Smith
The Anti-War Movement and the Iraqi Resistance

Don Santina
Baseball, Racism and Steroid Hysteria

Ron Jacobs
Locked Out and Pissed Off: Protesting the Bush Inauguration

Kurt Nimmo
The Problem with Mike Ruppert

Don Monkerud
Once They Were Cults: Bush's Faith-Based Social Services

Alan Farago
Swimming Home from the Galapagos

Derek Seidman
An Interview with Army Medic and Anti-War Activist Patrick Resta

 

 

 

January 20, 2005

Paul Craig Roberts
Dying for Sycophants

William Cook
The Bush Inauguration: A Mock Epic Fertility Rite

Joshua Frank
The Democrats and Iran: Look Who's Backing Bush's Next

Eric Ruder
Why Andres Raya Snapped: Another Casualty of Bush's War

Mike Whitney
Coronation in a Garrison State

Robert Jensen
A Citizens Oath of Office

Peter Rost
Bush Report on Drug Imports: Good Data, Bad Conclusions

David Underhill
Is It Torture Yet?: the Eclectic Fool Aid Torture Test

James Reiss
Adieu, Colin Powell: Pea Soup in Foggy Bottom

CounterPunch Staff
Voices from Abu Ghraib: the Injured Party

 

 

 

January 19, 2005

Marta Russell
Social Security Privatization & Disability: 8 Million at Risk

Mike Ferner
Marines Stretching Movement: Protesting Urban Warfare in Toledo

Nancy Oden
The Nuremberg Principles, Iraq and Torture

Tony Paterson
A Catalogue of British Abuses in Iraq

Dave Lindorff
Bush's Divide-and-Conquer Plan to Destroy Social Security

Doug Giebel
BS and CBS: When 60 Minutes Helped Promote WMD Fantasies

Alexander Cockburn
Will Bush Quit Iraq?

 

 

 

January 18, 2005

Paul Craig Roberts
How Americans Were Seduced by War: Empire and Militant Christianity

Jennifer Van Bergen
Federal Judge: Abu Ghraib Abuses Result of Decision to Ignore Geneva Conventions

Douglas Lummis
It's a No Brainer; Send Graner: a Rap for Our Time

Ron Jacobs
Syria Back in the Crosshairs?

Seth DeLong
Enter the Dragon: Will Washington Tolerate a Venezuelan-Chinese Oil Pact?

Lance Selfa
Stolen Election?: Most Democrats Didn't Even Bother to Inquire

Paul D. Johnson
Mystery Meat: a Right-to-Know About Food Origins

Elisa Salasin
An Open Letter to Jenna Bush, Future Teacher

 

 

January 17, 2005

Heather Gray
Misconceptions About King's Methods for Social Change

Robert Fisk
Hotel Room Journalism: the US Press in Iraq

Dave Lindorff
What the NYT Death Chart Omitted: Civilians Slaughtered by US Military

Jason Leopold
Sam Bodman's Smokestacks: Bush's Choice for Energy Czar is One of Texas's Worst Polluters

Gary Leupp
A Message from the Iraqi Resistance

Douglas Valentine
An Act of State? the Execution of Martin Luther King

Harvey Arden
Welcome to Leavenworth: My First Encounter with Leonard Peltier

Greg Moses
King and the Christian Left: Where Lip Service is Not an Option

 

January 15 / 16, 2005

James Petras
The Kidnapping of a Revolutionary

Robert Fisk
Flying Carpet Airlines: My Return to Baghdad

Ron Jacobs
Unfit for Military Service

Brian Cloughley
Smack Daddies of the Hindu Kush: Afghanistan's Drug Bonanza

Fred Gardner
The Allowable-Quantity Expert

Dr. Susan Block
The Counter-Inaugural Ball: Eros Day, 2005

John Ross
Zapatista Literary Llife

Suzan Mazur
Unspooking Frank Carlucci

M. Shahid Alam
America's New Civilizing Mission

Frederick B. Hudson
Jack Johnson's Real Opponent: "That I Was a Man"

Mike Whitney
Bush's Grand Plan: Incite Civil War in Iraq

Tom Crumpacker
A Constitutional Right to Travel to Cuba

Bob Burton
The Other Armstrong Williams Scandal

John Callender
La Conchita and the Indomitable 82-Year Old

Lila Rajiva
Christian Zionism

Saul Landau
An Imperial Portrait: a Visit to Hearst's Castle

Doug Soderstrom
A Touch of Evil: the Morality of Neoconservatism

Poets' Basement
Davies, Louise, Landau, Albert, Collins and Laymon

 

 

January 14, 2005

Robert Fisk
"The Tent of Occupation"

Lee Sustar
Bush's Social Security Con Job

José M. Tirado
The Christians I Know

Dave Zirin
The Legacy of Jack Johnson

Sheldon Rampton
Calling John Rendon: a True Tale of "Military Intelligence"

Tracy McLellan
Under the Influence

Yves Engler
The Dictatorship of Debt: the World Bank and Haiti

Tom Barry
Robert Zoellick: a Bush Family Man

Website of the Day
Ryan for the Nobel Prize?

 

 

January 13, 2005

Mark Chmiel / Andrew Wimmer
Hearts and Minds, Revisited

Joe DeRaymond
The Salvador Option: Terror, Elections and Democracy

Greg Moses
Every Hero a Killer?...Not

Dave Lindorff
The Great WMD Fraud: Time for an Accounting

Jorge Mariscal
Dr. Galarza v. Alberto Gonzales: Which Way for Latinos?

Christopher Brauchli
Gonzales and the Death Penalty: the Executioner Never Sleeps

Gary Leupp
"Fighting for the Work of the Lord": Christian Fascism in America

 

 

January 12, 2005

Robert Fisk
Fear Stalks Baghdad

Josh Frank
The Farce of the DNC Contest

Jack Random
Casualties of War: the Untold Stories

John Roosa
Aceh's Dual Disasters: the Tsunami and Military Rule

Carol Norris
In the Wake of the Tsunami

Mike Whitney
Pink Slips at CBS

Alan Farago
Can the Everglades be Saved?

Paul Craig Roberts
What's Our Biggest Problem in Iraq...the Insurgency or Bush?

 

 

January 11, 2005

Tom Barry
The US isn't "Stingy"; It's Strategic: Aid as a Weapon of Foreign Policy

James Hodge and Linda Cooper
Voice of the Voiceless: Father Roy Bourgeois and the School of the the Americas

Linda S. Heard
Farah Radio Break Down: Joseph Farah's Messages of Hate and Homophobia

Derrick O'Keefe
Electoral Gigolo?: Richard Gere and the Occupied Vote

Gila Svirsky
A Tale of Two Elections

Harry Browne
Irish "Peace Process", RIP

 

January 10, 2005

Ramzy Baroud
Faith-Based Disasters: Tsunami Aid and War Costs

Talli Nauman
Killing Journalists: Mexico's War on a Free Press

Uri Avnery
Sharon's Monologue

Dave Lindorff
Tucker Carlson's Idiot Wind

Dave Zirin
Randy Moss's Moondance

Dave Silver
Left Illusions About the Democratic Party

Charles Demers
Plan Salvador for Iraq: Death Squads Come in Waves

William A. Cook
Causes and Consequences: Bush, Osama and Israel

 

 

January 8 / 9, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
Say, Waiter, Where's the Blood in My Margarita Glass?

John H. Summers
Chomsky and Academic History

Greg Moses
Getting Real About the Draft

Walter A. Davis
Bible Says: the Psychology of Christian Fundamentalism

Victor Kattan
The EU and Middle East Peace

John Bolender
The Plight of Iraq's Mandeans

Robert Fisk
The Politics of Lebanon

Fred Gardner
Situation NORML

Joe Bageant
The Politics of the Comfort Zone

Mickey Z.
I Want My DDT: Little Nicky Kristof Bugs Out

Ben Tripp
CounterClockwise Evolution

Ron Jacobs
Elvis and His Truck: Out on Highway 61

Saul Landau
Sex and the Country

Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Time to End the Blackout

Ellen Cantarow
NPR's Distortions on Palestine

Richard Oxman
Bageantry Continued

Poets' Basement
Gaffney, Landau, Albert, Collins


January 7, 2005

Omar Barghouti
Slave Sovereignty: Elections Under Occupation

Kent Paterson
The Framing of Felipe Arreaga: Another Mexican Environmentalist Arrested

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Old Vijay Merchant and the Tsunami

David Krieger
Cancel the Inauguration Parties

Gideon Levy
New Year, Old Story

Dave Lindorff
Ohio Protest: First Shot Fired by Congressional Progressives

Christopher Brauchli
Privatizing the IRS

Roger Burbach / Paul Cantor
Bush, the Pentagon and the Tsunami

 

 

January 6, 2005

Brian J. Foley
Gonzales: Supporting Torture is not His Greatest Sin

Greg Moses
Boot Up America!: Gen. Helmly's Memo Leaks New Bush Deal

Petras / Chomsky
An Open Letter to Hugo Chavez

Alan Maass
The Decline of the Dollar

Dave Lindorff
Colin Powell's Selective Sense of Horror

Jenna Orkin
The EPA and a Dirty Bomb: 9/11's Disastrous Precedent

P. Sainath
The Tsunami and India's Coastal Poor

 

 

January 5, 2005

Alan Farago
2004: An Environmental Retrospective

Winslow T. Wheeler
Oversight Detected?: Sen. McCain and the Boeing Tanker Scam

Jean-Guy Allard
Gary Webb: a Cuban Perspective

Fred Gardner
Strutting, Smirking, As If The Mad Plan Was Working

David Swanson
Albert Parsons on the Gallows

Richard Oxman
The Joe Bageant Interview

Bruce Jackson
Death on the Living Room Floor

 

 

 

January 4, 2005

Michael Ortiz Hill
Mainlining Apocalypse

Elaine Cassel
They Say They Can Lock You Up for Life Without a Trial

Yoram Gat
The Year in Torture

Martin Khor
Tragic Tales and Urgent Tasks from the Tsunami Disaster

Gary Leupp
Death and Life in the Andaman Islands

 

January 3, 2005

Ron Jacobs
The War Hits Home

Dave Lindorff
Is There a Single Senator Who Will Stand Up for Black Voters?

Mike Whitney
The Guantanamo Gulag

Joshua Frank
Greens and Republicans: Strange Bedfellows

Maria Tomchick
Playing Politics with Disaster Aid

Rhoda and Mark Berenson
Our Daughter Lori: Another Year of Grave Injustice

David Swanson
The Media and the Ohio Recount

Kathleen Christison
Patronizing the Palestinians

 

 

January 1 / 2, 2005

Gary Leupp
Earthquakes and End Times, Past and Present

Rev. William E. Alberts
On "Moral Values": Code Words for Emerging Authoritarian Tendencies

M. Shahid Alam
Testing Free Speech in America

Stan Goff
A Period for Pedagogy

Brian Cloughley
Bush and the Tsunami: the Petty and the Petulant

Sylvia Tiwon / Ben Terrall
The Aftermath in Aceh

Ben Tripp
Requiem for 2004

Greg Moses
A Visible Future?

Steven Sherman
The 2004 Said Awards: Books Against Empire

Sean Donahue
The Erotics of Nonviolence

James T. Phillips
The Beast's Belly

David Krieger
When Will We Ever Learn

Poets' Basement
Soderstrom, Hamod, Louise and Albert

 

 

 

 

December 23, 2004

Chad Nagle
Report from Kiev: Yushchenko's Not Quite Ready for Sainthood

David Smith-Ferri
The Real UN Disgrace in Iraq

Bill Quigley
Death Watch for Human Rights in Haiti

Mickey Z.
Crumbs from Our Table

Christopher Brauchli
Merck's Merry X-mas

Greg Moses
When No Law Means No Law

Alan Singer
An Encounter with Sen. Schumer: a Very Dangerous Democrat

David Price
Social Security Pump and Dump

Website of the Day
Gabbo Gets Laid

 

December 22, 2004

James Petras
An Open Letter to Saramago: Nobel Laureate Suffers from a Bizarre Historical Amnesia

Omar Barghouti
The Case for Boycotting Israel

Patrick Cockburn / Jeremy Redmond
They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit

Harry Browne
Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge

Richard Oxman
On the Seventh Column

Kathleen Christison
Imagining Palestine

Website of the Day
FBI Torture Memos

 

 

December 21, 2004

Greg Moses
The New Zeus on the Block: Unplugging Al-Manar TV

Dave Lindorff
Losing It in America: Bunker of the Skittish

Chad Nagle
The View from Donetsk

Dragon Pierces Truth*
Concrete Colossus vs. the River Dragon: Dislocation and Three Gorges Dam

Patrick Cockburn
"Things Always Get Worse"

Seth DeLong
Aiding Oppression in Haiti

Ahmad Faruqui
Pakistan and the 9/11 Commission's Report

Paul Craig Roberts
America Locked Up: a System of Injustice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hot Stories

Alexander Cockburn
Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con!

Subcomandante Marcos
The Death Train of the WTO

Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens as Model Apostate

Steve Niva
Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?

Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians

Steve J.B.
Prison Bitch

Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda in the Iraq War

Wendell Berry
Small Destructions Add Up

CounterPunch Wire
WMD: Who Said What When

Cindy Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From

Gore Vidal
The Erosion of the American Dream

Francis Boyle
Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution

Click Here for More Stories.

 

 

Subscribe Online

 

Weekend Edition
February 19 / 20, 2005

About King Mswati...and His British Backers

Political Developments in Swaziland

By COUNTERPUNCH NEWS SERVICE

Probably in July King Mswati III of Swaziland, who just added a $690,000 Daimler-Chrysler Maybach 62 to his fleet, will to attempt to impose a constitution, unilaterally, on terms to suit himself. This after 31 years of a "State of Emergency" and 21 years of The Peoples United Democratic Movement's (PUDEMO) campaign for democracy. Here's a very striking letter recentkly sent by PUDEMO (formed in 1983) recently to the Secretariat of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, outlining the monstrous situation in Swaziland.

Swaziland today.

* It is the smallest in mainland Southern Africa.
* It has a population of 1.1 Million people.
* It has the highest HIV infection rate in the world, at around 40%.
* On the surface it is peaceful.
* Deficit of .5 Billion Emalangeni
* 67% of the population lives in rural areas and very poor.
* The people are being ruled by a 31 year state of emergency (1973 - 2004)
* The ruler is from the Dlamini family with absolute powers.

 

2.1 The powers of the King of Swaziland.

* Above the law
* Controls all land
* Controls all minerals
* Appoints and Control the Prime Minister Cabinet
* Controls the Legislature
* Appoints and Control the Judiciary
* Controls the Army
* Controls the Police
* Controls the Correctional Services Warders
* Controls the Public Service
* Controls the people who are not called citizens, but Subjects
* Controls the Economy through what was once a peoples' fund called Tibiyo
through royalties and shareholding in many major companies in Swaziland*.
* Controls everything that lives in Swaziland

It is very difficult for a reasonable person to believe that there are a people who would love and appreciate to be ruled in this fashion. Why would Swazis love to be ruled in this fashion when billions of people of the world would find it unacceptable? Is it because Swazis are some kind of people
with no feelings of hurt, humiliation and human dignity?

The answer is, Swazis are just as humane like their entire fellow Africans and other people of the world. To free themselves they have been struggling for the past 30 years, and the struggle took an upward turn in the last 20 years.


3.0 A brief Historical background to the Constitutional making process.

The people under the leadership of PUDEMO were the ones who demanded a written Constitution for the country, not the Monarchy or Tinkhundla Government.

For the past twenty years of struggle, PUDEMO has been the leading voice calling for an all-inclusive political process that would ensure the free participation of all sectors of our society in the constitution making process. Such representatives would have had a clear mandate of the people through their respective constituencies.

As mentioned above, the Royal Family and its Tinkhundla government consistently opposed the idea of a Constitution as they said a constitution is a foreign idea. However, pressure from the people under the leadership of PUDEMO forced it to relent and hence the reforms.

This is a historical fact that we would like the Commonwealth and the whole world not to forget nor ignore as it has a bearing in the future of this country.

Constitutional drafting process at parallels

The reforms failed the litmus test for a democratic constitution making process by;

3.1 Refusal to allow civic formations representing their constituencies to be part of the process.

3.2 All commissions were chaired by Princess

3.3 Commissioners were handpicked from the Conservative camp.

3.4 Divergent views were not tolerated as those with differing views were discouraged to voice their aspirations and concerns during the so-called consultations.

3.5 Process was a fattening ranch where Princess were making themselves rich i.e. R120 Million over 8 years.

3.6 Lack of political education on the populace on Constitutionalism for effective participation during the so-called community consultations.

3.7 Lack of freedom of the media in reporting divergent views.

3.8 Chiefs who control about 67% of the country and its population were used to intimidate people who were pro democracy. Those who called for multi party democracy were threatened with evictions from their land.

This resulted to the process lacking legitimacy, and consequently;

* Can never be trusted to produce a universally acceptable document.

* Can never be trusted that it (the royal family) cannot reverse whatever gains have come through this document.

* It is not in the royal family's interest to have a document that will transfer power from the family to the people safeguarded by the Constitution.

4.0 Current Constitution

4.1 Political parties

Political parties remain banned to participate in the politics of the country. According to the daft constitution, political parties will not contest for elections, and hence cannot be part of the legislature, or executive, but status quo will prevail.

4.2 Executive powers of the King

The king still retains executive authority, and he continues to appoint the following;

* Prime Minister, Cabinet,

* Judges

* Regional Administrators

* Army Commander

* Police Commissioner

* Correctional Services Commissioner

* Secretary to Cabinet

In addition he can summon and Dissolve Parliament. He has control over land, Minerals, the Armed forces.

This process is therefore prone to reversal by the monarchy just like it happened in 1973 when the King repealed the Independence constitution. This was after the opposition party had won a single constituency out of a total eight Constituencies.

5.0 The nation is still expected to make inputs on the document.

Whilst this seem a good thing for someone who does not understand the "Mafia" style dictatorship that has ruined Swaziland for the past 30 years, Swazis know what this mean. This is nothing but a ploy to give legitimacy to a process that has been cast in stone.

Just like the initial process of gathering views for the Constitutional Review process under Prince Mangaliso where group submissions were not allowed, this process will also not allow for group submissions.

The following situation will take place;

* The royal family under Prince David will continue with his family's project

* Members of the Royal family will be allowed to have group input in how they want to see the final document.

* The population will not be educated on constitutionalism before their "views" are sought. It must be remembered that Swazis were free for only 5 years (1968 - 1973), and for the next 30 years they have been ruled under a state of emergency. What then do they understand about basic human rights to demand them?

* Chiefs will continue to coerce and intimidate those who would be calling for a democratic constitution, and threatening them with evictions from the lands. These are the predominantly rural, uneducated, powerless, landless, and majority of our people. They account 67% of the population.

* The state run media, the Television and radio station will be used to spread propaganda in favour of retaining the status quo, and differing views will be suppressed.

What then will be the final product?

From what has been described above, it is clear that the final document will not reflect the aspirations of our people. It will be a document to legitimize the suffering of our people. We have no intention to abandon our people at this time of the struggle. Our people have suffered for three decades under the family and the time for their unconditional freedom is now.

The July 2004 verdict on our people.

The King has said he will force the constitution on the people of Swaziland in July 2004.

The people have rejected this sham and come together for an alternative all-inclusive process.

To counter the abovementioned royal project,The Swazi populace is drafting an all inclusive constitution under the auspices of the National Constitutional Assembly.

Many civic organisations are part of this alternative process, and this includes NGO's, Political Parties, Labour, Church, Youth, Women rights organisation, People with disability, University Academics, Parliamentarians*, Swazi National Council Members (Advisors to the King)*, Senators*, Traditional Women organisation* etc.

* The Government and powerful Royal family members coerced these members to withdraw from the initial process under the Council of churches.

6.0 The Militarisation of the country

There is an increase of importation of military hardware by the Government in recent weeks. This shows that it is geared for war in defence of the undemocratic system of Government and the looting of the finances of the taxpayers. Two weeks ago a large consignment of ammunition was discovered at the airport under a cloud of secrecy. Thousands of hand grenades were discovered. Current expenditure indicates more public spending is made on the army than social services like health, education and food security.

7.0 Can PUDEMO participate if invited at this stage?

PUDEMO is a movement whose members are reasonable people. It is a movement with a very proud history. Its entire leadership was arrested in 1990 and charged with high treason. For the past twenty years we have been persecuted, imprisoned, forced into exiles, our student activists expelled from schools and denied government scholarships. Our leaders have been dismissed from their places of work for their conscience. Our president spent 21 months in the royal maximum prison (2000 - 2002) for demanding the freedom of his people.

How then could we refuse to take part in a process if we are convinced it is genuine and it will help free our people?

We have been ready and prepared to be part of a genuine political process for the freedom of our people for the past 20 years. We have written numerous letters both to the government and the King requesting a meeting that would have culminated to a negotiated settlement. We never received a courtesy of an acknowledgement of receipt of such letters.

We have been vindicated. Our direct answer therefore is we are ready anytime anywhere to meet the King or his representatives, even at this late stage of the process.

Once again we reaffirm our commitment to genuine nation building and we wish to reiterate our way forward as published way back in 1992 as a foundation for taking our country forward.

Our way forward, towards a constituent Assembly is as follows;

7.1 NEGOTIATION PROCESS.

1. Preliminary negotiation

We as a Movement are firmly convinced that a formal and properly constituted negotiation process can only be effected through a broad-based representative National Convention. However, we are conscious of the fact that certain pre-conditions have to be met to facilitate the laying down of the basis for a fundamental move towards the envisaged convention, and of creating a conducive climate for the negotiation process would be able to lay the foundation for a National Convention.

2. Memorandum of intent.

To ensure that the democratisation process is itself democratic at the initial stage, the preliminary negotiations must not only be confined to the progressive forces but also be inclusive of traditional institutions-in-fact it must be a microcosm of our society i.e. political parties, political organisations, labour organisations, the youth, women's organisations, traditional institutions and other interest groups. The outcome of the preliminary negotiations will be a Memorandum of Intent where His Majesty King Mswati III unreservedly commits himself and the Government to formal and properly constituted peaceful negotiations through a national convention. The Memorandum of Intent shall include inter - alia the following: -

a) The outlining of all terms of reference for the national convention; b) The meeting of pre-conditions to facilitate the creation of a conducive climate for negotiations which demands the political tolerance through the lifting of the state of emergency and all other repressive laws. Hence, the three specific decrees hereinafter set forth must of necessity be repealed as they impede any genuine move towards a new political dispensation-.

- Decree no.11 which provides for the banning of political parties and other mass political organisations;

- Decrees no.12 and 13 which provides for the prohibition of meetings, processions/demonstrations, associations and forming of political parties etc;

c) The abrogation of The King's Proclamation of 1973;

d) The abrogation of the Establishment of Parliament Order No. 23 of 1978;

e) The reinstatement of the Bill of Rights;

f) The unbanning of all political parties;

g) The unconditional return and indemnification of all political exiles;

h) The dissolution and dismissing of all "shadowy" cabals that surround the King like the "Central Committee", The "Thursday Committee" which has ruined the judiciary so that we know exactly who we are dealing with; and

i) Such pre-conditions have to be declared in a formal legal instrument.

 

7.2 NATIONAL CONVENTION.

The Movement reaffirms its conviction that formal and properly constituted negotiations can only be done through a National Convention, with its immediate objective of creating an interim government and electing a Constituent Assembly. A national convention is a forum whereby all political parties, political organisations, labour organisations, the youth, women's organisations, traditional institutions and other interest groups would come together to work out the details of the democratic process and to lay down acceptable parameters on the modalities leading to the Constituent Assembly.

A constituent assembly must act as the place where a new constitution guaranteeing a truly democratic Swaziland must be drawn up, but the run-in period leading up to actual election of the constituent assembly and the overseeing of the elections to the constituent assembly requires some interim authority to manage the process.

This same national convention will constitute an interim authority on a democratic basis to govern and oversee the whole democratic process. It is our considered view that a task of such fundamental importance can only be carried out by a properly constituted and impartial government. An interim government with clearly defined functions and limited powers formed by the national convention would ensure a fair democratic process without any biases in favour of one group. It should be dissolved after the outcome of the constituent assembly. We believe a minimum two-year period would be sufficient.

7.3 NATIONAL REFERENDUM.

Subject to the outcome of the national convention, a national referendum if necessary, would have to be held to solicit views on a desirable constitutional dispensation- whether the independence constitution should be re-invoked and amended or a new one drafted.

However, from our viewpoint the issue of a national referendum becomes redundant in view of the King's (Sobhuza II) solemn commitment on a new constitution drafted by the people of Swaziland for themselves, and the fact that the tinkhundla was not envisaged to be a substitution for a constitution.

7.4 CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

A constituent assembly is a body elected by all the people and its main responsibility will be to draw up a constitution for the democratic Swaziland.

It is our fervent belief that there can be no genuine political dispensation and constitutional dispensation founded in such a system (Tinkhundla). A new political and constitutional dispensation can only be arrived at, in a properly constituted constituent assembly, where there can be a genuine participation of the masses, ensuring that any future political dispensation will not be dominated by royalty or minority.

The position of our Movement is that a new constitution for the country needs to be drawn up and adopted by the people through a properly constituted constituent assembly. The electoral process of the constituent assembly will be defined at the national convention.

The reason why our Movement supports the idea of elected delegates to draw up a constitution is to ensure that the new constitution reflects the interests of the people, and that those responsible for drawing up the constitution must be elected by the people in free, and fair elections. Only such an elected constituent assembly can ensure that the process of drawing up a democratic constitution is itself democratic.

7.5 OUTCOME OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY.

Once a new constitution for the Kingdom of Swaziland has been adopted by the people of Swaziland will result in the following-

- Dissolution of the constituent assembly.

- Elections to be held for the constitution of a popular elected government based on the will of the people.

- Dissolution of the interim government.

- Repeal of all laws inconsistent with the constitution.

* All civic groups including Political parties, youth, people with special disabilities, Workers Unions, and other motive forces, and "The family", Church should be allowed to come together to map a way forward in a free and enabling environment. * Unconditional return of political exiles including the Chiefs in Amsterdam and other exiles in Australia, RSA, and the UK. * Impartial education on Constitutionalism to the people of Swaziland (67% rural, uneducated and intimidated by Chiefs)

We challenge the King and the government to tell us the flaws of this process as we have already done with their process. We also challenge the international community to critically look at our way forward and advise where they have misgivings about our long proposed process of democratization.

8.0 What will happen if the peoples' demands are ignored and the process proceeds?

8.1 The struggle continues until we have transferred the power from the family, which has subjected our people to oppression and poverty for 253 years (1750 - 2004), to the people. These powers will be enshrined and protected by the Constitution.

9.0 The British and Commonwealth role in the process.

We are very disappointed with the British and some members of the Commonwealth for playing double standards.

9.1 They supported and encouraged the monarchy to come out with such a document, which they know does nothing to transfer power from the family to the people. They endorse a document that does not recognize multiparty democracy. They expect our people to accept to be ruled in an autocratic fashion.

9.2 They denounce Zimbabwe where the pillars of democracy exist, and support the Monarchy, which has ruled this country with iron fist for 253 years. PUDEMO leaders have been jailed for high treason, intimidated, victimized from their places of work, and pro-democracy citizens forced into exile.

9.3 If you go to Zimbabwe today you will notice that there is a constitution with all the bill of rights. The law allows political parties to participate in the country's politics. The legislature has members representing diverse political interests. It is true our brothers and sisters on the north of Limpompo have problems, and it pains to see a reversal of the gains of liberation.

However, Zimbabwe problems are nothing compared to Swaziland's problem.

In simpler terms, in Zimbabwe there is a sound and very powerful political vehicle with an engine, wheels, brakes etc. However, it appears it is being driven backwards. In Swaziland there is not even an ox cart, let alone a vehicle without an engine. The British ignores this fact and wants our people to continue suffering under autocratic rule.

This reminds us about the British's role in supporting apartheid South Africa when they opposed economic sanctions for their selfish interests. The British have no record of supporting the oppressed anywhere in the world. We are very much disappointed by the Labour party as we were hoping its policies on Africa would be a bit moderate.

We welcome the role played by some external Governments like the USA under the current Ambassador. He is a true friend of the struggling people of Swaziland. We thank the South African Government, the Mozambican Government and many international organizations like Amnesty International and others for their call for the freedom of our people. These governments and people will have a very special place in our peoples' history.

10.0 What do our people want from any genuine constitutional dispensation;

They want a process that is driven by them, that cannot be reversed, and that can guarantee amongst others;

1. Unconditional Right to land.

* Land for our people is central to our struggle. Land should no longer be a property of the Royal Family with chiefs administering it on the family's behalf.

2. Right to Education

* Our people must have an unconditional right to free Primary education. This has been a preserve for the Royal family, which has been sending its children, even those who never deserved, to oversees countries at a huge cost to the taxpayer.

HIV/AIDS has made it impossible for the majority of our people to go to school, and the time is now to guarantee the right to education in the constitution.

3. Right to Primary health care and HIV/AIDS drugs.

* Our people are dying of HIV/AIDS and the royal family is using our taxpayer to get treatment in a state of the art hospital at Lobamba, and in other countries. The constitution should guarantee equal treatment for our people.

4. Right for the elderly to be taken care of through social grants schemes.

* For many years our people have been made beggars by taking citizenship of neighbouring South Africa in search of social grants. We all know that this will not continue for long before the South Africans turn them back because they have their own pressing social responsibility. * The constitution must ensure that our people are afforded this right to live.

5. Right to food security and shelter.

* Whilst the royal family live in palaces and first world bungalows and driving top of the range BMW X5s with body guards and chauffeurs, and whilst there is a concerted effort to purchase an aeroplane worth 750 Million Emalangeni, it doe not make sense for our people to have a constitution that does not guarantee their rights to food security and shelter. Too many of our people are dying of hunger and starvation in the world of plenty. * Swaziland shall never be allowed to be another Ethiopia when thousands died of starvation. The only way out is for us Swazis to guarantee these rights so that the issue will remain central to successive democratic governments * Dams building should be central in a democratic government to ensure our people have sufficient food. Reliance on yellow maize from donor agencies and countries should not be the priority as it is under Tinkhundla.

6. Right to organise and belong to political parties.

* This is an unalienable right, which we have fought for with passion for many years now. We as a political party, and other parties in operation shall never be wished away. It is a complete waste of time to think Swaziland can effectively operate under Tinkhundla with the exclusion of political parties. The constitution must guarantee the free existence and operation of political parties under a multiparty democracy.

7. Executive powers to be vested in the people through the constitution.

We are where we are because of the selfless sacrifice that the People of Swaziland under the leadership of PUDEMO made. This hard fact can never be taken away from our history as a nation, and we salute our comrades, both fallen and alive for their heroic struggle and selfless sacrifice for the people to be free from 253 years (1750 - 2004) of royal bondage.

11.0 The Swazi family's iron rule and reforms - does it meet the Commonwealth Harare declaration?

It is clear that such "reforms" are recipe for disaster in this tiny country called Swaziland. These "reforms" are only meant to prolong the oppression of our people, and can never be in the spirit of International protocols on politics, defence and security co-operation;

We know that the Swazi must fight for his freedom. However, the commonwealth must assist us as per its declarations and protocols, which Swaziland is a party to. The commonwealth must assist both the oppressor and the oppressed, as the oppressor needs as much help as the people who are oppressed. Any human being who oppresses another without regard for how that person feels is just as oppressed as the person he is oppressing. These words were true during the Afro-American fight for freedom as they are today. King Mswati III needs help. Whilst the people of the world read about our suffering, we experience it every minute of four lives.

To the International Community in general and the Commonwealth in particular, we once again reiterate what we have been saying all the years;

1.0 Help us resolve this crisis brought about by the Monarch and the Tinkhundla system of government by helping us avoid going into a civil war like the many countries of our continent, Africa.

Help us by;

1.1 Expelling Swaziland from such international bodies like the Commonwealth, African Union, and SADDC.

1.2 Exclude Swaziland from AGOA, and GSP facilities

1.3 Impose travelling ban on the King, his children, Swazi National Council, Prime Minister, cabinet Ministers and senior government officers.

1.4 Stop funding this government as it uses the money to buy arms in order to repress the population. In recent months there has been an increase of arms bought by the regime.

1.5 Support financially and otherwise the voices of resistance led by PUDEMO and the progressive forces. 1.6 Support the judges of Swaziland for their bravery under the onslaught from the regime.

Finally, on behalf of our people we are indebted to His Excellency the President of Mozambique Mr Joachim Chissano. His message of hope in April 2002 when he told King Mswati that time for democracy has come to the region and Swaziland is no exception. We felt our brothers in SADC did not forget us. We call the other leaders of the Commonwealth to take a leaf and for God's sake say something. Who knows, may be their voice will be heard?

God Bless Africa!!

Ignatius Bonginkosi Dlamini Secretary General

to: The Secretariat; Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
B117, First floor, Savodya Enclave
New Delhi 110017, India
E-mail:chrn@humanrightsinitiave.org
Tel: (91-11) 26850523; fax: (91-11) 2686 4688

 

Google
WWW http://www.counterpunch.org