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Today's
Stories
April 10 / 12, 2004
Tariq Ali
Iraqi
Resistance: a New Phase
April 9, 2004
Robert Fisk
This
War's Simple Truth: Iraqis Do Not Want Us
John L. Hess
The Non-Confessions
of a Warrior Princess: Condi on the Stand
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Condoleezza's Condescensions
Christopher Brauchli
Holes in the Sky: Bush's Crazed Missile Defense Plan
Don Santina
Forget the Alamo!: Glorifying the Fight for Slavery in Texas
William S. Lind
The 4G Warfare Seminar, Cont.
Bill Christison
9/11
Commission is Bush's New Lapdog
Website of the Day
What We've Done to Fallujah
April 8, 2004
Wayne Madsen
Rice
(and the Record) Proves It: Bush Knew, But Failed to Act
Kurt Nimmo
Will
Bush Flatten Fallajuh?
Patrick Cockburn
Guided
Missile; Misguided War
Laura Flanders
Steamed
Rice
Larry Everest
What Condi Rice is Hiding
Adam Federman
Sacred Capitalism Hits Russia
M. Junaid Alam
The Iraqi Intifada Begins
Norman Solomon
The Quest for a Monopoly on Violence
Douglas Valentine
Echoes
of Vietnam: Phoenix, Assassination and Blowback in Iraq
Website of the Day
Xispas: Chicano Art, Culture and Politics
April 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Those
Pulitzers!
Sen. Robert Byrd
Deeper
into the Mouth of Hell: We Must Find the Exit from Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Tet
in Iraq: Closer to the Cosmic Disaster?
Patrick Cockburn
Battles
Across Iraq: US Death Toll Mounts
Kathy Kelly
Pacification: Worth the Price?
Sonali Kolhatkar
What Are You Doing About Afghanistan?
Rahul Mahajan
Report from Baghdad: Opening the Gates of Hell
Robert Fisk
US Airlifts Saddam to Qatar
Mike Whitney
America Out of Iraq, Now!
Sam Hamod
Bush, Pandora's Box and the Tiger
April 6, 2004
C.G. Estabrook
Mercenaries
and Occupiers
William Blum
The Anti-Empire
Report: the Israel Lobby
Col. Dan Smith
The
Language of Disbelief: 1.3 Billion Still Live in War Zones
Dr. Bulent Gokay
The Coming Islamic Republic of Iraq?
Lynn Landes
Faking Democracy: Americans Don't Vote; Machines Do
Sheila Samples
What Would Royko Write?
Jason Leopold
Condi's Blind Spot: Rice Never Mentioned al-Qaeda
Mickey Z.
A Reality Show with No End in Sight
Robert Fisk
Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy
April 5, 2004
John Farrell
Lessons
from El Salvador and Iraq
Robert Fisk
Bloodbath
a Bad Omen for Bush
Gary Leupp
Shiites Say No: Another "Nightmare
Scenario"
April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B. Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
April 2, 2004
Dave Lindorff
Barbaric
Relativism: the Press and Fallujah
Kurt Nimmo
Wherever
Bush Goes, Osama is Bound to Follow
Emma Miller
The
Role of the West in the Rwandan Genocide
Dr. Susan Block
Same
Sex Marriages: Just Say "No" to Prohibition
Norman Solomon
Media Strategy Memo for George & Dick
Sacha Guney
The Meaning of the Elections in Turkey
Christopher Brauchli
The
Disturbing Case of Cpt. Yee
Website of the Day
Mercenaries, Inc.
April 1, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Dying in Vain in Iraq
Harry Browne
No Smoke, Plenty of Fire: Ireland's Pubs Go Smokefree
Chris Floyd
Towel Boy: Bush Hits Workers with Chemical Weapons
Nicole Colson
Inside America's Concentration Camp: Tortured at Guantanamo
Charles Arthur
Haiti's Army Cracks Down on Workers
Laura Flanders
Elaine
Chao: a First Daughter for the First Son
March 31, 2004
M. Junaid Alam
Israel:
Suicide Nation?
John L. Hess
Condi
Under Oath: But What About the NYTs Reporters?
Fernando Suarez del Solar
A Year
Since My Son's Death in Iraq
Sofia Perez
Spain's
U-Turn on Iraq is Real Democracy in Action
David Vest
Stick 'Em Up: Put Cheney and Bush Under Oath
Tanya Reinhart
As in Tiannamen Square: Justice and the Yassin Assassination
Mike Whitney
Time to Dump the Pledge
Donald Kaul
Martha Stewart's Lesson: Never Talk to the FBI
Milt Bearden
Mired in the Tracks of Alexander the Great
Marjorie Cohn
The Illegal
Coup in Haiti: How the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated US and
International Law
Website of the Day
New Pentagon Papers Dropped at DC Starbucks
March 30, 2004
William S. Lind
An Occurrence
in Pakistan: the Battle That Wasn't
Ron Jacobs
Assassinations, Hate Mail &
Justice
Mickey Z.
Tommy Boy Friedman Does "Imagine"
Neve Gordon
Strategic Motives of the Yassin Assassination
Mark Scaramella
The Founding Scam: Insider Trading is the American Way
John Chuckman
The Countessa of Empire: Condi
Rice's Idea of Democracy
Greg Moses
Live from Pasadena: Silhouettes of New Order
Rai O'Brien
What Kind of Democracy to Expect if the Opposition Takes Power
in Venezuela
Bill Christison
The
9/11 Commission: Dangerous Harbinger for the Future
Website of the Day
Ghost Town: Riding Through Chernobyl
March 29, 2004
John Maxwell
Crisis
in the Caribbean: a Miasma Foretold
J. Michael Springmann
Email
Spying & Attorney Client Privilege
Robert Fisk / Severin
Carrell
Coalition
of the Mercenaries
The Black Commentator
Haiti's Troika of Terror
Doug Giebel
Candide in the Wilderness:
How Bush Policy Was Made
David Krieger
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Bargain
Mike Whitney
Rejecting the Language of Terrorism
Richard Oxman
The Pitts: a 9/11 Burrow of an American
Family
Kim Scipes
The AFL-CIO in Venezuela: Deja Vu All Over Again
Michael Donnelly
End Game for Northwest Forests
Norman Solomon
The Media Politics of 9/11
Kathy Kelly
Last Lines Before Vanishing
Website of the Day
Swans: Can Money Buy Everything?
March 27 / 28, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Empire of the Locusts
Gary Leupp
The Yassin Assassination: Prelude to an Attack on Syria
William A. Cook
The Yassin Assassination: a Monstrous Insanity Blessed by the
US
Faheem Hussain
Some Thoughts on Waziristan: Once and Always a Colonial Army
Elaine Cassel
Is Playing Paintball Terrorism?
Larry Birns / Jessica
Leight
Disturbing Signals: Kerry and Latin America
John Ross
Bush Tells the World: "Drop Dead"
John Eskow
A Memo to Karl Rove from the Hollywood Caucus
Alan Maass
Who Are the Real Terrorists?
Dave Lindorff
Spineless of US Journalists
Joe Bageant
Howling in the Belly of the Confederacy
Dave Zirin
Reasonable Doubt: Why Barry Bonds is Not on Steroids
Craig Waggoner
Who Would Mel's Jesus Nuke?
The Kerry Quandry
Joel Wendland
Marxists
for Kerry
Josh Frank
Scary,
Scary John Kerry
Matt Vidal
Spoilers, Electability and the Poverty of American Democracy
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Hamod, Guthrie, Davies and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Say a Little Prayer
March 26, 2004
Christopher Brauchli
There's
a Chill Over the Country
Robert Fisk
The Man Who Knew Too Much: the Ordeal
of Mordechai Vanunu
Joe DeRaymond
Democracy in El Salvador? Think Again
Mike Whitney
Lessons on Apartheid from Ariel Sharon
Mickey Z.
Somalia and Iraq: Looking Back and Ahead
Chris Floyd
The Pentagon Archipelago
CounterPunch Photo Wire
Cheney's Close Shave?
John Breneman
Bush's Comic Bomb
Website of the Day
Dick
is a Killer
March 25, 2004
Lee Sustar
Who
is to Blame for Lost Jobs?
Standard Schaefer
An
Interview with Michael Hudson on Offshore Banking Centers
Roger Burbach
Lula vs. the IMF: Brazil Begins
to Throw Off the Austerity Planners
Jimmer Endres
Elections Without Politics: The Military Budget Is Not an "Issue"
Larry Tuttle
Acting in Your Name: Identity Theft and Public Interest Groups
Toni Solo
Misreporting Venezuela
Dan Bacher
A Memorial Wall for Iraq War's Dead and Wounded
Saul Landau
Is
Venezuela Next?
Website of the Day
The Spiral Railway
March 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
General
Musharraf's IOU
Richard Oxman
Shakespeare
for Kerry
William Lind
The Beginning
of Phase Three: 4G Warfare Hits Iraq
Rep. Ron Paul
Iraq One Year Later
Michael Dempsey
Killing Rachel Corrie Again
Alan Farago
The Bad Math of Mercury: Bush's War on the Unborn
Benjamin Dangl
and April Howard
Media
in Cuba
John L. Hess
No Lie Left Behind: Judy Miller Does Dick Clarke
Greg Weiher
Two Cheers for Dems: "We're Not as Bad as George"
Eva Golinger
An Open Letter to John Kerry on Venezuela
Grayson Childs
Where's Cynthia McKinney?
Steve Niva
Israel's Assassinations will Only
Fuel More Suicide Bombings
Website of the Day
The Bushiad and the Idiossey
March 23, 2004
Phillip Cryan
The
Drug War's Next Casualty: Colombia's National Parks
Ron Jacobs
They Shoot Men in Wheelchairs, Too?
Dave Lindorff
A Spanish Parallel: Scare Tactics and Elections
Mike Whitney
Richard Clarke and Teflon George
Brian McKinlay
Bush's Lil' Buddy in Trouble: John Howard Starts to Wobble
JG
Driving Mr. Koon: "Jim Crow Lives Next Door"
Phyllis Pollack
Gettin' Jigga with Metallica: the Battle Over the Double Black
CD
Ahmed Bouzid
Sharon's One-Way Track
Sean Carter
The G-Word Goes to Court: One Nation Under [Your Logo Here]
M. Shahid Alam
World's Greatest Country: Do the Facts Lie
March 22, 2004
Mazin Qumsiyeh
On Extrajudicial
Executions
Uri Avnery
The
Assassination of Sheikh Yassin is Worse Than a Crime
Gilad Atzmon
Sharon's Rampage
Mike Whitney
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the Story of Captain James Yee
Jason Leopold
Firm With Ties to Cheney Faces Criminal Indictment in Cal Energy
Scam
Greg Moses
Stop
Walling and Stalling: a Report from Houston's Peace March
Phil Gasper
San Francisco: 25,000 March for an End to the Occupation
Lenni Brenner
Report
from NYC: Old and Young Parade for Peace
Julian Borger
The Clarke Revelations
Steve Perry
Karl Rove's Moment
Website of the Day
Enviros Against War
March 20 / 21, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Gay
Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path
Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne
Do?
Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act
Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"
William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall
Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism
Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War
John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon
Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man
Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity
Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss
Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?
Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism
Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun
Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!
Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill
Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet
Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility
Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis
Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election
March 19, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Zapatero
to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops are Coming Home
Ann Harrison
So
Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights?
William MacDougall
Fortress Britain's War on "Economic Migrants"
Greg Moses
Sold American: Cowboy Nation Gets Ready to Vote
Cynthia McKinney
Haiti and the Impotence of Black America: Roll Back This Coup,
Mr. Bush
Norman Solomon
Spinning the Past; Threatening the Future
John L. Hess
"Missing" Evidence and the NYTs
Vicente Navarro
The
End of Aznar, Bush's Best Friend
Website of the War
Naming the Dead
March 18, 2004
Gila Svirsky
Rachel
Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency
Christopher Brauchli
Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million
from Saddam
William Kulin
Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing
Mike Whitney
Resistance: a Moral Imperative
Rep. Ron Paul
Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment
Josh Frank
The Nader Question
Jack Random
They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy
Greg Bates
What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey
Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes
Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain
Gary Leupp
The
Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost
Website of the Day
Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key
March 17, 2004
Marjorie Cohn
Spain, the EU and the US: War on
Terror or Civil Liberties?
David MacMichael
Untruth
and Consequences
Michael Donnelly
Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer
Tom Stephens
"Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware
Wayne Madsen
Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out
Karyn Strickler
Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections
Peter Linebaugh
Bush:
Blanc Blanc
March 16, 2004
Lenni Brenner
James
Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights
Scott Boehm
Madrid
Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days
Alexander Lynch
From Franco to Aznar: the History
Behind the Spanish Elections
Sam Hamod and Alfredo
Reyes
The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way:
Executing David Clayton Hill
Mike Whitney
The Case for a Nuclear Iran
Robert Fisk
The Bloody Price of the "War
on Terror"
Bill Christison
The
Aftershocks from Madrid
CounterPunch Photo Wire
The Passion of St. Teresa
Website of the Day
Join the War on Art!
March 15, 2004
Harry Browne
Terror Nothing New to Europe
Mike Whitney
Justice
Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism
Lidice Valenzuela
Haiti: a Coup without Consultation
Greg Moses
Lessons
from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs
Mickey Z.
Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health
Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL
in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer
CounterPunch Wire
Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!
March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
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
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Weekend
Edition
April 9 / 11, 2004
An Interview with
Lee Evans
Bringing
the Black Freedom Struggle into Sports
By DAVE ZIRIN
Lee Evans set a World Record in the 400 meters
at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. He has since coached world-class
track teams around the world, from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia and
currently is the track and cross-country coach at South Alabama
University. Yet Evans is perhaps best known for being a founding
member of OPHR, the Olympic Project for Human Rights. OPHR attempted
to organize a boycott by African-American athletes of the '68
Olympics to protest racism and oppression both at home and abroad.
This protest was punctuated with Tommy Smith and John Carlos's
famous raised fist salute after finishing first and third in
the 200 meters.
Dave Zirin: Please speak about the
circumstances in which you grew up.
Lee Evans: Well, both of my parents were
from Louisiana and they left by train in 1946 to California.
They were part of the migration by African Americans right after
the war. My dad was looking for work having been a sharecropper
in Louisiana. I was born in February 1947 in Madera, California.
My dad got work on construction sites. He labored building the
big dams in California. On some of the big projects, I'd remember
he'd be gone for weeks at a time. I was the middle child. It
was seven of us total. I had two older brothers and an older
sister and two younger brothers and a younger sister, so I was
right in the middle. My mother used to take us out to the fields
to help pick whatever was ready to be harvested. I grew up picking
cotton and cutting grapes, and we did that from sun up to sun
down. That's how I always thought I got my special endurance.
Tommie Smith, of course, grew up in similar circumstances, just
twenty miles from me. Tommie likes to tell people we met in the
grape patch. We did farm labor work, while my dad did cement
work. After I grew up we moved to Fresno, California, which is
just twenty miles from Madera. Eventually my mother's parents
also came to California but not my dads parents. He had his mother,
brothers and sisters in the south, and we grew up never meeting
them. We used to say to my dad, 'lets go visit your family in
Louisiana' and he wouldn't go down there. He said, 'They got
Jim Crow down there. I don't want to go back down there.' I had
no idea what Jim Crow meant. That's how young I was. I didn't
realize what it was until high school. I came across the word
Jim Crow in a history book and then I found out it was segregation.
So my dad didn't go back South until I was a sophomore in college.
DZ: What began to radicalize you in
the 1960's?
LE: In 1966 I was number one in the world
in the 400 meters as a freshman in college. I went to London
for a meet and I met these African people and they said we're
going to a meeting tonight, do you want to come with us? I said
sure. So they came and got me at the hotel and it was a South
African resistance meeting. They said a prayer for the brothers
who had fallen during the week and I didn't even know there was
a war going on down there. I met Dennis Brutus there and Sam
Ramsamy, who is now president of the South African Olympic Committee.
So I met these guys and I really became aware. But I didn't speak
out until the fall of 1967 when no one would rent us housing
close to the university. At that time the only black males on
the campus were athletes: basketball, football, or track. Harry
Edwards was working on his doctorate and he was around. He got
wind about our complaints and called a meeting. This is how it
started. We started the Olympic Project for Human Rights. And
all this came out of us not finding housing close enough to the
university.
DZ: What was the Olympic Project for
Human Rights?
LE: The Olympic Project for Human Rights
was a vehicle for a proposed boycott by African-American athletes
of the 1968 Olympic games. We were very unhappy with the way
things were run in our sport. We had ten demands. One of them
simply was that we could have a black coach for the team.
DZ: Another was about restoring Muhammad
Ali's title. Why was that so important?
LE: He was being beaten down by the system
the way we felt beaten down all the time so all of us could identify
with him.
DZ: What's it about Ali that was so
threatening, you think, to the powers that be?
LE: His independence and the way he ran
his mouth. In those days the black Muslims said that white people
were devils and all that stuff so you know that scared white
people to death. Also Malcolm X recruited Muhammad Ali to Islam
and they were after Malcolm at this time.
DZ: The boycott didn't take hold among
the athletes. Was that a successful strategy in retrospect to
pursue?
LE: Yes. Harry was media savvy. He said
all year that we were going to take a vote at the Olympic trials
and all year there was commentary in all the newspapers. Some
editors made fools of themselves. They would write, 'Look at
these narrow, stupid black guys. They don't know what they're
doing'. They just said things that exposed themselves to who
they really were. The athletes of course voted down the boycott.
I was hoping it was going to be voted down because I wanted to
run in the Olympics. I knew that this would happen, that the
proposal was a way for us to get leverage. Tom and I had talked
about it and I said let's say we're going to boycott so we can
get some things done but we all knew that we were going to run
in Mexico. Push comes to shove we were going to be there.
DZ: Can you speak about what was accomplished
by the Olympic Project for Human Rights?
LE: The Olympic Project for Human Rights
got a lot of things accomplished that continues today. We brought
a lot of awareness to a lot of people. First of all, the fact
that some black university students were standing up to the world.
Sports columnists hated us. They just wrote horrible stuff about
Tommy and myself and so this made the black community gather
themselves on our side.
DZ: 1936 gold medallist and track
legend Jesse Owens was asked by Avery Brundage [the head of the
US Olympic Committee] to meet with you in Mexico City. What was
his take on your desire to use the Olympics as a platform to
raise grievances?
LE: Jesse was confused as far as I'm
concerned. The USOC dogged him and he knew they dogged him.
DZ: What do you mean they dogged him?
LE: Treating him badly after his exploits
in the Olympic games, when he ran [winning four gold medals in
Berlin.]. He came back, didn't have a job, racing horses for
money, We were really annoyed with him because he knew what we
were going through yet he pretended that it didn't exist and
that just blew our mind when he called a meeting with us in Mexico
City. I thought he called this meeting because Avery Brundage
sent him there. Jesse Owens was sitting on the fifty-yard line
with all the important people of the world, the royalties, the
Avery Brundages. They have a special section where they sit in
the games right at the fifty-yard line and Jesse, that's where
he was sitting. He thought he was one of them. He had forgot
that he was once an athlete struggling like we were. So he came
and talked to us like he was Avery Brundage or the King of England
or somebody and really talking stupid to us and we just shouted
him out of the room. And then out of the blue he said, "You
know wearing those long black socks [running socks that were
an act of identification with the Black Freedom Struggle] are
going to cut off the circulation in your legs." That's what
he told us. We said this guy is really out of his mind! This
is when we ran him out of there. I still admire him to this day,
that's why I say he was confused coming to talk to us like that
because we knew that he was being victimized. He was a victim
and we felt sorry for him actually.
DZ: What was your initial reaction
in your heart when you saw Tommy Smith and John Carlos raise
their black-gloved fists on the medal stand?
LE: I said that's a good idea, I was
also thinking about what Avery Brundage would do to them. Brundage
was asked about the black athletes--about what would he do if
we protested at the games. He said, 'We would send those boys
right home. They should be lucky we allow them to be on the team.
He never should have said that because we started having meetings
again after that and we said we are going to have a protest at
the Olympic games. We never could come to a uniform protest.
There was always a disagreement, 'I can't wear black socks,'
'I can't wear black on black,' 'I can't do this, I can't do that.'
We finally agreed that if you make it to the victory stand get
together with another black guy you're with and do the same thing.
We were going to protest by event, in other words. In the 400
meters, we had decided we were going to wear black berets, that's
what we did. Tommy on the other hand had gloves in his bag because
we thought Avery Brundage presented the gold medals to everybody.
So I told Tommy, 'I don't want to shake Avery Brundage's hand.
Lets get some black gloves and stick them in our pants and before
Avery Brundage shakes our hand, we'll put the black glove on
and wait until he has a heart attack. So I had two black gloves
in my bag also. But as we found out later, Avery Brundage didn't
give the gold medal out to everybody and they kind of shifted
around with the different dignitaries. But Tommy, when he was
waiting to go outside to run, gave one of the gloves to Carlos.
He took the other glove and they did their thing and I didn't
see anything wrong with it.
DZ: What was your reaction when you
heard that they were stripped of their medals and sent home?
I read reports of you being very, very upset.
LE: Oh yeah I was because they were my
teammates. I was very distraught. I wanted to go home. I said
I wasn't going to run. But Tommy and John--they came to me and
said I better run and I better win. They came to my room and
that freed my mind up to go run because I was confused, but when
they told me that I should run that really freed me up.
DZ: You mentioned that you wore a
black beret on the stand?
LE: That was our protest. After what
Tommy and John did, what anybody else did was like little or
nothing.
DZ: When the media asked you why you
wore a black beret, you said sarcastically that it was because
it was raining.
LE: Yeah but they knew why. We knew that
the black beret was a symbol of the Black Panther Party.
DZ: What did you think of the Black
Panthers at the time?
LE: I thought they were pretty brave
guys but I wouldn't do what they were doing. They were having
a shoot out with the police almost every day. So my job [protesting
at the Olympics] was easy. This is one of the things I learned
from Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. Everybody can play a part
but everyone has to do something. I used to say to guys I was
trying to get to come to meetings. I said, 'it's going to be
easy for us. We're just going to be the Olympic games. I know
some guys in Oakland shooting out with the police. So what we're
doing is nothing compared to those guys. We're not putting our
life on the line.' But as it turned out we did put our lives
on the line because I had maybe 20 death threats on my life in
Mexico City. You have mailboxes in the Olympics. I had the KKK,
the NRA, saying 'Yeah we're going to shoot you niggers.' They
even tell you what time they're going to shoot you.
DZ: What kind of reaction did you
get?
LE: I had a tough time too because the
blacks thought that I didn't do enough and the whites were just
mad. I got it from both sides. The black people thought I should
have done nothing less than dynamite the victory stand. That's
the only thing that would have satisfied them because after Tommy
and John, what else could I do?
DZ: You've done some unbelievably
amazing things since those days in '68. Can you just say something
about what you've been doing since then in terms of coaching
in Nigeria and Qatar and Saudi Arabia?
LE: I remember as soon as I learned about
why I was black and why I was in this classroom in Fresno, California
as a youngster--that my heritage and my people were ex-slaves
and they came from Africa. As soon as I learned about what Jim
Crow meant and I found out that my ancestors were Africans, I
wanted to go back to Africa. So that's what I did. I went back
to Africa in 1975 and I worked there for about twenty years and
I was fortunate to coach three Olympic medal winners on Nigeria's
team.
DZ: You also coached in Qatar and
Saudi Arabia?
LE: Yes, I was an international coach
and when I turned 50, I told my wife, we have to go back to the
U.S. because I don't have any retirement. So I'm in the U.S.
trying to get some retirement and after I get some retirement
that means I have to stay here ten years, I'm going to go back
to Africa and continue my work over there.
DZ: And now you're a coach at South
Alabama.
LE: Yea, I've got seven more years.
DZ: Because you have that experience
in Africa and in the Middle East, I want to ask you, what do
you think about Bush's policies over there, the war on terrorism?
LE: I don't agree with the war in Iraq.
You know, I've been to all those places and Iraq never had any
designs on the U.S., I can tell you that right now and I think
that all these right wing Republicans know that. They just want
a war so they can do their money-making thing. That's the only
reason I can think of. I agree with going after him but what
they're doing in Iraq, and to the Arabs is stupid. That's why
the Arab countries are against it because they knew that Iraq
was no threat to the U.S. and Saddam wasn't either. They have
no weapons of mass destruction.
DZ: Last question: you guys brought
the black freedom struggle into sports. Do you think that needs
to happen again?
LE: Yeah, these guys should be aware,
but they aren't unfortunately. It's more about money for them.
I think money is polluting their mind. They're not conscious
of what's going on, they don't care about other people. That
is going to have to change if we are to move forward.
Dave Zirin
is the News Editor of the Prince George's Post in Prince George's
County Maryland. He can be reached at editor@pgpost.com.
His sports writing can be read at www.edgeofsports.com.
Weekend
Edition Features for April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B. Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
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