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Cockburn / St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War Now Available! Today's Stories June 18, 2004 Norm Dixon How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical Weapons June 16, 2004 Lenni Brenner A Question for Kerry Supporters Davey D Hip Hop Reflections on Reagan Daniel Wolff Why Iraqi Detainees Should Sue Michael Moore Bruce Jackson Harry Levin and the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake Patrick Cockburn Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power Facilities Gary Handschumacher Mourn Ben Linder, Not His Killer: Reagan's Death Squads JG Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop Mario Benedetti Obituary with Cheers Vicente Navarro Meet the New Head of the IMF: Who is Rodrigo Rato? Website of the Day Iraqi Oil Revenue Watch   June 15, 2004 Harry Browne Ireland Adds a Brick to Fortress Europe Neve Gordon The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited David Palmer Richard Armitage, Abu Ghraib and CACI John Blair Lovelock's Misguided Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global Warming Dave Lindorff God Wins in TKO Bill Quigley Blood-Pouring Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step In Patrick Cockburn Carbombs and Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast John Chuckman John Kerry, Political Placebo   June 14, 2004 John Stanton / Wayne Madsen Torture, Inc: Oliver North Joins the Party Kathy Kelly Requiems: What Happens When Compassion Dies? Bruce Jackson Bush Gets Testy About Torture Lee Sustar Strikers Defy Visteon's Company Thugs Kurt Nimmo The Desperate Censors: the Republican Plot to Kill Farhenheit 9/11 Jim Davis Hard Right Nativism Eliot Katz Death and War Uri Avnery The Nightmare Comes True Website of the Day Instruments of Statecraft June 12 / 13, 2004 Peter Linebaugh Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto and Runnymede Team CounterPunch CP's Favorite Albums Jeffrey St. Clair Troy, Now and Then Gary Leupp Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq? Brian Cloughley US Military in Crisis Antonio Ponvert, III Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection Ben Tripp The Polls Get Stupider Joe Bageant Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash" Ron Jacobs The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency Forrest Hylton Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés Christopher Brauchli Federal Bureau of Errors Kurt Nimmo Going After Qaddafi, Again Wayne Madsen Israel's Slap at Reagan Anthony Loewenstein Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World Michael Donnelly A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous Greg Moses Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah? Susan Davis Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban Joseph Ramsey Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground Niranjan Ramakrishnan The 18th Brumaire in the 21st Century Wayne Saunders The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup Poets' Basement Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert Website of the Weekend Insurgent Music   June 11, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Reagan in Truth and Fiction Ron Jacobs Ray Charles' Legacy of Spirit Chris Floyd Funeral Games Steven Sherman How Reagan Destroyed the Democrats and Paved the Way for Clinton Mokhiber / Weissman Remembering Reagan Norman Solomon Media's Mourning in America Paul Alexander The Kerry Fantasies of Chalmers Johnson CounterPunch Wire The Terror Hour: Miami TV Station Invites Commandoes to Talk About Planned Attacks on Cuba       June 10, 2004 Noam Chomsky The Apotheosis of Reagan : Divinity Through Marketing Gary Leupp Bush, the Religious Scholar Patrick Cockburn The Iraqi Street Has Spoken: New Govt. Made Up of CIA Pawns Saul Landau Force-Feeding Lies About Free Trade Scott Evans Settling for the System: How Punkvoter.com Became Just Another Tool of the Democrats Jacob Levich John Kerry's World of Hurt: Senator Supports Beam Weapons Zeynep Toufe Reagan, Neo-Cons and the "Intelligence Failures" Nico Pitney Reform at Wal-Mart? Dave Zirin Son of a Reagan: What a Sporty 6-Year Old Saw at the Revolution Jack McCarthy Where Were You When Reagan Croaked? Gary Corseri Nouns That Should be Acronyms David Price Reagan and the Black Budget Website of the Day Inequality by the Numbers   June 9, 2004 Mustafa Barghouthi Israel's Common Use of Torture Must be Exposed Mike Whitney Alan Dershowitz, Still Defending Torture John Chuckman Why the CIA will Always be a Costly Flop Jim Tarbell / Roger Burbach Bush's Democratic Charade in Iraq Dave Lindorff Put Reagan on the $3 Bill Miguel D'Escoto Reagan was the Butcher of My People Becky Burgwin The Betrayal of Smarty Jones: Flogging a Natural Born Hero Patrick Cockburn The Rich Have Been Warned to Leave Baghdad   June 8, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair The Nature of Ronald Reagan: Will the Earth Accept His Corpse? Dave Lindorff The March on Rumsfeld's House: Is the US Anti-War Movement Running Out of Steam? Phillip Cryan Torture, Bombings & the Press in Colombia Mark Zepezauer Getting Reagan Wrong Mickey Z. Reagan, Radicals and Repetitive Reactions John L. Hess Reagan and Bush in Normandy Alex Dawoody Reagan and Saddam: the Unholy Alliance Christopher Fons Reagan in a Word: Mean Niranjan Ramakrishnan Some Tenets are More Important Than Others Ahmed Bouzid Nothing New Under the Israeli Sun Michael Leon Bush the Narcissist   June 7, 2004 Jason Leopold New Enron Docs Show Lay and Skilling Knew of California Trading Schemes Patrick Cockburn The Baghdad Bombings: the Pattern of Attacks is Changing Dennis Hans From Afghanistan to El Salvador: Reagan's Dark Global Legacy Tracy McLellan Nader at the National Press Club: a Glimpse at a Different Kind of Politics Bill Blum The Myth of the Gipper: Reagan Didn't End the Cold War Ben Tripp What I Owe Reagan: the Brylcreemed Bullshitter Susan Davis Reagan, In a Nutshell Phil Gasper Reagan: Goodbye and Good Riddance Website of the Day A Child's ABCs of Terrorism   June 5 / 6, 2004 C. Douglas Lummis Toward a Universal Declaration of Human Wrongs Saul Landau Five Cubans in Prison, Victims of Bush's Obsession Dave Lindorff John Walker Lindh, Revisited Brian Cloughley Apologies, Please, From Those Who Got It Wrong Rich Gibson The Grenada 17: the Last Prisoners of the Cold War are Black Elaine Cassel A Sorry FBI Cathrin Schütz On the Ruins of Yugoslavia Ben Tripp Call Me, Mr. Cassandra Kurt Nimmo The Madness of King George Ron Jacobs They Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Unless We Make It So) Laura Flanders The Lynne Cheney Show? Lenni Brenner Renaissance Noir: Caravaggio at the Met Abigail Jones Whatever Happened to Lori Berenson, President Toledo's Trophy Prisoner? Mark Latham Nothing Bush Said Has Changed Our Hopes Gerry Adams I Was Photographed While Tortured, Too Toni Solo Venezuela 2004, Nicaragua's Contra War Reprised Derek Seidman Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old M. Junaid Alam Torture is Just the Symptom Matt Siegfried An American Way of War Dave Zirin The Politics of Charles Barkley Poets' Basement Albert, Krieger, St. Clair Website of the Weekend Overnight Sensations     June 4, 2004 Chris Floyd Masked and Anonymous: Inside America's Animal House Cornwell / Penketh Exit Tenet: the Fall of a Fall Guy Wayne Madsen Apprehension & Frustation: Neo-Cons on the Brink Greg Moses Agitating for Workers' Rights in Iraq Yitzak Laor Before Rafah Ghali Hassan Ambassador to Death Squads: Who is Negroponte? Jane Stillwater God, the Rapture and Vera Casey CounterPunch Wire D-Day Reconsidered: Was It Really Worth the Carnage? John Borowski Woo-Wooism v. Meteorites: Why the Dems Are No Match for Bush Mike Griffin Caterpillar's Assault on the UAW Alexander Cockburn Has Bush Gone Over the Edge? Website of the Day Aquae Urbis Romae: Water and Empire     June 3, 2004 Ron Jacobs Iran's Nuclear Dilemma Dr. Susan Block America in tha Hood Michael Donnelly The Bully and the Brahmin John Chuckman Insanity in America: US Ranks Number One in the Deranged Christopher Brauchli The Return of Cardinal Law: Rome on $12,000 a Month Samia Nassar Melki Caravaggio in Iraq Mike Whitney Subverting Justice: Pre-Trial Ruminations in the Padilla Case Diane Rejman Memorial Day Isn't Just About the Dead Scott Morris "WMDs" in Cuba Paul de Rooij Palestinian Misery in Perspective     June 2, 2004 Brian Cloughley The Liars are Winning Ray McGovern How Far Would They Go? Beware "Credible Intelligence" Josh Frank The Anybody But Bush Offensive Mike Whitney The Afghanistan Failure: Bush's Warlord Patriots Jackie Corr Iraq and Ireland: Three Tales from Butte, Montana Robert Jensen The US Lost the Iraq War...and It's a Good Thing, Too Alexander Cockburn "Bye, Bye Boonville!"   June 1, 2004 Gary Leupp Instant Karma: Bush's Sins Catch Up with Him William A. Cook Manufacturers of Fear and Loathing in Rafah Dave Lindorff Will the Times Clean House? Kevin Zeese Inside the Kerry / Nader Meeting: Did the Kerry Campaign Lie About What Was Discussed? Jacob Levich Coming Soon: Return of the Draft, a Bipartisan Production Kathy Kelly Voices in the Wilderness v. the US Government Website of the Day Remind Us     May 29 / 31, 2004 Lee Ballinger / Dave Marsh The Origins of Memorial Day Janine Pommy Vega Memo for Memorial Day Mike Ferner On Their Way to Abu Ghraib Alfred W. McCoy The Cruel Shadow: the Long History of CIA Torture Research Douglas Valentine An Open Letter to the NYT: Questions, Questions, Questions Chris White First to Fight Culture: a Former Marine on the Marine Motto Bruce Anderson The Awful Injustice to Tai Abreu David Vest Get Ready for Kerry's War: the 100 Year Quagmire Saul Landau Torture: the Logical Outcome of Bush's War for Democracy? Kurt Nimmo Abu Hamza al-Mazri, Made in the USA Elaine Cassel The Secrets of Surveillance: Ashcroft, Snoops, and Gag Orders Will Potter The New War on "Terror": Protest the Torture of Chimps; Get Arrested as a "Terrorist" Ben Tripp They Fiddled While Nero Got the Matches Dr. Susan Block Save Abu Ghraib! Kia Kojouri Nukes, the US, Israel and Iran: an Interview with Sasan Fayazmanesh Mickey Z D-Day: 60 Years is Enough! Jon Brown Correcting the Correction at the Times Patrick B. Barr Pre-emptive War Insurance Stephen Gowans Bad Apples in a Bad Barrel Tom Gorman Gore on Bush in Iraq: the Approach May be Exotic, But It's Hardly New Dave Zirin Fighting for Boxers' Rights: an Interview with Eddie Mustafa Muhammad Gregory Weiher Bush to Arabs: "Go Get Yourself Some Democracy" Erik Cummings Jung Meets Bush Poets' Basement Davies, Ford, Kearney, McLellan and Albert     May 28, 2004 Rafael Rodriguez Cruz Curtain of Silence on the Cuban 5 Greg Moses Bush's Misleading Speech on Abu Ghraib Dave Lindorff Dissing Independent Contractors: Those Who Do the Dirty Work Norman Solomon Leaping for Lies at the Times Rep. Bill Delahunt Bush's Cruel New Rules on Cuba Paul McGeough Chalabi Baba and the 40 Thieves Niranjan Ramakrishnan India and Nehru: 40 Years After Alexander Cockburn NYTs: "Maybe We Did Screw Up...a Little"     May 27, 2004 Amy Goodman / David Goodman Fatal Errors: the Lies of Our Times Douglas Valentine Ragging the Dogs of War at the NYTs John L. Hess The Times Confesses...Kind Of Stew Albert Dellinger, the Wrestling Pacifist Dave Dellinger a 1993 Interview Christopher Brauchli Tax Breaks for Scions...to Hell with Poor Kids Rampton / Stauber Banana Republicans: Pumping Irony     May 26, 2004 Ron Jacobs Goodbye, David Dellinger: He Was a Friend of Ours Robert Fisk The Things Bush Didn't Say in His Speech Zeynep Toufe New Draft UN Resolution Permits Perpetual Occupation Conn Hallinan Bush and Sharon: the Oil Connection Tom Stephens 2 + 2 is On My Mind: More Morons and War Crimes Derek Medley Protesting Gov. Bigot CounterPunch Wire FBI Abducts Artist; Seizes Art Andrew Cockburn The Trail to Tehran     May 25, 2004 Joe Bageant The Covert Kingdom: On Earth as It is in Texas Col. Dan Smith A Question of Human Dignity Gary Handschumacher Visiting Lori Berenson: Time to Bring Her Home Toni Solo A Developing War in the Andes Marc Estrin September Song: Disturbing Questions About 9/11 Stephen Banko, III A Vietnam Vet on "Supporting the Troops" Website of the Day The Wizard of Whimsy May 24, 2004 Ron Jacobs Dan Senor is Safe! Kurt Nimmo Dirty Tricks & TortureGate: the Missing Taguba Pages Sam Hamod Gen. Zinni: "Wrong War, Wrong Place, Wrong Time" Mike Whitney The Wedding was a Bomb Stan Goff Open Season on MAMs Image of the Day A Photo from Abu Ghraib We Didn't See on the Front Page of the NYTs     May 22 / 23, 2004 Paul de Rooij Colin Powell, a Political Obituary Jeffrey St. Clair When War is Swell: Bush and the Carlyle Group Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Her Son Was Told He Wouldn't See Combat; Now He's Dead: an Interview with Sue Niederer Brian Cloughley America is Committing War Crimes in Iraq Saul Landau Democracy in Latin America: Great for Investors; Not So Good for People Brandy Baker Feminists Stand By Their Man: Abortion, Judges and Kerry Randall Robinson Bushwhacked in the Caribbean Uri Avnery The Rape of Rafah Ben Tripp Assume the Worst Bruce Anderson News from Ecotopia: the Truth About the Wine Business Josh Ruebner Why I Burned My Israeli Military Papers Peter Wolson, Ph. D. Exhibitionistic Revenge at Abu Ghraib Chloe Cockburn In Defense of "Troy": What Hector Could Teach Rummy Linda Burnham Sexual Domination in Uniform: an American Value Adrien Rain Burke War of the Necrophiliacs: Spc. Sabrina Harman and Her Corpse David Krieger Charting a New Course for US Nuclear Policy Ron Jacobs Turnaround Poets' Basement Ford, Albert & LaMorticella   May 21, 2004 Ray Close The Canards of the Apologists Christopher Brauchli "The Object of Torture is Torture" Amira Hass Darkness at Noon Jack McCarthy Camilo Mejia: Can the Son of a Sandinista Get a Fair Trial from the US Army? Bill Kauffman Nader v. Bush Omar Barghouti No More Tears for America Ghali Hassan Moral Failure of the "Free World" in Gaza Christopher Reed How the CIA Taught the Portuguese to Torture Website of the Day Eric Idle on the Bush Administration: Fuck You, So Very Much   May 20, 2004 Andrew Cockburn The Truth About Chalabi Kathy Kelly A Visit from the FBI Niranjan Ramakrishnan Brown and Bored of Education in India Tom Stephens & John Philo The War Crimes of Bush, Cheney & Co. Sam Bahour / Michael Dahan Genocide by Public Policy Robert Ovetz Ending the Race for the Last Turtle Billy Wilson The Most Important Thing I Learned at School This Year Website of the Day Rafah Today         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

June 17, 2004 Geneva Ignored What Iraqi Unionists are Trying to Teach America and Why We Can't Hear Them By GREG MOSES A comprehensive, nation-by-nation survey of worker's rights got a 170-word write up last week in the "World in Brief" section of the Washington Post. So we can't say that workers of the world were completely ignored. Neither can we say that the Post was unselective in its choice of detail. Of 129 labor activists killed around the world in 2003, 90 were killed in Columbia alone, suggesting that the vortex of narco-politics is a meatgrinder for workers' rights, too. Nor was the Post standing alone last week in its preoccupation with other issues. Like wallpaper, the press lavished coverage upon a week-long funeral for that former President who was so sincere about freedom for the people that he broke the legs of public-sector unionism. But last week, if you were eager to hear American journalists reporting from Geneva, where trade unions of the world were holding their most important annual gathering, in conjunction with the United Nations' International Labor Organization (ILO), then you were taught another sad but predictable lesson about things a corporate press does not do. On June 10, the Associated Press did write a 400-word summary of a 112-page global study on child labor that was released from the Geneva conference. "Sadly, many countries don't see domestic child labor as a problem," said author of the ILO study, June Kane. Of the ten million children affected, the AP spoke to none. As for activities of the Iraqi unionists at Geneva, the only accounts I found were written by the embattled unionists themselves. Abdullah Muhsin, the London-based voice for the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) reports a very interesting conversation between his delegation and Korean unionists. "The meeting focused on the presence of Korean troops in Iraq and the proposal for an additional 600 soldiers to go to Iraq to help with humanitarian needs for construction, and for medical aid," reports Muhsin. "The meeting also discussed the 30 June transfer of power to the Iraqis, the role of the UN and the proposed draft UN resolution on Iraq." "Both sides agreed," reports Mushin, "that the occupation of Iraq must now end, that the UN must take a leading role in the [future] of Iraq and that real power and sovereignty must be handed to the transitional Iraqi government established on 30 June 2004." Muhsin's report evades details of any conclusions that might have been reached during that conversation regarding the 600 additional Korean soldiers. Should they stay home? Should they come to Iraq only under UN supervision? An independent reporter might have pressed those questions. Muhsin drops quite a few names and gives an impression of widely nurtured contacts. The IFTU is emerging from war as a leading voice of labor in Iraq. In the opinion of Owen Tudor, a leading organizer of Trade Union Councils (TUC) in Europe, the IFTU is one of the labor groups in Iraq that enjoys "genuine links with workers in workplaces," and is, "more or less representative of ordinary workers." However, feisty opposition unionists in Iraq continue to question the credentials of Muhsin and IFTU. A Monday afternoon email (June 14) from Iraqi unionist Aso Jabbar relays an uncompromising statement by Falah Alwan, President of the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI). In the words of Alwan, "fascist traditions" are being continued in Iraq, because the provisional government is trying to designate one official union (Muhsin's IFTU), and because unions are also being discouraged (in fine Reagan fashion) from organizing public service employees. It is not yet clear how the "months old" unions of public sector employees will fare under the emerging Iraqi state. As Tudor explains in his brief review of history, public service unions had once thrived in Iraq before they were banned by Saddam Hussein in 1987 (the decade that began with Reagan's 1981 order to fire the striking air-traffic controllers). As for IFTU's status as the only union to be recognized by the emerging Iraqi state, Alwan's opposition union, FWCUI, claims more than 300 endorsers to its complaint, filed with the ILO, that the emerging government's arrangement with IFTU violates workers' basic rights to organize their own unions. So there is widespread agreement that the IFTU's relationship to the developing Iraqi state is not healthy for workers of the world. **On June 16, Jabbar provided via email a "final report" prepared by the Geneva delegation of the Campaign Against the Occupation and For Labour Rights in Iraq. According to the 4-page report, a coalition of labor delegates did on June 11 present a formal complaint to the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association. A follow-up hearing is scheduled for November. While trying not to take sides regarding which union would be best for the Iraqi workers to choose, the labor coalition did lodge a complaint against the Iraqi governing council's "Decree No. 16" that names the IFTU as the only state-approved union. "It is up to the Iraqi workers themselves to decide freely and without any external interference the paths and means it will deem necessary for defending the workers' interests in Iraq," says the labor coalition's final report. "We intend, moreover, to state most strongly that not one step can be made towards democracy if the workers' right to freedom to organize is not completely respected."** In a Friday column for the Nation, labor reporter David Bacon, who also serves as an editor at the USLAW website, makes it clear that anti-war unionists in the USA are not choosing favorites. Bacon treats IFTU as a legitimate union, even if USLAW agrees that the Iraqi state has no legitimate right to name IFTU as the sole representative of Iraqi workers. USLAW's fund drive promises to support both FWCUI and IFTU. In the "Arab world," it is widespread practice to name a single, state-designated union. If IFTU's offical status violates workers' rights to organize their own unions, so does every other state-approved union in the "Arab world." In Februrary, a coalition of Arab NGO's, headed by Hasan Barghouthi, announced an initiative to support more independence and democracy among trade unions in Arab nations. Barghouthi's organizational website at dwrc.org is still under construction. While the rest of the world may agree that IFTU should not serve as the exclusive, state-approved union for Iraqi workers, it is the IFTU which arrives in Geneva as the only "official delegation" listed by the ILO for the workers of Iraq. Yet, in the subtle world of Iraq's emerging politics, it is not quite true to say that IFTU is Iraq's official delegation to ILO. The people mentioned by Muhsin as IFTU delegates are NOT listed by the ILO as belonging to IFTU. Instead, Muhsin and his colleagues are officially listed as "advisers" to the General Union of Trade Unions (GUTU?). The name change from IFTU to GUTU, and the designation of Muhsin and company as "advisers" may have only minor implications. But during these intense days of "reconstruction" such small details suggest that the legacy of another tradition continues. Under the regime of Saddam Hussein, the state-approved union was known as the General Federation of Trade Unions or GFTU, not far in spelling from GUTU. As recently as February, Tudor reports that the GFTU was still active in Iraq and that the IFTU was under pressure from other unionists in the "Arab world" to merge with GFTU into a single organization that could serve as the state's exclusive, official union. As I have complained above, lack of independent reporting on these interesting poltics leave details unexplained. Who for instance is Rassim Hussein Al-Awadi, the figure listed by the ILO as the actual "delegate" of the GUTU? And why does his name not appear among the usual list of worker-elected IFTU officers? Is this the same Baath Party Regional command chairman, Brig. Gen. Husayn al-Awadi, who was arrested by coalition forces in June of 2003, listed as number 53 of the 55 most-wanted members of the former regime? If your neck is beginning to tighten at the sight of so many acronyms and layers of identity, welcome to the re-organization of civil society in occupied Iraq. We have not yet addressed the Kurdish labor groups, nor the teachers union, but we can save those for another day. (The acronym GUTU, by the way, is homonymous with the name of ancient mountain people from whom present-day Kurds are said to be descended.) In the meantime, opposition unionists in Iraq continue to provide hot copy for readers interested in the vigorous exercise of democratic debate. The statement released Monday afternoon via email from Alwan's FWCUI says, "The essential issue of the labour movement in Iraq does not lie in finding trade unions, forming branches, or completing its staff. Currently the race in Iraq is about which one of the parties or organisations can fill the power vacuum." "The workers are deprived from forming their own independent organisations, and kept away from doing their daily living business to form a government that excludes labour--'the majority'--from any role in the Iraqi political future." If exclusion of workers from meaningful power has a remedy, it must include a radical shift of emphasis among journalists and citizens of America. The same reporters who quiz experts about the possibility of democracy in Iraq, might ask themselves what they mean by democracy-_whether it includes workers' rights to self organize. And if workers' rights are essential to democracy, then don't these rights deserve more coverage from the so-called democratic press? David Bacon, for example, gives credit to, "new unions in the southern oil fields and refineries [who] defeated the Coalition Provisional Authority's attempts to lower wages and forced Halliburton to abandon plans for replacing them with foreign workers for reconstruction work." Yet if Iraq's provisional government continues to develop along lines already drawn, argues Alwan, the emerging Iraqi state, "will deprive the workers from the opportunity of forming their own unions which as a result will repeat the same old methods and conclude in the loss of the workers endeavours to get rid of the state controlled unions, and that means what is happening in Iraq is nothing but formal democracy." The formal democracy that America is bringing to Iraq is not real democracy says Alwan. But have we grown so accustomed to formal democracy in post-Reagan America, that we forget how to support a struggle for real democracy in Iraq? What are the chances that news outlets owned by corporations can support independent reporting about workers' rights? Greg Moses writes for the Texas Civil Rights Review. He can be reached at: gmosesx@prodigy.net Weekend Edition Features for June 12 / 13, 2004 Peter Linebaugh Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto and Runnymede Team CounterPunch CP's Favorite Albums Jeffrey St. Clair Troy, Now and Then Gary Leupp Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq? Brian Cloughley US Military in Crisis Antonio Ponvert, III Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection Ben Tripp The Polls Get Stupider Joe Bageant Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash" Ron Jacobs The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency Forrest Hylton Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés Christopher Brauchli Federal Bureau of Errors Kurt Nimmo Going After Qaddafi, Again Wayne Madsen Israel's Slap at Reagan Anthony Loewenstein Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World Michael Donnelly A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous Greg Moses Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah? Susan Davis Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban Joseph Ramsey Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground Niranjan Ramakrishnan The 18th Brumaire in the 21st Century Wayne Saunders The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup Poets' Basement Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert Website of the Weekend Insurgent Music WWW http://www.counterpunch.org   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /