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Today's
Stories
December
5, 2007
Mike
Whitney
Why the CFR Hates Putin
Sharon
Smith
The Anti-War Enablers: Tom Hayden
and the Dead End Democrats
Ron
Jacobs
The Iran Charade
Dave
Zirin
Kicking a Dead Man: the Sliming of Sean Taylor
John
V. Whitbeck
Two States or One? Time to Choose
Peter
Zinn
Covered in New Orleans
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Impeach Pelosi Instead
Alan
Farago
The Credit Bomb Detonates in Florida
December
4, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Jackboot State Stubs Its Toe in
Ann Arbor
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo and the Supreme
Court
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Lies at the End of the American
Dream
Ray
McGovern
No-Nuke Iran
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Admiral Mullen and the Defense Budget: When White Elephants are
Too Small
Allan
Nairn
The Regime Still Stands in Burma, Where "the People Just
Want Food"
Russell
Mokhiber
The USA v. Al Arian
Nikolas
Kozloff
As Chávez Falters: Raising the Stakes for the South American
Left
John
V. Walsh
Peace Movement Paralyzed
Ghada
Ageel
Will Peace Cost Me My Home?
Stephen
Soldz
The Facts be Damned!: Psychologists' President Defends Psychologist
Involvement in Interrogations
Website
of the Day
Hands Off the People of Iran
December
3, 2007
Tariq
Ali
Venezuela After the Referendum
Bill
Quigley
New Orleans: Bulldozers for the Poor,
Tax Credits for Developers
Eric
Walberg
The Bible and Middle East History
Uri
Avnery
After Annapolis
Marjorie
Cohn
Operation Iraqi Freedom Exposed
Dave
Lindorff
Vengeance Isn't Sweet
Stephen
Fleischman
Homeless in Paradise
Martha
Rosenberg
Perp Walks for the Mink Clad on Chicago's Mag Mile
Website
of the Day
So Just Lead!
December
1 / 2, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Emblems of the Bush Age: Adrift
in a Sea of Booze
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Bear Minimum: the Grizzly and
the Future of the Rocky Mountain West
Mike
Whitney
"Iraq Doesn't Exist Anymore": an Interview with Nir
Rosen
Shemon
Salam
A Visit From the FBI
Roger
Burbach
The Battle in Bolivia
Benjamin
Dangl
New Politics in Old Bolivia
Brian
M. Downing
The Quiet on the Middle Eastern Front: How Much Credit Goes to
the Surge?
Greg
Moses
Night of the Living Redneck: a Texas Horror Story
Sonja
Karkar
The "Never-Never" Peace Conference
Saul
Landau
Ethics and Evil in South Boston
Margaret
Kimberley
Black America Left Behind
John
Ross
What are the Prospects for a New Mexican Revolution?
Reza
Fiyouzat
Exit on the Left: When Che's Children Visited Iran
Judith
Scherr
Berkeley Turns Right for the Holidays
Lance
Olsen
Of Forests and Finance: Logging for the Wealthy
Christopher
Brauchli
Mr. Bush and the Despots
Robert
Fantina
Iraq as U.S. Colony
Dan
Bacher
Fish Triage on Prospect Island
Michael
Donnelly
Remembering How to be Human: John Trudell and the Music of Urgency
Website
of the Weekend
Appalachian Voices
November
30, 2007
Peter
Stone Brown
The Re-Packaging of Bob Dylan
Wajahat
Ali
The Volatile Mistress: an Interview with Javed Jabbar, Pakistan's
Former Minister of Information
Allan
Nairn
Cold-Blooded Celebrity: Thomas L. Friedman and the Bali Bombers
Alan
Farago
The Sorrows of Suburbia: Politics, Sprawl and the Housing Crash
John
Ross
The Death of Latin America's First Revolution
Corporate
Crime Reporter
America's Corporate Crime Capitals
Lucia
Alvarez
Diego Gonzalez
Argentina's Political Future
James
Rothenberg
The Iraqi Miracle
Website
of the Day
Bio-Bling?
November
29, 2007
R.
F. Blader
The Most Dangerous Kind of Bribe
Ismael
Hossein-Zadeh
Distorting Fascism to Demonize Iran
Stephen
Soldz
War on the Couch: Fear, Aggression and Empire
Sheldon
Richman
Iraq 3.0
George
Wuerthner
Forest Fires, Lies and Chainsaws
Felice
Pace
Did All Things Considered Self-Censor on Annapolis?
Col.
Dan Smith
The Meaning of Annapolis
Harvey
Wasserman
Terror Target Nukes
Nikolas
Kozloff
Primetime Hate Debate: Lou Dobbs, Immigration and Campaign '08
Paul
Krassner
Huffington Post Bloggers Go On Strike!
Dave
Lindorff
News Not Fit to Print: US Coup Planned for Venezuela?
CP
News Service
The One State Declaration
Website
of the Day
A Native View of Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
November
28, 2007
James
Petras
CIA Destabilization Memo Surfaces
on Venezuela
Jeff
Halper
Annapolis: When the Roadmap is a One
Way Street
Pam
Martens
Crashing Citigroup
Peter
Morici
Economy in Crisis: Avoiding a Recession
Mohammed
Khatib
Separate and Unequal in Palestine
Helen
Redmond
The Horror and the Hope: Health Care in America
William
S. Lind
In the Fox's Lair: Quiet Before a New Iraq Storm?
Ben
Tripp
We, the People: a Trope for All Seasons
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Pakistan: First, Restore the Constitution and Reinstate the Judges
Jeff
Berg
Holbrooke Says Bush Won't Attack Iran
Website
of the Day
The Lies of Joe Klein
November
27, 2007
Joe
DeRaymond
On the Road to the Torture School
Paul
Craig Roberts
Meet the Only Two Candidates Worse Than Bush and Cheney: Hillary
and Rudy
Marjorie
Cohn
Remembering Victor Rabinowitz
Mike
Whitney
A Dollar the Size of a Postage Stamp
Ron
Jacobs
The Myths of Military Progress
Col.
Dan Smith
The Pentagon's "People System" Still Doesn't Work
Ralph
Nader
Family Learning
Karim
Makdisi
Annapolis and the Unholy Alliance: the View from Beirut
Christopher
Ketcham
Memo to Hollywood Writers: Strike Until You Drop
Ronan
Bennett
Martin Amis Does a Coulter
Website
of the Day
Celebrating the Uncensored Media
November
26, 2007
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Heading for Annapolis
Paul
Craig Roberts
The End of All That
David
Macaray
Enter Mediator
Sameer
Dossani
Pakistan's Wounded Dictator
Roger
Burbach
The Final Battle in Bolivia
Mark
Scaramella
Guns and Greed in the Emerald Empire
Brian
McKinlay
Howard's End
Rick
Kuhn
The Fall of a Racist Union Buster
Binoy
Kampmark
Ruddslide and Dull Alec
Monica
Benderman
What Do You Know of War?
Brenda
Norrell
Return to Alcatraz
Website
of the Day
Ghostworld by DJ Spooky
November
24 / 25, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The Ordeal of Catherine Wilkerson,
MD
Robert
Fisk
Darkness Falls on the Middle East
Saul
Landau
Norman Mailer will Not R.I.P.
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Justice Stephen Breyer, Cancer Bonds and the Origins of Neoliberal
Environmentalism
Rannie
Amiri
Beirut's Black Friday
Christopher
Brauchli
Iraq Embassy as Gilded Palace
Daniel
Gross
The Gap and Black Friday
Mike
Whitney
"A Generalized Meltdown of Financial Institutions"
Marjorie
Cohn
Iran and the 2008 Elections
David
Rosen
Senior Sex: the Real Sexual Life of Aging Americans
David
Michael Green
If Conservatism is the Ideology of Freedom ....
Kenneth
Rexroth
When Euripides Played the Hindu Kush: Greeks and Buddhists in
Afghanistan
Muhammad
Iqbal
Trans. Shahid Alam
Ghazal
Website
of the Day
Aerial Footage of Delta Fish Kill
November 23, 2007
Gary
Leupp
Killing the Buddha in Pakistan's Swat
Valley
Laura
Carlsen
Coming to Terms with Diversity in
Bolivia: an Interview with Alvaro Garcia, Bolivia's VP
David
Macaray
Keeping Labor Unions Out
Andy
Worthington
Former Guantánamo Detainee Seeks Asylum in Sweden
Clifton
Ross
Trashing Chavez: Keith Olberman's Toxic Rant
Seth
Sandronsky
Battling Sodexho
Dan
Bacher
Death in the Delta: Thousands of Fish Stranded by Bureau of Reclamation
William
A. Cook
The Myth of Middle East Peace
Website
of the Day
Waiting for the Guards: Stress Techniques as Torture, a Short
Film
November
22, 2007
Alan
Farago
Who Lost America's Everglades?
Greg
Moses
A Thanksgiving Basting
Dave
Lindorff
Impeachment is Back on the Table
Mike
Ely
Native Blood: the Myth pf Thanksgiving
Omar
Azfar
Gore for President of Pakistan?
November
21, 2007
Vijay
Prashad
Our Dictator, Their Democracy
Martha
Rosenberg
Undercover at a Turkey Slaughtering Plant
Manuel
Garcia, Jr.
Epiphany on the Glacier
John
Ross
The Last Days of Mexican Corn
Brian
McKenna
Cancer Terrorists Unmasked
Stephen
Soldz
Isolation Torture Routine at Guatánamo
Monica
Benderman
Needing Peace
Ben
Terrall
Slavery in the Fields: The Real Price of Sugar
Website
of the Day
Mercy for Animals
November
20, 2007
Oren
Ben-Dor
Why Israel Has No "Right to Exist"
as a Jewish State
Wajahat
Ali
An Interview with Norman Finkelstein
Alan
Farago
The Dark Arts and the Bush Dynasty
Marjorie
Cohn
Musharraf Plays Bush for a Fool
Ralph
Nader
Green is Gold?
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo Whistleblower Launches a New Attack on Rigged
Tribunals
Sara
Olson
When Going AWOL is the Only Escape
Dave
Lindorff
Likelihood of Iran Attack Gains Credence
Paul
Krassner
The First Amendment, a Dialogue
Website
of the Day
Joanne Mariner on Torture
November
19, 2007
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Why Congress Won't Reform
China
Hand
The U.S. Game Plan in Pakistan
Allan
Nairn
Sitting Around Talking, in Indonesia
Uri
Avnery
How to Get Out?
David
Macaray
The Chalice that Poisoned the Labor Movements
Dave
Lindorff
Democrats in Future Shock: They Could Lose It All in 2008!
Bill
Quigley
Twenty Thousand Protest at Ft. Benning; Eleven Face Federal Criminal
Trials
Ron
Jacobs
Sitting on the Group W Bench: War, Thanksgiving and Arlo Guthrie
Sunsara
Taylor
Legalized Rights for Fertilized Eggs?
Binoy
Kampmark
Why Steve Irwin--You're Dead!
Heather
Gray
Another Look at W.E.B. DuBois
Website
of the Day
The Meat Market
November
17 / 18, 2007
P.
Sainath
Neoliberalism's Price Tag: 150,000
Farm Suicides in India
David
Rosen
The Scarlet Hypocrites: Republicans,
Christians and the Politics of Adultery
Mike
Whitney
Pentagon Cover Up: 15,000 or More US Deaths in Iraq War?
George
Wuerthner
Saving the Big Wild
Brenda
Norrell
The Case of Jim Main, Jr: In Montana, Indians are Guilty Until
Proven Innocent
George
Ciccariello-Maher
Of Submarines and Loose Screws
Karim
Makdisi
Lebanon is Hanging by a Thread
Marie
Trigona
Wal-Mart in Argentina
Valerio
Volpi
The Catholic Church, Incorporated
Fred
Gardner
The Straight-Ahead Runner
Robert
Fantina
The White House Press Office
Mike
Ferner
Thank God for the Senate Republicans!
Missy
Comley Beattie
The Radical Majority
Kenneth
Couesbouc
Circles of Power
Patrick
O'Hayer
A Portrait of Mailer and a Young Poet
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Buknatski and Ford
November
16, 2007
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
The Vices of Hillary Clinton: Secrecy,
Intransigence and War
Dave
Zirin
The Indictment of Barry Bonds: Busted by a Broken System
Gary
D. Barnett
A Day in the Life of an Unwilling Federal Agent
Alan
Farago
Sprawl, Mortgage Fraud and Political Corruption
Dave
Lindorff
Two Brothers and Two Scandals
Russell
Mokhiber
Pelosi and Me: "What Should be Done with Those Protesters?"
Robert
Ovetz
Cargo Ships in Paradise: Shipping Lanes Threaten the Yosemite
of the Sea
Brenda
Norrell
"Today We Experienced America:" Arresting Indigenous
People on the Border
David
Swanson
Wolf Blitzer Loses Democratic Debate
Peter
Letheby
Outside the Box on the Great Plains
Website
of the Day
Why Activism Fails
November
15, 2007
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Hillary Clinton in Arkansas
Adolfo
Gilly
The Spirit of Revolt
Peter
Bohmer
10 Days That Shook Olympia
Andy
Worthington
The Trials of Omar Khadr: Gitmo's Child Soldier
Gray
/ Derks
Obama's Pitch to South Carolina's Black Churches Affronts Gay
Groups
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Liberating Pakistan
Dave
Lindorff
Where's the Party?
Christopher
Brauchli
Tipping Point: the Politics of Gossip
Anthony
Papa
Racism as Law: Crack Cocaine Sentences
Martha
Rosenberg
Merck's Big Write Off
Ben
Terrall
Thank You, Ehren Watada
Website
of the Day
On the Colorado: Drought, Climate Change and Water Supplies
November 14, 2007
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
The Making of Hillary Clinton
James
Petras
Venezuela Between Ballots and Bullets
Al
Giordano
Campaign 08: Don't Trust Anyone Over 50
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Lobby
Andy
Worthington
Innocents and Foot Soldiers
Stephen
Lendman
Torturing Palestinian Detainees
Fatima
Bhutto
Aunt Benazir's False Promises: the Dismantling of Pakistani Democracy
Martin
Smith
Norman Mailer and the "Good War"
Jeff
Leys
Slip Sliding Away: House Votes on War Funding
Website
of the Day
Why the Writers are Striking
November
13, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Hillary's Big Problem and How Bill
Can Fix It
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Mailer and Us: the Writer as Fighter
Robert
Bryce
The Pakistan Fuel Connection
David
Macaray
The Teamsters and the Hollywood Strike
Mike
Whitney
Bulletins from the Titanic
Ralph
Nader
Pakistani Lawyers vs. American Lawyers
Nikolas
Kozloff
Chavez Blasts the Spanish King
Jordan
Flaherty
Education Versus Incarceration in Tallulah, Louisiana
B.
R. Gowani
Dear Mrs. Bhutto
Website
of the Day
Monty Python: "Fuck You, Very Much FCC"
November
12, 2007
Vicente
Navarro
Why Hillary's Health Care Plan Really
Failed
Ben
Brown
Letter from Ho Chi Minh City: a Tribute to My Vietnam Vet Father
Omar
K.
A Pakistani Lawyer's Testimony: Life Under the Brutal Emergency
Sadia
Abbas
The Roots of Pakistan's Political Crisis: Corrupt Elites and
a Kleptocratic Military
Farzana
Versey
Mailer's Miasma
Richard
W. Behan
The Political Crimes of Complicity
Paul
Krassner
Asshole of the Year: Congratulations Tim Russert!
Cindy
Sheehan
Faith and War
Peter
Stone Brown
The Return of Levon Helm
Dave
Lindorff
Dennis, You are Not Alone
Website
of the Day
Police Attack in Olympia
November
10 / 11, 2007
Alain
Gresh
Uncle Sam's New Backyard: How to Turn
a Region into a Graveyard
Mike
Whitney
For Whom the Closing Bell Tolls: the Last Dead Bull on Wall Street
Ron
Jacobs
A View from the Pakistani Left: an Interview with Farooq Tariq
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The First Dambuster: a Coyote Story
Alan
Farago
Tangled Up in Blue: a Brief History of Florida Environmentalism
Binoy
Kampmark
When Language Drowns: Torture in America
Robert
Fantina
Legitimizing Torture
Fred
Gardner
Psychological Torture in the Name of Family Values
Ayesha
Ijaz Khan
The General in His Labyrinth
Nicola
Nasser
NATO's Southward Drift
Philip
Rizk
The Blame Game in Gaza
Michael
Dickinson
Condom Nation: the Pope vs. Terry Higgins
Joel
S. Hirschhorn
The Grand Delusion: a Conspiracy of Two Parties
Paul
Krassner
Flunking Out of the Electoral College
Wadner
Pierre /
Joe Emersberger
The Ongoing War on Journalists in Haiti
November
9, 2007
Patrick
Cockburn
In the Kandil Mountains with the
PKK
Mohammed
Hanif
Musharraf and the Drunk Uncle
John
Ross
Blackwater Goes to Mexico
Mike
Whitney
Ron Paul, Big Media's Invisible Candidate
Tom
Barry
In Latin America, the Hillary Clinton Policy is the Bush Policy
Corporate
Crime Reporter
Is the AFL Trying to Derail Single Payer Health Care?
Badruddin
Khan
Pakistan and the Israel Lobby
David
Macaray
The WGA STrike: the Empire Strikes Back
Martha
Rosenberg
The Blood Sport of Vice Presidents
Website
of the Day
Stryker Blockade!
November
8, 2007
Kathleen
& Bill Christison
Meeting the Other in Israel and
Palestine
William
Loren Katz
Waterboarding in American History
Mike
Whitney
The Long Fall: a Market Without Parachutes
Sheldon
Richman
Why Woodstock May Have Saved John McCain's Life
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Solidarity with Pakistan's Lawyers
Marc
Gardner
The Victims of "Jessica's Law": Parolees Without Rights
(or Homes)
Jackie
Corr
The Big Fish from Whitefish: Montana, the Last Retreat of the
Investment Banker?
Brenda
Norrell
Between Bombs and Border Walls
Dave
Lindorff
Ridiculing Impeachment at the New York Times
China
Hand
Rewriting the History of the Sudan Calamity
Sen.
Russ Feingold
FISA and America's Basic Freedoms: Let's Not Repeat the Mistakes
of the Patriot Act
Website
of the Day
The Welfare Poets Meet Hugo Chavez
November
7, 2007
Paul
Craig Roberts
Dollar's Fall Collapses the American
Empire
Russell
Mokhiber
Pelosi and Me: Can't the Democrats End the War By Not Bringing
the Funding Bill to the Floor?
Vijay
Prashad
The Apotheosis of Bobby Jindal
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Educating Pakistan: What Mukasey Can Teach Musharraf
Alan
Farago
To Bee or Not to Bee? The Politics of Colony Collapse
David
Macaray
The Writers' Guild Strike: Is There an Ice-Breaker?
Nikolas
Kozloff
The Case of the Slimy Senator: Chuck Schumer Greenlights Mukasey
Charlotte
Laws
What We Learned from Stephen Colbert's Presidential Campaign
Daniel
White
Zahid's Story
William
Cook
The Politics of Servility: Congress and the Israel Lobby
Website
of the Day
Safe Lawns
November
6, 2007
Mike
Whitney
Welcome to Year 27 of the Reagan
Revolution
Ralph
Nader
Who Determines the Price of Oil?
Andy
Worthington
The Torture of Ali al-Marri
Pam
Martens
Wall Street Metes Out Street Justice to Citigroup
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Pakistan's Dark Future
William
Schroder
The Return of Water Torture
Stephen
Lendman
Punishing Gaza
William
Blum
Cuba and Original Sin
Former
US Intelligence Officers
A Memo on Torture, Intelligence and Mukasey
November
5, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
How I Spent the Eighth Brumaire
Russell
Mokhiber
Pelosi and Me: The Democrats and Single Payer
David
Macaray
How to Turn Workers Against Each Other (and Make Them All Poorer)
Gary
Leupp
General Musharaff's "State of Emergency"
Dave
Lindorff
Those Minot Nukes
Ludwig
Watzal
Israel's Dilemma in Palestine
Patrick
Cockburn
Tensions Ease in Iraqi Kurdistan
Peter
Stone Brown
John Fogerty Makes Peace with His Past
Michael
Simmons
Yo! What Happened to Peace?
Website
of the Day
Petition: In Defense of the Morton West HS Antiwar Students
November
3 / 4, 2007
Tariq
Ali
Pakistan Sinks Deeper into Night
David
Price
Army's Price Salesman of Counterinsurgency
Manual Seeks to Defend Stolen Scholarship
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Splitsville
Alan
Farago
The Housing Crash, Suburban Sprawl and the Crisis of the American
Middle Class
Paul
Krassner
He's Back! Don Imus Meets Michael Richards
Rannie
Amiri
Why the U.S. is Safeguarding Iraq's War Criminals
P.
Sainath
Indexing Humanity, Indian Style
Ayesha
Ijaza Khan
Pakistan in a Daze
Robert
Fantina
Is the Bush Administration Talking Itself Into a War With Iran?
Seth
Sandronsky
The Politics of Health Care in California
Ron
Jacobs
The Bebop of Baraka
Ramzy
Baroud
A Case for Arab Dignity
Heather
Gray
When Capitalists Get a Free Ride
November
2, 2007
Dr.
Mary Pipher
Acting on Conscience: Psychologists
and Abusive Interrogations
Saul
Landau
How Pete Stark Became a Pariah
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo as House Arrest
Sharon
Smith
A Tale of Two Stadiums
Gary
Leupp
Fascist Beatifications: the History and Politics of Sainthood
Gregory
Harms
The Chorus of Slander on Palestine
Christopher
Brauchli
Racism in High Places
Peter
Morici
The Falling Dollar and the Stubborn Trade Deficit
Dave
Lindorff
The Easy Way to Stop the Looming US Attack on Iran
David
Penner
Zombie Nation
Website
of the Day
Fall in Yosemite
November
1, 2007
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Wages of Hegemony
Patrick
Cockburn
The Most Dangerous Dam in the World
Dave
Lindorff
The Air Force Report on the Minot-Barksdale Nuclear Missile Flight
Jonathan
Feldman
The Strange Political Economy of Death in the South
Mike
Ferner
They Met the Resistance in Iraq
William
S. Lind
A Question for Would-Be Presidents
Diana
Johnstone
"Fascislamism" Versus "Shoah Business"
Jacob
Hornberger
The War on Telephone Privacy
A..K.
Gupta
The Apocalypse will be Televised
Lyuba
Zarsky /
Kevin Gallagher
The Enclave Economy of Mexico's Silicon Valley
Felice
Pace
Does the SPLC Equate Anti-Zionism with Anti-Semitism?
Website
of the Day
This One's for You, Ed Abbey
October
31, 2007
Bill
Quigley
New Orleans' Broken Criminal Justice
System
Rev.
William E. Alberts
A Trail of American Blood: From the White House to CBS News
Ray
McGovern
Attacking Iran for Israel
Eric
Walberg
Poisonous Espionage: Litvinenko and the New Cold War
V.
G. Smith
The Second Death of Guy Môquet
Luis
J. Rodriguez
"Social Cleansing" from Guatemala to LA
Sheldon
Richman
Bush has Time to Run the World
Walter
Brasch
A Real Halloween Scare
Website
of the Day
Boogie Rocks!
October 30, 2007
David
Price
Pilfered Scholarship Devastates Gen.
Petraeus's Counterinsurgency Manual
M.
Shahid Alam
The Pakistan Question
Andy
Worthington
The Epiphany of Matthew Waxman: a Government Insider Turns Against
Gitmo
Patrick
Cockburn
The Bicycle Bomber of Baquba
Anthony
Papa
The Twisted Logic of Drug Laws
Floyd
Rudmin
What "All Options are on the Table" Really Means
Sherwood
Ross
Giuliani and Torture
Website
of the Day
The Worst Lobby? You Decide
October
29, 2007
Lisa
Hajjar
Inside Israel's Military Courts
Joe
DeRaymond
The Politics of Lethal Injections
Patrick
Cockburn
The High Stakes in Iraqi Kurdistan
Isabella
Kenfield /
Roger Burbach
Corporate Murder in Brazil
Fred
Gardner
The Frivolous Investigation of Dr. Sterner
Farzana
Versey
Caricaturing Islam
Stephen
Fleischman
The Greening of the Oligarchy
Marcelle
Cendrars
The Congressional Rip Cord
Eamonn
McCann
Dan Keating, the Last of the Republican Irreconcilables
Martha
Rosenberg
For Halloween, Ann Coulter Dresses as .... Ann Coulter!
Website
of the Day
Campaign 2008
October
27 / 28, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
So Much for Islamo-Fascism Awareness
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Dam That Isn't There
James
Bovard
Breaking Down an Innocent Man: The FBI's Right to Threaten Torture
Ralph
Nader
Beyond the Rule of Law
M.
Reza Pirbhai
The Wahhabis are Coming, the Wahhabis are Coming!
Robert
Sandels
Pay the Invaders! Cuba, Claims and Confiscations
Jacob
G. Hornberger
Ruling By Decree
Missy
Beattie
The Arsonists in the West Wing
John
Ross
U.S. Eyes on Oaxaca
Robert
Fantina
Condi Rice, the Imperial Cheerleader
Ron
Jacobs
Labor at the Crossroads
Ali
Moayedian
In Search of Logic About Iran
David
Michael Green
What If We Had a President Who Didn't Give a Damn About Terrorism?
Poets
Basement
Block, Davies and Ford
Website
of the Day
Bring 'Em Home: a Music Video
October
26, 2007
Brian
Cloughley
Revenging Bloodshed
Saul
Landau
Portrait of Rudy
Ahmad
Al-Akras
Getting Justice in the HLF Case
Franklin
Lamb
Does "Loving" Lebanon Mean Never Having to Say You're
Sorry?
Mike
Whitney
Murdoch's Cuckoo's Nest
Dave
Lindorff
Home of the Brave? Reducing US Casualties By Killing More Civilians
Alan
Farago
A Castro Behind Every Bush
Yifat
Susskind
Conscripting Feminism into the War on Terror
Website
of the Day
Dead Life in a Political Prison
October 25, 2007
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December
5, 2007
As Right Gloats,
Chavistas Figure Out What Went Wrong
Venezuela
in the Aftermath
By JAMES PETRAS
Venezuela's constitutional reforms
supporting President Chavez's socialist project were defeated
by the narrowest of margins: 1.4 pr cent of 9 million voters.
The result however was severely compromised by the fact that
45 per cent of the electorate abstained, meaning that only 28
per cent of the electorate voted against the progressive changes
proposed by President Chavez. While the vote was a blow to Venezuela's
attempt to extricate itself from oil dependence and capitalist
control over strategic financial and productive sectors, it does
not change the 80 per cent majority in the legislature nor does
it weaken the prerogatives of the Executive branch. Nevertheless,
the Right's marginal win does provide a semblance of power, influence
and momentum to its efforts to derail President Chavez' socio-economic
reforms and to oust his government and/or force him to reconcile
with the old elite power brokers.
Internal deliberations and
debates have already begun within the Chavista movement and among
the disparate oppositional groups. One fact certain to be subject
to debate is why the over 3 million voters who cast their ballots
for Chavez in the 2006 election (where he won 63 per cent of
the vote) did not vote in the referendum. The Right only increased
their voters by 300,000 votes; even assuming that these votes
were from disgruntled Chavez voters and not from activated right-wing
middle class voters that leaves out over 2.7 million Chavez voters
who abstained.
Whenever the issue of a socialist transformation is put at the
top of a governmental agenda, as Chavez did in these constitutional
changes, all the forces of right-wing reaction and their ('progressive')
middle class followers unite forces and forget their usual partisan
bickering. Chavez' popular supporters and organizers faced a
vast array of adversaries each with powerful levers of power.
They included:
1) numerous agencies of the
US government (CIA, AID, NED and the Embassy's political officers),
their subcontracted 'assets' (NGO's, student recruitment and
indoctrinations programs, newspaper editors and mass media advertisers),
the US multi-nationals and the Chamber of Commerce (paying for
anti-referendum ads, propaganda and street action);
2) the major Venezuelan business
associations FEDECAMARAS, Chambers of Commerce and wholesale/retailers
who poured millions of dollars into the campaign, encouraged
capital flight and promoted hoarding, black market activity
to bring about shortages of basic food-stuffs in popular retail
markets;
3) over 90 per cent of the
private mass media engaged in a non-stop virulent propaganda
campaign made up of the most blatant lies--including stories
that the government would seize children from their families
and confine them to state-controlled schools (the US mass media
repeated the most scandalous lies--without any exceptions);
4) The entire Catholic hierarchy
from the Cardinals to the local parish priests used their bully
pulpits and homilies to propagandize against the constitutional
reforms--more important, several bishops turned over their churches
as organizing centers to violent far right-wing resulting, in
one case, in the killing of a pro-Chavez oil worker who defied
their street barricades. The leaders of the counter-reform quartet
were able to buy-out and attract small sectors of the 'liberal'
wing of the Chavez Congressional delegation and a couple of Governors
and mayors, as well as several ex-leftists (some of whom were
committed guerrillas 40 years ago), ex-Maoists from the 'Red
Flag' group and several Trotskyist trade union leaders and sects.
A substantial number of social democratic academics (Edgar Lander,
Heinz Dietrich) found paltry excuses for opposing the egalitarian
reforms, providing an intellectual gloss to the rabid elite propaganda
about Chavez 'dictatorial' or 'Bonapartist' tendencies.
This disparate coalition headed
by the Venezuelan elite and the US government relied basically
on pounding the same general message: The re-election amendment,
the power to temporarily suspend certain constitutional provisions
in times of national emergency (like the military coup and lockouts
of 2002 to 2003), the executive nomination of regional administrators
and the transition to democratic socialism were part of a plot
to impost 'Cuban communism'. Right-wing and liberal propagandists
turned unlimited re-election reform (a parliamentary practice
throughout the world) into a 'power grab' by an 'authoritarian'/'totalitarian'/'power-hungry'
tyrant according to all Venezuelan private media and their US
counterparts at CBC, NBC, ABC, NPR, New York and Los Angeles
Times, Washington Post. The amendment granting the President
emergency powers was de-contextualized from the actual US-backed
civilian elite-military coup and lockout of 2002-2003, the elite
recruitment and infiltration of scores of Colombian paramilitary
death squads (2005), the kidnapping of a Venezuelan-Colombian
citizen by Colombian secret police (2004) in the center of Caracas
and open calls for a military coup by the ex-Defense Minister
Baduel.
Each sector of the right-wing
led counter-reform coalition focused on distinct and overlapping
groups with different appeals. The US focused on recruiting
and training student street fighters channeling hundreds of thousands
of dollars via AID and NED for training in 'civil society organization'
and 'conflict resolution' (a touch of dark humor?) in the same
fashion as the Yugoslav/Ukrainian/Georgian experiences. The
US also spread funds to their long-term clients--the nearly defunct
'social democratic' trade union confederation--the CTV, the mass
media and other elite allies. FEDECAMARAS focused on the small
and big business sectors, well-paid professionals and middle
class consumers. The right-wing students were the detonators
of street violence and confronted left-wing students in and off
the campuses. The mass media and the Catholic Church engaged
in fear mongering to the mass audience. The social democratic
academics preached 'NO' or abstention to their progressive colleagues
and leftist students. The Trotskyists split up sectors of the
trade unions with their pseudo-Marxist chatter about "Chavez
the Bonapartist' with his 'capitalist' and 'imperialist' proclivities,
incited US trained students and shared the 'NO' platform with
CIA funded CTV trade union bosses. Such were the unholy alliances
in the run-up to the vote.
In the post-election period
this unstable coalition exhibited internal differences. The
center-right led by Zulia Governor Rosales calls for a new 'encounter'
and 'dialogue' with the 'moderate' Chavista ministers. The hard
right embodied in ex-General Baduel (darling of sectors of the
pseudo-left) demands pushing their advantage further toward ousting
President-elect Chavez and the Congress because he claimed "they
still have the power to legislate reforms"! Such, such
are our democrats! The leftists sects will go back to citing
the texts of Lenin and Trotsky (rolling over in their graves),
organizing strikes for wage increasesin the new context of rising
right-wing power to which they contributed.
Blunders
of the Constitutional Reformers
The Right-wing was able to
gain their slim majority because of serious errors in the Chavista
electoral campaign as well as deep structural weaknesses.
Referendum Campaign: 1) The
referendum campaign suffered several flaws. President Chavez,
the leader of the constitutional reform movement was out of the
country for several weeks in the last two months of the campaign--in
Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, France, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Iran)
depriving the campaign of its most dynamic spokesperson. 2)
President Chavez got drawn into issues which had no relevance
to his mass supporters and may have provided ammunition to the
Right. His attempt to mediate in the Colombian prisoner-exchange
absorbed an enormous amount of wasted time and led, predictably,
nowhere, as Colombia's death squad President Uribe abruptly ended
his mediation with provocative insults and calumnies, leading
to a serious diplomatic rupture. Likewise, during the Ibero-American
summit and its aftermath, Chavez engaged in verbal jousts with
Spain's tin-horn monarch, distracting him from facing domestic
problems like inflation and elite-instigated hoarding of basic
food stuffs.
Many Chavista activists failed
to elaborate and explain the proposed positive effects of the
reforms, or carry house-to-house discussions countering the monstrous
propaganda ('stealing children from their mothers') propagated
by parish priests and the mass media. They too easily assumed
that the fear-mongering lies were self-evident and all that was
needed was to denounce them. Worst of all, several 'Chavista'
leaders failed to organize any support because they opposed the
amendments, which strengthened local councils at the expense
of majors and governors.
The campaign failed to intervene
and demand equal time and space in all the private media in order
to create a level playing field. Too much emphasis was placed
on mass demonstrations 'downtown' and not on short-term impact
programs in the poor neighborhoods solving immediate problems,
like the disappearance of milk from store shelves, which irritated
their natural supporters.
There were two basic problems
which deeply influenced the electoral abstention of the Chavez
mass supporters: The prolonged scarcity of basic foodstuffs
and household necessities, and the rampant and seemingly uncontrolled
inflation (18 per cent) during the latter half of 2007 which
was neither ameliorated nor compensated by wage and salary increases
especially among the 40 per cent of self-employed workers in
the informal sector.
Basic foodstuffs like powdered milk, meat, sugar, beans and many
other items disappeared from both the private and even the public
stores. Agro-businessmen refused to produce and the retail bosses
refused to sell because state price controls (designed to control
inflation) lessened their exorbitant profits. Unwilling to 'intervene'
the Government purchased and imported hundreds of millions of
dollars of foodstuffs--much of which did not reach popular consumers,
at least not at fixed prices.
Partially because of lower
profits and in large part as a key element in the anti-reform
campaign, wholesalers and retailers either hoarded or sold a
substantial part of the imports to black marketers, or channeled
it to upper income supermarkets.
Inflation was a result of the rising incomes of all classes and
the resultant higher demand for goods and services in the context
of a massive drop in productivity, investment and production.
The capitalist class engaged in disinvestment, capital flight,
luxury imports and speculation in the intermediate bond and real
estate market (some of whom were justly burned by the recent
collapse of the Miami real estate bubble).
The Government's half-way measures
of state intervention and radical rhetoric were strong enough
to provoke big business resistance and more capital flight, while
being too weak to develop alternative productive and distributive
institutions. In other words, the burgeoning crises of inflation,
scarcities and capital flight, put into question the existing
Bolivarian practice of a mixed economy, based on public-private
partnership financing an extensive social welfare state. Big
Capital has acted first economically by boycotting and breaking
its implicit 'social pact' with the Chavez Government. Implicit
in the social pact was a trade off: Big Profits and high rates
of investment to increase employment and popular consumption.
With powerful backing and intervention from its US partners,
Venezuelan big business has moved politically to take advantage
of the popular discontent to derail the proposed constitutional
reforms. Its next step is to reverse the halting momentum of
socio-economic reform by a combination of pacts with social
democratic ministers in the Chavez Cabinet and threats of a new
offensive, deepening the economic crisis and playing for a coup.
Policy Alternatives
The Chavez Government absolutely
has to move immediately to rectify some basic domestic and local
problems, which led to discontent, and abstention and is undermining
its mass base. For example, poor neighborhoods inundated by
floods and mudslides are still without homes after 2 years of
broken promises and totally inept government agencies.
The Government, under popular
control, must immediately and directly intervene in taking control
of the entire food distribution program, enlisting dock, transport
and retail workers, neighborhood councils to insure imported
food fills the shelves and not the big pockets of counter-reform
wholesalers, big retail owners and small-scale black marketers.
What the Government has failed to secure from big farmers and
cattle barons in the way of production of food, it must secure
via large-scale expropriation, investment and co-ops to overcome
business 'production' and supply strikes. Voluntary compliance
has been demonstrated NOT TO WORK. 'Mixed economy' dogma, which
appeals to 'rational economic calculus', does not work when high
stake political interests are in play.
To finance structural changes
in production and distribution, the Government is obligated to
control and take over the private banks deeply implicated in
laundering money, facilitating capital flight and encouraging
speculative investments instead of production of essential goods
for the domestic market.
The Constitutional reforms were a step toward providing a legal
framework for structural reform, at least of moving beyond a
capitalist controlled mixed economy. The excess 'legalism' of
the Chavez Government in pursuing a new referendum underestimated
the existing legal basis for structural reforms available to
the government to deal with the burgeoning demands of the two-thirds
of the population, which elected Chavez in 2006.
In the post-referendum period
the internal debate within the Chavez movement is deepening.
The mass base of poor workers, trade unionists and public employees
demand pay increases to keep up with inflation, an end to the
rising prices and scarcities of commodities. They abstained
for lack of effective government action--not because of rightist
or liberal propaganda. They are not rightists or socialist but
can become supportive of socialists if they solve the triple
scourge of scarcity, inflation and declining purchasing power.
Inflation is a particular nemesis
to the poorest workers largely in the informal sector because
their income is neither indexed to inflation as is the case for
unionized workers in the formal sector nor can they easily raise
their income through collective bargaining as most of them are
not tied to any contract with buyers or employers. As a result
in Venezuela (as elsewhere) price inflation is the worst disaster
for the poor and the reason for the greatest discontent. Regimes,
even rightist and neo-liberal ones, which stabilize prices or
sharply reduce inflation usually secure at least temporary support
from the popular classes. Nevertheless anti-inflationary policies
have rarely played a role in leftist politics (much to their
grief) and Venezuela is no exception.
At the cabinet, party and social movement leadership level there
are many positions but they can be simplified into two polar
opposites. On the one side, the pro-referendum dominant position
put forth by the finance, economy and planning ministries seek
cooperation with private foreign and domestic investors, bankers
and agro-businessmen, to increase production, investment and
living standards of the poor. They rely on appeals to voluntary
co-operation, guarantees to property ownership, tax rebates,
access to foreign exchange on favorable terms and other incentives
plus some controls on capital flight and prices but not on profits.
The pro-socialist sector argues that this policy of partnership
has not worked and is the source of the current political impasse
and social problems. Within this sector some propose a greater
role for state ownership and control, in order to direct investments
and increase production and to break the boycott and stranglehold
on distribution. Another group argues for worker self-management
councils to organize the economy and push for a new 'revolutionary
state'. A third group argues for a mixed state with public and
self-managed ownership, rural co-operatives and middle and small-scale
private ownership in a highly regulated market.
The future ascendance of the
mixed economy group may lead to agreements with the 'soft liberal'
opposition--but failing to deal with scarcities and inflation
will only exacerbate the current crisis. The ascendance of the
more radical groups will depend on the end of their fragmentation
and sectarianism and their ability to fashion a joint program
with the most popular political leader in the country, President
Hugo Chavez.
The referendum and its outcome (while important today) is merely
an episode in the struggle between authoritarian imperial centered
capitalism and democratic workers centered socialism.
James Petras, a former Professor of Sociology at
Binghamton University, New York, owns a 50 year membership in
the class struggle, is an adviser to the landless and jobless
in brazil and argentina and is co-author of Globalization
Unmasked (Zed). His new book with Henry Veltmeyer, Social
Movements and the State: Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina,
will be published in October 2005. He can be reached at: jpetras@binghamton.edu
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