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Today's
Stories
August 26,
2004
Saul Landau
Pinochet:
the Al Capone of the Southern Cone
August 25,
2004
Amelia Peltz
Can
I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?
Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture
Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About
Democracy
James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan
Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"
Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism
Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia
CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door
August 24,
2004
Jeremy Scahill
John
Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate
Gary Leupp
"We
Want Them to Go Away"
David Domke
God
Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism
William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in
Venezuela
Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media
Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah
Joe Bageant
Driving
on the Bones of God
Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC
Sex, Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
August 23,
2004
Winslow Wheeler
Don't
Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror
John Pilger
Bush
May Be the Lesser Evil
Stan Goff
Swift
Boat Dogfight
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Notes
from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild
Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan
William Blum
Brave
New World of Iraqi Sovereignty
Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial
August 21 /
22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
"They
Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on
Drugs
Landau / Hassen
Failing
the Mission? Form a Commission
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
Josh Frank
Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So
Mike Whitney
Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib
Ron Jacobs
Day Labor Blues
Mickey Z.
Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin
Fred Gardner
Dr. Wolman Comes Out: The Cannabis Consultants
Dave Zirin
Uprising in Athens: Iraqi Soccer Team Gives Bush the Boot
Josh Saxe
Witnessing Police Brutality in LA
Yanar Mohammed
Letter from Baghdad: a Democracy of Killings and Bombings
Helen Williams
Ali's Story: a Taste of Reality from Baghdad
Michael Donnelly
Elemental and NaturalForests, Fire and Recovery
Elizabeth Schulte
The Crisis in Affordable Housing
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert, Virgil, Ford and Krieger
August 20, 2004
Jennifer Van
Bergen
National
Security Courts and Torture Warrants
Lisa Taraki
Boycotting the Israeli Academy
Greg Bates
Racial
Profiling and National Security: Back with a Vengeance
Joshua Frank
Monkeywrench Hope: an Interview with Jeffrey St. Clair
John L. Hess
Play It Backward
Norman Solomon
Rumsfeld's Return
Diane Christian
Holy
Places
Website of the Day
Go Tell Cerebus: 50,000 Dogs Slaughtered for Olympics?
August 19,
2004
Lance Selfa
To
ABB or Not to ABB?
Christopher
Brauchli
The Edicts of President Bush
Mike Whitney
The "Rebel Cleric" and the Siege of Najaf
Jason Leopold
The
Oily Parachute: How Cheney Got Away with $35 Million Before the
Feds Launched a Probe into Halliburton
Jeff Nicholson-Owens
Why We Need "Free Software" Voting Machines
Bill Linville
If
the Republicans Are Funding Nader, Who is Funding the Democrats?
Well, Try Halliburton for Starters
Diana Barahona
In the Minds of the Rich, the Venezuelan Poor Aren't Even Members
of Society: Guess Who's Laughing Now?
Alan Cisco
The
Discreet Charm of the Venezuelan Opposition
Dave Lindorff
Gitlin
Tells Anti-Bush Protesters to "Cool It"
August 18,
2004
Amy Goodman
An
Interview with Mordechai Vanunu
Adrian Kuzminski
The
Death of American Politics: Why Perot Was the Last Serious Challenger
of the Political Duopoly
Uri Avnery
Israel
and the US Elections
Dave Lindorff
Librarians as Wimps: "Sorry, Sir, Some Readers May Find
Your Book Inflammatory"
Toni Solo
After the Venezuela Referendum: Bush's Dien Bien Phu?
John L. Hess
Laying Odds on Armageddon: a Midtown Hiroshima?
Rodney Thomas
Patti Smith, Another Take
Sean Donahue
Kerry
and Bolivia: To the Right of Bush?
Website of the Day
Presidential Polls: David Cobb (at 0%) is Exceeding Expectations
August 17,
2004
Norm Dixon
Darfuris
Made Pawns in Western Power Play for Oil
Alan Farago
In
Charley's Wake: Opportunity from Misfortune
John L. Hess
The
Meaning of Venezuela
Lisa Taraki
/ Omar Barghouti
Presbyterian Church Divests from Israel
Allen Thompson
Et Tu, Patti? An Open Letter to Patti Smith
John Ross
Mexicans
Dying in Bush's War
Website of the Day
List of Civilian Contractors Killed or Missing in Iraq
August 16,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Attack on Najaf: the Ultimate Stupidity
Ron Jacobs
Iran
Through an Iraqi Mirror?
Mike Whitney
The
Guantanamo Mock Trials
Zvi Bar'el
Theater
of the Absurd in Iraq: Chalabi, Feith and Israel
John Blair
A
Culture of Waste
Sharmini Peries
Chavez
Triumphs; Crushes Opposition
Tariq Ali
The Importance of Hugo Chavez
Website of
the Day
Hurricane City
August 14 /
15, 2004
Justin Delacour
/ Diana Barahona
The
Venezuela Referendum: Can the Carter Center's McCoy be an Impartial
Observer?
Cockburn /
St. Clair
War
on the Poor: "A Risk No Sane Person Would Take"
M. Shahid Alam
The Civilizing Mission: Some Economic Results
Saul Landau
God and Botox
John Ross
Echoes of Mexico City, 1968
Fred Gardner
Is California Spying on Pro-Pot Doctors?
Jonah Girdin
The Opposition Strategy in Venezuela: Subvert Democracy in the
Name of Democracy
Katherine Lahey
"Uh!
Ah! Chávez No Se Va!": Democracy and Venezuela
Medea Benjamin
Hugo Chavez and the Poor of Venezuela
Yves Engler
The Media and the Venezuela Referendum
Zeynep Toufe
The NYTs and Chavez: More Than the Usual Bias
Mike Whitney
The Trouble in Najaf: What Was al-Sadr's Crime?
Eric Drooker
Gaza Stripped
Dave Zirin
Olympic Sized Horror in Greece: 150 Workers Died Building the
Facilities
Dave Lindorff
A29 Could be a Very Slow Day
Rebecca Brigham
The Aftermath of Guatemala's Strike: Promises Still Unfulfilled
Wayne Madsen
The McGreevey Scandal: an Israeli Connection?
David Krieger
Nuclear Disarmament in a Time of Globalization: the US Double
Standard
Tracy McLellan
The Illegality of Pot is a Crime: a Personal Account
Christina Gerhardt
Confronting Capitalism: What Has Changed Since Seattle 1999?
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert Vijayalakshmi, Gilliam
August 13,
2004
Lee Sustar
Report
from Caracas
Mickey Z.
McProtests R Us: Why are the Dems Trying to Gag Anti-War Protesters?
Stan Goff
There
He Goes Again: Kerry's "Energy" Plan
Norman Madarasz
Thoughts on Najaf: How Could the US Ever Be Considered a "Terrorist"
State?
Victor Kattan
Press Freedom, Censorship and the War on Terror
Oscar Heck
Is Mendoza Off His Rocker? Chavez Opponents Pledge to Post Results
Online Before Polls Close
CounterPunch
Wire
Military Families File "Stop Loss" Suit
Milan Rai
Najaf: Bush Started It
Website of
the Day
The Yes Men
August 12,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
How
Bush Got (and Lost) His Wings
Lenni Brenner
Take
It on Faith: Kerry's See-Through-Monk's Robe
Lee Ballinger
The Coors and the Kerrys: Drink Up, Kids!
Tariq Ali
The
Handover Fiction
Yves Engler
What's at Stake in Venezuela
William S.
Lind
Seeing
Through the Other Side's Eyes
Christopher Brauchli
Getting Bush's Goat
Website of
the Day
The Sucker Puncher
August 11,
2004
Ceylon Mooney
Who
Woke Up Sen. Joe?: Watchers of the NJ Turnpike
Voices in the
Wilderness
Hands
Off Najaf
Ray McGovern
Porter
Goss as CIA Director?
Robert Jensen
US
Supports Anti-Democratic Forces in Venezuelan Recall
Annie Higgins
In Memory of Nick Pretzlik: As Good as It Gets
Alexander Cockburn
Bush
v. Kerry: Not Even a Dime's Worth of Difference
Website of the Day
Nick Pretzlik
August 10,
2004
William A.
Cook
Silencing
the Voice of the People
Todd Chretien
California Greens at the Crossroads: Will It Be Nader or Cobb?
Dave Lindorff
Chicago on the Hudson?
Richard Gott
Loathed
by the Rich: Why Chavez is Headed for a Big Win
Toni Solo
Bluebeard's
Castle: Disappearing the Right to Development
Dave Zirin
Carl Eller's Plea
Rep. Ron Paul
Police State, USA
Patrick Cockburn
If the Chalabis Were Corrupt, They Weren't Alone
Website of
the Day
The Surveillance-Industrial Complex
August 9, 2004
Tito Tricot
Pinochet
Must Still be Tried: a Murderer and a Thief on the Loose
Ron Jacobs
In
Memory of Deep Throat: the Day Nixon Was Gone
Norm Dixon
Crisis in Sudan: Oil Profits Behind West's Tears for Darfur
Kurt Nimmo
The Politics of Entrapment
Elaine Cassel
Welcome to Bush's America
Gary Leupp
Why
Iraqi Christians are Moving to Syria
August 7 /
8, 2004
James Petras
The
Anatomy of "Terror Experts": Meet the Mandarins of
Abu Ghraib
Fred Gardner
Run
Ricky Run: Football, Pot and Pain
Justin Delacour
Anti-Chavez Pollsters Panic: Fix Numbers; Reinvent Venezuela
Brian Cloughley
Persecuted by All; Supported by None: Who Would Be A Kurd?
Joshua Frank
The
Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader
Iain A. Boal
On "Shame": Warmed-Over Orientalism and Racist Projection
Chris Floyd
All About Eve: Open Season on Women in DC and Rome
Andrew Fenton
Fighting for Democracy and Justice in Haiti
Aseem Shrivastava
Saga of an Anguished Afghan
Neil Corbett
See Cuba: Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, Mr. Bush
Carol Miller
/ Forrest Hill
Rigged Convention; Divided Party: How David Cobb Won with Only
12% of the Vote
Tarek Milleron
Breaking the Principled Voter
Donald Macintyre
The
Battle of Najaf
Ron Jacobs
Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies
Mickey Z.
Kid
Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO
Poets' Basement
Adler, Ford and Albert
August 6, 2004
Joshua Frank
David
Cobb's Soft Charade: the Greens and the Politics of Mendacity
Derek Seidman
An
Interview with Stan Goff
Mike Whitney
The
Arbitrary Imprisonment of Jose Padilla
William S. Lind
Corruption in the Marine Corps
David Price
In
the Shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
August 5, 2004
Mike Ferner
The Kerry Show: When Peace is Off
Message
Bruce Anderson
Two
Rejections
Robert Fisk
The Tale of Saddam's Cameraman
Todd Chretien
Florida
Comes to California: the Democrats' Plot Against Nader
Peter Linebaugh
Doing Time for Political Crime:
Paul and Silas, Bound in Jail
August 4, 2004
Mickey Z.
Two
Traditions: WMD and Disinformation
Justin Huggler
The Hunt for Bin Laden
John Ross
Mexico's
Dirty War Never Ended: Inside Puente Grande Prison
August 3, 2004
Uri Avnery
The
Oligarchs
Ray McGovern
The 9/11 Commission Chimera
Jack McCarthy
Sexual Politics in Jeb's Florida
Eric Ruder
Meet Barak Obama: the Democrats' New Liberal Star
John L. Hess
Crying Wolf: Orange Alert!
Elaine Cassel
Civil Liberties Elections: 1800 v. 2004
Jules Rabin
The Man Who Didn't Walk By
Website of the Day
No Wall
August 2, 2004
Robert Jensen
Kerry's
Hypocrisy on the Vietnam War
Joshua Frank
Greens, Kerry and the Politics of Mendacity
Mike Whitney
The 9/11 Commission and Civil Liberties: "We Need an American
Police State"
Gary Leupp
Beyond
Good and Evil: Some Thoughts on Invasions
July 31 / Aug.
1, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Kerry:
He's the (Any) One
Merlin Chowkwanyun
Five Questions with Noam Chomsky: "The Savage Extreme of
a Narrow Policy Spectrum"
David Lindorff
The Shame of the DNC
John Chuckman
The
Disturbing Words of John Edwards
Brian Cloughley
All Slam and No Dunk; All Blame and No Responsibility
Christopher Brauchli
"Being Poor is a State of Mind": the Frowning Face
of Compassionate Conservatism
Fred Gardner
A World of Pain
Michael Donnelly
How Big Pharma Bilks the Elderly
David Nally
Genocide in Darfur?
Joshua Frank
Forest Battles Escalate in Oregon
Sam Bahour
Colin Powell and My Grandmother
Diane Farsetta
The IMF and the Indonesian Elections: The Invisible Hand in the
Voting Booth
Harold Gould
Was Iraq a Mutual Charade?
Van Bergen / Stephens
Election 9/11: Surreal Political Theater
Lee Sustar
A New Model for the Labor Movement?
Ron Jacobs
The Lost Art of Hitchhiking
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview with Palestinian-American Rapper, The Iron Sheik
Poets Basement
Albert, Ford, Krieger, St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Cross Cultural Poetics
July 30, 2004
Kolhatkar /
Ingalls
Shattering
Illusions: Kerry's Speech Tells Anti-War Activists They're Not
Wanted
Dave Lindorff
Murder
Not So Foul?
Bruce Jackson
Walt Whitman on the Sound of Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Fidel Castro
The
Pathology of George W. Bush
Maximilien Robespierre
Memo to Kerry and Bush: Why They Resist
Saul Landau
Bush
Charges Castro with Sex Tourism; JFK Rolls Over in His Grave
July 29, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Hail,
the Conquering War Criminal: What Kerry Really Did in Vietnam
Frank Bardacke
What
Michael Moore Left Out of F9/11
Tom Barry
Shallow and Formulaic: Kerry's Latin America Plan
Ron Jacobs
Kerry
and Lennon: Hawking the CounterCulture
Robert Fisk
The Unreported War
Lichtman /
Kellis-Borok
What Kerry Must Do to Win (But Probably Won't)
William S. Lind
The 9/11 Commission Report: Cashing in on Failure
CounterPunch
Wire
Doonesbury Onto John Kerry in 1971!
Website of
the Day
Jabbing JibJab: Copyright Madness
July 28, 2004
Robert Fisk
The
Occupation at 114 Degrees: Baghdad is Swamped in the Smell of
the Dead
Kevin Mink
Kerry's Misperception of Palestine
Ray McGovern
Israel and the Iraq War: How the 9/11 Report Soft-Pedals Root
Causes
United for
Peace & Justice
An
Open Letter to John Kerry: Winter Soldiers and Summer Patriots
Mike Ferner
Vets Demand End to Occupation: "Pull the Troops or Face
Impeachment Mvt."
Imraan Siddiqi
Turning Tricks with Ann Coulter
Alexander Cockburn
Candidate
Kerry
Website of
the Day
Iraq Vets Against the War
July 27, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
the Democrats Deserve Nader
Dave Lindorff
Back to the 19th Century: Globalization's Coming!
Mike Whitney
Control Room: Inside Al Jazeera
Ali, Anderson, Bello, et al.
If We Were Venezuelan, We'd Vote for Chavez
Stefan Wray
Texas Plan to Grab Los Alamos Takes Hold, as DOE Shuts Down Labs
Louis Proyect
Reflections on Nicaragua: First Came the Contra Butchers, Then
the Sweatshops
Rick Giombetti
Faith in Freedom: the Challenge of Thomas Szasz
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
The
9/11 Report and Its Weak-Kneed Consensus: Dogding Israel/Palestine;
Blinkered on Causes of Terrorism
July 26, 2004
Todd Chretien
Green
Resistance: a Reply to Normon Solomon & Medea Benjamin
Robert Fisk
Terror
by Video
Richard Forno
Security
Theater in Boston: Security Expert Harrassed by DHS for Exposing
Flaws at the Fleet Center
Mitchel Cohen
Report from a Boston Demo: Arresting the Curious
Richard Moreno
Rockers
for Justice: an Interview with Tom Morello and Serj Tankian
Alexander Cockburn
Boston
Awaits a Dead Party
July
24 / 25, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Democrats and Their Conventions:
Part One
Dennis
Hans
Those 16 Words Still Smell, Mr. Bush
Patrick
Cockburn
The Struggle for Iraq is Only Beginning
Josh
Frank
The War Path of Unity: Dems Reject
the Peace Movement
Justin
E.H. Smith
Christianity and the Left: the Latin
American Experience
Tariq
Ali
What's at Stake in Venezuela
Fred
Gardner
The Politics of Pot: Year of the
Antagonist
Mark
Scaramella
There's Dope and There's Dope
Ron
Jacobs
The Weather Underground's Prairie
Fire Statement...35 Years On
July
23, 2004
Lee
Sustar
Revolution in Nicaragua: 25 Years
On
Dave
Lindorff
Battle for NYC: Bush 1, Protesters
0
Saul
Landau
Zaniest President in US History: Bush
Beats Reagan
Mike
Whitney
The 9/11 Whitewash: Blaming No
One
Mickey
Z
Get On the Bus: 150 Years After Elizabeth
Jennings
Gary
Leupp
The 9/11 Commission and the Looming
War on Iran
July
22, 2004
M.
Junaid Alam
Ten Ways to Build a Better Democrat
Brian
McKinlay
Rusted On Down Under: Howard, Bush and Sharon
Jason
Leopold
Cheney Lobbied for Easing of Sanctions on Terrorist Regimes While
CEO of Halliburton
Chris
Floyd
Mob Rule: Ripping the Lid Off of America's Pious Myths
Uri
Avnery
Chirac v. Sharon
July
21, 2004
Paula
J. Caplan
The Emotional Casualities of War:
Psychologists Can't Heal All the Damage
Joshua
Frank
Nader Sleeping with the Enemy? Let's
be Fair
Ron
Jacobs
American Exceptionalism
Reza
Ghorashi
The Elections, Iran and al-Qaeda
Amy
Martin
Will Congress Rearm the Guatemalan Generals?
John
Ross
Bush May Lose, But His Wars Will Go
On and On
July
20, 2004
Stan
Cox
The Bush / Kerry War Ticket
Chris
Randolph
An Open Letter to Dr. Ehrenreich: It's Over, Barb!
Forrest
Hylton
The Ghosts of Gonismo: "Popular
Patricipation" and Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Mark
Scaramella
It's Official! Mendocino County is Crazier and Fatter Than the
Rest of California
Sam
Bahour
The World is Knocking on Israel's Door
George
Reiter
A Defense of David Cobb
John
Ross
Burying Iraq, Burying Bush
John
L. Hess
Girlie Stuff: Media Tolerance of Arnold & Co.
Website
of the Day
This Land is Your Land
July
19, 2004
Uri
Avnery
Marie and the Ghosts: the Hoax of
Paris
Col.
Dan Smith
What Has Been Accomplished?
Mike
Whitney
Allawi: Our Puppet with a Pistol
Karyn
Strickler
Just Marriage, Not Gay Marriage
Robert
Fisk
The Crisis of Information in Baghdad
David
Swanson
Media Blackout of US Labor Opposition
to Iraq War
Jennifer
van Bergen
The Death of the Great Writ of Liberty
July
17 / 18, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Apocalypse Now: Why the Book of Revelations
is Must Reading
Ghada
Karmi
Vanishing the Palestinians
Lenni
Brenner
When Cattle Unite, Lions Go Hungry: Notes for Ralph Nader
Ben
Tripp
Man on a Bridge: a Ghost Story
Brandy
Baker
What Would Elizabeth Cady Stanton Make of John Kerry?
M.
Shahid Alam
Israel Builds Another Wall
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Nuclear Hypocrisy: Israel, Iran and the IAEA
Patrick
Bond
The George Bush of Africa
Fred
Gardner
Politics of Marijuana: Cannabiniod Therapuetics
William
Blum
Bush and Thucydides
Ben
Terrall
Carter and the Indonesia Elections: "I Don't See Anything
Wrong with a General Running the Country"
Tom
Barry
John Lehman on the War Path
David
Vest
Dylan Without the Music
Phyllis
Pollack
Return to Sin City: Keith Richards Does Gram Parsons
Ron
Jacobs
Smearing Muhammad Ali: Bob Feller Strikes Out
Joshua
Frank
Kerry to Edwards: "Let's Lose!"
David
Nally
A Call for Sudan: Our Georgraphical Blindspot
Toni
Solo
Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Landau,
Hassan, Prashad & Lindorff
Three Reviews of Moore's F911
Poets's
Basement
Ford, Smith and Albert
July
16, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Adonal Foyle: Master of the Lefty Lay-Up
Shervan
Sardar
Dershowitz, the ICJ and Jim Crow Laws
Ron
Jacobs
The Lil' Engine That Couldn't: Kucinich Surrenders on Anti-War
Plank
Robert
Fisk
Iraq, According to Edgar Allen Poe:
Coffin Bombs in Baghdad
Greg
Moses
The Forts of Iraq
Mickey
Z.
Ad Infinitum?: Presidential Campaigns in the Age of TV
Dan
Bacher
A Landmark Win for Salmon and the Tribes
Dave
Lindorff
The Mumia Case: Support from NAACP,
But a Movement in Shambles
Paul
McGeough
Did Allawi Shoot Inmates in Cold Blood?
Website
of the Day
10 Reasons to Fire Bush (and 9 Reasons Kerry Won't Be Any Better)
July
15, 2004
Heather
Williams
McMissing
the Point: Supersize Me Crashes on Its Message
Werther
Iraq: Follow the Money
Tom
Crumpacker
The Birds of Guantanamo
Brian
Cloughley
What Does the Bush Regime Object To?
Bill
Christison
Reorganize the CIA? Of Course,
But...
July
14, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Chronicle of a Nomination Foretold:
the Green Deceivers
Neve
Gordon
Of Socrates and the Apartheid Wall
Diane
Christian
The Priesthood of Death
Stefan
Wray
Who Benefits from Missing Data at Los Alamos Nuclear Lab?
Josh
Frank
The Nader / Dean Debate
Conn
Hallinan
Divide and Conquer as Imperial Rules
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Bring My Brother Home!: Class, War
and Education
Website
of the Day
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of US Empire
July
13, 2004
Ray
McGovern
The CIA and Iraq: an Intelligence
Debacle...and Worse
Mark
Donham
The Sierra Club's Inexplicable Treatment of Cynthia McKinney
Ben
Tripp
Politus Interruptis: With Friends Like
These, Who Needs Electorates?
Mark
Gaffney
Slipping Towards Armageddon: Israel
in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Osama Wins! Election Postponed!
Chris
White
Double Think: the Bedrock of Marine
Indoctrination
July
10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
July
9, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Carlos Delgado on Deck: Blue Jays Slugger
Stands Up Against War
Justin
Delacour
Wishing Kerry Would Shut Up About
Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Iraq in Reverse: Martial Laws Fuel Insurgency
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Two Congresses and a Funeral
William
S. Lind
The October Surprises
Sibel
Edmonds
Our Broken System: John Ashcroft's War on Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Reading Tea Leaves: What Vietnam Tells Us About Iraq's Future
Gary
Leupp
The Lie That Will Not Die: Cheney and
the Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
July
8, 2004
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Inexplicable John McCain
Toufic
Haddad
Protesting Israel's Apartheid Wall:
a Letter from the Hunger Strikers' Tent
Dave
Lindorff
Liberation as Martial Law
Joshua
Frank
The Fall: How Beltway Dems Sank Howard
Dean
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush & Cheney Play the Hitler Card
James
Petras
The Truth About Jimmy Carter
July
7, 2004
John
Chuckman
Kerry's BBQ: a Deafening Silence
of Meaning
Virginia
Tilley
A Line in the Sand: Azmi Bishara's
Hunger Strike
Susan
Martinez
A Letter to Bill Cosby
Mickey
Z
Elie Wiesel's Strange Parade
Michael
Donnelly
Our Own Private Wilderness: Trusting the Land in the Inland Empire
Sean
Donahue
Boston Social Forum: the Dems aren't the Only Show in Beantown
Diane
Christian
Sovereignty and Freedom in Iraq
July
6, 2004
Lisa
Viscidi
Fleeing Guatemala: Central Americans
Risk Lives to Reach El Norte
Marc
Norton
The Felonious Five Ride Again: the
Supreme Court and Enemy Combatants
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
Ray
McGovern
Porter Goss as CIA Director?
William
Cook
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August
26, 2004
"They're
as Bad as Wal-Mart"
Starbucks
Workers Get Organized!
By
DEREK SEIDMAN
Two days after workers at the 36th and
Madison Starbucks in New York City turned in their union cards
to the NLRB for a certification election, Howard Schultz, the
CEO of Starbucks, sent them a little voice message. In this dispatch
from the corporate tower, Schultz-who personally brought in 17
million dollars last year-tried to appeal to the $7.75-per-hour
upstarts in words that would impress George Orwell.
The multi-millionaire CEO began
his message by referring to his poverty-wage employees as "partners",
and stressed how Starbucks and its workers "have built great
trust in one another." He went on to explain that he viewed
"treating everyone with dignity and respect as our highest
priority", and stressed the "caring and supportive
culture" of the company. He ended with this note of pure
authenticity: "I want to conclude by simply thanking you
for everything you do each day, and for being the real heart
and soul of Starbucks."
Not surprisingly, the workers
saw right through this corporate textbook mumbo-jumbo. Their
experience had taught them better. Their story and their ongoing
struggle for the first unionized Starbucks locale of the more
than 4,000 Starbucks in the United States is vitally important
and in need of our support.
It started when one worker,
a young man in his twenties named Daniel Gross, was getting fed
up with the work situation of him and his fellow workers. The
cost of living in New York City is extremely high, and Starbucks
pays a starting wage of $7.75 (Gross had worked there long enough
to get a raise up to $8.09, hardly a significant change.) Furthermore,
work hours are inconsistent from week-to-week, and a forty-hour
workweek is not at all guaranteed. The long hours of working
behind an understaffed counter, standing up, bending down, and
handling extremely hot liquids, was also a pressing concern.
When these grievances went
unheeded by management, Gross turned to organizing his fellow
baristas into a union. Though he earned the anger of the management,
he won over his workmates. On May 17th, the Starbucks Workers
Union, IWW IU/660, filed for a union certification election.
If you go to the union's website
(www.starbucksunion.org), they prominently display their three
main demands: "Increased Pay and Wages", "Guaranteed
Hours with the Option of Fulltime status", and "An
End to Understaffing". As mentioned above, the starting
pay at a Starbucks in ultra-expensive New York City is a measly
$7.75 per hour, with only the prospect of insignificant raises
in sight. As 23-year-old Maureen Medianero (who has worked at
Starbucks for almost 2 years) says: "I come to work and
I work hard But I'm still hanging on by a shoe string not knowing
if I can make ends meet to support my daughter. It's frightening."
The demand for a guarantee
of sufficient hours is also crucial for the day-to-day livelihoods
of the workers. With such low pay (and $7.75 is significantly
less after taxes), things like rent, food, and childcare are
put into great jeopardy if they don't receive enough hours. Though
Starbucks offers some forms of employee medical coverage, this
is pointless if workers are not able to have enough money left
over to take advantage of it. Same with a 401(k). Moreover, hours
are often not consistent from week to week, making workers' lives
more difficult (especially those with children). As Daniel Gross
has stated, "They've taken this concept of flexibility
and turned it on its head."
The last demand, concerning
understaffing and the accompanying repetitive strain injuries,
is one the workers take very seriously. As Starbucks worker Anthony
Polanco: "A Starbucks coffee shop is an ergonomic minefield.
The stores are supposed to mimic an Italian café without
considering the uncomfortable bending and reaching we have to
do This isn't your mom and pop coffee shop, we're talking McDonald's
busy every day. Starbucks talks about 'Creating Warmth' but the
only warmth I feel is the heat pad at the end of the day."
(Incidentally, the union effort
has also demanded that Starbucks purchase at least 5% of its
coffee from Fair Trade Certified sources (currently less than
one percent of their coffee is Fair Trade)).
Though Starbucks tries to posture
as a socially conscious corporation that cares for its employees,
the NYC workers' union struggle is exposing this as mostly lip
service. "Behind the green aprons and smiles are individuals
living in serious poverty," says Gross. "Starbucks
cashes in on a community friendly image but it certainly doesn't
extend to their workers or coffee farmers. That's why we went
Union".
Thus, the struggle has taken
on significance greater than its concrete demands. It is also
about exposing a multi-billion dollar corporation which pays
its workers poverty wages, and yet publicly operates under a
veil of benevolence. As Polanco has said, "Starbucks has
done a superb job misleading the public about the way the corporation
treats their employees We felt customers ought to know how Starbucks
really treats the folks who take pride in serving them their
coffee". Gross comments further: "All of this breaks
the myth that Starbucks is a different kind of corporation, a
company that supposedly cares about their employees."
After the workers applied for
a union election on May 17th, Starbucks went and hired anti-union
lawyers Daniel Nash and Gregory Knopp of the Akin Gump corporate
law. They argued that it was illegal for the workers to just
organize in one branch, that it had to be all 50-plus Starbucks
in the lower Manhattan district or none at all. Of course, this
is absurd. Stuart Lichten, the union's attorney, wrote of Starbucks'
legal maneuvers: "This employer apparently inhabits some
parallel universe, in which $7-an-hour at-will employees are
'partners,' and 36th Street is 'downtown The employer, in keeping
with its up-is-down worldview, now asks the Board to overturn
more than 40 years of precedent".
Despite all the efforts by
Starbucks to deny their poverty-wage workers the right to a union,
the NLRB issued a decision in favor of the union on July 2nd.
They were to be allowed their right to vote in a union certification
election.
The shady backhand maneuvers
of Starbucks and its lawyer goons, however, took much of the
sweetness out of the victory. Various scare tactics have been
deployed to intimidate the workers into submission: the threat
of wage cuts and loss of benefits, bribes and promotions offered
to those who betray the union cause, and a general hostile work
atmosphere along with a dissemination of misinformation. The
Starbucks workers, rightly seeing all this as a broader drive
to crush their unionization effort, filed an unfair practice
charge against the company on July 22nd, accusing them of breaking
the law and trying to impede the certification election.
On their website the workers
ask: "If Starbucks really is a bastion of worker benefits,
what is Chairman Howard Schultz, who raked in over $17 million
last year, so scared of? Mr. Shultz is fond of saying the Starbucks
Mission Statement requires respect and dignity for employees
but apparently that does not include exercising the right to
form a union The company admits that Baristas add tremendous
value to the enterprise yet refuses to pay them a wage that would
bring them out of poverty."
On July 28th, things got harder
for the workers with a new NLRB decision to hear an appeal from
Starbucks. Quoting from the union's website: "The Bush Administration-controlled
National Labor Relations Board accepted for review yesterday
an appeal by Starbucks of the IWW IU/660 victory that allowed
workers at a single store in the chain to vote in a union certification
election. The decision effectively disenfranchises workers because
regardless of the outcome of the appeal the result of the election
is suspended for several years while the case is being decided."
Daniel Gross, in response to
the decision, had this to say: "Starbucks and its union-busting
law firm have succeeded in obliterating our right to a vote The
company has established beyond a shadow of a doubt that it follows
an extreme anti-worker union avoidance policy."
Unfortunately for the company,
the Starbucks Workers Union is based on the solidarity unionism
model, also known as minority unionism, where government certification
is unnecessary and demands are won through direct action.
The union's website also ties
the July 28th NLRB decision into a broader picture of the ongoing
class war being waged against workers: "The decision by
the Republican-majority NLRB is the latest in a series of rulings
that have rolled back the right of workers to organize a union.
A July 13th decision held that graduate student instructors are
not employees and thus not entitled to form a union. Prior to
that, the Board rescinded the right of employees outside of a
union setting to have a co-worker present at disciplinary meetings."
With all this, the Starbucks
workers are still fighting hard to trailblaze the way towards
the first unionized Starbucks in the United States. In this struggle,
they need our solidarity now more than ever. It will take a mass
solidarity campaign from below to force Starbucks to cave in.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
reported the potential significance of this struggle in a July
2nd article: "If it succeeds, the group could score a notable
public-relations victory for the labor movement. It might even
encourage more organizing in the hard-to-unionize service industry."
This should be doubly stressed:
we are always talking about how workers in the service industry,
from fast food to Walmart, need to get organized, and that if
they did, it would not only make them a force to be reckoned
with, but generally revive the labor movement with an infusion
of energy from some of the most exploited. These Starbucks workers
are going ahead and actually trying to do it. In fact, the effort
in New York City has sparked a national campaign to organize
Starbucks. IWW members and supporters all over the country are
reaching out to workers with an offer of support to improve wages
and working conditions. Simultaneously, a student movement is
fast emerging on college campuses to support the creation of
the Starbucks Workers Union.
Says Daniel Gross, "We
are hopeful the campaign will spread like wildfire". Indeed,
this fight could potentially be an inroad into a more widespread
unionization effort in sectors of the service industry like Starbucks.
The New York Times ran
a June 11th article on Daniel Gross and the union effort. They
quote him as saying, "There's something wrong when the chairman
is taking in $17 million in 2003, but baristas, who are the foundation
of the company, are living in grinding poverty and serving very
hot drinks at unsafe speeds under ergonomically incorrect conditions."
Ultimately, this struggle is about a few, poor, courageous workers
taking on a multi-billion dollar corporate behemoth that has
deployed all the PR that money can buy to portray themselves
as a caring, just employer (but who seem to think "treating
everyone with dignity and respect" means keeping them in
poverty and denying them their right to organize).
The odds might seem to be against
the Starbucks workers, but Anthony Polanco assures us, "We
remain steadfast in our belief that Starbucks workers deserve
better A poverty wage is not sufficient to live a decent life.
The Union is here to stay."
These workers are risking their
livelihoods to wage this important struggle. The least we can
do is show our solidarity.
What can
you do to help the Starbucks workers?
As said above, this is the
type of fight we are always saying needs to be waged. Now that
it is, there are some little things you can do that would be
of great help to the workers who are taking on this more-than-4
billion-dollar corporation:
1. Contact Starbuck's CEO Howard
Schultz at hschultz@starbucks.com and call Starbucks at 800-235-2883
to express your support for the Union.
2. Go visit the union's website
at www.starbucksunion.org, or contact them at starbucksunion@yahoo.com.
3. If you have a website, blog,
paper, or radio show, run something about this struggle. Spread
the word far and wide.
4. Give a piece of your mind to the corporate lawyers of the
Akin Gump firm that Starbucks hired to deny the workers their
right to form a union as they choose. Contact DANIEL L. NASH,
Partner, Robert S. Strauss Building, 1333 New Hampshire Avenue,
N.W. Washington, DC 20036, Telephone: 202-887-4067,
Fax: 202-955-779, Email: dnash@akingump.com.
And contact GREGORY W. KNOPP, Counsel, Mail - 590 Madison Avenue,
New York, NY 10022, Telephone: 212-872-1052, Fax: 212-872-1002,
Email: gknopp@akingump.com
5. Tell the managers at your
local store that you support the right of Baristas to organize.
Print out the flyer on the union's website (http://www.starbucksunion.org/takeaction.html)
and pass it out at your local Starbucks. Let the workers know
about the union effort.
6. Organize a rally outside
of a Starbucks in support of the NYC workers. You can print out
a fact sheet here (http://www.starbucksunion.org/factsheet.pdf)
to pass out to customers.
7. Go to the website and donate
money to the effort.
8. Lastly, if you are planning
to be in New York City for the Republic National
Convention, attend the protest condemning the Bush Administration's
intervention on behalf of Starbucks against the IWW. It'll be
on Saturday, August 28, at 2 pm at the Starbucks on 36th and
Madison in Manhattan.
Derek Seidman is a co-editor of the youth journal
Left Hook (www.lefthook.org).
He lives in New York City and can be contacted at derekseidman@yahoo.com.
He once applied for a job at Starbucks.
All information and quotes
in this article were taken from www.starbucksunion.org,
unless stated otherwise.
Weekend
Edition Features for August 7 / 8, 2004
James Petras
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Fred Gardner
|