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Now Available! Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by Kathy Kelly Click Here to Order 3-time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Kathy Kelly's Harrowing First-hand Account of Iraq Under the Squeeze of Sanctions and Missiles of Shock and Awe! Today's Stories July 30 / 31, 2005 JoAnn Wypijewski Scenes and Silver Linings from Labor's Crack-Up Sheldon Rampton War is Fun as Hell: the Video Games Recruiters Play Greg Moses How to Cool Your Heels in Texas When It's Late July Across the World Jordan Green From Woolworth to Wal-Mart: Economics and the Race Divide in a Southern City Patrick Cockburn Getting Out of Iraq: 5,000 US Troops Have Gone AWOL Brian Cloughley The Bush-Cheney Fixation on Iran Joshua Frank Color-Coded Justice: John Roberts's Racial Hang Up   July 29, 2005 P. Sainath The Class War in Gurgaon Niranjan Ramakrishnan How the West Was Lost: CAFTA and the Disassembling of America Dave Lindorff Marvelous Marvin Bush J.L. Chestnut, Jr. America's Racist Inventory: Oppression Breeds Violence Pat Williams Giving Away the Last Best Place Norman Solomon In Praise of Kevin Benderman: a Moral Leader of the Nation Goes to Prison Sen. Russ Feingold The Bad News About the Energy Bill Cockburn / St. Clair Who's the Real Martyr? Judy Miller or Jim DeFede?     July 28, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Departing Iraq William S. Lind The Duke of Alba and George W. Bush Gilad Atzmon Blair the Camera Man Joshua Frank Passing CAFTA: Blame the Democrats Lila Rajiva Vision Mumbai Submerged Amina Mire Pigmentation and Empire: the Emerging Skin-Whitening Industry Website of the Day Gateway to Underground News   July 27, 2005 Roger Morris The Source Beyond Rove: Condoleezza Rice at the Center of the Plame Scandal Gary Leupp Is Iran Being Set Up? Paul Craig Roberts US Falling Behind Across the Board Jackie Corr Class War on the Ruby River: the Billionaire with His Foot in His Mouth Mike Whitney The Coming End of the Housing Bubble Dave Zirin Why Lance Armstrong Must Break with Bush Christopher Bradley Why I Have Trouble Reading the News Norman Solomon Thomas Friedman, Liberal Sadist? Website of the Day Stormin' Norman     July 26, 2005 Suren Pillay The Enemy Within: When the "Other" is One of "Us" JoAnn Wypijewski Fission and Fizzle in Chicago: SEIU and Teamsters Quit the AFL Patrick Cockburn Iraq: the Unwinnable War David Anderson When the Greatest Outrage is the Lack of Outrage: NYC's Subway Searches Joshua Frank Hillary Clinton: Outflanking Bush from the Right Lenni Brenner Biography as Wish-Fulfillment: Jefferson, Hitchens and Atheism David Swanson Nuking Native Land   July 25, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts China-Mart Takes Over M. Shahid Alam Terrorism: America Defines Its Targets Uri Avnery March of the Orange Shirts Stan Cox Kreationism in Kansas Norman Solomon "Wagging the Puppy" Ramzy Baroud London Bombings: Barbaric, But Not Unexpected Mickey Z. No Gun Ri: 55 Years Later Website of the Day The Birth of a Hummingbird in 15 Images   July 23 / 24, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Islamo-Anarchs or Islamo-Fascists? Tariq Ali The War Comes Home Robert Fisk Something Happened Dave Lindorff Return of the Academic Witch Hunts Ricardo Alarcón Kidnapping in Miami: the UN, the US and the Cuban 5 Col. Dan Smith Living in a Twilight Zone: Troop Strength, Recruitment and the Draft Brian Cloughley The Pentagon's China Hypocrisy Kevin Zeese Growing Republican Opposition to Iraq War Bill Quigley Harrowing Hours in Haiti Fred Gardner The Reverberations of Raich Rep. Ron Paul The Patriot Act is a Threat to Liberty Joshua Frank Framing Abortion: Gonadal Politics and the Democrats Shivali Tukdeo Project Mumbai Makeover: Casualties of Development Gilad Atzmon Blair's "Evil Ideology" James Petras Baghdad: Barbarism and Civilization (a Fiction) Ben Tripp When Being American Was Fun Poets' Basement Krieger, Louise, Buknatski, Albert and Engel Website of the Weekend Remember the West Memphis 3 July 22, 2005 Heather Gray Home Grown Axis of Evil: Corp. Agribusiness, the Occupation of Iraq and the Dred Scott Decision David Domke The American Press and Credibility Lance Selfa Battle of the Insiders: No Heroes in the Plame Leak Scandal JoAnn Wypijewski Is This Really an "Insurgency" to Shake Up the Labor Movement?   July 21, 2005 Rose Ann DeMoro The Top 10 Problems with the "Crisis" in the Labor Movement William Blum London: Another Casualty in the War on Terror J.L. Chestnut, Jr. Whites Need to Learn Something: Dixie is Everywhere Christopher Brauchli Strange Affairs: Liberals and Alberto Gonzales Joshua Frank Plame Blame Game: the 5 Ws Brian Concannon, Jr. Haiti's Elections: Time for a Reality Check Patrick Cockburn The True, Terrible State of Iraq and the Link to London Website of the Day Who Blew Up the Murrah Building?     July 20, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Judge Roberts: Business as Usual Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Red Christmas Ray McGovern Did Dick Finger Valerie?: the Hand of Cheney Chris Floyd Judge Dread: John Roberts and the "Enemy Combatants" Uri Avnery "Silence is Filth" Dave Lindorff Westmoreland's Body Count Goes Up by One Norman Solomon Gen. Westmoreland's Death Wish Bill Quigley Travels in Haiti with a Wanted Priest       July 19, 2005 Tariq Ali An Isolated Regime John Ross Jihad Meets G-8 Davey D. More Clear Channel Censorship: "Don't F--K Around with Tha Police" Greg Weiher Muzzling Saddam: the Old Bait-and-Switch in Iraqi Jurisprudence Brian McKinlay An "Arse Licker" Goes to Washington: John Howard's Grand Tour Norman Solomon Nukes for India; Threats for Iran Dave Lindorff Get Back to Where We Once Belonged Bill Christison Bush's Itinerary: First Stop Syria, Next Stop Iran Joshua Frank Laura's Justice?: Meet Edith Brown Clement   July 18, 2005 Joshua Frank An Interview with Ward Churchill M. Shahid Alam A Muslim Problem: Did Thomas Friedman Flunk History? Jude Wanniski Memo to Patrick Fitzgerald Ron Jacobs A Weekend to Stop the War Mike Whitney The Straight Line Between Falluja and King's Cross Station William MacDougall From "Bring It On" to "London Can Take It" Seth Sandronsky Temporary Recovery: New Frontiers in Labor Flexibility Richard Lichtman The Consolations of George Lakoff Paul Craig Roberts Can Congressional Republicans End Bush's Wars? Website of the Weekend Novels of the Neo-Cons   July 15 / 17, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Don't You Dare Call It Treason Jeffrey St. Clair Sticky Fingers: the Making of Halliburton Paul Craig Roberts Economic Treason Harry Browne "What They Do to Us, They Will Do to You": Shell Oil in Mayo, Ireland Uri Davis, Ilan Pappe and Tamar Yaron A Warning from Israel Andrew Rubin End of the Enlightenment: an Open Letter to Stephen Plaut Patrick Cockburn Iraq's Ghost Battalions J.L. Chestnut, Jr. Changes in Selma: Standing Up to Racism in the South Fred Gardner A Professional Bust Christopher Brauchli An Olympic Feat: How to "Double" Aid with No New Money Chris Floyd The Great Iraq Oil Giveaway Ben Tripp The Dark Incontinent Col. Dan Smith General Abizaid, I'm Glad You Asked Jason Leopold What Did Rove Say and When Did He Say It? Jack Random Miller Time Norman Solomon War and Venture Capitalism George Ochenski Liberate Montana's Rivers: Come One, Come All! Website of the Weekend Vote for CounterPuncher David Vest     July 14, 2005 Jeffrey St. Clair Sticky Fingers: the Making of Halliburton Subcomandante Marcos This is What Will Do and How We Shall Do It: the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona Dave Lindorff No More Moral Relativism: the US is a Terrorist State Joshua Frank Rove Agency: Liberals and the CIA Jude Wanniski Those 8 Black Pages: What's the Real Story on Karl Rove? Dave Zirin Storming the Castle Kevin Zeese Exit Strategy: Within Reach? Robert Jensen War Myths and the Press Reza Fiyouzat A Worldwide Call to Free Akbar Ganji Carol Norris Governor Paranoid: Schwarzenegger Comes Unhinged Website of the Day Nate Osborn: Heroic Human Rights Activist and CounterPuncher   July 13, 2005 Brian Cloughley Cold Blooded Murders in Iraq George Galloway We Can't Separate the London Bombings from the Political Backdrop Carlos Fierro A Supreme Waste of Time Sarah Knopp Hate on the Border Norman Solomon "Isolated Pockets of Problems": the Fake Optimism of Washington's Warriors Mickey Z. Water on the Brain Jim Minick The Right Tree in the Right Place Pat Williams American Indian Education for All Andrew N. Rubin Life Behind the Wall: "We are No Longer Able to See the Sun Set" Website of the Day "London's Burning": the Mikey Mix     July 12, 2005 Laith al-Saud Voices of Resistance: an Interview with Dr. Mohammed al-Obaidi of Iraq's Peoples' Struggle Movement Kara N. Tina "This is How We Do It": Report from the Gleneagles Battlefield William A. Cook The London Bombings: Why Has It Come to This? Jack Bratich 2 Live Cruise: Tom Cruise v. Big Pharma Amina Mire The Problem with Speaking in the Name of Others Dick J. Reavis Lessons from the Christian Jihadists: the Virtues of Burning Crosses and Colored Smoke Kevin Zeese Depleted Uranium: States Take Action to Protect Their Vets Paul Craig Roberts No-Think Nation Website of the Day Coke Gags Indian Artist     July 9 / 11, 2005 Alexander Cockburn After the Bombings Uri Avnery War of the Colors in Israel Sheldon Rampton Blaming Galloway: Rhetoric vs. Reality in London Bill Christison Hiroshima's 60th Anniversary and Nukes in Iran: an Opportunity or Just More Hand-wringing from the Peace Movement? Robert Fisk Blair's Alliance with Bush Bombed Stephen Winspear Collateral Damage in London? Saul Landau Mission Accomplished: Iraq is Broken Behrooz Ghamari Thomas Friedman's Muslim Problem Karl Beitel False Promises and Real Debt Relief Brian Concannon, Jr. Throwing Gasoline on Haiti's Fires Fred Gardner Sentencing Season John Whitlow And What Does the Market Say? Niranjan Ramakrishnan The London Blasts: Who's Being Transformed, Them or Us? Lila Rajiva Witches and Bastards Laura Carlsen CAFTA: Deepening the Inequities Jackie Corr Ted Turner and Jiminy Cricket Dave Lindorff "My Brother Went Over There Gung Ho; Now He's Just Bitter" N. D. Jayaprakash Why the CIA Tried to Kill Chou En Lai at the Bandung Conference Seth Sandronsky Meet the "Truth Tour": Rightwing Radio Hosts Go to Iraq Norman Madarasz The Choking of Brazil's Worker Party Ben Tripp The Inevitability of George W. Bush Poets' Basement Louise, Albert, Landau, Davies and Engel Website of the Weekend The Mother of All Enemies Lists     July 8, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Blowback Hits Britain: Londoners Pay Heavy Price for Blair's Deception Tariq Ali The London Bombings: Why They Happened Monica Benderman One Soldier's Fight to Legalize Morality Rick Jahnkow Beyond Opt-Out: the Counter-Recruitment Movement Christopher Brauchli Dear Vet: If You Want to Eat While You Recuperate, You Gotta Pay Extra Kim Peterson Bombs in the Underground: Terror Begats Terror Joshua Frank Leakers and Liars: Inching Toward Indictments? Norman Solomon Messages from the Carnage Website of the Day An Interview with Ray McGovern   July 7, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Judy Miller: the Luckiest Martyr John Walsh More Hawkish Than Bush: Dems in Full Battle Cry Mike Marqusee Message from London Gilad Atzmon London's Burning Nicole Colson Showdown at the Supreme Court Jack Random Judith Miller, Anti-Hero Norman Solomon Judith Miller, Drum Majorette for War Len Colodny Is Bob Woodward Still Protecting Al Haig? Cockburn / St. Clair Judy Miller: the Luckiest Martyr                                                             Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con! Subcomandante Marcos The Death Train of the WTO Norman Finkelstein Hitchens as Model Apostate Steve Niva Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings? Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams CounterPunch Exclusive: 20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians Steve J.B. Prison Bitch Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber True Lies: the Use of Propaganda in the Iraq War Wendell Berry Small Destructions Add Up CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.     Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition July 30 / 31, 2005 The Napoleon of Mekamui Francis Ona's Role and Plekhanov By MAX WATTS Thoughts: Many years ago a Russian called Plekhanov wrote a series of articles on "The Role of the Individual in History". Plek also introduced the writings of Karl Marx, who had then, this was1883, just died in London, to Tsarist Russia. Amongst his readers was one Vladimir Ulianov, later himself an important individual known as Lenin. Plek's thesis, as I remember, was that given certain economic and political conditions a certain space for individual "leaders" opened up, and that under such conditions someone would come forward, and fill this place. Take on the new, historically necessary, role. Writing around 1890, Plek analysed particularly the role of General Buonaparte, famous as Napoleon. His fundamental point: The French Revolution would, given the failures of the "Ancien" Feudal/Royalist regime, have happened anyway, liberating enormous social forces for change, progress. Nappy, or Bony, as his English enemies called him, seized the time, the leadership. Had it not been him, had this Buonaparte died earlier or been elsewhere, someone else, Hoche, whoever, would have taken the job, of channeling, braking, and then exporting, the French Revolution. The French Bourgeoisie, having taken enough power, would have found another, suitable "Good Sword" to stop the lower classes from endangering its new rule. Plek was aware that Nappy was as it turned out a quite exceptional general, winning (and sometimes losing!) battles far and wide. However, his point was that the job required somebody like that. Of course, another General might not have been quite that "grandiose", might not have made the same mistakes. Did Nappy really have to march half a million men in the Grande Armee into Russia and their death in 1812? These thoughts came to my mind when I sat down to write an obituary about Francis Ona. Leader, and General, of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army BRA, self-crowned (as was Nappy, in France, Emperor) King of Mekamui, Bougainville. All proportions taken into account, Ona was as remarkable a leader as--in his time, in his country--Napoleon. Of course: the time is not the same, and Mekamui, although it is often given the French Aristocrats' name: Bougainville, is not France. But as Napoleon, initially but a junior French artillery officer in the revolutionary armies harnessed the unexpected and at the time incredible energies of the French Revolution to win, for two decades, against the combined forces of the then rulers, the kings and feudal lords of "the entire world", (well, of Europe), so Francis Ona, an unknown minor "native" employee of Bougainville Copper Ltd BCL, that is of Conzinc Rio Tinto Australia CRA, led an priori hopeless revolt of some , first just a few dozen, "natives" against the mercenaries of the PNG riot police, against the Papua New Guinea "Defense Force", in fact against Australian Imperialism, against the world-wide mining Giant Rio Tinto. For years Ona was only a hunted "terrorist" in the mountains of Bougainville, with a 200,000 Kina price on his head, dead or alive. No one, certainly not the mining company, nor its henchmen in Canberra, London, or Port Moresby, thought he had a chance. I never met him, but thanks to the devotion of the BRA soldiers, of Bishop Zale in his radio-shack/living room in Gizo, of the oft forgotten Australian "Joan of Arc" (though no virgin!) Rosemarie Gillespie of the Bougainville Freedom Movement's activists in Australia, of the rare "real journos" and film-makers who defied the blockade, of too many others to name,. I was able to speak to him, his mates, by a tenous, often interrupted, radio linkup. One conversation particularly remains in my mind, I think it was in the darkest days, after the BRA had lost the capital, Arawa. I asked Francis how he, the BRA, could continue their apparently hopeless struggle ? Ona replied: "Papua New Guinea we can beat in a week. Australia, Rio Tinto that will take a little longer" A good line, but is it for real ? I was wrong. Ona was right. Another (radio) conversation, with BRA Field Commander Ishmael Toroama, late in 1995. Things still looked pretty bleak, but Ishmael says: "We will win the war, next year." They did. In 1996 the BRA defeated the PNG "colonial" army, its Australian "advisors", in Buka, Koromira, Aropa, Kangu Beach, Buin.. The BRA "marine" shot it out succesfully with the Australian-flown Iroqois Helicopter gunships, the Australian supplied "speed boats" lost sea battle between Bougainville and the Solomons, the blockade of the island began to fail. Massacres continued, but now even the great brains in Canberra realised they were losing that war. They told their PNG servant, Prime Minister Chan: "We'll cut our losses, negotiate". Chan, humiliated , rebuffed, went ballistic and, without even consulting his Australian bosses, bought some British/South African "Sandline" mercenaries. For US $ 36 Million, big money there, then. Sandline boss Lt.Colonel Tim Spicer (hastily retired from the British army, leaving some unanswered questions about murdered Irishmen behind) spun Chan an "alternative war plan". Sandlines would put down Ona, the BRA, just as it had done in Africa for other mining companies. Spicer's gunships would kill all in central Bougainville, targetting their thousand 60 mms rockets onto body-heat identified humans. And so "recover the lost Panguna" mine. We should remember this plan, when we think about terrorists, bombingSpicer, when last heard from, was actively running mercenaries in Baghdad for Mr. Bush. For some, I'm told , $ 300 million a year, an upgrade from his failed, but paid-for, Bougainville ops. But then in mid-March 1997 even the PNG military commander, Brig. Gen Jerry Singirok, would no longer buy Sandline's blood-bath. Singirok realised this killing wouldn't work, would not reopen the Panguna mine. He revolted, with the help of his officers ! And when the PNG officers became scared of their own courage, their rank and file soldiers, who'd finally had enough massacring Bougainville villagers, took over the movement, backed by the Port Moresby masses. "We support our Resisting Soldiers, and Peace in Bougainville" . Spicer in Port Moresby got a black eye, Sandlines was thrown out of PNG, and, in Bougainville, Francis Ona recognised a historic moment. He held out his hand to Singirok, his long-time PNG opponent. We shall make Peace. De Facto, this, followed by much de jure talking, ended the war. The Bougainvillians had won, Rio Tinto, Australia, had lost. Back to Plekhanov: I've heard a story, wasn't there. It may be true. It's late 1988. No shooting, violence, yet. Francis Ona is negotiating with BCL/Rio Tinto--about the Environmental Damages the Panguna mine is causing on Bougainville. He asks for ten Billion Kinas, dollars, compensation. The Mine managers, BCL bosses, laugh at him. "Ten Billion ! That's more than the whole mine is worth !" Ona says: "Don't you laugh at me in my country !" Walks out, slams door, goes to the company store with some mates, takes out 50 kilos of dynamite and blows down an electric pylon. Stops the Panguna mine. This riles BCL into calling the cops, then the army, killing Bougainvillians, starting a 10,000 plus dead Revolutionary War. What would have happened had Francis Ona said: "Ten Million" (not Ten Billion) ?. BCL might well have answered: How about Five ? A Bee, an eM, a--perhaps--misheard ? Letter ? What is the role of this accident in history ? A small, black, people, on a far-off island in the Pacific, have shown that "we can win". Against the combined forces of world capital, New Flag Imperialist Australia, their local servants. Sure,. the objective conditions were right for a reaction against the Mining Company. But, without Ona, would Bougainville have become the first, sofar perhaps the only, successful, such revolt ? (Panguna, as I write, remains closed--though the BCL shares -"they've heard: "Ona is dead"! - are climbing thru the roof." Would this all have happened without the role of that individual: once-BCL surveyor Francis Ona? Of the role of the accident in history ? I leave these answers to Plekhanov. Personally, I think Plek was having a bob each way Sometimes it's one person, an accident, which make a real difference. Sometimes it's the mass movement, the historical wave, which is all-important.. Whatever happens now, later, the Bougainville victory over Rio Tinto--and it was led by Francis Ona! -- remains a lesson for others, world-wide. Things will never be the same again. We will not Forget ! Max Watts can be reached at rosiek@bigpond.com