Free News Area of the Americas

Consitututional amendment proposed to control corporate election spending in the US

2010-10-29T02:24:00.000-07:00

Early this month, 50 professors and attorneys asked congress to take the lead in sponsoring a constitutional ammendment that would effectively repeal a recent supreme court decision. The decision in Citizens United recently granted corporations the same "freedom of speech" as natural citizens, and struck down regulations on their political campaign contributions. This has opened the floodgates of unregulated corporate spending the the current election, and its effects will soon be felt. details in DOGSPOT

Here's an idea: why not just let the multinationals run for office?!

BIrds in Quito

2010-10-21T17:24:00.000-07:00

just a couple of birds from quitodailyphoto.blogspot.com

When Chevron came to Ecuador

2010-10-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

This is part of a larger project about the 18.5 million gallon spill that is now the responsibility of Chevron Corporation since their merger with Texaco in 2001. So here is a some of the history of 21st century Ecuador:

Chevron in Ecuador

Chevron entered Ecuador by purchasing Texaco. Texaco had been operating in Ecuador since 1960. In 1993 they were hit with a lawsuit for dumping toxic waste in the rainforest. The 18 Billion gallons of toxic sludge they dumped dwarfs the Exxon-Valdez spill, and was done intentionally.

Chevron aquired Texaco, along with their liabilities, in a US$36 Billion deal that was struck almost exactly 10 years ago, and consumated in 2001. The court-appointed expert witness in the suit estimates the damages at US$28 Billion, the plaintiffs have recently increased their estimate to over US$100 Billion.

In 2001, Ecuador was among the most impoverished countries of Latin America, frequently paralyzed by riots and strikes as the indigenous people asserted their rights. Here's a brief excerpt of the Ecuador Timeline from BBC News:

1998 - Jamil Mahuad Witt elected president.
2000 - Vice-President Gustavo Noboa becomes president after Mahuad is forced to leave office by the army and indigenous protesters; Ecuador adopts the US dollar as its national currency in an effort to beat inflation and stabilise the economy.
2001 January - Ecuador declares state of emergency in Galapagos Islands after an oil spill from a stricken tanker threatens the islands' fragile ecological balance. The potential danger is, in the end, largely averted.
2001 September - Indigenous community leader Luis Maldonado sworn in as minister for social welfare, the first Indian to hold a cabinet post which does not deal exclusively with indigenous affairs.
2002 February - Protests by indigenous peoples bring oil production to a near standstill. The protesters demand that more of the oil revenues should be invested in their communities.

story continues in

DOGSPOT

Peru: Vargas Llosa wins Nobel prize for literature

2010-10-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

Shortly after a pivotal confrontation with Peru's President Alan Garcia, novelist Mario Vargas-Llosa is in the news again. At 6:45 Thursday morning, when he received the call from the Nobel committee, he was already at work preparing for class at Princeton, where he is currently teaching. Early coverage from the Latin American Herald Tribune is here

Ecuador: Rafael Correa will continue to lead

2010-10-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

It seems more than a coincidence that the recent attack on Ecuador's president follows on the heels of several acts of sovereign independence: revamping the constitution (with a clause allowing his re-election) and closing a major US military base.

The immediate cause of last week's outburst was ostensibly a protest by police, whose recently improved benefits will be reduced, along with a general reduction in state benefits - benefits that remain greatly improved since his government took hold 4 years ago. For the long term, he has instituted what he calls a 21st century version of socialism, and aligns himself with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, much to the distaste of right wing pundits.

Correa compares his work to Roosevelt's New Deal:

“If they were in our place, the large majority of North Americans would do the same thing, because they would never put up with the levels of injustice, inequality and inefficiency that this country has had,”

is what Correa told the New York Times, where he's the focus of today's story:

Ecuador’s Leader Confounds Backers and Detractors Alike

Peru lifts statute of limitations on crimes against humanity

2010-09-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

After a brief attempt by presidential decree to ensure his own immunity, Peruvian President Alan Garcia asked congress to withdraw Decree 1097. The vote was 90 to 1 after a 3 hour debate. The strident opposition from novelist Vargas Llosa was a major influence on Garcia's decision to ask congress to withdraw the decree he issued early this month. In addition to his fame as a novelist, Vargas Llosa has a significant political following. He almost won the presidential election in 1990 but lost in a runoff to Alberto Fujimori, who is now in prison. (see previous post)

According to the LAHT: "The sole “no” vote on Tuesday came from Vice President Luis Giampietri, a retired vice admiral accused of involvement in the massacre of 100 prison inmates in 1986, during Garcia’s first stint as president."

Having lifted Decree 1097, Peru has restored its compliance with the international treaties mentioned in the recent HRW press release

2010-09-17T06:18:00.000-07:00

Peruvian Novelist Protests Amnesty Decree

The decree issued earlier this month will only serve to discredit President Alan Garcia, according to a famed Peruvian novelist who is protesting the decision:

"LIMA – Acclaimed novelist Mario Vargas Llosa tendered his “irrevocable” resignation from presiding over the commission charged with the construction of a memorial to victims of 20 years of politically motivated violence in Peru, a move he said he made to reject a controversial decree he called a “barely disguised amnesty” for rights abusers. Vargas Llosa sent a letter from Paris to Peruvian President Alan Garcia informing him of his decision to put an end to his participation on the commission. The writer and former presidential candidate said in his letter, to which Efe gained access on Monday, that Decree 1097 “is only going to bring discredit” on Garcia’s administration."

story continues in

Latin American Herald Tribune

2010-09-16T03:36:00.000-07:00

Alan Garcia will follow the path of Fujimori and Montesinos

The path won't be shining, and like the path of Alberto Fujimori and his US trained sidekick it will lead directly to jail. How long he lasts will depend upon the grace of his final moves. When Fujimori and Montesinos had disgraced themselves thoroughly enough, they became a liability, and as the century turned, the blackmail video appeared. It had been recorded by Montesinos himself, and was shelved by a trusted friend. We don't know the name of the "friend" who sold him out, but the story ended like "Three Days of the Condor". "..it could be your closest friend". So it was.

A full bench of economists and torturers were ready to continue the game. An old reliable player was given a second chance.

Unlike Fujimori, Garcia has always been sure to don the velvet glove when handling his enemies. This is because the ghosts of his not so distant past remain visible.

At least 118 of these ghosts are part of a continuing investigation that has repeatedly fizzled.

You can read the convoluted details (up to 2008) at IPS. The following excerpt is just a taste:
El Frontón Massacre Case Heads Back to Inter-American Court

LIMA, Dec 23 , 2008 (IPS) - A ruling by Peru’s Constitutional Court that makes it impossible to bring the case of a 1986 massacre of 118 prisoners to trial will be taken to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights....
In August 2000, the Inter-American Court ruled that no statute of limitations applied to the crimes committed in El Frontón, and declared that the state had violated the American Convention on Human Rights"
"Former Constitutional Court magistrate Magdiel González said the Dec. 11 (2008)decision is a step backwards and contradicts earlier resolutions handed down by the Court...
...Former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) is in fact facing trial at the moment because the Court ruled that no statute of limitations applied to the Barrios Altos (1991) and La Cantuta (1992) massacres,"

Fujimori has since been found guilty, in several trials see wikipedia

After several more complex turnabouts, the grizzly past of Alan Garcia is once again nipping at his heels, thus the attempt to obtain amnesty for himself and his deadly circle by presidential decree.

additional background at

DOGSPOT

2010-09-14T17:23:00.000-07:00

Peru heads toward military dictatorship again

Peru's current president, Alan Garcia, is a throwback to the days of the Reagan Era, when policy was shaped by the "Santa Fe Declaraction" (published as A New Inter-American Policy for the Eighties). This was the heyday for torturers trained by The School of The Americas, and torture was OK if it ensured a continent free from the threat of Communism - which was interpreted as anything that would allow the rise of a middle class, like the much studied prototype in Guatemala, the original Banana Republic of the CIA. Several days ago, Human Rights Watch published an alert about the old war horse Garcia. Here it is:

2008-01-20T10:24:00.000-08:00

Unresolved Legacy of US Torture

...the lack of cuts on Olson’s body would appear to rule out the official CIA story of his suicide...
'I never heard of anybody jumping through a closed window with the blind down.'

story continues in

DOGSPOT

2008-01-20T10:10:00.000-08:00

The Economics of Mega-Hosting

Competition between web hosting companies has gotten so fierce they have to offer ever more gigabytes of space, and it's not necessary. Most people don't know the difference between a gigabyte and a gigahertz except that more seems to be better.

What distinguishes a good host for your website is not the amount of space - but rather the quality of support and diligence of their server maintenance. You probably talked to one of those offshore support people when you tried to cancel your AOL account. Will I be forced to compete with really terrible hosting companies by offering even more space than what you'll ever need? No. I don't aim to have more customers than a typical host would put on a single server, and make sure my servers are not overbooked like a budget airline. Take advantage of the free trial and see

2007-05-11T10:23:00.000-07:00

DOGSPOT CONTINUES TO BITE

"all told, more than a million DOGSPOT stories have been served, each of them a blow to the Empire, and the 0.3% of the US population that continues to prey upon the rest of us continues to feel the painful bite of the free press."

Print them out, and distribute them to your friends - and enemies.

story continues in

(update: in spite of the interruptions in publication, DOGSPOT has stayed on line and with more than 2 million visits as of August 2 2010.) DOGSPOT

2007-05-09T16:52:00.000-07:00

What do you mean by "neo-liberal policy of extraction"?

Eyes glaze over when I utter the phrase, as if I'd said "dictatorship of the proletariat", but when people ask about The Neo-Liberal Model of Resource Extraction, I point them to an essay by Walden Bello where he uses Chile as an example...
"Chile was the guinea pig of a free market paradigm that was foisted on other third world countries beginning in the early 1980s through the agency of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank."
"..radical trade liberalization resulted in
...an export-oriented economy that favored agricultural production and resource extraction."

story continues in

DOGSPOT

2007-02-04T16:19:00.000-08:00

War Against the Poor Enters New Phase

"...two officers got out of the car and approached Common Ground volunteers. One of them, officer Lusk (badge number 1811) was involved in a previous incident where, he ... and another off duty officer in uniform broke into the office without a warrant and took computers and files belonging to Common Ground."

story continues in

DOGSPOT

2007-01-10T03:22:00.000-08:00

Why is the UN Complicit in the Rape of Haiti?

Since 1981, when the "Santa Fe Statement" was drafted, powers within the Republican party have been trying to install Marc Bazin as the ruler of Haiti, with the help of a crew of pirates trained by the School of Americas. The recent outrages of MINUSTAH are merely an extension of the same tired old policy, executed by graduates of the School of the Americas. RAPE OF HAITI

2007-01-07T17:23:00.000-08:00

"We need to plan our protests now, for the greatest nationwide turnout since VJ day, and with a difference. We should insure that our protests are protected by the state, local, and federal officials we elected in November who have openly stated their opposition to the war. In fact, even if they are not opposed to the war, protesters deserve protection from the errant batons of the World Police and local fascists who have sucessfully united to suppress our civil rights for the past 6 years." PLAN TO PROTEST

PLAN TO PROTEST January 27-29 at the Capitol

2007-01-07T17:01:00.000-08:00

Case Continues Against Rumsfeld in Chicago

On Friday, I contacted the law firm representing Donald Vance in his lawsuit against Rumsfeld in the Northern District of Illinois, the jurisdiction where they both live. They are still "trying to accomplish service" on Rumsfeld.
Lucky for him that his old boss, Gerald Ford passed away in a timely manner: Rumsfeld was in Ann Arbor while the Sheriff was looking for him back home in Skokie. Conduct yourself accordingly, Mr. Rumfeld: Loevy and Loevy does not let the big fish slip away, and you are looking like one fine catch. There will be updates to the DOGSPOT story and in print after my interview with Vance's lawyer early next week, and more documents online.

DOGSPOT

2007-01-04T06:05:00.000-08:00

End Torture and Detainment: Protest on January 11

Thursday January 11, 2007 is the 5th anniversary of illegal detention at Guantanamo Naval Base. Build your own Gitmo cage, and join the nationwide protests! Events are being coordinated by Witness Against Torture. They also have provided complete instructions for the "Gitmo cage" shown in the protest at right. STORY AND PLANS

New Lies Attempt to Smooth a Bad Week for Bush

2005-11-06T19:53:00.000-08:00

John King of CNN has eaten too many bananas. The load of compost he dumped on TV viewers via CNN has aged considerably since the original lies that got us into Guatemala in 1952. Now a re-colonization of South America is being planned, and along with it the same stale CIA lies promulgated by smirking reporters, who, knowing the truth, nonetheless collaborate to mislead the American people because only they know which side their bread is buttered on.

story continues in

PBR Weekend Edition when Realo is done rebuilding his Blog Empire. Meanwhile, visit his new pages at Silence Is Defeat!

if I rememember correctly, this had to do with the slanted CNN reporting at Mar Del Plata, since the original is currently off line, I'll try to find a similar report soon - dr

2005-11-06T19:49:00.000-08:00

Se viene la Cumbre, se viene la represión

Se viene Bush y se viene la Cumbre de presidentes. Todo repudiable. No solo el genocida, sino muchos de los ad lateres que en distintos puntos del continente americano le hacen la corte al imperialismo.

story continues in

La Fogata

2005-11-02T21:29:00.000-08:00

Photos Prove CIA Undermined News Reports

James Reston, author of the letter transcribed below, might not be entirely happy about it's release today. Edward S Herman of FAIR described him in a 1996 retrospective as "The Insider's Journalist in the Service of Empire". Certainly his career was a mixed one, rich with accolades but laced with a dangerous excess of sympathy for the insiders who fed him his stories. Is this the tradition that provided us the tainted gifts of Judith Miller? In any case, these pages were lying around as pictures in the archives in Urbana, Illinois and I consider it a public service to render them as text.

story continues in

DOGSPOT

2005-08-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

Reagan Directive Foreshadowed Haiti Crisis

The execution of National Security Directive No. 77 was crafted to satisfy business elites in Haiti and the US that eventually would organize to undermine the policies of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, especially his decision to raise the minimum wage. Political Science Professor Ronald W. Cox explains how and why the US government has struggled against the rise of democracy in Haiti since the early 80s.

story continues in

DOGSPOT

2005-08-12T15:47:00.000-07:00

Coup Leaders Target Another Preist in Haiti

With election time approaching, the "Haiti Contras" are pulling out all the stops to keep the Lavalas party of Jean-Bertrand Aristide out of the running with repeated attempts to hold them in prison on false charges. Their most recent target is a Catholic priest, Father Gerard Jean-Juste, who is being charged with the brutal murder of a right-wing journalist. The following is an eyewitness report from Haiti Progres

The police already knew that Fr. Jean-Juste was in Florida at the time of the kidnapping and death of the journalist, because the police had already interviewed him several times in the last few days in connection with the other false allegations against him...

story continues in

DOGSPOT

2005-08-12T15:40:00.000-07:00

Haiti Snubs Habeas Corpus for Aristide Supporters

... nearly three weeks into a hunger strike protesting his imprisonment, Yvon Neptune, Haiti?s prime minister under former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was hospitalized for severe dehydration.
On March 9, Senators Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Tom Harkin (D-IO), James Jeffords (I-VT) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) sent a letter to interim Prime Minister Latortue, in which they wrote,

"If no charges have been brought against Mr. Neptune,
we demand that he be immediately released."

story continues in

DOGSPOT

2005-04-12T16:22:00.000-07:00

Chiquita Hunts for Exiled Colombian Journalist

Chiquita Banana has joined my corporate fan club. Formerly known as The United Fruit Company, they belong to an incestuous group of corporations that have driven US policy in the Americas throughout the 20th century. Their search for Columbian journalist Ignacio Gomez led them to a little website called Free News Area of the Americas, and my server logs are helping me to understand what Corporate America wants. At the end of this article I publish the complete "domain dossier" of my visitors from chiknet.com - the site of Chiquita Brands.

more at DOGSPOT

2005-04-12T16:12:00.000-07:00

Morales Gains Credibility in Bolivia

In October of 2003, Evo Morales led an uprising in Bolivia that ousted former president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. In a vain effort to retain his position, Lozada had ordered his troops to shoot to kill. In spite of this, the US State Department assured Lozada of support in his "effort to restore order". More than 80 protesters died, and Lozada fled in disgrace to the US, where he has been in hiding since.

"We want to charge him with economic damages and crimes against humanity," Morales said. "We are soon going to see him in prison."

Morales may yet prevail, since the Bolivian congress has recently voted to put Lozada on trial

full coverage in

DOGSPOT

2004-04-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

Experts Testify on "The Situation in Haiti"

Months before mercanaries marched across the island of Hispaniola to overthrow the government of Haiti, experts began in vain to present a glimpse of reality to the US government.

This failure of US influence - perhaps we can say of US diplomacy - is doubly shocking since the personalities who comprise this opposition have been widely perceived as allies - even sycophants - of Washington. Among these personalities are individuals who have participated in an array of political strategy meetings organized by the International Republican Institute using US government funds, and who have repeatedly visited Washington over the past three years. And, at least one of the highest profile leaders of this faction, Mr. Andre Apaid, is a US citizen.

Statement by Dr. Robert Maguire to the
House Committee on International Relations

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DOGSPOT UK

2004-04-17T12:38:00.000-07:00

Andre Apaid's Splendid Little Coup in Haiti

Andre Apaid is by far the largest sweatshop operator in Haiti: with employees who are paid as little as 68 cents a day, far below the minimum wage of $1.50 a day in Haiti.

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DOGSPOT UK

2004-04-17T12:24:00.000-07:00

Ashcroft 911 Testimony Backfires

"...he brandished a 1995 memo written by one of the commission members, Jamie Gorelick, a deputy attorney-general under Ms Reno...
But Mr Ashcroft?s use of the document backfired when another commissioner, Slade Gorton, pointed out that Mr Ashcroft?s own Justice Department had upheld Ms Gorelick?s interpretation of the FISA in 2001."

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DOGSPOT UK

2004-04-04T16:32:00.000-07:00

Jean-Bertrand Aristide Must Be Crazy

The name Brian Lattel rarely appears in public: Bob Shacochis mentions him once in The Immaculate Invasion (see previous dogspot) as one of many who have bragged that Arisistide would never return to Haiti.

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DOGSPOT UK

2004-04-03T15:33:00.000-08:00

Bernard Gousse: Haiti's Minister of Injustice

Close associates of his have defended perpetrators of failed coup attempts in Haiti. Bernard Gousse has managed to maintain a safe distance from the paramilitaries and outlaws among his clients, including the likes of Louis-Jodel Chamblain They have been able to collect funds for their "program to bring change to Haiti" with help from apparently legitimate organizations such as "The Haitian Resource Development Foundation" whose members share the same social circle with wealthy Miami businessmen - some of whom have financed earlier coupes.

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DOGSPOT UK

2004-04-03T13:04:00.000-08:00

Haiti: it has ever been thus

"Of the twenty-two heads of state between 1843 and 1915, only one served out his prescribed term of office, three died while serving, one was blown up in his palace, one presumably poisoned,one hacked to pieces by a mob, one resigned. The other 14 were deposed by revolution...

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DOGSPOT UK

2004-04-02T14:56:00.000-08:00

Aristide's Lawyers Respond to Coup with Lawsuits

AFP (04-02)
"...the resignation -- made "at night, while in the hands of armed soldiers" -- was unconstitutional and therefore invalid..."

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DOGSPOT UK

2004-03-27T15:13:00.000-08:00

CARICOM Urged to Withhold Recognition of Haitian Regime

BASSETTERE, St. Catherine
The chairperson of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership (HLL), Marguerite Laurent...
wants CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY (CARICOM) leaders meeting here for their 15th inter-sessional meeting, to call for the 'unequivocal' reinstatement of the deposed Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his Government.

more from DOGSPOT

2004-03-26T12:31:00.000-08:00

ACLU Challenges Free Speech Zones

Around the country, protesters say they have found themselves put in "free speech zones" at Bush appearances, out of sight of the president and the reporters covering him.
The ACLU has sued to stop the zones, which led to the conviction last month of South Carolina activist Brent Bursey, who refused to take his protest sign half a mile from a Bush visit in Columbia. He's appealing the decision.

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DOGSPOT UK

2004-03-19T12:20:00.000-08:00

US Gunfire Increases Toll of Arab Journalists

BAGHDAD (IHT 03-19)
A reporter for the Arab satellite television station Al Arabiya died from his wounds Friday after U.S. soldiers shot him hours earlier along with a cameraman, who died at the scene. The death brought to five the number of journalists killed in Iraq in less than 24 hours.

"There are so many things that are untrue that are being reported by irresponsible journalists and ... television stations, particularly like al-Jazeera and al-Arabia," he said, adding that the Iraqi people are being given an unbalanced picture "of what is happening in their country."
Donald Rumsfeld 11-03-2003

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2004-03-19T10:33:00.000-08:00

Justice Department Appeals Detainment Ruling

The Justice Department urged the court to overturn an appellate ruling that found President Bush had exceeded his constitutional authority in detaining Jose Padilla, an American citizen who the government contends has links to Al Qaeda.
''The ultimate issue,'' Ms. Newman said in an interview, ''is whether the president has the authority to order the military to detain a U.S. citizen captured on U.S. soil outside a zone of battle and to deny him access to a court to review the legality of that detention.''

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2004-03-19T10:31:00.000-08:00

Senate Probes Backing of Haitian Insurgents

The DOD has supplied 20,000 M-16s and other equipment to the Dominican military over the past two years. Was the Dominican Republic being used as a staging ground for weapons transfers and coup plotting?

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2004-03-16T12:01:00.000-08:00

Report from An American In Venezuela

The conflict in Venezuela began with a sucessful petition to recall 37 opponents of Hugo Chavez, with a response from his apponents for his recall...
The tendency of the opposition now seems to be towards the use of guns. When opposition leaders or adherents are detained with high-powered weapons, the media discredits the arrest and repeats reports that the guns were planted.
The opposition leaders urge their faithful to increase the resistance to a full-scaled rebellion, and the most virulent commentators insult the military for not staging a coup, something that seems very unlikely.

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2004-03-14T13:47:00.000-08:00

Today's Turmoil In Venezuela Explained

The conflict in Venezuela began with a sucessful petition to recall 37 opponents of Hugo Chavez, with a response from his apponents for his recall. It was Chavez himself who instituted the mechanism of the recall.

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brief
prints on one page

2004-03-12T15:50:00.000-08:00

Civil Rights or Fear and Loathing

The story of a free-for-all in Family Court reveals deeper legal issues.
Orangeburg, SC (03-11)

Michael Washington had quite a day according to this sheriff's report from Family Court: "A male subject was found in contempt of family court after he refused to take a paternity test...
Around 10:45 a.m., the situation turned edgy when Judge Nancy C. McLin of Summerville ordered him to submit to a DNA test.
"At which time, the subject advised he would not take the test," the report continues. "At that time, the judge found the suspect in contempt of court and ordered both deputies to arrest the subject. The subject began resisting arrest, stating he was not going to jail."
It broke loose then...

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2004-03-05T13:09:00.000-08:00

Haitian Rebels Have a History

Another figure to recently reemerge is Guy Philippe ...who fled Haiti in October 2000 after authorities discovered him plotting a coup ...
with others trained in Ecuador by US Special Forces during the 1991-1994 coup. Since that time, the Haitian government has accused Philippe of master-minding deadly attacks on the Police Academy and the National Palace in July and December 2001, as well as hit-and-run raids against police stations on Haiti's Central Plateau over the following two years.
"I believe that this is a group that is armed by, trained by, and employed by the intelligence services of the United States," Said Haiti's legal representative Ira Kurzban of Wednesday's coup when interviewed by Amy Goodman

2004-03-04T12:36:00.000-08:00

Interview with Aristide Confirms US Coup

“This is what I call a real coup d’état,” Aristide said. “This is an issue for all African Americans and Africans.”
“It’s like he is in jail, he said. He said he was kidnapped,” Waters said. She said Aristide had been threatened by U.S. diplomats who reportedly told the Haitian leader that if he failed to leave, Guy Phillippe, the rebel leader, would storm the palace and he would be killed.

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2004-03-03T12:23:00.000-08:00

Roger Noriega and the Haiti Contras

Dan Carpenter
Indianapolis Star (03-03)

An example of the "...Republican Party's diversity and Hispanic outreach, Roger Noriega was the State Department's chief negotiator in efforts to bring a satisfactory resolution to the unrest that threatened the presidency of Jean-Bertrand Aristide...
...Noriega has a history, and it fits with the entire sordid history of our relations with Haiti. He was chief of staff for then-Sen. Jesse Helms back when Helms was Aristide's most powerful enemy in the world.

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2004-02-29T15:14:00.000-08:00

U.S. policy toward Cuba is dominated by one man, a scandal-plagued Cold War relic who has no business being President Bush's chief adviser on Latin America.
That's what U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, has to say about Otto Reich.

2004-02-24T16:58:00.000-08:00

American policy on Haiti in the last 10 years has gone from one extreme to another. The Clinton administration strongly supported the ousted president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, sending 20,000 troops in 1994 to restore him to power. The current administration then cut off all American assistance to the Aristide government while giving advice and moral support to Aristide's opponents. more

2004-02-17T15:57:00.000-08:00

US Backed Contras in Haiti

Even as Colin Powell insists the USA does not seek “regime change,” the attempt to oust the legitimate elected government of Jean Bertrand Aristide grows more violent by the day. During the past week, at least 50 people have been slaughtered, and probably far more, in Gonaives, Haiti’s fourth-largest city - most by those whom Powell and pro-USA media call “rebels...

2004-01-16T15:35:00.000-08:00

Bonfire of the Vanities

Last week, Brent Bursey was fined $500 for protesting outside of an established "free speech zone". Considering his long record of civil disobedience dating back to the 60s, this isn't surprising. The verdict by U.S. Magistrate Bristow Marchant does send a message that may surprise those who contend, like Bursey, that "the whole of America is a free speech zone". Yes we should take our dissent to the free speech zone. This may indeed be our obligation. People who fail to participate in the political process get the government they deserve. For them, the Bill of Rights was an excercise in vanity.

2004-01-16T14:42:00.000-08:00

Brent Bursey's A Stand Up Kind of Guy

Brent Bursey's trial for protesting outside of a "free speech zone" was ignored by the media. South Carolina's Home Page covers the results of his trial. Some say he ended up as the ONLY PERSON standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Given the current emphasis at "The State" I would say that he was standing in EXACTLY the right place. Thanks to the Advice Goddess, Amy Alkon, for bringing this to my attention with a clip from David Rensin's Blog.
Ok dave, Tell Me Everything.

2003-12-19T15:17:00.000-08:00

Who Paid for the War in Miami

$8.5-million spent on security during the FTAA meeting came directly out of the $87-billion Bush extracted from Congress for Iraq last month
A partial chronology of reports is archived here.
Naomi Klien provides a thorough analysis at www.nologo.org

2003-12-10T18:57:00.000-08:00

US Seeks CAFTA Agreement Amidst Protests

Protesters chain themselves together near the Mayflower Hotel, where talks about free trade with Central America are being held. Seven were arrested at the demonstration, which was arranged by Act Up, an AIDS activist group.
(James A. Parcell -- The Washington Post)

2003-12-04T18:55:00.000-08:00

Bush Abandons Protectionist Folly
To the connoisseur of protectionist folly, Mr Bush’s double-digit steel tariffs always seemed a bit retro— a throwback to the days when protectionists were unapologetic and unabashed. Thursday’s decision, then, brings the president’s outmoded trade policy back into vogue.
(12-04) The Economist Global Agenda more




Full Story

2003-11-25T14:24:00.000-08:00

New Threat to Ecuadoran Rainforest

"they're still doing things that would never even be contemplated
in the United States, Europe or any of the industrialized world,"
said Kenny Bruno, with EarthRights International

(11-24) Houston Chronicle

Houston-based Burlington Resources has plans to explore the region for oil, despite widespread opposition from local indigenous groups. Burlington and an Argentine company hold rights to explore a combined area of nearly 1 million acres.
That's an area about two-thirds the size of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, another sensitive region oil companies have eyed for exploration. The Ecuadorian rainforest happens to be closer to Houston. But because this controversy is unfolding in a foreign country, it has gone largely ignored by the U.S. media.
full story at Amazon Watch

2003-11-20T17:04:00.000-08:00

Miami Bankers Use Riot Police for FTAA Agenda

(11-20) 14:21 PST MIAMI (AP) --

Police in riot gear fired rubber bullets and tear gas and used batons, plastic shields, concussion grenades and stun guns in clashes Thursday with hundreds(?!) of demonstrators protesting talks aimed at creating a hemisphere-wide free-trade zone.

The Miami police are now indescrimately firing rubber bullets into the crowd of protesters in Miami while IMF bankers from 34 nations take part in Free Trade Area of the Americas talks. Estimates of the crowd and environment vary widely. It would seem at first blush that the forces deployed according to Ken Thomas's AP story are a bit unreasonable for a crowd of several hundred. Sounds nore like the Kremlin's response the the riots of 1968 in Prague. Information is being sent via webcast, live from the scene. Here are the mirrors from http://dc.indymedia.org:

listen: live coverage from ftaa resistance radio [ mirrors 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 ]
escucha en la radio de resistencia contra el alca [ mirrors 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 ]

2003-11-20T14:10:00.000-08:00

Who Supplies Oregon Farm Labor?

"Many farmers hire labor contractors who will bring to this country Mexican laborers who are paid by the piece or pound or basket.." No mention of this on the web, although it is a thriving practice among respectable businessmen in Salem, Oregon*.
background

*pop. 136,924, 2000 census

2003-11-19T13:41:00.000-08:00

Classified Report Reveals Status of Iraqi Resistance

9:50am Dodge City Globe
the Philadelphia Inquirer got hold of a highly classified Central Intelligence Agency report warning that an increasing number of Iraqis believe that the insurgents can defeat the American-led forces

This assessment reportedly was signed by the CIA station chief in Baghdad and L. Paul Bremer III, leader of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. The picture of chaos was advanced by the sudden summoning of Bremer to Washington for urgent consultations. He was sent back to Baghdad with instructions to speed up the transfer of power from the CPA to the Iraqi Governing Council (the U.S.-selected body that Iraqis regarded as dishonest dupes, according to surveys).

Full Story

2003-11-17T16:49:00.000-08:00

One Computer, One Vote

Like in days of yore, political battles will now be decided by champions. One computer, one vote. No more worries about counting the paper ballots...

California Travesty

2003-11-10T14:30:00.001-08:00

Ashcroft and Rove Subpoened by Activist

Bursey told police he had been under the impression that the whole of America
was a free speech zone

Long-time anti-war activist Brent Bursey, 55, sent subpoenas to Attorney General Ashcroft and Karl Rove to appear at his trial next week...
Bursey was arrested in South Carolina last year for holding a sign that read "No More War For Oil." while awaiting George Bush's arrival at Columbian Metropolitan Airport. He was charged with trespassing, although he was on public property, because he had not been standing in the free-speech zone* specially designated for protesters.
Indymedia coverage

*The concept of the "Free Speech zone was designed to silence the hostility of the American populace expected at the inaugural parade after the "Selection" of 2000.

2003-11-10T13:25:00.000-08:00

Steel Tariffs Violate International Trade Laws

retaliatory sanctions are understood to have been...
calculated to hurt states crucial to President Bush's re-election prospects.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) said today that controversial tariffs applied by the US on steel imports stood in violation of international trade rules.
Pascal Lamy, the EU trade commissioner, last week warned that if the US did not drop the steel tariffs, retaliation of up to $2.2bn of punitive duties on US goods would be "a racing certainty in mid-December".

full story from the London Times

2003-10-31T13:02:00.000-08:00

US Hunts for Secret Base Near Saddam's Birthplace

UJA, Iraq 12:16PM(AP)
Facing an increasing tide of attacks, American soldiers Friday cordoned off the village where Saddam Hussein was born."There are ties leading to this village, to the funding and planning of attacks against U.S. soldiers," said Lt. Col. Steve Russell, a battalion commander in nearby Tikrit.
(REAL AUDIO CLIP)

BREAKING NEWS

2003-10-30T14:21:00.000-08:00

Privatization Draws Protest in Panama

(10-30) 13:44 PST PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) -- Thousands of teachers and other workers staged a strike and closed streets in protest. more on the wire

2003-10-28T15:21:00.000-08:00

Newspaper editor fatally shot in Mosul

(10-28) 09:10 PST MOSUL, Iraq (AP) --
Two men followed Ahmed Shawkat, editor of the independent "Without Direction," to the roof -- where he went to make a phone call -- and one of them shot him, police said. On April 2 of this year, the San Francisco Chronicle provided a brief history of his clashes with the Baathist party: "His uneasy relations with authority took a fateful turn after the 1968 revolution that brought the Baath Party to power. Ahmed, a freshman at the university in his hometown, Mosul, joined an underground opposition network." But as of now, we don't know exactly what precipitated his demise. According to his daughter:
"He used to write against the resistance, against the Americans, against the local government and the former government. He had integrity," the daughter said. "Obviously some people didn't like the fact that he ... had a view and a principle."

2003-10-28T14:33:00.000-08:00

How can this be?

Bush says economy shows 'strength' as Wall Street awaits Fed decision
(AFP via Yahoo!) Tue 20:47 GMT
Tuesday's stock markets higher as U.S. Fed decides to leave rates at 45-year lows
(Canadian Press via Canada.com) Tue 20:39 GMT
The Canadian press already knows and Bush is still waiting? Helen Thomas might have a clue:
"I glance at the headlines just to kind of (get) a flavor of what's moving," Bush said. "I rarely read the stories," he said.

2003-10-27T14:39:00.000-08:00

Why The US Public Has No Clue

If local libraries took their mission statements a bit more seriously, perhaps we'd have less of a problem. The Economist which has recently been so valuable to
Fresh Green Blog
is NOT made readily available to the public very effectively. More about this issue in Moss Blog along with carping about the general paucity of public services in Oregon, in spite of expenditures that are most likely adequate.

Policy # 4110 POL
(excerpt)

Cooperate with other organizations including other member libraries of the Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service for more effective utilization of resources.

2003-10-23T13:42:00.000-07:00

An Overview of the Latin American Economy Rawle Farley

"...agricultural labor productivity should increase with the transfer of excess labor from agriculture to industry."
But this does not happen with a gas pipeline.
That is the problem in Bolivia today.

2003-10-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

$5 Trillion American Dollars Can't Be Wrong

Privacy World says: To help keep your assets away from the sharks, we are offering an offshore bank account, in a privacy friendly country with Internet banking and an ATM card for just US$500.

2003-10-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

Small US military team sent to Bolivia

WASHINGTON (AFP) Oct 17, 2003

The US military has sent a small team to Bolivia to advise the US Embassy amid spiraling unrest against the government of President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, a US defense official said Friday.

background and details

2003-10-14T16:58:00.000-07:00

"... more than $800 billion of American money is on deposit in just one tax haven, the Cayman Islands." Global Policy Forum Archives

2003-10-14T15:58:00.000-07:00

Food for Thought

"what's in the newspapers worth worrying about? I glance at the headlines just to kind of (get) a flavor of what's moving," Bush said. "I rarely read the stories," "...Instead, Bush is spoon-fed the relevant news from his staff. Top aides usually know the buttons not to push when it comes to bad news. ", writes Helen Thomas: "...Jefferson is remembered for saying he "would rather have newspapers without government than government without newspapers."

2003-10-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

ARCHIVE PUBLISHES PERU HUMAN RIGHTS DOCUMENTS

on August 28, 2003
"...the National Security Archive posted on the Web
33 of the most important declassified U.S. documents
used by the Commission in its work"

2003-10-04T17:02:00.000-07:00

in a letter to secretary of state Colin Powell on Dec. 19, 2002, representatives of the national security archive wrote:

"...Now, three months past the promised delivery date, the State Department has yet to release the material to the Peruvian Truth Commission, whose strict deadline is rapidly approaching.... (The Commission’s collection of information stage will be over at the end of January, while their final report is due by July 2003.)"

2003-10-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

Cheney enjoys "a slice of the pie" at the Pentagon with fellow ideologue Donald Rumsfeld

2003-10-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

Haliburton Awarded Massive Iraqi Oil Reconstruction Deal "Cheney's friends at Haliburton were awarded a massive contract to help rebuild Iraq after the war was done. Bush requested 16 Billion to pay for the reconstruction...."

2003-09-26T15:18:00.000-07:00

GREGG PALAST STRIKES GOLD
Greg palst, famed for his daring coverage of the theft of Florida in the 2000 selection seems to have the full story of the Bush-Mulroney Gold connection in the can. Here's a short excert from his new book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (Penguin/Plume, 2003)
"Some of the loot for the Republican effort in the 1997-2000 election cycles came from an outfit called Barrick Corporation. The sum, while over $100,000, is comparatively small change for the GOP, yet it seemed quite a gesture for a corporation based in Canada. Technically, the funds came from those associated with the Canadian’s U.S. unit, Barrick Gold Strike. They could well afford it. In the final days of the Bush (Senior) administration, the Interior Department made an extraordinary but little noticed change in procedures under the 1872 Mining Law, the gold rush-era act that permitted those whiskered small-time prospectors with their tin pans and mules to stake claims on their tiny plots. The department initiated an expedited procedure for mining companies that allowed Barrick to swiftly lay claim to the largest gold find in America. In the terminology of the law, Barrick could “perfect its patent” on the estimated $10 billion in ore—for which Barrick paid the U.S. Treasury a little under $ 10,000. Eureka!
FULL STORY

2003-09-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

Two years later, the bombing in Afganistan continues.

2003-09-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

... and the Oil War (WW 4, as the neo-conservatives call it) marches on. Here's another brief review of unresolved issues:
"It would be a mistake to assume that the only motivation for the war in Afghanistan is oil. The whole agenda of military and business interests in the region and the continuing necessity to prop-up an arcane military Keynesianism, especially through the expenditure of funds for weapons, however immoral and in violation of international law, is of paramount importance to the military-industrial complex running this country." Dr. Fran Shor, Michigan Coalition on Human Rights Published on Sunday, November 25, 2001 The War for Oil Subtext in Afghanistan by Fran Shor A recent article in the "Washington Post" provided a brief but revealing portrait of the role of US Special Forces in Afghanistan. The story was not about searching out Bin Laden and his followers in the caves of Afghanistan. Instead, the "Post" reported on a US Special Forces operation aimed at interdicting and destroying Iranian oil shipments to Afghan cities. According to the report, the trucks carrying the oil were destroyed by the camouflaged and goggled-eyed soldiers. Shouting "terrorists" at the frightened Iranian truck-drivers, the Special Forces handcuffed the drivers and led them away from where the trucks were then blown to bits. Although not harmed physically, the Iranians were completely baffled by why they were targets of such an attack, especially given the alleged civilian customers. The reader of the story might also be baffled as to why US Special Forces would conduct such an operation. Certainly, one could argue from the Pentagon's perspective that delivering precious fuel to potential Taliban supporters would constitute an important target. Of course, acknowledging that military targets encompass fuel supplies raises questions about how precise and restricted these military targets are. In fact, the Pentagon has conducted its military campaign in Afghanistan with weapons (e.g., cluster bombs) and targets (e.g. power stations) that put civilians, in particular, at risk. But, then, the larger question remains: "Why Iranian oil trucks?" What does Iranian oil, or indeed, any oil have to do with the war in Afghanistan? Simply put, the answer is that one of the primary subtexts for the Bush Administration's war in Afghanistan has been to guarantee control over the oil flow and reserves in Central Asia. Such intervention in this region is not new. In fact, when the popularly elected Dr. Mohammed Mossadeq threatened to nationalize Iranian oil in 1953, US and British secret services conspired in overthrowing him and restoring the Shah to power. Then, the political rationale for this intervention was the "communist" threat. So, Cold War ideology became a convenient cover for what would become an oil bonanza for Standard and Gulf. It's also not surprising that one of the key CIA operatives at the time in Iran, Kermit Roosevelt, later became an executive with Gulf Oil. Protection of US oil interests became a consuming matter to a host of Administrations. The so-called Carter doctrine, based on President Carter's State of the Union address in 1980 in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution made clear that an "attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf will be regarded by an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force." The presence and build-up by the Carter, Reagan, and Bush Administrations of the US military in the region was, of course, not viewed as an "outside force," at least not by the client Gulf states whose corrupt and undemocratic regimes were willing partners in the oil business and even more willing clients for Pentagon products and forces. As long as Iraq was a willing junior partner in its war with Iran, the US willingly fed Saddam Hussein all the heinous weapons that he turned against the Kurds and other inhabitants of Iraq. Only when Iraq threatened Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and talked about taking its petrodollars elsewhere did the Bush Administration raise its concern about stability in the region and US vital interests. Obviously, other geopolitical matters and internal politics in the US were part of the subtext for the Gulf War. But it's no surprise that the Gulf War was quickly labeled a war for oil by opponents of Bush's policies in the region and gained some resonance with the general population in the US. Unfortunately, the corporate media, submitting rather pliantly to government censorship, had little interest in probing the connections between the politics of oil and the Bush Administration. Now with another Bush Administration in Washington, but with many of the same players, including those with obvious oil connections like VP Dick Cheney, and another war in the region, there needs to be some analysis of the politics of oil. The "Post" article gives no inkling of the oil connections. Nor should one expect to find those linkages in the corporate media. However, when one turns to alternative media sources and the internet, an interesting history comes to light - a history focused in particular around the role of the Unocal Oil company. Unocal has been actively engaged in doing business with repressive regimes throughout the world in their search for oil and natural gas reserves. From connections to military dictatorships in Burma and Indonesia, Unocal spread its oily tentacles throughout the third world. Having been part of a consortium of US oil firms exploring potential gas and oil reserves in Central Asia, Unocal turned its attention to Afghanistan in the late 1990's. Not averse to doing business with the Taliban, Unocal unsuccessfully tried to induce the Taliban as late as last summer into making a deal for a major oil pipeline across the country. When the talks broke off, there were rumblings in Washington that the Taliban would have to make way for a more pliable government. It's important to stress that Unocal, like many Washington policymakers, was willing to do business with the Taliban and turn a blind eye to their outrageous human rights abuses. More importantly, Unocal was fishing around for Washington to assert its power in the region to get a more pliable government in Afghanistan. Appearing before the House International Relations Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific in February of 1998, John J. Maresca, Unocal's VP for International Relations asserted: "From the outset, we have made it clear that the construction of our proposed pipeline cannot begin until a recognized government is in place that has the confidence of our government, lenders, and our company." Maresca went on to urge "the Administration and Congress to give strong support to the UN-Led peace process in Afghanistan." Now that the Bush Administration through its military campaign has devastated an already brutalized country, the touting on a new non-Taliban government has become a key political objective and the UN is offering its services to help broker a new government in Afghanistan. Of course, neither the UN nor any other international agency was utilized by the Bush Administration to seek an alternative to the war in Afghanistan. Working through the World Court on the newly developed International Criminal Court (which the US has spurned) would have been impossible given the track record of Washington in these matters. Even when the Taliban offered to give up Bin Laden to a third country, Washington rejected this and pursued its nearly unilateral military campaign. With this larger context in mind, the US Special Forces operation against Iranian oil shipments to Afghanistan becomes less murky. Furthermore, Bush's executive orders to prevent release of the presidential papers of his father's Administration and the Reagan Administration and the use of secret military tribunals against terrorist networks also takes on a new perspective. A cover-up of connections to the politics of oil, including the financial involvement of the Bin Laden family interests in Saudi Arabia, is an obvious subtext in all of this. It would be a mistake to assume that the only motivation for the war in Afghanistan is oil. The whole agenda of military and business interests in the region and the continuing necessity to prop-up an arcane military Keynesianism, especially through the expenditure of funds for weapons, however immoral and in violation of international law, is of paramount importance to the military-industrial complex running this country. Until the people wake up to the message contained in Eisenhower's farewell address, we will face unending wars made by Washington policymakers. Warning against the "unwarranted influence" of the "military-industrial complex," Eisenhower prophesied about the "potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power." In this two front war at home and abroad, we are witnesses to the misplaced power of the Bush Administration. Before there are more victims of such megalomanical Washington policymakers, we need to recall another Eisenhower prophecy, albeit paraphrased: Some day the people of this country will get so tired of the warmakers that they will rise up and get rid of them. With so many lives in the balance, can we afford to wait any longer? Fran Shor is a Professor at Wayne State University and a member of the Michigan Coalition on Human Rights. He can be reached at f.shor@wayne.edu.

2003-09-12T15:50:00.000-07:00

for the sake of historical reference, an brief tutorial on the WEF published shortly before their 2001 meeting

The World Economic Forum is, in a way, a big cocktail party for the global corporate elite. In their own words, "they are fully engaged in the process of defining and advancing the global agenda." More specifically, it's our globe, but it's their agenda. From Jan. 31-Feb. 4, the World Economic Forum (WEF) will be meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan for it's annual summit. Alexander Downer, who attended the 1998 Summit, describes the Summit as the world's 'Business Olympics'. The yearly meeting, usually held at WEF headquarters in Davos, Switzerland, was rescheduled to meet in New York as a token of support for the injuries our city sustained on September 11th. The WEF is, in a way, a big cocktail party for the global corporate elite. As an organization, it has no power to actually set policy, but it creates a space in which international "leaders" can hash out their vision for the rest of us. In their own words, "they are fully engaged in the process of defining and advancing the global agenda." More specifically, it's our globe, but it's their agenda. The Forum was born in 1971 as a yearly 'European Management Forum' of Euro-corporates. It was funded by the European Commission until 1987, when it became the WEF and started to claim global reach. Its membership reflects its class orientation, and includes the most prominent transnational corporations, 1000 of which make up the WEF 'Foundation Members'. In addition, there is a club of 'Global Growth Companies'; 300 'Industry Governors'; 300 Global Leaders of Tomorrow'; 'World Economic Leaders' from both politics and business; 'World Media Leaders' from 100 media groups; 100 'World Cultural Leaders'; and 'Forum Fellows' from academia and the heads of national economic research organizations. The WEF aspires to be an agenda-setting Forum. It is, in its own modest opinion, 'the foremost global partnership of business, political, intellectual and other leaders of society committed to improving the state of the world'. With the diffusion of neo-liberalism, and consequent advances in corporate globalization from the 1980s, the WEF has taken on an unprecedented role as a rallying point for global elites, and as a vehicle for class power. Clearly the WEF can't set the agenda and certainly can't determine the outcomes - it is not a conspiratorial cabal standing over society. Rather, it is a class grouping, fully embedded in social relations, that self-consciously takes on the role of planning for collective class interests. It seeks to influence the political agendas and respond to the prevailing challenges - and in this respect, as Kees van der Pijl argues, it is the first 'true International of capital'. The Forum has been remarkably successful - since 1971 the 'state of the world' has dramatically improved for many of the participating corporations. WEF strategizing drove the neo-liberal agenda in the 1980's, bringing together politicians from the 'pretender' states of the newly industrializing world, as well as from the OECD states, to map out an agenda with transnational business executives. It offered a proactive forum, removed from the public gaze, and played a central role in diffusing neo-liberalism. The model was presented as the solution to the crises of accumulation experienced in the 1970s and early 1980s, and was highly effective in extending the reign of the market. This success has come at the price of built-in uncertainty and instability. Globalized neo-liberalism had led to a dramatic redrawing of the boundaries of capitalism (or rather, an unbounding of capitalism altogether). Temporal boundaries have melted away with the speeding up of circulation; spatial boundaries have been superceded with the growing transnational reach of corporations; even socio-psychological boundaries have lifted, with the increased commodification of life. A newly empowered transnational capitalist class has emerged triumphant, presiding over the new landscapes of accumulation. But class hegemony is by no means assured - uncharted territory imposes incalculable risk. Speeding circulation compresses business cycles; confidence rests on ephemera; ideological symbols are presented as so-called 'fundamentals'; frenzied speculation rules. Corporate transnationalism exhausts social and physical environments; deeper commodification disassembles social solidarity and generates powerful imperatives for cultural survival, often carried through the new modes of social communication. As a result, since at least the mid 1990s, neo-liberal prescriptions have been widely discredited (just look at the present crisis in Argentina). Exponential rises in executive salaries, and in corporate accumulation, along with a dramatic concentration of economic power across all sectors, offer clear evidence of the success of neo-liberalism as a class strategy. But neo-liberal globalization has also brought unprecedented levels of global inequality, and undreamed-of degrees of financial instability, environmental exhaustion and social dislocation. The neo-liberal triumph has created new sources of opposition, the impacts and responses have been unrelenting, and advocates have been forced to go on the defensive. The high water mark was 1995, when the OECD declared it was marking out a 'global vision for the year 2020, a New Global Age'. But already a political revival, inspired by social democratic ideas, and expressed in a new form of social liberalism sometimes described as the 'Third Way', was sweeping the OECD. As neo-liberal prescriptions have unraveled, there has been an urgent revision of the WEF's neo-liberal project. The WEF has left behind its market fundamentalism, and now is charting a new agenda for corporate globalism, one that embraces rather than rejects 'the social'. The massed ranks of analysts, consultants and advisers, from credit ratings agencies, management consultancies, inter-governmental institutions and non-government organizations, have entered the fray, battling to define the new accumulation paradigm. There are continuing efforts to enhance 'market discipline', to suppress the advancing crises, to institutionalize transnational class power, and render neo-liberal globalism irreversible. Yet there is also deepening dissent amongst policy-making groups. There is a rethinking of neo-liberalism even amongst the most elite institutions: as Hans-Peter Martin and Herald Schuman demonstrate, many of the most powerful players in global capitalism are questioning the 'dictatorship of the market'. Primary advocates and beneficiaries of neo-liberal globalism, such as George Soros and Ted Turner, both of whom had embarked on paternalist interventions - the imaginatively branded 'Soros Foundation' and 'Turner Foundation' - began expressing sincere regrets at the social costs of neo-liberalism. Other elements, as van der Pijl highlights, went further and increasingly have been rethinking and explicitly 'mobilizing against yesterday's prescriptions'. These have much wider ramifications, potentially enabling 'a deepening of democracy, a reappropriation of the public sphere by the population, and eventually a more fundamental transformation away from class society'. Recent developments have only strengthened the leverage of this dissenting segment. Institutional crises of legitimacy have accumulated, with the OECD shelving its 'Multilateral Agreement on Investment' in 1998, the temporary ditching of the World Trade Organization's 'Millenium Round' in 1999, and the advancing crisis in the International Monetary Fund's global regime of 'structural adjustment'. Add into the equation the continuing crisis in 'transitional' post-communist societies, especially Russia, and the severe jolt delivered to the 'Newly Industrializing countries' of East Asia by financial 'contagion' in 1997-8, and the impending bursting of the infotainment bubble, then the challenges to neo-liberalism begin to seem irresistible. Expressing this, there have been the dramatic public explosions against neo-liberal globalization: Geneva 1996, Cologne 1998, Seattle 1999, Washington 2000, Montreal and Genoa 2001. For the first time in many years, 'anti-capitalist' protest has returned to the capitalist heartland, and to the global stage. These protests open up the ideological space for the articulation of alternative guiding principles, putting on the agenda the possibility of transformation away from the current malaise. As the promotion of capitalist discipline is questioned, protest targeted at the agents of neo-liberal globalization gains remarkable political leverage. In this political climate WEF meetings start to take on a special significance. Since 1996 the WEF has attracted increasingly militant opposition, and it has responded by attempting to re-chart the neo-liberal project. The WEF response is to deliberately avoid the appearance of backroom strategizing, and instead to seek a higher public profile, attempting to reground its legitimacy by being seen to engage with prominent advocates of the emerging alternatives. The WEF is thus placing itself at the center of debates about the revision of neo-liberalism, asserting that it can play 'important role in forging the new geometry'. Reflecting this, the WEF has reached out to those 'excluded' by neo-liberal globalization - notably non-OECD governments, such as Mexico and South Africa, and critical Non-Government Organizations, such as the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). At Davos in 1998 Hillary Clinton argued the role of NGOs and other representatives of 'civil society' had to be enhanced, while John Sweeney, from the AFL-CIO, focused on issues of distribution, arguing markets had to 'work for the majority and not simply for the few'. In 1999 Vice-President Al Gore appeared with Kofi Annan, who appealed for a 'global compact' between business and the UN founded on 'core values in the areas of human rights, labor standards, and environmental practices'. In 2000 President Clinton shared the Millennial limelight - somewhat blurred by Seattle - with Tony Blair. Davos policy debates are now couched in terms of 'institutional accommodation', 'corporate responsibility' and 'global dialogue', with sessions in 2000 on 'responsible globality', 'inclusive prosperity' and 'sustainable development'. Perhaps most cynically, the WEF's 'World Competitiveness Scorecard' - a yearly league-table of 'how national environments are conducive or detrimental to the domestic and global competitiveness of enterprises' - was supplemented by an 'Environmental Sustainability Index' at Davos 2000. At the same time, as Jane Kelsey highlights, a new 'World Economic Community' internet link-up between 10,000 key economic decision-makers -an internet 'hotline' for concertizing corporate responses - is being constructed. The contest is on to establish a revised normative and institutional framework for the global economy. The WEF is claiming a central role in shaping the agenda, and some, such as the ICFTU, are participants in the process, taking heart in the WEF's apparent willingness to become an advocate of 'globalization with a human face'. But the key question is whether the WEF should be permitted to drive this agenda. Should a forum that is dominated by corporate interests be encouraged to take on the role of mapping out future frameworks for global governance? Should it be granted recognition and legitimacy in this agenda-setting process? Or, rather, should its role be challenged, and alternative sources of legitimacy be asserted? There was a telling moment at Davos 2000 when the assembled executives refused to vacate the conference chamber to enable a security check before Clinton's speech. The US President's Security Service was forced to back down after a corporate 'sit-in'. Clinton's speech went ahead: even the President of the US has to respect the wishes of the corporate club. Perhaps he should have joined the 1000 protestors outside the conference venue, and joined the democratic movement against corporate power. There will be similar protests outside New York summit of the WEF later this month. In 1999 the summit lobbied for regional governments to back the coming WTO 'Millennium Round', arguing that trade liberalization was inevitable and needed to be extended into 'free and fair competition, protecting intellectual property and foreign investment'. In 2002 we can expect much rhetoric about inclusiveness and sustainability. There will be plenty of ironic moments and opportunities to politicize globalized neo-liberalism. Sources: Kelsey, Jane, 2000, Reclaiming the Future, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington; Martin, Hans-Peter and Schumann, Harald, 1997, The Global Trap, Pluto, Sydney; Kees van der Pijl, 1998, Transnational classes and international relations, Routledge, London. The website of the World Economic Forum: http://www.weforum.org James Goodman, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia, Tel: 9514 2714, Fax: 9514 2332, Email: james.goodman@uts.edu.au

2003-09-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

Lori Berenson is still in prison. A sad reminder of a lesson we haven't learned well enough from the days of Huey Newton: in order to remain effective as a challenge to the established order, you must not allow the Centurions to lay hold of your body. In the early years of Lori's imprisonment, she wouldn't be able to write to us. Here's the latest from her website as of Aug 23 (previous post, below)

2003-09-12T14:41:00.000-07:00

Assorted Thoughts on Truth, Lies, and Paradoxes However absurd this may sound, recently it is very common that we hear the truth labeled as lies and lies claimed to be the truth. According to Peru's Ministry of Economy, Peru has the greatest economic growth in the region. What is not said is that there is also an increased growth of poverty and misery. It is interesting that those leaders who always refer to "democracy" and "defense of human rights" when referring to their own countries are the same who vengefully and cruelly carry out and then justify the most objectionable violations of fundamental rights elsewhere. Here in the Peruvian media, so-called "experts" are quoted repeatedly to exhaustion that prisoners are leading subversive actions outside of the prisons. This is simply not true. Even the Minister of the Interior has said this is not true. But this has not stopped the media from continuing to promote and sensationalize these falsehoods. And these falsehoods are burying political prisoners. This is a world in which the dead, instead of being buried, are mistreated, humiliated, and exhibited as war trophies on CNN. Favorite photos are close-ups of heaps of motionless bodies stacked like wood and condemned to humiliating anonymity. However, the living are indeed buried, some in immaculate tombs of cement and iron, tombs with bars that close more and more each day over their bodies that still breathe, that still feel, that still think. Others are buried under the weight of poverty, hunger, and injustice. As if their impunity wasn't enough, there are Latin-American ex-presidents who are organizing political parties, standing on the top of a stage constructed with bricks of abuse, death, and impunity and built with the mortar of their violations of human rights. These are just a few examples of daily news stories in this paradoxical world in which corporate globalization means economic growth that only a very few experience, while the majority suffer the globalization of misery. Watching the campaign against Peru's Commission of Truth and Reconciliation, the impudence of those who committed crimes against humanity, like Rioss Montt in Guatemala and Fujimori in Per?, while the dead are denied a decent burial and those alive are being buried deeper, one finds a common denominator in lies, arrogance, impossible and inhuman contradictions in detriment to humanity. Lori Berenson Huacariz Prison Cajamarca, Peru August 23, 2003

2002-04-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

Once again, Naomi Klein attempts to make sense of our fragmented global realities:
"...in Washington D.C. last weekend... a demonstration against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund was joined by an anti-war march, as well as a demonstration against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. In the end, all the marches joined together in what organizers described as the largest Palestinian solidarity demonstration in U.S. history, 75,000 people by police estimates...
On Sunday night, I turned on my television in the hopes of catching a glimpse of this historic protest. I saw something else instead: triumphant Jean-Marie Le Pen celebrating his new found status as the second most popular political leader in France.
There is no connection whatsoever between French fascism and the "free Palestine" marchers... ...it is possible to criticize Israel while forcefully condemning the rise of anti-Semitism."
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2002-04-15T14:44:00.000-07:00

"The face of homelessness has changed over the years. More and more families are finding themselves without housing or enough money left for food..." Sonja Sorensen watched me visit the "Union Gospel Mission" after my successful interview..

2002-04-11T14:28:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal provides yet another insight into the scams being played by large industries in the aftermath of 911: "higher premiums...
...businesses hundreds of miles away from New York City now face the legacy of a decade of imprudence among insurers". And all of them are trying to mislead the public into believing it's die to 911. Yeah, right.

2002-04-05T07:50:00.000-08:00

How Gannett Manipulates the Labor PoolI spoke with Sonja Sorenson today about the abrupt withdrawal of my job offer at the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon. They called me later, while my urine was flying to Minneappolis, to state that they decided to give the job to someone else instead.

2002-04-05T07:49:00.000-08:00

"...We go to Ramallah hospital, ...where the Israelis attempted numerous times to go in and take who they wanted, but hospital staff and foreigners refused to let them in. Anyway, we went there to pick up our reporter and cameraman who were there to tape the burial of numerous martyrs. The reason they were being buried on hospital grounds was because there was no more room in the morgue. Anyway, we are right in front of the hospital and it is packed with demonstrators and doctors and nurses and the ...Israelis start shooting at everyone. Firstly, the curfew had been lifted so we had every right to be out and secondly it was just media, peacekeepers and hospital staff. What the hell were they firing at???" More first-hand accounts of Israeli terrorism sponsored by US tax dollars

2002-04-04T15:54:00.000-08:00

It's time to put Salem's Statesman Journal on the map, along with the name of their new publisher, Sonja Sorenson for their blatantly unfair manipulation of labor. The story is unraveling as I type this, and I'll be sure to keep you posted.

2002-04-03T10:25:00.000-08:00

1545: An ambulance has just come under fire in Ramallah trying to get around IDF tanks and internationals and medical staff were told over a loudspeaker to stay inside the hospital and then the IDF proceeded to open live fire on the hospital. A CBS news television crew was forcibly escorted out of Ramallah by the IDF. As a result, the remaining news crews in the area are concerned that they too may be expelled from the area, a concern which is affecting their ability to cover breaking news to the best of their ability.
From IMC Jerusalem, until they disappear.

2002-03-29T02:34:00.000-08:00

What have we heard of Bush's trip to Peru? Last news was that he would once again broach the subject of Lori Berenson's continued imprisonment with the new "democratic" government in Peru. What has actually happened thus far is typical of his administration. He knows very well how to wave a friendly hello with his right hand while slashing with the switchblade in his left. Last week that dagger was wielded for him by an old "asset" known by the name of Dennis Jett, now ensconced, like so many former intelligence operatives, in the robes of academia. First, a little background about Dennis's reaction to a humanitarian delegation that went to Peru to visit Lori in 1999. Amy Goodman was with that group, from Office of The Americas, and they have a record of what transpired on their website at: (be sure you past this entire, very long URL into your browser, include everything within the quotes below) "http://www.officeoftheamericas.org/newsletter/9906_focus.html#OFFICE OF THE AMERICAS DELEGATION VISITS LORI" Here's an interesting excerpt: "After our visit we met with U.S. Ambassador Dennis Jett in Lima. He was very disturbed that we were admitted to the prison. He was worried that the prison director might lose her job for admitting us. His main concern was that the visit might upset Mr. Fujimori. The Ambassador was most grateful to Fujimori for allowing the United States to establish a military base on the Peru/Colombia border and for repaying Peru's debts to the World Bank. His concern for Lori seemed non-existent. Rather than be upset by the visit of six U.S. citizens to an unjustly imprisoned fellow citizen, would it not be proper for a U.S. Ambassador to demand her release, to question why such visits are not accepted, to ask why the press cannot talk to her, to ask why she cannot make a statement to anyone, to ask why her mail, both incoming and outgoing, is censored for any word that might be considered political? We are extremely disturbed by the lack of advocacy for Lori on the part of our government. The State Department and its representatives continue to speak of her in relationship to the activity of the MRTA rebels. She is not a member and has never been a member of this organization. She spoke to members of this organization, however, while preparing articles for two U.S. magazines." The military base mentioned above has a dubious history worthy of further discussion: of immediate interest is that fact that the Dennis Jett has "has timed an intensely poisonous article against Lori in the widely read Washington Post to coincide with President Bush's trip to Perú". This is the same Dennis Jett who managed the distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars to SOA graduate Vladimero Montessinos, the virtual dictator of Peru during the Fujimori years. Lori's parents rebut his article at http://freelori.org. Jett's current employer, the University of Florida, trumpets the fact of his responsibility for the management of the vast resources I've mentioned above. Worthy of further exploration is the mysterious increase in extrajudicial killing and torture in Peru with the "restoration of democracy under Toledo". This is typical of the paradoxes we continue to witness under the thumb of fascism today. Approximately one year ago, baptist missionary Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter died in a plane shot down by Peruvian pilots under the guidance of US "advisors". Their mission originated at the military base mentioned in the quote above. When GWB was informed of this at the Summit of The Americas, he declared a moratorium on our air interdiction efforts in Peru. Even while he was making that pronouncement, his administration was sending the Andean Regional Initiative proposal to congress, asking for an additional billion dollars in funding for programs similar to the one that had resulted in deaths and injuries to US citizens. At least we can count on consistent behavior from our leaders, and I might add that the role of Dennis Jett as Dean of the International Center at UF is not atypical in our sadly subverted academic community today. Yours in Solidarity, David Roknich Visit our new Peace Festival Blog http://oregonpeacefestival.org/blog/forum.php Everyone can participate!

2002-03-27T23:12:00.000-08:00

Peace Festival Forum is beginning to get interesting, with some posts from local activists: "My PATRIOT FOR PEACE sign disturbed a gentleman Wednesday...

2002-03-27T15:19:00.000-08:00

better blogs: I like Blogger, and thnak them for the free hosting but the best blogs now allow visitor comments. I especially like the script Jeremy Ashcraft has been working on for the past year, which why I'm using it at the Peace Festival Site. Unlike blogger, you do have to mail your request to human beings..

2002-03-27T13:48:00.000-08:00

in addition to the new comment-capable blogs, check out the naomi klein interview in a quicktime video made during a speaking tour in norway last year. Fortunately, the interview is in english. But it does require thte newest version of (free) quicktime.

2002-01-17T06:47:00.000-08:00

Over 1,000 of the world's corporate leaders, along with top political and media representatives, will meet behind closed doors in New York City from January 31 to February 4 at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting. Meanwhile thousands of students, union members and activists plan to protest in what is expected to be the largest American anti-corporate globalization demonstration post-9/11.

2001-12-23T19:48:00.000-08:00

"The US and British governments say they are "reconciled to civilian deaths" in their war. They cold-bloodedly admit they will be killing people who had nothing to do with the attacks in New York and Washington. There is no sense of "humanity", of "mercy" or of "justice" in that - just the plainest hypocrisy." The best text I have read about why we need to mobilize to STOP BUSH'S WAR

2001-12-23T19:12:00.000-08:00

I'm beginning to practice the art of website defacement by starting on my own sites. My preference is bold red type right under the banner ad. Next thing you know, those brainwashed "war corespondents" on pubic radio will be calling this sort of thing "Terrism". Whoever brainwashed them obviously couldn't pronounce the word properly. Time to shake this country loose from the mass hypnosis that is recognized throughout the world a foaming-at-the-mouth war hysteria. I'm doing what I can, with a theatrical flair (or is that flare?). hehe....

2001-12-23T14:49:00.000-08:00

More opinion in the particular article than news, but soon we'll have some freshly translated reports from the revolution in Argentina: a revolution with profiund economic implications. Until then, from Indymedia we have: "The new provisionary president of Argentina, Adolfo Rodríguez Saá (Peronist) has been nominated by the Congress Assembly. The most important thing that Rodríguez Saá anounced in his speech was that Argentina will temporarily cease paying its foreign debt..."

2001-12-22T22:59:00.000-08:00

From the Bush Terrorist Archive Department "the CIA officially acknowledged... that the mastermind of the terrorist attack, Chilean intelligence chief Manuel Contreras, was a paid asset of the CIA. The new report was issued almost 24 years to the day after the murders of former Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and American co-worker Ronni Moffitt, who died on Sept. 21, 1976, when a remote-controlled bomb ripped apart Letelier's car as they drove down Massachusetts Avenue, a stately section of Washington known as Embassy Row."

2001-12-22T19:26:00.000-08:00

Who is running the War Machine with your tax dollars? Is this not taxation without representation? Oral Majority Online News from Florida... "...I want to put out a perception that exists. And simply: One, Gore won the state; and secondly, this state was stolen by Bush; and thirdly, we've become a scapegoat for the rest of the country that doesn't want to act on it. As if we're all a bunch of looney-toons, all a bunch of rip-offs. As if nobody here knows how to vote, and we're just an insane group of people. Quite honestly, of the 63 demonstrations, including one we've had right out in front of this building this morning. We get a completely different feedback from the grassroots community that is totally angry, and not letting go of this issue. ... and you are just looking at the tip of the iceberg...."Oral Majority Online

2001-11-29T09:32:00.000-08:00

The December issue of The Oregon Peaceworker is still at the printers, but you can read the entire paper online. In keeping with the needs of our time, the focus this month is on "What Pacifists Believe", featuring an interesting profile of "Anarchist Pacifist" Ammon Hennacy by our editor, Peter Bergel. If you have limited bandwidth, download page 2 for the index, and on page 22-23 you'll find our most recent announcements of events and actions.

2001-11-28T21:21:00.000-08:00

Word Up From Naomi Klein NoLogo" In recent weeks, there has been a severe crackdown on activists (reclassified as "terrorists") in Bolivia and Oscar Olivera has been arrested. This was a big mistake: Olivera has friends around the world and they will be bombarding the authorities with calls for the political charges to be dropped." Olivera is best known for leading the successful campaign of the Bolivian people to protect their water supply from privatization by the faceless multinational Bechtel. Time for us all to show our solidarity, details will follow shortly.

2001-11-25T13:49:00.000-08:00

" I would as soon leave my son a curse as the almighty dollar." Andrew Carnegie Born this day in 1835 Bartelby is an excellent source of quotes from the famous industrialist and philantropist: Their online library includes resources like The Columbia World of Quotations where Carnegie expounds further on the subject of wealth: "This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: First, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and, after doing so, to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community—the man of wealth thus becoming the mere trustee and agent for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves."

2001-11-24T16:10:00.000-08:00

Buy Nothing Several major stores were marched through, with chants such as “Shop, Shop, Shop, While the Bombs Drop” until store security escorted folks out..." during the "Buy Nothing Day" action in Portland Oregon. reports of this and more, archived where you can .be the news

Free News Area of the Americas

Consitututional amendment proposed to control corporate election spending in the US

BIrds in Quito

When Chevron came to Ecuador

Chevron in Ecuador

Peru: Vargas Llosa wins Nobel prize for literature

Ecuador: Rafael Correa will continue to lead

Peru lifts statute of limitations on crimes against humanity

Peruvian Novelist Protests Amnesty Decree

Alan Garcia will follow the path of Fujimori and Montesinos

DOGSPOT

Peru heads toward military dictatorship again

Unresolved Legacy of US Torture

DOGSPOT

The Economics of Mega-Hosting

DOGSPOT CONTINUES TO BITE

What do you mean by "neo-liberal policy of extraction"?

DOGSPOT

War Against the Poor Enters New Phase

DOGSPOT

Why is the UN Complicit in the Rape of Haiti?

Case Continues Against Rumsfeld in Chicago

DOGSPOT

End Torture and Detainment: Protest on January 11

New Lies Attempt to Smooth a Bad Week for Bush

Se viene la Cumbre, se viene la represión

La Fogata

Photos Prove CIA Undermined News Reports

DOGSPOT

Reagan Directive Foreshadowed Haiti Crisis

DOGSPOT

Coup Leaders Target Another Preist in Haiti

DOGSPOT

Haiti Snubs Habeas Corpus for Aristide Supporters

DOGSPOT

Chiquita Hunts for Exiled Colombian Journalist

Morales Gains Credibility in Bolivia

Experts Testify on "The Situation in Haiti"

Andre Apaid's Splendid Little Coup in Haiti

Ashcroft 911 Testimony Backfires

Jean-Bertrand Aristide Must Be Crazy

Bernard Gousse: Haiti's Minister of Injustice

Haiti: it has ever been thus

Aristide's Lawyers Respond to Coup with Lawsuits

CARICOM Urged to Withhold Recognition of Haitian Regime

ACLU Challenges Free Speech Zones

US Gunfire Increases Toll of Arab Journalists

Justice Department Appeals Detainment Ruling

Senate Probes Backing of Haitian Insurgents

Report from An American In Venezuela

Today's Turmoil In Venezuela Explained

Civil Rights or Fear and Loathing

Haitian Rebels Have a History

Interview with Aristide Confirms US Coup

Roger Noriega and the Haiti Contras

US Backed Contras in Haiti

Bonfire of the Vanities

Brent Bursey's A Stand Up Kind of Guy

Who Paid for the War in Miami

US Seeks CAFTA Agreement Amidst Protests

Bush Abandons Protectionist Folly

New Threat to Ecuadoran Rainforest

Miami Bankers Use Riot Police for FTAA Agenda

Who Supplies Oregon Farm Labor?

Classified Report Reveals Status of Iraqi Resistance

One Computer, One Vote

Ashcroft and Rove Subpoened by Activist

Steel Tariffs Violate International Trade Laws

US Hunts for Secret Base Near Saddam's Birthplace

Privatization Draws Protest in Panama

Newspaper editor fatally shot in Mosul

How can this be?

Why The US Public Has No Clue

$5 Trillion American Dollars Can't Be Wrong

Small US military team sent to Bolivia

Food for Thought

ARCHIVE PUBLISHES PERU HUMAN RIGHTS DOCUMENTS