Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Special Report 3
The Social Earthquake in Chile
FAULT LINES: 3
Roger Burbach on the results of neoliberal policies, further exposed by the quake
Commentary 5
FOG WATCH: Big Government, Budget Deficits, Entitlements, and the “Centrist” Ploy 5
Edward S. Herman on classic double standards
DECISIONS: Court’s Money Ruling is a Red Herring 7
Jane Anne Morris on the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling
MEDIA MATTERS: Ethan Bronner’s Ties to the IDF: The Rule Not the Exception? 8
Alison Weir on conflict of interest among reporters/editors/bureau chief
GENDER & SPORTS: NBC’s Olympics: From Homophobia To The Cult of Personality 9
Sue Katz on ski jumping, figure skating, and Apolo Ohno’s headband
Activism 12
LABOR TODAY: Teamster’s Election Victory: How to Succeed After Failing 12
Carl Finamore on door-to-door efforts that paid off
PHOTO ESSAY: Protesting School Funding Cuts 13
Various photographers document student/faculty/worker actions
Interviews 15
Fortunate Rebel Son: An interview with Mark Rudd 15
Bill Nevins
Dolls and Drudges Don Pants: An interview with Gail Collins 17
Martha Rosenberg
A Journalist’s Responsibility: An interview with Dahr Jamail 18
Seth Kershner
The New Apostolic Reformation: An interview with Rachel Tabachnick 19
Bill Berkowitz
I Don’t See Much Difference: An interview with Noam Chomsky 21
Jon Hochschartner
Features 23
COMMUNIQUE: Obama’s Ironic Public 23
Rob Larson on shortchange we can believe in
GREEN TIDE: Land: The Greatest Excuse of All 27
Rachel Smolker on accounting tricks instead of climate crisis solutions
ECONOMIC POLICY: Epic Recession: Prelude to Global Depression? 31
Jack Rasmus on an alternative program for the financial crisis, part III
LOOKING FORWARD: Searching for Democratic Alternatives 37
Ideas for a New International (from zcommunications)
Reviews 39
In Vitro, In Vivo! 39
John Esther reviews some selections from the Sundance Film Festival 2010
The War Before by Safiya Bukhari, edited by Laura Whitehorn 41
Review by Hans Bennett
New York For Sale by Tom Angotti, foreword by Peter Marcuse 42
Review by James Tracy
Capitalizing on Disaster by Kenneth J. Saltman 43
Review by Robert Ovetz
American Counterinsurgency by Roberto Gonzalez 44
The Counter-Counterinsurgency Manual by Concerned Anthropologists Network
Reviews by Kristian Williams
Zaps 46
Hotel Satire
NET BRIEFS
which businesses are influencing a Wildlife Refuge, as well as hydroelectric
In Truth given election, and to what extent. power, wind power, oil shale, natural
gas, gas hydrates, hydrogen, biofuels,
S ourcewatch.org alerts us to an
Interpress News Service article
(March 8, 2010). Apparently, the U.S. Move to Amend
solar power, clean coal, and nuclear
power.
media reported that a big, offensive Another Citizens United documen-
battle was taking place in Marja, Af-
ghanistan, a “city of 80,000 people” in M ovetoamend.org informs us that
activists against corporate “per-
sonhood” have formed a new move-
tary, Generation Zero, attributes the
“U.S. fiscal meltdown to undisciplined
baby boomers coming to maturity and
Helmand province, which was also the
“logistical hub of the Taliban.” The de- ment “that holds that large business gaining power.” Generation Zero is Citi-
scription gave the impression that the corporations are the most powerful in- zens United’s name for baby boomers
U.S. presence in Marja was a major stitutions in our society and the main who were “born into unprecedented
strategic objective. obstacles to rule by the people—or de- prosperity.... In the 1950s, because par-
mocracy. Move to Amend is a multi- ents determined that their children
In truth, Marja is not a city or even a
year project of the Campaign to Legal- should be sheltered from the economic
town, but a few farmers’ homes and
ize Democracy and is circulating a citi- hardships of the 1930s and the wartime
farmland encompassing much of the
zens’ petition, signed by 71,330 as of sacrifices of the 1940s; their offspring
southern Helmand River Valley. The fic-
March 11, which reads as follows (on- were coddled, growing up in a child-
tion that Marja was a city of 80,000 got
line at www.movetoamend.org). hood of Beaver Cleaver suburbs.”
started at a briefing given by officials on
February 2 at the U.S. Marine base,
Camp Leatherneck. Officials referred to We, the people of the United
Marja as a populous city. The Associ- States of America, reject the Su- You’re Kidding
ated Press subsequently reported, that preme Court’s ruling in Citizens
same day, that they expected up to
1,000 insurgents were “holed up” in the
United, and move to amend our
Constitution to: T ruthout.org makes note of the new
law allowing weapons to be carried
in national parks and wildlife refuges
“southern Afghan town of 80,000 peo- þ Firmly establish that money is not
ple,” a statement that evoked a picture speech and that human beings, and of the existence of a loosely orga-
not corporations, are persons enti- nized Bay Area Open Carry Movement,
of house-to-house urban street fighting. tled to constitutional rights a group that has been turning up at
The rest of the news media fell in
þ Guarantee the right to vote and to coffee shops (Starbucks is a favorite)
line, giving fake descriptions of a participate, and to have our votes with (unloaded) handguns holstered to
densely populated Marja. Finally, on and participation count their belts to raise awareness about gun
February 22, the Washington Post re-
þ Protect local communities, their rights.
ported that the decision to launch the economies, and democracies
big offensive against Marja was in- David LaTour, a student at San Jose
against illegitimate “preemption”
tended largely to impress U.S. public actions by global, national, and
State University, has been carrying his
opinion with the military’s effectiveness state governments Springfield XD 9mm handgun on his
in Afghanistan by showing that it could hip for about a month. California allows
achieve a “large and loud victory.” The its citizens to openly display and carry
false idea that Marja was a significantly FYI unloaded weapons without a permit,
large city center was an essential part of but many gun advocates complain that
the state is too restrictive when it comes
that disinformation message.
T he group behind Citizens United v.
FEC is an organization “dedicated to
restoring our government to citizens’
to issuing licenses to carry concealed
weapons. “I looked into concealed carry
permits, but unless you’re well-con-
Campaigning control.... Citizens United seeks to reas-
nected, it’s impossible to obtain,” says
sert the traditional American values of
LaTour. However, he says, “I personally
P R Watch.org reports on U.S. Cham-
ber of Commerce activities post-Cit-
izen’s United v FEC decision, noting that
limited government, freedom of enter-
prise, strong families, and national sov-
ereignty and security. Citizens United’s
prefer open carry because of the visual
deterrent. While we can’t legally carry
goal is to restore the founding fathers’ loaded guns, we can have ammunition,
the Chamber had spent more than $144
vision of a free nation, guided by the as long as it’s not attached to our weap-
million on lobbying and grassroots or-
honesty, common sense, and good will ons. You can, of course, have a func-
ganizing in 2009, before the decision,
of its citizens.” tioning loaded weapon in two seconds.”
far beyond the spending of individual
labor unions or the Democratic and Re- Citizens United has produced 11 doc- Nathan Wolanyk, an open carry ad-
publican national committees. umentaries since 2004, including Ron- vocate from San Diego, says the move-
ald Reagan: Rendezvous With Destiny ment is about informing the public. “If
The Chamber is expected to exceed
all you see are guns in the media used
that spending level in 2010. It has de- hosted by Newt and Callista Gingrich
in a violent manner, that’s your percep-
veloped a system where corporations and We Have The Power, which “high-
tion of guns,” he says. “When we’re out
give them money and they, in turn, pro- lights America’s need to adopt our
in public with them, we’re interacting
duce issue ads targeting individual can- World War II mentality” of “Do It All,
with the public in a very nice manner.”
didates without revealing the names of Do It All Now” by exploring the vast
the businesses who are funding the ads. amount of oil and gas in the Outer Con-
The Chamber’s system keeps secret tinental Shelf, Alaska’s Arctic National
Fault
Lines
litical, organizational—that has been Stephens, “How Mil ton Fried man tion and real estate enterprises is now
unable to provide any response to the Saved Chile.” He asserted that Fried- the subject of public debate.” In the
urgent social demands of entire re- man’s “spirit was surely hovering pro- country at large, 2 million people out
gions gripped by fear, need of shelter, tectively over Chile in the early morn- of a population of 17 million are
water, food, and hope.” ing hours of Saturday. Thanks largely homeless. Most of the houses de-
What arrived in Concepcion on to him, the country has endured a trag- stroyed by the earthquake were built of
March1 was not relief or assistance, edy that elsewhere would have been an adobe or other improvised materials,
but several thousand soldiers and po- apocalypse.” Stephens went on to de- many in the shantytowns that have
lice transported in trucks and planes, clare, “It’s not by chance that Chil- sprung up to provide a cheap, informal
as people were ordered to stay in their ean’s were liv ing in houses of workforce for the country’s big
homes. Pitched battles were fought in brick—and Hai tians in houses of businesses and industries.
the streets of Concepcion as buildings straw—when the wolf arrived to try to There is little hope that the incoming
were set on fire. Other citizens took up blow them down.” Chile had adopted government of Sebastian Piñera will
arms to protect their homes and bar- “some of the world’s strictest building rectify the social inequities that the
rios as the city appeared to be on the codes,” as the economy boomed due quake exposed. The richest person in
brink of an urban war. On Tuesday, to Pinochet’s appointment of Fried- Chile, he and several of his advisers
March 2, relief assistance finally be- man-trained economists to cabinet and ministers are implicated as major
gan to arrive, along with more troops, ministries and the subsequent civilian shareholders in construction projects
turning the southern region into a mili- gov ern ment’s com mit ment to that were severely damaged by the
tarized zone. neoliberalism. quake because building codes were ig-
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary There are two problems with this nored. Having campaigned on a plat-
Clinton, as part of a Latin American view. First, as Naomi Klein points out form of bringing security to the cities
tour scheduled before the quake, flew in “Chile’s Socialist Rebar” on the and moving against vandalism and
to Santiago on Tuesday to meet with Huffington Post, it was the socialist crime, he criticized Bachelet for not
Bachelet and Piñera. She brought 20 government of Salvador Allende in deploying the military sooner in the
satellite phones and a technician, say- 1972 that established the first earth- aftermath of the earthquake.
ing one of the “biggest problems has quake building codes. They were later
been communications as we found in strengthened, not by Pinochet, but by Signs of Resistance
Haiti in those days after the quake.” It
went unsaid that, just as in Chile, the
U.S. sent the military to take control
the restored civilian government in the
1990s. Second, as CIPER, the Center
of Journalistic Investigation and Infor-
T here are signs that the historic
Chile of popular organizations and
grass-roots mobilizing may be reawak-
of Port-au-Prince before any signifi- mation, reported on March 6, greater ening. A coalition of over 60 social
cant relief assistance was distributed. Santiago has 23 residential complexes and non-governmental organizations
and high rises built over the last 15 released a declaration (on March 10)
Milton Friedman’s Legacy years that suffered severe quake dam- stating: “In these dramatic circum-
ordinary citizens and faith in Republi- Reagan in office the service to what The current prize entitlements de-
can commitment to the business-finan- Bush—speaking to an elite fund-raising manding attention are Social Security,
cial elite, in 1978, in the Carter years, audience of “haves and have mores” Medicare, and Medicaid. Of course,
former Citibank CEO Walter Wriston that he only half-jokingly called “my the Social Security “entitlements”
said that federal deficits were “divert- base”—is more assured. So is the ne- were paid for by those who are cur-
ing available capital from productive glect of, and systematic attack on, the rently, or will be later, getting pay-
private investments to finance public underlying population. Hence the ments. But those surpluses were used
expenditures. Only a reduction in the renewed focus on the threat of by the political elites to fund ordinary
federal deficit would reverse this government deficits. expenses—including vast outlays for
trend.” But with Reagan in office in MIC weapons purchases and wars—
1988, Wriston said that we must dis- Entitlement rather then to build an infrastructure
tinguish between capital and operating
budgets, and that the normal house-
hold does not treat its home as a cur-
E ntitlement is another word that has
taken on negative connotations,
suggesting claims that may be exces-
that would enhance future productivity
and help provide the resources for en-
titlement payouts. But the main reason
rent expense, so that we need not sive and at the expense of hard-work- these social programs are entitlements
worry, as there is “near balance in the ing, tax-paying Americans. Money for is that they service the general citi-
operating budget.” There had been no the varied components of the MIC is zenry, not just the elite. In the evolv-
distinction between operating and capi- never referred to as an entitlement, ing system of class war the elite targets
tal budgets with Carter. The busi- even though a very large part of it is such programs for cost savings to
ness-trustworthy Reagan could run wasteful, fraud-ridden, and pointless, themselves (and profits to Wall Street
deficits, Carter should not, and the even perverse in relation to any sup- with the hoped-for privatization of
rationalizations followed accordingly. posed “defense” function. It represents Social Security).
Obama, like Carter or Clinton, is capture by a segment of the power-
not trustworthy, even though, like his ful—the real and important “special in- Centrist
predecessor Democrats he leans over
backwards to prove his reliability to
the election-funding community and
terests”—in the same fashion as does
the TARP money that flowed so
quickly and massively to the banksters
A nother choice term linked to these
politically loaded word usages is
“centrist.” A centrist may be defined
his rejection of “populism” and any who engineered the current economic as one who recognizes and presses es-
substantial action that might meet the crisis. But the phrase “national secu- tablishment perspectives on “big gov-
needs of his popular base. But this rity” is a marvelous protective cover ern ment, gov ern ment def i cits and
never suffices, as a Clinton or Obama that rules out the use of a word with entitlements.” A centrist regularly sup-
will have to do something for their negative connotations like “entitle- ports de facto MIC entitlements, and
base beyond feeling their pain and ments.” Welfare mothers get entitle- any wars in hand or contemplated, but
vowing real action, however skimpy ments, but not military contractors, worries about the solvency of Social
that something and promised action fat-cat military officials, or bailed-out Security and the need to get it and the
may be. With a George W. Bush or a bankers. Medicare-Medicaid programs under
sound fiscal management. Of course,
the centrist will not support a sin-
gle-payer health-care financial pro-
gram, or even a public option, because
government is not a good manager and
such proposals are not politically feasi-
ble. We must curb big government,
but not at the expense of national secu-
rity. We must work hard on eliminat-
ing the budget deficit, but not by rais-
ing taxes—the centrists uniformly sup-
ported the great Bush (regressive) tax
cuts of 2001-03.
The mainstream media love centrists
and constantly call on the Democrats
to move toward the center in order to
win elections (notoriously, after they
have lost them) or to get legislation
passed in a bipartisan fashion. The me-
dia did not press Bush to move to the
center. Presumably, he had a “man-
date” (from the Republican majority of
the Supreme Court). Could it be that
what Bush’s “base” wants is the “cen-
ter” that the media also want? And that
6 Z MAGAZINE APRIL 2010
Commentary
The Austin case accepts that money mirror campaign contribution patterns,
equals speech (following the Supreme the quality of debate, the proportion of
Court’s 1976 Buckley v. Valeo deci- legislation clearly designed to benefit
Decisions sion), that corporations can spend trea- some corporate interest group, etc.
sury funds on initiatives and referen- McCain-Feingold recalibrated, rear-
dums, and that Political Action Com- ranged, and redecorated the loopholes
mittees’ (PACs) use of segregated used to determine how election money
funds are legal and constitutional. Aus- flows and is tallied. It did not eliminate
Court’s Money Ruling tin also affirms that corporations are that money or the influence it reflects.
“persons” with constitutional rights (For a current example, unrelated to
Is a Red Herring and that they have both First Amend- the Citizens United case, look at the
ment speech rights and Fourteenth New York Times front-page article on
By Jane Anne Morris Amendment equal protection rights. corporate influence: “In Black Caucus,
That such a case is regarded as the a Fund-Raising Powerhouse: Corpo-
Magna Carta of campaign reform ef- rate Donors Buy Access, and Push
B efore trying to counter the recent
Supreme Court decision in Citi-
zens United v. Federal Election Com-
forts must leave corporate counsel
hiding their smirks.
Agendas, at Lavish Events,” New
York Times, February 14, 2010.)
mission (FEC), we ought to sort out The Supreme Court decision in Citi- The previous major national parox-
what this decision does and does not zens United is a gift to the right wing, ysm of campaign reform was hardly
do. Despite dire claims that the deci- not the way many pundits claim, but more effective. The main claim to
sion is the nail in the coffin that it will because of the way that many in the fame of the Federal Election Cam-
shake the current election system to its mainstream media have reacted to it, paign Act—passed in 1971; amended
core, the decision changes very little in full denial that it is a red herring. in 1974; shredded in the 1976 Valeo
of the current situation. Let’s review where we were before decision; liquefied in the 1978 Bellotti
Just how small a change it will bring the Citizens United case was decided. ruling—was legalizing PACs. Do
can be illustrated by looking at one of After the 2002 McCain-Feingold those of us who lived through the
the cases overruled by Citizens United Act went into effect, the public no lon- Nixon years recall a sudden elevation
—the 1990 Austin v. Michigan Cham- ger had reason to suspect that corpo- of the quality of elections and political
ber of Commerce case, hailed by many rate lobbying, campaign contributions, discussion, and correlative diminution
as a ray of hope in the morass of cam- or corporate cash affected elected offi- of political corruption in the years
paign finance reform efforts. Austin cials’ votes on legislation or positions after its passage. Nope.
affirmed an extremely mild Michigan on issues. The McCain-Feingold Act The Citizens United case was pre-
law that essentially prevents the Michi- transformed elections into paragons of sented in a false frame: “Must we limit
gan Chamber of Commerce (one type open discussion, free sharing of ideas, speech in order to have free and fair
of nonprofit corporation) from spend- thoughtful parrying, and heartfelt, elections? Or must we accept corpo-
ing general funds to support or oppose non-partisan, pro-civic engagement rate-dominated political debate in order
a political candidate. That law specifi- orgies, right? to preserve free speech?” This false di-
cally defined “person” to include Look at any index: the role of lemma disappears if we reject corporate
corporations. money in elections, voting records that personhood with constitutional rights.
Z MAGAZINE APRIL 2010 7
Commentary
Only if we pretend that corporations are Israeli military. It’s unclear when,
persons under the Constitution is limit- how, or even if his military service
Media ended
ing corporate “speech” a constitutional
Matters
infringement. Ø Richard Chesnoff, who has been
After the Citizens United ruling, this covering Mideast events for more
is still true. Corporations function like than 40 years, had a son serving in
retroviruses, taking over the rights and the Israeli military while he cov-
protections that we wrote for humans Ethan Bronner’s Ties ered Israel as US News & World
Report’s senior foreign correspon-
and then using them against us, their To The IDF: The Rule dent
human hosts. The opinion of the Court
is chock full of paeans to the nobility Not The Exception? Ø NPR’s Linda Gradstein’s husband
and preciousness of unfettered free was an Israeli sniper and may still
speech—of corporations. Rights we By Alison Weir be in the Israeli reserves. NPR re-
fuses to disclose whether Gradstein
the people fought for—at the cost of
herself is also an Israeli citizen, as
much life, liberty, and happiness—are
now used with great (and seemingly
invisible) regularity to shield corpora-
R ecent exposés revealing that Ethan
Bronner, the New York Times Is-
rael-Palestine bureau chief, has a son
are her children and husband
Ø Mitch Weinstock, national editor
tions from government “interference.” in the Israeli military have caused a for the San Diego Union-Tribune,
In response, Maryland Congress- served in the Israeli military
storm of controversy that continues to
person Donna Edwards’s proposed swirl and generate further revelations. The New York Times’ other corre-
Constitutional Amendment, inspired Family partisanship in an editor cover- spondent from the region, Isabel
by the Citizens United decision, would ing a foreign conflict is troubling—es- Kershner, is an Israeli citizen. Israel
guarantee that, “Congress and the pecially given the Times’ record of Is- has universal compulsory military ser-
states may regulate the expenditure of rael-centric journalism. vice, which suggests that Kershner
funds for political speech by any cor- Times management at first refused to and/or family members may have mili-
poration, limited liability company, or confirm Bronner’s situation, then re- tary connections. The Times refuses to
other corporate entity.” Would this fused to comment on it. Finally, public answer questions about whether she
amendment end corporate domination outcry forced Public Editor Clark and/or family members have served or
of our political process? Clearly not, Hoyt to confront the problem in a Feb- are currently serving in the Israeli mil-
since, beginning in the 1870s and ruary 7 column. After bending over itary. Is it possible that Times Foreign
1880s, federal judges have worked backwards to praise the institution that Editor Susan Chira has such connec-
hand-in-hand with corporate counsel to employs him, Hoyt ultimately opined tions? The Times refuses to answer.
haul into place the edifice of constitu- that Bronner should be reassigned to a Many Associated Press writers and
tional protections that exempt corpora- different sphere of reporting to avoid editors are Israeli citizens or have Is-
tions from the authority of the very the “appearance” of bias. Editor Bill raeli families. AP will not reveal how
states that created them. Keller declined to do so, instead writ- many of the journalists in its control
Rather than overstating the signifi- ing a column describing Bronner’s bureau for the region currently serve
cance of the Citizens United decision, connections to Israel valuable because in the Israeli military, how many have
offering measures that tiptoe around they “supply a measure of sophistica- served in the past, and how many have
the fundamental problem, and wallow- tion about Israel and its adversaries family members with this connection.
ing in the usual moaning and groaning that someone with no connections Similarly, many TV correspondents,
about corporate influence, let’s ad- would lack.” such as Martin Fletcher, have been Is-
dress the problem directly, something If such “sophistication” is valuable, raeli citizens and/or have Israeli fami-
we should have done generations ago. the Times’ espoused commitment to lies. Do they have family connections
Peek outside the democracy theme the “impartiality and neutrality of the to the Israeli military? Time Maga-
park and repeat after me: only if we company’s newsrooms” would seem zine’s bureau chief several years ago
pretend that corporations are “per- to require it to have a balancing editor became an Israeli citizen after he had
sons” under the Constitution is limit- equally sophisticated about Palestine assumed his post. Does he have rela-
ing corporate “speech” a constitutional and its adversary, but Keller did not tives in the military? CNN’s Wolf
infringement. And kick that red her- address that. Blitzer, while not an Israeli citizen,
ring out of the way. Z Bronner’s ties to the Israeli military was based in Israel for many years,
are not the rarity one might expect. wrote a book whitewashing Israeli
Some examples include: spying on the U.S., and used to work
Corporate anthropologist Jane Anne for the Israel lobby in the U.S. None
Ø Joel Greenberg, a previous Times
Morris’s book, Gaveling Down the Rab- of this is divulged to CNN viewers.
bureau chief—before he was bureau
ble: How “Free Trade” is Stealing Our
chief, but after he was already pub- Tikkun’s editor Michael Lerner has
Democracy (Apex Press, 2008), is cited in
lishing in the Times from Is- a son who served in the Israeli mili-
an amicus brief filed in support of the
rael—served in the Israeli army tary. While Lerner has been a strong
Federal Elections Commission in the Citi-
zens United case. She is working on a Ø Media pundit and Atlantic staffer critic of many Israeli policies, in an in-
book about the Supreme Court. Jeffrey Goldberg also served in the terview with Jewish Week, he ex-
plained: “Having a son in the Israeli be displeased to learn that the reporters provides information and media analysis
army was a manifestation of my love and editors charged with supplying on Israel-Palestine. Her articles have ap-
for Israel and I assume that having a news on a foreign nation and conflict peared in the Washington Report on
son in the Israeli army is a manifesta- are, in fact, partisans. Middle East Affairs, CounterPunch,
Project Censored’s series on investigative
tion of Bronner’s love of Israel.” While Keller claims that the New journalism, and elsewhere.
Lerner goes on to make a fundamental York Times is covering this conflict
point: “[T]here is a difference in my “even-handedly,” studies indicate that
emotional and spiritual connection to the Times:
these two sides [Israelis and Palestin-
Ø Covers international reports docu-
ians]. On the one side is my family; on menting Israeli human rights abuses
the other side are decent human be- Gender
at a rate 19 times lower than it re- & Sports
ings. I want to support human beings ports on the far smaller number of
all over the planet but I have a special international reports documenting
connection to my family. I don’t deny Palestinian human rights abuses
it.”
Jonathan Cook, a British journalist
Ø Covers Israeli children’s deaths at
rates seven times greater than they
NBC’s Olympics: From
based in Nazareth, writes of a recent cover Palestinian children’s deaths, Homophobia To The
meeting with a Jerusalem-based bu- even though there are vastly more
reau chief, who explained: “Bronner’s of the latter Cult Of Personality
situation is the rule, not the exception. Ø Fails to inform its readers that Is-
I can think of a dozen foreign bureau rael’s Jewish-only colonies on con-
By Sue Katz
chiefs responsible for covering both Is- fiscated Palestinian Christian and
rael and the Palestinians, who have
served in the Israeli army, and another
Muslim land are illegal; that its col-
lective punishment of 1.5 million T he U.S. experience of the Vancou-
ver Winter Olympics was shaped,
unfortunately, by viewers’ access to
dozen who, like Bronner, have kids in men, women, and children in Gaza
the Israeli army.” Cook writes that the is not only cruel and ruthless, it is broadcasts and reports. NBC once
bureau chief explained: “It is common also illegal; and that its use of again demonstrated its inability to un-
to hear Western reporters boasting to American weaponry is routinely in derstand this global competition and
violation of American laws the sports within it. Apparently, they
Ø Covers the one Israeli (a soldier) didn’t get the memo telling them that
held by Palestinians at a rate incal- the Winter Olympics is supposed to be
culably higher than it reports on the about the world coming together in a
Palestinian men, women, and chil- shared love of sports, exposing view-
dren imprisoned by Israel (cur- ers to new and old sports.
rently over 7,000) NBC’s nationalistic coverage, how-
Ø Neglects to report that hundreds of ever, wasn’t really about American
Israel’s captives have never even athletic superiority. Instead of actually
been charged with a crime and that covering the American teams, they
those who have were tried in Israeli promoted certain individuals who had
military courts under an array of bi- been deemed sufficiently white-bread,
zarre military statutes that make cooperative, and photogenic. NBC
even the planting of onions without turned the broad canvas of the Olym-
a permit a criminal offense—a legal
system, if one can call it that, that pics into a tabloid soap opera, com-
changes at the whim of the current plete with wretched production values,
military governor ruling over a pre-selected stars, baddies, exclusions,
one another about their Zionist creden- subject population and homophobic bullies.
tials, their service in the Israeli army,
Ø Fails to inform its readers that 40 X on XX’s Ski Jumping
or the loyal service of their children.” percent of Palestinian males have
Apparently, intimate ties to Israel
are among the many open secrets in
the region that are hidden from the
been imprisoned by Israel
Americans, whose elected represen-
O n the first day of competition, we
were treated to the gorgeous sport
of ski jumping. Until these Olympics,
American public. If, as the news me- tatives give Israel uniquely gargantuan the record for all jumpers at Vancou-
dia insist, these ties present no prob- sums of our tax money (a situation also ver’s Whistler Mountain was held by
lem or even, as the Times’ Keller in- not covered by the media), want and an Amer i can, Lindsey Van, who,
sists, enhance the journalists’ work, need all the facts, not just those that Is- according to NBC, “held the jump re-
why do the news agencies consistently rael’s family members decree report- cord of 105.5m for the normal hill at
refuse to admit them? able. We’re not getting them. Z Whistler until Swiss legend Simon
Quite likely the news media refuse Ammann bettered it on the way to the
to answer questions about their jour- gold medal in the 2010 Games.”
nalists’ affiliations because they sus- Former journalist Alison Weir is executive Ammann was able to out-jump Van
pect, accurately, that the public would director of If Americans Knew, which for at least one obvious reason: women
Z MAGAZINE APRIL 2010 9
Commentary
were prevented from competing. The “femininity” and for setting a “bad ex- and power.” This from a guy who ad-
International Olympic Committee ample” by making boys who skate mits to having been called “twinkle
(IOC) wouldn’t agree to a women’s worry that they “will end up like toes” as a young skater.
event or allow women to compete him.” Goldberg called for Weir to In a February 19 interview, after
against men—with whom they train. pass a “gender test” and Mailhot an- Weir was ranked a disappointing sixth,
One side effect of the IOC’s stand is swered that Weir should be made to despite a beautiful, clean routine, the re-
that it diminishes Ammann’s achieve- compete in the women’s event. By spectful NBC commentator Mary
ment by sidelining top competitors. A conflating their homophobia, trans- Carillo asked Weir, “Could you have
dozen women ski jumpers took a law- phobia, and sexism, these sports an- done something that could have gotten
suit all the way to the BC Supreme nouncers raised the specter of the at- you on that podium?” He replied with
Court—pointing to the Canadian Char- tacks on the South African runner gracious comments about both his long-
ter of Rights and Freedoms, which Caster Semenya, forced into so-called time rival and teammate gold medalist
bars gender discrimination—only to be “gender testing” after a winning run in Evan Lycecek and the tough-guy Rus-
told that it’s up to the IOC. They’ve a 2009 international meet. The Quebec sian silver medalist Evgeni Plushenko.
unsuccessfully challenged this discrim- Gay and Lesbian Council has since de- Then he answered philosophically, “Po-
inatory ban year after year. manded an apology. litically, I don’t think it was possible for
Weir responded with impressive me to be on the podium. And figure
Bullying On Ice grace to this frantic gender stereotyp- skating is a political sport…. I kinda
SAN FRANCISCO
SANTA CRUZ
LOS ANGELES
APTOS
CHICAGO MILWAUKEE
PORTLAND
MINNEAPOLIS
SEATTLE
Billy’s book Fugitive Days is very moving, especially about We fell for the whole black leadership line. It was our re-
the townhouse where he lost his girlfriend and his best sponse to the earlier call for Black Power that had emerged
friend. A lot of it is fiction, however. Also, in general, Bill from SNCC, an organization I still have deep respect for. I
gives too much credit for good intentions and doesn’t take wish we had been much smarter than we were. As Marx-
crappy results into account. Cathy Wilkerson’s book, Flying ists, we liked to reduce the world to “central contradic-
Close to the Sun: My Life and Times As a Weatherman, is tions.” Since it was the era of decolonization, race oppres-
comprehensive as a history of the times. Well-researched, sion trumped sexism in the hierarchy of oppression. All of
well thought out. I often recommend it to students of the this is absolutely unintelligible now, but it made perfect
new left. Unfortunately, she portrays herself as being much sense to us at the time. Marxism is its own religion, with its
more passive than I remember her. Susan Stern’s book from own way of looking at the world.
the mid-1970s, With the Weathermen, is always of interest.
What did you think of the two dramatic films about 20th
Did the publisher or your editor suggest or insist on any century armed revolutionaries: Che directed by Steven
significant changes? Soderbergh and the German film The Baader Meinhof
Complex?
The draft I turned in to the editor included a long section
covering 1978 to 2008 in Albuquerque. He cut it out com- I appreciated the trajectory of Soderbergh’s two-part Che.
pletely, saying that the story should stop in 1977 when I The first was all heroism and victory, the second pure de-
turned myself in. He was right. He did give me a 25-page feat. It’s accurate. His theory was crap. The Baader
epilogue, though, which worked out okay. I can always use Meinhof Complex was good at creating the context for why
the material for further writing. Also, I wanted to name the some German New Leftists might have thought that they
book, Grandpa Was a Terrorist, which would have put me were living in fascist times and felt the need to take up arms
into Costco, but my editor and my wife nixed that. against it, as their parents did not. However, they degener-
ated into cops and robbers. Andreas Baader was portrayed
Following a political line with which you disagreed, but as a sociopath, which he very well may have been. Why
which prevailed in the organization, the Weather Under- succeeding generations of kids joined them, I still don’t
ground tried to build an insurgent army in the United States know. Maybe there was a deep need among some Germans
for the purposes of opening a military front in solidarity to transcend the good german Nazi history.
with the Vietnamese and Black revolutionaries in America.
Is that an accurate description? Did you help to write the statement issued by the Weather
Underground in the later 1970s in the booklet Prairie Fire:
Yes, it’s a fairly accurate description. The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism? Does that
position paper hold up over the years, in your opinion?
This seemed then, to many of us, to have been an absurd
and futile undertaking. Can you comment? As an indictment of U.S. history and of imperialism, Prai-
rie Fire is still useful. As a blueprint for revolution it’s ab-
Yes, it was absurd and futile. The motives were mixed. surd. Actually, though, I didn’t help write it. I helped build
Speaking only for myself, I wanted to be a hero like Che a printshop to produce the successor to Prairie Fire, a mag-
Guevara. I wanted to prove myself the way 20-year-old azine called Ossawatomie. I did help write the original
males have always proved themselves, in combat. I also Weatherman paper.
wanted to be “an agent of history.” We had studied Fanon,
Mao, Marx, and Lenin and knew well that it was the age of As you acknowledge in your book, there was a
decolonization, which would dismantle imperialism, the fi- kill-your-parents rhetoric and attitude in some of the New
nal stage of capitalism. You needed guts, like all great revo- Left, including the Weatherman. Yet, even in hiding, you
lutionaries, to push history to the next stage. It was quite and your parents maintained contact and they got material
utopian and grandiose. In a sense, too, we saw ourselves as help to you on several occasions, though they were not rad-
heirs to the great tradition of socialist revolution. Little did icals themselves. I found this both the most touching and,
we know that we were the last recruits to a war that was al- perhaps, the most disturbing aspect of your story.
ready lost. Capitalism won that round, for better or worse.
For worse, I like to think. The rhetoric was the politics of transgression. I don’t think I
So if you look at it that way, one could even now get ever engaged in kill-your-parents stuff myself. I was more
caught up in the heroism of the whole endeavor. In the long of the off-the-pig school. I was still a good Jewish boy. I
run, who’s more rational, Karl Rove or Bernardine Dohrn? tried to be accurate about that in my book.
I’ll vote for Bernardine.
You have been a successful teacher for decades now. You
There was a very ugly side to some 1960s-1970s radical- also helped form a faculty union at your college. Do you
ism. You recount that a Black Panther made a grossly of- see these professional roles as linked to your earlier orga-
fensive speech advocating sexual exploitation. Some Pan- nizing and revolutionary efforts?
thers came from what they described as “the lumpen prole-
tariat,” but most SDS and Weather activists came from
privileged or at least middle class backgrounds. Would you Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weatherman
by Mark Rudd, Harper Paperbacks, 352 pages
care to comment on this and, more generally, on male sex-
ist, violence-tripping attitudes then and now?
Organizing and teaching are the same. They both involve coming after the Fourteenth Amendment, some feminists
the question of how people learn things. They both involve were embittered. My book recounts the story of the
dialogue. They both involve long-term commitment and women’s rights parade in Washington in 1913 in which the
perspective. They both involve people in changing their feminist leader Alice Paul, not wanting to alienate Southern
lives. And the teacher/organizer is always learning. Z sympathizers, ordered black suffragists to march at the back
of the parade. Ida Wells-Barnett, the Chicago suffragist,
waited on the side of the parade and, when the white Illinois
Bill Nevins is a teacher and writer who was fired in 2003 delegation passed by, joined and integrated it.
for permitting his high school poetry students to speak out
against Bush’s Iraq War policy. He now teaches Creative Recently Nona Willis Aronowitz, daughter of feminist writer
Writing and Rhetoric for the University of New Mexico. Ellen Willis, and Emma Bee Bernstein took the pulse of
He has conducted many interviews with socially conscious feminism on college campuses in their book, Girl Drive:
artists that appeared in Z and other magazines in recent Criss-Crossing America, Redefining Feminism. They found
years. that many young women were hostile to the term feminism.
pieces of his mess. Silda Spitzer seems to feel she and her pated in this and it’s been going on since the beginning of
daughters are better off with Eliot in their lives, and I’m not the occupation.
prepared to second guess that decision. Other things that are happening—both in Iraq and back
home—are instances of soldiers standing up against parts of
How did you transform from editor of the Times Op-Ed the system that they don’t agree with. There are many
page to history writer? women now who are speaking out about being sexually as-
saulted in the military. It’s really astounding.
As the year 2000 approached, the Times asked me to write
an introduction for their millennium issue and I was aston- While researching your book, was the Pentagon trying to
ished to realize the breadth of changes U.S. women had un- clamp down on dissent? Or is it harder to see where the
dergone as I did the research. In less than ten years, over brass stands on the issue?
1,000 years of dogma about women was reversed. Writing
When Everything Changed gave me a chance to interview I think they take it on a case-by-case basis. Their overall ob-
some of these women who did amazing things that are still jective, most of the time, is to sweep it under the carpet. In
having effects today. Z most instances, the U.S. military chooses to do things like
they did with Ronn Cantu, a U.S. Army interrogator, who
testified at the Winter Soldier hearings on Iraq and Afghani-
Martha Rosenberg is a columnist and cartoonist based in stan. They’re either going to promote him so maybe that’ll
Chicago. shut him up or ignore it and not do anything (probably the
most common response). At the same time, there have been
a few instances—like with Lt. Ehren Watada—where the
military decides that it’s a high profile case, that the guy has
the potential of being a leader in a GI resistance movement,
so they’re going to throw the book at this guy.
A Journalist’s However, I should point out that, currently, Watada is in
Responsibility legal limbo, pushing papers at a desk, still waiting for reso-
lution. This is a situation where he is the highest-ranking
An interview with Dahr Jamail person to refuse orders to go to Iraq. And, to this day, he
hasn’t yet done a day in jail or had to go back to Iraq.
KERSHNER: As you discuss in your book The Will to Resist: Would you ally yourself more with the European model of
Soldiers Who Refuse To Fight In Iraq and Afghanistan, journalism, whereby reporters and their papers quite openly
more and more American GIs have been openly opposing place themselves somewhere specific on the political spec-
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Could you talk about trum?
what military resisters are doing?
I think that I would. I’ve been accused
JAMAIL: I’ve found through inter- of being a populist. As a journalist,
viewing dozens and dozens of sol- that’s a compliment and that’s how I’d
diers that there have been many in- like to be perceived. I feel it’s my job to
stances of overt resistance in Iraq. go where the silence is, to give people a
Soldiers have really low morale. voice who are outside the government
They’ve become completely disgrun- or major media outlets. I think it’s our
tled by the situation and they’re do- job as journalists to monitor the centers
ing things called search and avoid of power and take them to task; to make
missions. They’ve realized that their them prove what they’re saying and to
patrols are not serving any purpose, make them give evidence. If we’re not
so they go out on fake patrols. doing that, then we’re not doing our
They’ll park in fields, radio in every jobs as journalists. Z
hour at scheduled times telling their
base that they’re searching for weap-
ons caches, etc., and then go back to Seth Kershner is a graduate student and
base after their shift is done. I’ve freelance writer based in Western Massa-
talked with soldiers who’ve partici- chusetts.
ing tools as part of a frenzied effort in the 1990s to evange- To give you an idea of how deeply entrenched the New
lize the world before 2000. Instead of slowly winning souls Apostolics are in this policy, consider one of the most cele-
one by one, Wagner proposed that entire geographic areas brated abstinence-only programs in the U.S. “Recapturing
and people groups be targeted, speeding up the process. the Vision” and “Vessels of Honor” are names for absti-
These new strategies include strategic level spiritual war- nence-only programs headed by Jacqueline del Rosario, who
fare and spiritual mapping designed to win territory. This is testified for Title V abstinence-based funding in Congressio-
accomplished by doing battle with demons or principalities nal hearings in 2002. Since 2001, her Miami organizations
that they believe cause entire ethnicities, religions, and geo- have received $3,147,589 of U.S. Department of Health and
graphic areas to resist conversion. After expulsion of the de- Human Services grant money, as well as significant sums
mons, the evangelized population can take “dominion” over from other public sources. This funding came despite the
local government and culture. Then the community suppos- fact that her organization was one of four in a long-term,
edly experiences a foretaste of “God’s Kingdom on Earth.” federally-funded study that showed no measurable results.
These mini-utopias are advertised as having reduced pov- Del Rosario was a speaker, along with Wagner and other
erty, corruption, and disease. This is the ultimate faith-based top apostles, at a conference in January where she was de-
initiative—remove the demons and society will be healed. scribed as an Apostle in the promotional literature. Her rela-
Spiritual mapping is the reconnaissance mission for spiri- tionship with the Apostles is not new, however. She incor-
tual warfare and involves the literal mapping of neighbor- porated her organizations in the mid-1990s with leading
hoods and cities to determine where the demons are. This Florida Apostle Diane Buker, head of Battle Axe ministries,
includes “generational curses” or those things in a city’s his- and Cindy Trimm, described as a “general in the art of stra-
tory that allowed demons to take hold of the entire populous. tegic warfare.” Buker is the author of God’s Power to Multi-
Spiritual mapping is the ideological foundation for the now ply for Wealth and her Battle Axe Brigade ministry website
popular “prayer walking” and the formation of many features a graphic of an arm swinging a medieval mace, as
citywide prayer groups. well as virulent attacks on Catholicism and other faiths.
Wagner, George Otis, Jr., Ed Silvoso, Ted Haggard, Another political area in which New Apostolics is deeply
John Dawson of Youth With a Mission, and others created entrenched is John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel.
an entire genre of books, texts, videos, and other media Hagee is still teaching that the Rapture may happen any mo-
teaching spiritual mapping and spiritual warfare, including a ment, but many of his directors and leaders teach that they
glossary of new terms. The Transformation DVDs produced must take dominion over the earth, including Israel, before
by George Otis, Jr. are promotional “documentaries” show- Jesus can return. These include ICA Apostle Stephen
ing prototypes of this process in which supernatural trans- Strang, who heads the Strang charismatic publishing empire,
formation of a community takes place, including the healing and regional director Robert Stearns, who publishes a New
of AIDS, instantaneous purifying of polluted streams, and Apostolic journal titled Kairos. Stearns also leads the largest
even growth of huge vegetables. These movies have been single international Christian Zionist event, involving
shown to millions globally, and Transformation organiza- 200,000 churches worldwide. His ministry has been en-
tions are attempting to replicate these prototypes in their dorsed by the Knesset’s Christian Allies Caucus and by
local communities. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Transformation ideology originated from western
evangelicals—witch-hunting and all—and the prototypes Are there well-known politicians involved with the NAR?
have included cities like Hemet, California. Ugandan Julius
Oyet, who starred in one of the Transformation movies, is a The Transformation movies show that they have access to
key figure in the recent proposed draconian anti-gay many political figures, from Fiji to South America to Af-
legislation in that county. rica. Transformation Hawaii has the full participation of Lt.
Governor Aiona, who has spoken at conferences and writ-
How are these strategies put into practice? ten for the movement. Lou Engle, a prophet in Wagner’s
inner circle, has recently been in the news leading an
Although many of the claims made in the Transformation anti-health-care reform prayercast with Senator Jim DeMint
movies can be easily disproved, the movement’s advance- (R-SC), Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), and Representa-
ment appears to be partially due to the promotion of Trans- tive Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), among others. In May,
formations prototypes. Supernatural healings of AIDS, Engle led another televised event in which he prayed over
spontaneous destruction of property of other belief systems, Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee.
and even claims that the prayers of the movement have The New Apostolic movement more closely resembles a
killed other humans are featured in films shown worldwide, political campaign than a denomination. Wilson has written
including to mainline Protestant churches and “renewal” about PrayforNewark, a citywide project in which every
groups, which have subsequently broken from their parent precinct and street has been assigned to a volunteer and
denominations. mapped out for prayer. However, PrayforNewark is part of
The movies appear to have played a role in encouraging Ed Silvoso’s ITN, the same operation that is “transforming”
mythology that flourishes in the Religious Right and be- Uganda, and promoting the belief that homosexuals are pos-
yond, particularly in their assertion that thousands of cases sessed by literal demons.
of AIDS in Uganda have been miraculously cured. Medical
leaders are warning these claims are interfering with their Where does Sarah Palin fit into all this?
HIV/AIDS treatment. Since altering their AIDS programs to
abstinence-only, promoted by U.S. evangelicals, Uganda The movement made early inroads in Alaska through an
has had an increase, not decrease, of new AIDS cases. ICA apostle named Mary Glazier, who claims that a
In Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, the “Yeah, we’ll continue the policy of not negotiating with
Supreme Court gave corporations free rein to spend as much you.” There’s about 85 percent opposition to that.
money they wanted on elections. What effect will have? The public wants cost-cutting, which makes sense. The
program’s out of sight. But you can’t have cost-cutting when
It’s a significant step beyond what was already intolerable. you hand it over to private insurance companies that are un-
Elections are pretty much bought. You can predict the vic- regulated. You can cut around the edges somewhere, but
tor in an election by who’s outspending whom. And the you can’t deal with the essence of the problem.
funding, of course, mostly traces back to corporations in
one way or another. But until now they had to do it in kind On the right, there’s been a lot of talk about the tea party.
of indirect, devious ways. The Supreme Court has now Do you see a third party coming from the left?
said, “Look, you can buy them off directly if you like. You
can run ads in favor of a particular candidate with corporate The tea party thing is a real sign of the failure of the left.
money.” That’s even more extreme than campaign funding. Those people, they’re a mixed group, but many of them—I
would say probably most of them—are the people who
The mainstream media’s tried to balance what’s going to be ought to be organized by the left. These are people with real
a huge influx of corporate spending by saying, “Well, the grievances. For the past 30 years—years of financialization
unions are going to be able to do it too.” But the idea that and neo-liberalism—for the majority, wages have stagnated.
the unions are going to raise anything comparable… Benefits, which were never very great, have declined.
Working hours have shot way up. They’ve gone into debt to
Not only that, but, even with all of their flaws, unions, basi- try to preserve the consumerist lifestyle that’s rammed down
cally, are democratic. Its workers who get together and are their throats by the advertising industry. So they’re in bad
supposed to be able to make decisions. That’s not what a shape. Not Third World-style bad shape, but bad shape by
corporation is. A century ago, corporations were identified the standards of the way a rich, industrial country is sup-
by the courts with management. Management is the corpo- posed to be.
rations. For this campaign spending, management doesn’t Those are the things the left ought to be organizing
even have to consult with shareholders. They’re pure tyran- around. Right now, people are very upset, and rightly,
nies. Labor unions are supposed to, at least, work for the about the giveaway to the banks and the high unemploy-
benefit of their members. Corporations are required by law ment. If you look at unemployment figures, which are al-
to work only for profit and for material gain. They’re not ways understated, in the manufacturing industry it’s back to
allowed to do anything else. How can you compare them? the level of the Great Depression. And people are not going
It’s just a joke. to get those jobs back. So they have every right to be mad,
but the left is not offering them anything.
After the Republican victory in Massachusetts, Democrats
have said they don’t think they have the votes for health Emma Goldman—I’m paraphrasing—said, “If voting changed
care. What’s your take on the situation? anything, they’d make it illegal.” Do you subscribe to that
kind of non-participation in electoral politics?
The election in Massachusetts was interesting. The statistics
came out on the voting. Brown won because of very strong I often don’t vote or I vote Green or something like that.
support in the wealthy suburbs and because of pretty much But there are times when I think it matters. So, say in 2004,
apathy in the poorer, urban, Democratic areas. So the rich I thought it mattered to keep Bush out. If you were in a
want even more. Nothing’s ever enough. The population is swing state, I thought it was important to vote for Kerry,
saying, “Look, we don’t like the way you’re giving every- holding your nose. I’m in Massachusetts, so I didn’t have
thing away to the rich.” So they just mostly stayed home. to. Similarly in 2008, I thought it was important to keep
The Republicans are not like any political party in Amer- McCain and Palin out. This is bad, but that would be a lot
ican history. There’s only one word in their vocabulary: worse. So it’s not as extreme as Goldman said. There’s a
“no.” Anything the Democrats propose, “no.” They’ve got- limited functioning democracy, which gives the population
ten the Democrats to concede on issue after issue—primarily some voice, and sometimes a lot of voice when they get ac-
because they don’t disagree all that much. But one of the tive and organized.
things they’ve gotten them to agree on is that everything has
to go to a filibuster. Filibusters have been used in the past, How would you rate Obama’s first year in office? I remem-
but they’re not the routine way of responding to proposed ber you quoting Condi Rice—that it was an extension of the
legislation. The Republicans are like the old Communist second Bush term.
Party. Everybody has to vote the same way. So what you
get is a Republican minority that can block any legislation I think that’s about what’s happened—a little variation here
just by threatening a filibuster. and there, but not much. He’s escalated the war in Afghani-
Returning to health care, a majority of the population is stan and Pakistan beyond what Bush was saying he was go-
opposed to Obama’s health-care program. That’s what the ing to do. He’s been a little bit more open to negotiations
headlines say and that’s true. But if you look at the polls, on Iran. He’s done nothing on Israel/Palestine, on Latin
they’re mostly opposed to it because it doesn’t go far America. He’s approximately the same as Bush. I just don’t
enough. He gave away everything. They gave away the see much difference. Z
public option, which there’s a strong majority for. They
gave away the Medicare buy in at 55. Again, very strong
majority. He made a deal with the drug companies saying, Jon Hochschartner is a freelance writer from Lake Placid.
Is No Peace Dividend,” January 2009). This suggests that Ecuadoran executive on the process, but, of course, when
the investment theory of party competition has passed yet Citigroup was itself bailed out a decade later, it accepted
another test: despite strong expectations and public an- nothing like this imposition of harsh conditions against its
nouncements to the effect that the banks would be dealt will.
with harshly, their key profit activities have been left In the intervening decade the IMF has fallen on harsher
effectively unmolested. times: “As with the U.S. military during the Vietnam War,
people inside the IMF are bewildered, resentful and frus-
Structural Suffering trated, and don’t feel like suffering in silence any longer,”
ken future goals, the director of BusinessEurope is threat- public awareness and organized support for emission
ening that European corporations will move operations to reforms has grown.
world regions with less emission regulation (NYT, “EU Obama hardly deserves credit for this development, as it
Blames Others for ‘Great Failure’ on Climate,” 12/23/09). reflects the recognition by large-scale capital that the
If there is no progress on binding global emissions limits, changing investment climate now requires federal spending
the U.S. and EU may impose tariff duties on goods made to finance a major change in the industry. The break in the
in economies with no carbon taxation, a prescription for a normally monolithic energy industry and the hard work by
great trade war with unpredictable consequences. environmental organizers are the necessary conditions for
This is because even the U.S. is internally moving to- this political maneuvering.
ward a very modest greenhouse emissions taxing regime. Finally, it should be noted that the Obama administra-
The reason this small change has been allowed to move tion is being confronted with a budget-balancing hysteria
forward is the break within the powerful energy industry, similar to that which met the Clinton administration. The
with some retail energy providers and utilities recognizing situation is quite similar to Clinton’s years, actually. A pre-
they will benefit from future public spending to reinvent the vious Republican administration ran up monumental budget
energy system, while the energy industry proper is still in deficits in those areas which in the U.S. are considered
opposition (NYT, “Energy Firms Are Split on Bill to Battle most legitimate—increased military spending and decreased
Climate Change,” 10/19/09). The division has recently be- taxes on the richest households. Then the succeeding Dem-
come quite serious, with prominent corporate giants like ocrats are obliged to cut down the deficit run up by the
Apple and utility colossus Exelon splitting from the U.S. GOP, not by cutting imperial intervention or re-taxing the
Chamber of Commerce over its heavy spending to fight billionaires at previous rates, but by slicing back at the
climate change legislation. withered remains of U.S. social services.
This has led to emissions legislation suddenly becoming It was Clinton who decapitated AFDC, the main welfare
politically viable. As recently as 1997 the Senate voted program for poor families with children, in order to shrink
unanimously to recommend the U.S. not sign the Kyoto budget deficits run up by Reagan’s wars and upper-class
Protocol, yet now the prospects for the (still inadequate) tax chopping. Likewise, absent a powerful countervailing
American Clean Energy and Security Act and its public movement in defense of public services, it may be
cap-and-trade emissions regime are considered to be de- Obama who oversees the next great wave of austerity mea-
cent. The difference, of course, is not that several re- sures in the U.S., perhaps focused in severe cutbacks in
spected geologists and climatologists recently published a funding for state services. This has been anticipated by a
paper in Science describing how Arctic ice core and tree number of analysts on the left, notably Doug Henwood (of
ring records indicate that the 1999-2008 decade “was the the Left Business Observer). What this suggests is a biparti-
warmest of the past 200 decades” (“Recent Warming Re- san rotating door in state policy where the right pursues its
verses Long-Term Arctic Cooling,” 9/4/09). Terrifying regressive tax goals and imperial designs and center-right
scientific findings don’t scare policymakers unless they af- Democrats put the pain on the population in order to pursue
fect their power and privilege. Climate change is now an a centrist budget-balancing agenda. The modern political
issue because large-scale capital has split opinions and system has developed into a good cop-bad cop capitalist
management team.
In the end, Obama said the anti-G-20
protestors were “ironic” because the is-
sues they made such an impolite fuss over
are already addressed in the summit com-
muniqué. But each of the high points is a
continuation of the neoliberal status quo
which the demonstrators condemned and
which Obama implied he would alter. The
Democrats can promise all the change
they want, but with an economy run by
all-powerful corporate networks, you
can’t put your money where your mouth is
if you want to stay in office. Unless a pop-
ular movement arises to demand the
change they believed in, the historic
Obama presidency won’t be changing a
hell of a lot. Irony loves company. Z
By Rachel Smolker
questration credits. The European Union argued that doing were taken advantage of, the U.S. would not actually need
so would short-circuit the treaty’s central goal of emissions to reduce emissions for close to 30 years. In addition to the
reduction. Instead of completely closing the negotiations, fallacy of offsets being offsety (i.e., they are a lie, not re-
representatives have suspended the discussion until the ductions, unjust, unreliable etc.), they were to be supplied
COP7 meeting in Morocco in May or June of next year. almost entirely by agriculture and forestry. This has the
No matter how the election works out here at home, the ancilliary benefit of providing profitable opportunities for
debate over carbon sinks is likely to remain heated, initially developing and marketing technologies for measuring and
over whether to accept them and eventually over how to assessing carbon flows through ecosystems.
measure them.” Wait a minute, you say, “Isn’t industrial agriculture a
major source of emissions? How can it provide offsets?”
Land-Based Sinks As Offsets? Well, our wise leaders just decided that agriculture should
and chips to satisfy new demands for biomass resulting “Copenhagen Accord” took center stage. The Accord re-
from mandates for cellulosic biofuels, wood-burning elec- fers to REDD, but does not specifically mention soils and
tricity, and heat production, which is where most federal agriculture. Rest assured, however, they will indeed be in-
subsidies for “renewable energy” are currently going. Fi- cluded in whatever comes out of the next stages of negotia-
nally, there is a push to include “durable harvested wood tions. Also in Copenhagen, a Global Research Alliance on
products” as offset eligible. I suppose this means that the Agricultural Greenhouse Gases was established and, judg-
old wooden rocker on your porch can offset coal burning ing from membership, it seems likely that a large part of
since that wood will be around longer than, say, pulp used their mission will be to propose methods for including soils
for mail order cataloges. All this makes sense to someone, and agriculture practices into the CDM and eligible for
somewhere, apparently. credits in various carbon markets.
Carbon Counting and Other Tricks Implications
Epic Recession:
Prelude to Global
Depression?
Part III: An alternative program for 2010 by Congress, new home sales once again retreated in early
and beyond 2010. And it too is scheduled to soon expire. To make mat-
ters worse, the inventory technicalities are no longer a ma-
jor factor adding to GDP growth and China and Asia, once
By Jack Rasmus absorbing U.S. exports, have begun to tighten spending. So
the export push in manufacturing is now fading. The result
is that in February the Index of U.S. Manufacturing in the
U.S. once more reversed, falling from 58.4 to 56.5 (50.0
Banks instead borrowed funds from the Federal Reserve at March. One can support this latter legislation, but it will do
zero percent interest rates and loaned to hedge funds and nothing to generate jobs or a sustained recovery.
others at double digit rates to speculate in foreign currency,
offshore properties, commodities, and stock markets—or Theory and History
else they speculated directly in their own stocks or bet on
foreign government bonds collapsing, as in the case of
Greece and elsewhere. On the other hand, essentially noth-
A s Part 1 of this series noted, the current crisis is driven
by a set of unique characteristics quite different from
normal recessions that have occurred in the post-1945 period
ing has been done to aid the 8,000 small and regional in the U.S. Unfortunately, Obama administration policy-
banks, which are now failing by the hundreds, with another makers have yet to understand this, or else they do and refuse
702 on the FDIC’s danger list. to acknowledge the differences. They have approached the
A year later it is now abundantly clear that the Obama crisis as if it were a normal recession, perhaps somewhat
administration’s programs were never intended to generate worse in its dimensions, but normal nonetheless. That ex-
an economic recovery. These programs—the original stim- plains at least in part why the current Administration’s policies
ulus, the bank bailout programs, and special one-time pro- have failed to generate a sustained economic recovery. They
grams—all were designed to simply put a floor under the are essentially policies appropriate for normal recessions, but
escalating economic collapse at the time. That is quite dif- not for what I call an epic recession.
ferent than the government generating a true, sustained Epic Recessions are the consequence of major financial
economic recovery. Putting a temporary floor under the system implosions. In theoretical terms, those financial
collapse means the Obama strategy was designed simply to busts are the consequence of prior speculative investing ex-
buy time to allow a market driven recovery to take hold, to cesses, which drive debt and asset price inflation to danger-
be led by the banks renewing lending once again. But the ous levels. When the bust occurs, it produces greater than
banks didn’t lend, market forces have been unable to gen- normal debt unwinding that leads to deflation and defaults.
erate a sustained recovery, and except for the big banks, During the boom, speculative phase, the financial system
big multinational companies, and the stock markets, the becomes more fragile (i.e., sensitive to implosion) while
U.S. economy has been simply moving sideways—neither the rest of the real economy becomes correspondingly
collapsing further nor able to enter a sustained recovery. more consumption fragile. Both forms of fragility—finan-
It appears the Obama administration’s strategy will con- cial and consumption—fracture when the bust occurs, in
tinue into 2010. A paltry $15 billion so-called jobs bill, a turn exacerbating the debt-deflation-default processes that
good part of which is more business tax cuts that will have drive the economy in a downward spiral.
little effect, is mere tokenism at best. A similar criticism is However, the most fundamental forces are the conse-
appropriate for the recent Reid bill (introduced by Demo- quence of escalating global income inequality, exploding
cratic Senate leader Harry Reid) providing a mere $1.5 bil- global liquidity with an expanding global money parade of
lion for foreclosure aid to five states. Moving through Con- speculators, their new shadow financial institutions, and
gress is the more generous $145 billion to continue unem- new markets and financial instruments created for those
ployment benefits and medical insurance subsidies for 6 markets (most notably derivatives). The global money pa-
million workers whose benefits and coverage expires in rade, with more than $20 trillion on hand, drives the specu-
lative boom, in the process creat-
ing a mountain of debt in the sys-
tem. Following the bust, only
part of the debt is unwound.
Much of it remains, obstructing a
return to normal lending, invest-
ing, and household consumption.
Policies designed for normal re-
cessions do not address that
mountain of debt overhang, and
that is primarily the reason for
their relative ineffectiveness in
generating a sustained recovery.
To allow the logjam of debt to
be slowly worked off only results
in an extended period of relative
economic stagnation, not sus-
tained recovery. To simply trans-
fer it from banks and businesses
to the public balance sheet (U.S.
deficit and debt) does nothing to
remove it, but only shifts the cri-
sis to the public sector. Putting a
floor under the toxic economic
waste may prevent a meltdown
32 Z MAGAZINE APRIL 2010
Economic Policy
their own name would be matched by equivalent govern- banking activity and administered through a new structure
ment contributions. Government matching contributions to of utility banking. A new kind of Federal Reserve system
the pool would be funded by means of the introduction of a should provide necessary liquidity directly to consumer
2 percent national value added tax on the sale of intermedi- credit markets, with the credit disbursed by a new network
ate goods (i.e., a business-to-business sales tax) that all of local credit institutions administered through local gov-
businesses with annual sales revenues of more than $1 mil- ernment, regulated credit unions, or other non-profit
lion would be required to make. Government investing of institutional networks.
the pooled funds would be restricted to public owner- . Democratize the Federal Reserve
ship-public works projects or government loans to publicly
beneficial joint government-business projects such as It is necessary to take critical consumer credit markets
alternative energy, green technology, and the like. outside the private, for-profit, sometimes regulated, bank-
.
ing system and run it based on a new concept of utility
De-privatizing the student loan market
banking conducted at cost on behalf of consumers and not
The student loan market returns to a completely de-pri- for profit on behalf of private financial institutions. Provid-
vatized program where it will function according to its ing cost-only loans through the Federal Reserve, function-
original objective of providing financing to students at cost, ing as a lender of primary resort, the Fed could be restruc-
in the form of either grants or subsidized loans. tured in a new way that democratizes how it operates.
.
Two-thirds of Fed Board of Governors would be elected at
Re-unionization of the private sector
large by popular vote. Other proposals would further de-
workforce
mocratize the Fed and all Federal Reserve deliberations
A long-term program for restoring income to the bottom would be public record within 24 hours of meeting.
80 percent includes policies and measures to restore the . Utility banking vs. casino banking
unionization rate to at least the 22 percent level of 1980.
The first step toward re-unionization must include reforms There is a fundamental contradiction between the two
to level the playing field between workers, their unions, principles of banking—banking as a utility and as a specula-
and management regarding legal rights. This begins with tive profits center. The utility sector includes the now na-
implementation of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), tionalized (according to my earlier proposals) residential
which permits a fairer process for union organizing. mortgage and small business property mortgage markets
.
and consumer credit markets, especially for autos, student
Low and contingent wage indexation
loans, and installment credit for big ticket consumer
Contingent workers include those who are part time, es- durables products. Utility banking means credit extended at
pecially involuntary part time, and the escalating numbers cost and without a profit mark up in the key consumer
of workers transferred to various kinds of temporary work credit markets. It means the creation of a new network of
status. Contingent workers receive, on average, only 70 local financial institutions that take household deposits and
percent of wages of permanent employed and 10 percent of issue interest payments equivalent to no more than the cost
benefits. Part-time workers mostly receive no benefits and of credit. New local financial institutions in this system
typically half-time pay. These groups’ numbers have risen function on a non-profit basis. Their purpose is to provide
close to 50 million, approaching one-third of the work- the essential service of credit provisioning for consumer
force. The alternative program proposes the minimum markets. They may be local government based, non-gov-
wage be adjusted annually according to changes in infla- ernment local non-profits, or community credit-union like
tion, much like social security payments to the retired are financial institutions.
adjusted annually. This proposal for the first time also in- . Tame the global money parade
troduces a legislated minimum for wages and benefit levels
for contingent labor. To effectively tame the global money parade requires
getting control over its sources of money capital creation as
Banking System Restructuring & Financial Fragility well as its multiple, multi-directional flows. Until the
Searching for
Democratic Alternatives
1. A new International should be primarily concerned (at
A New International? least) with:
• economic production, consumption, and alloca-
A proposal for a new International
has been circulating online and
collecting endorsements for some
tion, including class relations
• kinship nurturance, socialization, housekeeping,
months now. It has been signed by and procreation, including gender, sexuality,
Vandana Shiva, Noam Chomsky, and age
Fernando Vegas, John Pilger, Trevor • cultural community relations, including race,
Ngwane, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Susan George, Boris Kagarlitsky, nationality, and religion
Francois Houtart, and nearly 1,320 others. • politics, including relations of law and legisla-
The proposal originated with an article by Michael Albert tion
titled, “Fifth International!?” in response to a call by Presi-
dent Chavez of Venezuela to host an April gathering to dis- • international relations, including matters of mu-
cuss a new International. Albert’s article received a favor- tual aid, exchange, and immigration
able response from visitors to the Z Communications site. • ecology, including relations with the natural en-
Since there seemed to be significant agreement with the vironment and other species
proposal’s specific points, and since many people thought The new International should address these concerns
pursuing those points made sense, a draft of a “Proposal for without elevating any one focus above the rest, since (a) all
a Participatory Socialist International” was created and sent, will critically affect the character of a new world, (b) unad-
with a cover letter, to a number of individuals seeking their dressed each could subvert efforts to reach a new world,
endorsement. What follows is the proposal. and (c) the constituencies most affected by each would be
intensely alienated if their prime concerns were relegated
The Proposal to secondary importance.
PURPOSE: Different people could conceivably have differ- 2. OUR VISION for a Participatory Socialist future should
ent agendas, but what this proposal seeks in the eyes of its (at least) include that:
very first endorsers is only to: • economic production, consumption, and alloca-
(a) specify a set of features/values/procedures tion be classless, which includes equitable ac-
that the endorsers feel are worthy and workable cess for all to quality education, health care,
for a new International food, water, sanitation, housing, meaningful
and dignified work, and the instruments and
(b) urge that any process to create a new Inter- conditions for personal fulfillment
national should discuss, debate, assess, refine,
and implement these and other features that • gender/kinship, sexual, and family relations not
emerge from a wide discussion and gain favor privilege by age, sexual preference, or gender
among founding members any one group above others, which includes
ending all forms of oppression of women while
The purpose of the proposal is to promote discussion and providing day care, recreation, health care, etc.
debate and also offer some broad ideas for features that
ought to be included in the discussion and debate. This pro- • culture and community relations among races,
posal is not a call for a new International much less a map of ethnic groups, religions, and other cultural com-
all attributes a new International could have. Nor is it a munities protect the rights and identity of each
gathering of people intent on somehow themselves creating community up to equally respecting those of all
a new International. This proposal is simply a group of peo- other communities, which includes an end to
ple urging that efforts to create a new International should racist, ethnocentric, and otherwise bigoted
involve wide discussion and debate, including considering structures while simultaneously securing the
the points raised here. prosperity and rights of indigenous people
• political decision making, adjudication of dis- tinue developing their views to establish their
putes, and implementation of shared programs merit or discover their inadequacies
deliver “people’s power” in ways that do not ele-
vate any one sector or constituency above others, 5. MEMBERS of the new International would be political
which includes participation and justice for all parties, movements, organizations, or even projects,
where:
• international trade, communication, and other
• members, employees, staff, etc., of each new In-
interactions attain peace and justice while dis-
ternational member organization would in turn
mantling all vestiges of colonialism and imperial-
gain membership in the International
ism, which includes canceling the debt of nations
of the global south and reconstructing interna- • individuals who want to be members of the In-
tional norms and relations to move toward an ternational but have no member group that they
equitable and just community of equally en- belong too, would have to join one
dowed nations • every member group would have its own
• ecological choices not only be sustainable, but agenda for its separate operations which would
care for the environment in accord with our be inviolable
highest aspirations for ourselves and our world, • each member group would be strongly urged to
which includes climate justice and energy inno- make its own operations consistent with the
vation norms, practices, and agendas of the Interna-
tional establishing solidarity, but also autonomy
3. The GUIDING VALUES AND PRINCIPLES informing in-
ternal strategic and programmatic deliberations of an Inter- • member groups would have a wide range of
national highlight at least the following values, which in- sizes, but since the International’s decisions
cludes implementing whatever structural steps prove essen- would not bind groups other than regarding the
tial to organizationally embody the values as well as possi- collective International agenda, a good way to
ble in the present: arrive at decisions might be serious discussion
• solidarity, to help align worldwide movements and exploration, followed by polls of the whole
and projects into mutual aid and collective bene- International membership to see peoples’ lean-
fit ings, followed by refinements of proposals to
• diversity, to spur creative innovation, respect dis- seek greater support and to allow dissidents to
sent, and recognize that minority views thought make their case, culminating in final votes of
to be crazy today can lead to what is brilliant to- the membership
morrow 6. PROGRAMMATICALLY what a new International
• equity, to seek wealth and income fairness chooses to do will be contextual and a product of its mem-
bers’ desires, but, some examples include:
• peace with justice, to realize international fair-
ness and fulfillment • a new International might call for international
events and days of dissent, for support cam-
• ecological sustainability and wisdom, to seek hu- paigns for existing struggles by member organi-
man survival and interconnection zations, and for support of member organiza-
• “democracy” or perhaps even a more inspiring tions against repression, as well as undertake
conception of people’s power, participatory de- widespread debates and campaigns to advance
mocracy, or self management, to foster participa- related understanding and mutual knowledge
tion and equitable influence for all • more ambitiously, an International might also
4. That a new International be THE GREATEST SUM of all undertake a massive international focus on im-
its parts, including rejecting confining itself to a single line migration, on ending a war, on shortening the
to capture all views in one narrow pattern. To achieve this work week worldwide, and/or on averting cli-
the new International should: matic catastrophe, among other possibilities. It
• include and celebrate “currents” to serve as vehi- might prepare materials, undertake education,
cles for contending views, help ward off sectari- pursue actions, carry out boycotts, support local
anism, and aid constant growth endeavors, etc.
• establish that currents should respect the inten- • general programs would be up to member orga-
tions of other currents, assume that differences nizations to decide how to relate to, yet there
over policy are about substance and not motive, would be considerable collective momentum for
and pursue substantive debate as a serious part each member organization to participate and
of the whole project contribute as best it could in collective cam-
paigns and projects since clearly one reason to
• afford each current means to openly engage with have an International is to help organizations,
all other currents to try to advance new insights movements, and projects worldwide escape sin-
bearing on policy and program gle-issue loneliness by becoming part of a larger
• guarantee that as long as any particular current process encompassing diverse focuses and
accepts the basic tenets of the International and united by agreements to implement various
operates in accord with its norms and methods, shared endeavors
its minority positions would be given space not
only to argue, but, if they don’t prevail, to con- More at www.zcommunications.org/newinternational.htm
Cane Toad: The Conquest - Cute little creatures defying Howl - Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, Howl
kooky bigger creatures, cane toads have been indigenous to looks at Allen Ginsberg, circa age 29, and his first published
Central and South America for millions of years. But in 1935 poem. Divided into four equal parts, this film uses different
an ill-fated idea to bring over 100 of the amphibians to the mediums to convey the power the poet and his poem “Howl”
northeastern part of Australia to eat the greyback cane bee- had on people and the powers-that-be. One part is essentially
tle, a sugarcane pest, was implemented. Rather than kick out theater, with Ginsberg (played by James Franco) reading his
the vermin, cane toads multiplied by the thousands and poem at the Six Gallery on October 7, 1955. The second part
started to go west across the continent. Today, approxi- uses animation (designed by Eric Drooker) to illustrate an in-
mately 1.5 billion cane toads have taken on mythological terpretation of the poem. The third part is the dramatic poetic
portions as pet, pest, and pariah. While some Australians justice of “Howl,” and thus free speech, which went on trial
keep the cane toad as a companion, others have lost their for obscenity (People v. Ferlinghetti). And the fourth is a
dog, cat, snake, etc., when they ate one of the poisonous pseudo-documentary where Ginsberg answers questions
creatures. This has led to great fear and misunderstanding of from an off-screen interviewer. While the poem “Howl” said
the toad—which is hardly a threat to humans—producing many things about America, the greatness in the film lies in
hysterical reactions. Presented in 3D, director Mark Lewis’s the fact that the producers managed to capture both Ginsberg
Z MAGAZINE APRIL 2010 39
Reviews
and the essence of his work: the voice of desire and fulfill-
ment by and for those who have been ignored by society.
newly-formed Black Liberation Army (BLA). In 1973, who so often remain the unknown and unacknowledged fig-
Bukhari fled to the BLA as well. ures behind progressive mass movements.” Z
On January 25, 1975, Bukhari was arrested and later
convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to 40 years. She
recounts how she and two other members of the BLA’s Hans Bennett is an independent media journalist and co-
Amistad Collective entered a delicatessan in Virginia with- founder of Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal. He has written
out intending to rob it, but that the store manager initiated a for Alternet, Truthout, Color Lines, Black Commentator, Up-
gunfight (that Bukhari did not participate in). Her co-defen- side Down World, and other activist media.
dant, Masai Ehehosi, was shot in the face. Her bodyguard
had not drawn his weapon, but was shot and then stomped to
death by the store manager and his son. Bukhari tried to
press countercharges against them, but the Commonwealth
attorney said that it was “justifiable” homicide. New York For Sale
Following her arrest, Bukhari suffered from fibroid tu- Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate
mors, but was denied medical treatment at the city jail. On
By Tom Angotti, foreword by Peter Marcuse
entering the state prison in Goochland, Bukhari writes:
“During my initial examination upon arrival, a doctor told MIT Press, 2008, 323 pp.
me the tumors were the size of oranges and asked me how
long my sentence was. I told him 40 years; he told me to Review by James Tracy
come back to see him in 10…. So I followed the prison
rules. I filed a grievance. In response, I was told that the
lack of medical treatment constituted a difference of opinion
between myself and the doctor on whether treatment was
L eft to their own devices, markets tend to drop large Amer-
ican cities in two equally precarious positions. The disin-
vestment of Detroit and Flint serve as symbols of the fickle-
needed at this point.” ness of globalization. In New York for Sale: Community Plan-
Following the prison rules did nothing to get her the ning Confronts Global Real Estate, Tom Angotti maps out an-
treatment needed, so she made an important decision: “I other urban future where the development of cities are shaped
knew then that the only way I would get the medical care I by ordinary working class people through progressive com-
needed was to go out and get it for myself.” After two years munity planning methods.
at Goochland, Bukhari escaped. She was able to see two According to Angotti, director of Hunter College’s Com-
doctors before being recaptured two months later and they munity Planning and Development Department, this future
both told her that she could endure the pain or get surgery. may well exist within the shell of today’s economy. As evi-
After being recaptured, she writes: “I decided to use the dence, he points to over 70 community-driven plans in New
lack of medical care as my defense for the escape to accom- York City alone, many of which have sprung from the city’s
plish two things: (1) expose the level of medical care at the fights against displacement in the past 4 decades. A compre-
prison and (2) put pressure on them to give me the care I hensive survey of all such plans would take several vol-
needed.” As punishment for her escape, she was put in soli- umes, so only two are explored in detail: the 1961 Cooper
tary confinement from March 1978 to November 1980. In Square Alternative plan and the We Stay!/Nos Quedamos
June 1978, she was taken to the hospital for medical care. Plan in the Melrose Commons section of the South Bronx.
In August 1983, after eight years and eight months in In the case of Cooper Square, determined activists moved
prison, Bukhari was granted parole and released. She from protest to planning and forced the city’s developers to
jumped headfirst into organizing support networks for U.S. severely curtail a Robert Moses urban renewal scheme.
political prisoners. Laura Whitehorn, one of the prisoners They succeeded and, through the growth of community de-
who had been supported by Bukhari, writes that, “She found velopment corporations, were able to create new affordable
out what we thought and what we needed, then met with ac- housing and preserve existing stock.
tivists outside, encouraging them to support us and all the In Melrose Com-
political prisoners she encountered.” mons, largely Latino
Bukhari joined political prisoner Jalil Muntaqim and for- renters and small busi-
mer political prisoner Herman Ferguson in creating the Jeri- nesspeople mobilized
cho Movement, which organized a large demonstration in to confront a developer
front of the White House in 1998, calling for the release of who would have dis-
all political prisoners. Bukhari also created the New York placed over 78 home-
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYFMAJC) in support owners, 400 tenants,
of her former comrade, now on death row, whom she’d 80 businesses, and 500
worked with at the New York City Panther office. workers. Through stra-
Since Bukhari’s tragic death in 2003, the Jericho Move- tegic community orga-
ment and NYFMAJC have continued to grow. Mumia nizing, the We Stay
Abu-Jamal writes in The War Before’s afterword that “her group made the city ac-
passing wasn’t the only tragedy; the tragedy was that more cept a plan based in
people didn’t know her, learn from her, or grow from her 168 neighborhood con-
fund of hard-won wisdom.” In the foreword, former politi- sultations.
cal prisoner Angela Y. Davis writes that Bukhari’s “words Angotti’s vision of
compel us to recognize how much unacknowledged labor city planning is an am-
dwells inside and behind social justice movements…. Hope- bitious one. He uses
fully it will teach us respect and reverence for the organizer, the term progressive
42 Z MAGAZINE APRIL 2010
Reviews
† abolition of nuclear weapons, and a commitment to But surely, as experts in culture, the contributors under-
human rights stand the difference between the stated principles of an insti-
tution and the actual norms governing its behavior. (Much
The book includes a two-page “Pledge of Non- participa- of The Counter-Counterinsurgency Manual is devoted to
tion in Counterinsurgency,” which can be signed and mailed teasing apart just these differences with regard to the mili-
in to the Network of Concerned Anthro- pologists. tary.) If the principles of the Code of Ethics really were in-
The book offers a refreshing anecdote to the media’s herent to the project of anthropology in such a way that vio-
cheerleading for General Petraeus and his clique of warrior lation of the norms would represent a fundamental betrayal
scholars. The essays present new insights into the theory, of the anthological project (similar to, for example, faking
practice, history, and the propaganda-value of counterinsur- your evidence), then the history of anthropology, and its ties
gency. to colonialism, would have been very different. Instead, we
must remember that the ethics statement is itself the product