Bulletin #195
SUBJECT: ON DEMOCRACY IN
Cosne d'Allier,
Dear Colleagues and
Friends of CEIMSA,
Our mid-summer night's
dream, here in central France, is that Americans will fall in love with
Democracy and 300 million of them will seek to introduce the democratic process
in every institution they inhabit --families, churches, schools, factories, offices,
U.S. military bases, etc., etc.-- thereby putting an
end to the tyrannies of authoritarianism, of fear and anxiety, of militarism,
of artificial scarcity, etc., etc. . . .
In his book Century
of War: Politics, Conflicts, and Society since 1914, historian Gabriel Kolko writes that "it was not the wisdom of Leninist
revolutionaries, much less the glacially paced manifestations of Marxist axioms
regarding the economy, but rather the folly of the old orders that was the
origin of the Left's greatest political and ideological successes in the
twentieth century." [p.263] The historical events which radicalized the
European populations in the first quarter of the 20th century, according to Kolko's analysis, presented many problems to the
"progressive" political elite who were forced to follow the lead of
the masses, at the time of the Russian Revolution. This reality of radical
democratic power and its danger to the ambitions and interests of ruling
classes was the chief reason that Adolf Hitler felt
obliged to finance a consumer society at home at the same time that he
tried to finance military expansion abroad. The threat of radical democracy
also explains why Stalin reached a "gentleman's agreement" with Leon
Blum; then later with Churchill, Roosevelt, and De Gaulle guaranteeing that the
communist parties of Spain, Greece, Italy, and France would serve to hinder
the radical demands for self-determination in those societies during and after
the war, in exchange for the territorial security of the Soviet Union, also
know as "The Containment Policy".
Throughout the 20th
century the first enemy of the traditional ruling classes of
The
folly of the ruling classes? The radicalization of the
masses? Ambitious and opportunistic political leaders who tried to
accommodate the needs of the ruling classes, rather than mobilize existing
radical forces? What do these elements have to do with today's political
economy? Kolko's history of the 20th century is an
interesting and useful analysis for anyone who believes that there is something
to learn about the present by understanding the past.
In this spirit, we
offer our readers the six items below, as new material for analyses of
contemporary
Item A. is an article
critical of NYT journalist Thomas Friedman written by Indian reporter,
by Siddharth Varadarajan
and forwarded to us by Professor Richard Du Boff.
Item B. is an
article from associate press reporter Tom Raum on the
"Pressure on Bush to Find an Exit Strategy".
Item C. is a
description of the anti-war movement building in front of George Bush's
vacation home in
Item D. is a
series of up-dates (including dissent views) on the U. S. Divestment movement
against Israeli policies in Palestine, a movement originating in major U.S.
institutions, including The Presbyterian Church USA, The University of
California, Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, MIT, and
many others.
Item E. is an
up-date from the Council for the National Interest Foundation on
the federal indictment which is being sought against the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobbying group, charged with
having disclosed classified defense information to
Item F. is
information on labor movement activities in San Diego, California, sent to us
by Professor Fred Lonidier who informs us of Progressive
Associations such as The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), The
Tijuana Maquiladora Workers' Network, The Workers' Information
Center of Tijuana (CITTAC), The Binational
Feminist Collective, and The San
Diego Maquiladora Workers Solidarity Network are
organizing in Southern California this summer in defense of the female workers
at the Alaris/Cardinal
Health Systems Corporation, located across the border in the maquiladora zone of Tijuana.
Sincerely,
Francis McCollum
Feeley
Professor of American
Studies/
Director of Research
Université Grenoble
III
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/
______________________
A.
from Richard B.Du
Boff
I'm
sorry, but the world's still round
by Siddharth
Varadarajan
'Flatman'
is to globalization, what Dr Pangloss was to Candide's world: a breathless narrator of how good the
going is. For the real picture, you'll have to look elsewhere. Review of Thomas
Friedman's The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Globalized World in the 21st Century (
Ever since I experienced, at first
hand, Nato's bombing runs
over
In those days, Mr
Friedman -- a widely syndicated New York Times columnist and an advocate of
corporate globalisation and American military
intervention around the world -- used to peddle the silly idea that countries
with McDonalds would never go to war against each other. Well, before he could
say 'take-away', the
In The World is Flat, Mr Friedman ditches McDonalds in favour
of another lemon, the Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention: "No two
countries that are both part of a major global supply chain, like Dell's, will
ever fight a war against each other so long as they are both part of the same
global supply chain".
This prediction is typical of the ahistorical approach Mr Friedman
adopts in order to argue that corporate globalisation
is the panacea for the world's problems. Open up your economy, be less corrupt,
create institutions of good governance, let companies hire and fire workers
more easily -- this is essentially what those who are not benefiting from globalisation must do.
If Mr
Friedman had read a little business history (instead of merely talking to CEOs)
he would know that cross investment and extensive trade relations have never
prevented countries from going to war against each other.
Mira Wilkins's pioneering works on
international investment before 1914 and between the two world wars, for
example, have shown that trans-oceanic flows of capital were significant even
then.
Nor was inter-war globalisation restricted to goods alone. There was
outsourcing of services too. "Specialized banks, law firms, and trading
companies that focused on opening the German market to
The reason this conflict-prevention
theory is so important to Mr Friedman is because
"supply chaining" (as exemplified by Dell) is one of 10
"flatteners" central to the book's overall thesis -- recent
innovations or developments that have made the world "flat". By flat
he really means 'level'. On page 7, the author tells us how he was sitting in
the office of Nandan Nilekani
in 2000 when the Infosys CEO said the international
playing field for corporations and countries was being levelled
by the new information technology. Mr Friedman had an
epiphany. "My God, he's telling me the world is flat!"
Stripped of the gush, what flatness
boils down to is the ability of businesses to use new communications
technologies in order to push the frontiers of cost-cutting by speeding up the
work process and sourcing labour and inputs from
every corner of the globe. Among the 'flatteners' are Windows, the Internet,
workflow and open-source software, outsourcing, off-shoring (i.e. foreign
direct investment), supply-chaining, insourcing,
in-forming (i.e. Google and other search engines) and
digital, wireless communication. Flatness, Mr
Friedman contends, is making the world less hierarchical, more prosperous and
equal (eg. by allowing Indians to work in call centres or process American tax forms), more transparent
and democratic (thanks to blogging), and less prone to
war.
Flatman gets so carried away with his
discovery that he loses the big picture early in the book. On page 39, he
visits a
At the
In this flat world, threats
basically come from those opposing flatness -- from Al-Qaida
and disgruntled elements unable to cope with the changes taking place. Flatman calls them Islamo-Leninists.
At no point does he concede the possibility that the flatteners might be the
ones disturbing the peace. That
Wal-Mart apart, Mr
Friedman does best when he examines his own society rather than the rest of the
world -- about which he clearly knows far less. There are genuine insights in
his discussion about the crisis in U.S. education, for example, or about how
the post-9/11 restrictions on entry into the U.S. are undermining American
competitiveness in the core sciences, but these get lost in the general clutter
of flatness he spins out (besides his other sins, Friedman also loves to mix
his metaphors -- http://www.nypress.com/18/16/news&columns/taibbi.cfm ).
The basic flaw in Flatman's analysis is his inability to separate
quantitative changes from qualitative ones. New communication technologies have
speeded capitalism up but they have not led to -- nor are they capable of
leading to -- a fundamental social transformation, a change in the way
economic, social and political power is exercised nationally and
internationally. When a Harvard professor, Michael J. Sandel,
points him in the direction of Karl Marx -- who wrote about capitalist globalisation 150 years ago -- to understand the same
phenomenon he thinks he's discovered, Flatman
confesses it is "hard to believe" Marx has said it all already.
Another person who
said it all, and better, was the Russian writer Ilya Ehrenburg. "Cars don't have a homeland", he wrote in The
Life of the Automobile, his classic 1929 novel (Pluto Press, 1985, tr.
Joachim Neugroschel) on the political economy of the
automotive supply chain. "Like oil stock or classic love, they can easily
cross borders. Italian Fiats clamber up the cliffs of
How much has the world changed since
then? Thanks to Wal-Mart, the standard gauge of minutes has been upgraded to
headphones. And workers in Indian call centres have
names like Jerry and get to pretend they're from
In Ehrenburg's
novella, Sir Henry Deterding dreams of an empire of
oil. The automobile needs gasoline, rubber for tires, tar
for roads. "He already saw a grand coalition. Only, not a word about oil!
Talk about the blood of the people shot down, the desecration of the Church,
freedom of speech, talk in verses if you like, talk and talk, eloquently and
sincerely!"
Flatman backed the invasion of
--
(A shorter version of this review
was published in The Hindu on
_________________
B.
from Tom Raum
The Associated Press
copyright
Pressure on Bush
to Find an Exit Strategy
President
Bush to develop an exit strategy. The
new
AP-Ipsos poll shows the lowest approval yet for
Bush's handling of
The president's fellow
Republicans are growing nervous as they head into an election year.
Yet the administration must
also confront the possibility that a
planned
to begin next spring - could further embolden the insurgents and throw
"We will stay the
course. We will complete the job in
conference
on his
Bush suggested his resolve
was only strengthened by a videotaped warning earlier Thursday from
al-Qaida's
second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri,
threatening more terror attacks in
of
thousands of US military deaths if the
There has been little
outward sign of progress in US-led efforts to defeat the insurgency and to beef
up the
Iraqi army and police so they can take over security responsibilities and allow
an orderly
withdrawal
of American forces.
Particularly lethal
bombings over the past few weeks, including a roadside bomb that claimed the
lives
of 14 Marines on Wednesday, have made the situation look even bleaker than US
military experts
suggest
it is.
That translates into a
continued erosion of public support for Bush's
An AP-Ipsos
poll taken Monday through Wednesday indicated that just 38 percent of Americans
approve
of Bush's handling of
on the
war and terrorism helped him to election victory.
Bush has lost support most
dramatically among younger women, especially those who live in the
suburbs,
and among men with a high school education or less.
Despite the horrific
headlines, many military analysts say that attacks on US troops have actually
remained
constant in recent weeks while attacks on Iraqi civilians have increased.
"As tragic as they
are, they don't establish a pattern that says
consistently
worse," said Anthony H. Cordesman, an
official.
He attributed recent deaths of Marines to the fact that "these are more
aggressive military
patrols
going into hostile areas."
Even so, Bush faces a real
dilemma, said Cordesman, now with the Center for
Strategic and
International Studies.
"The president's legacy, if he fails in
President Bush and the Bush administration
can scarcely ignore that problem."
"If you pull out
troops too quickly now, and you see the situation in
elections,
the impact is going to be far more serious than if you keep the troops in at
reasonable
levels,"
Cordesman said.
Regardless of whether
attacks against US troops are increasing overall or remaining constant, the
deaths
over the past few days of Marines in western
of
Jeff Mers,
commander of a VFW post that has raised money and sent care packages to the
Columbus-based Marine company that suffered the heaviest losses, said that even
before this week's
attacks,
he and other veterans were dazed from attending funerals.
"I think I've been to
nine of these just in central
Bush called the fallen
Marines a "grim reminder" that
The war will be a major
factor in the 2006 midterm congressional races and could be one in the 2008
presidential
race, said Stephen Cimbala, a
studied
the impact of wars on American politics.
"If you look at it
from a Republican point of view, by the 2006 congressional elections, you're
going
to
want to have a timetable in place for withdrawal of US forces and their
replacement by Iraqis. And by
the fall of
2008, you will want to have most US forces out of there," Cimbala said.
-------
________________
C.
from TruthOut
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080905A.shtml
!August 2005
THE ANTI-WAR
MOVEMENT GOES TO BUSH'S VACATION HOME IN
1) from Deb Riechmann
The Associated Press
copyright
Fallen Soldier's
Mom Leads March on Crawford
ranch
Saturday, demanding an accounting from Bush of how he has conducted the war in
Supported by more than 50
demonstrators who chanted, "W. killed her son!" Cindy Sheehan told
reporters:
"I want to ask the president, 'Why did you kill my son? What did my son
die for?'" Sheehan,
48, didn't get to see Bush, but
did talk about 45 minutes with national security adviser Steve Hadley
and
deputy White House chief of staff Joe Hagin, who went
out to hear her concerns.
Appreciative of their
attention, yet undaunted, Sheehan said she planned to continue her roadside
vigil,
except for a few breaks, until she gets to talk to Bush. Her son, Casey, 24,
was killed in Sadr
"They (the advisers) said we are in
mass
destruction, that the world's a better place with Saddam gone and that we're
making the world a
safer
place with what we're doing over there," Sheehan said in a telephone
interview after the meeting.
"They were very
respectful. They were nice men. I told them
States and that now people are
dead for nothing. I told them I wouldn't leave until I talked to George
Bush."
She said Hagin told her, "I want to assure you that he (Bush)
really does care."
"And I said if he does
care, why doesn't he come out and talk to me."
Sheehan arrived in Crawford
aboard a bus painted red, white and blue and emblazoned with the
words,
"Impeachment Tour." Sheehan, from
convention in
The bus, trailed by about
20 cars of protesters and reporters, drove at about 15 mph toward Bush's
ranch.
After several miles, they parked the vehicles and began to march, in stifling
heat, farther down
the
narrow country road.
Flanked by miles of
pasture, Sheehan spoke with reporters while clutching two photographs, one of
her
son in uniform, and the other, a baby picture, when he was seven months old.
She said she decided to
come to Crawford a few days ago after Bush said that fallen
had
died for a noble cause and that the mission must be completed.
"I want to ask the
president, `Why did you kill my son? What did my son die for?" she said,
her
voice
cracking with emotion. "Last week, you said my son died for a noble cause'
and I want to ask
him
what that noble cause is?"
White House spokesman Trent
Duffy said response that Bush also wants the troops to return home
safely.
"Many of the hundreds
of families the president has met with know their loved one died for a noble
cause
and that the best way to honor their sacrifice is to complete the
mission," Duffy said.
"It is a message the
president has heard time and again from those he has met with and comforted.
Like all Americans, he wants
the troops home as soon as possible."
The group marched about a
half-mile before local law enforcement officials stopped them at a bend
in the
road, still four to five miles from the ranch's entrance. Capt. Kenneth Vanek of the McLennan
walk in the ditch
beside the road, not on the road.
"If they won't
cooperate, we won't," Vanek said.
2) from Willima Rivers Pitt
US Newswire
copyright
Gold
Star and military families from across country on their way to
Speak Out
(MFSO) are traveling to
Starting today, Gold Star
families from
loved ones have
died as a result of the war in
at the
protest. Ms. Sheehan, whose son Army Specialist Casey Sheehan was killed in
on
These families will be joined
by military families with loved ones currently serving in
deploy
or redeploy to
about
the personal costs of the war in
Bush.
On
said
"We have to honor the sacrifices of the fallen by completing the
mission... The families of the
fallen
can be assured that they died for a noble cause." Gold Star and military
families coming to
Crawford know that the cause
was not noble; that their loved ones died, or are currently in harm's way,
serving
in a war based on lies.
In the first 8 days of
August, 36 service members died in
men
are dying each day. All of the families traveling to Crawford will carry the
message to the
vacationing
President: Honor our fallen and honor our loved ones' service by ending the
occupation,
bringing
the troops home now and taking care of them when they get here.
President Bush has
consistently tried to hide, and to hide from, the cost of the war in
August, these costs are being
brought right to his doorstep.
Members of Gold Star
Families for Peace and Military Families Speak Out who are traveling to
Crawford will be available for
interview beginning on Tuesday afternoon August 9th.
For More Information:
Military Families Speak
Out: http://www.mfso.org.
Gold Star Families for
Peace: http://www.gsfp.org.
_____________
D.
from Francis Feeley
THE
DIVESTMENT MOVEMENT IN THE
1) The Divest from
http://www.divest-from-israel-campaign.org/
2)
http://www.divest-from-israel-campaign.org/Yale/DivestfromIsraelPetition.html
3) Campaign to Divest From
http://www.divestment.org/divestment/index.php
4) Campaign for UC Divestment from
5) Divest from
discussion-subscribe@Israel-divest.org
or click here.
...
6) Tufts
http://www.israel-divest.org/Tufts/petition.html
7) Welcome to HarvardMITdivest.org.
(after a similar petition by the
8) Mainline churches move to stop
investment in
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/155/story_15507_1.html
http://www.pcusa.org/ga216/news/ga04121.htm
http://www.pcusa.org/ga216/news/ga04121.htm
9) Divestment Watch - Leading the
battle against the illegal divest. Divestment Watch leads the battle
against the illegal divest from
http://www.divestmentwatch.com/
_________________
E.
From: Council for the National
Interest Foundation cnif@democracyinaction.org
Date:
FEDERAL INDICTMENT
URGED FOR AIPAC, NOT JUST ROSEN AND WEISSMAN
Todays federal indictment of two former
employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel
lobbying group, charged with having disclosed classified defense information to
The organization itself should have
been indicted, as well as the two officers who were directly involved,said Bird. Let us hope
that AIPAC has learned its lesson and will stop intimidating congressmen,
administration officials, and the public media, supposedly on behalf of Israel,
but in fact destructive to an honest and open relationship between Israel and
the United States.
Bird spoke as court documents were
unsealed today and announced in Alexandria, Virginia by U.S. Attorney Paul
McNulty, accusing AIPACs former policy director
Steven Rosen and a former AIPAC Middle East analyst Keith Weissman
with illegally receiving classified information about Iran from a Defense
department analyst, Lawrence A. Franklin, and with illegally helping Franklin
to pass them to Naor Gilon,
a political counselor at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC. The federal
grand jury also added new charges against
The five-count, 26-page indictment
of Rosen and Weissman discloses a much broader set of
charges against the two men, that they have been passing classified information
to Israel as far back as 1999, on topics ranging from Saudi Arabia to Al-Qaeda to Iran. AIPAC fired the two key staff members after
first standing by them, later claiming that the group had been misled.
But Bird argued that AIPAC had been
disingenuous, saying that it is too bad that an organization that has professed
to be supporting
The indictment spells out the
details of
The Council for the National
Interest was founded in 1989 by Paul Findley and Paul PeteMcCloskey,
both longtime Republican Members of Congress, gravely concerned by the effects
of long-term interests of the
===============================
Contact: Terry Walz
Council for the National Interest
Council for the National Interest
Foundation
http://www.rescuemideastpolicy.com/
Phone: 202-863-2951
Fax: 202-863-2952 =1
____________________
F.
From: Fred Lonidier
Subject:
Francis,
DSA [Democratic Socialists of
America] here tried to set up a demo in Colombus OH
to take place around the time of the one next Friday at
It would really send a message to
Cardinal if even a few people showed up at their national (actually
international) headquarters with picket signs (and called the media). Any chance you have members in
in solidarity,
Fred
SUPPORT
ALARIS/CARDINAL HEALTH
WORKERS' STRUGGLE
¡Alto a la explotación en las maquiladoras!
APOYA LA
LUCHA DE LAS TRABAJADORAS DE ALARIS / CARDINAL HEALTH
Dear
Join us in our struggle for Fair Pay
and Justice across Borders!
The Tijuana Maquiladora
Workers' Network,
CITTAC: Workers' Information Center of Tijuana, The Binational
Feminist Collective and the San Diego Maquiladora Workers Solidarity Network ask for your support for the struggle for justice of the
female workers of the Alaris/Cardinal Health Systems in
Please join us as we protest in front of the
Cardinal Health offices at
There will be a carpool leaving from
This struggle comes at a time when many of us
are focusing on racist vigilante violence against migrant workers along the border. This is a
bi-national struggle to obtain justice for workers. When workers are exploited in
one country, it hurts all of us: workers, Mexicans, Americans, people of color,
everyone. We must demand that
multi-national corporations treat workers fairly wherever they operate. We must
demonstrate solidarity
with these workers. Globalize justice!
This protest has the potential to really help the
workers. A group of workers have filed suit against Alaris Medical Systems of Tijuana through the
labor courts of
Workers will demand severance pay and overdue
overtime pay. We will demand that Alaris/Cardinal
Health abide by the
Mexican Federal Labor Laws. We will demand justice! Please join us and pass this on to
others.
Cittac, Centro de Información para Trabajadoras y Trabajadores, Tijuana
The Binational
Feminist Collective,
More information: (619) 216-0095
maquilatijuanasandiego@earthlink.net
********************************
Francis McCollum Feeley
Professor of American Studies
Université Stendhal-Grenoble
III
Director of Research at
CEIMSA-IN-EXILE
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/