Bulletin N° 215
Subject : ON LESSONS FROM
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF WARS : FROM THE CENTER FOR
THE ADVANCED STUDY OF AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS AND SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS, GRENOBLE, FRANCE.
26 November 2005
Grenoble, France
Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
Long before George Orwell wrote his famous novel, 1984,
statecraft had already included the practice of keeping one segment of
the
population "fat, dumb and happy" so that it would remain indifferent
to the suffering of the masses and could be counted on to support
police/military repression. One can go back to early 16th-century
political
theory, to Niccolo Machiavelli, to see an
explicit
sketch of how a successful ruler must adopt these repressive tactics of
"divide and govern" by catering to the desires of some, against the
needs of others.
One modern-day pupil of Machiavelli adopted this strategy
against
the advice of his own military elite. Hitler's fascist state apparatus
systematically diverted funds from Nazi military operations (even when
the
German army was in dire economic need in
Hitler insisted upon the continuation of civilian output,
extended even
to the production of cosmetics, and as late as 1943 --when military
defeat was
imminent and the Nazi leadership publicly endorsed a civilian
austerity plan to finance the "total war" effort-- the rulers created loopholes so
that "those who profited from the war could continue much as before."
Many members of the political elite, writes Kolko,
continued to savor "their little pleasures, or voyage to
The Nazi state found the resources to subsidize consumer society in
Germany by plundering
the occupied regions of France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Poland, and
Italy
--countries where malnutrition, illness and premature death was common
among
the civilian population even in those relatively rich regions which
produced
ample quantities of food. This was the direct result of German state
capitalist
policy of using consumerism as a political instrument to
prevent the
rise of a revolutionary socialist movement in the homeland, such as had
been
witnessed by Hitler himself in Germany at the end of World War I.
What follows is a series of articles which CEIMSA has recently
received
describing the current status of that classic Capitalist Trinity : Militarism, Xenophobia, & Opportunism.
Item A. is an excerpt from
insider
advice at Jane's
Defense Weekly (May 2005) available for investors in military
industries.
The ROW ["rest of the world"] military budgets combined are now less
than the annual
Item B. is a description of the
"revolution" currently under way in the media industry, according to
John Pilger, editor of the new anthology, Tell
Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism and Its Triumphs.
Item C. is an essay on the
contemporary
politics of xenophobia, sent to us by Professor Edward Herman.
Item D. is a mainstream press
account
which illustrates the tactical use of powerful financial institutions
by the
capitalist state to create illusions of prosperity in times of
crisis.
In his article, "State Coffers Swelling Again," veteran NYT journalist John Broder, illustrates the
perversion of
Keynesian economic theory in the hands of a cynical
power elite, whose aim is not to eliminate poverty by means
of
public employment, but rather to weaken any progressive forces which
might
surface to challenge the very structure of the
As always, we invite readers to comment/critique the articles we have
selected.
Sincerely,
Francis McCollum Feeley
Professor of American Studies/
Director of Research
Université Stendhal-Grenoble III
http://www.ceimsa.org/
_________________________
A.
from Jane's
Defense Weekly :
04 May 2005
By Guy Anderson Editor
of
Jane's Defence Industry
Defence expenditure in the
Its report - 'The Defence Industry in the
21st
Century' by PwC's global aerospace and defence leader Richard Hooke -
adds that "the US is in the driving seat", raising the prospect of a
future scenario in which it could "dominate the supply of the world's
arms
completely".
The
Less than two per cent of the
Hooke says: "The message for management
teams in
all this - apart from the obvious for US contractors to monopolise the industry - is that they will fail to maximise value if they fail to define accurately the business segment in which
they
operate.
"For Europe and the
202 of 389 words
[End of non-subscriber extract.]
__________________
The full version of this article is
accessible through
our subscription services. Please refer to the box below for details.
___________________
B.
from John Pilger
Tr u
t h o u t |
Perspective
Friday 25 November 2005
A News Revolution Has Begun
by John Pilger
The Indian writer Vandana Shiva has called
for an
"insurrection of subjugated knowledge." The insurrection is well
under way. In trying to make sense of a dangerous world, millions of
people are
turning away from the traditional sources of news and information and
toward
the world wide web, convinced that
mainstream
journalism is the voice of rampant power. The great scandal of
Such honesty has yet to cross the
An admission by the US State Department on 10 November that its forces had used white phosphorus in Fallujah followed "rumours on the internet," according to the BBC's Newsnight. There were no rumours. There was first-class investigative work that ought to shame well-paid journalists. Mark Kraft of insomnia.livejournal.com found the evidence in the March-April 2005 issue of Field Artillery magazine and other sources. He was supported by the work of film-maker Gabriele Zamparini, founder of the excellent site, thecatsdream.com.
Last May, David Edwards and David Cromwell of medialens.org posted a
revealing
correspondence with Helen Boaden, the
BBC's director
of news. They had asked her why the BBC had remained silent on known
atrocities
committed by the Americans in Fallujah.
She replied,
"Our correspondent in Fallujah at the time
[of
the
Once the unacknowledged work of Mark Kraft and Gabriele Zamparini had appeared in the Guardian and Independent and forced the Americans
to come
clean about white phosphorous, Wood was on Newsnight describing their admission as "a public relations disaster for the
The BBC and most of the British political and media establishment invariably cast such a horror as a public relations problem while minimizing the crushing of a city the size of Leeds, the killing and maiming of countless men, women and children, the expulsion of thousands and the denial of medical supplies, food and water - a major war crime.
The evidence is voluminous, provided by refugees, doctors, human rights groups and a few courageous foreigners whose work appears only on the internet. In April last year, Jo Wilding, a young British law student, filed a series of extraordinary eye-witness reports from inside the city. So fine are they that I have included one of her pieces in an anthology of the best investigative journalism.* Her film, "A Letter to the Prime Minister," made inside Fallujah with Julia Guest, has not been shown on British television. In addition, Dahr Jamail, an independent Lebanese-American journalist who has produced some of the best frontline reporting I have read, described all the "things" the BBC failed to "see." His interviews with doctors, local officials and families are on the internet, together with the work of those who have exposed the widespread use of uranium-tipped shells, another banned weapon, and cluster bombs, which Campbell would say are "technically legal." Try these web sites: dahrjamail.com, zmag.org, antiwar.com, truthout.org, indymedia.org.uk, internationalclearinghouse.info, counterpunch.org, voicesuk.org. There are many more.
"Each word," wrote Jean-Paul Sartre, "has an echo. So does each silence."
___________
John Pilger's new book, Tell Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism and
Its
Triumphs, is published by Vintage.
___________________
B.
From Edward Herman :
Sent: Thursday, November 24, 2005
Subject: Ha'aretz (
What sort of
Frenchmen are they?
by Dror Mishani and Aurelia Smotriez
PARIS - The first thing the French-Jewish philosopher Alain Finkielkraut said to us when we met one evening at Paris' elegant Le Rostand cafe, where the interior is decorated with Oriental-style pictures and
the
terrace faces the Luxembourg Gardens, was "I heard that even Haaretz published an article identifying with
the
riots."
This remark, uttered with some vehemence, pretty much sums up the
feelings of Finkielkraut - one of the most
prominent philosophers in
events through the media, keeping up with all the news reports and
commentary,
and has been appalled at every article that shows understanding for or
identification with "the rebels" (and in the French press, there are
plenty). He has a lot to say, but it appears that
he can say in
Indeed, in the lively intellectual debate that has been taking place on
the
pages of the French newspapers ever since the rioting started, a debate
in
which France's most illustrious minds are taking part, Finkielkraut's is a deviant, even very deviant, voice.
Primarily because it is not emanating from the
throat of a
member of Jean Marie Le Pen's National Front, but from that of a
philosopher
formerly considered to be one of the most eminent spokesmen of the
French left
-one of the generation of philosophers who emerged at the time of the
May 1968
student revolt.
In the French press, the riots in the suburbs are perceived mainly as
an
economic problem, as a violent reaction to severe economic hardship and
discrimination. In
Finkielkraut: "In
that most of these youths are blacks or Arabs, with a Muslim identity.
Look, in
revolt with an ethno-religious character.
"What is its origin? Is this the response of the Arabs and blacks to
the
racism of which they are victims? I don't believe so, because this
violence had
very troubling precursors, which cannot be reduced to an unalloyed
reaction to
French racism.
"Let's take, for example, the incidents at the soccer match between
["black-white-Arab" - a reference to the colors on
"Anyway, this team is perceived as a symbol of an open, multiethnic
society and so on. The crowd in the stadium, young people of Algerian
descent,
booed this team throughout the whole game! They also booed during the
playing
of the national anthem, the
`Marseillaise,' and the match was halted when the youths broke onto the
field
with Algerian flags.
"And then there are the lyrics of the rap songs. Very
troubling lyrics. A real call to revolt. There's one called Dr. R., I think, who sings: `I piss on
and violence is now coming out in the riots. To see them as a response
to
French racism is to be blind to a broader hatred: the hatred for the
West,
which is deemed guilty of all crimes.
In other words, as you see it, the riots aren't directed at
"No, they are directed against
`Anti-republicanpogrom'
Alain Finkielkraut, 56, has come a
long way from
the events of May 1968 to the riots of October
group known as "the new philosophers" (Bernard Henri-Levy, Andre Glucksman, Pascal Bruckner and
others) - young philosophers, many of them Jewish, who made a critical
break
with the Marxist ideology of May 1968 and with the French Communist
Party, and
denounced its impact on French culture and society.
In 1987, he published his book "The Defeat of the Mind," in which he
outlined his opposition to post-modernist philosophy, with its erasure
of the
boundaries between high and low culture and its cultural relativism.
And thus
he began to earn a name as a "conservative" philosopher and scathing
critic of the multicultural and post-colonial intellectual currents, as
someone
who preached a return to
Over time, he also became a symbol of the "involved intellectual," as
exemplified by the postwar Jean-Paul Sartre - a philosopher who doesn't
abstain
from participation in political life, but instead writes in the
newspapers,
gives interviews and devotes himself
to humanitarian causes such as halting the ethnic cleansing in
Do you think that the source of the hatred for the West among the
French who
are taking part in the riots lies in religion, in Islam?
"We need to be clear on this. This is a very difficult question and we
must strive to maintain the language of truth. We tend to fear the
language of
truth, for `noble' reasons. We prefer to say the `youths' instead of
`blacks'
or `Arabs.' But the truth cannot be
sacrificed, no matter how noble the reasons. And, of course, we also
must avoid
generalizations: This isn't about blacks and Arabs as a whole, but
about some
blacks and Arabs. And, of course, religion - not as religion, but as an
anchor
of identity, if you will -
plays a part. Religion as it appears on the Internet, on the Arab
television
stations, serves as an anchor of identity for some of these youths.
"Unlike others, I have not spoken about an `intifada'
of the suburbs, and I don't think this lexicon ought to be used. But I
have
found that they are also sending the youngest people to the front lines
of the
struggle. You've seen this in
But why? For
what reason?
"Why have parts of the Muslim-Arab world declared war on the West?
The
republic is the French version of
Retrospective hatred.
"We are witness to an Islamic radicalization that must be explained
in
its entirety before we get to the French case, to a culture that,
instead of
dealing with its problems, searches for an external guilty party. It's
easier
to find an external guilty party. It's tempting to tell yourself that
in
Post-colonialmindset
But what appears to disturb Finkielkraut even
more than this "hatred for the West," is what he sees as its
internalization in the French education system, and the identification
with it
by French intellectuals. In his view, this identification and
internalization -
which are expressed in shows of understanding for the sources of the
violence
and in the post-colonial mindset that is permeating the education
system - are
threatening not only France as a whole, but the country's Jews, too,
because
they are creating an infrastructure for the new anti-Semitism.
"In the
Dieudonne [a black stand-up artist, who
caused an uproar with his anti-Semitic
statements - D.M.]. Today he
is the true patron of anti-Semitism in
"But in
"But what does Dieudonne really want? He
wants a
`Holocaust' for Arabs and blacks, too. But if you want to put the
Holocaust and
slavery on the same plane, then you have to lie. Because
[slavery] wasn't a Holocaust. And [the Holocaust] wasn't `a
crime
against
humanity,' because it wasn't just a crime. It was something ambivalent.
The
same is true of slavery. It began long before the West. In fact, what
sets the
West apart when it comes to slavery is that it was the one to eliminate
it. The
elimination of slavery is a
European and American thing. But this truth about slavery cannot be
taught in
schools.
"That's why these events sadden me so greatly; not so much because they
happened. After all, you'd have to be deaf and blind not to see that
they would
happen. But because of the interpretations that have accompanied them.
These
dealt a decisive blow to the
France I loved. And I've always said that life will become impossible
for Jews
in
happened to it?"
Since you view this as an Islamic assault, how do you explain the fact
that
Jews have not been attacked in the recent events?
"First of all, they say that one synagogue has been attacked. But I
think
that what we've experienced is an anti-republican pogrom. They tell us
that
these neighborhoods are neglected and the people are in distress. What
connection is there between poverty and
despair, and wreaking destruction and setting fire to schools? I don't
think
any Jew would ever do a thing like this."
Horrifying acts
Finkielkraut continues: "What unites
the
Jews - the secular, the religious, the Peace Now crowd, the Greater
Land of
Israel crowd - is one word: shul (synagogue; used
here as religious study hall). That's what holds us all together as
Jews. And I
have been
just horrified by these acts, which kept repeating themselves, and
horrified
even more by the understanding with which they were received in
"Imagine for a moment that they were whites, like in
"Moreover, there's a contradiction here. Because if these suburbs were
truly in a state of total neglect, there wouldn't be any gymnasiums to
torch,
there wouldn't be schools and buses. If there are gymnasiums and
schools and
buses, it's because someone made an effort. Maybe
not enough
of one, but an effort."
Still, the unemployment rate in the suburbs is very extreme: Almost 40
percent
of young people aged 15-25 have no chance of finding a job.
"Let's return to the shul for a moment.
When
parents send you to school, is it in order for you to find a job? I was
sent to
school in order to learn. Culture and education have a justification
per se.
You go to school to learn. That is the purpose of school. And
these people who are destroying schools - what are they really saying?
Their
message is not a cry for help or a demand for more schools or better
schools.
It's a desire to eliminate the intermediaries that stand between them
and their
objects of desire. And
what are their objects of desire? Simple: money, designer labels,
sometimes
girls. And this is something for which our society surely bears
responsibility. Because they want everything immediately, and what
they want
is only the consumer-society ideal. It's what they see on
television."
Declaration of war
Finkielkraut, as his name indicates, is
himself
the child of an immigrant family: His parents came to
the start of the second intifada and the
rise in
anti-Semitism in
His standing as a key spokesperson within the Jewish community in
"I was born in
But do you, of all people, who fight against anti-Jewish racism,
maintain that
the discrimination and racism these youths are talking about doesn't
actually
exist?
"Of course discrimination exists. And certainly there are French
racists.
French people who don't like Arabs and blacks. And they'll like them
even less
now, when they know how much they're hated by them. So this
discrimination will
only increase, in terms of housing and work, too.
"But imagine that you're running a restaurant, and you're anti-racist,
and
you think that all people are equal, and you're also Jewish. In other
words,
talking about inequality between the races is a problem for you. And
let's say
that a young man from the suburbs
comes in who wants to be a waiter. He talks the talk of the suburbs.
You won't
hire him for the job. It's very simple. You won't hire him because it's
impossible. He has to represent you and that requires discipline and
manners,
and a certain way of speaking.
And I can tell you that French whites who are imitating the code of
behavior of
the suburbs - and there is such a thing - will run into the same exact
problem.
The only way to fight discrimination is to restore the requirements,
the
educational seriousness. This is the only way. But you're not allowed
to say
that, either. I can't.. It's common sense, but they prefer to propound the myth of `French racism.'
It's not
right.
"We live today in an environment of a `perpetual war on racism' and the
nature of this anti-racism also needs to be examined. Earlier, I heard
someone
on the radio who was opposed to Interior Minister Sarkozy's decision to expel anyone who doesn't have French citizenship and takes
part in
the riots and is arrested. And what did he say? That
this was
`ethnic cleansing.' During the war in
They bestirred themselves solely to support the Palestinians. And to talk about `ethnic cleansing' now? There
was a single
person killed in the riots. Actually, there were two [more], but it was
an
accident. They weren't being chased, but they fled to
an electrical transformer even though the warning signs on it were
huge.
"But I think that the lofty idea of `the war on racism' is gradually
turning into a hideously false ideology. And this anti-racism will be
for the
21st century what communism was for the 20th century. A
source of violence. Today, Jews are attacked in the name of
anti-racist
discourse: the separation fence, `Zionism is racism.'
"It's the same thing in
And what do you think about the steps the French government has taken
to quell
the violence? The state of emergency, the curfew?
"This is so normal. What we have experienced is terrible. You have to
understand that the ones who have the least power in a society are the
authorities, the rulers. Yes, they are responsible for maintaining
order. And
this is important because without them,
some sort of self-defense would be organized and people would shoot. So
they're
maintaining order, and doing it with extraordinary caution. They should
be
saluted.
"In May 1968 there was a totally innocent movement compared to the one
we're seeing now, and there was violence on the part of the police.
Here
they're tossing Molotov cocktails, firing live bullets. And there
hasn't been a
single incident of police violence. [Since this interview, several
police
officers have been arrested on suspicion of using violence - D.M.]
There's no
precedent for this. How to
impose order? By using `common sense' methods, which by the way,
according to a
poll by
"But apparently it's already too late to make them feel ashamed, since
on
the radio, on television and in the newspapers, or in most of them,
they're
holding a prettifying mirror up to the rioters. They're `interesting'
people,
they're nurturing their suffering and they understand their despair. In
addition, there's the great perversion of the spectacle: They're
burning cars
in order to see it on television. It makes them feel `important' - that
they
live in an `important neighborhood.' The pursuit of this spectacle
ought to be
analyzed. It's creating totally perverted effects. And the perversion
of the
spectacle is accompanied by totally perverted analyses."
Failed models
Since the start of the riots in the suburbs, the press throughout
"They're saying that the republican model has collapsed in these riots.
But the multicultural model isn't in any better shape. Not in
"This means that what we're seeing today is actually the failure of the
`nice' post-republican model. But the problem with this model is that
it is
fueled by its own failures: Every fiasco is a reason to become even
more
extreme. The school will become even `nicer.' When really, given what
we're
seeing, greater strictness and more exacting standards are the minimum
that we
need to ask for. If not, before long we'll have `courses in crime.'
"This is an evolution that characterizes democracy. Democracy, as a
process, and Tocqueville showed this, does not abide selfishness.
Within
democracy, it's hard to tolerate non-democratic spaces. Everything has
to be
done democratically in a democracy, but school cannot be this way. It
just
can't.. The asymmetry is glaring: between he
who knows
and he who doesn't know, between he who brings a world with him and he
who is
new in this world.
"The democratic process delegitimizes this
asymmetry. It's a general process in the Western world, but in
Many of the youths say the problem is that they don't feel French, that
"The problem is that they need to regard themselves as French. If the
immigrants say `the French' when they're referring to the whites, then
we're
lost. If their identity is located somewhere else and they're only in
lost. I have to admit that the Jews are also starting to use this
phrase. I
hear them saying `the French' and I can't stand it. I say to them, `If for you
"But if they have a French identity card, then they're French. And if
not,
they have the right to go. They say, `I'm not French. I live in
were the neglect and poverty, then they would go somewhere else. But
they know very well that anywhere else, and especially in the countries
from
whence they came, their situation would be worse, as far as rights and
opportunities go."
But the problem today is the integration into French society of young
men and
women who are from the third generation. This isn't a wave of new
immigrants.
They were born in
"This feeling, that they are not French, isn't something they get from
school. In
"Take the language, for example. You say they are third generation. So
why
do they speak French the way they do? It's butchered
French - the accent, the words, the syntax. Is it the school's fault? The teachers' fault?"
Since the Arabs and blacks apparently have no intention of leaving
"This problem is the problem of all the countries of
you."
And what will happen in
"I don't know. I'm despairing. Because of the
riots
and because of their accompaniment by the media. The riots will
subside,
but what does this mean? There won't be a return to quiet. It will be a
return
to regular violence. So they'll stop because there is a
curfew now, and the foreigners are afraid and the drug dealers also
want the
usual order restored. But they'll gain support and encouragement for
their
anti-republican violence from the repulsive discourse of self-criticism
over
their slavery and colonization.
So that's it: There won't be a return to quiet, but a return to routine
violence."
So your world view doesn't stand a chance anymore?
"No, I've lost. As far as anything relating to the struggle over school
is
concerned, I've lost. It's interesting, because when I speak the way
I'm
speaking now, a lot of people agree with me. Very
many. But there's something in
_______________
C.
from John Broder :
New York Times
25 November 2005
*********************
Francis McCollum Feeley
Professor of American Studies/
Director of Research
Université Grenoble-3
http://www.ceimsa.org/