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December 8, 2003
Michael Neumann
Ignatieff:
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December 6 / 7, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
The
UN: Should Be Late; Never Was Great
CounterPunch Special
Toronto Globe and Mail Kills Review of "The Politics of
Anti-Semitism"
Vincente Navarro
Salvador Dali, Fascist
Saul Landau
"Reality
Media": Michael Jackson, Bush and Iraq
Ben Tripp
How Bush Can Still Win
Gary Leupp
On Purchasing Syrian Beer
Ron Jacobs
Are We Doing Body Counts, Now?
Larry Everest
Oil, Power and Empire
Lee Sustar
Defying the Police State in Miami
Jacob Levich
When NGOs Attack: Implications for the Coup in Georgia
Toni Solo
Game Playing by Free Trade Rules: the Results from Indonesia
and Dominican Republic
Mark Scaramella
How to Fix the World Bank
Bruce Anderson
The San Francisco Mayor's Race
Brian Cloughley
Shredding the Owner's Manual: the Hollow Charter of the UN
Adam Engel
A Conversation with Tim Wise
Neve Gordon
Fuad and Ezra: an Update on Gays Under the Occupation
Kurt Nimmo
Bush Gives "Freedom" Medal to Robert Bartley
Tom Stephens
Justice Takes a Holiday
Susan Davis
Avast, Me Hearties! a Review of Disney's "Pirates of the
Caribbean"
Jeffrey St. Clair
A
Natural Eye: the Photography of Brett Weston
Mickey Z.
Press Box Red
Poets' Basement
Greeder, Orloski, Albert
T-shirt of the Weekend
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December 5, 2003
Jeremy Scahill
Bremer
of the Tigris
Jeremy Brecher
Amistad
Revisited at Guantanamo?
Norman Solomon
Dean
and the Corp Media Machine
Norman Madarasz
France
Starts Facing Up to Anti-Muslim Discrimination
Pablo Mukherjee
Afghanistan:
the Road Back
December 4, 2003
M. Junaid Alam
Image
and Reality: an Interview with Norman Finkelstein
Adam Engel
Republican
Chris Floyd
Naked Gun: Sex, Blood and the FBI
Adam Federman
The US Footprint in Central Asia
Gary Leupp
The
Fall of Shevardnadze
Guthrie / Albert
RIP Clark Kerr
December 3, 2003
Stan Goff
Feeling
More Secure Yet?: Bush, Security, Energy & Money
Joanne Mariner
Profit Margins and Mortality Rates
George Bisharat
Who Caused the Palestinian Diaspora?
Mickey Z.
Tear Down That Wal-Mart
John Stanton
Bush Post-2004: a Nightmare Scenario
Harry Browne
Shannon
Warport: "No More Business as Usual"
December 2, 2003
Matt Vidal
Denial
and Deception: Before and Beyond Iraqi Freedom
Benjamin Dangl
An Interview with Evo Morales on the Colonization of the Americas
Sam Bahour
Can It Ever Really End?
Norman Solomon
That
Pew Poll on "Trade" Doesn't Pass the Sniff Test
Josh Frank
Trade
War Fears
Andrew Cockburn
Tired,
Terrified, Trigger-Happy
December 1, 2003
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
Unholy
Alliances: Zionism, US Imperialism and Islamic Fundamentalism
Dave Lindorff
Bush's
Baghdad Pitstop: Memories of LBJ in Vietnam
Harry Browne
Democracy Delayed in Northern Ireland
Wayne Madsen
Wagging the Media
Herman Benson
The New Unity Partnership for Labor: Bureaucratizing to Organize?
Gilad Atzmon
About
"World Peace"
Bill Christison
US
Foreign Policy and Intelligence: Monstrous Messes
November 29 / 30, 2003
Peter Linebaugh
On
the Anniversary of the Death of Wolfe Tone
Gary Leupp
Politicizing War on Fox News: a Tale of Two Memos
Saul Landau
Lying and Cheating:
Bush's New Political Math
Michael Adler
Inside a Miami Jail: One Activist's Narrative
Anthony Arnove
"They Put the Lie to Their Own Propaganda": an Interview
with John Pilger
Greg Weiher
Why Bush Needs Osama and Saddam
Stephen Banko, III
A Soldier's Dream
Forrest Hylton
Empire and Revolution in Bolivia
Toni Solo
The "Free Trade" History Eraser
Ben Terrall
Don't Think Twice: Bush Does Bali
Standard Schaefer
Unions
are the Answer to Supermarkets Woes
Richard Trainor
The Political Economy of Earthquakes: a Journey Across the Bay
Bridge
Mark Gaffney
US Congress Does Israel's Bidding, Again
Adam Engel
The System Really Works
Dave Lindorff
They, the Jury: How the System Rigs the Jury Pool
Susan Davis
Framing the Friedmans
Neve Gordon
Arundhati Roy's Complaint for Peace
Mitchel Cohen
Thomas Jefferson and Slavery
Ben Tripp
Capture Me, Daddy
Poets' Basement
Kearney, Albert, Guthrie and Smith
November 28, 2003
William S. Lind
Worse Than Crimes
David Vest
Turkey
Potemkin
Robert Jensen / Sam Husseini
New Bush Tape Raises Fears of Attacks
Wayne Madsen
Wag
the Turkey
Harold Gould
Suicide as WMD? Emile Durkheim Revisited
Gabriel Kolko
Vietnam
and Iraq: Has the US Learned Anything?
South Asia Tribune
The Story
of the Most Important Pakistan Army General in His Own Words
Website of the Day
Bush Draft
November 27, 2003
Mitchel Cohen
Why
I Hate Thanksgiving
Jack Wilson
An
Account of One Soldier's War
Stefan Wray
In the Shadows of the School of the Americas
Al Krebs
Food as Corporate WMD
Jim Scharplaz
Going Up Against Big Food: Weeding Out the Small Farmer
Neve Gordon
Gays
Under Occupation: Help Save the Life of Fuad Moussa
November 26, 2003
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: the Case of a Rape Foretold
Bruce Jackson
Media
and War: Bringing It All Back Home
Stew Albert
Perle's
Confession: That's Entertainment
Alexander Cockburn
Miami and London: Cops in Two Cities
David Orr
Miami Heat
Tom Crumpacker
Anarchists
on the Beach
Mokhiber / Weissman
Militarization in Miami
Derek Seidman
Naming the System: an Interview with Michael Yates
Kathy Kelly
Hogtied
and Abused at Ft. Benning
Website of the Day
Iraq Procurement
November 25, 2003
Linda S. Heard
We,
the Besieged: Western Powers Redefine Democracy
Diane Christian
Hocus
Pocus in the White House: Of Warriors and Liberators
Mark Engler
Miami's
Trade Troubles
David Lindorff
Ashcroft's
Cointelpro
Website of the Day
Young McCarthyites of Texas
November 24, 2003
Jeremy Scahill
The
Miami Model
Elaine Cassel
Gulag
Americana: You Can't Come Home Again
Ron Jacobs
Iraq
Now: Oh Good, Then the War's Over?
Alexander Cockburn
Rupert Murdoch: Global Tyrant
November 14 / 23, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
Clintontime:
Was It Really a Golden Age?
Saul Landau
Words
of War
Noam Chomsky
Invasion
as Marketing Problem: Iraq War and Contempt for Democracy
Stan Goff
An Open Letter to GIs in Iraq: Hold on to Your Humanity
Jeffrey St. Clair
Bush Puts Out a Contract on the Spotted Owl
John Holt
Blue Light: Battle for the Sweetgrass Hills
Adam Engel
A DC Lefty in King George's Court: an Interview with Sam Smith
Joanne Mariner
In a Dark Hole: Moussaoui and the Hidden Detainees
Uri Avnery
The General as Pseudo-Dove: Ya'alon's 70 Virgins
M. Shahid Alam
Voiding the Palestinians: an Allegory
Juliana Fredman
Visions of Concrete
Norman Solomon
Media Clash in Brazil
Brian Cloughley
Is Anyone in the Bush Administration Telling the Truth?
William S. Lind
Post-Machine Gun Tactics
Patrick W. Gavin
Imagine
Dave Lindorff
Bush's
Brand of Leadership: Putting Himself First
Tom Crumpacker
Pandering to Anti-Castro Hardliners
Erik Fleming
Howard Dean's Folly
Rick Giombetti
Challenging the Witch Doctors of the New Imperialism: a Review
of Bush in Babylon
Jorge Mariscal
Las Adelitas, 2003: Mexican-American Women in Iraq
Chris Floyd
Logical Conclusions
Mickey Z.
Does William Safire Need Mental Help?
David Vest
Owed to the Confederate Dead
Ron Jacobs
Joe: the Sixties Most Unforgiving Film
Dave Zirin
Foreman and Carlos: a Tale of Two Survivors
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Albert, Greeder, Ghalib and Alam
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher David Vest: Winner of 2 Muddy Awards for Best
Blues Pianist in the Pacific Northwest!
November 13, 2003
Jack McCarthy
Veterans
for Peace Booted from Vet Day Parade
Adam Keller
Report
on the Ben Artzi Verdict
Richard Forno
"Threat Matrix:" Homeland Security Goes Prime-Time
Vijay Prashad
Confronting
the Evangelical Imperialists
November 12, 2003
Elaine Cassel
The
Supremes and Guantanamo: a Glimmer of Hope?
Col. Dan Smith
Unsolicited
Advice: a Reply to Rumsfeld's Memo
Jonathan Cook
Facility
1391: Israel's Guantanamo
Robert Fisk
Osama Phones Home
Michael Schwartz
The Wal-Mart Distraction and the California Grocery Workers Strike
John Chuckman
Forty
Years of Lies
Doug Giebel
Jessica Lynch and Saving American Decency
Uri Avnery
Wanted: a Sharon of the Left
Website of the Day
Musicians Against Sweatshops
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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December
8, 2003
Distortions in the
Times
Bolivia
at a Crossroads
By NEWTON GARVER
In a previous essay, "Bolivia
in Turmoil", written during the week of demonstrations
and marches that led to the resignation of President Gonzalo
Sanchez de Lozada on Friday October 17, I argued that the one
sure result would be vastly increased power of the campesinos.
But power to block things and power to achieve things are two
entirely different sorts of power. It now remains to be seen
whether Bolivia has friends who will help assure that the newly
confirmed powers will be used constructively, in ways that will
not exacerbate divisions and animosities.
The Disaster Model
of Equatorial Guinea
On November 16 "60 Minutes"
aired a program about Equatorial Guinea, another country with
recently discovered fossil fuel reserves. There is no question
that money has flowed into the country, which now has embassies
that give lavish parties. But the money has produced increased
oppression rather than affluence and well-being, since the funds
are controlled by the president, largely for the benefit of himself
and his family. There are, of course, occasional handouts. But
there is no free press and no opportunity for public scrutiny
of the scandalous waste of public assets. The principal energy
company, Exxon Mobil, knows that it is financing tyranny, but
apparently (it declined an invitation from "60 Minutes")
regards its collusion with the dictator as a fair price to pay
for the stability needed to exploit the offshore oil deposits.
Might that happen in Bolivia?
Certainly Bolivia is a different country
with different traditions, and its future remains open. On the
one hand there are forces working on the pattern Exxon Mobil
has established in Equatorial Guinea. The popular opposition
to President Sanchez saw his policy as moving in that direction.
They regarded Bolivia's 18% share of the proceeds as too small
-- in Equatorial Guinea it is only 12% -- and they saw the bulk
of the poor people in Bolivia being neglected for the sake of
big profits of foreigners who are already rich. On the other
hand there is already a free press in Bolivia, and a vigorous
political tradition with campesino power. I think it unlikely
that the deal in Bolivia would have been as bad as that in Africa.
But the pattern did indeed look similar.
Distortions in The
Times
There is perhaps an equal danger in Bolivia
that the winner to emerge out the turmoil of October will be
an indigenous leader who will establish an indigenous dictatorship.
That is the danger of which Sanchez warned in his resignation
letter, a warning which was echoed in a New York Times editorial
of November 3, "Revolt of the Poor in Bolivia." "Not
since the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores have Latin America's
Indians enjoyed the political influence they have today."
says the Times. "Sadly, however, the indigenous may not
benefit. Leaders of the Bolivia protests, for example, advocate
policies that would make the poor worse off." After noting
that part of the popular movement that carried the day was a
backlash against globalization, the Times concludes, "The
nationalism and economic ignorance of the opposition to the gas
deal show where the indigenous movement is going wrong. . . they
must distance themselves from a counterproductive populism and
develop economic policies that really work to help the poor."
Opposing ignorance falls into the same
class as favoring motherhood and apple pie. But what is the "ignorance"
the Times complains of? Just what are the economic policies of
the indigenous movement? The Times notes the long history of
wrongs, culminating in anger over Washington's insistence on
eradicating the profitable cash crop of coca. But the only hint
of an economic policy they cite is: "Many Bolivians do not
want their country to sell its gas at all."
I do not know whether it is true that
"many Bolivians do not want their country to sell its gas
at all." Rhetoric to that effect did occur during September
and October, even on the part of members of Congress. There is
a vagueness about "many" that makes the statement impossible
to refute. Nonetheless the picture that it conveys is wholly
misleading. It is as if one were to say that many Americans believe
that there should be no restrictions at all on the possession
and use of firearms. Not provably false, but highly misleading.
Bias in the Washington
Diplomat
A report on Bolivia in the Washington
Diplomat for December 2003 contains similar understandable errors
- understandable because of the general ignorance of the press
about Bolivia and the tendency to try to find the key players.
That is not to excuse the errors, since they do betray a bias
or two, and may also impede progress.
Where the Violence
Was
One of the problems is the emphasis at
the beginning of the story on the days of violent demonstrations.
The problems started with blockades, which have been ruled a
form of violence in German law (the cases involved sit-ins at
entrances to munitions plants), and which are at least a form
of confrontation. The deaths were initially caused not by demonstrations
but by the government deciding to break the blockades by armed
force. The first such attempt was in August or September, when
tourists were evacuated from Sorata, a center for trekking. No
deaths were directly due to demonstrators; the army killed a
dozen or so. The second attempt came on the fateful day of October
12, when the army attempted to escort a convoy of trucks to replenish
fuel supplies in La Paz, a confrontation that resulted in 34
deaths. Those deaths led at first to angry demonstrations the
next day, leading to property damage in the streets (mostly paving
stones removed for barricades against military reprisal; little
or no looting) and 20 more deaths. The overall death toll is
generally put at 70, among whom there was only one soldier/policeman.
The following days there were more demonstrations,
culminating with 100,000 people in Plaza San Francisco on Thursday,
the day before the resignation of President Sanchez, and the
decisive day politically. There was again some property damage
to hotels near Plaza Murillo, but the marches themselves showed
discipline and determination and were entirely peaceful. In these
days the main cry was for the resignation of the president, driven
home at times by calling him a killer, and a prominent secondary
slogan was that there should be no more blood should. The generally
pacific nature of the marches and demonstrations does not come
through in the reporting in the Diplomat or the Times.
Complexity of Indigenous
Leadership
Another distortion is that only one peasant
leader is named as a leader, Evo Morales. He is important. He
is leader of the coca growers (cocaleros), enjoys the support
of the miners and several other unions, is a member of Congress,
and came in second to Sanchez de Lozada in the presidential polling
in 2002. But the original protest was against the terms of the
gas sale, and that was not initiated by Morales but by Felipe
Quispe (known as "El Mallku", "condor" in
Aymara), also a member of Congress and the spokesman for the
campesinos in the altiplano north of La Paz. (Morales has his
base in the Chapare, south of La Paz and at a much lower elevation.)
It is also Quispe who has developed the tactic of blockades,
using them each year with increasing effectiveness. When Quispe's
campaign began to hit home last summer, Morales joined in and
has not been reluctant to take credit; he has a much better public
relations staff.
The Understanding
of Exploitation
Though the campesinos are often thought
to be ignorant, and indeed have poor schools, it will be wise
to note the sophistication of Quispe's understanding of the gas
deal as another instance of the exploitation of Bolivia's natural
resources. Beginning with the Spanish, if not with the Incas,
such exploitation has in the past resulted in increased wealth
for foreign exploiters and increased oppression for the indigenous
people. The powerful popular response to Quispe's campaign demonstrates
that this historical understanding is deep and constitutes a
significant political factor today.
A Variety of Problems
The problem with this second distortion
is that it leads commentators to say that the main issue in Bolivia
is the US insistence on eradicating coca production, without
effective alternative work for the cocaleros. That is a problem,
but solving it will do nothing to satisfy Quispe and the campesinos
whose complaints he voices. There are two problems that are thereby
obscured: the plight of the campesinos in the altiplano north
of La Paz, and the terms of the gas sale. Each of these is as
important as the problems Morales and his constituents press.
The new president, Carlos Mesa, is a
fresh face in national politics, and one must wish him well,
as is done in the Diplomat. But wishing him well may not be enough.
He faces the same problems as Sanchez, who, of course, could
hardly take the underlying problems away with him when he left
for Florida. In fact Sanchez has probably made them more difficult,
by portraying those who forced him out as ignorant and irrational.
His perspective is reflected not only in his letter of resignation
but also in the New York Times editorial of November 3, which
claims, as noted above, that "nationalism and economic ignorance
of the opposition to the gas deal show where the indigenous movement
is going wrong." This perspective is a prescription for
disaster.
Toward a Positive
Future
There are two truths that must be in
President Mesa's mind and that need to anchor thoughts and policies
toward Bolivia now:
Failing to export some of the huge reserves
of natural gas spells economic suicide. Failing to revise the
terms of the sale spells political suicide.
Given these two policy anchors, what
is needed is help and advice about how to redefine the deal.
Since the international consortium is reported to have already
spent $3 billion developing the wells and the pipeline, delicate
and complex negotiation will be required.
I read the daily La Razon every day during
the week of work stoppage, marches, and demonstrations that led
to the resignation of Sanchez de Lozada. (Even though churches,
schools, banks, post offices, laundries, restaurants, shops were
all closed, and street vendors absent and transport unavailable,
all the media continued operations -- a healthy sign indeed.)
Economic ideas that appeared in the press included basing the
gas deal on current (150 trillion cubic feet) rather than 1997
(2 TCF) proven reserves, raising Bolivia's share of the proceeds
from 18% to 50%, using gas for industrialization before exporting
it, assuring benefits for Bolivia's poor up front rather than
down the line. There were other points raised about the gas deal
that were more political than these, but these points were voiced
with several variations.
My own sense of what is desirable for
revising the gas deal is that it should include three features:
(1) something like 80% of the jobs at
every level reserved for Bolivians, with training provided wherever
necessary and even if this means some delay in the project;
(2) immediate development of plans for
small-scale industrialization in at least three cities, Tarija,
Cochabamba, and El Alto, with immediate jobs and job training;
and
(3) immediate up-front infrastructure
improvements (schools, roads, water, power) for the altiplano,
using (and training) local labor wherever possible.
President Mesa and his country will need
considerable international help in achieving a revision along
these lines, but such a revision could well provide an international
model for resource exploitation in other places.
Newton Garver is
SUNY Distinguished Service Professor and UB Professor of Philosophy
Emeritus. He is co-author of Derrida & Wittgenstein (1995)
and a frequent contributor to Buffalo
Report, where this dispatch originally appeared.
Weekend
Edition Features for Nov. 29 / 30, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
The
UN: Should Be Late; Never Was Great
CounterPunch Special
Toronto Globe and Mail Kills Review of "The Politics of
Anti-Semitism"
Vincente Navarro
Salvador Dali, Fascist
Saul Landau
"Reality
Media": Michael Jackson, Bush and Iraq
Ben Tripp
How Bush Can Still Win
Gary Leupp
On Purchasing Syrian Beer
Ron Jacobs
Are We Doing Body Counts, Now?
Larry Everest
Oil, Power and Empire
Lee Sustar
Defying the Police State in Miami
Jacob Levich
When NGOs Attack: Implications for the Coup in Georgia
Toni Solo
Game Playing by Free Trade Rules: the Results from Indonesia
and Dominican Republic
Mark Scaramella
How to Fix the World Bank
Bruce Anderson
The San Francisco Mayor's Race
Brian Cloughley
Shredding the Owner's Manual: the Hollow Charter of the UN
Adam Engel
A Conversation with Tim Wise
Neve Gordon
Fuad and Ezra: an Update on Gays Under the Occupation
Kurt Nimmo
Bush Gives "Freedom" Medal to Robert Bartley
Tom Stephens
Justice Takes a Holiday
Susan Davis
Avast, Me Hearties! a Review of Disney's "Pirates of the
Caribbean"
Jeffrey St. Clair
A
Natural Eye: the Photography of Brett Weston
Mickey Z.
Press Box Red
Poets' Basement
Greeder, Orloski, Albert
T-shirt of the Weekend
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