Now
Available from
CounterPunch for Only $10.50 (S/H Included)
Today's
Stories
October
11 / 13, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Kay's
Misleading Report; CIA/MI-6 Syrian Plot; Dershowitz Flaps Broken
Wings
October 10, 2003
John Chuckman
Schwarzenegger
and the Lottery Society
Toni Solo
Trashing
Free Software
Chris
Floyd
Body
Blow: Bush Joins the Worldwide War on Women
October
9, 2003
Jennifer
Loewenstein
Bombing
Syria
Ramzi
Kysia
Seeing
the Iraqi People
Fran Shor
Groping the Body Politic
Mark Hand
President Schwarzenegger?
Alexander
Cockburn
Welcome
to Arnold, King for a Day
Website of the Day
The Awful Truth about Wesley Clark
October
8, 2003
David
Lindorff
Schwarzenegger
and the Failure of the Centrist Dems
Ramzy
Baroud
Israel's
WMDs and the West's Double Standard
John Ross
Mexico
Tilts South
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Repub Guru Compares Taxes to the Holocaust
James
Bovard
The
Reagan Roadmap for Antiterrorism Disaster
Michael
Neumann
One
State or Two?
A False Dilemma
October
7, 2003
Uri Avnery
Slow-Motion
Ethnic Cleansing
Stan Goff
Lost in the Translation at Camp Delta
Ron Jacobs
Yom Kippurs, Past and Present
David
Lindorff
Coronado in Iraq
Rep. John Conyers, Jr.
Outing a CIA Operative? Why A Special Prosecutor is Required
Cynthia
McKinney
Who Are "We"?
Elaine Cassel
Shock and Awe in the Moussaoui Case
Walter
Lippman
Thoughts on the Cali Recall
Gary Leupp
Israel's
Attack on Syria: Who's on the Wrong Side of History, Now?
Website
of the Day
Cable News Gets in Touch With It's Inner Bigot
October
6, 2003
Robert
Fisk
US
Gave Israel Green Light for Raid on Syria
Forrest
Hylton
Upheaval
in Bolivia: Crisis and Opportunity
Benjamin Dangl
Divisions Deepen in Third Week of Bolivia's Gas War
Bridget
Gibson
Oh, Pioneers!: Bush's New Deal
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey
Wasserman
The Bush-Rove-Schwarzenegger Nazi Nexus
Nicole
Gamble
Rios Montt's Campaign Threatens Genocide Trials
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The
New Unity Partnership:
A Manifest Destiny for Labor
Website
of the Day
Guerrilla Funk
October
3 / 5, 2003
Tim Wise
The
Other Race Card: Rush and the Politics of White Resentment
Peter
Linebaugh
Rhymsters
and Revolutionaries: Joe Hill and the IWW
Gary Leupp
Occupation
as Rape-Marriage
Bruce
Jackson
Addio
Alle Armi
David Krieger
A Nuclear 9/11?
Ray McGovern
L'Affaire Wilsons: Wives are Now "Fair Game" in Bush's
War on Whistleblowers
Col. Dan Smith
Why Saddam Didn't Come Clean
Mickey
Z.
In Our Own Image: Teaching Iraq How to Deal with Protest
Roger Burbach
Bush Ideologues v. Big Oil in Iraq
John Chuckman
Wesley Clark is Not Cincinnatus
William S. Lind
Versailles on the Potomac
Glen T.
Martin
The Corruptions of Patriotism
Anat Yisraeli
Bereavement as Israeli Ethos
Wayne
Madsen
Can the Republicans Get Much Worse? Sure, They Can
M. Junaid Alam
The Racism Barrier
William
Benzon
Scorsese's Blues
Adam Engel
The Great American Writing Contest
Poets'
Basement
McNeill, Albert, Guthrie
October
2, 2003
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
What's
So Great About Gandhi, Anyway?
Amy Goodman
/ Jeremy Scahill
The
Ashcroft-Rove Connection
Doug Giebel
Kiss and Smear: Novak and the Valerie Plame Affair
Hamid
Dabashi
The Moment of Myth: Edward Said (1935-2003)
Elaine Cassel
Chicago Condemns Patriot Act
Saul Landau
Who
Got Us Into This Mess?
Website of the Day
Last Day to Save Beit Arabiya!
October 1, 2003
Joanne
Mariner
Married
with Children: the Supremes and Gay Families
Robert
Fisk
Oil,
War and Panic
Ron Jacobs
Xenophobia
as State Policy
Elaine
Cassel
The
Lamo Case: Secret Subpoenas and the Patriot Act
Shyam
Oberoi
Shooting
a Tiger
Toni Solo
Plan Condor, the Sequel?
Sean Donahue
Wesley
Clark and the "No Fly" List
Website of the Day
Downloader Legal Defense Fund
September
30, 2003
After
Dark
Arnold's
1977 Photo Shoot
Dave Lindorff
The
Poll of the Shirt: Bush Isn't Wearing Well
Tom Crumpacker
The
Cuba Fixation: Shaking Down American Travelers
Robert
Fisk
A
Lesson in Obfuscation
Charles
Sullivan
A
Message to Conservatives
Suren Pillay
Edward Said: a South African Perspective
Naeem
Mohaiemen
Said at Oberlin: Hysteria in the Face of Truth
Amy Goodman
/ Jeremy Scahill
Does
a Felon Rove the White House?
Website
of the Day
The Edward Said Page
September 29, 2003
Robert
Fisk
The
Myths of Western Intelligence Agencies
Iain A. Boal
Turn It Up: Pardon Mzwakhe Mbuli!
Lee Sustar
Paul
Krugman: the Last Liberal?
Wayne Madsen
General Envy? Think Shinseki, Not Clark
Benjamin
Dangl
Bolivia's Gas War
Uri Avnery
The
Magnificent 27
Pledge
Drive of the Day
Antiwar.com
September
26 / 28, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Alan
Dershowitz, Plagiarist
David Price
Teaching Suspicions
Saul Landau
Before the Era of Insecurity
Ron Jacobs
The Chicago Conspiracy Trial and
the Patriot Act
Brian
Cloughley
The Strangeloves Win Again
Norman Solomon
Wesley and Me: a Real-Life Docudrama
Robert
Fisk
Bomb Shatters Media Illusions
M. Shahid Alam
A Muslim Sage Visits the USA
John Chuckman
American Psycho: Bush at the UN
Mark Schneider
International Direct Action
The Spanish Revolution to the Palestiniana Intifada
William
S. Lind
How $87 Billion Could Buy Some Real Security
Douglas Valentine
Gold Warriors: the Plundering of Asia
Chris
Floyd
Vanishing Act
Elaine Cassel
Play Cat and Moussaoui
Richard
Manning
A Conservatism that Once Conserved
George Naggiar
The Beautiful Mind of Edward Said
Omar Barghouti
Edward Said: a Corporeal Dream Not Yet Realized
Lenni Brenner
Palestine's Loss is America's Loss
Mickey
Z.
Edward Said: a Well-Reasoned Voice
Tanweer Akram
The Legacy of Edward Said
Adam Engel
War in the Smoking Room
Poets' Basement
Katz, Ford, Albert & Guthrie
Website
of the Weekend
Who the Hell is Stew Albert?
September
25, 2003
Edward
Said
Dignity,
Solidarity and the Penal Colony
Robert
Fisk
Fanning
the Flames of Hatred
Sarah
Ferguson
Wolfowitz at the New School
David
Krieger
The
Second Nuclear Age
Bill Glahn
RIAA Doublespeak
Al Krebs
ADM and the New York Times: Covering Up Corporate Crime
Michael
S. Ladah
The Obvious Solution: Give Iraq Back to the Arabs
Fran Shor
Arnold and Wesley
Mustafa
Barghouthi
Edward Said: a Monument to Justice and Human Rights
Alexander Cockburn
Edward Said: a Mighty and Passionate
Heart
Website
of the Day
Edward Said: a Lecture on the Tragedy of Palestine
The Great Alejandro Escavedo Needs Your Help!
September 24, 2003
Stan Goff
Generational
Casualties: the Toxic Legacy of the Iraq War
William
Blum
Grand Illusions About Wesley Clark
David
Vest
Politics
for Bookies
Jon Brown
Stealing Home: The Real Looting is About to Begin
Robert Fisk
Occupation and Censorship
Latino
Military Families
Bring Our Children Home Now!
Neve Gordon
Sharon's
Preemptive Zeal
Website
of the Day
Bands Against Bush
September
23, 2003
Bernardo
Issel
Dancing
with the Diva: Arianna and Streisand
Gary Leupp
To
Kill a Cat: the Unfortunate Incident at the Baghdad Zoo
Gregory
Wilpert
An
Interview with Hugo Chavez on the CIA in Venezuela
Steven
Higgs
Going to Jail for the Cause--Part 2: Charity Ryerson, Young and
Radical
Stan Cox
The Cheney Tapes: Can You Handle the Truth?
Robert
Fisk
Another Bloody Day in the Death of Iraq
William S. Lind
Learning from Uncle Abe: Sacking the Incompetent
Elaine
Cassel
First They Come for the Lawyers, Then the Ministers
Yigal
Bronner
The
Truth About the Wall
Website
of the Day
The
Baghdad Death Count
September
20 / 22, 2003
Uri Avnery
The
Silliest Show in Town
Alexander
Cockburn
Lighten
Up, America!
Peter Linebaugh
On the Bicentennial of the Execution of Robert Emmet
Anne Brodsky
Return
to Afghanistan
Saul Landau
Guillermo and Me
Phan Nguyen
Mother Jones Smears Rachel Corrie
Gila Svirsky
Sharon, With Eyes Wide Open
Gary Leupp
On Apache Terrorism
Kurt Nimmo
Colin
Powell: Exploiting the Dead of Halabja
Brian
Cloughley
Colin Powell's Shame
Carol Norris
The Moral Development of George W. Bush
Bill Glahn
The Real Story Behind RIAA Propaganda
Adam Engel
An Interview with Danny Scechter, the News Dissector
Dave Lindorff
Good Morning, Vietnam!
Mark Scaramella
Contracts and Politics in Iraq
John Ross
WTO
Collapses in Cancun: Autopsy of a Fiasco Foretold
Justin Podur
Uribe's Desperate Squeals
Toni Solo
The Colombia Three: an Interview with Caitriona Ruane
Steven Sherman
Workers and Globalization
David
Vest
Masked and Anonymous: Dylan's Elegy for a Lost America
Ron Jacobs
Politics of the Hip-Hop Pimps
Poets
Basement
Krieger, Guthrie and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Ted Honderich:
Terrorism for Humanity?
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
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
Weekend
Edition
October 11 / 13, 2003
Bush
and the WTO Bullies
US Economic Space
and New Zealand
By BRIAN CLOUGHLEY
It wasn't the most earth-shaking event of recent
times but was certainly a step in the direction of improving
trade, trust and cooperation in at least part of Eurasia. The
announcement that Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine are
to form a Common Economic Space (CES) was welcome in terms of
specific cooperation and overall concepts of furthering development
and improving living standards. Any initiative that contributes
to growth and harmony should be greeted with enthusiasm, but
the Bush administration is trying hard to at least neutralise
and preferably destroy the CES and much else besides.
The advantages of economic groupings
are manifold, and the most obvious one is increased commercial
cooperation. The shambles of the World Trade Organisation jamboree
at Cancun showed only too clearly that nations fighting for economic
improvement and even survival cannot expect sympathetic treatment
from the European Union or the US. The WTO has spawned powerful
and malevolent sub-groupings of rich nations, energetically intent
on profit at the expense of developing countries.
Trade in the developing world is thus
at the mercy of amoral pressure groups that wield immense political
influence in western capitals. It isn't small farmers in the
west who fund (let's be forthright: bribe) political parties
with the aim of maintaining their already massive subsidies:
this is the weapon of agribusiness, the enormous combines making
vast profits who see their jackpots at risk should there be reduction
of protection. (Agribusiness contributed 39.4 million dollars
to Republican politicians in 2002.)
The only difficulty in assessing the
processes of world agricultural trade is to work out which is
the more villainous and hypocritical: the European Union or the
United States. It is grotesque that the one thing they can agree
about is to stamp jackboots on the necks of developing nations
seeking markets and reasonable returns for their products. The
fact that stubborn refusal to curb their greed ensures that millions
remain in dismal poverty means nothing to avaricious multinationals.
New Zealand has freed itself from this
bizarre nonsense and is the only country that has established
genuine free trade, being nigh on import/export neutral. In the
1980s, when subsidies were abolished, many farmers and manufacturers
went broke. It was a grim time for some who had been on the land
or had businesses for generations and suffered gravely as a result
of the government's decision, which was far-sighted and courageous.
(In the BBC series 'Yes, Minister', which continues to be so
apposite, the main character contended cynically that the most
dangerous thing a government can do is to take a courageous decision
because that way lies electoral extinction. It didn't in New
Zealand.)
There was suffering in the transition
period, and there may be more as the last barriers are removed
(without any external assistance, least of all from Washington),
but the country has benefited enormously from a realistic approach
to what was a growing problem of inflation that would have become
more desperate the longer decisions were deferred. The US State
Department Country Brief goes so far as to say New Zealand "is
now one of the most open economies in the world", and The
Spectator (UK) pointed out three weeks ago that unsubsidised
Kiwi farmers can ship lamb (for example) half-way round the world,
pay outrageous imposts, and still make a profit. In fact New
Zealand lamb is cheaper in Britain than European lamb : work
that one out.
Unlike Australia it has no bilateral
trade agreement with the US. Why? Because in 1985 New Zealand
decided it would not permit nuclear warships (powered or armed)
in its harbours. The US demanded it rescind its national law
(which was purely symbolic as there was no question of such vessels
actually docking; the government was merely declaring policy),
but Wellington refused to be bullied. The country was then cast
into outer darkness, but ' and here's the point ' it survives
quite well without American patronage. Certainly it would prosper
much more were Washington to moderate its savage and grossly
discriminatory trade barriers, but the message is: we don't need
special favours from America.
US pressure has recently been increased
on New Zealand, with gross and insolent interference in its domestic
policies and politics by US ambassador Swindells, who was a major
supporter of Bush and was rewarded with a plum diplomatic post.
(The Center for Responsive Politics (<http://www.opensecrets.org/>)
notes that "Swindells contributed $38,000 to GOP candidates
and parties in 1999-2000, including $2,000 to the Bush campaign.
He also wrote a check for $3,000 to the Bush-Cheney recount fund.
His wife, Caroline, made a single $1,000 donation to the Bush
campaign. Swindells, who co-chaired Bush's Oregon fund-raising
effort, is managing director and vice-chairman of the investment
company US Trust Corp, which made a total of $85,791 in individual,
PAC, and soft money contributions to federal candidates in 1999-2000.
More than 70 percent ($60,241) went to Republicans.)"
This amateur hack stated that nuclear
legislation "does place limits on our relationship",
thus indulging in overt criticism of government policy which,
as has been made clear by Prime Minister Helen Clark, is not
under consideration for alteration. In its usual ham-handed,
arrogant fashion, Bush's Washington is not content to let matters
rest, even if, as in this case, absolutely no harm is being done
to US interests. Although it was obvious that comments by a militaristic
foreign power would not alter New Zealand government policy (and
heaven forbid they ever should), the policy of Washington is
to create as much mischief as possible --- for what reason it
is difficult to see, beyond the satisfaction of smacking down
a tiny nation of four million people and putting it firmly in
its box. Little wonder the US of Bush is so hated and despised
around the world.
Following the Cancun follies it is being
borne upon many other nations that unfair barriers will eventually
work against those imposing them ' providing there can be concerted
action against the feudal greedheads who command and control
world trade. There is discussion about establishing alternative
groupings, and although India and China distrust each other in
many ways there is a sense that if they don't get together about
trade they will suffer mightily in the long run. The same goes
for other nations exasperated by the callous and contemptuous
treatment afforded them by the predatory plutocrats of the WTO.
They seek creation of their own bilateral and regionally multilateral
arrangements to exclude the EU and America except on terms better
than those set by the odious thugs who currently manipulate the
world's economic strings. Unfortunately most Latin American countries
have already lost their nerve about standing up to Washington
and are pulling out of talks with Brazil, India and China aimed
at achieving trade justice. Their arms were twisted by their
benevolent northern neighbour and, understandably, they had to
cave in.
Amongst the others, however, one of the
first joint actions might be to insist on decent wages for the
third-world semi-slaves who turn out 'designer' trash and trinkets
for pittances, thus contributing to vast profits for multinationals
that avoid paying realistic duties or other taxes at any stage
of their operations. There should not be even an offer to negotiate.
A concerted flat demand for fair treatment followed by instant
cessation of supplies on non-compliance would break these companies.
Their share prices would collapse and they would face bankruptcy
in a heartbeat. Once this happened to a single multinational,
the others would see reason.
There is no question of excessive profit
on the part of a country having the courage to stand up to these
'malefactors of great wealth', as Teddy Roosevelt so memorably
pronounced. They ask only for application of economic justice;
the chance, as Thomas Carlyle had it, for a 'fair day's wages
for a fair day's work [which] is . . . the everlasting right
of man'. Not if the WTO's bullies have anything to do with it.
Establishment of such practical inceptions
as the Common Economic Space are anathema to developed countries
which in ultimate humbug declare they support free trade while
doing their utmost to strangle it and make their rich richer.
The US ambassador to Kiev, Mr Herbst, an erudite, charming and
linguistically gifted career diplomat (unlike Bush's man in Wellington),
had to convey Bush policy that Ukraine should not join the Common
Economic Space with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan because 'it
is not in [its] interests to have this integration complicated'.
The union would not 'fit in with Ukraine's desire to be integrated
into the EuroAtlantic community'. The What? There is no such
thing. In other words, it doesn't suit Bush politically, militarily
or economically that nations should band together. There can
be few better reasons for them to do so.
Brian Cloughley
writes about defense issues for CounterPunch, the Nation (Pakistan),
the Daily Times of Pakistan and other international publications.
His writings are collected on his website: www.briancloughley.com.
He can be reached at: beecluff@aol.com
Weekend
Edition Features for Sept. 26 / 28, 2003
Tim Wise
The
Other Race Card: Rush and the Politics of White Resentment
Peter
Linebaugh
Rhymsters
and Revolutionaries: Joe Hill and the IWW
Gary Leupp
Occupation
as Rape-Marriage
Bruce
Jackson
Addio
Alle Armi
David Krieger
A Nuclear 9/11?
Ray McGovern
L'Affaire Wilsons: Wives are Now "Fair Game" in Bush's
War on Whistleblowers
Col. Dan Smith
Why Saddam Didn't Come Clean
Mickey
Z.
In Our Own Image: Teaching Iraq How to Deal with Protest
Roger Burbach
Bush Ideologues v. Big Oil in Iraq
John Chuckman
Wesley Clark is Not Cincinnatus
William S. Lind
Versailles on the Potomac
Glen T.
Martin
The Corruptions of Patriotism
Anat Yisraeli
Bereavement as Israeli Ethos
Wayne
Madsen
Can the Republicans Get Much Worse? Sure, They Can
M. Junaid Alam
The Racism Barrier
William
Benzon
Scorsese's Blues
Adam Engel
The Great American Writing Contest
Poets'
Basement
McNeill, Albert, Guthrie
Keep CounterPunch
Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|