Coming
in October
From AK Press
Today's
Stories
September 15, 2003
Uri Avnery
Assassinating
Arafat
September 13 / 14, 2003
Michael Neumann
Anti-Americanism:
Too Much of a Good Thing?
Jeffrey St. Clair
Anatomy of a Swindle
Gary Leupp
The Matrix of Ignorance
Ron Jacobs
Reagan's America
Brian Cloughley
Up to a Point, Lord Rumsfeld
William S. Lind
Making Mesopotamia a Terrorist Magnet
Werther
A Modest Proposal for the Pentagon
Dave Lindorff
Friendly Fire Will Doom the Occupation
Toni Solo
Fiction and Reality in Colombia: The Trial of the Bogota Three
Elaine Cassel
Juries and the Death Penalty
Mickey Z.
A Parable for Cancun
Jeffrey Sommers
Issam Nashashibi: a Life Dedicated to the Palestinian Cause
David Vest
Driving in No Direction (with a Glimpse of Johnny Cash)
Michael Yates
The Minstrel Show
Jesse Walker
Adios, Johnny Cash
Adam Engel
Something Killer
Poets' Basement
Cash, Albert, Curtis, Linhart
Website of the Weekend
Local Harvest
Recent
Stories
September 12, 2003
Writers Bloc
Todos
Somos Lee: Protest and Death in Cancun
Laura Carlsen
A Knife to the Heart: WTO Kills Farmers
Dave Lindorff
The Meaning of Sept. 11
Elaine Cassel
Bush at Quantico
Linda S. Heard
British
Entrance Exams
John Chuckman
The First Two Years of Insanity
Doug Giebel
Ending America as We Know It
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Blank Check Military
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Website of the Day
A Woman in Baghdad
September 11, 2003
Robert Fisk
A Grandiose
Folly
Roger Burbach
State Terrorism and 9/11: 1973 and 2001
Jonathan Franklin
The Pinochet Files
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Postcards to the President
Norman Solomon
The Political Capital of 9/11
Saul Landau
The Chilean Coup: the Other, Almost Forgotten 9/11
Stew Albert
What Goes Around
Website of the Day
The Sights and Sounds of a Coup
The Great Alejandro Escavedo Needs Your Help!
September 10, 2003
John Ross
Cancun
Reality Show: Will It Turn Into a Tropical Seattle?
Zoltan Grossman
The General Who Would be President: Was Wesley Clark Also Unprepared
for the Postwar Bloodbath?
Tim Llewellyn
At the Gates of Hell
Christopher Brauchli
Turn the Paige: the Bush Education Deception
Lee Sustar
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
Elaine Cassel
McCain-Feingold in Trouble: Scalia Hogs the Debate
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Hammond Guthrie
When All Was Said and Done
Website of the Day
Fact Checking Colin Powell
September 9, 2003
William A. Cook
Eating
Humble Pie
Robert Jensen / Rahul
Mahajan
Bush
Speech: a Shell Game on the American Electorate
Bill Glahn
A Kinder, Gentler RIAA?
Janet Kauffman
A Dirty River Runs Beneath It
Chris Floyd
Strange Attractors: White House Bawds Breed New Terror
Bridget Gibson
A Helping of Crow with Those Fries?
Robert Fisk
Thugs
in Business Suit: Meet the New Iraqi Strongman
Website of the Day
Pot TV International
September 8, 2003
David Lindorff
The
Bush Speech: Spinning a Fiasco
Robert Jensen
Through the Eyes of Foreigners: the US Political Crisis
Gila Svirsky
Of
Dialogue and Assassination: Off Their Heads
Bob Fitrakis
Demostration Democracy
Kurt Nimmo
Bush and the Echo Chamber: Globalizing the Whirlwind
Sean Carter
Thou Shalt Not Campaign from the Bench
Uri Avnery
Betrayal
at Camp David
Website of the Day
Rabbis v. the Patriot Act
September 6 / 7, 2003
Neve Gordon
Strategic
Abuse: Outsourcing Human Rights Violations
Gary Leupp
Shiites
Humiliate Bush
Saul Landau
Fidel
and The Prince
Denis Halliday
Of Sanctions and Bombings: the UN Failed the People of Iraq
John Feffer
Hexangonal Headache: N. Korea Talks Were a Disaster
Ron Jacobs
The Stage of History
M. Shahid Alam
Pakistan "Recognizes" Israel
Laura Carlson
The Militarization of the Americas
Elaine Cassel
The Forgotten Prisoners of Guantanamo
James T. Phillips
The Mumbo-Jumbo War
Bill Glahn
RIAA Watch: Slumlords of the Internet
Walter A. Davis
Living in Death's Dream Kingdom
Adam Engel
Midnight's Inner Children
Poets' Basement
Stein, Guthrie and Albert
Book of the Weekend
It Became Necessary to Destroy the Planet in Order to Save It
by Khalil Bendib
September 5, 2003
Brian Cloughley
Bush's
Stacked Deck: Why Doesn't the Commander-in-Chief Visit the Wounded?
Col. Dan Smith
Iraq
as Black Hole
Phyllis Bennis
A Return
to the UN?
Dr. Susan Block
Exxxtreme Ashcroft
Dave Lindorff
Courage and the Democrats
Abe Bonowitz
Reflections on the "Matyrdom" of Paul Hill
Robert Fisk
We Were
Warned About This Chaos
Website of the Day
New York Comic Book Museum
September 4, 2003
Stan Goff
The Bush
Folly: Between Iraq and a Hard Place
John Ross
Mexico's
Hopes for Democracy Hit Dead-End
Harvey Wasserman
Bush to New Yorkers: Drop Dead
Adam Federman
McCain's
Grim Vision: Waging a War That's Already Been Lost
Aluf Benn
Sharon Saved from Threat of Peace
W. John Green
Colombia's Dirty War
Joanne Mariner
Truth,
Justice and Reconciliation in Latin America
Website of the Day
Califoracle
September 3, 2003
Virginia Tilley
Hyperpower
in a Sinkhole
Davey D
A Hip
Hop Perspective on the Cali Recall
Emrah Göker
Conscripting Turkey: Imperial Mercenaries Wanted
John Stanton
The US is a Power, But Not Super
Brian Cloughley
The
Pentagon's Bungled PsyOps Plan
Dan Bacher
Another Big Salmon Kill
Elaine Cassel
Prosecutors Weep' Ninth Circuit Overturns 127 Death Sentences
Uri Avnery
First
of All This Wall Must Fall
Website of the Day
Art Attack!
September 2, 2003
Robert Fisk
Bush's
Occupational Fantasies Lead Iraq Toward Civil War
Kurt Nimmo
Rouind Up the Usual Suspects: the Iman Ali Mosque Bombing
Robert Jensen / Rahul Mahajan
Iraqi Liberation, Bush Style
Elaine Cassel
Innocent But Guilty: When Prosecutors are Dead Wrong
Jason Leopold
Ghosts
in the Machines: the Business of Counting Votes
Dave Lindorff
Dems in 2004: Perfect Storm or Same Old Doldrums?
Paul de Rooij
Predictable
Propaganda: Four Monts of US Occupation
Website of the Day
Laughing Squid
August 30 / Sept. 1,
2003
Alexander Cockburn
Handmaiden
in Babylon: Annan, Vieiera de Mello and the Decline and Fall
of the UN
Saul Landau
Schwarzenegger
and Cuban Migration
Standard Schaefer
Who
Benefited from the Tech Bubble: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Gary Leupp
Mel Gibson's Christ on Trial
William S. Lind
Send the Neocons to Baghdad
Augustin Velloso
Aznar: Spain's Super Lackey
Jorge Mariscal
The Smearing of Cruz Bustamante
John Ross
A NAFTA for Energy? The US Looks to Suck Up Mexico's Power
Mickey Z.
War is a Racket: The Wisdom of Gen. Smedley Butler
Elaine Cassel
Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Show Isn't Winning Many Converts
Stan Cox
Pirates of the Caribbean: the WTO Comes to Cancun
Tom and Judy Turnipseed
Take Back Your Time Day
Adam Engel
The Red Badge of Knowledge: a Review of TDY
Adam Engel
An Eye on Intelligence: an Interview with Douglas Valentine
Susan Davis
Northfork,
an Accidental Review
Nicholas Rowe
Dance
and the Occupation
Mark Zepezauer
Operation
Candor
Poets' Basement
Albert, Guthrie and Hamod
Website of the Weekend
Downhill
Battle
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
August 29, 2003
Lenni Brenner
God
and the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party
Brian Cloughley
When in Doubt, Lie Your Head Off
Alice Slater
Bush Nuclear Policy is a Recipe for National Insecurity
David Krieger
What Victory?
Marjorie Cohn
The Thin Blue Line: How the US Occupation of Iraq Imperils International
Law
Richard Glen Boire
Saying Yes to Drugs!
Bister, Estrin and Jacobs
Howard Dean, the Progressive Anti-War Candidate? Some Vermonters
Give Their Views
Website of the Day
DirtyBush
Hot Stories
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
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
September
15, 2003
Report from Cancun
We Are Winning
By WRITERS BLOC
By the time news that negotiations inside the
WTO had imploded in the face of an open and unified insurrection
by delegates of the global south, the party was in full swing.
Members of the resistance Peasants from South Africa, Thailand,
Central America and Korea with a large crowd of global justice
activists still high from the success of the previous day's 'grande
manifestation', danced around the fountain. At kilometer zero,
the spot where Lee Kyung Have fell by his own hand just a few
days earlier, ecstatic celebration mixed with memorial, an American
hippie drummer joined the Korean percussionists. Mexican campesinos
sported Korean headbands and a handsome schoolteacher from Seoul
stood slightly apart from the joyous crowd in dark sunglasses
and an embroidered ladies indigenous blouse.
With tears in his eyes, the president
of Via Campesino recounted the words of Lee's daughter when he
presented her with a bouquet earlier in the day. "My father
is not dead," she said. "He lives in the heart of farmers
all over the world". As people gathered around the memorial
that had grown up at the junction, Cancunensas brought their
children forward to light candles at the memorial, passing vehicles
honked their horns in support, and in some of the weeks most
surreal images truckloads of Policia Federal gave the thumbs
up as local cops tied white flags to the antennas of their cars.
The previous day, thousands of resisters
descended on the newly fortified security barrier near kilometer
zero. Like the initial structure, this fortification was pulverized
by the collective action of the demonstration. A couple of hundred
women first massed along the fence and set about it with heavy
bolt cutters. Mountains of wire were cut free and discarded by
supporters as the women went into the 10 foot deep no mans land,
thousands of riot police pressing at the other side. Bolts and
chains which locked the wall together disappeared in a Fordist
destruction line, the chains worn around the necks of the African
women as trophies.
During the gradual escalation of militant
activity, Media Benjamin, CEO of Global Exchange, a San Francisco
crafts importer and travel agency, was spotted on the outskirts
of the demonstration. Obviously sensing an opportunity to increase
her product visibility, she, like many other NGO boosters, crawled
out from amongst the WTO delegates to rub elbows with the resistance.
Nowhere to be seen at the second assault was the liberal mouthpiece
and parliamentarian, Tom Haydan who outdid the rightwing media
in his assessment that the movement was split by a mythical debate
over `violence' as a tactic. Nothing could be further from the
truth. The notorious black block, the same ones who keep Hayden
awake at night, displayed a sophisticated and mature reading
of the situation. They worked closely with the women at the front
in securing the barricade from nutcases and provocateurs ensuring
the success of the day.
Next up, the Koreans. They had spent
the morning weaving rope into long plaits. These were brought
forward and attached to the top of the barricade. The throng
lined up, took the three lines in hand and began to pull in time
with the Korean chants of a work gang. During an incredible three
hours the barricade was destroyed and removed from the road by
the steady collective action of the crowd. It took several turns
and minor adjustments to tear the wall asunder. At one point,
when it was about to tear into two parts for the first time,
several journalists and photographers were gathered inside the
collapsing structure. Warnings to vacate were given and the work
teams paused, breaking the tempo of the operation. Nevertheless,
as the steel caved towards the crowd 2 photographers went arse
over tit inside as it rolled. Fortunately the work gangs were
attentive enough that the signal went quickly along the line
and these people were saved from grave injury.
The atmosphere was otherworldly as the
mammoth structure began to buckle and sway, the realization began
pass through those assembled that this thing was really coming
down. The crowd was silent as the drummers accompanied the heaves
of those on the ropes and the barricade disintegrated. It was
quickly moved from the road onto the median where youths mounted
it for a better view of the front line, now a small open space
between the riot cops, a throng of cameras, the Koreans and the
women of the movement of the global south.
In an unorthodox but tactically genius move, the crowd, flying
high on this tremendous group achievement, which was ready to
storm, to riot, to do almost anything- instead sat down. There
was a ceremony and moment of silence for comrade Lee and then
the electrifying news that not only had a group of Korean companeros
made it into the convention center, but the group of 21 developing
nations had signed a document refusing the proposals of the U.S.A
and E.U. We are winning.
For days militants had infiltrated
the "zona hoteleria" and caused mayhem, blocking traffic,
confronting delegates and being chased around by a bewildered
army of private security, conscripts and military policemen.
In one of the weeks more comical actions, a `reclaim the beach'
party was reported on breathlessly by network correspondents
as a demonstration. Video footage showed bathers bobbing, and
waving while fifty odd security guards stood sweating on the
sand scratching their heads. Due obviously to orders not to sully
the image of the WTO with arrests or blood these spontaneous
demos would routinely end in a negotiated deal whereby the police
would provide air conditioned coaches back to kilometer zero
and parties at the Korean encampment. This is the real Cancun.
On Sunday night at the fiesta around
the memorial to Lee the mood was triumphant. People from around
the world celebrated the death of the WTO and the life of Kyung
Hae Lee. His death had crystallized something very important.
As one Campesino woman put it, he has given us a great gift;
he has reminded us that the policies of the WTO are a matter
of life and death.
Weekend
Edition Features for Sept. 13 / 14, 2003
Michael Neumann
Anti-Americanism:
Too Much of a Good Thing?
Jeffrey St. Clair
Anatomy of a Swindle
Gary Leupp
The Matrix of Ignorance
Ron Jacobs
Reagan's America
Brian Cloughley
Up to a Point, Lord Rumsfeld
William S. Lind
Making Mesopotamia a Terrorist Magnet
Werther
A Modest Proposal for the Pentagon
Dave Lindorff
Friendly Fire Will Doom the Occupation
Toni Solo
Fiction and Reality in Colombia: The Trial of the Bogota Three
Elaine Cassel
Juries and the Death Penalty
Mickey Z.
A Parable for Cancun
Jeffrey Sommers
Issam Nashashibi: a Life Dedicated to the Palestinian Cause
David Vest
Driving in No Direction (with a Glimpse of Johnny Cash)
Michael Yates
The Minstrel Show
Jesse Walker
Adios, Johnny Cash
Adam Engel
Something Killer
Poets' Basement
Cash, Albert, Curtis, Linhart
Website of the Weekend
Local Harvest
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