Justin Podur

Repercussions of the ‘bloodbath/massacre’ in Saudi Arabia

First, I’m very pleased to note that it seems Tim Wise is blogging again, as well as UTS.

Today’s hypocrisy. Looking at the headlines of various newspapers today I saw news of a ‘massacre’ and a ‘bloodbath’ in Saudi Arabia by Al Qaeda. It was a brutal hostage-taking operation that was done, and certainly it was both a massacre and a bloodbath. I didn’t notice these media outlets calling what Israel did in Rafah a ‘bloodbath’ or what the US is doing in Najaf right now a ‘massacre’.

An interesting article in the Independent speculates about the possible implications for the world economy if the Saudi regime gets into real trouble. The Saudi regime is a real anomaly in the world. It is the definition of an imperial gas station: virtually created to be that. One book on the topic, quite old, is ‘Arabia Without Sultans’, I think by Halliday, and another one called ‘A House Built on Sand’. There’s a novel called ‘Cities of Salt’ that is a classic, by an author who was exiled for writing it and actually passed on recently. Both books are hard to get your hands on, but well worth it. Since neither are recent though, it’s important to note that Saudi Arabia is the swing producer that has the power to make sure world oil markets go the way the US wants them to go. It can bust any quota. No other country comes close in terms of sheer endowment of oil, and that’s why it’s so firmly under the thumb of the US. Some believe that the Iraq invasion was to try to give the US some extra leverage over the Saudis by gaining direct control over another major producer. There’s more…

But oil consumption has increased so much and so continuously that even Saudi Arabia can’t keep up, and if the Iraqi resistance keeps on keeping Iraqi oil from flowing (pipelines are very difficult to defend — all the brutality of the US/Colombian paramilitary regime can’t defend the pipelines from being blown up in that country) then there won’t be capacity enough to keep prices down. Rahul Mahajan blogged a little about this recently.

There is a lot of conservation literature (some of it rather poor science, like Rifkin’s ‘Hydrogen Economy’, which somehow neglects to emphasize that while hydrogen might be a good way to store energy, you have to generate electricity from some other source to create hydrogen; but some of it better than that, like Amory Lovins’s work on ‘soft energy paths’ in the 1970s) that could be brought to bear to avert the numerous catastrophic possibilities of the path we’re on (one is simply running out of oil so that people freeze in the dark; another is climate change). But that would take some rather serious political changes.

Colombia: Cali building occupation ends

A couple days ago I blogged about the heroic union SINTRAEMCALI’s attempts to stop the creeping privatization of the public utilities company in the city of Cali, Colombia. I noted that it was a high-risk maneuver, and they made a risk assessment yesterday after the National government responded with overwhelming repression and decided to call off the occupation. The assessment of the situation by Nathan Eisenstadt of the Colombia Solidarity Campaign in the UK is mixed:

The agreement is more of a short term pacifier to facilitate further negotiations with a commitment to reviewing the Government’s recent restructuring proposal and a continuing dialogue including public consultation regarding its implications. It’s not a full victory for either side and accordingly can be viewed as victory for both. On the part of the Government the CAM Tower is no longer occupied by the workers so victory could be claimed, but before the occupation occurred eviction was (obviously) not the Government’s goal. On the part of workers the issues surrounding the new proposal and its implications have been brought to the fore, negotiations opened and the people mobilized.

This is by no means the end, the threat of privatisation, increased tariffs, and removal of subsidies to impoverished sectors remains very real. What has been achieved is to show that in spite of his dogmatic stance and unremitting anti democratic tactics that the people are still ready to resist the President´s onslaught and present viable alternatives. Something that defined this battle from the last was the lack of build up, that few knew the implications of a rapidly imposed proposal with sufficient time for word to spread. Times change and effective methods one year, with one government, do not necessarily work in same way with the next. There remains much work to be done and this was the first step in a new process rather than the last in an established one…

When I hear about these struggles I wonder what it would take for movements in North America to have that kind of hard-headed strategy, that kind of sense of how to intervene in a principled and effective way, that kind of understanding of the forces at play. Circumstances in Colombia are incomparably more difficult than in North America. Repression in Colombia is in a completely different world from anything North American unionists (or any other activists) face. Why does it seem that they are able to accomplish so much more?

Signals of Repression in Haiti

Just looking at the May 25, 2004 Haiti Human Rights report from Let Haiti Live. You can get a copy of the report by writing to haitihumanrights@yahoo.com. Between the firing on the Lavalas demonstration, the brutal arrest and imprisonment of Annette August, internal displacement, executions, rape, and massacre, what is clear is that the Canadian, US, and French soldiers are doing exactly what they went there to do: overseeing the destruction of the remnants of a popular and independent political force and ensuring that the Haitian people are terrorized into silence.

And for all this, there are signs that worse is to come. Despite having a substantial number of its own troops there to guarantee ‘security’, the US is citing ‘insecurity’ as a reason to issue a travel advisory, telling Americans not to go there. ‘Insecurity’ was also cited as a reason for the coup. Such vicious lies. The US military specializes in destroying the security and aspirations of people all over the world. Another signal: the new ‘president’, Latortue, himself showing no signs of malnutrition but who deigned to suggest to the people over whom he has been installed that they eat less, says the big problem is thousands of armed Lavalas people who have to be disarmed. I guess this will be the job for the third-world armies that take over the occupation from the Americans. Let the Haitians eat gruel and let the poor people kill each other.

Has anyone paused to ask, if there are so many well-armed and ruthless Lavalas people running around, how the hell was it so easy for the US-armed paramilitaries to take over the country? I can’t help but think that if Aristide and Lavalas were what people said they were (ruthless, armed, etc.) they would probably still be in power now. But no lie is too blatant, no logic too convoluted, when it comes to justifying smashing helpless black people.

Erratum

Doing the rounds and checking Under the same sun I discovered that the authenticity of the story about Rumsfeld banning digital cameras ( which I got via the Newsinsider and which Under the same sun and Empire Notes got from me) has been questioned.

The News Insider pulls stories out of the mainstream, and like me, probably assumes that mainstream media outlets don’t publish lies unless they think they can substantiate them. So, unlike the editor of the Daily Mirror (whose crime was little different from our own: republishing something entirely plausible but difficult to verify because of insufficient checking) I will not be resigning my blogpost.

African-Americans invented sexism, and other interesting tales

Now, having read Toufe’s piece on moral agency I am not about to try to make some kind of case absolving an artist like Nelly for creating a video in which women are treated in degrading, sexist, and appalling ways. Social change is made by moral agents who decide not to follow the script that is laid down for them. By people who face all the social forces and do not succumb to them. It is these exceptions to the social script that provide possibilities for hope.

Having said that, I saw this article on hip hop and gender politics and thought it was provocative, in the opposite way that Toufe’s piece was. The author is saying — look, there’s plenty of sexism and misogyny in hip hop, there’s no question. But sexism and misogyny wasn’t invented by rap artists. It is consumed by huge numbers of people. (And, a point that the author doesn’t make, it is put forward by incredibly concentrated media companies as *the* dominant voice of hip hop, creating enormous pressures on artists to create that kind of work if they want a shot at recognition, reward, etc.) So there is an institutional context for this, and hip-hop artists alone shouldn’t have to take the fall for sexism.

The fact that they are is actually telling. By blaming hip-hop for sexism and misogyny, other sectors of society (no less infected by sexism) can throw up their hands and wonder why *they* are so sexist and misogynist. Must be a pathology of ‘black culture’ or ‘hip hop culture’ or ‘youth culture’. The one thing it can’t be is something that is pervasive throughout a patriarchal society where men beat their wives and girlfriends senseless, rape and terrorize women, and just generally keep women in their place across the board.

This is something worth watching for. It is not unlike a lot of what is being said about the ‘new antisemitism’. Remember the ‘old antisemitism’ is what was practiced by Europe since the Crusades and the Inquisition and culminated in the Holocaust. But many pundits are saying, look, the ‘new antisemitism’ is worse than the ‘old antisemitism’, and the ‘new antisemitism’ is criticism of Israel, and it is practiced not by whites and white supremacists but by Muslims and their supporters. So whereas in the past, opposing anti-semitism meant opposing white supremacy (and those things that accompanied it, colonialism, racism, and imperialism), today you can oppose ‘the new anti-semitism’ and still be firmly on the side of white supremacy, because the ‘new anti-semitism’ is something that is, by definition, practiced by white supremacy’s victims (Muslims, Arabs).

In this way, blacks can be blamed for sexism (and homophobia), Muslims can be blamed for anti-semitism (and sexism and homophobia). Not only does this justify doing bad things to them (locking them up or bombing them), but it also helps us to avoid any reckoning with these diseases of our own society.

Still thinking through this, but I might try to lay out the argument in an essay or a commentary.

A beacon of democracy in the middle east

Israel and the United States, currently competing to see who can bring more democracy to the Middle East, have achieved notable triumphs in the area of press freedom. Israel, for example, shoots and kills journalists (like the UK’s James Miller and over a dozen Arab journalists who die even more invisibly than people like Miller) and international observers (like the UN’s Ian Hook) and activists (like the US’s Rachel Corrie). Israel bombs radio stations — it did so as part of its latest attack on Rafah, for example. You can get a good idea for what Israel thinks of freedom of the press for Palestinians from this quote by an Israeli official, that comes via al-Jazeera: “We are under no obligation to help Palestinian journalists enter Israel. We don’t differentiate between ordinary Palestinians and Palestinians who claim to be journalists.”

Not to be outdone, the United States has a proclivity for bombing al-Jazeera journalists — it bombed the Kabul station while bombing Afghanistan, it conducted a missile attack on Tariq Ayoub, and it shelled the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, killing numerous journalists.

Well, Israel is keeping up! Readers may remember the case of Mordechai Vanunu, the technician who leaked Israel’s nuclear weapons program and spent 18 years in prison for his act. His arrest itself was abhorrent, his imprisonment despicable, and conditions were placed on him after his release that he couldn’t leave Israel, couldn’t talk to journalists, etc. After Vanunu’s release, he was forced to hide in a church after Israeli newspapers leaked his address. A journalist from the Sunday Times, Peter Hounam of the UK, spent some time with Vanunu at the church. As a result, Hounam was arrested and is now being kept incommunicado by the Israelis.

Peace in Sudan?

A peace accord has been signed in Sudan. For those who know a little bit about the conflict, it seems that the settlement is along the lines of what the Southern rebels have been demanding all along. Because the power-sharing agreement is to last six years, with revenues being split between north and south in the meantime, and at the end of which there is to be a referendum giving southerners the option of independence, there seems to be an incentive for the north to try to undermine the possibility of southern independence and weaken the south as much as possible leading up to the referendum. It is also a kind of ‘power-sharing’ formula between high-level leaders, like John Garang of the SPLA (southern rebel group) who will become vice-president, and the president of Sudan. Sudan has had these kinds of agreements in the past, and they were undermined syatematically — the ‘peace’ agreement just marked a pause, or a break, while preparations for renewed offensives were being made.

There is good reason to think that is what is going on here. The atrocities that have been going on in Sudan in recent months are between regime-backed militias and a southern population in Darfur — a conflict that is not touched by this ‘peace’, according to the article: “The peace accords do not take into account a new, related war in western Sudan’s Darfur region, where government-backed Arab militiamen have caused what the UN describes as “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis”.’

In the UK’s Daily Telegraph, apparently “hands President George W Bush a rare foreign-policy boost in a Muslim country.” That alone is cause to be dubious about the agreement. The last thing the US did for peace in Sudan was launch some cruise missiles at a pharmaceutical plant near Khartoum.

Colombia…

I prefer attributed to anonymous sources, but in a context like Colombia where hundreds of union leaders, human rights activists, journalist, lawyers and the like are killed every year for speaking out, I believe exceptions can be made.

I blogged yesterday that the 18th Brigade of the Colombian Army is directly implicated in a massacre of 13 people in Arauca. Today a communique from “social organizations who will not leave the shadows” pointed out a coincidence — that the very day of the massacre (May 20), the commander of the armed forces Martin Orlando Carreno made a visit to the military base of Pueblo Nuevo. Pueblo Nuevo is a 30 minute car ride from the site of the massacre (Pinalito and Flor Amarillo of the Tame Municipality).

Other Colombia news: SINTRAEMCALI, the city of Cali’s remarkable public utility worker’s union (here’s an interview on them) has again occupied a public building — a very high-risk, high-stakes action in a place like Colombia, demanding an end to the government’s creeping attempts to privatize the company. They are trying to put a light on things the government would rather keep hidden. See details below, thanks to the UK Colombia solidarity campaign.

More Colombia labor news: The Union Sindical Obrera, the oil worker’s union, went on strike 35 days ago to try to stop privatization of the state oil company. The government agreed not to privatize, ending the strike. The workers sacrificed a tremendous amount — 248 workers who were fired when the strike was declared illegal have the option of arbitration or voluntary retirement.

PRESS STATEMENT

SINTRAEMCALI declares a Permanent Assembly, 1600 people peacefully occupy the Central Administration Building – The CAM Tower

Santiago de Cali 26th May, 2004

The CAM Tower, symbol of the defence of the rights of the workers of EMCALI EICE ESP has been occupied once again by SINTRAEMCALI in the face of the failure of the government of ALVARO URIBE VELEZ to fulfil its obligations under a recent agreement. The administrative functions of the company have been paralysed but the provision of basic public services will be guaranteed. The Permanent Assembly will continue until the National Government fulfils its obligations under the agreement with the workers and citizens of Cali.

Around 1600 workers of the Municipal Enterprises of Cali EMCALI EICE ESP, declared themselves to be in Permanent Assembly from 6.00 am this morning, the 26th of May, 2004. They will remain there until the nationally imposed Managing Director CARLOS ALFONSO POTES is fired for his involvement in corruption, the EMCALI workers that were dismissed have been reinstated in their positions, and the national government fulfills its agreement with the EMCALI workers and the citizens of Cali.

The Regional Attorney yesterday announced that ALFONSO POTES had been found guilty of corrupt practices and disqualified him from holding public office and continuing in his job. However, the Superintendent of Public Services EVA MARIA URIBE immediately stated that ALFONSO POTES would carry on in his position because the case did not proceed to prosecution [translators note: i.e. that it was not a judicial process but an administrative investigation] . This confirms once again that the Colombian government places itself above State Organs of control. Despite the Regional Attorney’s call for his dismissal the Superintendent of Public Services decided to allow him to carry on in his position.

The National and International Community have been witness to the range of attempts by ALVARO URIBE VELEZ and the Superintendent of Public Services EVA MARIA URIBE, to privatize the company and also the effort that workers have made so that EMCALI could remain as a Commercial and Industrial State Enterprise: On the 4th of May, 2004 the workers ceded many benefits acquired over 70 years of struggle by renegotiating the Collective Agreement with the Ministry of Labour [in order to save the company].

Despite this, the response of the government has been repression against the workers, a restructuring of the company that was not discussed in the recent agreements, giving precedence to the National and International Banks to the detriment of the ‘patrimonio publico’ [translators note: common good/public property] and the rights of the workers and consumers.

Background:

Since Carlos Alfonso Potes took control of EMCALI he has consistently denied any accusations that he was ineligible to take up the position due to his involvement in a previous public service provider, and has denied any involvement with the Public Service Company of Tulua [ a private supplie of public utilities]. However, that company has certified that Potes is a shareholder. Furthermore, it was proved that he was involved in the appointment of the manager ISABEL CRISTINA VIGOYA, who was ultimately dismissed for having forged her qualification certificates, and for carrying out activities aimed at destabilizing EMCALI.

SINTRAEMCALI has consistently argued that the current Managing Director is incompetent and corrupt, and has called for a commission of inquiry – made up of the Regional Attorney, the State Prosecutor, the Controller General and the Citizens Watchdog to investigate – into all the administrative acts that have caused damage to the ‘patrimonio nacional’ of EMCALI EICE ESP as well as causing harm to the consumer community.

For the above reasons the trade union of the Public Municipal Enterprises of Cali – SINTRAEMCALI, the Association for Research and Social Action NOMADESC and other members of the Campaign PROHIBIDO OLVIDAR (Forbidden to Forget) call on the national and international community to support the demands that:

a.. The Manager of EMCALI EICE ESP CARLOS ALFONSO POTES is immediately dismissed from his position in line with the Regional Attorney’s verdict.
b.. That the government complies with the agreement signed by Alvaro Uribe Velez and the workers and citizens of Cali
c.. That the government respects constitutional and legal rights such as the right to life, security, freedom of opinion, information, mobilization, trade unionism and protest, and conforms to the International Pacts and Agreements that the Colombian government has signed up to.
d.. That the Colombian government guarantees the necessary conditions to protect the physical and psychological integrity of the workers.
e.. Calls on the United Nations, the Organisation of American States, the Diplomatic Corps based in Colombia, and the International Labour Organisation to guarantee the human rights of the leaders and activists of SINTRAEMCALI.
SIGNED BY

Sindicato de Trabajadores de Las Empresas Municipales de Cali – SINTRAEMCALI
Sindicato De Los Trabajadores Universitarios De Colombia – SINTRAUNICOL
La Unión Sindical Obrera- USO
Asociación para el Desarrollo Social Integral – ECATE
Central Unitaria De Los Trabajadores CUT – VALLE DEL CAUCA

For more info contact Colombia Solidarity Campaign at colombia_sc@hotmail.com and to this e-mail address ahigginbottom@blueyonder.co.uk Tel 07743743041

Homelessness in Rafah

I am reproducing below a very short press release from the United Nations refugee agency. It is self-explanatory.

Latest Israeli Operation Leaves 575 Palestinians Homeless

Gaza – The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has completed its initial assessment of the numbers of homes demolished or damaged beyond repair during the latest Israeli military operation in Rafah.

Continue reading “Homelessness in Rafah”

The Canadian Election!

It’s to be on June 28. I’m really not sure how much interest there is in this among you, my dear blogreaders. The nature of the election means that the implications for the world are rather small.

Still, part of the point of blogging is to provide a daily antidote to hypocrisy, and Canada’s elite is especially adept at that activity (hypocrisy), especially at election time. Indeed, the nastiest of Canada’s politicians have come to power on a platform of being less hypocritical than Canada’s traditional liberal elite — people like Mike Harris of Ontario or Ralph Klein of Alberta say: “I am going to destroy public services, be servile to the US and corporate interests, be openly racist to indigenous and immigrants — and no hypocrite!” Somehow a part of the Canadian electorate likes this. They say: “Well, at least he does what he said.”

Thanks a lot.

Well, no one can accuse Paul Martin, Canada’s current liberal PM who is running for re-election, of doing what he says. Although he is probably less hypocritical and more openly servile than Canada’s previous Prime Minister Chretien, he has earned the wrath of Reuters, who has called him ‘un-American’ for saying he wants to preserve public health care (in case anyone’s wondering, he doesn’t really want to preserve public health care, as his actions as Finance Minister show).

But as I said in a previous blog entry, Martin is several lies behind even the US administration — he’s saying at parties that Saddam had WMD and gave them to terrorists. See the letter and article below for details.

The Rt. Hon. Paul Martin

Prime Minister of Canada

Dear Mr. Martin,

I was stunned to read a news report ascribing to you the view that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that those weapons had now fallen into the hands of terrorists. I called your office to try to get a transcript since I found it incredible with all the evidence which is now available, that anyone not blinded by ideology or driven by a political need to justify a war of aggression should maintain such a position. It flies in the face of the findings of Hans Blix and of the USA’s own WMD hunters. I am told, however, that the journalist, Stephanie Rubec, whose account I had read, is usually reliable. That is why I am seeking clarification from you on this matter.

Apparently quoting you last week, she wrote:

“The fact is that there is now, we know well, a proliferation of nuclear Weapons, and that many weapons that Saddam Hussein had, we don’t know where they are,” Martin told a crowd of about 700 university researchers and business leaders in Montreal. “That means terrorists have access to all of that.”

If you have been accurately quoted and have independent and reliable evidence that the world lacks – including Mssrs. Rumsfeld, Bush, Wolfowitz, Cheney, and their neo-con loyalists, it would be important to share it, especially since those gentlemen appear to have a less than impressive record for truthfulness about Saddam’s WMDs and are in dire need of evidence to restore a semblance of credibility. If, on the other hand, you are relying on advisors who themselves depend on Cheney, Rumsfeld, and company, your own credibility will have been undermined.

In promoting the ideas of further military action in the Middle East – against Syria and Iran, for example, by the US, Israel, or some new “coalition” — Washington has pushed exactly the story you are alleged to have presented in Montreal. That coincidence should be very worrisome to most Canadians who would not welcome such adventures and most certainly would not welcome Canadian political, let alone military support for them. If indeed you did say what Ms. Rubec reported, can you reassure your fellow Canadians that you are not laying the propaganda basis for Canadian involvement in or support for further “pre-emptive” attacks in violation of the UN Charter and therefore, of international law?

Could you reassure us that your evidence for such claims is solid and not drawn from tainted sources by citing the sources from which it is taken and outlining its character? Or could you reassure us that no significant foreign policy decision depended on your claim by letting us know that you were engaged in speculation which may well have gone beyond the evidence for your claim that terrorists now have access to Saddam’s (non-existent?) WMDs, and that you meant only to stress the importance of vigilance lest such a scenario develop?

Respectfully,

James A. Graff

—————

Terrorists have Iraq’s WMD: PM

Martin’s views run counter to those of French, German leaders

By STEPHANIE RUBEC, Ottawa Bureau

Prime Minister Paul Martin says he believes Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and they’ve fallen into the hands of terrorists. Martin said the threat of terrorism is even greater now than it was following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks against the U.S. because terrorists have acquired nuclear, chemical and biological weapons from the toppled Iraqi leader.

“The fact is that there is now, we know well, a proliferation of nuclear weapons, and that many weapons that Saddam Hussein had, we don’t know where they are,” Martin told a crowd of about 700 university researchers and business leaders in Montreal.

“That means terrorists have access to all of that.”

The PM’s comments run counter to leaders in countries such as France and Germany who have accused the U.S. and Britain of fudging evidence of WMDs in Iraq to justify the war.

When asked to assess the threat level since Hussein was captured by U.S. troops, Martin said he believes it has increased.

“I believe that terrorism will be, for our generation, what the Cold War was to generations that preceded us,” the PM said. “I don’t think we’re out of it yet.”

Martin disagreed with former Prime Minister Jean Chretien who publicly blamed poverty for terrorism and the Sept. 11 attacks.

“The cause of terrorism is not poverty, it is hatred,” Martin said, adding he’ll lead the charge to convince countries to work together to combat terrorism and make sure the Third World has the tools to stamp it out.

Martin said he’s lobbying the international community to set up an informal organization comprised of a maximum of 20 heads of state to tackle world issues such as terrorism.

Martin said he got the nod from U.S. President George W. Bush during his visit to Washington D.C. last month, and will take his idea to the European Union and Latin America next.

Martin also announced a $100-million contribution to treat millions of people who have AIDS.

The money will be given to a new initiative of the World Health Organization to treat three million people with AIDS by the end of 2005.

The contribution of new money has made Canada the largest donor to the program so far.