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in August!
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Beyond the
Lesser of Two Evils
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Today's
Stories
August 14 /
15, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
War
on the Poor: "A Risk No Sane Person Would Take"
August 13,
2004
Lee Sustar
Report
from Caracas
Mickey Z.
McProtests R Us: Why are the Dems Trying to Gag Anti-War Protesters?
Stan Goff
There
He Goes Again: Kerry's "Energy" Plan
Norman Madarasz
Thoughts on Najaf: How Could the US Ever Be Considered a "Terrorist"
State?
Victor Kattan
Press Freedom, Censorship and the War on Terror
Oscar Heck
Is Mendoza Off His Rocker? Chavez Opponents Pledge to Post Results
Online Before Polls Close
CounterPunch
Wire
Military Families File "Stop Loss" Suit
Milan Rai
Najaf: Bush Started It
Website of
the Day
The Yes Men
August 12,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
How
Bush Got (and Lost) His Wings
Lenni Brenner
Take
It on Faith: Kerry's See-Through-Monk's Robe
Lee Ballinger
The Coors and the Kerrys: Drink Up, Kids!
Tariq Ali
The
Handover Fiction
Yves Engler
What's at Stake in Venezuela
William S.
Lind
Seeing
Through the Other Side's Eyes
Christopher Brauchli
Getting Bush's Goat
Website of
the Day
The Sucker Puncher
August 11,
2004
Ceylon Mooney
Who
Woke Up Sen. Joe?: Watchers of the NJ Turnpike
Voices in the
Wilderness
Hands
Off Najaf
Ray McGovern
Porter
Goss as CIA Director?
Robert Jensen
US
Supports Anti-Democratic Forces in Venezuelan Recall
Annie Higgins
In Memory of Nick Pretzlik: As Good as It Gets
Alexander Cockburn
Bush
v. Kerry: Not Even a Dime's Worth of Difference
Website of the Day
Nick Pretzlik
August 10,
2004
William A.
Cook
Silencing
the Voice of the People
Todd Chretien
California Greens at the Crossroads: Will It Be Nader or Cobb?
Dave Lindorff
Chicago on the Hudson?
Richard Gott
Loathed
by the Rich: Why Chavez is Headed for a Big Win
Toni Solo
Bluebeard's
Castle: Disappearing the Right to Development
Dave Zirin
Carl Eller's Plea
Rep. Ron Paul
Police State, USA
Patrick Cockburn
If the Chalabis Were Corrupt, They Weren't Alone
Website of
the Day
The Surveillance-Industrial Complex
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
August 9, 2004
Tito Tricot
Pinochet
Must Still be Tried: a Murderer and a Thief on the Loose
Ron Jacobs
In
Memory of Deep Throat: the Day Nixon Was Gone
Norm Dixon
Crisis in Sudan: Oil Profits Behind West's Tears for Darfur
Kurt Nimmo
The Politics of Entrapment
Elaine Cassel
Welcome to Bush's America
Gary Leupp
Why
Iraqi Christians are Moving to Syria
August 7 /
8, 2004
James Petras
The
Anatomy of "Terror Experts": Meet the Mandarins of
Abu Ghraib
Fred Gardner
Run
Ricky Run: Football, Pot and Pain
Justin Delacour
Anti-Chavez Pollsters Panic: Fix Numbers; Reinvent Venezuela
Brian Cloughley
Persecuted by All; Supported by None: Who Would Be A Kurd?
Joshua Frank
The
Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader
Iain A. Boal
On "Shame": Warmed-Over Orientalism and Racist Projection
Chris Floyd
All About Eve: Open Season on Women in DC and Rome
Andrew Fenton
Fighting for Democracy and Justice in Haiti
Aseem Shrivastava
Saga of an Anguished Afghan
Neil Corbett
See Cuba: Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, Mr. Bush
Carol Miller
/ Forrest Hill
Rigged Convention; Divided Party: How David Cobb Won with Only
12% of the Vote
Tarek Milleron
Breaking the Principled Voter
Donald Macintyre
The
Battle of Najaf
Ron Jacobs
Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies
Mickey Z.
Kid
Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO
Poets' Basement
Adler, Ford and Albert
August 6, 2004
Joshua Frank
David
Cobb's Soft Charade: the Greens and the Politics of Mendacity
Derek Seidman
An
Interview with Stan Goff
Mike Whitney
The
Arbitrary Imprisonment of Jose Padilla
William S. Lind
Corruption in the Marine Corps
David Price
In
the Shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
August 5, 2004
Mike Ferner
The Kerry Show: When Peace is Off
Message
Bruce Anderson
Two
Rejections
Robert Fisk
The Tale of Saddam's Cameraman
Todd Chretien
Florida
Comes to California: the Democrats' Plot Against Nader
Peter Linebaugh
Doing Time for Political Crime:
Paul and Silas, Bound in Jail
August 4, 2004
Mickey Z.
Two
Traditions: WMD and Disinformation
Justin Huggler
The Hunt for Bin Laden
John Ross
Mexico's
Dirty War Never Ended: Inside Puente Grande Prison
August 3, 2004
Uri Avnery
The
Oligarchs
Ray McGovern
The 9/11 Commission Chimera
Jack McCarthy
Sexual Politics in Jeb's Florida
Eric Ruder
Meet Barak Obama: the Democrats' New Liberal Star
John L. Hess
Crying Wolf: Orange Alert!
Elaine Cassel
Civil Liberties Elections: 1800 v. 2004
Jules Rabin
The Man Who Didn't Walk By
Website of the Day
No Wall
August 2, 2004
Robert Jensen
Kerry's
Hypocrisy on the Vietnam War
Joshua Frank
Greens, Kerry and the Politics of Mendacity
Mike Whitney
The 9/11 Commission and Civil Liberties: "We Need an American
Police State"
Gary Leupp
Beyond
Good and Evil: Some Thoughts on Invasions
July 31 / Aug.
1, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Kerry:
He's the (Any) One
Merlin Chowkwanyun
Five Questions with Noam Chomsky: "The Savage Extreme of
a Narrow Policy Spectrum"
David Lindorff
The Shame of the DNC
John Chuckman
The
Disturbing Words of John Edwards
Brian Cloughley
All Slam and No Dunk; All Blame and No Responsibility
Christopher Brauchli
"Being Poor is a State of Mind": the Frowning Face
of Compassionate Conservatism
Fred Gardner
A World of Pain
Michael Donnelly
How Big Pharma Bilks the Elderly
David Nally
Genocide in Darfur?
Joshua Frank
Forest Battles Escalate in Oregon
Sam Bahour
Colin Powell and My Grandmother
Diane Farsetta
The IMF and the Indonesian Elections: The Invisible Hand in the
Voting Booth
Harold Gould
Was Iraq a Mutual Charade?
Van Bergen / Stephens
Election 9/11: Surreal Political Theater
Lee Sustar
A New Model for the Labor Movement?
Ron Jacobs
The Lost Art of Hitchhiking
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview with Palestinian-American Rapper, The Iron Sheik
Poets Basement
Albert, Ford, Krieger, St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Cross Cultural Poetics
July 30, 2004
Kolhatkar /
Ingalls
Shattering
Illusions: Kerry's Speech Tells Anti-War Activists They're Not
Wanted
Dave Lindorff
Murder
Not So Foul?
Bruce Jackson
Walt Whitman on the Sound of Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Fidel Castro
The
Pathology of George W. Bush
Maximilien Robespierre
Memo to Kerry and Bush: Why They Resist
Saul Landau
Bush
Charges Castro with Sex Tourism; JFK Rolls Over in His Grave
July 29, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Hail,
the Conquering War Criminal: What Kerry Really Did in Vietnam
Frank Bardacke
What
Michael Moore Left Out of F9/11
Tom Barry
Shallow and Formulaic: Kerry's Latin America Plan
Ron Jacobs
Kerry
and Lennon: Hawking the CounterCulture
Robert Fisk
The Unreported War
Lichtman /
Kellis-Borok
What Kerry Must Do to Win (But Probably Won't)
William S. Lind
The 9/11 Commission Report: Cashing in on Failure
CounterPunch
Wire
Doonesbury Onto John Kerry in 1971!
Website of
the Day
Jabbing JibJab: Copyright Madness
July 28, 2004
Robert Fisk
The
Occupation at 114 Degrees: Baghdad is Swamped in the Smell of
the Dead
Kevin Mink
Kerry's Misperception of Palestine
Ray McGovern
Israel and the Iraq War: How the 9/11 Report Soft-Pedals Root
Causes
United for
Peace & Justice
An
Open Letter to John Kerry: Winter Soldiers and Summer Patriots
Mike Ferner
Vets Demand End to Occupation: "Pull the Troops or Face
Impeachment Mvt."
Imraan Siddiqi
Turning Tricks with Ann Coulter
Alexander Cockburn
Candidate
Kerry
Website of
the Day
Iraq Vets Against the War
July 27, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
the Democrats Deserve Nader
Dave Lindorff
Back to the 19th Century: Globalization's Coming!
Mike Whitney
Control Room: Inside Al Jazeera
Ali, Anderson, Bello, et al.
If We Were Venezuelan, We'd Vote for Chavez
Stefan Wray
Texas Plan to Grab Los Alamos Takes Hold, as DOE Shuts Down Labs
Louis Proyect
Reflections on Nicaragua: First Came the Contra Butchers, Then
the Sweatshops
Rick Giombetti
Faith in Freedom: the Challenge of Thomas Szasz
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
The
9/11 Report and Its Weak-Kneed Consensus: Dogding Israel/Palestine;
Blinkered on Causes of Terrorism
July 26, 2004
Todd Chretien
Green
Resistance: a Reply to Normon Solomon & Medea Benjamin
Robert Fisk
Terror
by Video
Richard Forno
Security
Theater in Boston: Security Expert Harrassed by DHS for Exposing
Flaws at the Fleet Center
Mitchel Cohen
Report from a Boston Demo: Arresting the Curious
Richard Moreno
Rockers
for Justice: an Interview with Tom Morello and Serj Tankian
Alexander Cockburn
Boston
Awaits a Dead Party
July
24 / 25, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Democrats and Their Conventions:
Part One
Dennis
Hans
Those 16 Words Still Smell, Mr. Bush
Patrick
Cockburn
The Struggle for Iraq is Only Beginning
Josh
Frank
The War Path of Unity: Dems Reject
the Peace Movement
Justin
E.H. Smith
Christianity and the Left: the Latin
American Experience
Tariq
Ali
What's at Stake in Venezuela
Fred
Gardner
The Politics of Pot: Year of the
Antagonist
Mark
Scaramella
There's Dope and There's Dope
Ron
Jacobs
The Weather Underground's Prairie
Fire Statement...35 Years On
July
23, 2004
Lee
Sustar
Revolution in Nicaragua: 25 Years
On
Dave
Lindorff
Battle for NYC: Bush 1, Protesters
0
Saul
Landau
Zaniest President in US History: Bush
Beats Reagan
Mike
Whitney
The 9/11 Whitewash: Blaming No
One
Mickey
Z
Get On the Bus: 150 Years After Elizabeth
Jennings
Gary
Leupp
The 9/11 Commission and the Looming
War on Iran
July
22, 2004
M.
Junaid Alam
Ten Ways to Build a Better Democrat
Brian
McKinlay
Rusted On Down Under: Howard, Bush and Sharon
Jason
Leopold
Cheney Lobbied for Easing of Sanctions on Terrorist Regimes While
CEO of Halliburton
Chris
Floyd
Mob Rule: Ripping the Lid Off of America's Pious Myths
Uri
Avnery
Chirac v. Sharon
July
21, 2004
Paula
J. Caplan
The Emotional Casualities of War:
Psychologists Can't Heal All the Damage
Joshua
Frank
Nader Sleeping with the Enemy? Let's
be Fair
Ron
Jacobs
American Exceptionalism
Reza
Ghorashi
The Elections, Iran and al-Qaeda
Amy
Martin
Will Congress Rearm the Guatemalan Generals?
John
Ross
Bush May Lose, But His Wars Will Go
On and On
July
20, 2004
Stan
Cox
The Bush / Kerry War Ticket
Chris
Randolph
An Open Letter to Dr. Ehrenreich: It's Over, Barb!
Forrest
Hylton
The Ghosts of Gonismo: "Popular
Patricipation" and Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Mark
Scaramella
It's Official! Mendocino County is Crazier and Fatter Than the
Rest of California
Sam
Bahour
The World is Knocking on Israel's Door
George
Reiter
A Defense of David Cobb
John
Ross
Burying Iraq, Burying Bush
John
L. Hess
Girlie Stuff: Media Tolerance of Arnold & Co.
Website
of the Day
This Land is Your Land
July
19, 2004
Uri
Avnery
Marie and the Ghosts: the Hoax of
Paris
Col.
Dan Smith
What Has Been Accomplished?
Mike
Whitney
Allawi: Our Puppet with a Pistol
Karyn
Strickler
Just Marriage, Not Gay Marriage
Robert
Fisk
The Crisis of Information in Baghdad
David
Swanson
Media Blackout of US Labor Opposition
to Iraq War
Jennifer
van Bergen
The Death of the Great Writ of Liberty
July
17 / 18, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Apocalypse Now: Why the Book of Revelations
is Must Reading
Ghada
Karmi
Vanishing the Palestinians
Lenni
Brenner
When Cattle Unite, Lions Go Hungry: Notes for Ralph Nader
Ben
Tripp
Man on a Bridge: a Ghost Story
Brandy
Baker
What Would Elizabeth Cady Stanton Make of John Kerry?
M.
Shahid Alam
Israel Builds Another Wall
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Nuclear Hypocrisy: Israel, Iran and the IAEA
Patrick
Bond
The George Bush of Africa
Fred
Gardner
Politics of Marijuana: Cannabiniod Therapuetics
William
Blum
Bush and Thucydides
Ben
Terrall
Carter and the Indonesia Elections: "I Don't See Anything
Wrong with a General Running the Country"
Tom
Barry
John Lehman on the War Path
David
Vest
Dylan Without the Music
Phyllis
Pollack
Return to Sin City: Keith Richards Does Gram Parsons
Ron
Jacobs
Smearing Muhammad Ali: Bob Feller Strikes Out
Joshua
Frank
Kerry to Edwards: "Let's Lose!"
David
Nally
A Call for Sudan: Our Georgraphical Blindspot
Toni
Solo
Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Landau,
Hassan, Prashad & Lindorff
Three Reviews of Moore's F911
Poets's
Basement
Ford, Smith and Albert
July
16, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Adonal Foyle: Master of the Lefty Lay-Up
Shervan
Sardar
Dershowitz, the ICJ and Jim Crow Laws
Ron
Jacobs
The Lil' Engine That Couldn't: Kucinich Surrenders on Anti-War
Plank
Robert
Fisk
Iraq, According to Edgar Allen Poe:
Coffin Bombs in Baghdad
Greg
Moses
The Forts of Iraq
Mickey
Z.
Ad Infinitum?: Presidential Campaigns in the Age of TV
Dan
Bacher
A Landmark Win for Salmon and the Tribes
Dave
Lindorff
The Mumia Case: Support from NAACP,
But a Movement in Shambles
Paul
McGeough
Did Allawi Shoot Inmates in Cold Blood?
Website
of the Day
10 Reasons to Fire Bush (and 9 Reasons Kerry Won't Be Any Better)
July
15, 2004
Heather
Williams
McMissing
the Point: Supersize Me Crashes on Its Message
Werther
Iraq: Follow the Money
Tom
Crumpacker
The Birds of Guantanamo
Brian
Cloughley
What Does the Bush Regime Object To?
Bill
Christison
Reorganize the CIA? Of Course,
But...
July
14, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Chronicle of a Nomination Foretold:
the Green Deceivers
Neve
Gordon
Of Socrates and the Apartheid Wall
Diane
Christian
The Priesthood of Death
Stefan
Wray
Who Benefits from Missing Data at Los Alamos Nuclear Lab?
Josh
Frank
The Nader / Dean Debate
Conn
Hallinan
Divide and Conquer as Imperial Rules
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Bring My Brother Home!: Class, War
and Education
Website
of the Day
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of US Empire
July
13, 2004
Ray
McGovern
The CIA and Iraq: an Intelligence
Debacle...and Worse
Mark
Donham
The Sierra Club's Inexplicable Treatment of Cynthia McKinney
Ben
Tripp
Politus Interruptis: With Friends Like
These, Who Needs Electorates?
Mark
Gaffney
Slipping Towards Armageddon: Israel
in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Osama Wins! Election Postponed!
Chris
White
Double Think: the Bedrock of Marine
Indoctrination
July
10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
July
9, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Carlos Delgado on Deck: Blue Jays Slugger
Stands Up Against War
Justin
Delacour
Wishing Kerry Would Shut Up About
Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Iraq in Reverse: Martial Laws Fuel Insurgency
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Two Congresses and a Funeral
William
S. Lind
The October Surprises
Sibel
Edmonds
Our Broken System: John Ashcroft's War on Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Reading Tea Leaves: What Vietnam Tells Us About Iraq's Future
Gary
Leupp
The Lie That Will Not Die: Cheney and
the Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
July
8, 2004
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Inexplicable John McCain
Toufic
Haddad
Protesting Israel's Apartheid Wall:
a Letter from the Hunger Strikers' Tent
Dave
Lindorff
Liberation as Martial Law
Joshua
Frank
The Fall: How Beltway Dems Sank Howard
Dean
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush & Cheney Play the Hitler Card
James
Petras
The Truth About Jimmy Carter
July
7, 2004
John
Chuckman
Kerry's BBQ: a Deafening Silence
of Meaning
Virginia
Tilley
A Line in the Sand: Azmi Bishara's
Hunger Strike
Susan
Martinez
A Letter to Bill Cosby
Mickey
Z
Elie Wiesel's Strange Parade
Michael
Donnelly
Our Own Private Wilderness: Trusting the Land in the Inland Empire
Sean
Donahue
Boston Social Forum: the Dems aren't the Only Show in Beantown
Diane
Christian
Sovereignty and Freedom in Iraq
July
6, 2004
Lisa
Viscidi
Fleeing Guatemala: Central Americans
Risk Lives to Reach El Norte
Marc
Norton
The Felonious Five Ride Again: the
Supreme Court and Enemy Combatants
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
Ray
McGovern
Porter Goss as CIA Director?
William
Cook
Legacy of Deceit: If Dante Knew of Bush and the Neo-Cons...
July
5, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
US Imperialism in Latin America: Sept.
11, July 4 and Systematic Torture
Chris
White
A Former Marine Sgt. on the Meaning
of Independence Day
Joe
Bageant
Cranky Reflections on the 4th of July
Robert
Jensen
Stupid White Movie: What Michael Moore
Misses About the Empire
Kathy
Kelly
"Two Days an' a Wake-Up"
July
3 / 4, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Bush's Police State and Independence
Day
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
Snehal
Shingavi
"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal": Two Survivors Speak
Out
Bruce
Anderson
The Cheney-Leahy Metaphor and the Greens
Sharon
Smith
Twilight of the Greens: the Chokehold of "Anybody But Bush"
Josh
Frank
Ralph Nader's Revolt: an Interview with Greg Bates
Robert
Fisk
Pentagon Tried to Censor Saddam's Hearing
Joe
Bageant
Sons of a Laboring God: Leftnecks Unite!
Brian
Cloughley
Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Justin
Delacour
The Anti-Chavez Echo Chamber: Venezuela's Media Tycoons
William
S. Lind
Saudi Spillover
Linda
S. Heard
A Joke Called "Justice"
Greg
Moses
"It's Illegal, But It's Our Right": Korean Labor Won't
Back Down
Ron
Jacobs
"Ain't You Proud to be White on Independence Day?"
Toni
Solo
Weary of Indigenous Resistances? Just Pretend They're Not There
Dan
Nagengast
Chicken Manure as Cattle Food: Safe, But Do We Want to Eat It?
Stew
Albert
Brando, a Personal Recollection
Dave
Zirin
From the Black Panthers to Sacheen Littlefeather: a Eulogy for
Our Brando
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Progressive Case for Dodgeball
Steven
Rosenthal / Junaid Ahmad
The Problem is Bigger Than the Bushes: a Review of F911
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Ford and Davies
Website
of the Day
Global Peace Solution
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Douglas
Valentine
Fahrenheit 911: Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
Gary
Leupp
"Just Because I Could": On Obscenities and Opportunities
Lee
Ballinger
Illegal People: Kerry Opposes Immigrant Rights
Robert
Fisk
Saddam in the Dock: Confused? Hardly
CounterPunch
Wire
"What Law Formed This Court?": a Transcript of Saddam's
Arraignment
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Drug Card Lottery: the Price Ain't Right
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind: the Madness in
His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
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
August 13 / 14, 2004
Some
Economic Results
The
Civilizing Mission
By
M. SHAHID ALAM
"There was nothing left
for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos,
and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace
do the very best we could for them, as our fellow-men for whom
Christ also died."
William McKinley (1899)
There exists no general history--at
least one that is available in the English language--explaining
the origins, sources, language, uses, and variations on the theme
of the Civilizing Mission, the central myth that Europe has
employed to misrepresent its depredations around the globe, starting
with the Spanish conquests in the Americas.
However, even in the absence
of such a general history, some general propositions regarding
Europe's Civilizing Mission can be advanced safely. By its nature,
the Civilizing Mission demands a protagonist who is superior
to his subject, beyond the advantage of brute force. This superiority
has been variously located in divine choice, genes, climate,
institutions, and attributes of the mind. In the past, most European
thinkers have preferred to locate the basis of Europe's cultural
advantage in race, biologically construed, and certainly, by
the nineteenth century, this form of racism had became the dominant
mode of constructing European superiority.
The construction of European
superiority proceeded along two tracks. Along the first track,
European thought seeks to endow Europeans with special attributes
or they are shown to possess these attributes in greater abundance.
The characteristic European attributes are individualism and
rationality. The first produces the striving for freedom, courage,
heroism, sainthood, ambition, industry, diligence, enterprise
and great works of art; the second produces values that support
a higher social order, superior governance, bureaucracies, economic
growth, cathedrals, harmonies, and rational thought, including
philosophy, sciences and mathematics.
On an equal scale, along a
second track, European thought has engaged in the task of denigrating,
dehumanizing, and even bestializing the Other. The extra-European
world is inhabited by humans lacking in individuality and the
powers of reasoning. Lacking individuality, the extra-European
man is deficient in all those positive virtues that underpin
Europe's social and political order. Generally, this means that
the extra-European man must be defined by negatives: he is a
shirker, his wants are limited, he is not driven to excel, his
work is sloppy, he is not inventive, he cannot be trusted, he
has no self-worth, he does not value freedom, he is cowardly,
he lacks generosity, and he will not risk his life for his freedom.
Similarly, the weak reasoning
faculty of extra-Europeans produces a second set of negatives.
A variety of European thinkers have described him as pedantic
in his thought processes and unable to produce metaphysical works;
his religion rarely rises above the merely superstitious; he
works with simple tools, which he never seeks to improve; he
lacks forethought and, therefore, cannot undertake great projects
or create complex institutions; he lives under despotisms, which
fail to protect property rights, and, therefore, trap his economy
at primitive levels of productivity; and although he has not
developed technology, he is incapable of formulating abstract,
mathematical theories. In short, extra-European societies after
their initial achievements, have remained dormant, superstitious,
primitive and despotic.
Once these opposites types--the
European and extra-European man--have been fully delineated,
there are three possible relations that can develop between them.
The extra-Europeans could be left alone; they could be ethnically
cleansed, hunted down and exterminated; or they could be improved
by opening them to unrestricted commercial contacts with superior
Europeans, and if necessary these contacts could be established
by force.
The choice among these options
was clear. Clearly, the extra-European societies could not be
left alone to vegetate; that would be an unconscionable waste
of labor and resources. It would be preferable to push the natives
off their land or kill them off; at least, this would free their
resources for improvement. The third option was the best. It
allowed Europe to improve the labor and resources in the
extra-European societies. However, if the natives were to resist
improvement, as they did in the Americas, they could be decimated
and their lands appropriated for improvement.
By the nineteenth century,
nearly all of Europe's great thinkers had bought into the paradigm
of the Civilizing Mission. Even Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
were not exempt from its baleful influence; and they were among
the most radical and compassionate of European thinkers in their
times. They located the Orient outside the historical process
which they had constructed to explain the transition of Europe
from one historical stage to another. In the Orient, a despotic
state owned all the land because it was forced--by the arid or
semi-arid conditions prevailing there--to erect and maintain
large-scale hydraulic works upon which all agriculture depended.
In the absence of private property, the Asiatic societies lacked
the dialectical tension--between opposing classes--which produce
social change. The Orient, therefore, had no real history other
than the history of successive despotisms imposed upon an unchanging
social base. In The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels
refer to the Asiatics as "barbarians," "semi-barbarians"
or "nations of peasants." On the other hand, the bourgeois
societies of Europe are "civilized."
The theory of Asiatic Despotism
provided the grandest justification yet for the Civilizing Mission.
By destroying the despotic Asiatic states, by reconstituting
Asian societies on the basis of private property, and by integrating
their archaic economies into world markets, the colonial powers
were effecting--as Karl Marx put it, when talking of the destruction
of India's self-sufficient villages--"the only social
revolution ever heard of in Asia." Indeed, Karl Marx believed
that by constructing a network of railways in India, the British
were also laying the foundations of modern industry. It would
be impossible to create an extensive network of railways without
calling into existence an industrial sector supplying its need
for coal, iron ore, steel and heavy machinery.
The orthodox economist's justification
for colonialism is not as grand because his requirements for
growth are minimal. Since Adam Smith first formulated them in
1755, economic growth occurs naturally once three conditions
are present: "peace," "easy taxes," and "a
tolerable administration of justice." Alternatively, governments
establish law and order: markets do the rest. Since the despotic
governments in the backward societies of Asia and Africa are
incapable of protecting persons and property rights, this can
only be provided by the intervention of Europeans. In other words,
the colonization of extra-European societies is indispensable
if they are to join the civilized world.
Few projects for the improvement
of the 'inferior races' were taken up as eagerly, or implemented
with the same degree of enthusiasm, as Europe's Civilizing Mission.
Over the course of the nineteenth century--starting earlier in
some places--the Europeans colonized much of Asia and Africa,
integrating them into global markets under governments run by
the most capable men drawn from the best European stock. Although
the Ottoman Empire, China, Iran and Thailand were allowed to
retain indigenous rulers, they lost their ability to control
their external economic relations. Under 'Open Door' treaties,
they were forced to set very low tariffs, disband state monopolies,
eliminate restrictions on foreign investments, and exempt Europeans--and
their local protégés in the Ottoman Empire--from
local courts and local taxes. In other words, directly and indirectly,
Europe had subjected nearly all the extra-European societies
of the world to its Civilizing Mission.
While the classical economists
had little luck--outside of Britain, and that too, only after
the 1840s--in persuading the sovereign governments in Europe,
the Americas and Oceania to unshackle the invisible hand, their
vision of free markets was implemented in nearly its entirety
by the colonial governments in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.
The colonies practiced free trade, with some preferences granted
to the metropolitan country; they opened up the colonies to foreign
capital; they established the strongest safeguards for private
property; they ran small, 'efficient' governments that were always
dedicated to balancing the budget; and they strictly kept the
government out of productive activities. Barring Japan after
1910, the Asian countries that escaped colonization were forced
into signing Open Door Treaties, which integrated their economies
into global markets. I will refer to them as quasi-colonies (QCs).
Indeed, the World Bank and IMF would have been out of work in
the QCs and colonies (together, QCCs); their agenda had been
fully implemented by the colonial governments in Asia, Africa
and the Caribbean.
The sovereign lagging countries
in the period under review--the century preceding 1950--paid
scant regard to the canons of economic orthodoxy; most were heartily
mercantilist in their pursuit of economic development. They freely
imposed tariffs, operated state-owned development banks, set
up industries in the public sector, ran budget deficits, placed
restrictions on the entry of foreign capital, regulated their
exchange markets during the Great Depression, and when in trouble
they repudiated foreign debts. Now that's sovereignty at work!
There can be little ambiguity
about the prognosis--based on the Civilizing Mission and orthodox
economics--about the relative economic performance of the QCCs
and the sovereign lagging countries during the colonial epoch.
The QCCs were devoted acolytes of orthodox economic policies;
the sovereign lagging countries stood at the other end of the
policy spectrum, invoking all the tools of economic intervention
to promote indigenous industry, capital and technology. The colonies
could boast of a second advantage. Unlike the sovereign lagging
countries in Latin America and Eastern Europe, never reputed
for their good governance, the British, French, Dutch and American
colonies had the advantage of being governed by the very cream
of Europe's brew of superior races. On the strength of these
advantages, we can safely conclude that the QCCs must have outperformed
the sovereign lagging countries in the heydays of the Civilizing
Mission--the century before 1950.
Average Annual Weighted
Growth Ratesof Per Capita Income: 1900-1992
| Growth
Rates |
1900-13 |
1913-50 |
1950-92 |
| Sovereign
Countries |
1.61 |
1.34 |
2.58 |
| QCC's |
0.50 |
-0.27 |
2.96 |
| %
of World Population |
1900 |
1913 |
1950 |
| Sovereign
Countries |
19.9 |
22.5 |
22.1 |
| QCC's |
50 |
49 |
48 |
All the statistics we need
to check this prediction are contained in a single table that
presents the weighted average annual growth rates of per
capita income for QCCs and lagging sovereign countries for three
time periods, 1900-1913, 1913-1950 and 1950-1992. The qualifier
'lagging' refers to countries whose per capita income in 1900
was 66 percent or less of the US per capita income; this keeps
our sample of countries relatively homogeneous in their economic
characteristics. We have growth rates for 12 QCCs in the first
period and 13 QCCs in the second and third periods. Although
this sample appears small, the QCCs included are the largest
in this category, and together their combined population in the
three periods is only slightly less than three-fourths of the
total population of all QCCs. The average growth rates for the
sovereign lagging countries are based on 18 observations in the
first period and 22 for the second and third periods.
The story these numbers tell
is both strange and true: the bad boys were winning the growth
derby. Over the first half of the twentieth century, the illiberal,
protectionist, debt-repudiating sovereign countries resoundingly
trumped the free-trading, budget-balancing, law-and-order QCCs,
many of them placed under the direct care of the world's best
masters. Over 1900-1913, the sovereign lagging countries outperformed
the QCCs by a factor of more than three-to-one. Over the next
thirty-seven years, which included two world wars and a depression,
the per capita income in the QCCs declined by 10 percent while
the sovereign lagging countries notched an increase of 64 percent
in their per capita income. For the half-century, 1900-1950,
the per capita income of sovereign lagging countries grew at
the average annual rate of 1.43 percent, while the QCCs declined
at the rate of 0.08 percent.
A comparison of the mean
average annual growth rates for the sovereign lagging countries
and the QCCs yields similar results. The mean growth rates for
the sovereign countries over 1900-1913 and 1913-1950 were 1.67
and 1.34 percent; the corresponding growth rates for the QCCs
were 0.81 and -0.02 percent. In addition, over the first period,
only three of the 18 sovereign countries grew at rates below
the mean growth rate for the QCCs; over the second period, there
was no sovereign country which grew at a rate below the mean
for the QCCs. The differences in the growth rates for the two
sets of countries are large and systematic.
At this stage, the orthodox
economists are likely to blame the QCCs for their poor growth
record. There was nothing wrong with the Civilizing Mission or
orthodox policies; together, they could not turn these countries
around because of the intractable barriers to growth presented
by their culture, religion and race. The negative impact of these
barriers had to be very strong indeed, much stronger than the
dual advantage of their orthodox policies and superior governance.
Is there a way to disprove this bunkum?
Thankfully, we have the numbers
that will do this--the numbers in the fourth column of our table.
In the forty-two years after 1950, the terminal point for the
colonial period, the former QCCs begin to turn a new leaf. Suddenly,
out of the bog of economic decline they sprint into the territory
of rapid growth. From a weighted average annual growth rate of
-0.27 percent over the previous thirty-seven years, they are
now bounding at nearly three percent per annum, even outpacing
the old sovereign lagging countries who grew at 2.58 percent
per annum. What happened to all the 'tenacious' barriers to growth
that had held them back for centuries? Did they suddenly vanish
in 1950?
The apologists of orthodoxy
are unlikely to pass up a third argument. The accelerated growth
in the former QCCs, they might argue, had nothing to do with
their new sovereignty; this was a period of rapid growth for
all countries. Yes, but this can not save the day for
them. With their 'tenacious' barriers to growth still in place,
the growth record of the QCCs would still lag behind that of
the old sovereign lagging countries; but now the reverse was
true. There is an additional problem. Since the former QCCs had
decisively abandoned their orthodox policies, this should have
worked to nullify the improved growth conditions, leaving them
with little or no growth as before.
That leaves us still looking
for answers. Is it possible, just possible, that the long-stagnant
QCCs turned into growth sprinters in the 1950s because they had
repatriated Europe's Civilizing Mission and they were now free
to choose the 'wrong' economic policies? Over much of 1950-1992,
the former QCCs in our sample engaged in economic planning, undertook
public investments in infrastructure and industrial activities,
operated overvalued domestic currencies, rationed foreign exchange,
imposed protectionist tariffs, established development banks
in the industrial and agricultural sectors, sold under-priced
utilities to their new industries, sought to keep out foreign
investments, etc. Indeed, some of them were assisted in their
planning exercises by economic experts from the US Agency for
International Development. Is it possible that these 'wrong'
policies were right for economies that had been underdeveloped
by the Civilizing Mission and its orthodox policies?
Are these numbers going to
bring some humility to the unctuous purveyors of European Civilization?
Will they now admit that the Civilizing Mission failed the peoples
of the QCCs, humiliating them and holding them back for centuries?
Will they admit that all this was just a cover for Europe's true
business in the colonies, which was to open them up to manipulation
for the benefit of its privileged classes? Will this admission
then be followed by contrition, by calls for compensatory adjustments
in the global system so that the transfers can now flow in the
opposite direction--from the rich to the poor countries?
The purveyors of ideologies
are not defeated by contrary facts. In the surrealist world of
economic orthodoxy, if the facts fail to support established
theory that is too bad for the facts. The theory reigns supreme.
The ideologues stop peddling their merchandise only when their
paymasters are defeated. For a few decades after the Second World
War, their capitalist paymasters had been checked, put on notice.
This was the result of two self-mutilating wars amongst the colonial
powers, the offspring of rivalries between the old and aspiring
industrial powers. In turn, this produced anti-capitalist regimes
in two major countries--Russia and China--and national liberation
movements in all the colonies and quasi-colonies. Together, these
developments seriously weakened the centralizing powers of the
capitalist system, its ability to concentrate power in a few
European centers.
This retreat of global capital opened up a window of opportunity
for countries at the Periphery. Quickly, the former colonies
took matters into their own hands--protecting manufactures, creating
development banks, restricting foreign ownership, offering better
technology to farmers, investing in utilities and infrastructure,
and opening schools. In other words, the QCCs--together with
Latin America--sought to create economic and political arrangements
that would allow them to resist the centralizing power of Core
capital. Thus was created the Third World, an intermediate economic
zone between the capitalist Core and the Communist sphere, often
seeking advantages from one or both by playing them off against
each other. The creation of the Third World produced some striking
results: many of the long-stagnant former QCCs began to advance,
industrialize and develop an indigenous capitalist base. Understandably,
Core capital did not look too kindly upon the nascent centers
of capital developing Third World.
Although checked, the capitalist
Cores--now led by the United States--were constantly seeking
to restore the centralizing tendencies of the capitalist system
through the covert activities of their intelligence agencies,
foreign aid, military assistance and training programs, economic
advisers, and the steady penetration of Third World economies
by Core capital. Success came sooner than any one had expected,
in the early 1980s. It came at a time when the Third World, seemingly
at the height of its power, was pressing its demands for a New
International Economic Order.
The oil crisis of 1973 provided
the trigger that shifted the dismantling of the Third World into
high gear. The Arab members of the OPEC, awash in dollars, recycled
them to Western banks, who started the first wave of commercial
lending to the Periphery since the Great Depression. In time,
as Third World debts accumulated, the capitalist Core could act
swiftly--and collectively--through the World Bank and IMF--to
restore its old power over the Periphery. This had happened before,
during the nineteenth century, when Britain and France created
and manipulated debt-crises in the Open Door countries to take
over their finances. It was now repeated, starting with several
Latin American countries during the 1980s, when they were unable
to service their foreign debts. In short order, the success in
Latin America would be extended to all the countries in the Periphery.
After a short interregnum,
lasting roughly from the 1950s to the 1970s, the Civilizing Mission
is back in force. Its mission is the same as before--to ensure
that the economic and political evolution of the Periphery is
owned and directed from the Center. The economic modus operandi
too is the same as before--take down the nationalist barriers
that countries at the Periphery erect to nurture indigenous capital
and technology. The dismantling of the Third World was formalized
by the launching of the World Trade Organization--the new and
more comprehensive Open Door treaty--imposed collectively by
Core capital on all the Periphery.
In its latest phase, the Civilizing
Mission has a different political modus operandi. The
Core capitalist powers are not fighting each other to acquire
monopoly control over segments of the Periphery. This is not
desirable anymore. In the past, their rivalries had proved very
costly to Core capital. Moreover, as major corporations from
Core countries collaborate, the old rivalries are being replaced
by cooperative relationships. Equally, colonization is not necessary
for exercising control. The cumulative penetration of the Periphery
by Core capital has produced an indigenous privileged class whose
interests are closely interwoven with that of Core capital--and,
more narrowly, with that of the United States. Core capital can
now safely rely on this partnership to manage the affairs of
the Periphery. It is quite safe now to allow the elites in the
Periphery--barring segments of the Islamicate world--to compete
for the favors of Core capital. The global system now has the
power to neutralize populist governments in the Periphery, should
they manage to get elected. Of course, it can always use the
solution of the last resort--a CIA-instigated right-wing military
coup. If that fails, there are sanctions, missile strikes and,
finally, invasion, all of them illegal but duly sanctified by
the Security Council.
In closing, it is worth pointing
out that while Civilizing Mission II has produced the predictable
rollback of previous gains across much of the Periphery, this
latest phase of global capitalism is likely to produce some new
results. In its previous phase, stretching from 1800 to 1950,
global capitalism was characterized by centralization of power,
capital and manufactures in a few capitalist Cores. All three
tendencies were temporarily reversed or weakened in the three
decades that followed--the three decades of decentralization.
Although the power to define the global system has once again
been recentralized since the 1970s, leading progressively to
the erosion of indigenous capitalist bases in most countries
in the Periphery, it appears that the indigenous capitalist centers
in some of these countries were sufficiently developed to compete
with Core capital even on the latter's term. This means that
several new centers of capital and technology have now been established
outside of the old Cores. Some of these centers have a very large
economic base--as in China and possibly India. If these centers
can sustain their growth momentum and autonomy, they are likely
to produce forces that will both disrupt and stabilize global
capitalism. I will attempt to offer the briefest sketch of these
new forces.
The growth of the new capitalist
centers--especially in China and India--has produced an altogether
new situation in the global economy. There now exist two pools
of comparable labor skills in the new centers and the old Cores,
divided by large gaps in the relevant wages, and still separated
by strong barriers to their mobility. In itself, this represents
a serious disequilibrium in the global economy, the first time
such a disequilibrium has emerged on this scale in the markets
for medium and high-end labor skills. This disequilibrium contains
vast ramifications for the political economy of global capitalism.
I can only itemize these ramifications here; their elaboration
would require another essay.
First, the disequilibrium in
global markets for labor skills will continue to fuel growth
in the new centers, directing their capital increasingly to high
value-added activities; in the big new centers, such as China
and India, this growth can continue for a long time because of
their nearly inexhaustible reserves of labor.
Second, the growth of the new centers has been squeezing profits
in high value-added industries in the old Cores, forcing them
to relocate to the new centers. A direct result of this is a
downward pressure on wages of skilled labor in the old Cores.
Third, as the new centers continue
to grow and as they continue to upgrade their skills, the competition
between the two pools of labor will escalate to affect ever higher
skills. This means that the downward pressure on skilled wages
in the old Cores is unlikely to be compensated by the upgrading
of labor skills. We may be looking at a full spectrum decline
in wages in the old Cores.
Fourth, since the new communications
technology is rapidly extending the range of services that are
become internationally tradable, the forces of wage-convergence
just described will be felt over a growing range of activities,
and this will tend to accelerate the speed at which wage-convergence
takes place.
Fifth, taken together, these
new dynamics are producing an altogether new phenomenon in the
history of global capitalism: a decline in the real wages of
labor in the capitalist Cores, and this is sure to be accompanied
by erosion of many of the gains in working conditions that labor
in the Cores had won in the past century.
Sixth, these developments are
producing a growing trade imbalance between the new centers and
old Cores because the availability of low-wage but efficient
skills in the new centers gives them a long-term competitive
advantage in a wide and growing range of activities. The imbalance
is likely to be largest between the US and the new centers as
long as the US dollar remains the world's leading reserve currency.
Seventh, the downward pressure
on wages and working conditions may produce a variety of political
consequences in the old Cores: protectionism, growing class consciousness,
erosion of democracy, and even class warfare. At the international
level, the old Cores--in particular, the US--may respond to the
crisis by starting wars to convert India and China into the equivalents
of Brazil and Mexico.
Eighth, in this new phase of
capitalist development, the workers in the Cores may be offered
a second chance to launch a revolution against capitalist control
of the economy.
M. Shahid Alam is professor of economics at Northeastern
University. Visit his website at http:msalam.net.
He may be reached at m.alam@neu.edu.
©M. Shahid Alam
Weekend
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