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CHINA'S GREAT LEAP BACKWARDS
Peter Kwong
gives us the "New China" without illusions: from the
"millionaires' fair" in Shanghai, with $60,000 diamond-studded dog leashes
to one
of the most savagely repressed working class and peasantry on
the planet. How China's
leaders swapped Marx and Mao for Milton Friedman. Alexander Cockburn
on What's wrong with the U.S. left.
They're sitting in darkened rooms weaving conspiracy fantasies
about 9/11; they're blogging; they're confusing a medium with
a movement; they're not doing enough to stop the war in Iraq.
John Ross
takes us along the stormy trail of the Mexican election. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers
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Over the past few months, millions of
immigrants and their supporters have taken to the streets of
America to voice their demand to be allowed to live and work
in the U.S. without the threat of deportation and other cruelties.
These massive demonstrations drew broad support from non--participants
as well. For example, 82% of California blacks polled support
the right of immigrants to live and work here.
In the midst of this storm
surge for basic human rights, where is the Democratic Party,
the "party of the people"?
The Clinton Administration
spent billions of dollars on Operation Gatekeeper, which severely
impacted immigrant flow across the border into California. This
made Arizona a much more popular crossing point. Whenever you
read a story about immigrants dying in the Arizona desert, think
of Bill Clinton.
During the recent immigration
marches, the American flag was omnipresent. Yet, during Fourth
of July weekend in 2004, Presidential candidate John Kerry said
that immigrants should not be allowed to have drivers licenses
since they were just fundamentally illegal. Kerry said this despite
the fact that he avidly courted the support of thousands of visionary
artists such as Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen has directly supported
immigrant workers, such as the Immokalee workers in Florida.
While Kerry doesn't think immigrants should be allowed to have
drivers licenses, he has voted to force everyone in the U.S.
to carry a national ID card.
A few months ago, 75,000 Colorado
residents marched for immigrant rights, the largest political
rallies ever seen in that state. The response of the Democrats
in Colorado, just after the Fourth of July, has been to pass
eleven anti-immigrant bills. Democrats there have gone out of
their way to boast that their laws are even tougher than the
recent laws passed in Georgia, which are reminiscent of the Jim
Crow Black Codes. "This is tough, effective, enforceable,
and practical," said Democrat Andrew Romanoff, speaker of
the Colorado Assembly proudly.
Does the Democratic Party speak
for anyone other than the Minutemen? Will musicians again massively
support whatever candidate the Dems put up in 2008?
Lee Ballinger is coeditor of one of CounterPunch's
favorite newsletters, Rock
and Rap Confidential, where this article originally appeared.
He can be reached at: Rockrap@aol.com
For a free copy of the latest
RRC issue, email your postal address to: RRC, Box 341305, LA
CA 90034 or send an email to: Rockrap@aol.com
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