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Today's
Stories
April 10 / 12, 2004
Tariq Ali
Iraqi
Resistance: a New Phase
April 9, 2004
Robert Fisk
This
War's Simple Truth: Iraqis Do Not Want Us
John L. Hess
The Non-Confessions
of a Warrior Princess: Condi on the Stand
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Condoleezza's Condescensions
Christopher Brauchli
Holes in the Sky: Bush's Crazed Missile Defense Plan
Don Santina
Forget the Alamo!: Glorifying the Fight for Slavery in Texas
William S. Lind
The 4G Warfare Seminar, Cont.
Bill Christison
9/11
Commission is Bush's New Lapdog
Website of the Day
What We've Done to Fallujah
April 8, 2004
Wayne Madsen
Rice
(and the Record) Proves It: Bush Knew, But Failed to Act
Kurt Nimmo
Will
Bush Flatten Fallajuh?
Patrick Cockburn
Guided
Missile; Misguided War
Laura Flanders
Steamed
Rice
Larry Everest
What Condi Rice is Hiding
Adam Federman
Sacred Capitalism Hits Russia
M. Junaid Alam
The Iraqi Intifada Begins
Norman Solomon
The Quest for a Monopoly on Violence
Douglas Valentine
Echoes
of Vietnam: Phoenix, Assassination and Blowback in Iraq
Website of the Day
Xispas: Chicano Art, Culture and Politics
April 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Those
Pulitzers!
Sen. Robert Byrd
Deeper
into the Mouth of Hell: We Must Find the Exit from Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Tet
in Iraq: Closer to the Cosmic Disaster?
Patrick Cockburn
Battles
Across Iraq: US Death Toll Mounts
Kathy Kelly
Pacification: Worth the Price?
Sonali Kolhatkar
What Are You Doing About Afghanistan?
Rahul Mahajan
Report from Baghdad: Opening the Gates of Hell
Robert Fisk
US Airlifts Saddam to Qatar
Mike Whitney
America Out of Iraq, Now!
Sam Hamod
Bush, Pandora's Box and the Tiger
April 6, 2004
C.G. Estabrook
Mercenaries
and Occupiers
William Blum
The Anti-Empire
Report: the Israel Lobby
Col. Dan Smith
The
Language of Disbelief: 1.3 Billion Still Live in War Zones
Dr. Bulent Gokay
The Coming Islamic Republic of Iraq?
Lynn Landes
Faking Democracy: Americans Don't Vote; Machines Do
Sheila Samples
What Would Royko Write?
Jason Leopold
Condi's Blind Spot: Rice Never Mentioned al-Qaeda
Mickey Z.
A Reality Show with No End in Sight
Robert Fisk
Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy
April 5, 2004
John Farrell
Lessons
from El Salvador and Iraq
Robert Fisk
Bloodbath
a Bad Omen for Bush
Gary Leupp
Shiites Say No: Another "Nightmare
Scenario"
April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B. Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
April 2, 2004
Dave Lindorff
Barbaric
Relativism: the Press and Fallujah
Kurt Nimmo
Wherever
Bush Goes, Osama is Bound to Follow
Emma Miller
The
Role of the West in the Rwandan Genocide
Dr. Susan Block
Same
Sex Marriages: Just Say "No" to Prohibition
Norman Solomon
Media Strategy Memo for George & Dick
Sacha Guney
The Meaning of the Elections in Turkey
Christopher Brauchli
The
Disturbing Case of Cpt. Yee
Website of the Day
Mercenaries, Inc.
April 1, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Dying in Vain in Iraq
Harry Browne
No Smoke, Plenty of Fire: Ireland's Pubs Go Smokefree
Chris Floyd
Towel Boy: Bush Hits Workers with Chemical Weapons
Nicole Colson
Inside America's Concentration Camp: Tortured at Guantanamo
Charles Arthur
Haiti's Army Cracks Down on Workers
Laura Flanders
Elaine
Chao: a First Daughter for the First Son
March 31, 2004
M. Junaid Alam
Israel:
Suicide Nation?
John L. Hess
Condi
Under Oath: But What About the NYTs Reporters?
Fernando Suarez del Solar
A Year
Since My Son's Death in Iraq
Sofia Perez
Spain's
U-Turn on Iraq is Real Democracy in Action
David Vest
Stick 'Em Up: Put Cheney and Bush Under Oath
Tanya Reinhart
As in Tiannamen Square: Justice and the Yassin Assassination
Mike Whitney
Time to Dump the Pledge
Donald Kaul
Martha Stewart's Lesson: Never Talk to the FBI
Milt Bearden
Mired in the Tracks of Alexander the Great
Marjorie Cohn
The Illegal
Coup in Haiti: How the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated US and
International Law
Website of the Day
New Pentagon Papers Dropped at DC Starbucks
March 30, 2004
William S. Lind
An Occurrence
in Pakistan: the Battle That Wasn't
Ron Jacobs
Assassinations, Hate Mail &
Justice
Mickey Z.
Tommy Boy Friedman Does "Imagine"
Neve Gordon
Strategic Motives of the Yassin Assassination
Mark Scaramella
The Founding Scam: Insider Trading is the American Way
John Chuckman
The Countessa of Empire: Condi
Rice's Idea of Democracy
Greg Moses
Live from Pasadena: Silhouettes of New Order
Rai O'Brien
What Kind of Democracy to Expect if the Opposition Takes Power
in Venezuela
Bill Christison
The
9/11 Commission: Dangerous Harbinger for the Future
Website of the Day
Ghost Town: Riding Through Chernobyl
March 29, 2004
John Maxwell
Crisis
in the Caribbean: a Miasma Foretold
J. Michael Springmann
Email
Spying & Attorney Client Privilege
Robert Fisk / Severin
Carrell
Coalition
of the Mercenaries
The Black Commentator
Haiti's Troika of Terror
Doug Giebel
Candide in the Wilderness:
How Bush Policy Was Made
David Krieger
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Bargain
Mike Whitney
Rejecting the Language of Terrorism
Richard Oxman
The Pitts: a 9/11 Burrow of an American
Family
Kim Scipes
The AFL-CIO in Venezuela: Deja Vu All Over Again
Michael Donnelly
End Game for Northwest Forests
Norman Solomon
The Media Politics of 9/11
Kathy Kelly
Last Lines Before Vanishing
Website of the Day
Swans: Can Money Buy Everything?
March 27 / 28, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Empire of the Locusts
Gary Leupp
The Yassin Assassination: Prelude to an Attack on Syria
William A. Cook
The Yassin Assassination: a Monstrous Insanity Blessed by the
US
Faheem Hussain
Some Thoughts on Waziristan: Once and Always a Colonial Army
Elaine Cassel
Is Playing Paintball Terrorism?
Larry Birns / Jessica
Leight
Disturbing Signals: Kerry and Latin America
John Ross
Bush Tells the World: "Drop Dead"
John Eskow
A Memo to Karl Rove from the Hollywood Caucus
Alan Maass
Who Are the Real Terrorists?
Dave Lindorff
Spineless of US Journalists
Joe Bageant
Howling in the Belly of the Confederacy
Dave Zirin
Reasonable Doubt: Why Barry Bonds is Not on Steroids
Craig Waggoner
Who Would Mel's Jesus Nuke?
The Kerry Quandry
Joel Wendland
Marxists
for Kerry
Josh Frank
Scary,
Scary John Kerry
Matt Vidal
Spoilers, Electability and the Poverty of American Democracy
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Hamod, Guthrie, Davies and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Say a Little Prayer
March 26, 2004
Christopher Brauchli
There's
a Chill Over the Country
Robert Fisk
The Man Who Knew Too Much: the Ordeal
of Mordechai Vanunu
Joe DeRaymond
Democracy in El Salvador? Think Again
Mike Whitney
Lessons on Apartheid from Ariel Sharon
Mickey Z.
Somalia and Iraq: Looking Back and Ahead
Chris Floyd
The Pentagon Archipelago
CounterPunch Photo Wire
Cheney's Close Shave?
John Breneman
Bush's Comic Bomb
Website of the Day
Dick
is a Killer
March 25, 2004
Lee Sustar
Who
is to Blame for Lost Jobs?
Standard Schaefer
An
Interview with Michael Hudson on Offshore Banking Centers
Roger Burbach
Lula vs. the IMF: Brazil Begins
to Throw Off the Austerity Planners
Jimmer Endres
Elections Without Politics: The Military Budget Is Not an "Issue"
Larry Tuttle
Acting in Your Name: Identity Theft and Public Interest Groups
Toni Solo
Misreporting Venezuela
Dan Bacher
A Memorial Wall for Iraq War's Dead and Wounded
Saul Landau
Is
Venezuela Next?
Website of the Day
The Spiral Railway
March 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
General
Musharraf's IOU
Richard Oxman
Shakespeare
for Kerry
William Lind
The Beginning
of Phase Three: 4G Warfare Hits Iraq
Rep. Ron Paul
Iraq One Year Later
Michael Dempsey
Killing Rachel Corrie Again
Alan Farago
The Bad Math of Mercury: Bush's War on the Unborn
Benjamin Dangl
and April Howard
Media
in Cuba
John L. Hess
No Lie Left Behind: Judy Miller Does Dick Clarke
Greg Weiher
Two Cheers for Dems: "We're Not as Bad as George"
Eva Golinger
An Open Letter to John Kerry on Venezuela
Grayson Childs
Where's Cynthia McKinney?
Steve Niva
Israel's Assassinations will Only
Fuel More Suicide Bombings
Website of the Day
The Bushiad and the Idiossey
March 23, 2004
Phillip Cryan
The
Drug War's Next Casualty: Colombia's National Parks
Ron Jacobs
They Shoot Men in Wheelchairs, Too?
Dave Lindorff
A Spanish Parallel: Scare Tactics and Elections
Mike Whitney
Richard Clarke and Teflon George
Brian McKinlay
Bush's Lil' Buddy in Trouble: John Howard Starts to Wobble
JG
Driving Mr. Koon: "Jim Crow Lives Next Door"
Phyllis Pollack
Gettin' Jigga with Metallica: the Battle Over the Double Black
CD
Ahmed Bouzid
Sharon's One-Way Track
Sean Carter
The G-Word Goes to Court: One Nation Under [Your Logo Here]
M. Shahid Alam
World's Greatest Country: Do the Facts Lie
March 22, 2004
Mazin Qumsiyeh
On Extrajudicial
Executions
Uri Avnery
The
Assassination of Sheikh Yassin is Worse Than a Crime
Gilad Atzmon
Sharon's Rampage
Mike Whitney
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the Story of Captain James Yee
Jason Leopold
Firm With Ties to Cheney Faces Criminal Indictment in Cal Energy
Scam
Greg Moses
Stop
Walling and Stalling: a Report from Houston's Peace March
Phil Gasper
San Francisco: 25,000 March for an End to the Occupation
Lenni Brenner
Report
from NYC: Old and Young Parade for Peace
Julian Borger
The Clarke Revelations
Steve Perry
Karl Rove's Moment
Website of the Day
Enviros Against War
March 20 / 21, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Gay
Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path
Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne
Do?
Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act
Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"
William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall
Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism
Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War
John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon
Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man
Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity
Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss
Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?
Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism
Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun
Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!
Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill
Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet
Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility
Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis
Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election
March 19, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Zapatero
to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops are Coming Home
Ann Harrison
So
Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights?
William MacDougall
Fortress Britain's War on "Economic Migrants"
Greg Moses
Sold American: Cowboy Nation Gets Ready to Vote
Cynthia McKinney
Haiti and the Impotence of Black America: Roll Back This Coup,
Mr. Bush
Norman Solomon
Spinning the Past; Threatening the Future
John L. Hess
"Missing" Evidence and the NYTs
Vicente Navarro
The
End of Aznar, Bush's Best Friend
Website of the War
Naming the Dead
March 18, 2004
Gila Svirsky
Rachel
Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency
Christopher Brauchli
Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million
from Saddam
William Kulin
Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing
Mike Whitney
Resistance: a Moral Imperative
Rep. Ron Paul
Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment
Josh Frank
The Nader Question
Jack Random
They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy
Greg Bates
What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey
Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes
Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain
Gary Leupp
The
Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost
Website of the Day
Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key
March 17, 2004
Marjorie Cohn
Spain, the EU and the US: War on
Terror or Civil Liberties?
David MacMichael
Untruth
and Consequences
Michael Donnelly
Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer
Tom Stephens
"Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware
Wayne Madsen
Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out
Karyn Strickler
Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections
Peter Linebaugh
Bush:
Blanc Blanc
March 16, 2004
Lenni Brenner
James
Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights
Scott Boehm
Madrid
Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days
Alexander Lynch
From Franco to Aznar: the History
Behind the Spanish Elections
Sam Hamod and Alfredo
Reyes
The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way:
Executing David Clayton Hill
Mike Whitney
The Case for a Nuclear Iran
Robert Fisk
The Bloody Price of the "War
on Terror"
Bill Christison
The
Aftershocks from Madrid
CounterPunch Photo Wire
The Passion of St. Teresa
Website of the Day
Join the War on Art!
March 15, 2004
Harry Browne
Terror Nothing New to Europe
Mike Whitney
Justice
Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism
Lidice Valenzuela
Haiti: a Coup without Consultation
Greg Moses
Lessons
from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs
Mickey Z.
Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health
Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL
in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer
CounterPunch Wire
Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!
March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
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
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Weekend
Edition
April 10 / 12, 2004
Get Ready for the
Million Worker March
Happy
Anniversary at the Oakland Docks
By ALI TONAK
Anniversaries have always made me cringe. Even
if it is a birthday or wedding anniversary I always seem to find
a way to become cynical about the whole affair. As judgmental
as I am, I find myself usually in attendance. Regardless of where
you live, many of you most likely ended up at the 1-year anniversary
of the war with Iraq a couple of weeks ago. Here, in San Francisco,
the anniversary triggered memories of the day-after shutdown
of the financial district by thousands of people taking uncompromising
direct action ranging from blocking intersections to inflicting
property damage to military symbols such as army recruiting centers.
The aura of the previous year was heavy upon the most recent
demonstrations and unfulfilled expectations of a repeat disappointed
some. As a generation of activists trying to recreate Seattle
year after year and summit after summit, with varying success
but mostly unsuccessfully, sadly, we are used to this kind of
disappointment.
Yesterday was a different kind of anniversary;
the painful memory was lot more real and personal. A year ago
on April 7th, a 600 person picket line formed early in the morning
at the Oakland Docks to take direct action against shipments
to Iraq. The picket was brutally attacked by the police using
less lethal weaponry such as rubber bullets, wooden dowels, concussion
grenades and beanbag rounds. 50 people were injured and some
sustained huge welts that made national news. 600 people met
again yesterday to go back to the docks to remake the point they
made a year ago but with the specter of police brutality and
repression rising tall behind them.
This specter was in the form of the Oakland
Police Headquarters providing the backdrop for the anniversary
rally. The OPD HQ is an enormous tall cement box without windows.
A friend who had the recent opportunity to visit the building
told me that it was the most depressing sight ever, with run
down walls that looked to be passed down uninterrupted form the
60s. At 4pm when the rally was kicking off there were about 50
people gathered, gradually more and more arrived and we numbered
in the hundreds as Venus Noble, 41 year old mother, social worker
and community activist, took the microphone. "Why are we
here? Because of the children and mothers in Iraq!" Venus
Noble, who had already lost a son in a shooting 2 years ago,
told the crowd how the Oakland Police had beat up her other son
at the dock protest for photographing another incident of gross
brutality. "I'm feeling parents in Iraq", she pointed
to the windowless tower in the back, "The people behind
me don't."
The presence of the grassroots community
organization People United For a Better Oakland was powerful
and made the message of police brutality in Oakland communities
a reality for those who had not experienced it first-hand. Berkeley
Copwatch founder Andrea Pritchett, who was the MC, knows how
to inject energy into a listening crowd. All ears were attentive
as she laid it out word-by-word "The violence of the Oakland
Police Department will stop when we make it stop."
Clarence Thomas, from the International
Longshoreman and Warehouse Union Local 10, was fully fired up
as he took the stage. The ILWU, being one of the more militant
unions in the United States, has traditionally supported anti-war
protestors in the Bay Area. Having been threatened military action
by Bush during contract negotiations a year ago, the Longshoreman
know first-hand how bitter the fist of the state tastes.
I had heard Clarence Thomas speak before,
and as he had previously he opened his talk by addressing the
enemies, the undercovers in abundance, within the crowd. Almost
50 years ago, Malcolm X began his famous speech, "The Ballot
or the Bullet" in an identical manner. I couldn't help but
think that he was the inspiration. Thomas had visited Iraq on
a tip of solidarity with workers at the port of Umm Qasr, operated
by Stevedoring Services of America (SSA), which also operates
part of the Oakland Docks. According to Thomas, the Mayor of
Umm Qasr was offered a $10 million bribe by the Coalition Provisional
Authority to handover the port to SSA. The CPA has also banned
political demonstrations. The local police station is on SSA
grounds and even though there is a thriving trade union movement
in Iraq, SSA has been continuing the union busting tactics it
regularly carries out at home. In fact, SSA was the leading culprit
in the locking out of the West Coast longshoreman during renegotiations
in the fall of 2002.
It was exactly 2 weeks before the first
dock protest, on March 24th 2003, that SSA received the $4.8
million no-bid contract from US Agency for International Development
(USAID), the "humanitarian" front organization for
the Pentagon. This port run by SSA was built by Bechtel, a name
that has become synonymous with war profiteering. According to
Direct Action to Stop the War "SSA actually received $14.3
million for the contract that includes the handling of cargo,
shipment tracking, managing security and customs and ongoing
management of dockside operations. SSA was paid under a formula
that guarantees a profit after their costs are covered. The contract
grants SSA control of the port for up to three years. However,
the contract amount of a possible extension remains undisclosed."
Oakland Docks are probably one of the
most crucial in all of the United States. It is one of the main
ports where goods from Eastern Asia and China arrive and are
trucked to the numerous Walmarts in the United States. Every
year approximately 7 million tons of goods are imported and exported
through these docks (www.portofoakland.com).
They are thus a lifeline for capital and must function uninterrupted.
This is the primary reason why the ILWU was threatened with military
force and why the non-violent picket line in front of the docks
was brutally attacked by the police last year.
As we headed back to the docks a year
later I believe that many people in the crowd were as lost as
myself. Were we going back to attempt to picket and shut it down
or, as a poster put it somewhat matter-of-factly, were we returning
to the docks to "Remember the shots?" The purpose was
not clear and the crowd ranged from those who were contemplating
an overnight sleepover to others willing to be satisfied with
a brief rally and march.
We soon realized the decision was not
up to us. As the march neared the Oakland Docks, heavy truck
and car traffic could be seen fleeing the docks in an almost
panicky manner. This multi-billion dollar business, around $7
billion in annual revenues, was in complete evacuation and by
the time we could see the docks from the top of the road ramp
leading into it all that was left was the surreal view of an
abandoned industrial site with towering steel containers. The
docks are usually never empty as containerized shipping and cargo
trucking continue to serve the interests of the global capitalist
class around the clock.
The crowd marched uninterrupted into
the Oakland Docks and instead of being confronted with the latest
in less lethal weaponry we were greeted with policeman wearing
black jackets with the word "Negotiator" printed on
the back. I asked one of these men what their purpose was here.
"Oh just to coordinate with the organizers and make sure
everything goes according to plan." I'd heard that many
times before and it was usually followed by the swinging of batons
and the smashing of heads. But this fellow was less familiar
with the situation than I was. "We usually don't do these
kinds of things, this is only the second, we're involved with
more serious conflict situation, like hostage situations or barricade
removal." The militarization of the police that had shown
its hideous face in Oakland and more recently at the FTAA protests
in Miami was now moving in to the psy-ops realm.
A few symbolic picket lines were formed
to make the point and hundreds of activists felt the eeriness
of being able to move freely in the 4-lane boulevard that circled
the now desolate docks. The speakers were talking of victory,
that our presence had made them shut down the docks. Maybe it
was true but it was definitely not our present presence that
had caused this but our reputation and history. We had arrived
to a port already shut down. Who had made the decision to shut
it down?
In an ideal world this decision would
be made by workers acting in solidarity with the longshoreman
of Umm Qasr, and the brutalized protestors would stop the docks
with their non-compliance. Unfortunately this was not the case
yesterday and American President Lines (APL), also a war profiteer
, and SSA bosses, not the workers, shut down the ports. Clearly
they wanted to avoid the catastrophe that occurred last year,
where 9 longshoremen were shot by wooden dowels in the melee,
and minimize the effect the demonstration would have on the workforce.
They did this by telling the employees to go home and obediently
this is what they had done, apart from a symbolic number of APL
and SSA workers.
The nostalgic recollection of the refusal
of ILWU members to load ships on pier 80 in San Francisco, that
were headed for Apartheid South Africa twenty-five years ago
was repeated at the post-march rally. Where was that refusal
now? I asked Business Agent Jack Hayman from the ILWU Local 10
that question since he was with the ILWU 25 years ago at that
historic moment. The majority of the membership of the ILWU is
African-American and in Hayman's view the strong identification
black workers had with their brothers and sisters under apartheid
was the critical factor. Although he told me that concrete action
was currently missing, the optimism was there. "The momentum
is building and eventually it will be much more powerful because
Apartheid was in one country but the war in Iraq is an imperialist
war which will attack the working class all over."
I can't say I am convinced that working
people in America will become more class conscious as a result
of this latest imperialist war. I wasn't even alive during the
Anti-Apartheid picket but it is a fact that, as we move into
the 21st century, labor and working people are systematically
losing what little power they held onto during the Reagan years.
Union membership is now at an all time low in this country. While
a great portion of the blame rests upon capitalist interests
that govern this country responsibility also lies with the leaders
of the AFL-CIO and union bureaucracy. It was union bureaucracy
that caved in to the owners during last year's ILWU renegotiation
and not the rank and file. I find that this betrayal by Washington-centered
union bureaucracy of US workers is echoed each time when the
younger counter-globalization/anti-war movement and the traditional
militant labor movement crosses paths, like they did yesterday.
The ILWU Local 10 is aware of the discrepancy
between the union leadership and the need for fundamental change
and is planning a march on Washington for some time in mid October.
You can read their proposal at http://www.indybay.org/.
They are calling it the Million Worker March. "Attacks upon
working families have been carried out with the complicity of
congress, both Democrats and Republicans are responsible",
declared Clarence Thomas at yesterday's rally as he explained
the need for a million worker march. I have also heard from other
union organizers involved that this march is planned in a radical
light and the AFL-CIO is either going to have to endorse it and
take a meaningful stance for a change or continue in its spineless
direction and further alienate the majority of rank and file
members from the Washington D.C. leadership. Hopefully the Million
Worker march will not be co-opted by the AFL-CIO into a rallying
cry for the Democratic Party and the rift between workers and
union leadership will widen. From my vantage point it seems clear
that only when the workers are able to shake union bureaucracy
off their backs will longshoremen and not their owners make the
decision to shut down the ports.
Ali Tonak
is a recent graduate from Bard College in New York. He volunteers
with the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center (www.indybay.org).
Weekend
Edition Features for April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B. Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
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