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Today's
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August 28,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
Zombies
for Kerry
August 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
Neocon
Musings
Robin Cook
The
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Diane Christian
Disarming
Michael Donnelly
Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party?
Jack Random
4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters
Mike Ferner
"To the Swift Boats!"
Mazin Qumsiyeh
7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners
Veronza Bowers, Jr.
"You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"
Sex, Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
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August 26,
2004
M. Shahid Alam
The
Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology?
Diane Christian
War
Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu
Derek Seidman
"They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get
Organized
David Lindorff
Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally
Christopher
Brauchli
Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble
Stew Albert
Reporting Suspicious Activity
Mark Donham
Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court
Saul Landau
Pinochet:
the Al Capone of the Southern Cone
Website of
the Day
The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See
August 25,
2004
Amelia Peltz
Can
I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?
Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture
Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About
Democracy
James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan
Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"
Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism
Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia
CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door
August 24,
2004
Jeremy Scahill
John
Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate
Gary Leupp
"We
Want Them to Go Away"
David Domke
God
Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism
William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in
Venezuela
Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media
Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah
Joe Bageant
Driving
on the Bones of God
Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC
August 23,
2004
Winslow Wheeler
Don't
Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror
John Pilger
Bush
May Be the Lesser Evil
Stan Goff
Swift
Boat Dogfight
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Notes
from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild
Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan
William Blum
Brave
New World of Iraqi Sovereignty
Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial
August 21 /
22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
"They
Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on
Drugs
Landau / Hassen
Failing
the Mission? Form a Commission
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
Josh Frank
Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So
Mike Whitney
Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib
Ron Jacobs
Day Labor Blues
Mickey Z.
Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin
Fred Gardner
Dr. Wolman Comes Out: The Cannabis Consultants
Dave Zirin
Uprising in Athens: Iraqi Soccer Team Gives Bush the Boot
Josh Saxe
Witnessing Police Brutality in LA
Yanar Mohammed
Letter from Baghdad: a Democracy of Killings and Bombings
Helen Williams
Ali's Story: a Taste of Reality from Baghdad
Michael Donnelly
Elemental and NaturalForests, Fire and Recovery
Elizabeth Schulte
The Crisis in Affordable Housing
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert, Virgil, Ford and Krieger
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
August 28 / 29, 2004
Help
the NY Police?
No
Justice! No Peace!
By
ALI TONAK
The Republican National Convention that
will begin Monday in New York City has stirred up the expected
buzz in the various parties gearing up for the event. From the
hundreds of thousands who will flow into New York to protest
one hears a variety of intentions "We're going to Central
Park whether we get a permit or not!". From the corporate
press, "Hard-core anarchists plan to release live mice
on Broadway". Thanks to them the discussion has once again
been reduced from one focusing on policy issues to one fixated
on the standard and passe "protesters vs. police".
Meanwhile Republican Mayor
Bloomberg is trying to appease the angry citizens by offering
discounts at the Pokemon Store to visiting activists. And the
cops are of course saying that....
Here, the equation leaves the
realm of the standard arithmetic of protest. While the usual
suspects utter the usual remarks, the policemen have found themselves
in a funny position and might be on our side of the barricades
rather than the opposite.
Well that might be wishful
thinking. However, the largest police union in the country that
represents the NYPD, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association
is sharply poised against both the City of New York and Mayor
Bloomberg, the opportunistic media mogul who invited the Republicans
to NYC in the first place. According to PBA spokesperson Joseph
Mancini, the police have not been happy with mayors since Ed
Koch, who is now the Chairman of the Convention Host Committee,
and they have been working without a contract for the past two
years. Furthermore, NYPD wages rank 145th in the United States
out of the top 200 paid departments. This is taken as a slap
across the face to the women and men who regard themselves as
heroes of September 11th.
The city expects all of its
employees to follow suit with the contract negotiations reached
with District Council 37 ACFSME who represent 125,000 workers
from clerics to hospital employees. These negotiations took
place 6 months ago and ended with little satisfaction. Bloomberg
has offered the same 5% increase over three years to the cops
but the PBA is insulted to be offered the same wage increase
as "paper pushers".
Tactically speaking, the policemen
have become increasingly militant, by confronting the mayor
at his every stop. On August 9th, hundreds of off-duty police
officers and firefighters, who are in the same contract battle
as the cops, crowded the streets in front of a meeting Bloomberg
was attending. The air was tense with police and firefighters
chanting slogans "Shame on you!", "No zeros for
the heroes" and even "No contract, No convention!."
According to the New York Times, one off duty officer actually
threatened the Press Secretary of Bloomberg, Edward Skyler,
yelling "Eddie, we know where you live!"
Apparently they also know where
Bloomberg lives. A few nights ago a group of officers visited
the mayor's house at 1 AM for a wake-up call. They shouted that
the Mayor should not be allowed to sleep while the cops still
had no contract. The police have applied for sound permits for
their scheduled demonstrations during the convention and spokesperson
Mancini has told me that they do not plan to break the law.
Did they have a permit for the 1AM demonstration? I doubt it.
While police are banned from
going on strike in New York City, the possibility of it is on
everyone's mind. The president of the PBA Patrick Lynch repeatedly
emphasizes that they have not "ruled anything out".
It is unlikely that the police would actually hold an announced
strike, however, they might call in sick during the RNC. The
cops in Boston used the Democratic National Convention in their
contract negotiations and made a clear threat that unless they
were made happy, convention security would be up in the air.
This tactic worked and brought them a 14.5 % wage increase.
In New York when the question of a strike comes up Bloomberg
tries to manipulate the sensibilities. "You're not going
to have a wildcat strike," Bloomberg told reporters. "The
people who are sworn to defend this city, they certainly would
not do that at all."
On one hand, the police won't
go on strike because they are sworn defenders of the status
quo and on the other they might because they are heroes of 9-11.
There is no talk of class struggle, of budgetary priorities
or political allegiances. The arguments have been reduced to
sentimentality and "we deserve more than other workers."
For a casual reader of the
mainstream press who holds high hopes for the spoil of the RNC
this interesting situation might seem promising. Will the cops
go on strike and function as a supporting factor to the masses
planning on confronting the right wing extremists?
An August 17th letter sent
to George W. Bush on behalf of the cops reveals the vast discrepancy
between the police politics and the political view that will
flood the streets of New York for a week:
"Dear Mr. President:
As incredibly busy as you must
be, it may have escaped your attention that New York City's
police officers and firefighters the heroes of 9/11
are engaged in a bitter contract dispute with the city's Republican
mayor, Michael Bloomberg. For that reason, we are taking the
unusual measure of writing to you to inform you of our predicament
and to make a personal appeal for your help and support in the
effort to correct what has become a perennial injustice inflicted
on these crucial first-responders."
So far so good.
"....The unfair treatment
at the bargaining table has compelled us to take to the streets
with informational picketing a planned campaign outside
Madison Square Garden and spontaneous sessions at various other
locations. Unless our contract situation changes drastically
between now and then, we intend to continue this public awareness
campaign up until, during and after the Republican National
Convention at the Garden."
A mild threat. When I talked
to Mancini he emphasized the "informativeness" of
these picket lines. The "informational" picket lines
in front of Madison Square Garden took place at the end of July.
The reason why they are not the plain old do-not-cross-these
"picket lines" is because they are not aimed at disrupting
the preparations of the convention. More importantly, they are
not aimed at demanding the solidarity of the other unions who
are working inside of the Garden around the clock, converting
the stadium into a convention hall. This stance is disappointing
in the least and affirms that the cops aren't willing to employ
direct action to achieve their goals.
"Most of our members vote
Republican in national elections and are generally sympathetic
to traditional GOP principles, especially those that embody
the fundamental spirit of patriotism that has infused the American
landscape since the time of the Founding Fathers. Love of country
and the instinct to protect its freedoms and citizens are second
nature to us.
"We, the front-line domestic
troops in the global war on terrorism and crucial first-responders
in the homeland-security aspect of that war, have been disrespected
by Mayor Bloomberg's collective bargaining policies. .... In
Boston, faced with a similar situation, a Republican Governor,
Mitt Romney, found a way to settle the issue quickly and without
distracting from the Democratic Convention. Can't we do something
here to give the Republican Convention the undivided attention
it deserves?"
Here, something is revealed
that should actually not come as a surprise, but has been omitted
from the discussion within the media and amongst protest organizers
contemplating the possibility of a disruption of the convention.
For obvious reasons, we shouldn't be surprised that the police
have an allegiance to the State and that they would not dare
jeopardize this most important gathering. While poised sharply
against Republican Bloomberg for his budgetary decisions, the
same hardline stance is not taken by the police officers in
their letter to the President. Instead we hear praise and "War
on Terror" talk. This is where the PBA stands, they are
well organized and will not let individual members act out-of-line.
But even though there won't
be a NYPD Bloc burning cop cars on 7th Ave this Sunday, their
contract struggle will certainly effect the demonstrations.
On August 24th, the negotiation between the City and the PBA
went into an arbitration similar to what happened with the Boston
Police Department before the DNC. Whether or not the issue will
be settled before the Republicans invade New York City is still
up in the air but the fact of the matter is that the approximately
20,000 NYPD officers who will be mingling with demonstrators
will have their contract on their mind. When asked how he sees
the relationship between disgruntled cops and protesters Mancini
is reluctant to answer, and tells me that their "issue
is not about national policy or the war." But then he says
"If the protesters show solidarity with us we will show
solidarity with them.
A last minute phat contract
will keep the batons heavy, the pepper spray pressurized and
the barricades in place. With a lack of contract dissatisfied
cops will be asking themselves who they are protecting, for
whom and what games are being played in New York City power
politics, and most importantly what their role is in the whole
sham. A distant possibility but it is still tempting to imagine
a few off-duty defectors joining the thousands of mutineers
in the street...
Ali Tonak can be reached at: ali@riseup.net
Weekend
Edition Features for 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
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