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Dear Friends
The following are three articles to be published in
Workers World tonight and distributed to tens of thousands
of anti-war demonstrators in Washington and San Francisco
April 20, included in an extra-large issue of WW. They are
WW’s lead articles on (1) Venezuela, by Andy
McInerney, (2) Colombia, by Teresa Gutierrez, and (3)
Palestine, by Richard Becker, plus (4) an editorial on
Demonization and War, which focuses on the vilification of
Arafat, Milosevic and Saddam Hussein. Since these are
aimed at explaining difficult issues to a somewhat new
audience, they may be useful to you. If anyone translates
or uses them in any way, please send me a copy of what is
done. The full issue of WW will be available on the web
site www.worker.org by the weekend.
Fraternally, John Catalinotto
Mass uprising defeats U.S.-backed coup in Venezuela
By Andy McInerney
The revolutionary process underway in Venezuela passed a
decisive test over the weekend of April 13-14. Hundreds of
thousands of workers and peasants across the country rose
up to defeat a U.S.-backed coup attempt organized by the
Venezuelan capitalist class against President Hugo Chávez.
It was a genuine victory of people's power in the first
open clash of social classes in the oil-rich South
American country. But the victory also lays bare the
fundamental question of the Venezuelan revolution: how to
organize the popular classes-the workers, peasants,
soldiers and students-to defend the revolution against
further assaults by the propertied oligarchy and the
weight of U.S. imperialism.
The Venezuelan Revolution, a process that opened with
Chávez's election in 1998, is at a decisive crossroads.
Its progress will require the international solidarity of
all progressive people, especially in the United States.
Chávez and the "Bolivarian revolution"
Venezuela is a mineral-rich South American country
bordering the Caribbean Sea. It is the third-largest
exporter of oil to the United States-down from the largest
when Chávez was elected in 1998.
But the tremendous wealth that the oil industry generates
has never impacted the lives of Venezuela's working class.
More than 80 percent live in poverty. One percent of the
population owns 60 percent of the arable land.
The tremendous social inequities have caused tremendous
explosions of popular outrage. In 1989, the ruling class
unleashed a military assault on tens of thousands of
people demanding lower food prices; more than 3,000 were
massacred.
In 1992, junior military officers led by Lt. Col. Hugo
Chávez staged a coup attempt in solidarity with huge
demonstrations against International Monetary
Fund-dictated austerity measures.
After spending two years in prison, Chávez toured the
country advocated what he described as a "Bolivarian
Revolution" against the pro-U.S. Venezuelan oligarchy.
Named for the great South American independence leader
Simon Bolivar, Bolivarianism has come to mean using
Venezuela's wealth for the benefit of the people of Latin
America, and Latin American unity against U.S. domination.
His 1998 election was the result of an alliance between
his Fifth Republic Movement, based on progressive junior
military officers and rank-and-file soldiers, and the
parties of the working class and left.
His new government began to dismantle the political power
base of the rich oligarchy. The two main political parties
of the ruling class--the Democratic Alliance and the
Social Christian COPEI party--essentially collapsed. A new
constitution and National Assembly enshrined many of the
key progressive political features of the new Bolivarian
Republic.
In the arena of foreign relations, the Chávez government
steered clear of the traditional servile position to U.S.
imperialism. Chávez traveled to visit Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein. He encouraged an independent OPEC. He
brokered a deal to provide for Cuba with favorable terms.
He refused to participate in the Pentagon's military
campaign against Colombia's Marxist insurgencies.
Beginning in June, the Venezuelan government began to turn
its attention from the political arena to the economy. In
November, Chávez signed a package of 49 laws aimed at
addressing the social disparities in the country. At the
heart of these laws were a land reform law and legislation
aimed at restricting the power of the old oligarchy in the
state industries, especially the state oil company
Petroleos de Venezuela.
The pro-U.S. ruling class in Venezuela had been grumbling
since the 1998 elections about Chávez's independent
foreign policy and populist rhetoric. But when he began to
make moves that affected their vast wealth and private
property, grumbling changed to outright opposition.
Bosses lead anti-Chávez opposition
The center of the opposition to the Chávez government is
Fedecamaras, the national association of businesses. On
Dec. 10, business and industry bosses shut their doors in
a lockout aimed at forcing Chávez to reverse his economic
policies.
The bosses in Fedecamaras have been able to count on the
support of the reactionary trade union leadership of the
CTV federation. The CTV has traditionally been an organ of
the Democratic Action party, one of the two parties of the
traditional Venezuelan elite. It claims to represent about
18 percent of the workforce, almost entirely in the
better-paid industries.
Beyond being utterly corrupt and hated by millions of
Venezuelan workers, the CTV leadership is completely in
the political thrall of the pro-imperialist elite. For
example, CTV leaders were among the first to condemn the
Venezuelan government's oil deal with Cuba.
The April 12 coup attempt was preceded by three days of
demonstrations sponsored by Fedecamaras and backed by the
CTV. The pretext for the demonstrations was Chávez's
attempts to restrict the power of the old political elite
in the Petroleos de Venezuela management.
Despite the wild encouragement by all the main press in
Venezuela-still owned and managed by elements of the
ruling class-the protests failed to generate support
beyond the wealthier middle classes. The British
Independent described the scene in the capital city of
Caracas on April 11, the second day of protests: "In the
downtown area and western districts of the capital,
generally poorer than the east, business continued almost
as normal with most people ignoring the strike call.
Traffic jammed the streets as usual and most shops
opened."
Lacking broad support, the counter-revolutionary
organizers decided to stage a provocation. On April 11,
they led a demonstration to face off against Chávez
supporters gathered near the presidential palace in
Miraflores.
Chávez ordered the National Guard to separate the two
demonstrations. But the rightists would not be denied
their pretext for violence. Sharpshooters fired into the
pro-Chávez crowd, killing two people outright. Police
loyal to the anti-Chávez mayor of Caracas, Alfredo Peńa,
also opened fire into the pro-Chávez demonstration.
Of the 11 people reported killed, six were Chávez
supporters. Observers report that most of the hundreds
wounded in the ensuing battle also came from the
pro-Chávez ranks.
The battle served its purpose. During the early morning
hours of April 12, elements of the military arrested
Chávez and declared Fedecamaras head Pedro Carmona
president.
The illegitimate government immediately showed its
reactionary face. The National Assembly, a hallmark of
Chávez's democratization campaign, was abolished and
Chávez supporters were driven underground. All of Chávez's
economic laws were rescinded.
A Petroleos de Venezuela manager, Edgar Paredes, told a
press conference on April 12: "Not a single barrel of oil
for Cuba."
Another coup 'Made in the USA'
The coup model was time tested and had all the markings of
a plot hatched by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
The alliance of the business elite with the reactionary
trade union leadership; the attempt to use connections
with the high command in the interests of big capital; the
pretext of mass disturbances to justify military
intervention to "restore law and order"-all these elements
have been used in U.S.-backed coups, most notably in 1973
Chile.
Despite the refusal of most of the world to recognize the
coup-the 19-nation Rio Group of Latin American nations
condemned the "interruption of constitutional order" on
April 13-the United States government openly embraced the
coup plotters.
A growing mountain of evidence shows the extent to which
the U.S. was involved in the coup:
* The April 14 edition of the STRATFOR newsletter, a U.S.
think tank, details reports that both the CIA and the
State Department had a hand in the events leading up to
the coup.
* An April 15 Reuters report details Chávez's account of a
U.S.-registered civilian plane parked nearby to where he
was imprisoned during the coup.
* The April 16 New York Times carried the closest thing a
U.S. government official comes to admitting involvement.
"We were not discouraging people" from making the coup,
according to "a Defense Department official who is
involved in the development of policy toward Venezuela."
* The April 22 issue of Newsweek magazine reported that
elements of the Venezuelan military had been in contact
with the U.S. embassy in February to discuss plans for a
coup. The U.S. government acknowledges the meeting but
denies encouraging the coup.
* In February, the AFL-CIO joined forces with the
notoriously anti-communist National Endowment for
Democracy hosted leaders of the right-wing CTV labor
federation in Washington. The NED played a leading role in
coordinating the political campaign against the Sandinista
revolution in Nicaragua.
* Two of the main military coup plotters, Army Commander
in Chief Efrain Vasquez and Gen. Ramirez Poveda, were
graduates of the infamous U.S. School of the Americas, a
school with a long list of coup-plotters and death-squad
organizers among its alumni.
The masses strike back
Despite the alliance between Venezuelan reactionaries and
the Bush administration, an outpouring of the country's
poor and oppressed classes turned back the overthrow of
the Chávez government.
In Caracas, some 200,000 people from the poor and working
class neighborhoods descended on the Presidential Palace
in Miraflores demanding Chávez's return. Barricades went
up across the city. Masses of people clashed with
anti-Chávez police units. Hundreds of Chávez supporters
were killed or wounded in the clashes.
Peasants from across Venezuela set out for Caracas in
buses to protest the coup.
The mass outpourings strengthened the resolve of
pro-Chávez units in the military. Throughout the city,
troops wearing the signature red berets of Chávez
supporters joined demonstrations and refused to fire on
the crowds. Rank-and-file soldiers fraternized with the
people.
The force of the mass intervention split away the military
rank and file and junior officers, along with some of the
higher officers undoubtedly anxious to be found on the
winning side, from the reactionary coup plotters.
Within a day, the pressure of the pro-Chávez masses forced
the collapse of the coup from within. Fedecamaras head
Carmona resigned as "interim president" on the evening of
April 13. Chávez was released from prison early in the
morning of April 14.
Carmona and some 100 other military and political
participants in the coup were arrested and charged with
rebellion, although many were later released to house
arrest pending trial.
Which way forward?
The Venezuelan people's victory in overturning the
U.S.-sponsored coup electrified progressive and
working-class partisans across Latin America and the
world. It was a major embarrassment for U.S. imperialism,
which arrogantly underestimated the power of the masses
and overestimated its own ability to rule by fiat.
In an unbelievable show of cynicism, Condoleeza Rice,
George Bush's National Security Adviser and defender of
the coup plotters, called for Chávez to "respect
constitutional processes" following his return to power.
"This is no time for a witch hunt," she warned.
In fact, Chávez's first messages upon returning to power
were of conciliation. He urged his supporters to return to
their homes peacefully. He called for national unity. "I
haven't any thirst for revenge," he said in a 5:00 a.m.
address on April 14.
On April 16, Chávez invited his political opponents to
take part in an advisory council that would discuss
differences, a move that won guarded support from the U.S.
State Department.
But in a signal that he was not making an about face on
his policies, he also announced that oil would again flow
to Cuba.
The pro-Chávez forces, those committed to the process they
call a Bolivarian revolution, are in a position of
unprecedented strength. They have survived the first
attempt at counter-revolution. The coup authors are
running for cover.
Chávez's loyalists would have every legal basis to
prosecute the organizations involved in the coup-from the
Catholic Church hierarchy to the reactionary CTV
leadership to the Fedecamaras business owners and
landlords. They would be perfectly within their rights to
open a massive investigation of all these plotters and
their ties to U.S. imperialism.
The masses of poor and working people have shown their
willingness to fight to advance the revolutionary process
that Chávez is leading.
The main question is the extent to which the pro-Chávez
forces are organized to carry out these tasks. The central
task in any revolution is the creation of organs of
popular power that can fight for and defend the class
interests of the revolutionary classes.
Already, Chávez has promoted the "Bolivarian circles,"
armed neighborhood groups to defend the Bolivarian
Revolution, for exactly this purpose. It is no accident
that one of the main military tasks of the coup regime was
aimed at the Bolivarian circles.
The Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela has survived its
first major test. Its ability to withstand future assaults
and coup attempts, as well as its ability to address the
social needs of the working classes, will depend on the
leadership's ability to deepen the organization of the
poor and working classes.
Oppressed vs. Oppressors
2. WHY COLOMBIA'S STRUGGLE DESERVES SOLIDARITY
By Teresa Gutierrez
Thousands of activists will gather in Washington April
19-22 to demonstrate against Plan Colombia in actions
called by the Colombia Mobilization, a coalition of
several important anti-war and solidarity organizations.
The demonstrations are among many historic events taking
place that weekend in Washington, San Francisco, and
around the world.
The growing movement against Plan Colombia is more than
just a welcome development. It is decisive.
The struggle in Colombia has become one of the most
important in Latin America, along with the critical
situations in Venezuela, Argentina and Vieques, Puerto
Rico. As a result, stepped-up actions against Plan
Colombia by the solidarity and anti-war movement become
ever more urgent.
In fact, solidarity with all the people of Latin America
and the Caribbean is more important than ever as the
continent as a whole seethes with both struggle and
repression, becoming a cauldron ready to erupt in
revolutionary turmoil at any moment.
Colombia has the distinct dishonor of being the
hemisphere's number-one recipient of U.S. aid. Washington
will spend over $2 billion in the Andean nation by the end
of 2005.
What is this enormous amount of money for? Is it being
spent to resolve the problem of the 2 million displaced
Colombians? Will it be used to bring down the more than
20-percent unemployment rate?
Of course not. This vast amount of money is solely for
U.S. military intervention in Colombia.
Money robbed from poor and working people in this
country-money that could go to education or health care-is
to be used instead against those who are fighting for
social change in Colombia.
Plan Colombia will do nothing to eradicate the
decades-long conflict in Colombia. In fact, it will
exacerbate it.
SUBHEAD: U.S. "Operation Death"
On Feb. 20, Colombian President Andres Pastrana broke off
talks with Colombia's largest insurgent group, the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army
(FARC-EP). Pastrana, backed by the U.S. government, shut
down the "zona de despeje"-a demilitarized zone about the
size of Switzerland where the FARC-EP could carry out
talks without paramilitary or government intervention.
The zone was set up as the place to conduct dialogues
between the FARC and the Pastrana government three years
ago. It was not a gift from Pastrana; the zone was already
under the control of the FARC-EP.
The breakdown of that dialogue and the entry of troops
into the demilitarized zone reflected a hardening by the
Colombian government. Washington was pushing Pastrana, and
the oligarchy as a whole, as result of recent political
developments.
President George Bush's "war on terrorism" demanded that
the Colombian government also ratchet up its war against
the people's struggle. The Feb. 20 decision to shut down
the dialogue zone has resulted in an escalation of the war
in Colombia-exactly what the Bush administration wanted.
On March 27 the Washington Post reported: "U.S. lawmakers
are deciding whether more help from the U.S. could tilt
the balance toward Colombia's armed forces. The additional
aid would result from a U.S. rule change allowing the
Colombian military to use 80 transport helicopters donated
for use only against the drug trade to be employed
directly against the guerrillas. It would also entail
additional electronic intelligence sharing with Colombian
forces."
The U.S. military offensive is diabolically named
"Thanatos," a Greek mythological figure for death.
The "Thanatos" operation will not be directed against the
Colombian death squads, although they have committed the
most vile and despicable atrocities in Colombia.
This is another reason the U.S. movement against Plan
Colombia is so critical. Every day the situation in
Colombia becomes more polarized. The decades-long civil
war is escalating. The horrid death squads, particularly
the AUC-the so-called Self-Defense Units of Colombia-are
becoming more active.
They operate with impunity. They carry out rapes,
massacres, suffocations, torture and terror.
Human Rights Watch reports that in the first 10 months of
2001, 92 massacres were carried out, primarily by the
death squads.
The death squads don't operate on their own. Neither the
U.S. nor Colombian government can be let off the hook. The
Colombian military-many of its officers trained at the
School of Americas run by the Pentagon in Georgia-is known
to be in cahoots with the fascist thugs from the AUC.
Human-rights organizations from Colombia and abroad have
documented that the Colombian military not only turns its
back while atrocities are carried out. Many of its number
directly carry out the atrocities themselves. It has been
repeatedly shown that death squad members are in the
military.
This same military that has the blood of the Colombian
people on its hands is growing by leaps and bounds. The
Los Angeles Times reports that in the last three years,
the military grew from 20,000 to 50,000 troops. And the
government plans to add 10,000 more soldiers in the next
two years.
SUBHEAD: Washington calls the shots
In Colombia, as around the world, post-Sept. 11
developments have meant that all those fighting for social
change are now labeled terrorists by U.S. imperialism and
their stooges. Pastrana has invoked the word almost as
many times as George W. Bush.
Trying to drive a decisive wedge between the Colombian
masses and the rebels, who are the main targets of the
"terrorism" diatribe, Pastrana constantly announces large
bounties against the rebels. Pastrana is indeed adopting
all the belligerent and bellicose language of imperialism.
But who is really calling the shots in Colombia?
Washington.
In March, the Bush administration had a U.S. federal grand
jury indict three members of the FARC on drug trafficking
charges. This was the first time the United States had
indicted Colombian rebels on drug charges. The Bush
administration has hypocritically used the events of Sept.
11 to denounce certain groups for allegedly financing
themselves through the drug trade.
In early March, in an interview with the Mexican daily
Reforma, Pastrana said the so-called peace initiatives in
Colombia were now on a totally new footing. Why? Because
Colombian rebels are discredited at home and abroad, he
said.
"I believe that any new start to talks in Colombia will
set off from a totally different perspective-because
politically the FARC are defeated, and this generates a
new space to be able to consolidate a peace process,"
Pastrana told Reforma.
SUBHEAD: The right to fight
From the centuries-long history of the struggle between
oppressed peoples and their oppressors, rich lessons can
be drawn about peace processes. Peoples that have endured
occupations, genocide, massacres, economic exploitation
and domination have had to carry out every form of
struggle.
None yearn more for peace than those who bear the brunt of
imperialist and colonial aggression. For example, the
sisters and brothers who carry out heroic actions with
their bodies alone in Palestine today surely hunger for
peace. But decades of struggle that have taken many
tactical forms have shown that real peace can only be won
if it is accompanied with real justice.
Vieques, Puerto Rico, is another example. Although the
U.S. Navy continues to use this beautiful island for
military practices, the people of Vieques have not been
deterred from carrying out civil disobedience actions.
In Colombia, the movement for progressive social change
has gone through some staggering experiences that
influence the forms of struggle used today.
Most strikingly, in the 1980s, the armed movement declared
a ceasefire to participate in the electoral arena through
the Patriotic Union. A bloodbath against the people's
movement ensued over the next decade.
More than 4,000 activists were killed. Mayors,
presidential and other candidates were openly
assassinated. There was no U.S. government condemnation of
the terror. On the contrary, the bloodbath helped
strengthen the hand of U.S. imperialism in Colombia.
This experience weighs heavily on the movement today.
Clearly, the Colombian people want an end to violence. It
has gone on for so long. It has been horrific.
But the real purveyors of violence are deeply wedded to
the very conditions that give rise to these forms of
struggle.
U.S. imperialism, and its puppet Colombian oligarchy, is
inherently opposed to fundamental social change. It will
do anything to defend its class interests. U.S.
imperialism will encourage the atrocities carried out by
the AUC or slap its wrists with a wink, while at the same
time demonizing the left-wing movement.
It will do this because the AUC death squads serve the
interests of the banks, the transnational corporations and
the Pentagon, while the FARC and the ELN defy the
interests of imperialism.
SUBHEAD: Imperialist exploitation
Imperialist exploitation and the fact that the struggle
will not reconcile itself with this exploitation are the
main reasons why Colombia has become such a "hot spot" in
the world today.
From 1990 to 2000, unemployment in Colombia nearly
doubled. It went from 10.5 percent to over 20 percent,
according to official figures. In reality, it is much
higher.
Who are the culprits for this unemployment? Not the FARC
or the National Liberation Army (ELN), that's for sure.
An April 4 Baltimore Sun report revealed how the real
culprits are the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund. Their Draconian economic measures have devastated
the Colombian economy.
The article cited a report by the Medellin-based Global
Policy Network (ENS). This agency documents how the
demands of so-called globalization ushered in a series of
economic reforms that began in 1990, resulting in
increasingly dire conditions for Colombian workers.
The Colombian government began to privatize industries and
public services after accepting an infamous IMF structural
adjustment loan. Not only did unemployment rise, but
Colombia became more dependent, more dominated by
multinational corporations.
Opening the nation's economy to so-called world
competition meant that Colombia would now import more than
it exported. The once healthy agricultural sector was
devastated.
The Baltimore Sun reported, "Colombia now imports more
than 6 million tons of food annually while 2 million acres
of arable land lie idle."
It continued, "Between 1997 and 2000, the percentage of
Colombians living in poverty rose from 50.3 percent to 60
percent."
ENS analyst Jose Luciano Sanin pointed out, "When people
have a choice of seeing their family starve or breaking
the law, laws against drug cultivation mean nothing and
some people will take up arms."
History shows that as long as dire conditions exist for
the masses of workers and peasants, they will take up all
forms of struggle. The real terrorist in the world-U.S.
imperialism-leaves us no option.
Whether in Colombia, Palestine or elsewhere, the task of
the anti-war and solidarity movement in the United States
is to support the struggle of the oppressed against the
oppressors. It is to demand that U.S. imperialism get the
hell out, around the world. Then real peace will be
ushered in everywhere.
3. PALESTINIANS RESIST SHARON'S MASSACRES, U.S. MANEUVERS
By Richard Becker
April 16--The Israeli government of war criminal Ariel
Sharon is still refusing to allow the Red Cross/Red
Crescent and the media into the destroyed Jenin refugee
camp. Sharon's motivation is obvious: to limit access to
the site so the Israeli Army and intelligence services can
"clean up" the massacre and appalling destruction they
inflicted on the camp.
The Jenin camp, situated on less than one square mile was
home to 13,000 people. It was reduced to piles of rubble
by Israeli bulldozers, tanks, missiles and shelling. An
unknown number of people were buried alive in their
crushed homes.
Remarkably, the residents of Jenin camp held out for more
than a week in the face of overwhelming firepower. Close
to 100 Israeli soldiers were reportedly killed or wounded.
The attack on Jenin was part of a huge Israeli offensive
in the West Bank, involving at least 100,000 troops and
hundreds of tanks, attack helicopters and warplanes.
Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus, Hebron, Qalqiliya,
Tulkarem--all the biggest cities and adjoining refugee
camps were targeted.
The invaders deliberately destroyed water, power, sewage
and other infrastructure systems. Food supplies were
stolen and countless homes wrecked and looted by Israeli
soldiers. A 24-hour curfew was imposed in all the cities
and camps under attack and kept in place for up to a week.
People who ventured outside their homes, or even looked
out their windows, were subject to being shot without
warning.
The offensive began in Ramallah on Mar. 29, the day after
the Arab League voted unanimously for a plan to start
"peace" negotiations. Sharon used a suicide bombing in
Israel as the pretext for the massive assault, but clearly
this offensive was long in the making.
The first focus of the attack on Ramallah was the
government compound where the Palestinian Authority is
headquartered. Seven building were completely destroyed,
leaving PA President Yasser Arafat and some of his aides
trapped in two rooms, with no running water or
electricity.
Sharon "offered" to allow the Palestinian leader out of
his imprisonment only if he agreed to go into exile
outside Palestine. Arafat flatly refused, expressing his
confidence that the Palestinian people would emerge
victorious.
As the images of Palestinian suffering and resistance
flashed across TV screens, mass demonstrations erupted in
the Arab world and beyond. In Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain and
other states whose governments have long been subservient
to the United States, protestors fought battles in the
streets with the police, demanding a breaking of ties and
denouncing both the U.S. and Israel. The Arab masses
viewed the attack on the Palestinians as a combined
U.S.-Israeli war.
The protests turned into the largest demonstrations in the
region in many years, holding out the prospect of
destabilizing the pro-U.S. regimes.
Massive anti-U.S. anger in the region is a major obstacle
to the U.S. launching of a new war on Iraq, a top priority
of the Washington war makers. On April 5, Bush had told
the British ITV news, "I made up my mind, Saddam must go."
The incredible imperial arrogance of Bush's statement
aside, it shows that the decision has been definitively
made inside the administration to attempt the
recolonization of Iraq by military means.
Re-conquering Iraq, taking control of its vast oil fields
and securing U.S. control of the entire Gulf region--home
to two-thirds of the world's petroleum reserves--is a top
priority of imperialist foreign policy.
But to launch the kind of large-scale war required to
achieve this objective is greatly complicated by the
popular anger sweeping the Middle East. To initiate such a
war without first mitigating the struggle in Palestine
could lead to even more massive and, from the point of
view of Washington and its puppet regimes, dangerous
rebellions.
In attempting to extend its domination under these
conditions, the U.S. could very well trigger a social
explosion that could undermine its hegemony in the area.
It is this concern that motivated the sending of Secretary
of State Colin Powell to the region.
THE BUSH-POWELL PEACE CHARADE
On April 4, six days after the start of the Israeli
offensive, President Bush announced that Powell was being
sent to the Middle East to seek a ceasefire and resumption
of negotiations. In his speech, Bush called on the
besieged Palestinian president to "stop inciting
violence."
He also called for Israel to pull back from West Bank
cities, but made it clear that he didn't expect that to
happen very quickly. The president said that Powell
wouldn't arrive in the area until April 11, in effect
giving the Israelis another week to continue their mission
of death and destruction.
The day after Bush's speech, Israel expanded its assault
to more cities and camps. When asked about this on April
5, Bush disingenuously replied that he understood that
"things don't happen overnight in the Middle East."
So, the question might be asked, why bother with even the
charade of sending Powell to the region?
Powell's trip is not really seeking any genuine peace
agreement, but rather the liquidation of the Palestinian
struggle. Powell is pressuring the besieged PA leadership
to call for an end to the struggle as the prelude to
simply re-starting negotiations.
Anyone who has any experience in the labor movement knows
how foolish and irresponsible it would be for a union
leader to advise striking workers to dismantle their
picket lines before sitting down at the bargaining table.
But this is exactly what Powell is demanding of the
Palestinians.
Powell's approach is designed to destroy the Palestinian
movement by splitting it and throwing it into disarray
through negotiations, while maintaining heavy repression.
Others in the administration have a different view.
Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and other leading national
security officials share, of course, Powell's goal of
liquidating the Palestinian struggle. But their approach
is different: Forget the negotiations; just crush the
Palestinian people through brutal and unrestrained force.
Cheney, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and others see the
Palestinians as a whole as a force that must be destroyed
as part of subjecting the region as a whole. And it is
this view that is holding sway in the Bush administration
today.
The Palestinian Revolution is, as it has always been, a
just struggle against colonialism and for
self-determination. It is also today the key struggle
against the global U.S. war strategy.
For both reasons, the anti-war and progressive movement in
this country and all over the world must give its full
support to the Palestinian people in this critical hour.
PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE REMAINS STEADFAST
Despite the massive attack on their cities and people, the
Palestinian resistance remains defiant and determined, as
expressed in a statement written by two leading activists
in Bethlehem/Beit Sahour.
Dr. Majed Nasser, a leader of the Health Work Committees
and Nassar Ibrahim of the Alternative Information Center,
wrote, in part, on April 14:
"Although our backs have been pushed against the wall, our
chests continue to face the tanks, and our hearts are with
all of those who are resisting the occupation. And our
eyes, the eyes of every single Palestinian--man or woman,
old or young, disabled or sick -- are firmly fixed on the
goal of freedom and independence, and finally peace. There
is no going back. We have never been as close to our
freedom and independence as we are these days . . .
"Surrender to Israeli occupation means death. Resistance
to the Israeli occupation means life and dignity even in
the face of death. The Palestinian people are saying a
clear NO to the Israeli occupation and a clear NO to
surrender. Sharon will never gain the submission of the
Palestinian people . . .
"We are not alone. We recognize our friends in the
millions who are protesting the Israeli occupation.
"To the Israeli people we say: The more your government
suppresses the Palestinian people, the more we will resist
you. Do not try to hide behind your ignorance and try to
negate our existence. Listen to what the rest of the world
is telling you. Sharon and Peres are leading you and the
entire region to catastrophe . . . Your government is
actually risking your security because of its colonialist
expansionist appetite. Stand up and join the progressive
Israeli movements that demand an end to the occupation,
which is the cause for your insecurity and for all the
bloodshed. Sharon has only wrought more destruction and
insecurity on your community and on ours.
"Sharon wanted to isolate Arafat. Instead he isolated
himself and you.
"We are here in our villages, refugee camps, and cities
among our families and friends. Our cry for freedom cannot
be silenced."
4. Demonization and war
The Israeli army carries out a massacre in Palestinian
towns and refugee camps with U.S. weapons. NBC television
announces that the U.S. Army plans to invade Iraq with
250,000 troops in November or December when the weather is
cooler and clearer-as long as things are settled in
Afghanistan and Palestine. Bush keeps threatening endless
war-against north Korea, Colombia, Somalia, and always
Iraq.
When talk of war is in the air, when Washington threatens
people all over the world, it's time for a united anti-war
movement. And for this fight to be successful, there is
little more important than understanding the propaganda
machine that serves the imperialist establishment of
billionaire bankers, Pentagon generals, oil magnates and
arms manufacturers who gain from war.
One of their greatest tools has been their success in what
has come to be called "demonization" of the so-called
enemy leader. By extension, an entire people is vilified
and slandered.
It doesn't matter that Yassir Arafat is a recognized
leader of his people. Ariel Sharon, the butcher of Sabra
and Shatila, and now of Jenin, condemns him as a
"terrorist." In only a slightly milder form, the U.S.
media support this demonization of Arafat and all
Palestinians--and the U.S.-armed slaughter continues.
It doesn't matter that Washington first welcomed Saddam
Hussein's rise to power in 1963. Or that it prodded
Baghdad to go to war with the Iranians after that
country's 1979 revolution. When the United States wanted
bases on the Persian/Arabian Gulf and control of the
region's oil, it called Saddam Hussein a "new Hitler." The
Pentagon unleashed a brutal bombing campaign and then
murderous sanctions that killed 1.5 million Iraqis. They
plan a sequel for this fall or winter.
It doesn't matter that Washington negotiated a settlement
to the Bosnian civil war with Slobodan Milosevic in 1996.
Three years later the U.S. administration and media
machine called the Yugoslav leader yet another "Hitler."
As with Saddam Hussein and the Iraqis, that slander was
aimed at making targets of the Yugoslav people for a
78-day bombing campaign. And now there are U.S. and NATO
bases all over the Balkans--in Albania, Bosnia, Croatia,
Hungary, Kosovo and Macedonia.
Among the people of the world, there may be diverse
evaluations of these national leaders. But when
imperialist propaganda heaps attack upon attack on them,
vilifies them, paints them up as "Hitlers," there is only
one aim in mind: to prepare the home population to support
a war against the people of the countries these leaders
head.
If Milosevic is on trial in The Hague, it's to justify
NATO aggression against Yugoslavia. If Arafat is called a
leader of terror, it's to justify destroying his offices
and slaughtering Palestinians. If the possessor of tens of
thousands of nuclear warheads charges Saddam Hussein with
holding "weapons of mass destruction," it's to prepare to
destroy Iraq.
Over the years, Washington has propped up Somoza in
Nicaragua, the shah in Iran, Papa Doc Duvalier in Haiti,
Batista in Cuba, Pinochet in Chile, the racist apartheid
regime in South Africa and Joseph Mobutu in Zaire. The
list of these dictators is very long. But as long as they
served to extend control over the world's resources,
markets and labor power by a handful of giant corporations
and their biggest owners, there was no demonization for
them.
So if Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, or Muammar Qaddhafi of
Libya, or Kim Jong Il of North Korea, or-in the latest
case-Hugo Chavez of Venezuela comes under propaganda fire
from Washington's politicians and the U.S. moneyed media,
watch out for CIA subversion or Pentagon invasion or both.
And get ready to fight to stop the latest war drive
against Iraq.
--- End Message ---
